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Knowing how much she didn’t like touching men, Jacques was surprised and hopeful. Maybe she was working through her issues.

The sheriff took her hand, shook it gently and released it immediately. “That’s why we’re here.”

Danny slipped that hand into her pocket and met Jacques’s gaze. “Ready?”

Locating Deputy Cleyburn wasn’t hard. His vehicle was parked in front of the Mamba Wamba gift shop.

Jacques had been inside the shop several times with his teammates, one of whom had married the pretty owner, Gisele Gautier, joining her interesting family known for practicing the art of Voodoo. He’d also inherited another family member: a bright blue macaw named Johnny.

As Jacques and Danny stepped into the shop, Johnny was the first to greet them.

Bring me a beer, woman!

Danny chuckled, the sound warm and happy, something Jacques rarely witnessed in her.

“Johnny’s vocabulary never fails to make me laugh.” She walked over to Johnny’s huge cage and leaned close. “Who’s a good boy?” she cooed at the bird.

Jacques kept his distance. Johnny loved women. He wasn’t as fond of men. He’d taken a chunk of flesh from Jacques’s finger when he’d tried to feed him a sunflower seed.

“If you need help out there,” a female voice called out, “we’re in the back. Just yell.”

Jacques followed the voice to the rear of the shop full of a variety of souvenirs and knick-knacks. Some were specific to Bayou Mambaloa or Louisiana. Others were fun Voodoo trinkets tourists found hilarious. Gisele also offered oils, tinctures and salves she and her grandmother concocted for various infirmities or desires. Her business was good with locals and transients alike. Being the granddaughter of a Voodoo queen gave her street cred.

Behind the counter and through a door into what served as a storeroom and office, they found Gisele seated at the corner counter she used as a desk, staring at a computer monitor, her hand on a mouse.

The tall, lanky Deputy Stewart Cleyburn leaned over Gisele’s shoulder, his eyes narrowed as he studied the screen. He glanced briefly toward Jacques but straightened when Danny entered behind him. “Ms. French,” he said, “Deputy Taylor filled me in on what happened at your apartment yesterday and Ms. Yaya’s report of a stranger lurking in a car out front. Ms. Gautier and I are going through her security footage. We were just getting to the approximate time Ms. Yaya said she noticed the car.”

Gisele smiled up at them. “You’re welcome to join us.”

“Thanks.” Danny moved to stand over Gisele’s other shoulder, careful not to bump into the deputy.

Gisele fast-forwarded the feed, the view showing the front of her shop with the real estate agency storefront in the background. “Yaya said it was around four in the afternoon when she noticed the vehicle. It could’ve been there longer, so we started looking around two o’clock.”

She flew through the second hour and into the third. Cars and trucks whizzed past. One stopped in front of the Mamba Wamba, and two women got out and entered the store.

Gisele grinned. “They bought Voodoo dolls they said looked like their boss.”

The feed flew past three o’clock, then three thirty, and still, no dark sedan had parked across the street.

Gisele slowed the speed a little. “There!” she cried, pointing to the monitor.

A black sedan was parallel parked across the street from Yaya’s Yoga studio. As Yaya had indicated, the windows were so darkly tinted that they couldn’t make out the driver's face. Shadowy movement behind the tinted glass was the only indication it was occupied; that, and the fact that no one got out after parking.

For the next fifteen minutes of feed, the sedan didn’t move, and no one got out. Then the driver pulled away from the curb and continued down Main Street.

“Stop it there,” Deputy Cleyburn said. “Reverse slowly.”

Gisele reversed the video, slowly backing up until they could see the back of the sedan. The vehicle was at an angle from the camera, but Jacques could read some of the license plate.

“Can you zoom in?” the deputy asked.

Gisele zoomed in on the plate.

Deputy Cleyburn jotted down the four characters they could clearly see. “A partial is better than nothing. The only other security camera I located is at the real estate office. It’s closed, and the owner is out of town. We’ll have to wait until she returns to gain access to her footage. In the meantime, we have the vehicle's color, make, and model. I’ll get this into the system and see what we can come up with.”

Jacques made a mental note of the same information. He’d give it to Swede. Sometimes Swede could obtain information faster than local and state government officials.

They sped through the rest of the day’s footage until Danny’s truck appeared, drove past the camera and turned into the alley between the two buildings. They looked for the same car or any others that raised suspicion and found none.