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CELIA DROPPED THE CHARGES against Mary-Alice and retracted her story, just as Mary-Alice had predicted. And as it turned out, no one guessed that Celia had had a facelift. Once the swelling went down, Celia didn’t look much different. If you looked closely, you could see that her mouth was pulled back a little on one side, giving her a sort of permanent sneer. But as it was so similar to her usual expression, no one was the wiser.
Miss Cookie and her daughter Delphine returned to Sinful refreshed after a visit to a Lake Charles casino resort. Deputy Sheriff Carter LeBlanc had suggested to Delphine that a vacation might distract her mother from her sudden obsession with zombies. Delphine had taken the deputy’s advice. Which seemed to have worked, at least for the time being.
Deputy Sheriff Carter LeBlanc was relieved that everything had worked itself out on its own. He made the mistake of saying as much to Fortune, and was surprised when instead of agreeing with him, Fortune stormed out of his house and refused to talk to him for a week.
Boon St. Clair, Mary-Alice’s beau, was also relieved that Celia dropped the charges against Mary-Alice. But Boon was older (and wiser) than Carter LeBlanc. He knew that Mary-Alice and her friends had managed it somehow, although he couldn’t imagine how.
One thing he did know was that he admired Mary-Alice Arceneaux immensely, and enjoyed her company. He had found their mission to Lafitte invigorating. He hoped that if he was patient, and they kept spending time together, eventually she would tell him the whole story.
In the meantime, he was working on a surprise for Mary-Alice. He was teaching Angela to say,
“I love you, Mary-Alice.”
Although right now, it still sounded very much like
“Embrasse moi tchew!”