French Quarter Clues

by Eva Pohler

  “But she doesn’t know where he is,” Sue said. “So how do we find him?”

  The planchette spelled out: “I-D-O-N-O-T-K-N-O-W.”

  Then it spelled, “H-E-L-P.”

  “We’ll do our best,” Ellen said. “We’ll do everything we can to find him.”

  The planchette spelled, “T-H-A-N-K-Y-O-U.”

  Then the light overhead went out.

  “Looks like we need a new bulb,” Sue said.

  “Do you have anything else to tell us, Grandma Nunnery?” Ellen asked.

  The planchette didn’t move.

  “I think she’s gone,” Sue said.

  “My phone’s dead again.” Tanya crossed the room and plugged the phone into her charger. “We should see if Jamar has a Facebook page.”

  “Found it,” Sue said, using her phone. “Oh, it’s so sad. It’s become a memorial to him. Oh, my gosh. Maria posts to his page nearly every day.”

  “If he’s still alive, why doesn’t he answer?” Ellen wondered.

  “He must have amnesia,” Tanya said. “That’s the only explanation for him not finding his wife and daughter.”

  “That means he could be anywhere,” Ellen said.

  “Chances are he isn’t that far away,” Sue said. “We should send his Facebook profile picture to all the hospitals in Louisiana.”

  “I can’t believe he’s never come across his old page,” Ellen said. “I hope he’s not a vegetable.”

  “Regardless, Maria should know,” Sue said. “If we find him, that is.”

  “Do you think the police can help us?” Tanya asked.

  “What would we say to them?” Sue lifted her palms. “That we spoke to his dead mother with the Ouija Board, and she says her son’s still alive?”

  “Good point,” Tanya said. “I guess we’re on our own.”

  Two days later, Ellen, Sue, and Tanya gathered beneath the hot, blistering son in the Saint Louis Cemetery #1 with Maria and Cecilia Nunnery, Beatrice Leland, Priestess Isabel, and Father Tony.

  It was a Saturday afternoon, and tour groups were roaming the grounds. But no one bothered them as Father Tony, a tall, thin man with a gentle voice, prayed over the Glapion family tomb.

  The previous day, Ellen and her friends had delivered the remains of the devil child to the cemetery, at Maria’s request. The remains were placed in the chamber at the bottom of the Glapion family tomb, above ground. Ellen and her friends were told that in a matter of weeks, what was left of the remains would be essentially cremated, naturally, by the hot conditions of New Orleans. Those ashes would then be pushed to the back of the tomb the next time a family member needed to be interred there.

  What mattered most to Ellen was that the devil child was now resting with Marie Laveau on consecrated ground. Marie, her devil child, and Cornelius would finally find peace, and Tanya’s life would no longer be in jeopardy.

  During the ceremony, Father Tony, who’d been told the entire story about Cornelius, Marie Laveau, and her devil child, said a few words about living in the eighteen-hundreds, about being born with disorders that were misunderstood, about the love and mercy of the almighty creator, and about life and love everlasting.

  He said, “Lord our God, you are the source of life. In you we live and move and have our being. Keep us in life and death in your love, and, by your grace, lead us to your kingdom through your son, Jesus Christ, our lord, Amen.”

  Ellen kept her eye on Tanya, hoping for evidence that her spirit attachment had ended. Nothing seemed profoundly different about her today, however, and Ellen was worried.

  After the priest finished his prayers, he asked if anyone else wanted to say a few words. Maria lifted her hand and stepped forward.

  “I’d just like to say thank you to Sue, Tanya, and Ellen for finding my ancestor Marie Laveau’s precious child, Charles. I thank Priestess Isabel, too, for the part she played. I thank Father Tony for his kind words, and I thank my good friend, Bea, for being there for me all these years. I thank my daughter, Cecilia, for helping me through it all. I also want to say a special thank you to my son, Cornelius…” Maria’s eyes filled with tears.

  Cecilia broke down, too, and took her mother’s hand.

  “Cornelius,” Maria continued, “if you can hear me, I want you to know how much your sister and I love you and how badly we want you to join your father in heaven. It has been an unbearable burden, a terrible curse, knowing that you have been without peace, my son. Please fly into Jesus’s arms and find comfort in our lord and savior.”

  Maria stepped back into line with the others as her daughter and friend comforted her. Ellen noticed tears in Sue and Tanya’s eyes.

  But it wasn’t until Father Tony raised a palm over the tomb and said, “In the name of God, the merciful Father, we commit the body of Charles Laveau to the peace of the grave,” that Ellen noticed a change in Tanya.

  Father Tony stooped over and took a handful of dirt into his hand. As he let the dirt fall over the tomb, he said, “From dust you came, to dust you shall return.” He poured two more handfuls of dirt onto the tomb as he said, “Heavenly Father, you gave him life. Receive him in your peace and give him, through Jesus Christ, a joyful resurrection. May your perpetual light shine upon the soul of Charles Laveau. Amen.”

  Tanya began to tremble.

  “You okay?” Ellen whispered beside her.

  Tanya did not reply. Her body shook more rigidly, as though she were having a gran mal seizure.

  “Tanya?” Sue cried.

  Both Sue and Ellen held the arms of their friend as her body suddenly relaxed and nearly fell to the ground.

  “Heavenly Father!” Father Tony cried. “Please receive the soul of your son, Cornelius Nunnery. Receive him in your peace and grant him, through Jesus Christ, a joyful resurrection. May your perpetual light shine upon his soul as he joins you in your heavenly kingdom.”

  Maria Nunnery fell to her knees and rasped, through heavy sobs, “Amen.”

  After the graveside ceremony, Ellen and her friends invited the group for sandwiches, tea, and cupcakes at the guesthouse on Chartres, where Maria, Cecilia, and Beatrice shared stories about Cornelius and Jamar. Ellen could tell how badly Sue and Tanya wanted to mention what they’d heard on the EVP recorder, because she wanted to say something, too; however, they held back, not wanting to create false hope.

  Later that evening, after everyone had gone, Ellen, Sue, and Tanya sat together in the guesthouse with Delphine’s diary. Tanya read Delphine’s entries from 1835 through 1840, which focused mostly on a growing concern for her youngest child’s hearing. Jean Louis visited a number of medical experts and began an experimental treatment in 1838 that seemed to work. Delphine wrote in an April 1840 entry that she believed her son was cured.

  Delphine also wrote about her daughter, Pauline, and the fear that she would never marry. Although Pauline’s hunch seems to have been radically reduced by Dr. Lalaurie’s treatments, it was never fully eradicated, and, according to Delphine’s letters, it continued to impact Pauline’s confidence.

  Delphine’s daughter, Jeanne, came to Paris with her husband and children for a visit in 1838 and again in 1840. The entries in the wakes of those visits were full of longing.

  In the fall of 1840, Delphine wrote about a love affair. She mentioned no names, only the initials G.B. But, by the end of 1841, the man had broken her heart. In an entry dated August 1841, she swore off all men and became more determined than ever to return to New Orleans.

  The entries throughout 1842 focused on the preparations Delphine made for the return to New Orleans and the arguments she had with Paulin and Pauline, who were not keen to move. By the end of the year, she, Pauline, and Jean Louis resided with Jeanne and her children in the house on Chartres Street now owned by Sue, Tanya, and Ellen.

  “Why don’t we stop there?” Sue said with a yawn. “I’m ready for bed.”

  “I didn’t realize how late it was,” Tanya said. “It’s nearly midnight.”

/>   “We should review the recordings from our Audubon Park investigation tomorrow,” Ellen said, “in case we received any other messages, especially regarding Jamar.”

  “Yes, we should,” Tanya agreed.

  “How do you feel, Tanya?” Sue asked. “Still good?”

  “Great,” Tanya said as tears formed in her eyes. “So relieved. I can’t thank you guys enough for helping me.”

  “It was a team effort,” Sue said.

  Ellen nodded. “Absolutely, but our work isn’t done yet.”

  “Oh, I know,” Tanya said. “I’m anxious to see if we can find Jamar Nunnery. I’ll draft an email tomorrow with his Facebook profile picture.”

  “We can start with hospitals within a hundred-mile radius of here,” Sue said. “And we can work outward from there.”

  “We also need to return Marie Laveau’s turban,” Ellen pointed out. “I think I’ll mail it anonymously to the museum tomorrow.”

  “Good idea,” Tanya said as she pulled out the sofa sleeper and arranged her bedding. “Good night.”

  “Good night,” Sue and Ellen said as they headed upstairs.

  Once in her room, Ellen flipped on the lamp by her bed and changed into her pajamas. It felt colder upstairs, so she unfolded the blanket at the foot of her bed and spread it over the sheet before climbing beneath it.

  Her lamp flickered twice, and the room dropped in temperature by several degrees Ellen sat up and held very still. Her breath condensed into a tiny cloud. Then suddenly the lamp went out and the bedroom door, which she’d left ajar, slammed shut. The hair on the back of Ellen’s neck stood on end.

  “Who’s there?” she said through trembling lips.

  When no answer came, she climbed from the bed and took her EMF reader from her purse. As soon as she turned it on, it showed high readings of electromagnetic activity. Using the flashlight on her phone, Ellen crossed the room to the door, but the bedroom door wouldn’t budge.

  Ellen pounded on the door. “Sue? Sue? Can you hear me? I need your help! I’m trapped!”

  Ellen kept turning the doorknob and pounding on the door, but it wouldn’t open, even though there was no lock.

  “Sue? Tanya?”

  Suddenly, the door opened. Sue stood on the stairwell landing. She was as white as a sheet as she pointed to writing on the wall. It hadn’t been painted but scratched into the drywall. It read: Get out.

  “Please tell me this is a joke,” Ellen said to Sue.

  Tanya reached the top of the stairs. “What’s going on?” Then she saw the words scratched into the wall. “Oh, my God. Sue? Did you do that?”

  “No, I swear,” Sue said. “The light went off in my room, all on its own, and when I opened the door, I saw this.”

  Ellen recounted what had happened to her.

  “I thought Cornelius moved on,” Tanya said. “Why is this happening?”

  “Tanya, you need to start wearing your gris-gris bag,” Ellen said, as she fingered her own.

  “I have a feeling it’s Delphine,” Sue said. “Think about it. We just gave Marie Laveau what she wanted, the thing Delphine vowed never to give her.”

  Ellen shuddered. “You think the ghost of Delphine is here? In this house?”

  Sue nodded. “I bet she’s mad at us.”

  “I don’t want to stay here,” Tanya said. “Let’s go to a hotel.”

  “Or, we could try to talk to her,” Sue said.

  “I don’t know,” Tanya said. “This act was really aggressive.”

  “We’ll make a circle of protection,” Ellen said. “Come on. Let’s give it a shot.”

  “You two weren’t almost possessed,” Tanya said. “I never want that to happen again.”

  Ellen went downstairs in search of Tanya’s gris-gris bag. The others followed.

  Ellen handed the bag to Tanya. “This will protect you.”

  “Maybe we should do a smudge stick ritual to get rid of her,” Tanya said.

  “That will only make her angrier with us,” Sue said. “She’ll come back with a vengeance.”

  Ellen patted Tanya’s hand. “And aren’t we about healing the spirits? Maybe we can heal Delphine.”

  Tanya took a deep breath and let it out. Ellen could tell she was frightened. They all were, but Tanya had been in the most danger, and she’d finally been freed. Ellen understood her friend’s reluctance.

  “Okay,” Tanya finally said.

  “Are you sure?” Sue asked her. “We don’t want to push you into something you’re not comfortable doing.”

  “I’m sure.”

  “Then let’s get started,” Ellen said.

  Sue drew a circle of salt around the perimeter of the room. Ellen lit a candle. Tanya set out a leftover sandwich and glass of punch. Then Tanya and Ellen sat on the end of the sleeper bed while Tanya took the chair. With the Ouija Board on Tanya’s lap, they touched their fingers to the planchette. All of them were trembling.

  “Spirits of the other realm, we mean you no harm,” Sue began. “Is someone there?”

  Before Sue had finished her question, the planchette spelled, “G-E-T-O-U-T.”

  The temperature had dropped significantly. This was confirmed when Ellen noticed their breath condensed into tiny clouds.

  “Is this Delphine Lalaurie?” Ellen asked.

  The planchette spelled, “G-E-T-O-U-T” a second time.

  “We want to help,” Tanya said. “We’re reading your diary. We can use it to clear your name, so people know the truth.”

  “We can lift the curse,” Ellen added. “People will no longer think of you as a monster.”

  The planchette spelled, “N-O-O-N-E-W-I-L-L-B-E-L-I-E-V-E-Y-O-U.”

  “Maybe not all,” Tanya said. “But some.”

  Again, the planchette spelled, “G-E-T-O-U-T.”

  “We had no choice,” Ellen said. “Marie Laveau threatened Tanya’s life.”

  “Wait,” Tanya said. “We have the doctor’s medical journals. He admits to using the slaves.”

  “That’s right!” Ellen said. “The medical journals, along with Delphine’s diary, would certainly be more credible.”

  “We can have someone authenticate them,” Sue said. “A historian.”

  “Give us a chance, Delphine,” Ellen pleaded. “Please?”

  The planchette didn’t move, but the temperature returned to normal, which Ellen took as a good sign.

  “Are you still there, Delphine?” Sue asked.

  The planchette didn’t move.

  “We’ve got our work cut out for us,” Sue said.

  “You’ve got that right,” Ellen said. “But I don’t think I can sleep in my room.”

  “You can sleep down here with me, if you want,” Tanya offered. “Both of you.”

  “I’ll sleep in the chair,” Sue said. “I’ll go get my blanket from upstairs. Ellen, will you come with me?”

  “Sure. I need to grab my blanket, too.”

  On the way back downstairs, Sue said, “Next time we go to the store, we need to stock up on light bulbs.”

  Once they were settled with the lights out, the circle of protection gave Ellen some comfort, but she continued to fear the ghost of Delphine Lalaurie. The legend surrounding Delphine and the fire of 1834 had been around for almost two hundred years. Was it possible to change it?

  Chapter Twenty: Reconstruction

  A week after the devil child’s funeral, Ellen and her friends met with Michael Rouchell in his office to go over the renovation plans.

  Ellen was nervous and embarrassed about seeing him after what he’d overheard, but she was an adult, and it was time to act like one.

  As handsome and charming as ever, he offered them each a chair before taking his own behind his desk.

  “Did you ladies hear about Lalaurie Mansion?” he asked as he rolled out the plans and flattened them on his desk.

  “No,” Sue said. “What about it?”

  “It’s on the market again.”

  “Serious
ly?” Ellen asked. “That’s so bizarre.”

  “Bizarre?” Michael repeated. “Why? That house has never remained with one owner for very long. They say it’s cursed.”

  “I’ve heard that, too,” Tanya said. “Nicolas Cage went bankrupt while he owned it.”

  “Apparently, that’s what’s happened to the Texas tycoon who owns it now,” Michael said.

  “Really? Bankruptcy?” Ellen asked.

  “It was in the papers this morning.”

  “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” Sue asked Ellen and Tanya.

  “No,” Tanya said. “Absolutely not.”

  “Well,” Ellen smiled at Sue. “We should at least consider it.”

  Michael gawked. “Don’t tell me you’re thinking of buying Lalaurie Mansion.”

  “No,” Tanya said flatly. “We’re not.”

  “We sort of are,” Ellen said.

  “Think about it, Tanya,” Sue said. “We could turn it into a museum devoted to the truth.”

  “It’s the most famous haunted house in the world,” Michael put in. “You’d certainly attract a lot of tourists if you opened it up to the public.”

  Tanya sighed. “I like the idea, but that’s a lot of money to have tied up in two properties.”

  “Looks like she’s thinking about it,” Michael said with a laugh. “That didn’t take long.”

  After their meeting with the architect, the three friends went to Coop’s Place for lunch, where they discussed Lalaurie Mansion over jambalaya.

  “What if we go bankrupt, too?” Tanya said. “We have a responsibility to Greenwood to be careful with how we spend the oil money.”

  “From what I’ve heard,” Sue said, “the curse has only affected people who have tried to live in the mansion. If we turn it into a museum…”

  “No one will live in it,” Ellen finished. “And maybe we can lift the curse altogether. If we expose the truth about what was really going on…”

  “Our husbands aren’t going to like this,” Tanya said. “Would we sell the museum? How will we get our investment back?”

  “We sold Monroe Social Club,” Sue pointed out. “And we make great money with the Gold House.”