Ruby began crying, scared of her aunt.
‘You shouldn’t have done that, Ruby, you did a terrible thing, you raised up evil.’
‘He’s evil, he was fucking that girl Tilda Brown.’
Juda kicked her so hard she crunched into a tight ball. She then ran the cold water and filled a tumbler full to the brim. Ruby didn’t see her swallow, all she saw was this massive looming figure leaning over her and spitting out a jet-spray of water. She tried to inch away, but Juda grabbed her hair and then pressed her hands tightly round the girl’s skull.
‘You got evil in you, girl, an’ I got to get it out.’
Caley stood in the dank hall, waiting. He couldn’t help but hear Ruby’s screams and sobs, and the strange high but deep voice of Juda Salina calling out words that he couldn’t make out. Eventually Ruby appeared, her hair wet and clinging to her face, and she was weeping.
‘Mr Caley, please don’t go.’ She knelt before him and clasped her hands together. ‘I am sorry I came and asked you for money, I meant no harm, I have never meant any harm. I will never ask you for anything again, I give you my word. Please, don’t you say anything about what I did, just as I won’t ever repeat what was in that poor girl’s diary.’
Caley was nonplussed as Juda walked out from the kitchen.
‘You go away from this house now, Mr Caley, Ruby will never bother you again, she has more important things to do with her life. We want no money from you, we don’t want anything from you.’
‘Is this true, Ruby?’
Ruby remained on her knees, nodding her head, and after a moment he left. Juda stood behind her.
‘You never do anything that’ll cause such pain again, Ruby, you hear me?’
‘Yes, Aunt Juda,’ she whispered.
‘You take in evil and it will possess you, do you understand? You got power, child, and it must not be used for the darkness, or darkness will seep into your soul and you will become its slave. You hear me?’
Ruby nodded, and then watched as her aunt eased her bulk on to her knees beside her.
‘You ask forgiveness now, Ruby.’
Ruby clasped her hands together. ‘What if we could get so much money, Aunt Juda, that’d help so many?’
‘We don’t ever want devil’s money because he’s sly and he always wants to be repaid. You must never be in debt to the devil. I’ve seen a woman who owes him, I don’t ever want that to happen to you. You got a future ahead of you, but you have to obey the spirits and take care of our own, just like Queen Marie.’
Ruby clasped her hands tighter, and whispered to Juda that she was afraid.
‘We all are, honey, every living soul is frightened at some point in their lives, but you can help guide people through that fear. You got to respect that power, never abuse it; love it and it will do good. Mr Caley will pay his own dues, you care only about your own, Ruby.’
Errol was rubbing his head, his bell-boy’s hat in his hands. ‘I love Ruby Corbello, I have loved her since high school, but she don’t seem to know I exist. Sometimes she walks past me on her way to Fryer Jones’s bar, swishing her hips, smiling that smile. I know she’s out of my league, I know that, but it won’t stop my heart fluttering like I was having some kind of attack. That is what she can do to me, make my heart beat faster than it should.’
Rosie nodded. ‘I know how you feel, I felt that way about someone for a long time. In fact I never would have believed he would love me, that’s how low my self-esteem was, Errol, but you know, two nights ago he asked me to marry him.’
‘You jibing me? Someone wants to marry you?’ He was wide-eyed with astonishment, not realizing the insult. To his mind, Rosie was so far removed from his beautiful Ruby Corbello it was hard for him to accept that anyone could love the fat woman who sat beside him. It made Rosie laugh.
‘I am telling you the truth.’
‘Maybe, Miss Rosie, it’s different for you, you maybe don’t understand about desire.’’
‘Errol, you believe me. Fat, thin, ugly or beautiful, everyone finds their partner, and he or she becomes the most beautiful creature in the whole wide world,’ Rosie said with good humour.
‘You don’t understand, do you? You see, Ruby Corbello really is the most perfect woman God created. She’s a goddess.’
‘That worked as a maid for Mr and Mrs Brown until she was fired for thieving, and now is sweeping up hair off some floor. Some goddess, Errol.’ Rosie paused. ‘All I want to know is if you somehow helped Ruby Corbello pass over a package to Miss Anna Louise Caley, and if you knew what was in the package. You can be real honest with me because right now there are no police involved.’
Rooney returned to the hotel. He’d not been able to contact his cop as he was on patrol duty, but was told to call after lunch when he would be back in the office. Nor had he had any joy with the bell-boy, who’d been tight-mouthed, so it had been a pretty tedious morning so far. There was a message at the desk for him to call up to Lorraine’s room.
Rosie opened Lorraine’s hotel room door. She had a smug look on her face, so Rooney guessed she’d found out something, but she remained silent.
Lorraine came out of the bathroom looking worn out. ‘Rght, I’ll start. My morning so far has been heavy, and pretty unproductive. Tilda Brown’s father broke down when he saw the playhouse he’d built for her to which she was going to bring her children to play – and that was the high point. The rest has been downhill, but I’ve still got a few more “close” friends to speak to. I hope they are more forthcoming than her local bible-thumper who said, and I quote, “Tilda Brown was an example to every young teenager. She was joyful, enthusiastic and ready to help anyone in need.” That this joyful bundle tied her own dressing-gown cord to the curtain rail and hanged herself seems to have escaped him. Only one kid, part of the choir that Tilda Brown used to sing in, boy called Eddie Mellor, said she had changed over the past six months. She used to be much more outgoing and friendly, but she had hardly spoken a word to anyone, and seemed to him to be in a very nervous state.’
Rooney coughed. ‘You mind if I say something?’
‘Sure, go ahead.’
‘Well, we’re hired to trace Anna Louise Caley, and you seem to have got side-tracked by this Tilda Brown girl.’
‘You saying I’m wasting my time, is that it, Bill?’
‘No, but we seem to be side-tracking, that’s all.’
Rosie told them how she had gone to the hotel, and had questioned Errol.
‘I did that too,’ Rooney muttered.
‘I know, I’d hoped I’d see you there,’ Rosie beamed at him.
‘I just got better results than you, because me and Errol had a good long conversation. He admitted that he had passed a note to Mr Caley, so he was lying about swimming, or maybe not exactly lying, just using it to cover up the fact that he was meeting Ruby Corbello. He said she had a conversation with Mr Caley, and after Caley had gone back to his room, Anna Louise saw him and Ruby talking in the courtyard; she beckoned to Ruby to come up, and Ruby asked him to smuggle her up the backstairs. This was, he said, around six o’clock. She was with Anna Louise for only ten minutes, and left the same way she had come in. And he said she was in a mighty hurry. Something we didn’t know before is that Errol saw Ruby Corbello again later that night, the night Anna Louise went missing, and it’d have been about seven-thirty, so she returned to the hotel.’
Lorraine flicked through her old note-book. ‘The Caleys said they went down to eat around that time, in the hotel restaurant.’
Rosie nodded. ‘Ruby, he said, was ducking and diving round the palm trees in the back of the courtyard. He’s in love with her and so he gets all angry as he thinks she’s meeting up with one of the other boys working at the hotel. Errol follows her, and she’s looking up at Anna Louise Caley who is bending over her balcony. Which means she was still in her room at seven-thirty.’
‘Yes, and?’ asked Lorraine impatiently.
‘Well, by the time Errol
got to the balcony, or was standing underneath it, there was no sign of either of them, and he was on duty so he had to get back out front.’
Lorraine sighed. ‘That’s it?’
‘Yep. Now, this is just supposition, but Anna Louise could have also used the servants’ stairway, just like Ruby Corbello, to leave the hotel. That would mean she never passed the front desk, never took the elevator. It exits right round the back of the hotel near to the garbage collection, and a car could have been waiting for her.’
‘Mmm,’ Lorraine said, frowning as she crossed to her desk and searched around the top. ‘Need to know how long it takes from the hotel to Ruby Corbello’s house.’
Rooney and Rosie glanced at each other.
Lorraine was flicking through the maps and guides, chucking them aside, hunting for the street map she’d seen of the tourist attractions.
‘If Ruby Corbello left that hotel at six-fifteen, then returned at seven-thirty, that gives her just over an hour to make that doll, wrap it up, and take it back to Anna Louise.’
‘Unless she made it at Fryer Jones’s place,’ Rooney said.
Lorraine found the map and squinted over the small print. Then, tracing the route with her finger, she tapped impatiently on the table.
‘Maybe she did make it at Fryer Jones’s. If she didn’t, it was quite a schlep to her house unless . . .’
‘Somebody drove her there,’ Rosie suggested.
‘Yes, somebody drove her.’
All three of them stood by the trash cans outside the staff entrance of the Hotel Cavagnal. Rosie was to take the route to Fryer Jones’s bar and return, Rooney was to do the run to the Corbellos’. They both asked Lorraine the same question.
‘What are you going to do?’
‘Talk to security. Okay, check watches and move!’
She was smiling as she watched them both charge off like kids at a sports day event. She noted how many people came and went via the staff entrance. Then she slipped inside and walked down a narrow corridor. A small staircase led off to the right at the far end, and she moved up the stairs until she came to a door marked, ‘PRIVATE – NO ENTRANCE TO ANY UNAUTHORIZED PERSON’. Lorraine opened the door; standing in front of it was a security guard. He didn’t even hear the door close behind him, as Lorraine continued up another flight of stairs till she reached Robert Caley’s floor. She had seen no one, had not been stopped at any point, and she did a U-turn back the way she came. Again she saw no one, but when she opened the door to leave, a security guard turned, frowning.
‘You staff here?’
‘No, I’m a guest,’ Lorraine said briskly, and gave the number of the suite she had used. He held up his hand, asked her name and dialled reception. When it was confirmed that the suite had been booked for Lorraine Page by Mr Robert Caley, he apologized but warned her that she should not have used the private staircase, it was for staff only.
‘I’m very impressed with the hotel security,’ she said, smiling.
He gave a small nod of his head.
‘Is this exit covered at all times?’
‘Yes, ma’am.’
‘Day and night?’
‘Yes, ma’am.’
‘How many officers are on security?’
‘Three, ma’am, we work in shifts.’
‘How long have you worked here?’
‘Five years.’
She nodded and kept smiling. ‘You were here then when Anna Louise Caley went missing?’
‘Yes, I was.’
‘I am employed by Mr Caley to trace his daughter, you were obviously questioned, as I believe most of the staff were.’
‘Yes, I was.’
Lorraine turned to face the staff door. ‘Maybe she left the hotel this way, that is why no one saw her leaving. Do you think it possible?’
He shrugged, not committing himself.
‘You have to take the odd break, so it could have happened?’
‘Guess so. Like you said, we take breaks, but usually we try and cover for each other.’
She smiled, and turned to face the small yard. ‘Do cars ever park down here?’
‘No, no parking allowed. If anyone parks here they get towed.’
‘But you could get picked up from here easily.’
‘Yeah, picking someone up is not parking, and some of the women working at night like to be met. There’s a lot of drunk guys in the French Quarter.’
‘I’m sorry, what did you say?’
‘The women like to feel safe.’
‘Is there a particular cab firm they use?’
‘Yeah, Gordon’s Cabs, staff use Gordon’s Cabs.’
Lorraine nodded. ‘But not the guests?’
He smiled. ‘No, ma’am, they not very luxurious. Just two brothers, one of ’em used to work here. You want their number?’
‘Thank you,’ Lorraine said pleasantly, and passed him ten bucks. He pocketed it fast, then took out a biro and jotted down a number on the back of a hotel card.
‘Thank you, I’m expecting two friends shortly. A plump woman and a big, red-faced man. Could you tell them to come up to my suite?’
Lorraine walked out on to the street and then round to the front lobby of the hotel. She had been lucky that Robert Caley had booked the suite for her. She got her key from reception, asking if Mr Caley was in his suite, and was very relieved to be told he was not. She then took the elevator to her floor. The room was wonderfully cool, and she sat on the bed and ordered some tea and cakes, then called Gordon’s cab firm. There was an answer-machine on but she left no message, deciding she’d call again. Her eyes kept drifting to the closed door to the adjoining suite, her body remembering the night she had spent there. She walked slowly towards it, knowing she would have to face Caley sooner or later. It was locked, and she pressed her face against the white glossy wood door with relief. But she couldn’t just forget their closeness, dismiss it, because it had been real. She had felt so loved for that night. Then she felt scared because she remembered Juda’s words about her being without love, and having been without it for a long time, and the sadness welled up inside her. That night had not been anything to do with love, but lust, and she was sure that Robert Caley had used her because he had been protecting himself, covering his tracks so she could not unearth the truth of how he had killed his daughter. She stepped briskly away from the door. She had said it to herself earlier, now she said it out loud, pointing to the adjoining bedroom door.
‘I am going to nail you, Robert Caley.’
CHAPTER 18
ROSIE HAD returned and was surveying the suite as the tea Lorraine had ordered arrived.
‘My, this is very nice, I could move in here,’ Rosie said admiringly, looking from the hangings over the bed to the luxurious bathroom.
Lorraine poured tea for them both. ‘How long did it take you?’
‘I walked there in forty-five minutes. If I’d been running I could have done it in less. Bar was jumping by the way, great music and a group outside drinking beer, kids mostly. This town’s hotting up, an’ I don’t mean the weather.’
Rooney did not appear for another twenty minutes, and he was hot and sweating. He sank on to the bed with a moan, paying no attention to the decor of the suite.
‘Fucking hot out there. Knock off ten minutes trying to flag down a cab, streets are crowded, and Mardi Gras’s not even started yet. They got clowns walking around passing out leaflets, and there was a couple of jams, but I’d say if Ruby had a clear night she could get there and back in just less than an hour.’
‘Which does not give her long to make the doll,’ Lorraine said moodily.
‘So she did it at Fryer’s,’ Rosie said, passing Rooney a cup of tea.
‘It wasn’t exactly well made,’ Rooney said.
Lorraine sighed. ‘You know, we’re just kind of grasping at straws, trying to make the jigsaw pieces fit together.’
‘You’re trying to get her to Tilda Brown’s house, right?’ Rooney said, and she nod
ded.
‘But nobody saw her there either, just like nobody saw her leave here, no cab firm picked her up, she didn’t have a purse on her.’
‘We’ve got a possible.’
‘Possible what?’ Rosie asked.
‘Cab firm. The staff use these two brothers for late-night pick-ups, but they’re not listed in Information, I’ve checked. I think they’re just two guys with a couple of cars, so they’re probably working without a licence. You want to check them out, Rosie? Maybe see them face to face. And when you’ve finished your tea, Bill, call that cop and get over to Fryer’s. Check out the necklace and put a feeler out about whether or not Ruby was there on the night of the fifteenth.’
Lorraine yawned, she felt tired and depressed, as if they were going round and round in circles. Time was moving, they had only five days left, and they all knew it. Bill and Rosie took off without complaint.
Lorraine hadn’t meant to fall asleep, she meant to let it all run by in her mind, sift over everything they had come up with so far. She didn’t hear the key turning in the connecting door, which opened so silently she was unaware that Robert Caley had walked into the room.
He stroked her cheek with one finger, and she woke with a start.
‘Hi! I was beginning to think I’d never see you again.’
She eased herself up, blushing.
‘You never return my calls, do you know how many times I have tried to see you, talk to you? In fact, the receptionist at your hotel knows me so well I don’t even have to say my name.’
‘I’m sorry, but I’ve been caught up.’
He sat on a chair opposite the bed. He was wearing a white collarless shirt and jeans, with the loafers she liked.
‘I wanted to take you to one of the riverboats, I’ve wanted to take you to a whole lot of places.’
‘Well, I am here to work you know, Robert.’
‘Oh, I know that, but if you don’t want to see me, why don’t you come out and say so?’
‘Things keep on getting in the way.’
He cocked his head to one side. ‘How about dinner tonight?’
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