Evil on the Bayou — Richie Tankersley Cusick

What is the secret of the bayou holds? Eternal life…or hideous death?

Meg Dalton had been uneasy since the first moment she arrived in the back bayou country. Being volunteer nurse to the shriveled husk of a dying woman she hardly knows is bad enough. But the house, where strange, inexplicable things keep happening, is worse. And the people! Though Esther seems good-hearted, Wes, her handsome, tight-lipped son, is frightening. Most menacing of all is debonair Doctor LaVane, who treats Aunt Belle behind a locked door. Wes and Doc blame each other for the mysterious death of Wes's sister Anna -- a mystery that becomes starkly real to Meg when she begins to realize that Aunt Belle's unexpected “recovery” may cost her her life.