Voodoo on Bayou Lafonte

by Susan C. Muller

  Last night had been wonderful, but what now? Did he plan to stay? Or would it be like before? Hit and run.

  She couldn’t think about that now. She’d take what comfort she could until Adrienne was safe at home. She couldn’t face this alone. She needed Remy, and he was here. For now.

  He set the plate of bacon in front of her. “Okay, so Adrienne is likely pregnant. Do you think she went somewhere to have an abortion?” He held up a strip of bacon and nibbled on the end.

  The knots in her stomach tightened. “I want to say no, she’d never do a thing like that. But then I think about us. Maybe she saw what it did to our lives and she didn’t want to follow in our footsteps.”

  Remy’s eyes turned hard. “I don’t know about you, but having Adrienne and getting married didn’t ruin my life. It’s the best thing that ever happened to me.”

  “I didn’t mean that, and I certainly never said anything like that to Adrienne.” Had she? Or had she just complained about being tired and broke and lonely?

  She swallowed the lump in her throat. “Even if she did go for an abortion, why isn’t she back?”

  His eyes softened and he shook his head slowly. “Maybe something went wrong? I have Adam checking police stations and hospitals again this morning, I told him to add abortion providers to the list, but they’ll never give us any information.”

  He finished his strip of bacon and started in on his waffle. “Ruben’s checking Danny’s alibi, but he’s slipped down on my suspect list. He’s a creep, but I’m not sure he’s the creep we’re looking for. I had to file a missing person’s report in Houston so they would have a case file number when asking for information. Hard Luck gave his okay, or at least turned a blind eye.”

  Gabby pushed her waffle around on the plate. This was all too much to comprehend. Adrienne missing, maybe pregnant, maybe hurt. Danny Cryer. Official reports. Last night.

  Only a few days ago all she’d been worried about was being late to work.

  “You need to eat up. I don’t know what’s ahead for us over the next few days, but you’ll have to be strong. Not eating because you’re worried or stressed is counterproductive.”

  Damn him. Did he always have to be so logical? She speared a piece of waffle and stuffed it into her mouth as his cell phone rang.

  Remy watched as Gabby glared at him. What the fuck was wrong with her this morning, buyer’s remorse?

  Well too damn bad.

  If she didn’t want him, he was out of here the moment he found Adrienne. He’d managed without her before, and he could do it again.

  The sound of his cell phone broke through his concentration. How long had it been ringing? He checked the read-out and mouthed “Adam,” to Gabby before answering.

  “I’ve got Adrienne’s mother here with me. Tell us you have some news. Nothing’s happening. We’re dying on the vine here,” he begged.

  Adam’s voice came over the speaker. “Nothing concrete. She hasn’t taken any plane, train, or bus, at least not under her own name. No hospital or police station has her. And no abortion clinic would give me the time of day but they all said they would have transferred her to a hospital by now if something went wrong.”

  Remy hesitated. His gut clenched. He knew that tone of voice and it meant the news wasn’t good. “But . . .?”

  “The De Lyon coroner has the body of an unidentified young woman. Now, Mrs. Steinberg, I don’t want you to get upset. The body does not match Adrienne’s description. She seems to be older, taller, and with brown hair.”

  Gabby leaned forward and spoke into the phone Remy held between them. “But if she were running away, she might have dyed her hair.”

  “That’s true, but she didn’t grow two inches.” Adam’s voice remained calm.

  “What’s the other thing?” Remy could feel the other shoe, hanging in the air, waiting to drop.

  “Ruben didn’t have a good feeling when he talked to the motel owner. He verified Danny Cryer’s alibi, but Ruben thinks he’s hiding something. And I’ve learned Ruben’s gut instincts are worth checking out.”

  Remy had to agree. He’d encountered Ruben’s instincts before. The guy was uncanny. Maybe he’d discounted Danny too soon. “Thanks, buddy. That gives us somewhere to start.”

  “I’ve got the police chief’s name. I’ll give it to you when we see you in De Lyon.” Traffic noises sounded in the background.

  “You guys have done enough. I can’t let you drive all the way to Louisiana on your day off.”

  “We thought you might say that. That’s why we didn’t call until we were halfway there. We’re only twenty miles from Beaumont. We’ll meet you at the Dairy Queen in De Lyon at eleven-thirty.”

  Two hours of driving gave Gabby time to talk to Remy about every possibility concerning Adrienne, but none about themselves. The Dairy Queen wasn’t hard to find, its familiar red and white sign standing above the trees. The inside smelled of hamburgers and waffle cones. Gabby wasn’t sure if the floor was sticky, or she just imagined it should be.

  Remy handed her a Butterfinger Blizzard, her favorite. How did he remember these things?

  She studied the three men as they made plans. Adam and Ruben were just as Remy described them. Either man would have intimidated her alone. The two together should have terrified her, but somehow they didn’t.

  Everything about their body language, their tone of voice, the hard look in their eyes, said they meant business. But what surprised her most was that Remy fit right in with them.

  It was a side of him she’d never seen before. Well, maybe when he’d disarmed Dan Cryer, but she’d put that down as a fluke. Now she wasn’t so sure.

  For the first time in days, her heart lifted and she felt a sense of hope. With all of them working together, they were sure to find Adrienne.

  “I’ll come with you and Gabby to the coroner’s office,” Adam said.

  For a moment, Gabby almost protested that she had Remy to look out for her. But who would look out for Remy? For the last several years she’d assumed he and Adrienne weren’t close, but now she’d discovered they’d talked on the phone, emailed, and sent photos back and forth.

  If something had happened to Adrienne, Gabby knew in her heart that Remy would be devastated.

  Ruben nodded. “I’ll stop by the police station while y’all are at the coroner’s, see if I can pick up any useful information. I want to know everything I can before we visit that motel.”

  She watched and listened as Remy took over the planning.

  “We’ll meet back here when we finish. That way, we can approach the motel owner together. Scare the shit, and maybe the truth, out of him.”

  Ruben nodded and left without a word.

  She, Remy, and Adam headed for the car. She sat in the front, next to Remy, and Adam sat in the back, giving occasional directions.

  “This is it?” she asked.

  They had stopped in front of a house that had been converted into a funeral home. The front and back yards had been covered with asphalt and turned into a parking lot. A porte-cochère had been added to the front so mourners could stay out of the rain.

  The whole place had seen better days.

  She didn’t want to, couldn’t, think of her daughter in a place like this.

  Adam leaned forward. “This is a small town. They won’t have a medical examiner like Houston, or even Lafayette. They just have someone who can declare a person dead and handle the body. If it looks like foul play, they’ll call in the county, I mean parish.”

  Remy nodded. “A funeral director is perfect. He’ll have facilities to store the body until a determination can be made. He probably doesn’t have one unexplained death a month. He’ll get paid by the parish and then the family might hire him to take care of the remains. That way, he gets p
aid twice. It’s what keeps a place like this going.”

  Not for her daughter. If she had to mortgage the house, she’d manage something better for Adrienne.

  Her stomach clenched and bile rose in her throat. A spear lodged itself in her heart.

  What was she thinking, planning Adrienne’s funeral already? Her daughter was not dead. She’d feel it if she were. Wouldn’t she?

  Gabby took a deep breath, held it, and exhaled slowly until her heart rate returned to normal.

  Adam opened the car door for her, then went ahead. A bell jingled as he pushed the front door open and the sound cut into her.

  She slipped her arm through Remy’s and hung on. How could she possibly face this?

  Fake antique chandeliers and moss green carpet tried for a soothing look, but failed miserably. The background music sounded like a high-school rendition of a funeral dirge.

  A man with dark eyes and coal black hair appeared magically from somewhere in the back. His navy coat was unbuttoned to reveal a slim waist and tight stomach. He oozed sexiness and seemed way too healthy to work in a funeral parlor. Weren’t they supposed to look only one notch above needing their own services?

  Relief swept over her when Remy hung back and let Adam handle the explanations. She didn’t know what would happen if she had to let go of his arm. She might just melt into a puddle on the floor.

  Their voices buzzed past her head, and she had no idea what they said until Adam returned.

  Remy had described Adam as having a “pretty boy” face, and he was handsome, but there was kindness in his hazel eyes and a hint of mischief in his unruly hair.

  “I called ahead and everything is ready. We’re supposed to follow Mr. Doucet.” He nodded toward the funeral director who smiled at them with teeth artificially white.

  Neither she nor Remy answered, just fell into step behind Adam and Mr. Doucet.

  The lobby had smelled like air-conditioning and flowers, but as they crossed behind two sets of closed doors, the odor of chemicals grew stronger. She gripped Remy’s arm, unsure if she could take another step.

  Remy patted her hand. “Adam, why don’t you wait here with Gabby while I go in? No sense both of us checking.”

  “Are you sure?” she asked. “I feel like I should be there with you.”

  “I’m sure. We both know it’s not Adrienne. This is only a formality, so we can cross this place off our list. There’s nothing here I haven’t seen before and it’s a picture I’d rather you didn’t have to live with.”

  Relief fought with guilt as Mr. Doucet led Remy through yet another door. She had only seen a few dead bodies in her life, and they were sanitized and dressed up. How sad that this was nothing new to Remy.

  She knew Remy was a detective, yet she’d pictured him in a squad car, driving around with his lights flashing and siren blaring.

  As a teenager, he’d always liked to drive fast. Push the speed limit. She’d secretly assumed that’s what’d led him to police work. But facing down a man with a shotgun and looking at dead bodies, that was something else entirely.

  Adam and Ruben would have frightened her if she hadn’t known they were Remy’s friends, but that’s exactly what they were: friends and colleagues. They obviously respected Remy’s opinion, and talked as if their boss thought highly of him.

  She’d changed, grown up. She certainly wasn’t the giggly teenager she’d been when they married. Why hadn’t she realized he’d grown as a person, too?

  Chapter 12

  Remy followed the funeral director into what had once been the garage of the house, now thoroughly converted and serving as a preparation area.

  The odor of chemicals was stronger in here and that alone would have been enough reason to keep Gabby away. He found the smell unpleasant, but nothing compared to the stench of decomposing flesh he encountered at some crime scenes.

  Vaguely aware of the florescent lights buzzing and flickering around him, Remy held his breath as the funeral director approached a covered form laying on a gurney. A silent prayer flitted across his mind Please don’t let her be Adrienne.

  When Mr. Doucet folded back the sheet covering the woman’s face, Remy’s knees buckled.

  A woman in her late twenties with short-cropped dark hair stared up at him with sightless eyes.

  Oh, thank God. But what would he have done if this had been Adrienne? He couldn’t have told Gabby. He wouldn’t have been able to make the words come out of his mouth.

  “Is this your daughter?” Mr. Doucet’s words cut into his consciousness.

  Remy shook his head, but didn’t answer. Was someone searching for this young woman, waiting at home, wondering what had happened? He lifted her arm and studied the unnaturally pale skin. The first thing he noticed was how cold her arm felt. Then the needle tracks and her ragged, unkempt nails. A tattoo had been etched near her shoulder. An intricate cross with squiggles and snowflake-looking things.

  “Papa Legba.” Mr. Doucet nodded toward her arm.

  “What?”

  “That tattoo. It’s the voodoo sign for Papa Legba. Supposedly he’s an old man with a cane who holds the keys to the gates of Heaven and dispenses destiny. The cross symbolizes the intersection of the material and spiritual worlds. I don’t know about that moon up there in the corner. I’ve never seen that before.”

  “Is voodoo popular around here?”

  “It was in my grandmother’s day. They counted on traiteur’s, spiritual healers. They even believed if you were left-handed, you had special powers. That all fell out of favor as people became more educated and doctors were available to treat illnesses. Now, I don’t know. I guess it never goes away entirely.” The guy’s silky smooth voice rang a bell of familiarity.

  “When was she found?” Remy tilted his head and studied her closer.

  “Yesterday, in a motel on River Road.”

  “The Hideaway?” That would be too much of a coincidence.

  “Yes. There was a Do Not Disturb sign on the door, but it was past checkout time so the maid went in anyway. Otherwise, the body would be in much worse shape.”

  “Who paid for the room?” Remy was fishing. Any information the coroner could provide would be a long shot. How could a junkie have anything to do with his daughter?

  But he didn’t trust coincidences and having the same motel pop up twice in his investigation set off alarm bells he couldn’t ignore.

  Mr. Doucet shoved his hands into his pockets and stared at the floor. “That’s all I overheard. The local police look down on the lowly coroner. They wouldn’t tell me anything.”

  Remy heard the frustration and hurt in the man’s voice. Had he ever been guilty of the same offense? No, Houston had a trained M.E. whose expertise proved vital in solving crimes. He went out of his way to develop a good relationship with those guys.

  Remy glanced down at the body. “Do you get many of these?”

  “More than I’d like. My father─” He flushed slightly. “I mean, the owner, considers it a Godsend, but I think about people like you, whose sons and daughters are lost, one way or another.”

  Remy shoved aside the wave of fear that had risen to the surface. He could not, would not, face seeing Adrienne like this, cold on some slab in what once used to be a garage. “Do you think the number has increased over the last, say six months or a year?”

  “I don’t know, maybe. It’s certainly more than when I was a kid, but I’ve only been home a few months.” He shrugged. “I went to Nashville for a few years. Tried my luck as a singer.”

  That was it. The guy looked and sounded like Elvis. “How did that go?”

  “I’m back here, aren’t I?”

  The Elvis impersonating business must not be booming. Remy took one last long look at the girl, hoping that her family would find an
d claim her, then headed back to the lobby.

  The longer he delayed, the harder it would be on Gabby. He glanced back as Mr. Doucet smoothed the sheet over the dead woman’s face.

  Was Adrienne lying somewhere, waiting to be discovered? Or worse, what if he never found her?

  Mr. Doucet stayed behind, while he wove his way back to the place he’d left Adam and Gabby.

  They waited expectantly in the same spot he’d left them. Adam had his arm around Gabby’s shoulders, ready to hold her up if necessary.

  Remy gave a small shake of his head and Gabby ran to him, burying her face in his chest and sobbing.

  “Let’s get out of here,” he said. “We’ll talk back at the Dairy Queen.”

  No one spoke on the drive to the restaurant. If someone had asked her a question, Gabby wasn’t sure she’d have the strength to answer. She hadn’t done a thing today except ride in a car, yet exhaustion settled deep into her bones.

  Once at the DQ, she stumbled to their back booth and settled in while Adam and Remy stopped at the counter to place an order.

  If Remy ordered her a hamburger, she might throw up. The idea of dripping meat juices turned her stomach. When the men returned with their food, Remy set a grilled cheese and fries in front of her.

  She grabbed the sandwich with trembling hands. She should have eaten that waffle this morning, or had more than a couple of bites of her Blizzard.

  “Let’s just wait for Ruben before discussing this. No point in going over everything twice.” Remy gestured with his burger.

  Gabby closed her eyes and concentrated on her own food. An hour later, they were still waiting. They’d finished their meals and the men had polished off an ice-cream cone. Nerves had her antsy and she’d gone to the bathroom three times, just for an excuse to stand up and move around.

  Remy never complained, but after her second trip, he’d scooted over and let her have the outside edge.