Once again we both went down hard on the concrete, but it was obvious from the way she kept moving that her leather jacket was affording her more protection than my thinner cloth garment was giving me. Still, she screeched as we rolled, and I did the same. I’m not certain if it was from pain or anger on her part, though I suspected it was both.
She rolled over in a flash and kicked at me as she scrambled back against a tomb bearing a brass plate and more than a few X’s scribed on its surface. I wasn’t certain, but I thought I saw the name Marie Laveau inscribed on the plaque before Annalise’s body obscured it from my view. A plate full of coins scattered everywhere when she knocked it from its pedestal. It was soon joined by candles and vases full of flowers that she upset as she continued scrabbling away from me.
I came up to a kneeling position and lunged toward her again, but she twisted out of my way. When she rolled back toward me, her hand was wrapped around the heavy glass container of a seven-day candle. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw it arcing toward me, so I threw my arm up and twisted, catching the brunt of it against my shoulder. I heard a wounded animal screaming then realized that it was me.
She scurried backwards, kicking me as she moved, then climbed to her feet and started running again. I dragged myself up and started after her, stumbling against the tombs as new and altogether unpleasant agonies joined the old. Slipping along a walkway, I shot out onto the main alley that ran parallel to the front wall. Looking to the left, I saw that she was already hooking to the right and out the front gate.
I ignored ceremony and rushed headlong behind her at a renewed sprint. The souls of the departed were just going to have to cut me some slack this time.
CHAPTER 14:
I exited the gates and shot across Basin Street in front of the cemetery without even bothering to check traffic. Fortunately, there was none to speak of. Annalise had widened the gap between us due to that last scuffle, and no matter how hard I was pushing myself, I no longer seemed to be able to gain on her. In fact it was all I could do to keep from falling farther behind. My only saving grace was the fact that she wasn’t moving as fast as she had been before either, and it even looked like she might be faltering because I could see that she was holding on to her side as she ran.
I knew exactly how she felt. I wasn’t sure if there was a single point on my body that wasn’t ravaged by pain at the moment, and I knew it was slowing me down. I was also well aware that the pains weren’t just from the damage she had inflicted. My legs were getting heavier, and my lungs were burning as I gasped for breath. A sharp pain was piercing my ribcage with each labored gulp of air, and I was even starting to feel lightheaded. The extreme exertion was taking its toll on my already exhausted system.
I kept my eyes focused on Annalise as I covered the half block to North Rampart. She was already out into the middle of the street dodging traffic as I ran off the curb. The sound of a blaring horn pierced my ears then mixed with the squeal of tires against pavement. I jerked my head in the direction of the noise and saw the oncoming vehicles. It felt as though my heart seized in my chest, and I was frozen with fear. I don’t know how, but I still managed to jump forward. A compact car skidded at an angle, and I felt a whoosh of air at my back. I elected not to look because I didn’t want to see how close I had just come to being road kill.
Another horn blared, and yet another. Rubber squealed on asphalt, and a truck slid to a halt in front of me, stopping only inches away and to my left. I jerked to the side and started to go around it when a loud crash met my ears. I caught a flash of the truck lurching forward out of the corner of my eye and jumped back instead. I felt myself thump against the first car that had barely missed me and watched as the truck was pushed several feet by the vehicle that had just rear-ended it, finally halting exactly where I would have been had I continued around it. I slid sideways between the truck in front of me and the compact car at my back then shot forward hooking around the end of the pileup I had just caused. I should have been scared out of my wits, but at this point I actually found myself feeling like a confused squirrel on his way across any given street.
Ahead of me, Annalise was dealing with her own self-inflicted obstacle course. I watched as she ran directly into the side of a station wagon that had only a split second before screeched to a halt in front of her. She bounced against the front quarter panel, stumbled, then regained her footing and continued on. As she swivel-hipped around the front end of the vehicle, she glanced back at me for a split second then tore off across the asphalt.
I launched myself into the mess once again, running a serpentine course between vehicles that had ended up stopped at oblique angles. Traffic was coming to a halt quickly; however, there were still a few cars in motion, and we both had to dodge them as well. Horns were still honking, some at us, some at other cars as confusion ran rampant through the mid-afternoon drivers. Some of those who had been directly involved in the accidents were out on the street screaming at us as we darted past them.
If I hadn’t been smack in the middle of this insanity myself, I’m sure I would have been looking around for the movie cameras. It was simply that surreal.
The various obstructions had caused our pace to slow somewhat, but it didn’t allow either of us to actually catch our breath. I had managed to close in by maybe a pair of steps at the most, so Annalise was still well ahead of me when she hit the curb on the opposite side of North Rampart. Our trajectories had been thrown off with all the zigzagging, and she now veered to the left. Anticipating her move, I barreled across trying to angle myself so that I could continue down the cross street where I assumed she was heading.
Though it still appeared to me that she was holding her side, she seemed to have gained a second wind. She sprinted across the mouth of Saint Louis Street, but instead of turning down it as I expected her to do, she continued along the sidewalk parallel to North Rampart. Because of my angle and momentum, I overshot the sidewalk and had to double back a few paces, instantly losing any gain I had picked up. Making the quick turn and whipping back around the corner of the building, I leaped across the curb and fell in behind her, still several paces to the rear.
My heart was racing so fast it felt like a single drawn-out thump inside my chest. I was wheezing air in and out of my tortured lungs as fast as I possibly could, but the oxygen apparently still wasn’t making it to my brain because the lightheadedness I had felt a moment before was now becoming dizziness.
Over the sound of the blood rushing in my ears, I thought I heard music trilling nearby. Some portion of my tipsy brain still managed to recognize the tune and forwarded a message to the appropriate quadrant telling me that it was my cell phone. I ignored this new bit of information and kept running. I couldn’t tell what Annalise was going to do next because she was merely following a straight line at the fastest pace she could muster. I tried to stay focused on her and anticipate her moves, but she had fooled me once already, so I wasn’t sure how confident I was in making another guess. The problem was that I think she was well aware of her edge because at the last minute she feinted left then veered suddenly right onto Toulouse.
However, at the same instant she was making the turn, a man was coming around the corner from the opposite direction. She slammed headlong into him, causing him to stumble back against the wall of the building as she tripped and rolled to the ground. I tried to yell to the man to hold her there, but I couldn’t catch enough breath to form the words.
He was already helping her scramble up to her feet a second later when I made it to them. I reached out to grab her, and she quickly twisted away, once again screaming “RAPE” as loud as she could manage while doing so.
The man immediately grabbed my arm and shouted, “HEY!”
I tried to wrench away from him, but he had his fist twisted into the cloth of my jacket. Annalise didn’t wait around to see what was about to ensue; she immediately turned and bolted down the street into the French Quarter.
I pulled
hard, trying to break free of the man, but he appeared to be dead set on protecting her from me, shouting once again, “HEY! Whaddaya think you’re doin’?!” Then, with a sudden look of surprise in his face he added, “GAWD!”
What the final exclamation was all about I didn’t know, but I decided his apparent shock might work to my advantage. I seized on the fact that he was pulling against me and that I could use the opposing force as additional leverage. Yanking back, I then suddenly pitched forward and launched myself into him. Taken completely by surprise, he slammed backwards against the wall. He was by no means incapacitated, but it jarred him enough that I was able to twist and pull free of his grasp. I started away before he could make another grab for me, but I still sucked in a quick breath and wheezed it back out at him as, “Cops…Call cops…”
Huffing hard, I ran in the direction Annalise had taken, but by now she was completely out of sight. Fortunately, I didn’t hear any footsteps behind me, so when I reached the first cross street, I slowed before glancing first left then right, but I saw no sign of her. I thought about flipping a mental coin and heading one direction or the other, but something didn’t feel right about the tactic. Instead, I picked up my pace and decided to jog farther along Toulouse, heading deeper into The Quarter.
Going ahead and crossing Burgundy Street, I entered the second block. It actually made sense that she would have continued along this path as it would afford the easiest way to disappear. The sidewalks were littered with debris that had been removed from hurricane-damaged buildings. There were even several refrigerators and other appliances blocking the walkways, many of them inscribed in indelible marker with what appeared to be derogatory statements about FEMA and the executive branch of the federal government. With delivery trucks and other vehicles on the road as well, it made for a maze in which hiding places were beyond plentiful.
If the inanimate objects weren’t enough, the farther in I traveled, the more activity I encountered. There were people going about their daily routines, which now included a large amount of rehab. The majority of them were intent on their jobs hauling trash out of buildings, and paid me little to no attention, although I did get an odd glance or two. I guess they weren’t used to seeing people jog through The Quarter.
My somewhat slower pace was actually allowing me to catch my breath, but the dizziness remained, and it was starting to make me nauseous. My throttled-back jog also wasn’t doing anything positive for my anxiety. As long as Annalise had been within my line of sight, I had felt like there was a chance to catch her. Now, I was beginning to wonder if I was simply wasting my time. Even if I was, I couldn’t give up quite yet. But, I also knew that running full out down the street wouldn’t allow me to see her if she was hiding just around a corner.
In a way, this all should have been funny, but I definitely wasn’t laughing. It had barely been one day since I had told Ben that Annalise was his problem and not mine. I suppose when I said that, I had simply been spouting empty words because when it came right down to it, she was just as much my problem as anyone else’s. Maybe even more. While Miranda was definitely at the root of this evil, I knew all along I was dealing with both of them, and it was a no-win situation. I had to find Miranda to find Annalise, but I had to find Annalise before I could do anything about Miranda.
I stopped in the middle of Dauphine as I crossed, glancing quickly up and down, but still saw no sign of my wife’s doppelganger. Continuing on across, I began running into more people, some of them possibly tourists from the way they were acting. However, instead of ignoring me as most of the workers had, the odd looks became far more frequent, and some of the individuals even made it a point to step out of my way.
The dizziness had grown worse, and I could no longer maintain a jog. Now, I was merely plodding along while sending my barely focused gaze to search both sides of the street, not that it was doing any good. My head was pounding as the world tilted and spun, and I wasn’t sure any longer if I would even be able to pick her out of the crowd if I was staring directly into her face.
An older couple darted out of my path as I began to stagger, their own faces stretching into horrified masks right before my eyes. I turned to look at them then stumbled and fell against the wall of the building next to me. I knew Bourbon Street couldn’t be much farther, but when I looked up, the signature light post at the corner seemed as though it was a mile away.
I slumped against the bricks as pedestrians continued going out of their way to walk around me, even stepping out into the street to do so. I hung my head and closed my eyes, trying to breath deeply and force the nausea to pass, but I wasn’t having much luck. When my eyes fluttered open, I noticed a small splotch on the sidewalk. For no other reason than to try focusing my eyes, I stared at it. The edges of the blot began to sharpen, and a moment of clarity overtook my vision. In that second I noticed a droplet of red as it fell and struck the blotch with a wet splat. Directing my gaze toward the source, I noticed a ragged flap of flesh peeled back from the top of my wrist and a swath of the same crimson flowing across the back of my hand.
I felt myself sinking as fatigue overwhelmed me, and I slid downward against the wall. Voices were echoing in my ears, and I struggled to understand them with little success. I tried to push myself back up to my feet but couldn’t seem to make my legs work.
I rolled my head back and saw lights flashing. My mouth watered as a fresh round of nausea attacked my stomach. I could feel my lips moving as I tried desperately to ask for help but found myself unable to make the word come out.
Everything began to spin and go dark.
Trilling music began playing softly. I knew it was my cell phone demanding my attention once again, but I couldn’t make my hand move to retrieve it. It continued stepping up in volume but was suddenly drowned out by the sound of a car stopping nearby.
The last thing I remember hearing was a rush of radio static followed by a voice echoing in my ears as it said, “I got ‘im. Corner a Too-Loose an’ Bourbon. Better send da’ paramedics.”
CHAPTER 15:
“Apparently kitten has claws,” Velvet said, giving me a once over as she walked in.
“Isn’t that some kind of makeup or something?” I grunted. “I think my wife has some of it.”
“I believe it might be a shade of nail polish,” she replied. “But, I was actually talking about your face.”
I had to lift my head slightly to see her because at present I was lying back on a table in a treatment room of a hospital. Earlier, when a nurse had been asking me for insurance information, she mentioned that I was at Charity Campus or something of that sort. My brain had still been a bit muddled at the time, so I hadn’t really registered much. Not that I would have really known where it was to begin with. All I knew was that it seemed like I spent a lot of time in places like this whenever I got involved in an investigation. It was a wonder my insurance carrier hadn’t dropped me yet. If they didn’t this time, I was sure they would be raising my premiums. That was something they always did without fail.
“Yeah, that,” I muttered, reaching up and brushing my fingers against the gauze bandage now covering the wounds. I felt a tug on the back of my hand and gave it a glance. I had pretty much forgotten about the IV line taped securely to it. I gave it a half-hearted wiggle to reposition the tubing then laid my hand back across my chest. “Teeth too.”
“How is the arm, by the way?” she asked, nodding in the direction of the other appendage which was now wrapped in its own windings of sterile dressing.
“Not bad right now. But, I can already tell the local is wearing off.”
I had lost track of how long I had been here. I’d been drifting in and out for a while although I had officially regained consciousness at right about the moment they were preparing to slide me onto the treatment table upon arriving in the emergency room. Since my most recent memory at that point—other than the disembodied voice—had been that of chasing after Annalise, my body seemed to think it was s
omething I needed to continue doing. I was told that it had taken both paramedics and a nurse to keep me from coming off the gurney at a dead run.
“Do you know if they’ve found her yet?”
“Not that I’ve heard, but I’m not really in the loop.”
I shook my head as best I could since it was resting against the pillow, and with a full load of sarcasm muttered, “Fucking wonderful.”
“Tough little bitch, isn’t she?” she stated as much as asked.
“Reminds me of my wife,” I replied but didn’t expand further.
“That’s some wife.”
“You have no idea.” I sighed then tried to reposition myself a bit so that I wasn’t talking at the ceiling. “So, where did you go back at the cemetery? I looked up and you were just gone.”
“I left my cell in my car. I ran back to call the police like you said.”
“Oh.”
“Feeling abandoned, were you?”
“Maybe a little,” I admitted. “It’s not like we know each other all that well. A lot of folks wouldn’t have wanted to get involved…especially after listening to my outlandish story and then hearing her scream ‘rape.’”
“I was already involved,” she told me. “I took you there, remember? Besides, I’m not like a lot of folks.”
The End Of Desire: A Rowan Gant Investigation Page 12
