The Mardi Gras Murder

by Jackie Griffey

  Clint nodded. "I know. I can picture it. It's a terrible thing, an awful way to go."

  "But it was an accident, Clint. She got those false mushrooms and ate enough of them to make her sick and disoriented and it didn't hit her till she was out on the water and coming back. Time and location had a lot to do with it too. Chalk it up to fate, I guess."

  Clint nodded and got up. "I'm going to make a copy of this. The note and the web pages too. Then I'll go ahead and finish my report and make the accidental death official."

  He shrugged, "I guess Troy Spruce can breathe easy now."

  "He never worried about it, judging from his attitude. You and I are the worriers. At least, I can call Julia Timkins's parents now."

  "And Troy?"

  "Oh, yeah, him too. But first things first."

  Chapter 24

  "Mother!" Elle gasped. "Of course we didn't do it! None of us is guilty of doing anything except trying to help that woman who was being attacked. We're victims here too. We tried to help the woman who screamed and was fighting for her life in that dark doorway. But we couldn't, the man was trying to rape her and he was too strong and fought back. We couldn't get him away from her and he killed her with that horrible knife or machete or whatever it was."

  Elle talked faster, her mother listened. "Then he, the man, got bit by a dog. He kicked the dog and it ran off. He slashed the woman he was trying to attack twice with his big knife. We saw it and we were all in shock, and when he dropped the knife and ran off, Hannah picked up the weapon, she, all of us were in shock by then."

  Elfrieda Major rolled her eyes, not looking at anyone but Elle, listening closely to everything Elle told her.

  Elle's stopped to get her breath.

  "So, when the police got there, there wasn't anyone there but us." Gina put in.

  "That's right, the murderer ran away before the police got there." Flora told Elfrieda. "But all of us saw him clearly. We knew who he was, at least who he told us he was."

  "You all saw him and can identify him?"

  "Yes."

  "What is this we're in?" Elfrieda looked around her.

  "I think it's some kind of interview room or something," Elle explained to her mother. "They put us in little tiny cells by ourselves. I brought us here and called you."

  "What if someone should come in?" Hannah asked through dry lips, her eyes on the closed door.

  Elfrieda raised a hand for silence, palm toward the door. "No one will come in, Hannah. Now tell me, from the beginning what happened, where you were, when it happened. Flora? Let's have it all. From the beginning."

  Flora stayed where she was but nodded, folding her hands in her lap.

  "It was last night. After the Mardi Gras Parade. We, all of us, had been to watch the parade on St. Charles Street and were back from there just looking around."

  Flora hesitated, "By the way, thank you for Benjamin's services." Elrieda nodded.

  "We had put most of our souvenirs in our motel suite and were not too far from where we were staying on Bourbon Street, looking at all the side streets and fenced in courtyards and mysterious places. We were just about ready to call it a night when we heard someone call for help. A woman."

  "Did all of you hear it, or just you, Flora?"

  "I heard the first scream then all of us heard the second scream and the sounds of a struggle."

  "And where did it happen?"

  "It was around the corner from where we were, about a block and a half away from where we were, maybe two or three streets away, I'm not sure. The street where the struggle was going on was deserted and it was dark. One of the streetlights had been broken out along there. There was a woman in one of those recessed doorways which gave access to the living quarters above. The man must have been trying to rape her, one of his legs was between hers when we first saw them, but she put up a fight. All of us tried to help her. We hit the attacker and kicked him and pulled on the woman's arm, but he was strong and determined. Even when a dog attacked the man."

  "Dog?"

  "Yes. A dog had come up. A friend of mine, the one I came to check on, told us to look out for her dog. It's a long story. Anyway, she said if we saw the black dog to clap our hands and yell his name, Jake. I saw the dog and we got lucky. It was Jake and he came to help us. The man kept trying to hold the woman in spite of us and the dog. He was choking her, one of his hands at her throat. He kicked the dog, Hard. Probably broke it's leg and we still couldn't get him away from the woman. He had a sugar cane knife, an awful looking thing."

  "One of those big machetes that look like a pirate's knife," Elle interjected. "He had it on his belt when we saw him before. He told us he used it in his work."

  Flora nodded. "Yes, he'd been following us sometimes. That's how we know his name, or the name he gave us anyway. When we ran to help, Hannah was the closest to the woman because she got there first and when the man panicked and slashed at the victim, one of the blows must have cut the artery in the woman's neck or the one in her stomach, there was so much blood. Then Elle blew a police whistle that was on one of the souvenir beads and we heard the police coming. The man slashed the woman again as Hannah tried to come between them and the woman just sort of settled into Hannah's arms as the man dropped the machete and ran."

  "I eased her down and let her lean back against the door." Hannah added, tears running down her cheeks, trying to keep her teeth from chattering. "And then I turned to see where the man was." Hannah spoke as if she couldn't believe her own words. "The man was gone and I saw the knife. I picked it up and behind me, I heard Flora say she—she..."

  "She was gone," Flora finished sadly for her. "There was nothing I could do."

  "But we recognized the man," Gina spoke up hopefully. "He had been following us in spite of us telling him to leave every time he showed up. We saw him at Didi's place too, when he tried to get me to go to the parade with him. He told me his name is Jack. I know all of us would recognize him in one of those line-ups."

  "Thank you, Flora. Gina. All of you."

  Elfrieda moved slightly to pat Hannah's shoulder to comfort her. "So as it stands now, Hannah is accused of murder and the rest of you," her eyes speared Elle, who looked away. "The ones the police can see, are listed as accomplices. Hannah's fingerprints are on the murder weapon. The police didn't see the man who ran away, this stalker named Jack. And there weren't any more witnesses? You three were the only ones at the scene when the police came?"

  "Yes, mother." Elle nodded, looking miserable.

  No one spoke or asked anything for several seconds.

  "Mother?" Elle prompted, "What can we do?"

  Elfrieda squared her shoulders looking like she was ready to go to work. Elle's face was hopeful again. She touched an unshed tear in the corner of one eye.

  "What we need to do first is for me to look into this closer, to see the report that was made and what all of you are actually charged with. If they won't tell me." Elfrieda's expression was grim. "I'll get the information my own way."

  Elle glowed with faith in her Mother. No one else asked questions, much less glowed as Elle did. Gloom prevailed.

  "You're right. This is bad," Elfrieda sighed, taking time to think a moment. "I'll have to check and see what I can do. As quickly as possible. This person may have left the area." She looked at Flora.

  "What do you think, Flora?"

  Flora shivered slightly. "I still can feel his evil presence. He wasn't there when the police came, maybe he thinks he's safe."

  "He's wrong." Elfrieda promised solemnly. She looked up. "Hannah?" She hesitated. Elle and the others waited. All eyes on her.

  "Yes, ma'am?"

  "They will surely give you a chance to make a phone call soon, Hannah. I'm not sure about the rest of you. If you know a lawyer, call him. If you only get one call, call whoever is closest to you, and tell them to call the lawyer. Is this all you know about this murderer? His name is Jack? Is there anything else at all? An address or last name, or any
thing like where it is he works?"

  "He wrestles alligators, he told us." Gina volunteered hopefully. "And Didi, my friend, says he probably has another job too, that he used that sugar cane knife for."

  "And he must do day jobs helping in construction and clearing fields and debris," Hannah said.

  "That's right," Gina nodded, looking hopeful again. "Flora's friend said that sugar cane knife must be for his day job. He probably clears debris and things like that when he's not wrestling alligators, so it must be something like that. You know, construction, and clearing damaged things and blocked drives and streets, things like the damage in Didi's parish. This is besides his job wrestling alligators." Gina had goose pimples again, she clenched her cold hands into fists to keep them from shaking.

  Elfrieda Major smiled her icy smile at Gina. "I'm afraid, dear, that wrestling alligators is in the same category as tilting at windmills. Do you know where he does his so-called alligator wrestling?"

  "Yes!" Gina turned to Flora. Flora moved, looking at the nearby desk. She reached for something to write on.

  "Just call this cell phone number and ask for Didi." Flora wrote the number on the edge of a newspaper with a pen on the desk. The desk had a straight chair behind it that matched it scar for scar. They were the only furniture in the room.

  "Her name is Didi Martine." Flora told Elfrieda, handing her the scrap of paper. "She can probably tell you where it is he works, and the name of it and directions to the location, too."

  Chapter 25

  Cas was aware that more people than the young victim's family wanted to know about her and were sympathetic with their loss. He took pity on Connie and Harry and called them after he talked with Julia's parents. He smiled to himself picturing them as he listened to the phone ring at home.

  "Larkin's residence," Harry said.

  "This is the Pine County Sheriff's Office with a news bulletin." Cas informed her in his solemn, Dudley-do-right voice, feeling better than he had in weeks.

  "Is this a good bulletin?" Harry asked cautiously.

  "Yes, it is. Is Connie there?"

  "Yes. Just a minute." She held out the phone to Connie who was now standing in the door. "He's got a news bulletin. A good one, he says."

  "Oh." Excited, Connie pounced on the phone. "Have you found Muriel?"

  "No! Will you two please give that a rest? We now have a decision on the autopsy of our Lady in the Lake. Her death was accidental. The autopsy and the information on the mushrooms, or rather, false mushrooms cleared it up. She got sick, disoriented, and fell into the water. She'd gotten back close enough to shore to come up under the pier. It was dark and she was sick and disoriented and couldn't get out from under it to breathe. Clint is verifying it as an accident."

  "Oh," Connie moaned, looking back at Harry who had been listening as she held out the phone a little.

  "Yes, it was bad. She did fight for her life, banged her head on the underside of the pier. Panicked. That's what Clint meant when he told me he'd know more when he got a look at her lungs. Terrible to think about, but her death was accidental."

  Cas sighed. "You don't want to know the details about the autopsy, it's bad enough just to have the confirmation of what happened."

  "No, you're right. We don't want to know that. Cas, have you called her family? Julia's family?"

  "Yes. I have. They're making arrangements and will be coming for her shortly."

  Harry hadn't missed a thing. "Tell him we're glad for them to have this over at last, and for him to get back to work and find Muriel now," she ordered.

  "I heard that." Cas spoke loud enough for Harry to hear. "Nag, nag, nag!" He hung up laughing.

  * * *

  Hannah had managed to sleep a little. She opened her eyes, sat up and blinked at the bare cell. She was alone and the stark reality of her situation scared her. She was in a tiny barred cell on a bunk with a bare, thin mattress. There was the usual necessary plumbing against the wall. Nothing else. There were other cells on both sides of her and across the narrow passageway but there was nobody in any of them. She wondered how far away Gina and Flora were.

  She sat up, her back ached. Then she remembered gratefully Elle's mother, Elfrieda Major, coming to help them and prayed she would be able to. She also remembered an old, old, movie. Maybe it had been one of those George Raft classics where some prisoner had raked a tin cup across the cell bars to get attention.

  "But I don't even have an empty tin cup." She bit her lower lip to keep from laughing hysterically.

  Hannah's next thought was that Elfrieda had told them when they got a chance to call a lawyer if they knew one or whoever was closest to them. "My Tim is a lawyer, the only one I know. But I can't! I just can't call Tim and tell him I'm in jail." She realized she was talking out loud. "I'm really losing my mind. I don't even care if someone hears me. And there's no one to hear me. I wonder what you have to do to get issued a tin cup?"

  Hannah sat down on the hard bunk, leaned her aching back against the hard wall and cried.

  * * *

  Elfrieda Major entered the New Orleans Police Department slowly, looked around critically, checked the broken linoleum floor as if afraid she'd step in something, and made her way to a tall desk that looked like it might be Information.

  "Excuse me," she looked at a beat-up name plate, "Sgt. Lebo."

  "Jess?" He was a Cajun with a Puerto Rican accent and couldn't have looked more uninterested in what she had to say even if he'd had a Halloween mask on his face or a copy of Play Boy in his hand. Since he was legally if not deliriously happily married, Elfrieda was just a gorgeous nuisance to him.

  Elfrieda stepped a bit closer. "Some friends of my daughters seem to be guests of your fair city, here, and I want to know what they're charged with and what is happening. Is there a report or someone I could speak with?" She smiled and willed him to cooperate.

  The man's dark face ripped apart into a strangely static smile that didn't get to his eyes. "I...." He fought to get his face under control and Elfrieda leaned forward, looking behind him.

  No one was paying any attention to them and a drawer in back of the Sgt. opened, all by itself, allowing a report file to fly out and settle down on the desk where Elfrieda could read it.

  The policeman stood there and watched because that's all he could do.

  Elfrieda finished reading and politely said thank you. The papers went home to their drawer, followed by the eyes of the now very interested and frightened Cajun.

  Elfrieda smiled at him again, "May I speak with your Lieutenant, or whoever is in charge now?"

  The Cajun-Puerto Rican equivalent of "Hell no!" was replaced in spite of him, with his arm being raised and a finger pointing to a door across the room.

  "Thank you."

  Elfrieda knocked on the door with the Captain Dubois nameplate on it. No one answered and the door was locked.

  Elfrieda pointed at the knob and the door swung open. She stood in the open doorway and looked in.

  Captain Dubois was sitting at his desk in the small office and looked up at her, his hand on his place in the report he was reading.

  Captain Dubois was a handsome man with serious dark eyes which immediately looked interested in the lovely woman standing in his doorway. He tilted his head smiling slightly. He paused a moment to enjoy the view.

  "Does my door know you?"

  "It's your door, ask it." Elfrieda shrugged. "May I come in?"

  He raised his eyebrows. "Can I stop you?"

  Elfrieda looked around from the threshold. The place was small enough to give anyone not used to it claustrophobia. It held a large, beat up desk, two file cabinets, a nice leather guest chair, and no windows.

  "Probably not," she finally answered without expression.

  Dubois pointed the pen he was holding in one hand to the chair in front of his desk. He still looked interested, a small smile twitched his lips up at the corners.

  "You a witch or something?"

  Elf
rieda stepped inside, pushed the door closed with her foot and pursed her full red lips, face still a blank. "You object to working with witches?"

  "Nah. No objections." Dubois smiled. "My Tia is one."

  He leaned back a little in his chair. "My Aunt Belle is from the Jamaican branch of the family," he explained. Dubois was six foot one and well built as well as being blessed with a good-looking face and a sense of humor. Elfrieda took note.

  He gave her a false concerned look, stifling a laugh. "You're not going to pour anti-gris-gris all over our outside steps are you?"

  "No, nothing like that." Elfrieda laughed, beginning to enjoy herself. She turned and looked at the door. It was closed and there was a click as it locked itself again.

  Dubois watched. "Thank you," he smiled, nodding toward the door.

  His expression got serious as he intently watched Elfrieda, his eyes on hers. "You must want something from me, Pretty Lady. Is it going to hurt?"

  "Only if you insist."

  "I won't. I'm not dumb."

  "Is your next question going to be, is it going to cost me money?" She raised an eyebrow looking bored.

  "No. Only people with lots of money have to worry about losing it."

  "My feeling exactly." Elfrieda agreed with a slight smile.

  The captain's lips twitched. "Good. So, what's your problem?"

  Elfrieda leaned forward a little, getting serious too. "Through a series of ghastly mistakes, some friends of my daughters are here in your jail accused of murder."

  The man not-afraid-of-witches eyed Elfrieda. "Are you sure they were ghastly mistakes?" His eyes bored into hers as if searching for truth.

  "Yes."

  "When did this happen and what are their names?"

  "It happened Tuesday, last night after the parade, probably around midnight. I'm not sure about the time, just that it was after the parade and it was late. Flora Keeper is the one who told me the facts, the other names are Gina something, and Hannah McLaughlin, if that helps."

  "It does. Flora Keeper rings a bell too."