Between Dusk and Dawn by Lynn Emery Page A

to
choose, but of course I’d vote for you,” LaShaun added quickly when
he glanced at her. “I would!”
    “ Don’t pretend that M.J.
wouldn’t make a fine Sheriff, and you like her a lot.” Chase
chuckled when LaShaun slapped his arm.
    “ I’m solidly in your corner, Deputy
Broussard. Stop teasing. Besides, I happen to have it on good
authority that M.J. doesn’t want to run for Sheriff. She hates
politics even more than you do. She told me being Sheriff is
seventy percent dealing with asshole public officials.” LaShaun
laughed at the memory of the sour look on M.J.’s face when she said
it.
    “ Gee, thanks for giving me
something to shoot for. I really want the job now,” Chase
quipped.
    “ You’ll do fine dealing
with the people and police side of it,” LaShaun said with
certainty. “I just want you to be safe doing both.”
    “ I’ll be fine,” he said.
“If I even get elected remember.”
    “ The folks in Vermillion
Parish with any sense will run to the polls and press that button
next to your name.” LaShaun smiled at him, but it faded as they got
closer to Beau Chene. The vibrations of trouble came to her in
waves.
    Fifteen minutes later they arrived at
LaShaun’s house. The outside security light at the end of her
driveway and the one in her backyard had come on at dusk. It was
only four thirty in the afternoon and already it was growing dark
fast. LaShaun got out of Chase’s truck and walked around to the
driver’s side. She leaned in the open window and kissed his mouth
hard.
    “ You owe me, Deputy
Broussard.”
    “ I always pay my debts,
ma’am.”
    Chase claimed his own gentle kiss. He
waited until LaShaun opened her front door and started to go in.
She turned back and came out on the porch again.
    “ Hey you! Call me,” LaShaun
yelled after him as he turned around and drove away. He blew his
horn in reply.
    She watched the red glow from his
truck taillights vanish as he turned the corner of her driveway and
onto the road. LaShaun sighed. Even their shortened weekend had
been wonderful. She breathed in the crisp night air. A huge October
full moon glowed like a giant firefly in the night sky. Chase would
admonish her about lingering outside at night, but the darkness and
shadows once the sun disappeared had never frightened LaShaun.
Leaning against the porch railing that ran the length of it, she
gazed up at the sky. Her ancestors had been able to see a ceiling
of stars. Even living far from a large city, it was hard to get the
same view in these modern days. She looked at the lovely way
shadows laced the woods in folds, a soft velvet midnight blue and
black like a woman’s cape. Suddenly a movement in her peripheral
vision caused LaShaun to go still. Her senses kicked in. She
calculated how fast she could get inside, slam the door and lock
it. Plenty of time, she thought calmly. Even if this being, human
or not, made it to her she could crash the carved oak rocker in
that direction, and move quickly.
    “ Evenin’, ma’am,” the voice
rumbled like a heavy rock rolling across the ground toward her. “I
need to talk to you ‘bout my boy.”
    Her breathing slowed down as LaShaun
turned to face the figure standing on the edge of her driveway. He
seemed to have come from a break between a huge swamp cottonwood
tree and an oak, both planted over a hundred years ago. Was this
another spirit stirred up by her ancestors in these woods? Her
grandmother had taught her to fight back. She fingered the silver
cross that hung from a chain around her neck.
    “ Who are you?” she asked,
trying to project a fear she didn’t feel.
    Demons grew bold and proudly gave
their names when humans cowered. Having his name would give LaShaun
some power to strike out. The being didn’t move. Waves of
hopelessness buffeted her. She faced a man, not a
specter.
    “ Step into the light,
please,” LaShaun said.
    The man walked slowly across the
driveway making gravel crunch beneath his shoes. He moved