by Bill Hopkins
“I can call Security to see what they have to say about that.”
Jim Bill said to her, “Step over here a moment, if you please.”
The nurse strode to the wheelchair. “What is it?”
“Security is already here.”
The nurse stared down at Jim Bill’s badge and identification. “So it is. Then I’m not needed here.” She left.
“Back to the call,” Jim Bill said. “The fact is that you made a call. Where did you get the money for the payphone?”
“I tried the car’s back door and it was open. Whoever had me was clearly not worried about me escaping.”
“You got out of the car by the payphone. Right?”
“Right. I figured I’d better get over my embarrassment at being dressed in a hospital gown. And these kids were walking by. High school kids. I jumped out of the car and yelled, ‘Give me some quarters!’ Must’ve scared the hell out of them because I wound up with five or six dollars’ worth of quarters. They thought I was a crazy street bum who needed money.”
“She’s not shy.” Rosswell sat next to Tina on the bed and touched her cheek. “Why do you think I love her?”
Jim Bill said, “That’s when you called Rosswell.”
“Yes. And before I could finish the call, somebody came up behind me and clicked the phone off. Then I was ushered back into the car.”
“Who did that?” Jim Bill grasped the handles of his wheelchair. “Male? Female? Young? Old? White? Black?”
“Two guys.”
“Could you recognize either of them?”
“I’m sure one of them was Nathaniel Dahlbert. I could tell by the way he was talking, with that weird voice of his. He sounds like he’s out of some old monster flick. And, even at night, he was so white he glowed.”
“Did Nathaniel say anything?”
“He did after they shoved me into the back seat. He and another guy got in front.”
“Who was driving?”
“The other guy.”
“Who was the other guy?”
“I didn’t recognize him at first.”
“What did Nathaniel say?”
“He said he was proud of what his boys had done.”
“Did the other guy say anything?”
“He told Nathaniel to keep his mouth shut in front of me.”
“What happened then?”
“Nathaniel said…and this is a direct quote, ‘You’re lucky you’re still alive. You’re not running this show. Forget that again and you’re dead.’ ”
“Then what?”
“We left. I realized by then that if I’d jumped from the car and run down the streets yelling bloody murder that it would’ve been useless. Everyone on the square saw us in that car but no one did anything.”
“All those people standing around and nobody did anything? Why not?”
“Because the driver was Gustave Fribeau and he turned on his lights and siren.”
Chapter 45
Tuesday Morning, continued
Ollie ran from the window to Tina’s bedside. “Did he carry you to the mental hospital?”
“We drove directly to River Heights Villa. That’s where I was the whole time before Rosswell rescued me. For a little while, I tried to hide my pregnancy. I think they already knew I was carrying a baby.”
Rosswell said, “Let me interrupt a minute.”
Jim Bill said, “Is there any way to stop you?”
“I want to clarify something for Tina,” Rosswell continued. “Jim Bill wants to know why Nathaniel didn’t kill you immediately or ship you out of the country at once or otherwise get rid of you as soon as possible.”
Jim Bill emitted what sounded to Rosswell like a low growl. “I’d planned on being a tad more diplomatic.”
Tina said, “Rosswell doesn’t spend much time on diplomacy.”
Rosswell said, “Thought I’d run straight to the point.”
“I don’t know what was in Nathaniel’s mind. He knew that people would be after him. Maybe he wanted to use me as a bargaining chip.” Their son stirred but didn’t wake. Tina rubbed the baby’s back. “The night Rosswell rescued me, they gave me a pill. I didn’t swallow it. When they left the room, I flushed it down the toilet. A heavy dose of something to knock me out is my guess. I didn’t want to hurt the baby before he was born.”
Jim Bill said, “But you slept through being carried out of the hospital and being dumped in a car to drive up to Sainte Gen?”
“I was exhausted. I was hurt. Even when I’m perfectly healthy and not pregnant, I sleep the sleep of the dead.” She paused for a moment. “Maybe they put something in my food.”
Rosswell said, “Nathaniel never killed us, because he couldn’t use you as a bargaining chip if I was dead. He figured he could blackmail me into doing about anything to keep you safe.”
Jim Bill said, “We’ve considered you a hostage all along. But we never knew for sure where you were until the night you were rescued. And we’ve had Nathaniel under constant surveillance since your disappearance.”
“Who is this?” Rosswell showed Jim Bill the business card he’d received earlier. “Nicolas Rodriguez. Or Ramon Cortez. Or whatever he changed his name to when he walked out of the hospital this morning.”
Jim Bill thrust the card back at Rosswell. “Never heard of him.”
“You’ve never heard of anyone, yet Philbert and Theodore seemed mighty close to you right after you got shot.”
“Speaking of those two, I do have some good news.”
Rosswell wanted all the good news he could hear. “Spill it.”
“Theodore and Philbert checked Nathaniel’s escape route. It seems that the white clown outsmarted himself. He didn’t take into account the high water on the river. When he went down the hole in his library, part of it caved in and, we hope, swept him into the Mississippi.”
Ollie said, “Have they found the body?”
“Not yet. From what I hear, there’s no way he could’ve lived through that.”
Rosswell drew out the card Nicolas Rodriguez had given him. “Here. Call him and tell him that Nathaniel is dead.”
Jim Bill snorted. “Told you once. I don’t know the guy.”
It was Tina’s turn to talk. “Jim Bill, you said you didn’t know Theodore and Philbert and then you tell us about their investigation. You’re keeping secrets from us.” She brushed away a lock of hair that had fallen over her eyes. “Every day that I spent in that prison, I vowed that nothing bad would happen to me or our baby. I knew Rosswell would find me. And it was you who made that possible.”
She left the bed and planted a kiss on Jim Bill’s cheek. Rosswell felt a burst of pride in his chest. Tina had made that speech without crying. She was tougher than a new railroad spike.
Ollie said, “Ditto.” Rosswell didn’t mention it, but he thought a tear rolled down Ollie’s cheek.
Jim Bill added, “I’ll tell you one thing about Nathaniel’s baby-selling ring. Women who look like Tina produce fair-skinned babies, often with strawberry blonde hair and blue or green eyes. Those kids are particularly valuable in Venezuela, China, North Korea, and Cuba. The Communist elite pay good money for them. They’re trophies. Racist trophies.”
Rosswell thought he was going to puke. No. That would be bad form in front of his wife-to-be and son. He would pray to Whoever to get that image out of his mind. Unwilling to dwell on the enormity of modern slavery, he instead forced himself forward.
“Earlier, I started telling Ollie about Lazar and Maman.”
“I want to know about them, too,” Tina said. “How did she know where I was?”
Rosswell stared down his nose at Ollie. “I did a bit of researching also.”
“You always get in trouble when you ignore me and try freelancing.”
“Lazar does nothing but buy and sell second hand junk all over the county. Everyone knows him and he talks at length with anyone who will tell him stuff. He remembers all of it and then goes to tell
Maman.”
“And,” added Ollie, “Sheriff Gustave Fribeau, too.”
“Anyway, if Maman needs more info, Lazar goes out again and talks to more people. She analyzes everything. Someone in Nathaniel’s organization—maybe even Gustave—must’ve told Lazar where Tina was and Lazar told Maman. I paid with silver to hear a riddle about what she found out.”
Tina appeared a second away from exploding. “You paid her good money? Why didn’t she come right out and tell you plainly where I was?”
“She’s a woman. She can’t state anything directly and simply,” Rosswell said, immediately realizing his blunder.
“You want to try that again?”
Rosswell backed and filled as quickly as possible. “I found out Maman’s big secret. You know how old she is?”
Ollie said, “No, but you do.”
“No, I don’t.”
Tina said, “Then why did you ask?”
Jim Bill said, “What does her age have to do with anything? She’s an old woman. So what?”
Rosswell said, “From my snooping, I found references to Maman Fribeau living out there on that bluff going back to the year 1751.”
Chapter 46
Tuesday Morning, continued
“Outstanding,” Ollie said. “That certainly explains it. Maman Fribeau is about three hundred years old. Makes perfect sense.”
Jim Bill and Tina laughed. Tina said, “Rosswell, cut the crap.”
“We shouldn’t curse around our baby. And Ollie, you shouldn’t multiply explanations. The easiest answer to a hard problem is most often right.”
Ollie said, “You scored. Now tell us what you found out.”
“I discovered a cemetery next to Maman Fribeau’s cabin. It had a hundred graves, each one marked by a plain stone. There might be unmarked ones as well. I suspect that the very first Maman Fribeau is buried there. Along with all her successors.”
Jim Bill said, “Clever. And people who need information go pay the old woman money. I’ll bet they’ve never paid a cent of taxes for three centuries.”
Ollie said, “They’re filthy rich. But living in a hovel. Their money’s doing them no good.”
Rosswell said, “That’s not our concern. They must like what they’re doing.”
Tina said, “And who will take this Maman’s place when she dies?”
Rosswell said, “I’m guessing Susannah.”
Tina said, “Gustave’s daughter?”
“Yes.”
“Susannah wouldn’t live in that dump out on the bluff,” Ollie said. “Unless she can’t find anywhere else to live when she gets out of prison. Anyway, Maman and Lazar were helping Gustave, weren’t they?”
Rosswell said, “Jim Bill will find out for sure. But I hope they’re innocent. Or not too guilty.”
Jim Bill said, “Susannah will never be the next Maman. Guaranteed.”
Rosswell said to Jim Bill, “Now you know all about Maman?” Bingo! The neurons in Rosswell’s brain made the connection. “It’s the Dina thing.”
Tina said, “Dina?”
Rosswell and Jim Bill drew out their soutaches with stars attached. After Rosswell explained the significance of the necklaces, Jim Bill said to Ollie, “And here’s yours. You deserve it. I’ll tell you more later.”
Rosswell watched Ollie drape the soutache over his head, careful not to soil it with Vaseline, and silently declared to himself that his research assistant showed more reverence than he’d exhibited in a long time.
Tina persisted. “Rosswell, you answer me. Where did you find all the background on Maman?”
“Let’s say…public records. Plus some gossip. Plus a bribe or two here and there. You know we research assistants have a code of silence.”
Ollie squeaked his mouse squeak. “Since when did you become a research assistant?”
Tina grabbed Ollie’s shirt. “That squeaking thing, you do that again in front of my baby, you’ll answer to me.”
Jim Bill said, “I didn’t hear any threat. Did you hear a threat, Judge?”
“Nope.”
“You can’t go in there!” The tall woman with bad hair tried to keep Tina’s door from opening.
Mrs. Bolzoni barged around the nurse. The old lady’s hands clutched a large wide-mouth Thermos jug. “You can stop me not to seeing the lovely woman of the Judge Ross Carew. It’s a wonder I’m not in a bed in this place with my bowels on the uproar.”
“Is that food?” the nurse asked, indicating the Thermos. “You can’t bring food in here.”
“And why is this not?” Rosswell swore to himself that he saw steam forming on Mrs. Bolzoni’s Coke-bottle eyeglasses as she berated the nurse. “She must have the food. A baby she had.”
She stomped to Tina’s bedside and carefully positioned the Thermos onto the bed table. From her purse, she withdrew a bowl, spoon, and whole-wheat crackers wrapped in a linen napkin. Delicately, she poured the bowl halfway full and handed the spoon to Tina. “Now you get back in the bed and eat.” Rosswell’s mouth watered from the full-bodied aroma of the food.
“Madam,” the nurse said, “you are not allowed to bring food from the outside into a hospital room. It’s regulations.”
“You I asked why not and you said not why I can’t bring food here.”
“It might be unhealthy.”
Mrs. Bolzoni gave a cockeyed glance through her glasses at the nurse’s identification badge. “You silly frog. You ever tasted the food in this place? You want unhealthy food, you eat the food you make in the slop bucket you call a kitchen.”
Tina asked Rosswell, “Am I supposed to know this woman?”
Rosswell said, “Which one?”
“Let’s start with the one who brought the soup.”
“Not soup,” Mrs. Bolzoni said. “It’s American beef stew. Much healthy. Fine meat and many vegetables to make you strong so you can feed your baby.”
Rosswell told the nurse, “It’s okay. This is my landlady, Mrs. Bolzoni. She’s quite protective and I can assure you that the food is exceptionally good for you.” He patted his stomach to demonstrate.
The nurse said, “I give up,” and swept out of the room.
Tina said, “Rosswell, you’re going to get that nurse fired.”
“No,” Jim Bill said. “I’ve got the magic badge, remember? I’ll talk to her supervisor.”
“And you,” Mrs. Bolzoni said to Jim Bill, “are not chewing the filthy weeds in front of this baby?”
“No, ma’am.”
Ollie said to Tina, “Jim Bill learns quickly. Not at all like Rosswell.”
“But, Mrs. Bolzoni,” Jim Bill said, “since I saved you from being arrested, you need to answer some questions.”
“Questions?” She looked at Ollie. “You got questions, you ask him with the purple spider on his head.”
“No, it’s you I want to hear from.”
“I tell you one thing about this man with this insect on his head.”
Ollie said, “It’s a star, not a spider. And spiders aren’t insects. Araneae, or spiders, are the most familiar of the arachnids—”
Rosswell said, “Zip lip time.”
“This Ollie, he ran off all the bugs in my house with his bug running off business. He’s genius.”
Rosswell decided to withhold the fact that Ollie had never run a bug off her place or any other place on Earth.
Ollie said, “That’s right, Mrs. Bolzoni. I’ll need your endorsement to prove that my system gets rid of bugs of all kinds.”
Jim Bill said, “Answer me this, Mrs. Bolzoni. Did you know Tina was being held captive by Nathaniel Dahlbert?”
“Did I call police?” Mrs. Bolzoni moved next to Jim Bill. She leaned down, stared him straight in the face, and spoke loudly, as if sitting in a wheelchair affected his hearing and sight. “If I knew such thing I call police. Did I call police to rescue her? No, you weed chewer. Do you know Tina was captive?”
“No, ma’am. May I ask something else?”
&nb
sp; “You make it quick, for the woman of the Judge Ross Carew needs to eat while the stew is hot.”
“Did you ever visit Alessandra when she was at River Heights Villa?”
“Of course.” Mrs. Bolzoni drew a dry wash rag from her pocket, wet it in the sink, and began wiping Tina’s table. “They keep this place filthy.” She shook the washrag at Jim Bill. “I love my daughter and that rusty hair guy, he help her.”
Jim Bill said, “Do you know the rusty hair guy’s name?”
“Nathaniel Dahlbert. I look it up. Not a frog name.”
Jim Bill said, “When you visited Alessandra, did you ever see Tina?”
“You asked that already. You sneaky man. But I never see Tina at the rusty hair guy’s place. I go see Alessandra, we sit in big room with bunch of people and talk. I tell her I love her and that she must get better so she come work with her old momma who’s not so spry in the bones anymore, not to mention the insides acting up, which I never talk about to no one, but keep it all behind the teeth.”
Rosswell hid his eyes from Mrs. Bolzoni’s line of sight, bowed his head, closed his eyes, and prayed for strength.
Tina had eaten the portion of stew Mrs. Bolzoni had offered. “That was delicious, Mrs. Bolzoni. Thank you.”
“Then you must eat more.” She poured the remainder of the stew into Tina’s dish. “I cannot eat for the tests of the doctor.” A wave of the hand dismissed any concern she might have.
“Mrs. Bolzoni,” Rosswell said, “what kind of tests?”
“Nothing.” She turned to Tina. “I got the Judge Ross Carew room set up with crib. You come back and let me take care of you till you feel like going home. You got many rough times and these”—she pirouetted her head until she’d drilled Ollie, Jim Bill, and Rosswell with her eyes—“men got not one idea how to take care of a new momma and a new baby.” Mrs. Bolzoni hovered over the crib, her hands clasped. “A fine baby. He looks like you, Tina. God has smiled on the baby. You cannot tell that Ross is the father.”
Chapter 47
Thursday Afternoon
