Chapter 11 #2
Amelie’s jaw hardened. “You cannot go on this treasure hunt without me. Germaine and Celine might’ve set up the initial clues, but if what you find is another clue, it might be of Armand’s doing. I knew Armand better than anyone, even his son. I’m going. That’s non-negotiable.”
Maurice pulled her into his arms for a quick kiss. “Agreed. Besides, I don’t like the idea of someone else in charge of your safety.”
She raised an eyebrow. “Even one of your own teammates?”
“I trust them with my life. I just don’t know if I could step away as your protector. Not yet. Not until we remove the danger in this situation.”
“Good. I don’t want any other protector but you. And I don’t want to be left behind. Now that we’ve got that settled, I’m going with you,” Amelie said. “You realize St. Louis Cathedral is a national park, don’t you?
Maurice nodded. “It was part of the Louisiana Purchase.”
“If, in the process of retrieving the painting or another clue, we do anything to damage the structure, it’s considered a federal crime. Depending on the extent of the damage, it could be considered a misdemeanor or even a felony.
“Then we’ll do our best not to damage it or get caught.”
“I’d feel better if we had a plan before we rush off to New Orleans. I want to understand the other clues better so we’re not blindly poking around a national park. But first, I have to take care of my business.”
“Fair enough. We’ll work through the morning rush.
But see if you can get someone to fill in for you as soon as possible.
Once we leave here, I’d like to swing by the boat factory.
I can arrange to have Remy and some of the other Brotherhood Protectors there to help brainstorm the possible meanings of the clues.
I’ll also get Swede working on obtaining blueprints of the cathedral if they’re anywhere to be found. ”
A smile spread across Amelie’s face. “Now, that’s a plan I can get behind. If there’s one thing that makes me crazy, it’s going off half-cocked.”
“Then we’ll go fully cocked.”
The door opened, and the first customers of the day entered—a young mother and her three-year-old daughter.
The rush proved heavy and steady all the way to ten thirty when they finally caught a break. Amelie had texted Gisele, who offered to have her assistant, Lena Drummond, man the bakery for the rest of the day as soon as she showed up at the Mamba Wamba Gift Shop.
Amelie would need to stick around long enough to show Lena the ropes, how to run the point-of-sale system and anything else she needed to know to keep the business running in Amelie’s absence.
Luis came down at nine-thirty. While he ate one of Amelie’s amazing eclairs, they filled him in on what they’d found.
“I’m going with you,” Luis said.
“If the directions are leading us to one of the bell towers, we might have a problem,” Maurice said. “The bell towers are off-limits to the public. We’d have to sneak in. That might be considered a crime.”
“I’m willing to risk it,” Luis said.
“A federal crime,” Amelie clarified. “It would show up on your record and could keep you from getting a job or cause you to lose the one you have yet to start.”
“Then we’ll have to make sure we don’t get caught,” Luis said.
Maurice grinned. “I like the way he thinks.”
Amelie shook her head. “You two are impossible.”
“And you like to follow the rules,” Luis said. “Remember what my father always told you?”
Amelie nodded, “Don’t try to go exactly by the recipe.”
“Or rules,” Luis interjected. “Go on.”
“Sometimes, you have to go with your gut.” She sighed. “I miss him.”
Luis gave her a half-smile. “Me, too.”
“It would’ve been a lot simpler to find the painting if he hadn’t died,” Amelie said softly.
“And told us what all this means and where to look without having to unravel the clues,” Luis muttered.
Amelie stood as one of the local moms entered the bakery and asked for two dozen cookies to take to her child’s school for an afternoon snack.
Halfway through the morning, Lena appeared in the doorway, wearing jeans, a Nirvana T-shirt and black army boots. She carried a backpack slung over her shoulder. “Hey, Amelie. Gisele said you needed someone to cover for you while you run off to New Orleans for the rest of the day.”
“That’s right. Thanks for coming on such short notice.”
“No worries,” Lena said. “One thing, though. I have a test in Calculus tomorrow. If things get slow around here, do you mind if I use the time to study?”
“Not at all,” Amelie said. “I’m just glad you’re able to fill in for me. You can drop your backpack behind the counter, then follow me.”
Maurice admired how quickly and efficiently Amelie brought Lena up to speed and let her handle several customers before she deemed her ready to conquer the world. Or, at least, the bakery.
She drove the bakery van with Maurice and Luis as passengers to the boarding house, where they picked up Maurice’s pickup and left the van parked out front.
Next stop was the old boat factory, where a few of his teammates would be waiting to help them go over the clues.
Maurice led Amelie, followed by Luis, through the active boat factory, filled with sheets of aluminum, the machines needed to bend and form the aluminum and more.
At the far end of the factory floor stood a door leading into the remodeled section of the building, outfitted as a war room with a conference table, a bank of computers with an array of monitors and a large screen at the end of the table.
As soon as they walked in, Remy, Gerard, Lucas, Beau and Xavier, pushed to their feet.
Remy was the first to approach Amelie and Luis. “Welcome to the headquarters of the Bayou Brotherhood Protectors.” He held out his hand to Luis. “I’m Remy Montagne, lead over this branch of the Brotherhood Protectors.”
Luis shook Remy’s hand as he glanced around the room. “This is amazing. And the boat factory is beyond cool.”
Remy waved a hand toward the conference table. “I know you want to get to New Orleans early enough to give yourself time to follow the clues. If you’ll take a seat, we can get started. Swede, bring up what you all discovered in the recipe book, using the numeric positioning of the alphabet.”
The string of words appeared on the big screen.
CLIMB PASS TIME EGLW WALL FIND US THERE
“According to Luis,” Swede continued, “the pocket watch Armand Beno?t gave him prior to his death hasn’t worked for as long as he remembers.
” The photo of the watch appeared on the screen with the other clues.
“The hands on the watch are frozen in the one o’clock position, which corresponds to the photograph of Germaine and Celine Beno?t standing in front of the St. Louis Cathedral at exactly one o’clock.
This leads us to believe the missing Monet painting could be hidden inside the cathedral.
“Now that you know the location is the St. Louis Cathedral,” Swede said, “let’s see how these words might apply.
” He added a photograph of the cathedral to the display.
“As you can see, St. Louis Cathedral has three towers, with a clock mounted in the center. The center tower also contains the bells.”
Maurice moved closer to the end of the conference table to point at the central tower. “The first word we identified was CLIMB,” he stated. “Since the clock in the photo matches the time on the pocket watch, we think it means the clock tower of the cathedral is where we’d climb.”
“PASS is next, then TIME,” Maurice said. “We figure you’ll have to climb past the clock.”
“The next letters are where we have to get creative,” Remy said. “EGLW WALL. Does that mean you need to pass EGLW WALL or pass EGLW, then go to a wall? And which wall?”
“What is EGLW?” Gerard asked.
“That has us stumped,” Maurice said.
“What if we take each letter separately?” Remy suggested. “What object in the St. Louis Cathedral starts with an E and can be found in the central tower?”
Silence stretched.
Maurice shook his head. “If the first word is climb and you pass the clock, what would come next?”
“The bells,” Amelie said.
“Bells’ notes start with B, not E,” Remy pointed out.
“Unless the bells have names,” Maurice said. “Swede?”
“They do,” Swede came back. “The largest one is the Victoire, and there’s one called the Philomena Virginia.”
“Again, not E,” Remy said.
“Okay, so we don’t know what EGLW stands for. We can figure it out when we get there. How many places above the clock would be big enough to hide a painting anyway? We’ll need to check all the walls after we pass the clock. It has to be there.”
“FIND US THERE, has to mean the spot where the painting is hidden,” Amelie said. “Why does it say US, as in more than one?”
“They escaped with valuables. Maybe they hid more than just the painting,” Maurice suggested.” He looked around the room, his gaze stopping at Amelie. “We don’t have all the answers, but we have enough to focus on the central tower of the cathedral above the clock.”
“It’ll have to be enough.” Amelie’s lips tightened in a straight line. “We have to make it work because we might not get more than one shot at sneaking in.”
“Before we go to jail or are fined and banned from ever visiting the cathedral again,” Maurice said.
“Or any other national park,” Luis added.
“Maurice, are you suggesting you and Amelie will attempt the climb?” Remy asked.
Luis raised a hand. “And me.”
“Don’t you think we should send in a subset of our team?” Remy said. “We’re trained combatants. If Armand Beno?t was murdered, whoever killed him might be waiting to claim the prize and might kill again to get it.”
Amelie shot a glance toward Maurice. “Armand entrusted the watch and recipe book to Luis and me. He wanted us to follow the clues. If there’s something to be found, it should be us finding it.”
Remy’s gaze shot to Maurice.
“It wouldn’t hurt to have backup,” Maurice compromised.
“We’re supposed to do everything in our power to protect our clients,” Remy reminded him.
Maurice’s jaw tightened. “And I will do everything in my power to protect Amelie.”
“Me, too,” Luis said.
Maurice nodded. “I doubt we can sneak an entire team into the tower. But if we’re going in with three, we might as well take four. Do you have someone in mind?”
Remy nodded. “Me.”
“You’re the boss,” Xavier noted. “Shouldn’t you be directing the rest of us? I’ll be the fourth on the infil team.”
Remy frowned. “Maurice? Xavier is an experienced—”
“Navy SEAL.” Maurice gave the man a chin lift. “We never worked together on active duty, but I know his record. Yes. I’d take him in a heartbeat.”
Remy turned to the others. “The rest of us will set up a perimeter around the cathedral, arriving at different times.”
“Swede, we’ll need pictures of the German, Fredrick Schulz, and the Frenchman, Eugene Peltier, who claims to be a cultural preservationist, and whatever you can dig up on him. Could you get it to us ASAP?”
“On it,” Swede said.
“When do we leave?” Remy asked.
“Immediately,” Amelie said, “if not sooner.”
Maurice nodded. “We don’t know if Schulz or Peltier was responsible for the death of Amand Beno?t or someone entirely different.
But they were able to find Bayou Mambaloa.
I say we locate the Monet and get it into the right hands before Armand’s killer turns his sights on Luis and Amelie.
” He lifted his chin. “We leave as soon as we gear up.”