She sighed and stared down the empty highway that stretched in front of them.
“Are you okay?” Max asked.
She glanced over at him, just realizing her sigh had been loud enough to hear. “Yes. I’m frustrated and tired, but neither of those is going to keep me from pressing forward.”
“You’re an accomplished woman. I wouldn’t expect any less.”
She stared at him, a bit surprised at his words. “I guess so. I’ve never really thought about it.”
“I don’t know why not. Alex says the job you do is one of the toughest and most demanding at the hospital.”
She felt a blush creep up her neck. “That’s nice of her to say.”
“She wasn’t being nice. You know Alex. If she didn’t mean it, she wouldn’t say it.”
“Yes, that’s true enough.”
“Is that what you always wanted to do—work in the emergency room?”
“Heavens, no. I sorta fell into it.”
Max looked over at her, one eyebrow raised. “How exactly does one ‘fall into’ being a trauma nurse?”
“My first year out of school, I was working a night shift in the pediatric ward. There was a chemical fire at a warehouse nearby. It exploded and ten firefighters were injured in the blast. There was a huge thunderstorm going at the time and the on-call staff couldn’t get here as fast as usual, so they asked me to assist.”
“And you did a terrific job.”
“I guess. We were far too busy for anyone to stop and hand out compliments, but two days later, the hospital administrator called me in and offered me a lead position in the E.R., at double my current salary.”
“Wow. I guess that was compliment enough. You’re cool under pressure, even with this investigation, and that’s far outside of your norm. They were smart to promote you.”
Her cheeks burned as the blush crept up from her neck. “Thank you. If anyone would have told me during nursing school that this is what I’d be doing today, I would have laughed. I wasn’t always this capable. Being a nurse gave me confidence in myself that I’d always lacked.” She frowned. “It was doing the same thing for Anna.”
Max placed his hand on hers and gave it a squeeze before releasing it. “And it will again. Soon, you’ll both be back to saving lives.”
Colette nodded as she studied Max’s face. The words had been delivered almost with hesitation. It was very slight, but she had become very adept at picking up even the most obscure indication from people. Was Max more worried about the situation than he’d let on?
Or had his words pricked a personal sore spot within herself? Lately, she’d been restless with her job, her satisfaction with her work diminished from what it used to be. She’d thought it was just a slump and it would go away, but over the months, it had festered, there in the back of her mind despite all attempts to push it back. Maybe when all this was over, she’d feel differently, and if she didn’t, then it was time to admit she was ready for a change.
They rode in silence the remainder of the way to Pirate’s Cove, her mind racing with the events of the past twenty-four hours. The facts alone were a lot to absorb, but her emotions were the part she struggled with the most. This situation had brought to the surface issues she’d pushed back in her mind, not wanting to deal with them. Now it seemed they were all catapulted to the forefront.
“Where will you launch the boat?” Colette asked as they pulled into Pirate’s Cove.
“I figured I’d ask the gas-station owner, Danny. His boat launch was good enough for small craft, and he was helpful before.”
He parked in front of the gas station and Colette climbed out of the Jeep. She’d taken only one step toward the gas station when bony fingers grabbed her shoulder. She spun around to find an old Creole woman looking at her.
The woman’s hair was silver with only a few streaks of black remaining. It fell to her waist, like a wiry shawl. Her skin showed the years spent on the bayou with no protection from the sun. Black eyes stared at Colette as if they could see inside of her.
“Don’t go into the swamp,” the woman said, her voice low and raspy. “Only death awaits you.”
A wave of panic spiked through Colette’s body. Her chest tightened and her pulse leaped. Before she could formulate a response, Tom rushed out of the café and placed his arm around the old woman, pulling her away from Colette.
“Now, Marie,” he said, “you shouldn’t try to scare people with your nonsense.”
The woman pushed his arm off her shoulder and pointed one bony finger at Colette. Her dead eyes stared. “Mark my words, if you enter the swamp, you’ll kill us all. The curse will descend on this swamp and all its inhabitants.”
She began to back away as if she were afraid to turn her back to them. “He’s one of them. He knows,” she said and cast her gaze at Tom.
Then with more speed than Colette would have imagined she was capable of, the old woman hurried down the embankment and into the line of cypress trees that marked the edge of the swamp.
Max stepped beside her as Tom gave her an apologetic look.
“I’m sorry about Marie,” Tom said. “She’s not all there anymore.”
“She said something about a curse?” Colette asked.
Tom shrugged. “Marie’s always talking about curses and omens and such. She was raised in the swamp with the old ways. Everyone around here knows not to pay her ramblings any mind.” He gave them a nod and walked back across the street and into the café.
“Well,” Colette said and looked at Max, who stared at the line of trees where Marie had entered the swamp. “What do you make of that?”
Max shook his head. “I don’t know. Maybe nothing.”
“But maybe something.”
“If she lives in the swamp, she may have an idea what’s going on out there. I wish she hadn’t run off so quickly.”
“Do you think she would have talked to us?”
“Probably not. At least, not in front of other people. But if I knew where to find her…”
Colette gazed into the swamp where Marie had disappeared. She wasn’t sure finding Marie was something she wanted to do. The conviction in the woman’s voice had unnerved her, as had her black eyes.
“Well,” she said, trying to shake off the feeling of doom surrounding her, “daylight’s wasting. We best get going.”
Max studied her, and she knew he didn’t buy her attempt to brush off the incident. For a moment, he looked as if he was going to say something, but he only nodded and motioned to the gas station.
Danny was stocking cigarettes behind the counter and looked over as the bells above the front door jangled when they entered the store. He brightened when he saw them and walked around the counter.
“I was just wondering about that girl, but didn’t know any way to contact you. Is she all right?”
“Her condition is stable, but she’s still unconscious,” Colette said.
Danny frowned. “That’s rough. Do the doctors think she’ll be all right?”
“They can’t know for sure, but the medical trauma appears minimal. They’ll know more as the swelling leaves her brain.”
Danny nodded. “You know, when you showed me the picture of her the other day, I didn’t recognize her. But when I saw her in the bottom of the boat, without being all fixed up, she looked familiar.”
“You’ve seen her before yesterday?” Colette asked.
“Not her, but a picture of her. Took me half the night to place it.” He pulled off his ball cap and scratched the top of his head. “There was a guy in here a couple of weeks ago looking for her. Showed me a photo that looked like it came from a security camera.”
“You’re sure it was a security photo?” Max asked.
“Not positive, but it was taken from above and it was black-and-white. Real grainy, like what they show on the news when they’re looking for someone.”
Max nodded. “Did the man say what he wanted with her?”
“He was some kind of antiques collector. Said the girl had something he wanted to buy.”
The coins.
Colette sucked in a breath.
“Did he give you his name?” Max asked.
“No, but he did ask for directions to Cache, just like you. Don’t get me wrong. We get high-school kids and the occasional reporter here looking to find Cache, but we usually don’t get anything outside of that. First that guy and now you…well, it’s just odd, ya know?”
“Yeah,” Max agreed. “What did he look like?”
“Maybe fifty, tall but stocky. Had black-and-silver hair and wore a suit. Sorry, but I wasn’t looking all that close.”
Max nodded. “Did he talk to anyone else?”
Danny shrugged. “Maybe. People usually either stop here or the café or both. Tom’s almost always at the café. You may want to ask him.”
“Thanks. I will. Hey, do you mind if we use your dock?”
Danny’s eyes widened. “You going back into the swamp? I thought with the girl found and all…”
“We need to find her mother,” Colette said.
Danny looked back and forth from Max to Colette. “Oh, I get it. In case things go bad for her. Sorry, I wasn’t thinking. Of course you can use my dock.”
“Thanks,” Colette said, not bothering to correct Danny’s take on the matter. Better that the locals thought they were looking for Anna’s mother because of her medical condition.
“Should we talk to Tom first?” Colette asked.
Max shook his head. “No. We’ve already lost too much daylight, and the news said a storm’s moving in this evening.”
Colette glanced out the window at the clear sky that could go from blue to black in a minute’s time.
Danny nodded. “You don’t want to get caught out there in a storm.”
“We’ll talk to him when we get back,” Max said. “Are you ready?”
“Yes,” Colette said, hoping her voice sounded steady. She didn’t want Max to know how uneasy she was about going back into the swamp. The whole drive from New Orleans, she’d thought she was okay with it, but now that they were about to launch the boat, she could no longer ignore the feeling of foreboding deep inside of her.
She could pretend that the old woman had caused her current unease, but she’d be lying to herself. The old woman had only reinforced a feeling that was already there and had been growing with each mile they drew closer to Pirate’s Cove.
Chapter Nine
Max jumped into the boat after Colette and started the outboard motor. The engine purred to life, and he slowly backed away from the dock, lifting a hand to wave at Danny, who’d helped them launch.
This entire day was disintegrating rapidly, creating more questions faster than they had found a single answer. His frustration with the case was growing, as was the overwhelming feeling that he was being led around by his nose. Something was moving below the surface. Something that had been in motion long before Anna Huval went missing. He could feel it, but he couldn’t put his finger on it.
He was certain the answers were out in the swamp.
Colette glanced back at him as he increased speed and directed the boat down the bayou. She had put on a brave face, but he knew the old woman’s words were weighing on her. Max was certain it was the old woman who’d left the gris-gris on his Jeep the day they’d pulled Anna out of the swamp, but she’d left before he could question her.
Now he sat there wrestling with whether or not he should tell Colette about the gris-gris. He’d thought finding Anna was the end of it and was quite happy to let the entire subject go unmentioned, but apparently finding Anna was only the beginning. The reality of the situation was that he’d promised Colette he wouldn’t lie to her and he was doing just that—lying by omission.
After they rounded the corner of the bayou away from the view of Pirate’s Cove, he slowed the boat to a crawl. Colette turned to look at him.
“I need to tell you something,” he said and told her about finding the gris-gris on his Jeep.
Colette’s eyes grew wide and she sucked in a breath. “You think the old woman put it there?”
“That’s my first guess.”
“But why? What does it mean?”
“In Mystere Parish, it’s usually seen as a warning.”
The apprehension was clear in Colette’s expression. “Like today. She doesn’t want us to go into the swamp.”
Max nodded. “It seems that way. I wish I could have talked to her, without any of the townspeople around, but she shot out of there so quickly…”
“Do you think she’s from Cache?”
“No. Tom knew her by name, and I doubt the Cache villagers would be that well-known in town. If they really have been hiding in the swamp for almost two hundred years, they’re good at it. They wouldn’t make strong connections with outsiders.”
“She said Tom was ‘one of them.’ What do you think she meant?”
“I don’t know. Maybe just the rambling of an old woman who’s not that clear on reality any longer. Maybe she meant he’s one who doesn’t believe in curses. It’s impossible to say.”
Colette’s jaw flexed. “Some creepy old woman is not going to keep me from finding Anna’s mother.”
“Then we better get a move on.”
He increased the speed on the boat as much as possible in the narrow channel and headed back to the area where they’d found Anna the day before. It was the most logical place to start the search. Unfortunately, Max figured Anna had traveled quite a ways before her collapse; otherwise, her attacker would have caught her. But with no other option presenting itself, the search would start there.
The light dimmed as he moved deeper into the swamp. He glanced overhead and frowned when he saw gray clouds already beginning to form. The storm was still a ways off, but it was coming. And when it did, any tracks that Anna left would be erased. The window of opportunity was quickly closing.
It only took thirty minutes to reach the bank where he’d found Anna. He’d probably progressed more quickly than was safe, but the sense of urgency he felt kept driving him to twist the handle on the engine just a bit more. It took him a minute to locate the place where he’d climbed the bank, then he eased the boat alongside the cypress roots and tied it off.
“So what’s the plan?” Colette asked, casting an uneasy glance into the dense foliage above the cypress roots.
“I want to go back to the place where I found Anna and see if I can figure out which direction she came from. Track her steps backward.”