3 Louisiana Lies

by Alison Golden

  “I can’t believe they still have you here,” Sage said. “What’s happening?”

  CHAPTER TEN

  “I DON’T KNOW.”

  Dr. Jack shook his head. “They’ve questioned me three times so far, and they seem to be getting frustrated. They’re not making progress, but that’s because they’re barking up the wrong tree. I heard Trudeau tell Johnson that there were no fingerprints on the gun. Johnson told him to check the scene for gloves. Of course, I have gloves at the botanica. I use them all the time to handle the crystals and other delicate objects, so I’m afraid they’re going to say I used them while handling a firearm. Which, of course, is untrue. I’ve never even fired a gun, let alone killed anyone with one. It’s unbelievable what is happening.” The light in Jack’s eyes dimmed a little and his chin dipped.

  “Oh dear,” said Roxy. The words slipped out before she could stop them. Jack and Sage looked at her as though only just remembering she was there.

  “You both know I didn’t do it, don’t you?” Jack said.

  “Of course!” Sage said quickly.

  “Of course,” said Roxy, not quite so quickly.

  Dr. Jack studied her through the glass for a moment. “You’re not 100% sure I’m innocent, but that’s okay. In the material world, it is difficult for one to know who to trust if one solely uses logic for guidance. But, Roxy, if you go deep into your heart, and listen to your intuition, it will tell you the truth. I can only ask that you do that.”

  Roxy knew that she tended to overthink things, especially when she was anxious. She relied on facts and logic to help her make decisions most of the time. Using her intuition as Sage and Dr. Jack did practically all the time was extremely difficult for Roxy, and she wasn’t at all sure it was a very sound practice. It sounded so foreign, baseless, and scary. The world didn’t run on intuition and using it certainly went against all that she had learned growing up. Safety and security were Roxy’s goals, and she mostly employed hard work, delayed gratification, and fact-based decision making to achieve them. Using one’s intuition was the very opposite of that. It relied on making leaps of faith, trusting that things would work out for the best, and listening to one’s gut, often in the face of evidence to the contrary. Roxy was quite sure her bank manager would not approve. “I really don’t think you did it, Dr. Jack. Don’t worry.”

  He smiled at her. “You’re a very brave young woman, Roxy. Do you know that?”

  “I’m not, not really. I’m not sure I would save someone else before myself if faced with a tiger.”

  “What about when that guest of yours murdered his brother. You went flying in to save the day.” Sage was referring to the last time Roxy had gotten entangled with the police. A famous Instagram influencer had been murdered at the Funky Cat. Roxy had worked out that the influencer’s sibling had killed him, and she’d confronted him in front of thousands of people.

  “Yes, but that was because I wasn’t thinking. I was overcome with…passion, emotion, righteousness.”

  “Exactly. You stopped thinking and went with your heart,” Dr. Jack countered.

  Roxy thought for a moment. “I see what you’re saying.”

  Jack leaned forward on his elbows, his face up close to the glass. “Listen, we don’t have long. Sage, I need your help.”

  “Do you want us to keep the botanica open, so you don’t lose any business?” Roxy asked over the top of Sage’s head, keen to put things on more solid, practical ground. “The witches will miss you.” She gave Dr. Jack a silly smile. He had once told her he stayed open late “for the witches,” but now he missed her little joke, and her smile died.

  “I can serve customers, and do my programming work from behind the counter,” Sage added.

  Dr. Jack gave Sage a warm smile. “That would be most appreciated. Thank you for your offer, and you, Roxy, but what I want you to do is find out who the real murderer is. Roxy, you talk the language that the police understand, and you’ve shown your investigative prowess twice now. I would love it if you could turn it on again for me. Despite the anxiety you sometimes suffer, your perseverance and persistence are the catalysts for success. I’m sure you could succeed in proving my innocence. You’re tough. Nothing stops you, even if it tries to. I suspect you have a tougher history than many could guess, and it’s that which has given you a belief in justice and a backbone when you’ve needed one.”

  Roxy nodded. She’d never known her father nor had any brothers to protect her. To survive, she’d kept herself to herself, and learned to navigate danger from when she was just a little girl. Seeing others suffering unjustly cut at her so.

  Dr. Jack continued, “But this might be your biggest challenge yet. The furies will try to take you down. I understand the sacrifices you’ll make, the risks you’ll take, but I know justice burns brightly in you. Oh, you don’t have to believe me right at this minute, Roxy, you can work with facts and logic until your heart takes over, but I need you. Will you help me?”

  How could Roxy refuse such a plea? “Of course, I’ll help,” she said. “We’ll find out who really did this.”

  “Sage, I need you to do some spiritual work to support exposing the real murderer. I know it’s difficult work…very taxing, but I think it might be necessary, and it will lift the burden from Roxy, allowing her to move more freely.”

  “I’m working on it already,” said Sage. “We have to get you out of here.”

  “Thank you,” said Dr. Jack, tears welling up in his eyes. “You are more than I could ask for.”

  “I would fight a million soulless demons for you,” Sage said, her eyes big and imploring. They smiled at each other and sighed in unison. Roxy looked away again.

  “Don’t discount Charles or George,” Dr. Jack said. “They both look like wonderful men, but you must find out what lurks beneath. And who knows what history has passed between Meredith and Terah, and Royston Lamontagne, too. I’m sure there is a lot to uncover.”

  “I’ll do everything I can,” said Roxy.

  Dr. Jack’s eyes burned with gratitude. “When you work on behalf of truth and justice, you are blessed beyond your wildest dreams. Just hold out for an amazing reward. It’ll come.”

  Roxy smiled. “Thank you. That the real murderer is put behind bars is reward enough.”

  “We’ll get there,” Dr. Jack said. “We just have to work as a team. Together we will be unbeatable.”

  “But Dr. Jack, before I take on this task, please tell me what you and Meredith were arguing about before the séance? You were both quite heated.”

  Dr. Jack sat back in his chair and folded his arms. “Meredith was involved in something I most definitely don’t agree with. She wanted to invoke the practice during the séance, in my botanica. I said absolutely not.”

  “What…what did she want to do that you so disapproved of?” Roxy asked, almost afraid to find out.

  “It’s called spirit binding, Roxy. It means to bind a spirit to a vessel, a physical object, trapping them essentially. I believe it to be a cruel practice, like caging any being would be. It is for the benefit of the person who wishes to remain in contact with another’s soul, but it requires the spirit’s subordination. I don’t support that, and I most definitely didn’t want the practice carried out on my premises. It would be against everything I believe in. But of course, that doesn’t mean I would kill anyone. I wouldn’t, not for anything.”

  “I see.” Spirit binding—that was something new!

  The door opened and the young woman cop from earlier walked in, her thumbs hooked into her belt. She looked at the three of them. Sage sitting on the chair, her palm still placed up against the interview window, Roxy standing behind her, Jack on the other side of the glass. She jangled her keys and nodded her head at the door through which she’d just come. “Time’s up," she said.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  WHEN ROXY RETURNED to the Funky Cat, she found Charles and George sitting at a small table in the dining room chatting in hushed t
ones. They both looked pale and tired.

  “Hello, Charles, George,” she said to them softly, not wishing to interrupt them unduly. They nodded in her direction.

  “Hello Roxy,” George said. His red hair, unbrushed, stuck up perpendicular to his head, and his freckles stood out against the pallor of his skin. His eyes were swollen. He wore sweatpants and a t-shirt, but even they were twisted around his body like it had been too much effort to put them on properly.

  Charles was better groomed. He was freshly shaven and showered and wore a red plaid bow tie and a navy blazer over a white shirt and khakis. His glasses on their gold chain hung around his neck as usual.

  Roxy headed through to the kitchen to find Nat dashing about the kitchen as she stirred, sliced, sprinkled, and served. “Looks like Charles got his appetite back,” Nat said. “He asked for our special.”

  The “special” comprised of such a big plate of food, Roxy had never been able to finish one, and she didn’t have an especially small appetite. It consisted of a heaping plate of eggs, sausages, stuffed tomatoes, and beef cooked in tomato sauce over grits. Ginger-cranberry pancakes accompanied the dish along with coffee served just the way the guest liked it. Fresh beignets were available on the table too, just in case that pile of New Orleans goodness wasn’t quite enough.

  “As, it would appear, so did her majesty,” Nat said, nodding toward the open door to the paved area out back where Nefertiti had her head in a silver bowl.

  “Ah, she never lost hers,” Roxy replied.

  “Looks like she has a suitor, too. A big orange tom. She shared her food with him. The two of them had their heads in the bowl together. It was so sweet. When he left, I gave her some more.” Nat grinned. “Maybe there’ll be some fluffy orange and white kittens around here soon?”

  Roxy grinned back. “No chance. She’s been fixed.”

  “Oh, right.” Nat turned down the corners of her mouth. “Well, that’s a bit disappointing. I was quite looking forward to some little ginger puffballs running all over the place.” She cracked some eggs into a bowl. “Where did you get off to so early this morning? Back on a health kick again? Out for an early morning run?”

  “Unfortunately not,” said Roxy. She explained about the trip with Sage to see Dr. Jack.

  Nat shook her head. “I can’t even process this right now. It’s too much. Dr. Jack a murderer? Imagine!”

  “I know, right? I don’t know what to think. But I’ve agreed to do a bit of digging. See what’s what,” Roxy replied. “And I need your help.”

  Nat looked up from her eggs in surprise. “You do?”

  “Yes, I want you to focus on Charles and George. I want you to make them feel safe and comfortable and cared for. My mind’s going to be everywhere, trying to get evidence and clues and whatnot, and I’m going to have to consider them suspects. So I’ll really need you to step up, Nat. Do you think you can do that?”

  “Sure,” Nat said firmly. She was mixing the eggs in a bowl, but now she put them down and took a breather. “I know in the past I haven’t always been the most…well, hospitable, shall we say, but you can count on me, Rox. I won’t let you down.”

  Roxy gave her a side hug, and Nat responded with a grateful smile. “I know I can come out with some right old rubbish from time to time, and I know I can look a little, um, unapproachable, but I hope people don’t think I’m venomous to the core!”

  Roxy giggled. “Nope, you’re a fluffy bunny under all of that…bravado.”

  Nat made bunny ears above her head with her hands and twitched her nose until she looked quite cute. Seeing Nat with her tattoos and combat boots looking so silly made Roxy laugh again.

  “Anyway, Rox, enough with all the fun, what’re you having for breakfast?”

  “Oh, I was just going to have beignets and a café au lait. But since you’re doing the cooked special, I would love some beef in tomato sauce over grits. I could eat that all day and all night!”

  Nat gave her a cheeky grin. “Grillades and grits, coming up! But you sure you want just that? You don’t want the whole thing?”

  “No fear!” Roxy said, her eyes popping. “I wouldn’t be able to move for the rest of the day. And I need to be light on my feet if I’m going to help Dr. Jack.”

  “There’s a coffee pot on the table already,” said Nat. “You can help yourself to that and the beignets. Elijah already brought them over. Go and chat with our guests, and I’ll be out with the food in a few. Sounds like you’ve had a challenging morning already. Let me look after you with a bit of food, cher,” she said mimicking Evangeline.

  Roxy gave Nat’s shoulder another squeeze. “Thanks, girlfriend.”

  She went into the dining room and sat at the table just across from George and Charles. They were both reading now and looked a little more alive than the day before, but that wasn’t saying much. At best, George didn’t constantly have tears in his eyes, and Charles had regained some color in his cheeks.

  Charles was working on a beignet. He had cut it into strips and ate absentmindedly as he sipped his coffee and read the local broadsheet newspaper. George was reading a book. Roxy looked carefully and saw that it was Meredith’s book. She was unsure of what to say to them for fear of tipping this delicate calm into chaos and grief. Thankfully, George broke the silence. He looked directly at Roxy and pointed to an empty chair at their table. “Please come and sit with us. We would appreciate some company. We are not at our best this morning.”

  Roxy pulled the chair out and sat down. Charles looked up briefly and gave her a flicker of a smile but ducked out of any conversation by returning immediately to his newspaper. George made up for the older man’s lack of conversation. “Roxy, I must say that your hotel is beautiful and so comfortable. My bed was just the right blend of softness and firmness, and the power of the shower was intense, so invigorating, and I needed that this morning although,” he put his hand up to his head, “I think I forgot to comb my hair.” He smiled sheepishly. “You have some fabulous energies here. Although we are staying under the most awful of circumstances, your hotel is easing our cares and woes. It’s a wonderful place. Meredith would have loved it.”

  “Oh, thank you so much,” Roxy said, touched by his words.

  “Nat was telling me how it was before you took over, and how much you’ve transformed it. She said you chose the décor and such, and I must say, you’ve created an oasis for the spirit. Thank you so much for the hard work you’ve put in to make it such a soothing place. I have found it very restful and relaxing. It has truly relieved me—mind, body, and soul.”

  “You’re very welcome, George. I’m so sorry that…”

  “No, I’m sorry,” George said, “that we have brought trouble to your door.”

  Charles started to speak without looking up from his paper. “The machinations of the spiritual world are sometimes very strange. We did not expect Meredith to be killed by dark forces, but she was, make no mistake. A person picked up the gun and shot it, yes, but they were motivated by the forces of evil that constantly swirl through this world looking to wreak destruction. We regret very much that you were caught up in this.” Charles turned over his page carefully so as not to knock from the table the small glass vase that contained a posy of pansies, viola, nemesia, columbine, twinspur, and alyssum. Roxy reflected on what a dichotomy Charles seemed. He sounded not at all like the man of science he had claimed to be the previous evening. He seemed steeped in the spiritual world.

  “I’ll send love and light throughout this hotel for as long as we’re here. You certainly deserve it,” George said. He looked around the large room. “The attention to detail you’ve put in tells me that you’re a soul who cares very deeply, who understands people and their experiences. You want people to feel cared for.”

  “Yes, I do,” said Roxy, smiling. That was her raison d'être. She wanted to take care of people.

  George smiled. “And I do feel cared for. We both do. Very much.”

  “I’m so
glad,” said Roxy. “And seriously, if you, or you Charles, need anything, anything at all, please don’t hesitate to ask. We’re here for you.”

  “Thank you,” George said. “And please ask us, too, for help. We have all the goodness of the spiritual world at our disposal, and we would be honored to share it with you,” he said. “Our lights, and those of Meredith, will only burn brighter as a result of this tragedy. That is what those dark forces don’t understand, that they only succeed in turning up the light as they attempt, injuriously, to snuff it out. It is self-defeating.”

  “You speak for yourself, young man,” Charles said wearily, still flipping through the newspaper. Meredith’s murder was featured on the front page at the bottom under “Local News.” Roxy hoped Charles wouldn’t see it. “This world is nothing but tragedy and pain. All goodness is an illusion.”

  “No, it could never be!” George said passionately. “Never! The dark forces are the only illusions! Life is beautiful! The world is full of love and light! We are not here merely to exist and then die. We are here to thrive! To help! The forces for good, the angels, and the archangels, and all the positive spiritual forces are here to support us.”

  Charles snorted. “You sound like a child.”

  Roxy’s gaze flickered from one man to the other as she held her breath waiting to see how this conflict would evolve. George was trembling. He stood up, but before he could speak, the doorbell rang and Roxy heard the front door open.

  “Yoo-hoo! It’s only me!” Elijah, wearing chef’s whites, appeared carrying a plate at shoulder height. It was covered with white starched linen napkins. Simultaneously, Nat came out of the kitchen carrying two plates—a full cooked breakfast for Charles, and Roxy’s beef and grits. Both of them, on catching sight of the scene before them, halted in their tracks, their eyes bulging.

  “I don’t care one bit if I sound like a child. I choose innocence and goodness. I choose to believe,” George cried.