Page 56 of Landry

“I want to cancel,” she said. “I wasn’t thinking clearly when I agreed to the date. I’m not ready to jump back into the dating scene.”

Landry pulled out his cell phone and keyed something into a text message. “While he’s looking for anything on Billy Ray, I’ll have Swede see if he can find anything on this guy as well. Do you know if there are any surveillance cameras in the area around the front entrance of your shop?”

Camille frowned. “Surveillance cameras? You think he might be dangerous?”

“We don’t know. We could run his face through facial recognition databases to see if we get a match. Better safe than sorry.”

“Seems like a lot of trouble to go through for a date cancellation.” She nodded. “But yes, there is a surveillance camera on the Acadian Art Gallery next door. The corner camera catches my front entrance. The owner let me know when she had it installed.”

“Good. Swede might be able to tap into her system and pull up the images from yesterday afternoon.”

A shiver snaked its way down the back of Camille’s neck. “Seems so creepy and clandestine. I hope nothing comes of all of this. I hate to think we have even more criminals roaming the streets of Bayou Mambaloa.”

“Me, too.”

Ava pushed through the door with a sheet of paper in her hand. “Mama, look what I drew for you.”

Camille took the paper from her daughter and studied the drawing.

Ava had drawn four stick figures. Two were obviously female, with long black hair. One was small, the other much taller. The other two were male with shorter hair. One smaller, with brown crayon hair, and the other appeared to be an adult with yellow hair. The smaller male had what appeared to be a teddy bear in his hand.

“Who are these people in your picture?” Camille asked.

Ava pointed at what appeared to be an adult female with black hair. “That’s you, Mama.” Her finger moved to the smaller female with black hair. “That’s me.” Ava glanced up at Landry. “The one with yellow hair is Mr. Landry, and the little boy is Billy Ray. He has Fuzzy Bear in his hand. Mr. Landry said his friends are looking for Billy Ray. I hope they find him soon.”

“Me too, baby.” Camille stared at the picture her daughter had drawn, a lump forming in her throat. All the stick figures had happy smiles.

“This is a very nice picture,” Camille observed. “They all look so happy.”

Ava wrapped her arms around herself and grinned. “Because they’re a happy family.”

Camille’s heart pinched hard in her chest. Was she already too late to keep Ava from including Landry in her childish dreams of having one big happy family?

“It’s a beautiful drawing. Let’s hang it on the refrigerator. Then we need to pack an overnight bag for you and get you over to Auntie Gisele and Uncle Rafael’s place.”

“Do you think they’ll make hot dogs for me?” Ava asked.

“If that’s what you want, I’m sure they will.” Camille ruffled her daughter’s hair and led the way to the kitchen, where she positioned the drawing on the refrigerator with a magnet to hold it in place. “There. Now, we can get you packed.”

Camille entered Ava’s room and stopped short. The room was clean, and the toys were put away. “Wow. How did this happen?”

“Me and Mr. Landry played the cleanup game. I won because I picked up the most toys. He couldn’t get the ones under the bed.”

Landry chuckled. “Ava is much closer to the ground.”

“Well, this is a nice surprise. I don’t think I’ve seen your room look this clean. Good job, you two.” She gave Ava a high-five.

“Do Mr. Landry,” Ava urged.

Camille raised a hand.

Landry’s lips twitched as he tapped his palm against hers.

That electric shock ripped through Camille again. Based on the flare of Landry’s eyes, he’d felt it, too.

She jerked her hand away and rubbed it on her jeans. “Let’s find your backpack,” she said, her voice shaky.

“It’s right here,” Ava held up her pink unicorn backpack.

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