by Jana DeLeon
Zach nodded. “That’s smart.”
“Usually, but this time, it made me a sitting duck. There wasn’t a whisper of sound, not a single insect or even a breath of breeze. It was the most silence I’ve ever experienced and it was unnerving because it was so unnatural. I had just made up my mind to get the heck out of there when something hit me on the back of the head and sent me tumbling down an embankment.”
Danae gasped and covered her mouth with her hand.
“My deer-hunting cap probably kept my head from splitting open, but I broke my leg in three places on the way down. Put me in the hospital in New Orleans for a month and rehab another two after that so I could learn to walk again.”
“You don’t know who hit you?”
Doc Broussard shook his head. “That’s where the unexplained part comes in. The sheriff—not Carter, as he was just a boy back then, but the sheriff then—was an expert tracker. He covered every square inch of that swamp in a mile radius from where I was hit. He didn’t find a single track besides my own, and there was nothing—not a rock or a branch or even a dead bird—to explain what hit me.”
“But,” Zach said, “there had to be something. You didn’t send yourself tumbling down an embankment.”
“No, sir, I did not. But whatever did didn’t leave a trace. Now, what exists in the swamps of Louisiana that can knock a two-hundred-pound man down without leaving a single track?”
“I don’t know,” Zach replied.
“The answer is, nothing on this earth.”
* * *
DANAE INSISTED THEY GO to the café for breakfast. Zach was a little rumpled, but his clothes weren’t stained, so he’d pass muster for the early-morning crowd, anyway. He needed to eat in order to take the pain medicine Doc Broussard had given him. Plus, she had an ulterior motive or two. First, she wanted to gauge Jack’s reaction to her now that the gossip had spread, and second, she was hoping to catch Carter before he left for his usual rounds.
Jack glanced at them as they entered the café, then turned immediately back to the grill, but not before Danae caught his scowl. Apparently, the cook was aware of her ascension from café waitress to small-town heiress, and he looked none too happy about it.
Fortunately, Carter was sitting at the counter, the empty plate in front of him letting her know they’d caught him just in time. She slid onto the stool on one side of him and motioned Zach to the other. Carter glanced at both of them, looking surprised.
“You two are out early,” he said. His voice was casual, but Danae knew the question was in his statement.
“I was hoping to catch you,” Danae said, keeping her voice low.
Sonia, the waitress who had replaced Danae, stepped up to the counter, a big smile on her face.
“Can I get you guys some breakfast?”
“Just some coffee for now,” Danae said, “and breakfast in a few.”
Zach nodded, cluing in to her desire to send the waitress out of earshot.
“I’m glad to see you here early, Jack,” Danae said as the waitress poured them coffee.
The cook turned to glare at her then mumbled something to the waitress and stormed out the back door. The waitress slid the coffee in front of them and gave them an apologetic smile.
“Apparently, Jack went on break, so I’m glad you two don’t want breakfast right away.” She grabbed the pot of coffee and headed to the other side of the diner.
Danae waited until she was out of hearing range then gave Carter a quick rundown of what happened to Zach. Within seconds, Carter’s face went from early-morning blank to completely alert and concerned.
“Damn it,” Carter cursed, keeping his voice low. “I have got to figure out how he’s getting into the house. I didn’t think many copies of that front-door key could be floating around, but maybe I was mistaken.”
“There’s probably not a lot,” Zach said. “I know a guy in New Orleans who can make duplicates, but he has to have an original to work from. My guess is that the house only had two originals when the lock was installed.”
Carter nodded. “And I figured because of the trouble and cost, servants would have received keys to the back door but not the front.”
“Probably true,” Danae said. “But you changed all the other door locks. Even if he has a front-door key, I seriously doubt he strolled up to the door, through the foyer and up the stairs yesterday with Zach and I right there.”
Zach glanced at Carter, who frowned.
“What are you not telling me?” she asked, looking from one man to the other. “Oh, wait. How could I be so stupid? He was already in the house, wasn’t he?”
“It makes the most sense,” Carter said. “He might have entered the house that morning, and when you arrived, he had to wait for an opportunity to leave.”
“But all the doors were locked after the boxes fell. Zach and I checked.” She sucked in a breath. “He was still there. Hiding somewhere in the house while we were checking the doors. Do you think he’s still in there now?”
“I don’t know,” Carter said. “I hope not.”
He rose from his stool and tossed some money onto the counter. “I have a couple of things I need to get out of the way this morning. Eat your breakfast and I’ll meet you at the house as soon as I can get away.”
“Thanks,” Danae said.
Carter gave them a nod and headed out of the café. Sonia stepped back behind the counter and refilled their coffee, so Danae and Zach slipped back into silence. As she was restocking the napkin holder, Jack came back in from his break.
“Do you want breakfast now?” Sonia asked.
“I’ll have a vegetarian egg-white omelet,” Danae said.
“Sounds good,” Zach said. “I’ll take the same with a side of wheat toast.”
Jack shook his head.
“Is there a problem, Jack?” Danae asked, determined to get the unpleasantness out of the way.
Jack turned around and gave her a dirty look. “Yeah, there’s a problem, Miss Fancy Omelet. I should have known the first time you ordered it that you thought you were too good for this town. Plain ol’ eggs and bacon can’t touch those heiress lips of yours or you might explode, right?”
“Look,” Danae said, “I know what my stepfather did to you and it was wrong, but I had nothing to do with that. If you have a problem with the way things turned out, then I suggest you take that up with the estate attorney, but I will not take crap from you because you got a raw deal.”
Jack’s face flushed red. “You got a smart mouth now that you got a little money.”
Anger from her entire life flooded through her, and she clenched her hands to keep from throwing something at the man she used to work next to six days a week.
“You think you got screwed? Purcell sold us for twenty thousand each. Paid strangers less than what a bass boat costs to rip us from the only home we’d ever known. If there was a way to bring that bastard back and kill him myself, I would. Damn Purcell to hell all you want, but the line starts behind me and my sisters.”
Jack’s jaw dropped and he blinked before tossing his spatula on the grill and storming out of the café for the second time that morning.
It took Danae a second to realize that the entire café had gone silent. Without turning around, she knew every eye in the place was on her. Embarrassment washed over her like a tidal wave, and she grabbed her purse and ran out of the café.
Chapter Ten
Zach hesitated only long enough to toss some money onto the counter before he hurried out of the café after Danae. Her car was still parked at the end of the block in front of Doc Broussard’s office, and she made it almost all the way there before Zach managed to catch up with her.
“Hey,” he said, putting his hand on her shoulder. “Wait up.”
“I’m sorry,” she said, staring at the ground. “I didn’t mean to embarrass you. I shouldn’t have poked at him. He’s always been mean-spirited, but I’m usually in a better place to tolerate it.”
Zach felt his heart tug at her obvious distress. He put his hand under her chin and pulled her head up until she was looking at him.
“You have nothing to apologize for,” he said. “Jack was out of line, and everyone in there knows it.”
“I made a fool out of myself, airing my family’s dirty laundry.”
“You’re not a fool. You’re hurt and you have every reason to be. I take it you didn’t know about the payoff until now?”
She sniffed, and he could tell she was trying to hold back the tears that were pooling in her eyes.
“I found a check register in the files I took home with me last night,” she said. “There were four entries for twenty thousand dollars. I recognized two of the names. One was the woman who took me and the other was the people who took Alaina.”
Zach stiffened. It was the same amount he’d seen in his father’s records. “And the other names?”
She shook her head. “I didn’t recognize them and the last is barely legible, but I figure one of them is the family that took Joelle.”
Zach struggled to control his own anxiety. The last thing he wanted to do was tip off Danae to exactly how interested he was. Then another thought occurred to him. “There are only three of you, right?”
Danae’s eyes widened. “Yes. Well, I guess as far as I know there are only three of us. I was too young to remember anything.”
She clutched Zach’s arm. “What if there was a baby? Oh, no, I need to call Alaina. Surely she would remember if our mother was pregnant after I was born.”
Instantly, Zach felt guilty for causing her more distress. He put his hands on her shoulders and gave them a squeeze. “Don’t outdrive your headlights. If your mother had another child, wouldn’t William know?”
“I don’t know. Everyone said Purcell locked us up in that house and no one saw my mother or us kids for a long time. Maybe long enough for her to have his child.”
“Okay. So as soon as you think it’s appropriate, you’ll call Alaina and ask her.”
Danae nodded. “You’re right.”
She took a deep breath and blew it out, then gave him a small smile. “Thank you.”
“I didn’t do anything.”
“You calmed me down and reminded me that I’m not in this alone. I have Alaina and I need to remember that.”
“And you have me.”
Her eyes widened a bit, but he saw the flicker of hope in them before the wall went back up.
“None of this is your problem. I can’t ask you to get involved. You’ve already done too much and you’re injured because of it.”
“You didn’t ask. I’m volunteering.”
She cocked her head to one side and studied him for a couple of seconds. “Why would you volunteer for this?”
“Maybe because I find it all kinda fascinating, like an old movie-of-the-week story. Maybe because I always wanted to be Sherlock Holmes. Maybe because I like you and want to help.”
She stared a second more then gave him a small smile. “You need to get out more. If you like me, then your friend card must be seriously low.”
“There’s always room on my card for beautiful maidens.”
She raised one eyebrow. “Are you going to rescue me from the dragon?”
He smiled. “I didn’t bring my chain mail with me, but I can have it delivered.”
She laughed. “I bet you can. Well, I suppose we better get back to the house. I need to cook you some breakfast, since I’m responsible for your missing the special. Alaina stocked basics at the house. I can rummage up something.”
She stepped back and out of his grasp and pulled her keys from her purse as she turned toward the car. He watched her for a moment, thinking how lovely she looked when she actually let her guard down. When she trusted someone else with a small piece of herself.
Part of him felt incredibly guilty about being one more in a likely long list of people who’d deceived and used her, but he couldn’t afford to tell her his true agenda. What if his father had somehow been part of selling off the sisters? How could he expect her to remain impartial to him?
He stepped over to the car and slid into the passenger’s seat. The only way this would work was if Danae never knew who he really was. After he got what he wanted, he needed to disappear back to New Orleans and forget he’d ever met her.
If that were even possible.
* * *
CARTER FILLED WILLIAM IN on everything that Danae and Zach had told him at the café. The attorney’s expression shifted from concerned to angry to fearful in a matter of minutes.
“Is Mr. Sargent all right?” William asked when Carter finished.
“Yeah. He took a good crack on the head, but Doc Broussard doesn’t seem to think there’s any permanent damage.”
William shook his head. “It’s like everything’s repeating.”
Carter nodded. “I thought the same thing. Even though I know someone else broke that window, I guess I was hoping the entire mess would go away when Alaina’s situation was resolved. Shortsighted of me, I know.”
“Not shortsighted. More like wishful thinking, and you can put me on the list right next to you. I really hoped all the attention Alaina’s situation drew would prompt whoever else was lurking around the estate to rethink their plan. Apparently, he’s as brazen as ever.”
“Maybe even more so, and that’s what concerns me the most. Before we latched onto the situation with Alaina, I was going to talk to you about potential suspects from an inheritance angle. We already know Jack is none too happy about the situation, but I thought there could be others. And I’d like to know what happens to the estate if the sisters don’t meet the conditions of the will.”
William nodded. “All very good questions, and a line of thinking I’d already taken to just before Alaina’s situation was resolved.”
The attorney pulled a pad of paper from his desk drawer. “I made some notes as I went through the terms of the will. First off, the cash and securities are to be distributed among several New Orleans charities and two churches.”
“Are the directors of any of the charities or the ministers aware of the terms?”
“I don’t see how they could be. Even if there was gossip to that effect here in Calais, it would be a long shot that any of it made it back to key people in those organizations.”
“And the house?”
“The house and land, including mineral rights, would go to the town of Calais.”
Carter frowned. “What was the point of that?”
“It was Ophelia’s way of preserving the town as she knew it and wanted it to remain. If developers or oil companies came in, they might tear down the house and strip the land, and that would change what Calais was.”
“She was assuming that the Calais city council felt the same way. They could just as easily choose to do that themselves, make a ton of money, vote themselves huge raises and bonuses, and retire in Fiji.”
“Yes, that’s absolutely true. I’m afraid Ophelia was overprotected by her own parents. She had the naïveté of a far younger person, and such a thing wouldn’t have occurred to her.”
“Does anyone on the council know about this?”
“It’s quite possible. Of course, I’ve not told anyone the terms of the will except you, Alaina and Danae, but Purcell could have told someone.”
“That wouldn’t have been in his best interests, though,” Carter pointed out. “If Purcell let others know he didn’t have control of disbursing the estate, then people like Jack wouldn’t have worked for him all those years for nothing. Surely Jack wasn’t the only one to be taken in by the man.”
“No. Bert Thibodeaux was in my office a few days ago, yelling.”
“Really?” Carter’s interest perked up. Bert was a fifty-year-old long-haul trucker with a list of offenses a mile long. He’d even taken a swing at Carter the year before when he’d told him he couldn’t park his semi on Main Street, where it blocked the alley.
“Yes, seems he did some delivery-service work for Purcell between here and New Orleans. Claims to have done quite a lot of it over the last ten years.”
“And Purcell was supposed to leave him money?”
“That’s his claim. Says Purcell promised him the money for a brand-new semi in lieu of charging him for all the deliveries.”
Carter whistled. “There’s no small price tag on those trucks.”
“Definitely not.”
“This is what I don’t get. Why did Purcell promise them all money when he could have just paid them? Was it some perverse game on his part?”
“To an extent, certainly, but it went beyond that, I believe.”
“What do you mean?”
“Purcell had access to the estate, but not in the form of large cash withdrawals. It was a very irregular arrangement, and the more I learn about it, the more I understand some of Purcell’s more odd behaviors.”
“Like what?”
“Like remaining in Calais, for starters. The way the estate was set up, Purcell could purchase whatever objects he desired as long as the value was sufficient to substantiate the cost, and the estate accountant in New Orleans would write a check for it. But other than a reasonable living allowance, he couldn’t withdraw cash from the estate at all.”
Carter leaned back in his chair and stared at William. “So he closed himself up in that house and bought a bunch of stuff with the estate money because that was the only way he could get his hands on it, then sent Bert running to New Orleans to get it?”
William nodded. “After gaining a full understanding of how the estate has been managed, that’s what I believe.”
“How is it that you didn’t know all this before?”
“Remember, I wasn’t Ophelia’s attorney. Her parents established a relationship with the firm in New Orleans long before her birth, and Ophelia maintained that relationship with them. She was young when she passed. I tried to convince her to make an appointment with me and let me review all the documents, but she never did.”
Carter sighed. “She didn’t think she was going to die. She thought she had plenty of time to deal with that sort of thing.”
