He’d made his statement. That had been the easy part. His prewritten speech had been plain and clear. There was no mystical predator running around. Yet he was still answering the rumors. “There are no experiments going on. There is no rougarou. At Archie’s place, the goats got spooked by a dog in the woods. What happened at Dixie’s place was kids fooling around. There is absolutely nothing to be worried about.”
Sue Nelson, who worked for the post office, moved to the microphone. “That’s easy for you to say. You weren’t at my place last night. Something was watching me. I was in my backyard and I saw a flash of light from the woods behind the shed. And I could hear something moving.”
“I looked at the police reports from last night,” he offered, deeply aware that he was being filmed for some kind of high school film project. He’d questioned Sylvie when he’d seen the blond girl from the other night with a camera. He definitely didn’t want to fumble this and end up as a meme. “The deputy who handled the complaint saw no evidence of any large animal in the area.”
“But that deputy isn’t even from here,” Sue argued. “Deputy Blanchard is good at all the normal police stuff, and he is very nice to look at.”
“Sue, we have talked about this,” Armie interrupted. “You cannot objectify my deputies.”
“Well, I’m only doing it to the really good-looking ones,” Sue shot back. “Maybe you should hire some less attractive men. And I would like you to know I don’t objectify you at all, Armie LaVigne. Not since you gave me that ticket for parking in a perfectly fine spot.”
“That perfectly fine spot was a fire zone,” Armie pointed out.
She waved that off. “And the fire wasn’t occupying it at the time, so there. And also, you would be far more attractive if you smiled more. But to my point, Deputy Blanchard doesn’t know all the critters from around here yet. And I watched that documentary on crazy people who raise zoo animals in their backyards. How do we know they didn’t let a few out and we’ve suddenly got a tiger problem?”
Sometimes Zep wished the Internet had never come to Papillon. “We don’t have any big cat rescues close to us. And there are no private zoos, so I don’t believe that we’re dealing with a tiger.”
“How do you know?” a voice shouted from the back of the audience. A familiar voice.
He looked out over the crowd and Roxie was standing up. “I know because tigers leave behind evidence that they’re here.”
“That’s not what I meant.” Roxie stepped out of her row and started to walk toward the front. “I meant how do you know we don’t have any private zoos or private citizens who own dangerous animals?”
What was she doing? He leaned forward so the mike would pick him up. “I know most of the people in the parish. I haven’t heard anything about illegal animals.”
“And if you did, what would you do about it?” She eased up to the public mike, standing in front of him with that authoritative stance that got his motor running every time. It didn’t work with anyone else. Only her. There was something so . . . Roxie about the way she stood.
“Well, I guess I would tell the sheriff.” It was really all he could do. There wasn’t anyone else to tell. He could call Wildlife and Fisheries but that could move slowly, and people around the parish would deal better with someone local. “We don’t have an animal services department. That’s precisely why the sheriff hired me. I’m a subject matter . . . I hesitate to use the word ‘expert.’ I’m a guy who knows a lot about local wildlife.”
“But you weren’t the guy who was on my property last night,” Sue interjected. “Major was. He didn’t even look in the trees to see if the tiger was up there. He just glanced around and then said I should pick up my chip bags or it would be littering. I don’t even eat chips. My body is a temple.”
Roxie’s expression had turned distinctly thoughtful and she stepped back for a moment.
Herve took the chance to make his move. “Don’t be ridiculous. It’s not a tiger. It’s a rougarou. We used to have them all over the bayou in the old days. They’re coming back. My pop-pop always said they would rise again. I think we should hire