The Incident Under the Overpass

by Anne McClane

  * * *

  Best Practices for the Associate

  Be on time. This means any time before nine a.m.

  Never interrupt Trip. Plan accordingly, because the length of his stories will lead to late nights at the office. Though this only applies to Mondays. His social calendar on the other days of the week has him out of your hair early, sometimes even as early as noon.

  Never claim to know anyone higher than his social status, even if you do. This is grounds for immediate termination.

  Watch Rex at Constantinople & St. Charles, neutral ground side. Shout his name loudly. DON’T carry a sign (more grounds for immediate termination). Every year, rain or shine, no exceptions.

  Protect Marva and Roland at all costs. They are the key to your sanity.

  Always

  * * *

  Her phone lit up. She felt butterflies in her stomach. She read Nathan’s response to her invitation: Not today :-(

  A frowny face? Lacey couldn’t decide if Nathan was forty-five or fifteen.

  Two beats later, another message appeared. Can you meet for coffee now?

  She didn’t allow herself time to think before responding.

  Lacey agreed to meet him at Rue de la Course on Carrollton. As she checked her hair and makeup, she kept telling herself, Don’t think. Act.

  She grabbed her purse, and didn’t think to close the document left open on her screen.

  Lacey ordered a nonfat iced latte and grabbed a table at the back of the airy coffee shop. Though it was only minutes from her office, she did not go there often. She shamefully preferred Starbucks coffee over this local alternative. But she loved the atmosphere inside this café. It was spacious and sunny with the simplicity of a monastery.

  Nestled in a shady corner opposite the stairs, she was hidden from view but could easily see both entrances.

  A wall behind the stairs, plastered with announcements, held her attention. A flyer for a band playing June twenty-fourth loomed large in the center of the wall. The letters L, V, and T hovered above the date, and the text was superimposed over a faded photo. Lacey trained her eyes on it and recognized it instantly. It was a photo of her brother and his best friend (and bass guitar player) Dave Guidry, when they were about twelve years old.

  Lacey pivoted her head toward the side entrance. A tall woman with a baby entered. Not Nathan.

  She looked back at the flyer and shook her head. Her brother’s latest band was called LeViticum. The venue wasn’t listed anywhere on the flyer. She pondered the non-digital guerilla-marketing tactic for Jimmy’s “surprise set at the Publiq House.” It was rank with his signature. She suddenly missed his stupid sense of humor and his affinity for questionable band names.

  The front entrance opened. Nathan. She was disproportionately relieved that it was the entrance farthest from where she was sitting. He was dressed in standard Uptown summer preppy, khakis and collared polo shirt neatly tucked with a belt. He was silhouetted by the early sun behind him, and she could see the definition in his biceps as he closed the door behind him. She cursed herself for noticing.

  He walked to the counter and ordered. He glanced toward the back of the shop, but didn’t seem to notice her. Lacey felt her reserve falter, and hoped he might get his coffee to go and leave the way he’d come in.

  He paid for his coffee and walked straight to her. He stood across from her, towering over the table.

  “I thought you didn’t want me to call you,” Nathan said.

  “I don’t. And you didn’t. I called you,” Lacey said.

  “I see,” he said. He set his coffee down but remained standing.

  “You can sit, you know,” she said.

  “I didn’t want to make assumptions.” Nathan sat and offered a hint of a smile.

  Face to face, Lacey couldn’t think of anything to say. Don’t think. Act. Nothing came to her.

  Nathan broke the silence. “So, how’ve you been? How’s the house, how’s the beast?”

  “If you mean Ambrose, he’s fine,” she said. She glared at him.

  He laughed, loudly. It echoed off the high ceiling. “Listen, lady, you asked me out for coffee, remember? It’s too late for the cold shoulder.”

  “I didn’t ask you out for coffee,” she replied, indignant. “I asked if you wanted to meet for lunch.” She smiled, her façade finally cracking. Their eyes met, and her cheeks flushed crimson.

  “And I couldn’t have been more disappointed that I have a closing scheduled at noon today,” he said.

  “You look better,” Lacey said.

  “I am better,” he replied. “At least by outward appearances.”

  Lacey decided not to probe. Not yet. “I’m going to quit my job today,” she said.

  “That sounds like news,” Nathan replied. “I don’t even know what you do.”

  Lacey cast her eyes downward. She couldn’t wait for the day she could offer a different response, whatever it may be. “I work at Carriere & Associates,” she said.

  Nathan laughed. “You work for Trip Carriere?”

  “You obviously know him,” she answered.

  “Mostly by reputation. But yes, I run into him at different places.”

  Lacey watched the tall woman take her baby out of the stroller.

  “You’re not in Rex, are you?” she asked Nathan.

  “Such disdain,” he said. “You sound like you have a moral issue with the grand traditions of Mardi Gras.”

  Lacey checked herself. “No, no moral issue. But let’s just say, if I get a job that takes me out of New Orleans, I won’t miss our peculiar caste system.”

  Nathan watched Lacey intently. “Sounds like a moral issue to me.”

  “Easy for you to judge,” Lacey said.

  “No,” he said. “Not really.” He changed the subject. “So, are your greener pastures already lined up?”

  Lacey sighed. “No. Not yet. I’ve got some ideas, though.”

  “That’s okay. You’re unattached,” Nathan said, pausing at the word. “No better time in your life to be jobless. You’re young, and capable, and can throw yourself at the right opportunity.”

  “How do you know I’m capable?” Lacey asked, her tone accusatory.

  “Jesus, woman. How did you get that chip on your shoulder? Do we have ‘Gone But Not Forgotten’ to thank for that?” Nathan asked, smiling broadly.

  Lacey remembered his mistaken assumption about her “boyfriend.” The red tide came over her without warning.

  “Asshole. Who do you have to thank for the pickle you’re in?” Lacey regretted saying it as soon as it was out of her mouth.

  Nathan was unfazed. “Wow. Good thing I like you so much. Because that was mean.”

  “I’m so sorry,” Lacey said, the red tide subsided. “That was uncalled for.”

  “Noted: lay off the ex-boyfriend talk,” Nathan said.

  “Yes, please. It can turn me into something I’m not.”

  “I can see that,” he said. He had a look, maybe desire, and a definite light in his eyes she had not seen before. It scared the hell out of her.

  “Let me try again,” Lacey said. “Thank you for the vote of confidence. No, I don’t know what I’m going to do, but I have a few ideas.”

  “You see? I told you you’d be on top of this in no time,” Nathan said.

  Lacey raised an eyebrow at him. “What about you? Are you really so…stuck in your current job?”

  “When you work for your wife’s father, it presents certain…complications when you start thinking of other alternatives. Add to that your wife’s very connected father, and two kids, and yes. It gets…complicated,” he said. His look went far away.

  “I’m sorry, Nathan,” Lacey said. “I shouldn’t be prying so much.”

  He returned his gaze to her. “It’s okay,” he said. “I trust you. You’re one of the only people I do trust,” he continued. “Kinda sad, huh, when you’re someone I just met?”

  Lacey struggled to keep her head—and h
er heart—grounded. “Kinda crazy, I think,” she said.

  He nodded. “I think that sums up my situation pretty nicely.”

  Something from the deep surfaced, and Lacey grabbed on to it. “Nathan. Are you still doubting what happened?” she asked.

  He was still for a moment. “No. No, I was before I saw you at Redd’s. But you were so very real then, and the same now. I’ve kind of just accepted whatever happened as a new reality.”

  A new reality. The words rang in Lacey’s head.

  “How do you explain it?” Lacey asked.

  “Explain it? I don’t,” he said. “I wouldn’t even attempt it. I have enough other stuff to figure out.”

  “You’re right,” she said. “I’m sorry. Here you are, with someone out to kill you, and I’m bugging you about trying to explain my powers.”

  Nathan looked over his shoulder, and laughed when he was certain no one else had heard her. “Another lesson learned: discretion is not one of your strengths,” he said.

  Lacey looked up and around. “I didn’t say that too loud, did I?”

  Nathan shrugged. “The acoustics in this place are pretty good,” he said. “Are you beginning to doubt it yourself?” he asked.

  “Me? No. I still don’t understand it, but there’ve been some other things that have happened. Sort of backs up what you say I did,” she said.

  “You mean I’m not the sole beneficiary of your magical powers? I don’t know how I feel about that,” Nathan said. They shared a glance across the table. Lacey’s cheeks flushed again.

  She hugged her purse to her lap. “I don’t know, Nathan. I like what you said—a new reality. I guess that’s what I’m trying to make sense of. Somehow I’ve wound up here, someplace with no road map, and no guide who can tell me what the hell is happening to me.”

  “I like the way you say my name,” he said. His stare was unbroken.

  “Are you even listening to me?” she asked, looking over his shoulder, refusing to make eye contact.

  “Yes! You’re trying to find a road map and a guide,” he said.

  “No, I don’t even think they exist,” she said. She felt the heat of frustration.

  Nathan leaned back in his chair. “We’re in the same boat,” he said.

  Lacey narrowed her eyes and finally looked at his face. “How can that be?”

  “No map, no one to explain what the hell is happening,” he answered. He folded his arms.

  “Oh,” she answered, relaxing. “I see what you’re saying.”

  “And when you look at the end result, the overall impact, how can you even worry?” he said. “Those other…beneficiaries…were they all better off after you did what you did and cheated on me?”

  “Quit talking like that,” Lacey said.

  “Okay. But did you help them, in the end?” he said. He unfolded his arms.

  “Yes. Maybe. I guess,” she said. She thought of mentioning Miss Esther Mae’s demise, but it would take too long. And she knew, from somewhere deep within, that if Nathan were to stop living, her power would have nothing to do with it.

  “So maybe you should stop spinning your wheels about how it’s all happening, and start trying to figure out how to make the most of it,” he said.

  Lacey considered, and smiled. “For someone in such turmoil, that was an amazingly insightful thing to say.”

  He laughed. “Tumult has a way of clearing out the cobwebs,” he said. “Believe me, I wish I could wave your magic powers over my whole situation. But I suspect they don’t work that way.”

  They shared another meaningful glance over the table. Lacey was still curious about one item, and it felt like a good opportunity to redirect.

  “Nathan, I’m sorry, but—”

  “Stop apologizing to me,” he said.

  “I’m sorry. Can you listen, please?”

  Nathan smiled and nodded.

  “You said, back at Redd’s, that you thought your attackers were waiting for you,” Lacey said.

  Nathan’s smile disappeared. “I did,” he said. “I do. I’ve thought about it. A lot. It’s like the pieces of a puzzle.”

  “How do you mean?”

  Nathan looked behind him. “There’s not a whole lot I can say. Just, I’ve been trying to shake off any assumptions I may be holding on to, and look at things cold. As objective as I can get.”

  “Sometimes it can help to ask for another set of eyes on things,” Lacey said, a consequence of her not thinking first.

  Nathan softened. “I appreciate that. But I feel like you’ve risked enough for me already.”

  He looked behind him again, and lowered his voice. “I’ve been thinking about motive, and may be on to something, but there’s a big missing piece. I don’t know enough about our criminal underworld to know how these things may be arranged.”

  Lacey felt he must be speaking the truth. Would anyone who really knew how the seedy underside of things operated refer to it as the “criminal underworld”?

  He looked at her sideways, expectant.

  “Sorry,” she said. “Can’t offer any insight there.” Her guard shot up again. Why would he think I might be a criminal underworlder?

  “It was a long shot,” Nathan said. “But I really don’t know you at all. Maybe your father, or your…maybe your father was a cop or something. I really have no idea.”

  “My father was an engineer. Retired now,” Lacey said coolly.

  “Ah, the chip is back. Please don’t take offense. Are you rescinding your offer for another set of eyes?”

  “No,” she said. “I’m sorry. I guess I really don’t know you at all, either.”

  “If we keep meeting like this, that might change.” Another glance, and Lacey felt her butterflies alight.

  She sighed. She checked the time.

  “Afraid Trip might think you’re short-timing him?” Nathan asked.

  Lacey laughed. “Well, I haven’t quit just yet. But I should think about getting back. I don’t want to cut you off, though.” A little too late to say that, she thought.

  Nathan looked at his phone. “No, don’t worry. I should get back too.”

  An awkward silence settled on their bistro table. The tall lady left with her baby.

  Lacey began to rise from the table. Nathan stayed seated.

  “Planning to stick around?” she asked.

  “I’m not in a hurry,” he said.

  She stopped and stood next to him, facing him as he sipped his coffee. “I’m sorry I can’t stay longer, but I don’t think I should linger,” she said.

  He grabbed her hand with a gentle touch and held it. “Probably not,” he said.

  Lacey looked at him and pulled her hand away. She struggled to catch her breath as she walked like an automaton to the side door.

  20

  An oaf stood on the dock. Lacey felt immediately guilty for thinking it, but it was the first word that came to mind. Built like an oak tree, with an unfortunate underbite, he did not look as threatening as his size would signify. Then Lacey noticed the gun holstered at his waist.

  Even the wrap party for a made-for-cable movie gets armed security, Lacey thought.

  He had a list, but didn’t ask for Lacey’s name. She strolled across the gangplank without even a nod from the man.

  She wasn’t even sure why she was there. Angele was still being aloof, but had made it clear she wanted Lacey to come. This would be their first opportunity to talk face to face since their showdown on Harrison.

  That was one reason. Lacey needed Angele’s help finding a job. She had lost her nerve and had not yet quit Carriere & Associates, but knew it was only a matter of time. She might have an easier time resigning if she at least had a lead on another job.

  There was possibly another reason. She thought of encountering the Dakota Kid again. She was excited about the chance, just to continue the flirtation, nothing deeper. But wanted Angele nowhere near when, or if, it happened. That was why she had decided to arrive early.

/>   Walking up a stairway and several inclines, she regretted her shoe selection. She was wearing a new set of peep-toe heels to show off her legs, but by the time she’d made her way to the ballroom, she was teetering.

  Only a few partygoers milled about. The largest concentration of people gathered around the sound system. The DJ removed his headphones and pointed out a few things to someone. That someone looked familiar to Lacey. As soon as he turned, she saw the unmistakable profile of Eli.

  Good. At least he’ll be stuck behind that table and not creeping around, picking on me, Lacey thought.

  The Dakota Kid and the Mississippi Charmer were also in the DJ crowd. Lacey wondered how many other states were represented.

  She made a beeline for the bar, hoping to remain unnoticed. No chance. The Kid was the first one to spot her. They locked eyes and he immediately split from his crowd.

  He looked good. Jeans, T-shirt, jacket. Lacey had hit the nail on the head with the Steve McQueen comparison.

  “Who let you in?” he said as he intercepted her.

  Lacey arched an eyebrow. “Excuse me?” She tried to come up with a wittier follow-up than “excuse me,” but the Kid beat her to the punch. He scooped her up and dunked her, like they were in the midst of a dance. He righted her, and planted a quick kiss on her lips.

  “Lacey! I’m glad you’re here. We have a game to finish,” he said.

  “We do?” Lacey asked. Stars sparked in her peripheral vision. She prayed Angele wasn’t off lurking in the shadows.

  “Yes! I’m supposed to guess why you’re an idiot,” he said.

  “Maybe I’m not an idiot anymore,” Lacey said, unconvinced.

  “Ah, but the words came out, less than…what, less than a week ago. The statute of limitations hasn’t run out yet,” the Dakota Kid said.

  “I wouldn’t think there would be a limitation on stupidity,” Lacey said, realizing she wasn’t helping her case.

  “For you, there most definitely is. I don’t see you being an idiot for more than a week at a time, tops,” he said. He had taken her hand and led her to the bar.