The Lost Girls of Johnson's Bayou

by Jana DeLeon

  John stared. “You want me to lie to the police?”

  “Yes. Otherwise, they won’t take you seriously. It will still take them some time to get moving, but if you threaten to go yourself, they’ll send someone. I may need backup. I’m counting on you, John.”

  John didn’t look happy with the situation at all, but finally he nodded. “Okay. I’ll go now and raise hell until they send someone, but I’m going with them.”

  “I don’t blame you,” Paul said.

  As he and Ginny started to leave the house, John grabbed Paul’s arm. “Find my wife. Bring her back to me.”

  “I intend to,” Paul said before they rushed outside and jumped into Paul’s truck.

  Paul floored the accelerator and the truck tires squealed as they slid onto the road. He punched in his partner’s number on the cell phone and gave him a quick rundown of the situation and asked for backup. Mike was more than an hour away from Johnson’s Bayou, but Paul wanted someone who’d been involved from the beginning to know what they were doing.

  When Paul finished the call to his partner, he glanced over at Ginny, who sat stock-still, clutching the seat with both hands. “We’re going to find her,” Paul said. “We’re going to end this.”

  Ginny nodded, but the fear on her face was evident.

  Paul’s own heart raced so hard he could feel it pulsing through his fingers as he gripped the steering wheel. The rest of the drive to Johnson’s Bayou was made in complete silence, and Paul knew both of them were running a list of possible outcomes through their minds. He parked in front of the café and Madelaine was already at the front door, ushering them inside.

  “Grab your spotlight,” Paul told Ginny. “It will be dark soon.”

  Paul filled Madelaine in on what happened and his theory as Ginny raced upstairs to grab the light. When Ginny rushed back down seconds later, Madelaine pulled her rifle from underneath the counter.

  “Let’s go,” Madelaine said. “And don’t even try to talk me out of it. He may have been able to pull off killing Ginny and Kathy and making it look like suicide, but he can’t kill all of us without bringing down the house of cards.”

  Paul didn’t even waste time arguing with her. She’d just follow them anyway, and he wanted to get to the school as soon as possible. Besides, if Madelaine was half the shot she claimed to be, he may need her. “Both of you do exactly as I say. Follow close behind and try not to talk. If you hear or see something, touch me and point. Got it?”

  Ginny and Madelaine nodded.

  They left the café by the back door and hurried across the field to the swamp, entering the dense brush at the same place Paul and Ginny had before. Madelaine huffed behind them but surprised Paul when she didn’t lag. The look of determination and anger on her face explained it, though. Someone was threatening her child and adrenaline had kicked in.

  Paul pushed through the brush as fast as he could, trying to keep the noise level to a minimum, but he knew if the killer was within hearing distance, he’d recognize the sounds of something large approaching. Assuming he was from Johnson’s Bayou, he’d know the difference between the local creatures and humans.

  In other words, he’d be ready for them.

  GINNY FOLLOWED PAUL into the ever-darkening swamp, her heart beating faster with each step. Her mind raced with all the bad possibilities of what might be happening to Kathy, and she shook her head to stop the barrage of frightful images.

  Kathy will be all right. She just had to keep telling herself that.

  She didn’t realize Paul had stopped until she bumped into him. Peering around him, she realized they had reached the edge of the school grounds. Paul scanned the grounds, and Ginny knew he was assessing the best entry point.

  Finally, he turned to them and whispered, “We’ll skirt the edge of the grounds until we reach the storage shed on the side. There’s only one window upstairs on that side of the house that has a clear view over the shed and into the swamp. It gives us the best coverage to approach the house without being seen. We can go in the side door at the kitchen.”

  Ginny and Madelaine nodded before dropping into step behind Paul as they skirted their way around the school grounds along the edge of the swamp. When they reached the section of the swamp closest to the storage shed Paul stopped and scanned the grounds again then motioned to them to follow him as he crept out of the swamp toward the storage shed.

  Ginny and Madelaine followed behind him single file then pressed their backs against the shed. Paul peeked around the end of the shed, then waved at them to follow, and they moved silently from behind the shed into the house. Paul stopped just inside the kitchen and put a finger to his lips. He stood completely motionless, trying to pinpoint the existence of any other humans in the house. All Ginny heard was the sound of her own heartbeat.

  Paul leaned in and whispered, “I think we should check the room that caught fire first.”

  Ginny nodded. If the killer was trying to make Kathy’s death look like a suicide, the scene of the tragedy was the most logical to choose. Unfortunately, it was also down a long hallway at the other end of the house. They were going to have to be very deliberate with every step. Even the smallest noise would echo throughout the cavernous house.

  Silently, they slipped down the hall, carefully choosing their steps to avoid anything on the littered floor that would make a noise. At the end of the hall stood what was left of the burned room. The door was closed and Ginny held her breath as Paul turned the knob and inched the door open. She let the breath out when the hinges didn’t screech and followed Paul through the small opening he’d created into the room.

  It took only a quick scan to know they were completely alone. Decades of old ash and dust coated every surface in the room, including the floor. No one had been in this room in years, much less today.

  Disappointment and anxiety washed over Ginny as they crept back into the hall. What if they’d been wrong? What if Kathy was somewhere else and they were wasting valuable time looking for her here? And then she remembered John’s story of Kathy’s sleepwalking. It was a huge long shot, but something she had to try.

  She motioned to Paul and Madelaine and made her way back down the hallway to the kitchen. Once inside, she eased the hallway door shut behind them, knowing that it would prevent some sound in the room from being carried into the hall and the entryway. She pointed at the pantry, and Paul’s eyes widened.

  He eased the door open and sitting on the floor of the pantry, staring wide-eyed at them, was a very alive Kathy. She gasped when she saw them and scrambled from the closet on her hands and knees. Paul reached a hand down to help her up, and she rose and threw her arms around him, choking back a sob.

  Finally, she broke away, her eyes darting around the room. “The man who took me—where is he?” she whispered.

  Paul shook his head. “Did he leave you here?”

  “No. I broke free in the swamp and ran. I found the school and hid here, but I heard him walking upstairs about ten minutes ago. He’s looking for me.”

  “Did you recognize him?”

  Kathy nodded. “He’s the man from my dreams. The man who killed those girls. I’ve seen him somewhere before, but seeing him didn’t mean anything to me then. I still don’t know who he is now.” She pointed to the pantry. “That’s where I hid that night I heard him arguing with the woman. I didn’t realize it until I was in there, hiding all over again.”

  Ginny placed her hand on Paul’s arm. As much as she wanted answers, they needed to put off conversation until later. “We’ve got to get out of here before he comes back,” she whispered.

  Madelaine nodded, her eyes wide.

  “You’re right,” Paul agreed. “We’ll leave the same way we came. I’ll lead and Madelaine, you come last with the rifle.”

  Madelaine took her place behind Ginny and Kathy, and they eased through the back door and hurried to the back of the shed. Once there, they paused only long enough for Paul to scan the swamp and then
they ran, but before they made it to the deep underbrush, Mayor Daigle stepped out with a pistol leveled directly at them.

  “Drop your weapon,” he said to Paul. “Madelaine, toss that rifle this way, and no tricks, or beautiful Ginny gets a bullet.”

  Ginny gasped. “It was you. All this time, it was you.”

  “Real estate,” Paul said, cursing himself for not making the connection sooner. “Your wife’s family has a real estate trust. That trust owned the café before Madelaine bought it. That’s how you had access to the café, which gave you access to the keys to Ginny’s apartment and Madelaine’s house that she kept in her desk drawer. You got the key to the café from the estate attorney, and since everything is held in the trust’s name, no one ever connected you with the building.”

  “Smart boy,” Mayor Daigle said and motioned to Paul’s gun again. “But not smart enough, apparently.”

  Paul dropped his pistol and Madelaine followed suit with her rifle. Mayor Daigle waved his pistol at them, motioning them back toward the house. “It didn’t have to be this way,” he said. “If only you hadn’t started to remember. But I just can’t take the chance. Not when I’m so close to everything I wanted.”

  “You can’t kill us all without bringing down an investigation,” Paul said.

  “Sure I can. You see, Kathy and Ginny here couldn’t take the memories haunting them anymore, so they came to the house to get ‘closure.’ That’s popular these days. But instead, being here drove them over the edge, and when you and Madelaine showed up looking for them, they killed you and then themselves, but not before setting fire to the house one last time.”

  “Why?” Ginny asked. “Why did you kill those girls?”

  Mayor Daigle shook his head. “Because they knew too much and the job was over. Now, I want all of you to turn slowly and walk back into the kitchen. I’ll make this quick, as I have a speaking engagement tonight.”

  The bushes behind the mayor rustled and Sheriff Blackwell stepped out, a shotgun trained on the mayor’s head. “I’m sorry, Joe, but I can’t let you do that.”

  Mayor Daigle sighed. “You don’t want to do this, or you’re going down with me.”

  “I deserve to,” Sheriff Blackwell said. “I should have turned you in back then.”

  Instead of replying, Mayor Daigle spun around and knocked Sheriff Blackwell’s shotgun with one hand while firing his pistol with the other. Paul and Madelaine lunged for their guns at the same time as Mayor Daigle grabbed Ginny and pushed his pistol into her temple.

  Mayor Daigle glanced over at the prone body of Sheriff Blackwell and laughed. “Let’s try this again, shall we? You two, drop your weapons and get into that house before any more heroes show up.”

  Ginny looked at her mother’s tear-streaked face, at Kathy, who looked on the verge of collapse, and then at Paul. There were so many things she wished she had time to say. So many things she wished she would have said before. To hell with the future. She should have told him how she felt when she had the chance, regardless of how it might have turned out. At least he would have known.

  He stared at her now with stark fear in his eyes, and she knew he was preparing for the worst. Once they were inside, it would be over. No more chances to right the past. No more chances to tell him how she felt. And for Ginny, that wasn’t good enough. She was already dead, so taking one last chance wasn’t really taking a chance at all.

  She looked straight at him and winked. His eyes widened slightly just as she slumped to the ground as if unconscious. The instant deadweight caught Mayor Daigle by surprise, and he dropped her as she collapsed. Without a second of hesitation, Paul dove for his pistol and fired a single killing shot through Mayor Daigle’s head before the man could even register what was happening.

  Paul dropped to the ground and gathered Ginny in his arms. “I thought I’d lost you,” he murmured. “You took such a risk…”

  “I had to.” She pushed back a bit so that she could look at him. “It was the only way to get another chance. I had to tell you I loved you.”

  “Oh, Ginny,” Paul said and lowered his lips to hers in a gentle kiss. “I felt guilty for all the upheaval I brought into your life. I know you’d already set things in motion before I arrived, but I couldn’t help feeling responsible. But now that it’s over I have to tell you that I love you, Ginny, and I’m going to keep telling you until you’re tired of hearing it.”

  “I’ll never get tired,” Ginny said.

  They rose from the ground and Madelaine rushed to hug both of them. Paul extended his hand to Kathy, who joined them.

  A groan sounded nearby and they immediately broke apart, Madelaine and Paul readying their weapons.

  “Sheriff Blackwell,” Madelaine said and hurried over to where the sheriff was holding his hand against his side, blood seeping through his fingers.

  Ginny pulled off her light jacket and handed it to Madelaine, who pressed it into the sheriff’s side, trying to stop the blood loss. “Don’t bother,” he gasped. “It’s too late for me, but I have to tell you I’m sorry.”

  “What was happening at the school that the mayor covered up?” Paul asked.

  “Child pornography. He had cameras set up in all the girls’ rooms and the shower areas. He and that woman were selling the tapes overseas for a huge profit.”

  “How did you find out?”

  “I caught him loading cardboard boxes into his car at the school after the fire. He was real skittish and never answered me when I asked what he was hauling away. I followed him to a warehouse in New Orleans and as he was carrying the boxes inside, I sneaked to his car and saw the box of tapes. I took one with me and watched.”

  Ginny felt the blood wash from her face. “Oh, no. They were being abused.”

  Sheriff Blackwell shook his head. “I never saw anything like that on the tape, but there was no mistaking what those tapes were meant to be. I suppose given enough time, the abuse would have started.”

  “I always felt like someone was watching me,” Kathy said. “No wonder.”

  “Why didn’t you turn him in?” Madelaine asked. “I know you, Thomas. You would never condone something like this.”

  “He took money,” Paul said. “Mayor Daigle bought your silence.”

  Sheriff Blackwell looked directly at them, his eyes filled with shame. “I swear, I didn’t know anything about the tapes until after the fire, and until I overheard Daigle confess today, I didn’t know for certain that they’d locked those girls in to die. I’d caught the occult overtones and thought maybe it was a ritual gone wrong. I guess that’s what we were all supposed to think.

  “You have to understand,” Sheriff Blackwell said. “Those girls were already dead, but my Meg wasn’t.”

  Madelaine gasped. “You took money from Daigle for Meg’s cancer treatments. The ones that insurance wouldn’t pay for.”

  Sheriff Blackwell nodded. “She was in so much pain. I made him promise me that he’d never bother Ginny or Kathy. I’ve watched closely all these years, and he kept his promise.”

  “Until now,” Paul said, “but you covered for him again by pretending you thought Ginny had imagined her attack. You knew it was him.”

  “I thought I could convince him to leave it alone. I thought he’d believe that they weren’t remembering.”

  “Do you know where the girls came from?”

  “Daigle said some were wards of the state with no family to speak of. The headmistress gave couples false identities and paid them to foster the kids and turn them over to her. Others they bought from desperate, poor bayou families, probably promising that their babies would have a good life with a wealthy family.”

  “Who was the headmistress and what happened to her?” Ginny asked.

  “I don’t know how Daigle met her, but she’s dead. It looked like a random carjacking, but I’ve always wondered.” He put his hand up to his mouth and coughed, and when he lowered it, Ginny could see it was covered with blood.

  “Th
e tape is locked in my safe,” Sheriff Blackwell said. “Take it and expose all of this. It’s long overdue.” He looked at Ginny and Kathy. “I’m sorry I never stood up for you when it mattered. I hope one day you can forgive me.” He coughed again and his body locked, almost as if in seizure, then everything relaxed and he collapsed on the ground.

  Paul felt his neck and shook his head. “He’s dead.”

  Madelaine looked down at him and sighed. “He always said he would have done anything to save Meg. I guess he did. It must have eaten him up all these years.” She put one arm around Ginny and Kathy and squeezed. “But it all ends here, today.”

  Ginny smiled and reached out to take Paul’s hand. “And a new life begins.”

  Epilogue

  Six months later.

  Ginny stuffed the last of the boxes in the back of her car and pushed the hatchback down until it barely clicked in place. She turned to face her mother, who stood with her outside the café, her eyes brimming with unshed tears.

  “Are you sure this is what you want?” Madelaine asked.

  Ginny smiled. “Look at you. You’ve pushed me for years to expand my horizons and then when I do, you’re all tentative and sentimental.” She gave her mother a hug. “I want to be with Paul. The past six months have been incredible. I want a whole lifetime of that, and I know I can have it with him.”

  “I know you will. I’m just used to seeing you every day, and now everything is different. You’ll be attending college and making jewelry for all those stores in New Orleans, and you’ll be spending the rest of your time with the man you love.”

  A tear rolled out of Madelaine’s eye and down her cheek. She brushed it away with her hand and said, “I don’t think I have to say how happy I am for you. You’re a wonderful woman, Ginny, and the best daughter a mother could ever have.”

  “And you’re the best mother.”