Voodoo on Bayou Lafonte

by Susan C. Muller

  “Only she didn’t go to school Thursday or Friday and Evie doesn’t know what you’re talking about.” Remy shook his head in disgust. The oldest trick in the book. How could Gabby have missed it?

  “Right. The project was finished last week. Evie swears she doesn’t know where Adrienne is and didn’t have anything to do with this. Evie wouldn’t lie about something this important.”

  “Well, somebody lied about something.” His voice started to climb, but he forced it down. If he upset Gabby any more than she was, he’d never learn what he needed.

  He took a sip of his coffee and watched Gabby over the rim. “How did Adrienne know you wouldn’t phone and check up on her?”

  Gabby’s face flushed. “I would never do that to her.”

  Maybe that was your first mistake. But he forced himself to remain quiet and listen. He hadn’t been there, Gabby had.

  “We were running late Thursday morning. I rushed her out the door. Her phone was sitting in her room on the charger and I wouldn’t let her go back and get it. I thought I was teaching her a lesson. Tough love and all that nonsense. It’s still sitting in her room.”

  Damn. No wonder she hadn’t answered any of his calls. If Adrienne had her phone, they’d at least have a chance of hearing from her. “Then Evie’s definitely in on it. She’d need to cover if you did call. Has Adrienne ever spent the night with Evie before?”

  “A few times, sure. Just in the last few months.” Gabby glanced at him, then lowered her eyes. “And no, I didn’t call over there to check.”

  He pushed his cup back. “Okay, time to visit Evie.”

  Gabby’s hand flew to her mouth. “We can’t go now. It’s late. Besides, the police have already talked to her.”

  “Sure they did, and her mother was sitting in the room, listening to every word she said. If you think it’s late for Evie, think how late it is for Adrienne.”

  Remy’s heart squeezed tight and he sent up a prayer that it wasn’t too late.

  Chapter 2

  Evie’s house appeared dark from the street, but light spilled from a back room so Remy knocked on the front door even harder.

  A lamp switched on and a voice called from behind the front door, “Who is it?”

  “Remy Steinberg.” Would she know who he was? He didn’t blame Gabby for taking her maiden name back. He even understood why she insisted Adrienne use it, although that still hurt.

  Steinberg wouldn’t cause any raised eyebrows in New Orleans, or Baton Rouge, even Lafayette or Lake Charles, but here in Podunkville his name was a definite disadvantage. How many times that first year had his pants been yanked down by older boys claiming they wanted to see if the “Jew boy,” had been circumcised?

  Idiots. They didn’t even know religion followed the mother. He and his brother had been christened in the Catholic Church. He hadn’t set foot inside one in years, except for Ruben’s wedding last month. They wouldn’t have him back even if he’d wanted. Not after two divorces.

  Gabby pushed him aside and leaned into the door. “It’s me, Nelda, Gabby Hough. I know it’s late, but we need to talk to Evie.”

  “The police have already been by. She told them everything she knew.”

  “Adrienne’s father just got here from Houston. I told him she’d talked to the police, but he wants to hear for himself. He’s a detective,” she added.

  Remy held his breath until the deadbolt lock snapped open.

  The door opened a few inches and a face peeked around it. “Evie’s gone to bed. She’s awfully upset about Adrienne.”

  No kidding. Guess how her mother and I feel.

  A voice called from the back of the room, “That’s okay, Mom. I wasn’t asleep.”

  Nelda opened the door and stepped back while they came inside. She couldn’t have been more than ten years older than Gabby, but they must have been ten hard years. She was anorexically thin and her face sagged, not so much with wrinkles, but exhaustion. Everything about her screamed defeated.

  Evie was just a younger version. Thin, but not to the point of emaciation, stringy brownish hair, slumped posture, and absolutely no spark in her eyes.

  Remy glanced around the room. She was Adrienne’s best friend? What could Evie possibly have in common with his beautiful, vivacious, talented daughter?

  Except for no man in the house.

  Evie’s mouth jerked in what might have been meant as a smile. “Hello, Mrs. Hough, Mr. Hough.”

  A tiny arrow pierced Remy’s heart, but he ignored it. Let her call him whatever she wanted. This wasn’t the time to cause waves.

  “Hello, Evie, it’s nice to meet you. Do you mind if we talk to you for a few minutes?”

  Nelda huffed out a stream of air. “Only for a few minutes. I have to get up early for work tomorrow.”

  He’d never get anything out of the girl if her mother stood over them, but he couldn’t think how to get her alone. He glanced at Gabby, but she had her head down, digging in her purse.

  “Nelda,” she said, pulling something from the deep recesses of her bag. “Could I possibly trouble you for a glass of water? This has all given me a migraine. If I take these pills fast enough, maybe I can kick it before it settles in to stay.”

  Remy studied Gabby’s face. Did she really suffer from migraines, or was it a ploy? He honestly didn’t know. She had never mentioned them to him, had she? But then she had no reason to. It was none of his business. Another tiny arrow pricked at his heart. What else didn’t he know?

  He crossed the room to sit on the worn sofa next to Evie. He had to make this time count, yet he couldn’t rush her. “Thank you for being Adrienne’s friend. I know how much that meant to her and I can see you felt the same way.”

  A tear crept down her cheek, but she didn’t answer. Were they really close, or was Adrienne using this girl to cover her tracks? He wouldn’t have believed it of Adrienne, but something had obviously changed in her.

  “Your mother said you already talked to the police, and I appreciate that, but I need to hear it for myself. Do you have any idea what happened to Adrienne?” He took her hand and stared into her eyes, bloodshot and puffy, like Gabby’s.

  “I don’t have any idea where she is, I swear. I’d tell you if I knew.”

  “I’m sure you don’t know where she is, exactly. But do you have any guess what she had in mind? What she planned to do?”

  “No. Honestly, I don’t.” Her voice rose. He needed to keep her quiet or her mother would come in, and that would be the end of this talk.

  “Okay, I believe you.” He used as soothing a tone as he could muster. “What about lately? Has she changed, gone anywhere she wouldn’t want her mother to know about? Did she have a boyfriend? What about drinking or drugs, has she tried any of those?”

  “She wouldn’t touch that stuff.” Evie sat up straighter, but wouldn’t look him in the eye.

  He struggled to find the right tone of voice, stern but not frightening. Damn kids. It was always so hard to work with them. “Come on, Evie. I might seem like an antique to you, but I can still remember high school, and it wasn’t an easy time. Fitting in is tough. I did a few things I didn’t want my mom to know about.” But she found out anyway, when Gabby turned up pregnant.

  Evie twisted toward him. “Well, I saw her drink a beer a couple of times, but that’s all. She wouldn’t touch drugs, or hang with the skags who used them.”

  Now they were getting somewhere. It wasn’t the question she answered that told him what he wanted to know but the question she avoided.

  “What about a boy? Is she dating anyone special?”

  “She’s kinda given up on that. Said they were all after one thing and she has bigger plans.” She flushed and looked down at her hands. “We’re planning to get a scholarship to LSU and be roommates.�
�

  A little whiff of hope floated by. Maybe Adrienne hadn’t changed that much.

  Gabby’s voice drifted in from the kitchen and he risked a glance that direction. She had her head on Nelda’s shoulder and appeared to be crying. He had to wrap this up fast.

  “So who is the guy? The one who turned her off men?”

  “His name’s Danny. I don’t know him. He’s older. But she wouldn’t get back with him. They totally hate each other. Besides, he hooked up with JoNell Davis.” She rolled her eyes and sighed. “There’s a mega skank. She’d put out for a glass of milk.” If Evie had flushed before, now she turned a bright crimson.

  Remy noticed the flash of gumption and suddenly understood why Adrienne liked her.

  “JoNell likes to brag how he takes her to nightclubs, but they only go to Fat Mike’s. Like anybody would mistake that for a nightclub. You’d worry about getting tetanus just from drinking out of their glasses.”

  She chuckled. “My mom calls it a boil on the butt of humanity, but that’s cuz my dad used to go there.”

  He was starting to like this girl more and more.

  “Okay, not this Danny guy.” He’d see about that later. “But was there anyone else? Someone who acted like a friend, but you thought might like her a little?”

  “Maybe Jean-Paul Dupre. They were lab partners, but that’s all. They’ve been friends since sixth grade, but she never mentioned him outside of school.” She leaned forward and whispered, “Besides, Mrs. Dupre is mean as a snake. She’d put the evil eye on anyone who got in the way of her son making top of the class. And Adrienne was a close second. Nobody in their right mind would hook up with Jean-Paul.”

  The women’s voices sounded closer. Remy glanced up as they came through the kitchen door. Evie had seen them too.

  And just when he’d started to get somewhere.

  Gabby put her hand on Nelda’s shoulder and spoke in a rush. “Let me run to the bathroom really quick before we leave. I’ll be right back.” She disappeared down the hall as the woman opened her mouth to answer.

  Evie twisted back toward him. “No, sir. That’s all I know. It’s the same’s I told the other cops.”

  “Evie!” her mother said.

  Evie scrunched up her face and tilted her head at her mother.

  “Policemen,” her mother corrected.

  Remy struggled to stand. He’d sunk down several inches in the old sofa’s broken springs. Everything in the room was shabby and worn. The whole house smelled of damp and disrepair. Were Evie and her mother thin by choice, or was money for food hard to come by?

  What about Gabby? He’d assumed she’d kept the old furniture for sentimental reasons. Did she cling to objects because she couldn’t afford to replace them, or did losing her parents at such a young age cause her to cherish the memories they invoked?

  She’d grown up in that house. They’d lived there with her grandmother the short time they were married and she’d inherited the place, free and clear, when the old lady died.

  Sure, he’d sent money as soon as he could to pay for her bookkeeping course and bought her a car when she started work. He’d never once been late on his child support, although they’d never gone through the court system. But he’d only raised the amount twice in all those years, and not by that much.

  Shit. He’d been looking forward to when Adrienne turned eighteen and he’d be off the hook. But would that cause a hardship for Gabby?

  He waited until Gabby stepped back in the room and gave a small shake of her head. Why hadn’t he thought about searching Evie’s house? He’d forgotten how clever Gabby was.

  “Here’s my card, Evie. Don’t hesitate to call me if you think of anything, anything at all, that Adrienne might have said.” He tucked the card into her hand and squeezed. Would she call him? Not with her mother watching.

  If only he’d had five more minutes.

  Chapter 3

  “Are you sure Adrienne didn’t have a boyfriend? Somebody from school that she didn’t really talk about?” Remy cut his eyes toward Gabby. Moonlight had turned her face silver. Like an old coin.

  “I told you.” She twisted his direction. “She hadn’t gone out with anyone since last fall. The guy got a little too hands on with her and she clocked him. She swore she’d never be alone with a boy again. She wanted to spend her senior year concentrating on her grades. She was in the running for Valedictorian and that would go a long way toward getting a good scholarship.”

  He kept his face toward the road, but a vein in the side of his neck began to pulse. Okay, he was definitely going to have words with that Danny jerk, whether he had anything to do with this or not. If he liked hands on, he was gonna love what was about to come his way.

  “What about prom? Adrienne asked me for extra money for a dress, something she’s never done before.” He glanced at Gabby. Had she known that? No, judging by the expression on her face, he’d managed to surprise her. “Did she go? Because if she didn’t use the money for a dress, what did she use it for?”

  “She went, and she looked exquisite. A big group of kids went together. They didn’t want the pressure of having dates.”

  He shot a meaningful glance at Gabby. She flushed. Oh, yeah. She remembered. But this wasn’t the time for a stroll down memory lane. “I know she looked stunning. She sent me a photo of herself in the dress, but that was when she was at the store, picking it out.”

  Gabby hadn’t known that, either, had she? Maybe he wasn’t as bad a father as she liked to believe. “But if she lied about where she was going Thursday, she might have lied about that, also.”

  He could feel the heat radiating off Gabby.

  “Adrienne wouldn’t lie about something that important,” she huffed.

  “Sure she would. Unless she was abducted between the curb and the front door of the school, she lied about her plans for Thursday and Friday. Evie swears she didn’t expect her to spend the night and the science project was finished and turned in. You have to accept the fact that she lied. Only then can we start to figure out where she went and why.”

  Gabby didn’t answer, but a passing headlight reflected off a tear as it slid down her face.

  He reached across the seat and squeezed her hand. “I know it’s hard, but this is a good thing.”

  “A good thing? How do you figure that? I just learned my daughter has been deceiving me. What other things don’t I know about her?” The pain in her voice cut through him like a knife.

  “She’s a teenager. All teenagers have a secret life they keep from their parents. That’s part of growing up, learning to be independent.” Sure it was, as long as that secret life was sneaking a beer, or slipping into an R-rated movie without permission. Disappearing for two days was a whole different ballgame.

  He put the blinker on and turned into Gabby’s driveway. “Think about it this way: this means Adrienne’s probably okay. That’s why the local sheriff wasn’t worried. She made a plan. She went willingly. She doesn’t have a car, so someone helped her. All we have to do is find that person.”

  His cop mode took over as he chewed on the problem. “Have you searched her room, checked her phone?”

  She put her face in her hands. “No. I didn’t want to invade her privacy.”

  “She lost that privilege when she stepped out of your car on Thursday morning.”

  Guess he had to play bad cop, along with bad father and bad husband.

  Gabby flipped on the light and tossed her keys onto the catch-all table by the door. “Adrienne’s phone is on her nightstand,” she called to Remy as he tromped past her without a word.

  How was she going to live through the next hours? What if this went into days? She’d been so sure Adrienne would be home when they got here. But the dark house and locked door shattered that last remaining sl
iver of hope.

  Gabby bit back a gasp as her head swam and she grabbed the table for support. How long had it been since she last ate? She’d had a breakfast bar and a travel mug of coffee on the way to her office.

  Then she’d eaten a yogurt at her desk for lunch, saving room for the crawfish she and Adrienne were planning to splurge on tonight, a last feast before the end of crawfish season and a celebration of payday and the start of the weekend.

  Now it was almost eleven o’clock and her knees threatened to buckle any minute. She made her way to the kitchen and removed a cup-o-soup from the pantry and stuck it in the microwave. When the bell dinged, she grabbed her soup and plopped down at the table.

  Before she’d managed the first bite, Remy slid into the chair next to her and held out Adrienne’s phone.

  Why did that bother her? She’d wanted him here. She needed his help. He hadn’t done or said one thing to indicate disapproval of the way she was raising Adrienne, yet every move he made felt like he was criticizing her.

  Maybe it was her own guilty conscience? Had she thrown up roadblocks to keep Remy and Adrienne apart because seeing him brought out feelings she didn’t want to deal with?

  Remy tapped the phone’s screen. “I’ve checked her call record. There’s absolutely nothing to or from that kid who gave her trouble last fall. That’s one thing we don’t have to worry about. This one is a pizza place, and I recognize Evie’s number, and your cell. Most of the rest seem to have girls’ names. Do you know who they are?”

  Gabby took a deep swallow of soup and almost burned her tongue before reaching for the phone. “Claudine, Margaux, Sherri Lynn. These are all friends from school. This one is my office. I get in trouble for talking on my cell during office hours, so if she needs me, she calls direct to my extension at work, and my boss never knows.”