Authors: Sharon Sala
When Jack’s phone began to ring and he saw caller ID, his gut knotted.
“Brendan! Are you all right?”
“Yes. I have a lead. I need to talk to someone in charge.”
“Just a moment,” Jack said, then yelled out at the detective who was out in the hall talking to an officer.
“Detective Carson! Brendan Poe is on the phone. He needs to talk to you!”
Grayson was already on his feet when Carson entered the room and took the phone out of Jack’s hand.
“This is Detective Carson.”
“Detective, this is Brendan Poe. I have a tag number. It belongs to the car the kidnapper drives. If you run the tag, you should have a name and address, and if God is good, the bastard will have taken Julie to his home instead of somewhere else, and this nightmare might soon be over.”
Carson grabbed the notebook out of his pocket.“Go ahead and give it to me,” he said.
Brendan repeated the number, and then added, “The witness said the car was a late-model Chevy Tahoe, black or dark blue, and that it was nearly always dusty or muddy, which means he probably has a place outside of the city.”
“Good job, Poe. If this pans out, I know some people who are going to be very grateful to you.”
He handed the phone back to Jack and left the room running.
“What is it? What’s happening?” Grayson shouted, and tried to grab the phone, but Jack pushed his hand away.
“Brendan? You still there?”
“Yes, I’m here. I’m coming to the police station as soon as I can catch a ride, but between the fire and the thunderstorm, it will take a while. Cabs are few and far between.”
“Where are you, son? We’ll come get you.”
Marco spoke up. “Tell him I’ll come get him in his SUV.”
Jack gave Marco a thumbs-up to indicate he’d heard.
“Marco said he’ll come get you in your SUV. Where are you?”
Brendan was beginning to shiver.
“I’m still down on the riverfront. I think the police and fire department have everything blocked off for at least a dozen blocks in every direction. Tell him I’ll be walking North on Canal Street toward Royal, and to watch for me.”
“Will do, Bren.”
“Hey, Jack. I need to tell you something.”
“What’s that?”
“The bar is gone. If it hadn’t been for the storm moving in and this blessed downpour, it would’ve burned all the way to the river.”
Jack’s shoulders slumped.
“Well hell. I was afraid of that.”
“Yeah. If March is there, I figured he’d want to know.”
“Yes, he’s here. Do you want to talk to him about—?”
“I don’t have anything to say to him. I’ll see you in a few.”
The line went dead in Jack’s ear. He gave Brendan’s directions to Marco, and he and Deuce both left.
Grayson was still standing, impatiently waiting for answers.
“Well! What did he say? Does he know anything?”
“I didn’t ask, but I’m gathering from the way Carson ran out of here he had some kind of information to pass on. What he did say, was that the bar was gone.”
Lana March had walked up beside her husband while the conversation was in progress, and when she heard the news, her features contorted into a mixture of rage and glee.
“Good! I’m glad it’s gone! It was a disgrace that our family was even involved in something so unsavory. God only knows what went on in there.”
The moment she said it, she realized she’d just insulted the manager standing five feet away.
Jack dropped his phone in his pocket and walked out of the room.
Grayson gritted his teeth. It was one of those rare times he understood Juliette’s resentment toward her mother. There was a muscle jerking at the corner of his eye as he turned on her, his voice low and obviously angry.
“My dear Lana, my great-great-granddaddy made
his
fortune as a rum-runner. Great-granddaddy March added to the fortune by being one of the biggest bookies and gamblers in the state. Granddaddy had his day making and selling bootleg liquor. When my daddy took over the operations, he opened The Black Garter. It was the first honest business in the family in three generations, and during the extent of our marriage, you have been living high on the hog from the largess of three generations of unsavory profits. It would behoove you to remember that the next time you feel the need to parade your proper, high-stepping self about in front of those you refer to as ‘the hired help.’”
He watched the color come and go from his wife’s face and knew he’d pay for it later, but right now, he didn’t give a good damn. He walked out of the room without looking back. He needed to find Jack and apologize.
****
LaDelle woke abruptly when the first clap of thunder rattled the windows in her bedroom. Linny was asleep on a pallet in the floor by her mother’s bed, but woke up as well.
“Mama?”
Delle pushed herself into a sitting position and then patted the bed beside her. “It’s just a thunderstorm, sugar. Come lie in bed with me. It’ll be all right.”
Linny stood up clutching Rabbit, but hesitated. “What if I hurt your feet?”
“You can be on top of the covers, and I’ll be under. It’ll be okay. Come here. I have need of a hug.”
She didn’t have to ask twice. Linny crawled up onto the bed beside her mother and snuggled under her arm.
For a few moments, they were silent. Just when Delle thought Linny was falling back asleep, lulled by the sound of rain against the windows, her daughter’s small voice broke the silence.
“What’s gonna happen to us, Mama?”
Delle’s heart hurt for the anxiety she heard in her baby’s voice. “What do you mean, honey?”
“Are we going back home to Wisteria Hill?”
Delle sighed. “I think we have to, don’t you?”
Linny nodded.
“Will you be sad to leave Brendan?”
“Yes, but I miss the bayou. Sir Snapper and all my royal subjects must be wondering where I’ve gone.”
LaDelle pulled her closer. “I never knew when I gave birth to you that I was birthing a queen.”
“I guess life is like that sometimes, right, Mama?”
Delle chuckled at the innocence of the remark. Right now, her daughter firmly believed she could become a queen just by naming herself as one.
“Yes, My Queen, life can be a constant surprise.”
Linny snuggled closer against her mother and pulled Rabbit beneath her chin.
Within a few minutes, Delle heard the steady sound of her daughter’s breathing and knew she’d fallen asleep.
In the other room, a phone began to ring. That meant Brendan was calling. She looked anxiously toward the door, knowing if it were an emergency, Claudette would tell her. When she heard Claudette coming down the hall moments later, her heart sank. She was facing the door when it opened.
“What’s wrong?” she whispered.
Claudette came to the other side of the bed and eased down so that she was close to her sister’s ear.
“The Quarter is on fire and Juliette has been kidnapped. They are all out looking for her, and Brendan said he will not be coming home just yet. He is running down a lead someone gave him.”
LaDelle covered her mouth to smother her gasp of surprise. She glanced down at her daughter, then back at her sister.
“Do you think Anson had anything to do with her disappearance?”
Claudette shrugged. “Mama Lou said he would seek revenge. She did not say how.”
Delle shook her head and then covered her face.
Claudette saw tears coming down between the fingers and pulled her hand away from her face. “Do not hide your tears, sister. It is not your shame.”
“It’s all my shame. I married him, even when Mama said no and when you said no. I wouldn’t hear anything I didn’t want to hear.”
Claudette smoothed the hair away from Delle’s forehead. “That is because you were listening with your heart. It is not your fault you fell in love with a bad man.”
“But it’s my fault I stayed.”
Claudette shrugged. “Life takes us down our path. All we can do is follow to see where it leads.”
“Thank you for coming to my aide,” Delle said. “I don’t know what we’d do without you.”
“We are family, Delle. I would have it no other way. Are you in pain?”
Delle nodded.
“I will bring your medicine.”
“Are you staying here with us until Brendan returns?”
“Yes,” Claudette said and then quickly left the room.
LaDelle glanced toward the windows. Even though the curtains were closed, she could see flashes of lightning and hear the rain pounding against the glass. They were safely sheltered here, in Brendan’s home, but they would never really be safe as long as her husband was alive.
****
Chub Walton was out of New Orleans and headed home when the first clap of thunder ripped across the sky, followed by a bright shaft of lightning off to the West. He’d gotten out of the city just in time.
He gave his too-silent passenger a nervous glance. Either the bitch was still unconscious or playing him and waiting for a chance to escape. He should have duct taped her hands and feet, but he’d been in such a hurry to get away he hadn’t taken the time. He thought about pulling over and taking the precaution, but he wanted to be inside before the storm hit, so he kept driving. It didn’t matter if she did wake up. She was so small he could restrain her easily with one hand behind his back.
He wondered about the fire and how much of the French Quarter would go up in flames before they put it out. He didn’t have a personal connection one way or the other with the city, and once he did the little blonde, he was considering moving on. He’d been here in New Orleans for almost a year—through two other abductions. It felt like it was stretching his luck if he stayed after this. He liked being around the water and had always wanted to see Galveston. Maybe Texas would be next on his list.
Even though he thought he’d gotten away clean, he kept glancing up in his rearview mirror for flashing lights. Thunder rumbled again, and the closer he got to home, the faster he drove. He was coming around a curve when he caught movement from the corner of his eye. All of a sudden, there was a cow standing in the middle of the road, staring blindly at his oncoming headlights.
He stomped the brakes and swerved, which sent the SUV into a skid. It was as if everything began to happen in slow motion. He could hear the sound of squalling tires and smelled the acrid scent of burning rubber. He was moving past the cow now, coming so close he could see the wild look in her eyes. If the window had been down, he could have reached out and touched her black nose. When he finally came to a stop, his back wheels were in the ditch and the cow was nowhere in sight. The only sign he had that she’d ever been there was a fresh pile of steaming cow manure.
“Scared the shit out of me, too,” he muttered, then realized the girl was no longer in the seat beside him.
He saw her crumpled up in the floorboard, still unconscious. He grabbed her by the back of her collar, hauled her up onto the seat to feel for a pulse, and when he felt the steady thump beneath his fingers, he relaxed. The party wasn’t over yet.
He put the SUV in gear, eased out of the ditch and back onto the blacktop, and headed for home, this time paying more attention to where he was going. By the time he took the turn-off onto the dirt road, he was breathing easy.
He had just pulled up into the yard when the storm front hit. The rain was so loud and sudden it made him jump. The keys fell from his hand into the floorboard and he wasted another minute fumbling around until he found them. It was raining so hard he couldn’t see the front porch, but he knew it was there. He opened the door and jumped out. He grabbed the girl beneath her arms and dragged her out on her back, then threw her over his shoulder and made a run for the house. It was only a few steps to the porch, but it didn’t matter. They were already soaked to the skin. His hands trembled from anticipation as he unlocked the door and went in. He locked it behind him and turned on the lights.
****
The rain woke her. Julie thought she had fallen in the river because there was water on her face and up her nose. Just when she was about to choke, the water went from her face to the back of her head. She didn’t know she was hanging upside down until the a sudden burst of light. She saw a man’s butt and legs, smelled cold coffee, burned toast, and the stench of wet clothes on an unwashed body. That’s when she remembered the fist coming at her and the glimpse of the man behind it.
Her first instinct was fight and the second was flight. She screamed, grabbed the back of his belt with a sudden yank, and pulled herself up and over his shoulders, going headfirst toward the floor.
Chub was so startled by the sound and the unexpected motion that it took him a few seconds to realize she was no longer in his grasp. By the time he turned around, she was on her feet and staggering.
“Well, well, the little princess finally woke up,” he said and lurched toward her.
Julie dodged his hand, slapping it sideways with a karate chop at his arm, followed by one at his throat, which sent him reeling, and then he made a run for the door.
She heard a roar of rage, and then his hand was in her hair, pulling her backward.
“Nooooo!” she screamed, still kicking and fighting until he grabbed her by the throat and shut off her air.
He kept slapping her and shaking her while telling her in no uncertain terms what he was going to do to her, and she was getting light-headed. Any moment she was going to pass out and then she would be at his mercy.
God, please take me now. I don’t want to be alive when this happens,
and then everything went black.
****
Brendan followed Marco and Deuce into the station, dripping water as he went. He was numb, too afraid to let himself think what Julie might be enduring. He walked into the waiting area and noticed Grayson and his wife, Lana, were sitting apart from the others. Brendan gave them a cursory glance, trying to judge the temperature of the room before going farther, unaware he’d just sent Lana March into emotional rewind.
When Lana saw him walk in, soaking wet with clothes stuck to him like a second skin, her reaction was visceral. She knew who it had to be. All of a sudden, she was in high school again, behind the bus barn at a high school football game having crazy-mad sex with Anson Poe while the crowd was going wild for her boyfriend, Grayson’s, athletic prowess.