A single lantern cast a small light on the shore as we approached, but I didn’t see anyone there. We’d already decided that Ida would steer the boat to shore and remain inside in case we needed to escape quickly. I would hand over the key and collect my mother. At least, I hoped it would be that easy.
Once the boat hit the shore, Ida cut the engine.
“Hello?” I called out. “I’m here. I’ve got your key.”
There was no reply.
“It’s Margaret Ancelet.” I shouted a little louder. “I did what you asked. Where’s my mother?”
Nothing. Ida Belle shrugged. Were we early? My watch said we were, but only by a few minutes. The kidnapper had to be here. Who else would’ve set up the lantern?
A moan came from the darkness straight ahead. “Margaret…” It was Mom’s voice. She sounded drugged. “Margaret…” She called again. It was good if she was stoned. Then she might not remember any of this. I silently prayed that would be true.
“Peggy Sue…Where are you, Peggy Sue?” Mom cried.
Seriously? She thought my twin would ride to the rescue? How? In Prada heels, brandishing a dry martini and her huge gun? Huh. I guess that didn’t sound too bad after all. I could’ve used her as a distraction. Oh well. Live and learn. Next time my mom is kidnapped by the evil partner of my dead father, I’ll remember that.
“Mom! Where are you?” I took a few steps in the direction the voice had come from.
“Not so fast!” The voice hissed. It was the same voice I’d heard on the phone, but this time, it sounded different. Familiar even.
“It’s a woman!” Ida Belle called out behind me.
“Of course I’m a woman!” The voice answered back. Now it definitely sounded familiar. “You think a man would be smart enough to pull this off? Hugo wasn’t!”
Eleanor Woodruff stepped forward, her right arm curled around my mother’s waist, her left hand holding a Desert Eagle .44 magnum. What the hell was it with these women and these hand cannons?
“Eleanor?” I asked. “You? You’re Hugo’s partner? You’re the one who broke into my house?”
She laughed. It was a mean laugh. Nothing like the nice, sweet woman I’d come to know.
“Yes, I’m Hugo’s partner. No, I didn’t break into your house. But I paid the man who did.”
“Hi, Miss Margaret!” To my complete astonishment, So-So Silas stepped into the flickering light and waved.
“So-So?” I asked. “You’re in on this?” While I was surprised about Eleanor, So-So’s participation caught me completely off guard.
He nodded, grinning happily. “She shot my boat. Then she said you had money for me to fix it but you forgot it at your house. You said I could go find it. Hi Miss Ida!” Silas waved again with a simpleton’s grin. I didn’t look to see if Ida waved back. It would’ve been bad manners if she didn’t.
“Let him go.” I said. “Let him take Mom to the boat. I’ve got your key.”
Eleanor shook her head. “It doesn’t work like that. You only get what you want after you give me the key.”
I threw the key and it landed at her feet. “There’s your damn key. Take it and take your money. I just want my Mom.”
“Thank you.” Eleanor bent quickly and snatched the key, tucking it into her pants pocket. “I didn’t think it would be that easy.”
“What did you honestly think would happen when you took my mom hostage?” I asked. “I don’t want Hugo’s stolen money. You can have it. Do whatever you want with it, I don’t care. I just want my Mom.”
Eleanor narrowed her eyes. “No…no, that’s not what’s going to happen.”
“I did what you asked. I gave you what you need. Now you give me what you promised.” I insisted.
“No. We’re not done yet. You are all going with me to make sure I get my money. And if it isn’t there – your mother dies.”
I held my hands up. “There’s no need for that. Let Mom and the others go and I’ll go with you. Willingly. I won’t make any trouble, I promise.”
Where were Fortune and Gertie? I couldn’t see them Maybe they were waiting for the right time. I had no idea how these things worked. There’s probably a best time to move on a situation like this.
Eleanor shook her head and raised the gun to Mom’s. “So-So, you, Margaret and your friend here,” she nodded toward Ida Belle, “Get in the boat.”
“Where are we going?” Ida Belle asked as we all piled in.
“That’s an excellent question.” Eleanor said. “Where are we going, Sadie? Hugo told me you’d know.”
Mom knew all along? All those years we’d struggled financially, and five million dollars was sitting somewhere? The fact that she’d never touched it made her a saint in my eyes. It had to be a terrible temptation.
Mom mumbled something. I couldn’t hear it. But somehow I knew where it was.
Eleanor ground the gun into my mother’s temple. “A little louder, please.”
“Rousseau House.” Mom said.
Her captor looked expectantly at me. The Old Place. The Rousseau House was very old. That had to be it.
“The old Rousseau House? In the middle of the swamp?” I asked, but I now knew she was right. That house had been abandoned a century ago. Mom always forbid us to go there but as kids with insatiable curiosity, we’d found our way there on more than one occasion. I’d even taken Peggy Sue’s kids out there a few times. And all the while I’d never known that my father had hidden a fortune there.
“The Rousseau Mansion.” Ida Belle shouted a little louder than was necessary as Eleanor, So-So and Mom stepped into the boat with me. Was she letting Fortune and Gertie know where we were going? I had no idea how they’d get there. My thoughts were interrupted as Ida started up the boat and we headed out to the deepest part of the Bayou.
“I’m guessing that you signed Hugo’s name in the guest book, then?” I asked the woman I’d called friend not too long ago.
“Yes. And I put the idea in Sadie’s head here that she’d met with him and killed him.” Eleanor smirked. “I knew it was a weak idea with nothing to back it up, but I needed something to put you off track.”
“You also killed my dad.” I said with a growl. Not that I was protective of him now, I was more pissed off that she had a gun to Mom’s head.
“He wouldn’t tell me where he’d hidden my money!” Eleanor screamed. Wow. She could go from zero to crazy in seconds.
“Your money?” Ida Belle asked. “The five million dollars was yours?”
“It was my idea to steal it.” Eleanor frowned. “The plan was mine. Hugo had access. He was supposed to turn it over to me and I’d give him one hundred thousand dollars. More than enough for you to live on.”
So-So Silas sat at the front of the boat, staring into the water. What was going on in his head? Obviously he had no idea that he was part of a kidnapping. Mom’s eyes were closed and she lay slumped, her head on Eleanor’s lap. Was she faking it or had it all just overwhelmed her? I wanted to tell her it was alright. But as long as that bitch was holding a gun to her head, I couldn’t.
“We wouldn’t have touched your dirty money.” I said finally. “My family wouldn’t have taken it no matter how much we needed it.”
“Good. Then it had better be there. Every penny.” Eleanor glared at me.
The Rousseau Mansion was completely dilapidated. According to legend, back in the mid 1800’s a greedy man with no heirs had lived there. He was rich and cruel, a slave owner who didn’t give up his slaves after the war ended. The story goes that when his slaves found out that they were free, they killed him in his sleep and fled. No one touched the place after that and it fell into ruin.
Kids went there to hunt for ghosts, but the house was locked up and parents warned their kids that the place was very dangerous. Still, you’d think someone would’ve gotten in and found the money long before now.
We pulled up to the crumbling boathouse and after Ida turned off the engine, we got out very carefully. The dock w
as just a few planks now. Mom woke up and Eleanor pushed her ahead with her gun.
“All of you,” Eleanor hissed, “Walk in front of me. Try anything heroic and everyone dies.”
I ran up to Mom and put my arm around her. She didn’t seem to acknowledge it. Had Eleanor drugged her? Was she having an episode? So-So ran up ahead and disappeared in the darkness but our captor didn’t seem to mind. Maybe she was glad to be rid of him.
Ida took Mom’s other arm and the three of us approached the old house in silence. The moon was full and illuminated the manse, creating creepy shadows across the walls. I didn’t believe in ghosts, but I felt a strange tickle of fear in my spine. We kept walking.
The door was still locked, but there were large holes in the walls where floor to ceiling windows had once been. I stepped into one of the yawning openings and helped Mom and Ida Belle through.
“I guess we didn’t need this key after all.” Eleanor snapped behind us.
“That’s not a door key.” Ida Belle said. “It’s a closet key.”
“Then you’d better find that closet.” Eleanor snarled behind us.
I pulled a flashlight out of my pocket and turned it on. Shadows swallowed up the light but at least we could see that the floor boards had mostly disintegrated. We picked our way carefully across the few places where the floor was still intact, to a small door that ran underneath a large staircase. Could this be it?
“Try it!” Eleanor barked, behind me and I turned to take the key from her.
The key fit, clicking as it turned stiffly to the right.
“Get back!” She screamed, pushing her way in front of us.
Ida, Mom and I backed away as far as we could before Eleanor told us to stop.
After a struggle, the door creaked open loudly. While still holding the gun on us, she fished a flashlight out of her pocket and lit up the inside of the closet.
“What the hell?” She cried as something flew past us, crashing into her.
Fortune shoved the woman face-down on the floor and took the gun out of her hand. I stared open-mouthed as she tied Eleanor’s hands behind her back and hauled her to her feet. Who was this woman?
“No! No! You can’t take this away from me!” Eleanor screamed as Fortune ‘accidentally’ face-planted the woman into the door’s edge, rendering her unconscious.
“It’s about time!” Ida snorted. “I thought you’d have been here by now!”
Gertie stepped forward holding a shotgun. “Well, we couldn’t get that woman’s boat started at first.”
So they took Eleanor’s boat. Of course! She had to get Mom there somehow.
Fortune threw the now-limp receptionist onto the floor and looked inside the closet.
“Well? What’s in there?” Gertie asked, her shotgun trained on Eleanor’s body.
Fortune looked at us with a smile. “It’s five million all right. But not dollars.”
“What do you mean? Five million what?” I asked, still clutching Mom’s arm.
“It’s five million guarini.” Fortune laughed. “Paraguayan currency.”
I hadn’t thought of that. “You mean she thought it was U.S. money?”
Fortune nodded. “Yup. Unfortunately, guarini is the least valued currency in North or South America. Five million guarini is about one thousand U.S. dollars.”
“And how do you know that?” I asked in astonishment.
Fortune looked a little uncomfortable for a moment. “I’m a librarian. I read it in a book of course.”
Chapter 12
I didn’t envy Deputy LeBlanc. There was no cell service at the old Rousseau place, so we’d had to take Eleanor and the money back to Sinful. Ida and Gertie told Carter the story while Fortune and I took Mom to the hospital. Peggy Sue showed up to keep an eye on her (although she let me know that she was abandoning her guests to do so) because I had to go back to the Sheriff’s office and give my statement.
“You should’ve called me the minute you heard about the kidnapping.” Carter told us severely, although I got the impression he was speaking more to Fortune, Ida Belle and Gertie than me.
It took two hours to clear everything up, turn in our prisoner and help count the money. On the boat ride back, we’d all decided to leave So-So Silas out of the whole thing. He hadn’t really been involved. Indicting him wouldn’t help anyone. Besides, he’d disappeared near the Rousseau place. We had no idea where he was.
“It’s about time you came back here!” Peggy whispered when I finally walked into the hospital room assigned to Mom. She dragged me by the arm out into the hall.
“I have the funeral today! I don’t have time to babysit Mother!” She complained.
I decided not to fill her in. What was the point? “I’ll stay until the doctor comes. The whole case is wrapped up. You’re welcome.”
Peggy Sue stared at me for a moment. “We’ll talk about this later.” She said before turning on her heel and walking away.
The doctor came in an hour later. Mom was fine but he wanted to keep her for observation a day or two longer. She was sedated – something I was very thankful for.
I got home as the sun was coming up. Inside the door, hanging from the closet hinge, was the black, linen sheath dress with Chanel ballet flats hanging up in a dry cleaner bag. That was the only thanks I was going to get from my twin. It was enough.
“You look very nice, Margaret.” My sister whispered as we stood at the gravesite. The Catholic priest was going on about some biblical passage but my mind was elsewhere.
“Thanks. You too.” I whispered back.
Peggy Sue nodded as if she expected that. She was dressed in a frothy, black, filmy material and a large, black hat. The kids stood on my other side, and Meg squeezed my hand affectionately. Huntington Delacroix stood on the other side of his wife like a manikin. We didn’t bring Mom. I wasn’t sure she could handle it after everything.
Ida Belle and Gertie stood behind me in black polyester pantsuits. Fortune was with them wearing a black suit, next to Ally who wore a black skirt and blouse with white polka dots. They were quiet and respectful. Just the way true friends should be. Friends. I now had three friends. Things were looking up.
As I tossed a handful of dirt onto the lowered coffin, I thought about this man who’d contributed to my DNA. I now knew more about him than I’d ever wanted to. And while I still couldn’t bring myself to love him, I had to acknowledge that Mom had once adored him and he’d loved her.
Somehow, even after all that Hugo Ancelet had put us through, that was enough.
###
About Leslie Langtry
Thank you for reading my addition to Jana DeLeon’s Miss Fortune Series! If you enjoyed it, won’t you please take a moment to leave me a review at Amazon.com? Thank you!
Leslie Langtry is the author of The Bombay Family of Assassins Series:
‘SCUSE ME WHILE I KILL THIS GUY
GUNS WILL KEEP US TOGETHER
STAND BY YOUR HITMAN
I SHOT YOU BABE
PARADISE BY THE RIFLE SIGHTS
SNUFF THE MAGIC DRAGON - AND OTHER BOMBAY BEDTIME STORIES
MY HEROES HAVE ALWAYS BEEN HITMEN - MORE BOMBAY BEDTIME STORIES
FOUR KILLING BIRDS
HAVE YOURSELF A DEADLY LITTLE CHRISTMAS
The Merry Wrath Mystery Series:
MERIT BADGE MURDER
MINT COOKIE MURDER
The Hanging Tree Tales:
HELL HOUSE & TYLER’S FATE
WITCH HILL &THE TEACHER
AND
SEX, LIES & FAMILY VACATIONS
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