Darkwater Truth

by Robin Caroll

  I’m sure you will recognize his mother’s name from the reports and newspaper as the woman who was a victim of the Axeman two months ago. She and her married lover were attacked in his home. Please do not judge sweet Willie harshly because of his mother’s sins. He is an innocent boy who had the misfortune to be born illegitimate to a mother who was and continued to be involved with men outside the legalities of marriage.

  The Axeman’s attack left Harriet with a cut over her left ear, and a partial paralysis in her face. Some have said that this was punishment for her adultery, but I do not know. I leave those judgements to our Sovereign Lord.

  Harriet had surgery to correct her injury, only to die from complications arising after her surgery.

  I am truly saddened that I must forfeit Willie to your care, for I sincerely love him, but I cannot offer him a life that he so deserves. Despite the tragedy of his short life, Willie is kind and gentle, one of the sweetest souls I have ever known.

  I pray that you will diligently search for a family who will adopt Willie into their home, filling his life with love and happiness. These are the basics of what he deserves. Please let him know that although I could not keep him, he was loved so very much.

  8

  — Addy

  “Girl, that almost sounds like someone coming after you with some serious voodoo.” Tracey pulled another shirt out of her closet and held it up to her chest and looked in the mirror. She shook her head and tossed it onto the growing pile on the floor.

  Addy sat back against Tracey’s headboard and stared at her best friend who stood in her closet doorway wearing jeans and a tank top. “Beau said they determined it was pig’s blood, but that’s almost creepier than if it were human. I mean, who does that?”

  “People who think they’re witches or trying to do something they have no business trying to do.” Tracey disappeared back into her closet for a minute, returning with four more tops.

  “The CSU guy said he thought he would be able to get a fingerprint off one of the pieces of glass, but it would be Monday before he could work on it.” Addy let out a sigh. “I mean, I know they’re trying to get a DNA profile from the axe they found at the hotel, but still…” She understood they were busy, but patience had never been her strong suit.

  “Hey, I hear you. I’d be creeped out, too, and it takes a lot to creep me out.” She held up a royal blue shimmery top. “Think this is too much for coffee?”

  Addy grinned. “Too much for a date with Geoff? Nah, he’ll love it.”

  “It’s not too dressy?” Tracey studied her reflection. “I mean, it’s just coffee. He may not even be interested in me like that.”

  “Oh please. Trace, he had to ask me for your number, which means he knew I’d pick on him relentlessly about it, but he still wanted your number bad enough to ask. I’d say that means he’s interested in you like that.”

  “Mmm.” She turned to face Addy. “Do you think it’s too soon after Chuck and I called it quits to be seeing someone else?”

  Addy considered the question before she slowly shook her head. “I really don’t. You made a mature and responsible decision about yours and Chuck’s relationship, and I respect you for it. Some people would’ve tried to hang on, even if they knew the relationship would fail and there’d be a higher chance of people getting hurt.” She smiled at the woman she loved like a sister. “I think you’re entitled to go out and have fun.”

  “Yeah, but Geoff is different.”

  Addy laughed. “Different from what?”

  “Other guys I’ve dated. When he looks at me, it’s like he really sees me.”

  “As opposed to what? Leering at you? You should hang out with better people, Trace.”

  “Yeah. Starting with my best friend.” Tracey scrunched up her nose. “Seriously, it’s like he can see into my mind. It’s a little unnerving, but kind of neat, too.” She shook her head and pulled on the blue shirt. “I’m probably not making a lick of sense.”

  “Actually you are. I get it.”

  “Do you? With who? Beau or Dimitri?”

  Addy grabbed Tracey’s old Winnie the Pooh bear and hugged it to her chest. “A week ago, I would have said both of them.”

  Tracey rested her hands on her hips. “And now?”

  “I would avoid answering.” Because deep down, she had a sneaky suspicion that her heart had already made its decision. She just needed it to send the message to her head.

  Tracey grabbed the T-shirt she’d just thrown on the dresser and tossed it at Addy. “I thought you were ready to make a decision.”

  “I am, I promise. It’s just that I haven’t been able to really spend any alone time with either of them that doesn’t have to do with a skeleton found in the hotel’s walls or crazies throwing pig blood at me.”

  Tracey sat beside her and put an arm around her shoulders. “I’m sorry, Ads. It’s got to be so hard to always have something happening. It’s like you can’t catch a break.”

  “Tell me about it. Just when I think things are slowing down and getting back to normal—whatever that is anymore—something else happens.”

  “The last couple of years have been a bit of a whirlwind for you.”

  Addy nodded. “When I got back from Europe, I knew that I wanted to see Beau and Dimitri a couple of times and let my heart decide which I should pursue a relationship with. I’m ready to have a real relationship, not just casual dating. I’m knocking on thirty’s door and I’m ready to think about the future and what it could look like for me. But every time I think I can set up time alone with Beau and Dimitri, something happens and my emotions have to be put on simmer.”

  Tracey squeezed her before standing. “Just make sure your simmering doesn’t bubble and overflow. It’s a mess to clean up when that happens.”

  “Like you cook so much that you’d know.” Addy grinned.

  “I’ve heard rumors.” Tracey grabbed her signature red lipstick and turned to pucker in the mirror.

  Tracey’s cell blasted.

  “If Geoff is calling to cancel, I swear I’m going to cry.” She answered the call. “Hello.”

  Addy crossed her arms over her chest and stared at her best friend. If Geoff was calling to cancel, Addy was going to have some cross words of her own for him.

  “I understand. Are you sure everyone’s okay?” Tracey’s already porcelain skin paled even further. “Yes. I will. Thanks.” She set her phone on the dresser and moved to the bed. She sat down next to Addy.

  “What is it? You’re scaring me, Trace.”

  Tracey took both of Addy’s hands. “That was one of Chuck’s crew from the station here. There’s been a fire.”

  “Chuck?”

  Tracey shook her head. “No. And, Ads, I need you to hear all the details before you freak out, okay?”

  Addy’s heart sped. Was it Beau? Dimitri? If it wasn’t Beau, why wasn’t he calling her? “What is it?”

  “It’s your dad’s house.”

  Addy moved to jump up, but Tracey tightened her grip on her hands and kept her in place. “First, your dad is okay. He’s at the hospital being treated for smoke inhalation, but he’s okay.”

  “What happened?”

  Tracey shook her head. “A neighbor saw the light from the flame and called 911. The fire department arrived and got your dad out. He was unconscious in the living room. He’s okay, though. He regained consciousness in the ambulance and is alert and responsive in the emergency room.”

  Addy pushed off the bed and stood. “I have to get to the hospital.” She couldn’t even think. Where were her car keys? Had she even brought a purse?

  Tracey slipped her cell into her pocket. “Come on, let me drive you. You’re in no shape to drive.”

  Addy nodded and headed to the front door. Her legs felt like they were made of rubber. “I just can’t believe this.”

  “Honey, there’s more you need to know.”

  More?

  Tracey continued before she could ask. “Your
dad asked for Beau when he got to the hospital. He said someone hit him over the head and set the house on fire with him in it.”

  — Beau

  “Okay, let’s go over it again.” He still had a hard time grasping the implications of what Vincent was telling them. If it had been anybody other than Vincent, Beau would wonder if the bump on the head rattled his memory. But this was Vincent…the man who’d stepped in and acted as a surrogate father when his own had died in the line of duty. The man who was smart as a tack and didn’t mince words.

  The small examining room space of Tulane Medical Center had been too confining and loud to take a detailed police report from Vincent. Luckily, Marcel had been able to flash his badge and get Vincent into a private triage room. He’d been sucking the oxygen for almost half an hour now, and the doctor had just let him stop. Now to see if he could talk without coughing up a lung.

  Vincent took a drink of the water from the bottle the nurse handed him. She glared at Beau and Marcel. “If he starts to cough or have trouble speaking, you’ll need to step out.”

  “This is a police matter—” Marcel began.

  “This man is my patient and that takes precedence.” She wasn’t going to budge on this one.

  Beau nodded. “We’ll take it slow and let him go at his own pace.”

  She hesitated, then gave a curt nod. She smiled at Vincent. “Keep sipping on that water. The doctor will be in shortly to look at your throat again and make sure there isn’t any damage from the smoke.”

  Vincent smiled up at her. His face was smeared with dark soot, looking like bruises. They’d put the stitches in the back of his head where he’d been hit, and now it was covered with a gauzy bandage. “Thank you.” His voice sounded froggy, cracking but not wavering.

  “Push the button if you need me.” She turned and walked briskly out the door.

  Marcel pulled a chair up close to the bed while Beau stood nearby, notebook in hand.

  The door burst open.

  “Daddy!” Addy spoke at the same time she flew into the room and hugged her father hard. “Are you okay? How bad are you hurt? Oh my goodness, your head. What happened?”

  “I’m okay.” He kissed her cheek.

  “Your voice!”

  “Hey, give him a little breathing room, Ads.” Tracey shut the door behind her. Now there were four of them in there with Vincent.

  Addy stepped back, but still clung to her father’s hand. “Why didn’t you call me?” She turned her glare on Beau as Vincent took another drink of water. “Why didn’t you call me?” Addy didn’t wait for a response, just turned back to her father. “What happened?”

  “That’s what he’s about to tell us.” Marcel rolled his eyes at Tracey.

  Good thing Addy didn’t see it.

  Beau cleared his throat. “We’re about to take his statement.”

  “Don’t you dare imply that I need to leave or I’ll twist off on you, Beauregard Savoie!”

  “Shh. Just go sit with Tracey and you can stay.” Vincent patted her hand.

  Without argument, Addy did as her father instructed.

  Vincent took another drink of water before he looked at Beau. “I’d finished cleaning up the kitchen from dinner and went into the living room to do a little writing. I turned on the stereo and settled in my recliner. I had my MacBook open and was writing when I noticed a shadow flicker across the screen.” He cleared his throat, paused for a second, then took another drink.

  He cleared his throat again. “I turned to see if maybe a car’s headlights had caused the shadow when a dark figure stood behind me. I felt the Mac slide off my lap as I turned, then I saw the figure lift something over his head. A pain shot down my head and everything went dark. Next think I know, I’m in the back of an ambulance.”

  Beau wrote in his notebook as fast as Vincent spoke, then read over what he’d written while Vincent took another drink of water. “About what time would you say this was?”

  “Around eight fifteen, eight twenty.”

  “This shadow flicker,” Marcel interrupted, “I’m not following.”

  Vincent let out a slow breath. “My Mac laptop screen isn’t matte. It’s shiny. So any movement catches my attention. Sometimes it’s a headlight of a car coming through the curtains on the front windows. If someone walks behind me and there’s backlight, it’ll cause a shadow. It’s very distracting. This time, a person moving behind me caught my eye.”

  “I see.” Marcel nodded.

  “When you say a ‘dark figure,’ what do you mean?” Beau asked. “Dark hair? Wearing a dark shirt?”

  Vincent took another sip of water before croaking out his answer. “Dark-colored shirt. Hoodie, I think, because I remember seeing the dark material over his head.”

  “His? You’re sure it was a man?” Marcel asked.

  “Pretty sure. The build reminded me of a man. Wider shoulders than a woman.” He cleared his throat. “I was sitting so I can’t gauge if he was taller than me. I’d guess he was just under six foot, but that’s not real accurate.” He took another drink of water and cleared his throat again.

  “What about the face? White? Black? Any facial hair?” Beau asked.

  Vincent shook his head. “I only saw him for a split second before he zonked me, but nothing comes to mind.” He took another drink of water. “Now that I think about it, I almost think I couldn’t even see a face.”

  “Like the face was covered and you couldn’t see it?”

  “No. More like the face was entirely blacked out. Sunken further back from the edge of the hood.” He shrugged. “I know that really doesn’t make a lot of sense. Maybe it was the angle because I was sitting below him. I don’t know. Like I said, it was all really fast before it was lights out for me.”

  Beau’s gut tightened. Black hooded figure…face obstructed. Was starting to have an all too familiar ring to it.

  “Can you remember anything else?” Marcel asked.

  Vincent cleared his throat. “When I came to, I was already on a stretcher in the back of an ambulance. They sat me up and put gauze on the cut on my head and started feeding me the oxygen while I sat there and watched my house burn.” Tears welled in the older man’s eyes. “All those memories of you growing up…” He stared at Addy and shook her head.

  She moved to his side and put an arm around his shoulders. “The memories are in our hearts, Daddy, not in that house.” But tears flowed down her face. “I’m just so thankful you’re okay.” She kissed his cheek and sat beside him on the narrow bed.

  “I know, Addybear. It was just hard to watch it.” His eyes cleared and he snapped his fingers, then looked at Beau with wide eyes.

  “What?” Beau gripped his pen tighter.

  “I saw something in the woods behind the house when I was in the ambulance. The dark figure.” He shook his head. “No, there were two of them.” His eyes widened more. “It wasn’t a hoodie. They wore long black-hooded robes.”

  Addy gasped and lifted her hand to her mouth.

  “What?” Vincent asked.

  Beau spoke before Addy could explain. “Can you recall anything about those faces? At the edge of the woods?”

  Vincent stared off into space, clearly struggling to focus.

  “It’s okay if you can’t.” The last thing Beau needed was for Vincent’s mind to try and fill in the gaps because his subconscious felt pressured to know.

  Vincent shook his head. “Nothing. It’s not like they were faceless, as odd as that sounds, but more like it was just a black void. That doesn’t make sense either, does it?”

  A man in a white coat opened the door and joined them. “Well, is there a party going on in here I wasn’t invited to?” The doctor smiled, but had to weave around Tracey and Marcel. He glanced around the room. “I need to examine my patient before discharge, so if you all could wait out in the waiting room…”

  Everyone moved toward the door. Vincent gave Addy another kiss before she shut the examining room door behind her and j
oined them in the hall. She punched Beau’s arm. “Why didn’t you call me immediately?”

  His bicep stung where she’d hit him. She might be slight, but the woman could pack a punch. Clearly. “I got the call and Marcel and I rushed over here. I didn’t know it was your dad until I got here. Once I did, I was trying to get information and make sure he was all right before I called you.”

  “How did you find out?” Marcel asked.

  “That would be me.” Tracey raised a finger as they opened the double doors out of the triage area into the waiting room. “One of the firemen who responded to the call is a friend of mine and knew I was friends with Vincent and Addy. He called to give me a heads up, and Addy happened to be at my house when I got the call.” She dug out her cell. “Hexes! I forgot I was supposed to meet Geoff ten minutes ago. He probably thinks I stood him up. Excuse me.” She headed outside the emergency room entrance, dialing her phone.

  “Geoff?” Beau asked Addy.

  She shrugged. “They have a coffee date, but I’m still mad at you. How couldn’t you call me as soon as you knew it was Dad?”

  “I’m sorry, Addy. I had to do my job first, which was make sure he was okay, then try and figure out what happened and who did it, so I can catch them and make them pay.” He led the trio to the vacant row of chairs off to the back wall of the waiting room.

  She hesitated only a moment before she dropped onto the chair beside him. “The black hooded robes? Is this connected to the guys who threw the pigs blood at us?”

  “I don’t know.” But his gut had that sinking feeling that they were linked.

  “Why did you cut me off when I was going to mention the guys who threw the jar of pig’s blood at us?”

  “Because we can’t have your father’s recollection tainted with something you say that he, even subconsciously, infuses into what he thinks are the facts,” Marcel explained.

  “Oh.”