He didn’t like the sound of that, but the Petrie family was a bit of a mystery to him and always had been. “She lives out on the island. They do a lot of manual labor out there. It’s not an easy life. How many times has Bobby come in?”

That seemed to make her stop. “I didn’t check.”

He would bet Bobby had a few broken bones in his file, too. He had to take a cautious approach to any kind of accusation like this one. “What does Carrie say?”

“She says what they all say. She says she fell.”

He knew why she was doing this. Her friend had gone through this, had lost her life because of a bad relationship, and now she saw it everywhere. It was a normal reaction to have. “Then maybe she fell. Like I said, it’s a hard life out there. They’re off the grid. They don’t have city services. They’re on their own and isolated. They can’t even get into town without a boat.”

Lila nodded. “Yes, she told me. That was why she slept on a broken arm last night. He wouldn’t even bring her into town until this afternoon. He couldn’t be bothered.”

“You don’t know that. There could be a hundred reasons he didn’t bring her in.” He sat back because it was obvious she was getting irritated with him, but he couldn’t open a case without some proof. “What do you want me to do? I can go out and talk to her.”

“She’ll lie. She’s too scared to say anything. Look, I have some experience with this. I can explain to you why I know this is abuse. I can show you the medical records. HIPAA doesn’t apply if I believe my patient is in danger.”

“Lila, it’s your first day here.” He needed to be gentle with her. She was doing this for the right reasons. “Shouldn’t you settle in and get a lay of the land? I’ll tell you what, I will go out there and check things out, but I can’t accuse Bobby of anything without proof.”

“Medical records are proof,” she insisted.

“Not when the alleged victim is telling a different story.” It was always the fine line he had to walk. Yes, his job was law enforcement, but he was in a small town, in charge of an entire parish, and that meant he was police officer, mediator, shrink at times. He wasn’t merely their authority figure. He had to be an advocate, too, and he couldn’t do that if no one trusted him. A situation like the one Lila had brought up was so pitted with land mines, it could be difficult to find his way through.

“She’s afraid.”