by Reid, Terri
Eloise untied the canoe and pushed off from the dock. The canoe glided softly through the cove and out into the main channel. They both looked up and down the waterway.
“I don’t see anything,” Sally said.
Eloise nodded. “Me either, but we should hurry.”
They started their trip back down the river, watching for landmarks to guide them back to the little store. About half-way back they heard a motorized whirring coming from further down river.
“I don’t like the sound of that,” Sally said.
Eloise looked around and saw a grouping of Cyprus trees that were covered by Spanish moss nearer to the bank.
“Let’s hide out over there and see who’s in such a hurry.”
They guided the canoe into the hiding spot and waited. A few minutes later an airboat glided into the main channel. The driver slowed the craft and maneuvered the boat in a slow circle.
“It’s Big Al,” Sally whispered.
They sat very still, hoping that the Spanish moss provided them enough cover. They watched as his boat came closer to their spot.
“Duck,” Eloise whispered. She and Sally bent over in the canoe and waited. They heard the soft whir of the propeller within several feet of their canoe. The ripples caused by the boat sloshed against the side of the canoe sent the canoe slowly drifting forward.
Eloise reached out and grabbed hold of the nearest tree and held on, trying to pull the canoe back into place. The tip of the canoe was only a half an inch from the curtain of moss that protected them. Eloise fought against the force of the ripples, her fingers digging into the moss-covered bark of the tree, her palm scraped by the rough surface.
She breathed a sigh of relief when she heard the airboat throttle higher and move further down river. Sitting up, she grabbed her oar and pushed it against the tree to move the canoe back a few feet.
“Let’s just sit here for a few minutes, to make sure Big Al doesn’t turn around,” she said.
“El,” Sally whispered from behind her, “I think something’s on me.”
Eloise turned to see a four-foot snake crawling across Sally’s shoulders. The snake had a brown background color with a darker chain pattern along its back.
Eloise swallowed and bit her lower lip. “Well, Sal, you’ve got a snake crawling on you.”
Sally froze, her eyes remaining on Eloise’s.
“So, what does it look like?” Sally asked.
“It’s tan with black diamonds,” Eloise answered, “It’s about four feet long.”
“Okay, tell me about its eyes,” Sally said.
“It’s eyes?”
“Poisonous snakes have vertically elliptical pupils, like cat’s eyes, and non-poisonous snakes have round eye pupils,” Sally explained slowly.
“Oh. Oh! It has round eyes, not like a cat,” Eloise said.
Sally exhaled swiftly. “Okay, then take your paddle and scoop and toss.”
Eloise lifted her paddle, slid it under the snake and tossed it out of the boat.
“El,” Sally said, wiping her arm across her forehead, “I’m not real crazy about swamps.”
Eloise nodded. “Me either, let’s get out of here.”
They reached the little store safely and, after some promised shopping, they set out for base camp. The drive back was considerably subdued, both women lost in their own thoughts. Finally Sally couldn’t contain herself any longer.
“We’ve got two days to save the world. I don’t think I can handle that kind of responsibility.”
“Well, let’s look at the positive side of things,” Eloise said, trying to come up with something positive, “At least the feast day isn’t tomorrow.”
“Oh, yeah, that makes me feel much better,” Sally retorted.
“Besides, I know that I have the power to defeat her,” Eloise said.
“Is it your power or is it the combined power of you and Paul?” Sally asked.
“Sally, we are not bringing Paul back here,” she said.
“Yeah, he’s much better off in Washington D.C. to enjoy the last days of the world.”
“We are not going to let her win,” Eloise said, “We can’t let her win.”
Sally was silent for a moment.
“What if she can’t get her stuff?” she asked.
“What do you mean?”
“Well, all this stuff Mary Margaret said that we need to call Agwe, doesn’t Delphine need stuff to call Yemanja? What if she can’t find her stuff?”
Eloise thought about it for a moment.
“You know, that’s brilliant,” Eloise said, “I wonder where she keeps her stuff.”
“Well, we didn’t check out the east wing,” Sally said, “If we can burn her stuff, at least we’ve slowed her up a little bit. And if we can’t find her stuff, we could always just burn down the whole house.”
“And perhaps there’s some more information in her journals, we haven’t totally exhausted those yet,” Eloise added.
“I’ve nearly finished scanning the last one,” Sally said, “I’ll get on that tonight.”
“Then tomorrow I’ll take Bert or Ernie with me to the plantation.”
“Wait a minute,” Sally said, “I’m going with you.”
Eloise shook her head. “No, you’re not,” she said. “You need to keep researching those journals and any other lead you can come up with. If something should happen to me you are the only one with enough information to stop Delphine. Besides, do you actually think that Bert and Ernie are going to let us go there alone?”
Sally shook her head and sighed. “Damn, I liked it a lot better when we were just dealing with nice dead people.”
Eloise chuckled, “Yeah, me too!”
When they got back to the base, Eloise continued reading the journals, searching for clues and Sally continued to scan each page. Finally, several hours past midnight, Sally looked up from her work.
“Okay, we’ve got a little problem,” Sally said. “This is a to-be-continued. We don’t have the final journal.”
“So tomorrow I’ll find the last journal,” Eloise said, stretching her arms over her head. “The only place that we haven’t checked is the east wing.”
“Or the cellar,” Sally added.
“Well, if it is in the cellar we’re going to have to do without the last journal,” Eloise said. “There’s no way it survived the flood.”
“In the meantime, I’ll start running searches on the information I have,” Sally said.
“Great,” Eloise responded.
“Um, El, I did another quick search when we got home this evening,” Sally said.
“Yes?”
“I did a search on Mary Margaret Ebenezer, missionary,” Sally said, “You remember those old photos on her bureau?”
“Yeah, the ones of her ancestors?”
Sally shook her head. “Uh, no, the ones of herself.”
“What?”
“Well, she was born in 1840, in Dublin, Ireland.”
Eloise shook her head. “No, that’s impossible, that’s just…”
Sally shook her head. “I checked and double checked.”
“But she wasn’t a ghost, I would have been able to tell,” Eloise said.
Sally shrugged, “I’ve read about immortals, those really good people who ask to remain here on the earth in order to help others. Just never met one…before.”
Eloise shook her head, put down the journal she was reading and stood up.
“You know, this world just keeps getting stranger and stranger,” she said, “I think I’m going to try to get some sleep.”
Sally stood up and nodded. “Me too, it’s been one weird day.
“So, are you going to call him?”
Sally didn’t have to say Paul’s name to Eloise because they both knew he had been in her thoughts all night long.
Eloise shook her head. “Yeah, you know, maybe I will.”
Sally smiled. “Good for you! Goodnight.”
Eloise
walked into her room, sat on the bed, reached over for the phone and punched in Paul’s number. The phone rang four times and then she got his answering machine. She looked over to the bedside clock. It was after two. D.C. was an hour ahead. Where was Paul at three o’clock in the morning?
The image of pushy Marilyn flashed into Eloise’s mind. She slammed the phone down. “Go to hell, Paul Grimes.”
Chapter Nineteen
Eloise woke to a stormy morning, which matched her mood perfectly. She dressed in jeans, a sweatshirt and hiking boots. She pulled her hair back in a long ponytail and grabbed a slicker and her equipment.
She started towards the door when Sally walked out of her bedroom.
“What no good-byes?” she asked.
“He didn’t answer the phone last night. It was three in the morning. In my book that can only mean one thing,” Eloise growled.
“Hmmm, let me guess,” Sally said, “That Delphine was able to get past Maria’s protection and Paul is laying dead somewhere?”
Instantly Eloise panicked. She dropped her gear and charged across the room to Sally.
“Sally, did someone call?” she asked, grabbing hold of Sally’s shoulders, “Did Turner or Anderson tell you something?”
Sally disengaged Eloise’s hands and shook her head.
“No, but you should be ashamed of yourself,” Sally said, “So quick to believe the worst about Paul. What happened to faith?”
“I’m such an idiot,” Eloise said, walking slowly to the door and picking up her gear, “Thanks for the shock treatment, I needed it.”
Sally grinned. “No problem. And for the record, you’re not an idiot, you’re in love.”
Eloise shook her head. “No, I’m pretty sure I’m an idiot.”
Sally laughed and called to Eloise before she walked out of the motor home. Eloise turned and Sally tossed her a protein shake.
“Don’t forget your super shake; you’re going to need it today.”
Eloise grabbed the shake. “Yeah, thanks, you’re right.”
She opened the door to two soaking wet Marines guarding the motor home.
“Good morning, gentlemen,” she said, “I’m going to need one of you to accompany me this morning. I have to go out to an old plantation in the wetlands and try to recover some information.”
“I’ll go,” Sergeant Anderson responded before Sergeant Turner could open his mouth.
“Is this a necessary trip?” Turner asked, looking pretty skeptical.
Eloise nodded and looked him straight in the eye. “Sergeant, this trip is probably one of the most important assignments I will ever do in my life.”
Turner looked into her eyes and saw the commitment and determination in them.
“Thank you, ma’am,” he said, “Is there anything that I can do to help?”
“Why don’t you go inside and see if you can help Sally,” she suggested. “We pretty much are working on a 24-hour deadline at this point.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Turner said, moving past her into the motor home.
“Let’s take the SUV,” Eloise said, pulling the keys out of her jacket, “You can drive and I’ll do a little more research.”
“Yes, ma’am,” replied Anderson walking with her to the vehicle.
Turner walked into the motor home and saw Sally frowning into the screen.
“Is there something I can help you with?” he asked.
Sally jumped and then turned to Turner, “Sorry, I didn’t hear you come in. No, I don’t think you can help me with this, unless you happen to be an expert on genealogy.”
Turner nodded, “Yes ma’am, I’m a Mormon. I’ve got all kinds of experience in genealogy.”
Sally motioned him to the seat next to hers. “Great, I’ve got two names we’ve got to run, Marie Francois and Camille Blanque, Delphine Lalaurie’s daughters.”
Eloise and Sergeant Anderson headed south on the highway toward 624. The rhythmic slap of the windshield wipers provided a soothing background to Eloise’s confusing thoughts. She opened up her notebook and started jotting down notes from the past few weeks.
First she listed all of the events that had occurred with
Delphine , from her first encounter to the last. Then she listed the similarities and the differences.
“Why did the Mormon Tabernacle Choir stop her the first time?” she wrote on the first page, then listed all of the attacks and dreams. She felt like she should be seeing something, but it just wasn’t clear yet.
She started to review all of the conversations she had since the first attack.
Cindy had told her that she could conquer Lalaurie, but she had to have courage and faith. But, what was it that Cindy had added when Eloise had assured her that she was brave – it wasn’t that kind of bravery, she had to face something that had scared her.
Maria had told her that she could conquer Lalaurie, but she too said that Eloise needed to seek the power within to do it.
Even Delphine had referred to her power – how it had rested on her and protected her.
So, where was she lacking courage, where was she lacking faith?
Sally’s comments of that morning came back immediately, “What happened to faith?”
“I’m such an idiot,” she muttered.
“Excuse me, ma’am?” Anderson questioned.
“Nothing, Sergeant, nothing at all,” she said.
“Well, ma’am, we’ve arrived,” Sergeant Anderson said, pulling up in front of the plantation.
Eloise shook her head. “But how did you know where to go?”
Anderson looked uncomfortable for a moment, then he replied, “Well, ma’am we placed a GPS tracking device on your car the other day. So, we watched where you went.”
Eloise stopped for a moment, hadn’t she heard Paul give them that order the evening after they had gone to the plantation? Well, perhaps they had done it before he issued the order.
“Well, I suppose I should be grateful. Who knows where we would have ended up if you hadn’t known where to go? Thanks, Sergeant.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Back at base, Sally watched in amazement as Sergeant Turner researched her information on the web.
“You’re really good at this,” she said.
“Thanks, ma’am, I helped my grandmother research our whole family line on her side,” he explained, “I guess I got bitten by the genealogy bug.”
“Lucky for us,” Sally said.
“Hey, well isn’t this a funny coincidence,” Turner laughed.
Sally immediately felt a pit form in her stomach, she did not believe in coincidences, funny or not.
“What?” she asked, looking over his shoulder.
“The family tree has the name Anderson in it. Just like Sergeant Anderson,” Turner said.
Turner looked up and saw the fear in Sally’s eyes. He immediately shook his head.
“No, he wouldn’t be involved in something like this,” Turner said.
“Turner, what’s Anderson’s middle name?” Sally asked.
Turner thought for a moment. “Don’t know, except it starts with an L.”
“Crap,” Sally said, panic rising in her. “Can we check some of his personal effects, just to verify that he isn’t part of this? I’d really feel much better if I knew his middle name was Larry.”
“Sure, sure, let’s go over to the tent and look at his stuff.”
They ran out into the pouring rain and slid all the way to the tent. Turner opened the flap and they entered the space. Anderson had a small locker box next to his bunk. They both knelt in front of it and Turner opened it up. On the top was his military identification. Sally’s heart froze as she read the name, “Mitch Lalaurie Anderson.”
“Oh no, we just sent her back to the plantation with the great-great-grandson of Delphine Lalaurie.”
Turner shook his head. “This doesn’t mean that he knows anything about what’s going on. Maybe Lalaurie is a popular name.”
Sally sea
rched through the locker box and pulled out the missing journal. “Now, I know that she’s in trouble.”
“Who’s in trouble?” Paul asked, walking into the tent, rain water dripping from his hat.
“Dang, you’re like the Calvary,” Sally cried, “We just learned that Sergeant Anderson is Delphine’s great-great-grandson and he’s the one who took Eloise back to the plantation this morning.”
“When did they leave?” Paul asked.
“About two hours ago,” Turner said.
“Did you put the GPS tracker on the SUV?”
“Yes sir, you can track them,” Turner said.
“You two go find some local authorities and meet me there.”
Paul turned and ran out of the tent to his vehicle. Sally heard it speed down the road.
“How did he know to be here?” Sally asked Sergeant Turner.
“Well, I’m not quite sure, ma’am, but I think it had something to do with the photo of Ms. Parker he asked me to take yesterday morning,” Turner said. “He thought it was pretty odd he dreamed of her with a scratch on her face.”
“The man’s got a head on his shoulders,” Sally said. “Okay, let’s go get the reinforcements.”
Chapter Twenty
Sergeant Anderson and Eloise entered the house through the broken French doors. The house was even darker and more ominous with the storm outside. They both were wearing headband flashlights and flipped them on as soon as they entered the house.
“We have to go up to the second floor,” Eloise said, “I have to check the east wing.”
Sergeant Anderson nodded. “Yes ma’am, the east wing.”
They walked together across the ballroom floor and then crossed the hall. Eloise looked down at the prints in the dirt. She saw the prints that she and Sally had made when they crossed the floor, but also saw another set of much larger prints.
“That’s odd,” she said, and then she looked back at the prints that she and Sergeant Anderson had made. The large prints were an identical match to the prints that Sergeant Anderson had just made.
“What’s odd, ma’am,” Anderson asked.
“These tracks,” she said. “They weren’t here that other day when Sally and I were here.”
Anderson bent down and examined them. “They look like military issued boots, ma’am. Could the Major have sent someone here after you left?”
