Elli (A Second Chance Novel Book 1) Read online

  “And you only know your half of it.” Beau shifted in his seat and looked over his shoulder. “I can’t explain Ben to you without pissing him off. I ought to do it anyway, but he’s like a brother to me and it wouldn’t be right. I will tell you this. He’s worth the trouble. He has a lot of wounds inflicted by his wife. He’s got to stop licking them like an injured dog.” He exhaled. “I’ve said enough.”

  “I’m not the right woman to heal him.” That would take time and commitment. She couldn’t promise that to anyone, even if she wanted to.

  “No, don’t misunderstand me. He has to heal himself. I think he has—only he’s still in the cowering stage. You know. When you get kicked in the gut, you walk around with your arm over your midsection to protect it because you’re anticipating another attack.”

  “Yeah. I get that, and especially if you are blindsided. It can be life-changing.”

  “Exactly.” He stood, kissed her on top of the head, and walked to the back door. She realized she hadn’t heard the knock, but apparently Beau had. He escorted a man into the kitchen. A man with a full head of thick, gray hair that didn’t match his curly, black eyebrows and youthful face. He appeared to be in his mid-thirties. “Elli Morenelli, this is Frank Cammer. He’s the state fire marshal for our area.”

  Elli shook his hand, realizing for the first time that she was still dressed in her oversized painting clothes. She felt her face heat with embarrassment. “Please forgive me for how I’m dressed,” she offered, trying to sound confident. “I was painting.”

  “I never mind talking to someone wearing a Saints Championship shirt,” he said, in a New Orleans accent as rich and interesting as the city itself. “Who Dat!”

  Elli smiled and punched her fist in the air with subdued enthusiasm. “Who Dat.” She gestured toward a chair at the kitchen table. “Please, have a seat. Can I offer you a cup of coffee?”

  “Don’t mind if I do.” He pulled out a yellow legal tablet and flipped through about a dozen pages before finding a clean sheet. He pulled out a small, digital recorder and placed it on the table. “You don’t mind if I record our conversation, do you? I find it improves the accuracy of my recollection when I’m writing my report.”

  Elli brought two cups of coffee to the table and placed them in front of Beau and the marshal. She looked at Beau, who nodded once. “I don’t mind at all.” She put the cream and sugar in the center of the table. Mr. Cammer took a sip of his cup without adding anything to it.

  The fire marshal turned on the recorder and spoke in a normal tone, stating the date, time, and reason for the interview. He also mentioned that Beau Bienvenu was present. “For the record, please state your full legal name as it appears on your driver’s license.”

  “Crocifissa Rosalie Morenelli.”

  “Um, can you spell that,” he asked, his black eyebrows lifted. Elli couldn’t stop fixing her gaze to them. Did he dye them that blue-black color or were they that way naturally?

  “Miss Morenelli?”

  “Oh, sorry.” She glanced at Beau who was covering his smile. She spelled her name. “It’s Italian.”

  “That’s what I figured,” he smiled. “I’m Frank Cammertoni, but when my people came to America, the immigration official checking them in changed it to Cammer. Go figure.” He wrote her name on the tablet. “It’s nice that you have your original family name. Did you know that a large number of Italian immigrants came to Louisiana directly from Sicily?”

  “No. I didn’t know that.”

  “Yeah. A lot of them settled in the river parishes and outside of New Orleans. There were so many immigrants coming in the early eighteen-eighties that many of the overflowing boats went upriver and off-loaded there. The Italians found great opportunities in Louisiana.”

  “When you think of Louisiana, you think of the French, the Spanish, and the Cajun cultures here. You don’t think of the Italian influence.”

  “There’s a lot. I have a book on it. I’ll bring it back with me when I come back this way.” He smiled a huge smile, filled with pleasure in their Italian bond. “Now. Let’s get to the business at hand.”

  Beau leaned over and whispered into Elli’s ear. “You have him wrapped around your little Italian digit. Remember, just answer what he asks, nothing more.” She swatted him away as she heard the back door creak open. It was Ben. Elli’s heart started firing like a machine gun fully engaged.

  “I thought you were going to the ball,” she called to him, as her breathing accelerated. He certainly was dressed for the ball, though, wearing a deep ebony tuxedo set against a crisp, bright white shirt that looked tailored just for him. His jacket fit snug against his wide shoulders before tapering past his narrow hips. He didn’t wear a cummerbund, but he did have an elegant bow tie. It dangled around his neck waiting to be tied. He was gorgeous.

  Elli bit her lip, hard. She gave herself a mental slap and thought of Cher’s line in Moonstruck when Nicholas Cage told her that he loved her—“Snap out of it.” Not that this heart-racing, body-heating reaction had anything to do with love, she reminded herself. It had everything to do with lust. Pure and simple.

  Ben walked with casual ease from the ugly wallpapered hall into the outdated kitchen, looking current, expensive, and perfect. He glanced at her with darkened, searching eyes. Elli felt her face redden. God, please don’t let him know how hot she thought he looked. She looked away from him and toward the fire marshal, who stood to introduce himself.

  “Ben Bienvenu,” he responded before nodding to Beau. His cousin immediately smiled and winked at Elli.

  “Aren’t you going to the Hyacinthians’ ball?” Beau asked with a bit of mischief in his voice.

  “In a little while.” He looked at the fire marshal. “Don’t let me stop your interview with Elli.” He walked to the counter and poured himself a cup of coffee.

  “Do you mind if he’s present for the interview, Miss Morenelli?”

  “Well, actually…” She glanced at Ben who was taking a sip of his coffee and looking at her over the rim of his mug. His brows lifted and his eyes challenged her. She looked at Beau, who still had that amused expression on his face. “No. Of course not. This affects him, too.”

  “Good,” Mr. Cammer said, settling into his seat again. He checked his recorder and spoke into it. “Joining Miss Morenelli’s attorney, Beau Bienvenu, for the interview is Ben Bienvenu, her…” He looked at Elli, waiting for her to finish his sentence.

  “Her business partner,” Beau interjected, causing Ben to blow out a heavy breath. He clearly didn’t like the description, but he didn’t say anything.

  “From the police report, I see that you were jogging and just happened on the hunting cabin.”

  “Yes, that’s right.”

  “Uh huh.” Mr. Cammer wrote something down on the tablet in a slow, methodical way. She hadn’t really said anything, so Elli couldn’t imagine what it was. “And the dogs went rushing toward the cabin?”

  “Yes, that’s right.”

  He wrote again and her stomach knotted. This process was slow and unnerving. She saw Ben frowning where he stood, leaning against the kitchen cabinet.

  “How many dogs?”

  “Three.”

  “Uh huh.” He wrote again. Elli sighed, and he stopped writing to look at her. When he was certain she wasn’t going to say anything else, he continued writing in his tablet. Elli looked at Beau, who gave her the hand signal to settle down. She looked at Ben whose brows were furrowed. “Okay. The three dogs raced toward the cabin and you followed them?”

  She inhaled a deep breath. “Yes, that’s correct.”

  “Uh huh.” He wrote something down for a few seconds and looked up at her. “Did you run or walk to the cabin?”

  Elli suppressed a groan. “I ran and walked. The ground was uneven.”

  “Uh huh.” He spent a minute writing, then looked at the tip of his pencil and shook his head. He opened the bag he had placed next to him and dug in it for a few seconds. �
�There it is.” He pulled a sharpened pencil from the bag. “Now, you say you ran and walked. Is that correct?”

  Elli fought back the urge to tell him to hurry up and get on with it. “Yes, that’s correct.”

  As he wrote again, she sighed and shifted in her seat. She looked at Beau, who seemed annoyed with her. That irritated her, too. She wasn’t the one conducting this snail’s pace interview. She shifted in her seat again.

  “Were you wearing running shoes?” Frank Cammer asked.

  Elli rolled her eyes at Beau. “Yes, that’s correct.” She leaned forward in her seat, then reclined. Ben walked to the kitchen table and sat in the chair next to Elli. He smelled of herbal shampoo, old-fashioned soap, and a bit of masculine impatience.

  The marshal looked at Elli and jotted a few sentences, then looked at her again. “You seem anxious. Is there something you want to say?”

  Hurry up, she thought but was smart enough not to say. “No. Nothing.” She shrugged her shoulders and looked at Ben. He shook his head and squeezed her hand. She knew he meant to reassure her and ease her frayed nerves, but it had the complete opposite effect.

  Cammer stopped writing. Ben squeezed her hand tighter, almost to the point of pain. “You really do seem like you want to say something,” Cammer offered, looking into Elli’s eyes.

  She sighed. “No. Not really.” He began writing in his tablet again. Ben released her hand. “Well, actually,” she began and both Ben and Beau groaned. She didn’t look at either of them. “I just want to say that I didn’t start the fire.”

  Frank put his pencil down and looked at her. “Do you know who did?”

  “How could she possibly know that?” Ben snapped, looking at Beau. “Tell him.”

  Beau leaned back in his chair, appearing to be at ease but his eyes met Elli’s in silent communication. She understood he wanted her take his advice to only answer the questions that were asked. Elli nodded once to acknowledge that she received his reminder.

  The marshal picked up his pencil, and Elli all but leapt from her chair. The man was going to be interviewing her when the film crew arrived in the morning.

  “I think it was probably the guy in the cabin who started the fire,” she blurted, wanting it to be over. She had a house to finish painting. “I’m sure you concluded that, too, after reading the police report.” When Frank Cammer looked at her, she rushed into her account of what had happened that day. The fire marshal listened to her but didn’t write a single word as she told him about chasing after the dogs and coming up on the cabin’s porch to pull one of the dogs away from the door it was scratching. When she got to the part of her story about seeing a pair of eyes staring at her through the window, she realized the marshal had primed her. He had played on her impatient nature. All his slow talking and writing had set her up to spew her story like a filled balloon spewed its air when pricked with a huge pin.

  She paused for the first time in five minutes and looked at Frank Cammer’s knowing eyes. Then she looked at Beau. He was frowning. He shook his head, and she knew he wasn’t happy with the way she voluntarily told the story and didn’t wait to have a calm Q and A as he had instructed her to do. Ben got up and poured himself another cup of coffee.

  “Elli,” a strong voice called from the back door. It was Doug carrying Donna. “Oh, I’m sorry. Am I interrupting something?”

  “You’re about thirty seconds too late for that,” Ben said as Elli jumped up and swept Donna from Doug’s arms. She hugged the soft bundle of fluff to her neck.

  “I don’t know why, but I’ve missed you, you prissy little girl.” She kissed Donna on top of her head.

  “Yeah, I figured you’d want her. So after Helen picked up Joey to keep him over night, I brought her to you. Oh, Ben, she wanted me to tell you that she took Lucky with them because Joey wanted him to tag along.” He smiled. “Is that coffee I smell?” Doug walked to the counter and helped himself to a cup from the pot. He spotted the cream and sugar on the table and sat down to sweeten his coffee. Elli returned to her chair and settled Donna on her lap. Donna growled at the marshal for a few seconds, then went to sleep.

  Elli introduced Doug to Cammer. After they shook hands, she looked at the stars twinkling in the early night sky out the window. “Let’s continue, please,” Elli said. “I have a house to paint and I don’t want to be doing it when the bats come out.” When he looked at Doug, she smiled. “It’s okay if he’s here. Might as well have the whole family, right Ben?”

  The fire marshal continued asking Elli detailed questions about what happened, and she answered as best she could. Had she noticed there was a small generator on the porch? She had not. Did she see if lights were on inside the cabin? She didn’t think so. Had she noticed a vehicle parked nearby? She had not. Did she smell anything unusual? She had not. Were there any unusual shrubs or bushes near the cabin? Nothing different than she had seen growing wild in the rows at the back of the cabin.

  “Could you identify the wild vegetation around the cabin if I showed you a picture?” He dug into his bag and pulled out a few colored photographs. “Did it look like this?”

  It was a long shot of a cultivated field with tall weeds growing in the rows. “Yes. That’s it. It looked like that.” She smiled, happy that they were making progress.

  Beau took the photograph from Elli. “I’ll be damned.” He handed it to Ben. “Do you think that was growing out there?”

  “What was growing out there?” Doug asked, craning his neck to look at the photo Ben handed to Frank.

  “Yes, I know that was growing out there.” He slipped the photograph into the bag and pulled out another one. “The charred remains of the marijuana plants covered a quarter acre of land around the cabin.”

  “Marijuana,” Elli and Doug said at the same time.

  “Damn kids,” Doug added. Frank looked at him. “I’ve had to chase kids off the land now and again. I thought they were just out there to camp or find themselves a quiet make-out place.” Elli noticed Ben frowning at Doug. Was he upset that his father-in-law never told him about the kids before or that he was telling the marshal about the kids being there?

  “Can you identify any of those kids?”

  “Can but won’t.” Doug stood. “I’ve known them since they were babies. I can’t do it.”

  Elli and Beau looked at each other. Ben moved to stand behind Elli. This time, instead of smelling soap, she got a faint whiff of smooth cologne. He shifted, and she heard the rustle of his wool jacket as it brushed against his cotton shirt. She had to fight the ridiculous urge to lean back and be absorbed into his heat and strength. His support was what she wanted and exactly what she didn’t need. Even reaching for it in the short term felt dangerous. Still, she was touched by how protected she felt by him standing so close to her. It would have been nice to share her burden with someone.

  “It seems to me that someone or some ones were cultivating marijuana out there,” Frank began, “and in large quantities. From what I gathered from my field investigation, the amount of marijuana I found is more than someone would grow to supply their habit or a make-out session.”

  Doug shook his head. He carried his cup to the sink before turning to face the marshal. “I can’t rat on the kids.” He began to pace.

  “I found the remains of some plants inside the cabin, along with a few high intensity discharge lights used for growing indoors. I suspect our culprit had some experimental, high-potency crops inside. I’ll know when I get the forensics back on the buds I found. I also suspect most of it was taken out of the cabin before the fire.”

  “He must’ve seen how frightened I was, figured I’d tell someone what I saw, and bring them back to the cabin right away.” Elli frowned. “Why risk getting caught clearing the cabin?”

  “Money,” Frank said. “That equipment is expensive. He’d want to save his equipment. Especially if the culprit was using a hydroponic system of growing beds filled with nutrient solution. Judging by the extension cords I found
in the charred remains and a few electrical components, I think that’s what was being used. The culprit probably had small pumps set up on timers to feed and water the marijuana plants, too.”

  “Man, you are good,” Elli said, wondering for a moment if he’d be that good at tracking down an identity theft fugitive.

  Frank smiled. “I’m just thorough.” He handed Elli another photograph. “Does this look familiar?”

  “Yes. That looks like my camera lens. I can’t believe it didn’t burn in the fire.” He handed her another picture of a partially burned piece of the body of the camera.

  “I think we might be able to recover something off the memory card.”

  “That’s amazing.” She handed the photos to Ben.

  “What photos did you take on the camera?” Frank asked.

  Elli glanced over her shoulder at the man who literally had her back. She knew if she told Frank that she’d been taking photos of the plantation for a real estate brochure, Ben would shift back to being her adversary. She preferred him being her ally.

  “Elli?” Beau prompted when she didn’t answer right away.

  Ben looked at Elli as he handed the photos to Beau. His expression was tight and angry, but it wasn’t directed at her. She could tell he didn’t like someone conducting illegal activities on his property. That was clear. She didn’t want to add fuel to that fire by revealing she had been taking photos to use to help her sell the plantation. There would be time to do that when he saw how great it was to have the film crew around.

  “I had taken some general shots of the land and the main house.” She shrugged and felt Ben shift behind her. “It’s really very pretty.” She smiled. “There’s nothing like it in California. So much old wood and ancient trees.”

  “Is that it? Landscape and buildings?” The fire marshal asked.