“Do you think Lambert is going to Cache?” she asked.
“I think he’s going to try to find the villagers.”
“But how? If he knew where to find them, he would have been there already.”
“I know. I’m afraid he may try to force someone to talk.”
“Oh!” Her back tensed up. “Like who?”
“Someone in Pirate’s Cove. Someone he thinks knows where their hiding place is.”
“And what if they don’t know?”
He stared down the highway, a grim expression on his face. “I don’t think that would be good.”
Colette said a silent prayer that Lambert hadn’t gone to extremes. From what she’d seen in his house the day before, he had the weapons to back himself up.
As Max pulled into Pirate’s Cove, Danny ran out of the gas station and flagged them down. He hurried up to the Jeep as Max slammed on the brakes.
“I tried to call you a while ago but it went straight to voice mail. That dude, the collector dude, was here and he was all agitated. Kept insisting I tell him where Cache had disappeared to. I told him I didn’t have any idea what he was talking about and he finally left.”
“Did you see where he went?”
“Hell, yeah, I saw! He went right out back and stole my rental boat.”
“How long ago?”
“Twenty minutes, maybe more.”
“Can I use your dock?”
“Yeah, man! You going after him?”
“That’s the plan.” He threw the Jeep in Reverse and backed the boat trailer down the dock behind the gas station.
“There’s something else, man!” Danny yelled as Max jumped in the boat. “Tom found the voodoo woman passed out behind his café. It looks like someone worked her over a bit. She’s alive, but the waitress is taking her to the hospital in New Orleans.”
“Thanks!” Max yelled and gunned the engine on the boat.
The boat barely skimmed the top of the water as they flew down the bayou. Colette gripped the front of the bench every time the boat twisted around a corner or bounced up and down on the choppy water. A north wind ripped across the bayou, the first signs of a front due to hit the parish that evening. The farther they traveled, the stronger the wind blew and the bigger the waves became.
Finally, he was forced to cut his speed down to half in order to keep them safely afloat. Her joints were happy at the reprieve of banging, even though she could see the stress on Max’s face. It took another forty-five minutes of pounding before they reached the bank where they’d tied off the day they found Cache.
They were not the only boat there.
Danny’s rental boat was pulled up on the bank, and even Colette could see the tracks leading up the bank and into the swamp.
“Do you think the voodoo woman told him where their hiding place is?”
“I hope not.”
Max checked his pistol and the shotgun, then handed the shotgun to her. “Take this.” He placed his hands over hers as she gripped the gun. “Do not hesitate to use this. If Lambert attacked that woman, he’s desperate.”
She nodded, the full weight of the situation crashing down upon her. She might be forced to kill another human being, which was in direct opposition to what she did every single day in the emergency room.
“Can you do that?” he asked.
“Yes,” she said, momentarily surprised at how easily the word had left her lips and how much she meant it.
“I’m going to move as quickly as possible with as little noise as can be managed. Stick close to me and keep watch. If you see or hear anything, tug on my shirt, but don’t speak. I want to keep any advantages we may have.”
Max jumped out of the boat onto the bank and reached back to extend his hand to her. She climbed out next to him and followed him into the brush.
He seemed to be in stealth mode as he moved through the thick foliage, deliberately choosing avenues that provided them the most silent entry to Cache. She followed closely behind in silent admiration for his ability to instantly determine the best path without slowing.
When they drew close to Cache, he stopped and put one finger to his lips. He listened for several seconds, but she didn’t hear a thing in the gloomy silence of the swamp. Finally, he motioned to her and continued another twenty yards until they reached the edge of the clearing that contained Cache.
He stopped once more and scanned the village. She peered around him, looking down the rows of shacks, but didn’t see anyone stirring.
“Looks empty,” he whispered, “but I don’t want to take any chances. We’ll skirt the edge of the village in the brush until we get to the north side, where Anna’s map starts.”
She nodded. It was a good plan. That way if anyone was lurking in the village, they wouldn’t see them pass through. The last thing they wanted was for someone to follow them to where the villagers were hiding. Max was good at tracking, but he couldn’t match the villagers for passing without leaving a trace, nor did they have the time for him to even attempt it.
They made a wide circle around the village, staying about ten yards from the clearing. As the brush allowed, Colette checked the village for any sign of movement and noticed that Max did the same, but it was as still as the swamp surrounding it.
Despite her sweatshirt and the hunting jacket that she’d borrowed from Alex, Colette felt a chill. Something was wrong in this swamp. Something besides the man-eating alligators and rumors of voodoo curses.
Something evil.
She took a deep breath and blew it out slowly, saying a silent prayer that they found the villagers and brought an end to Lambert’s reign of terror. Otherwise, she, Anna and the villagers would never be safe again.
* * *
M
AX PAUSED FOR A MOMENT
, listening to the swamp surrounding them. The silence was almost unbearable, making him want to whistle just to cut the tomblike feeling. It was almost as if the swamp needed reminding that living things existed. But such fanciful ideas weren’t an option. He could hardly afford to announce their presence.
Checking Anna’s map, he gauged their position and started walking again. He hadn’t heard anything when he stopped, the same as all the other times, but he couldn’t shake the feeling that someone was watching. If the eyes upon them were human, he hoped it was a villager watching their progress and not Lambert.
More than anything, he wanted the opportunity to take Lambert down, but not with Colette exposed. No matter how overwhelming the urge to pummel the guy for what he’d done to Colette and Anna, once the villagers were safe, he fully intended to expose Lambert and take him in with the support and backup of the sheriff’s department.
Max traversed the swamp as quickly as he could while being careful not to misread Anna’s directions. It would be easy to get turned around and lost in the swamp. Anna had estimated it would take them an hour to reach the remote location, but a quick glance at his watch let him know they were already fifteen minutes beyond that mark.
It was too soon to get concerned, but he paid very close attention to the next marker, a pair of twisted cypress trees next to a stump. Praying that he’d found the right marker and that things in the swamp hadn’t changed since Anna was last there, he pointed to the right and they changed direction.
Minutes later, he knew they’d found the right place.
Four men stepped out of the brush, seeming to materialize out of nowhere. They surrounded him and Colette, shotguns leveled.
Chapter Eighteen
“Hand me the shotgun,” one of them said to Colette then looked at Max. “And you, drop your pistol.”
Colette flashed a glance at him and he nodded. She handed the shotgun to the man, her hands shaking as she passed it over. Max slowly pulled his pistol from his waistband and dropped it to the ground.
“This way,” the man said and waved his shotgun in the direction they’d been walking.
One of the other men picked up the pistol as Max took Colette’s hand and followed the first man through the brush.
The hiding place was a smaller version of Cache. There weren’t as many shacks and no church at all, but Max figured for temporary housing, it worked fine for their purposes. The man led them to an open area in the center of the shacks. Villagers started easing out of the shacks toward the open area until they formed a circle around Max and Colette.
“What are you doing here?” the man asked.
“We were looking for you, the villagers of Cache. You’re in danger.”
The man shook his head. “Don’t look like anyone’s in danger but you.”
“Please,” Colette said. “My name is Colette Guidry. I work with Anna and she’s desperate to find her mother, Rose.”
A woman burst through the circle and ran up to Colette. “You’re the woman that my Anna works for at the hospital?”
“Yes.”
“How is she? Is she all right? I expected her to come to us, but she didn’t.”
“She was kidnapped by the bokor on the way to the village. Max found her in the swamp and we took her to the hospital in New Orleans. She’s going to be fine, but she’s worried about you.”
For a moment, the woman looked relieved, then the panicked look was back. “We can’t do what the bokor wants, so we hid.”
“We know about the coins,” Colette said. “And the bokor is just a man in a mask. A really evil man who wants the coins for himself.”
“No.” Rose shook her head. “The bokor is real.”
The man stepped closer to them. “You don’t know nothing about our business.”
“I know,” Max said, “that the bokor is a man named Marshall Lambert. He bought the coins from the pawnshop where Anna sold them.”
There was an intake of breath from the villagers, and Rose’s hand flew up to cover her mouth. “She sold the coins?”
“To pay for her schooling,” Colette explained. “She’s very sorry, but I promise you the threat to you is from a very real, very human man.”
The man who’d led them to Cache lifted his shotgun in the air. “So if we kill this one man, then we’ll be safe again.”
The villagers began to cheer.
“I don’t think so,” Max said. “Too many people know about the coins and Cache. Word will spread and you’ll constantly be watching for the next bad guy. But I have an idea of how to solve the problem.”
“We can’t sell the coins,” the man said. “Even if we didn’t believe in the curse, we gave our word. That may mean nothing in your world, but it does in ours.”
“You don’t have to break your word or risk the curse if you do what I’m suggesting,” Max said.
The man stared at him, his eyes narrowed, and Max held his breath that they’d actually listen to him.
“Tell us your idea,” the man said finally, “and then we’ll decide.”
“I have a friend who runs a museum. She would like to display the coins at the museum for everyone to see with the agreement that they still belong to the villagers. That way they could never be sold, and no one would look for them in Cache any longer.”
The man shook his head. “The coins can’t leave Mystere Parish.”
“And they won’t. The museum is on the south tip of Mystere Parish. Barely in the parish lines, but there.”
The man waved one hand in the air and several villagers huddled around him, including Rose. Max assumed they made the decisions for the village.
Colette leaned toward him. “Do you think they’ll go for it?” she whispered.
“I hope so.”
After several minutes, the man finally turned around and said, “We’re interested in your idea. The villagers have had the burden of the coins for a long time. Some would like to leave the village and have different lives. Because of the coins, it’s never been allowed, which is why Anna ran. We don’t want our children and grandchildren to have no options. We’ll talk to your museum lady.”
Relief washed over Max for a moment, then he was right back in cop mode. “That’s great, but we have a problem right now. The man who wants the coins is here somewhere in the swamp looking for you. He attacked the old woman, Marie, in Pirate’s Cove, trying to get information on where to find you.”
“Oh, no!” Rose cried out. Another woman stepped up next to her and placed her arm around her shoulders.
“Marie is Rose’s mother,” the man said. “When she started wandering off, we felt she’d be better off in Pirate’s Cove with a friend.”
“Does she know how to find this hiding place?”
“If her mind is working properly, yes.”
“What can we do to protect ourselves?”
Max took a breath, knowing the villagers would find his suggestion rash and hurried. “By turning over the coins. Get them out of the swamp and allow me to make it known to everyone that they’re somewhere safe.”
The man turned to the small group he’d conferred with earlier and then all leaned in, their voices only a low rumble that Max couldn’t make out. Finally, the man turned and said, “We will give you the coins if you will take them to the museum lady, but if you are lying, not even prayer would save you from the wrath of the pirate who left us to guard them.”
“I’m telling the truth. I have nothing to fear from the pirate.”
The man nodded. “Then I will take you to where the coins are hidden.”
“Thank you,” Max said. “You won’t regret this.”
Rose grabbed Colette’s arm. “My daughter? You will tell her I love her?”
“Of course,” Colette promised. “As soon as she gets out of the hospital, she can come visit.”
Rose shook her head, a sad expression on her face. “Anna made her choice when she left the village. It is against the rules for her to return.”
The man looked at the others then at Rose. “We will talk about that later.”
He motioned to Max and Colette. “My name is Will. Come with me.”
“Can I have my weapon?” Max asked. “In case we run into trouble.”
Will handed Max his pistol and Colette the shotgun. “I hope we run into the man who’s brought the plague down on this village. I hope I have the clearest shot.”
Max stuck the pistol in his waistband, unable to argue with Will’s sentiment. “Are we going far?”
“No, but only Rose and me know how to find the hiding place, and only one of us can go there. The other must remain behind so that if something happens, there is someone left who knows where the coins are hidden.”