Chapter 14 #3
“étienne sent the third man to his grave.” Odette sighed.
“étienne had an incident six weeks ago where he walked away from something that killed everyone else in the room. It scared him. He asked if reliquaries really protected families, like his mother had told him.” She smiled.
“I told him they could. He asked if I knew where he could obtain some. I said yes. He wrote a check.” She looked up, her smile sweet, her eyes wide and strangely friendly.
“I had forty years of documentation that I started when I lived in Bayou Mambaloa. I gave him the list of the tombs that contained the reliquaries.”
“Did he send the people to collect them, or did you?” Beau asked.
“Oh, I didn’t collect them. I never would’ve damaged the tombs like his men did.” She shook her head. “Such a shame. I spoke to the sexton and offered to help restore the damaged tombs.”
“And the reliquaries?” Beau continued. “Where are they?”
Odette smiled up at Beau. “Why, they’re with that dear man, étienne. All of them. At least all of what was inside the boxes. He had no use for the boxes and sent some back to me to dispose of as I wished.”
“Do you know where he’s keeping the contents of those reliquaries?” Beau asked.
“He said he was taking them to his camp.” Her brow furrowed.
“The last time I talked to him, he was rather angry. He said the reliquaries weren’t working for him, and he wondered why.
I told him that they weren’t created for him, but for the specific families whose tombs they were placed in.
He was so angry. It scared me a little. I told him if he wanted protection for himself, he’d have to have a reliquary made for him by the family that started it all.
” She smiled up at Beau. “The Gautiers.”
Lissette gasped.
Xavier slipped an arm around her waist and pulled her close.
Odette waved a hand in the video. “I told him that to get him off my back and out of my warehouse. I didn’t think he’d take me seriously.”
For Lissette, the rest of the interview passed in a blur. Odette’s words had caused this string of events that had landed her grandmother in the hands of a frightened mafia kingpin. How were they going to rescue her in the middle of a hurricane?
Beau and Landry left the warehouse heading back to Bayou Mambaloa.
“Meet us at the Crawdad Hole,” Remy told them. “They’re still serving, and we could all stand to eat while we’re figuring out where to start the search. Shelby will join us briefly before she heads north with Jean-Luc.”
Everyone but Lucas moved toward the exit. He would stay and man the comms through the storm. Felina, his fiancé, would join him before noon. She was wrapping up at her flower shop, hoping it would withstand the storm.
Lissette stayed close to Xavier, her body trembling. “I don’t feel like going to the Crawdad Hole,” she whispered.
“Sounds like everyone is meeting there to talk about hurricane support and rescue efforts for your grandmother.” Xavier reached for and squeezed her hand and didn’t let go. “We need to be there.”
The last thing Lissette needed was people glaring at her or calling her names under their breath or to her face. However, if it meant coming up with a plan to save her grandmother, she’d be there.
Rain and wind lashed them as they ran for the truck.
They followed Remy’s vehicle to the Crawdad Hole, passing through a point where the water covered the road at least six inches deep.
It would soon become impassable, closing the road until the hurricane and residual rain moved out of the area and the water receded.
Once they arrived at the bar and grill, Xavier parked his truck, and they rushed inside amid a torrent of pelting rain and gale-force winds.
Danny worked the tables, serving food and beer to those intrepid enough to stay behind and brave the hurricane.
Mace LaFayette had a group of his Bayou Reapers gathered around a table, sharing information about road conditions.
Remy and members of his team joined the Reapers.
Other Bayou Mambaloa townspeople were scattered around the bar and grill, seeking a little solace in the storm before going back out to help.
Lissette recognized several people who’d slammed doors in her face.
As she passed by a table with two men seated, she recognized Grady Martin and Mr. Romig, two of the people she’d gone out into the bayou to make her grandmother’s house calls and to warn them of the incoming hurricane.
She leaned into Xavier, hoping the two men wouldn’t make a scene and draw attention to her.
In the past, she’d have used that attention to throw it back in the faces of those who’d talked down to her.
After all that had happened and after losing her grandmother, she didn’t have it in her to endure the anger and abuse.
Mr. Romig’s hand shot out and captured her arm. “Ms. Gautier.”
The hand on her arm clung tightly. She’d have to work hard to remove it, possibly making a scene. She braced herself and turned to the man with his walker placed behind his seat.
“Yes, Mr. Romig?” she asked.
“Just wanted to say thank you for warning me about the hurricane and for delivering the food your grandmother sent.” Mr. Romig pointed a finger at her.
“You tell your grandmother I appreciated the gumbo. She makes it just the way I like it. I hope her ankle gets better soon. In the meantime, I promise not to bite your head off if you come to my place again. It was a good thing you did. My daughter gave me the what-for and made me promise to do right by you. Anyway, thank you for warning me. My friend Grady came by today to help me get out.”
Grady Martin cleared his throat. “About yesterday, I need to thank you, as well,” he said, his face turning a ruddy red.
“I had no right to be so disagreeable with you. If not for you, I wouldn’t have known how bad it was gonna get.
The two of us are leaving in a few minutes to head to Baton Rouge to stay with my other daughter.
Stacey and her kids are already there. You need to get out while you can. ”
Lissette nodded and mumbled, “You’re welcome,” then moved on, shocked by the turnaround in two of the crankiest people she’d visited the day before.
When Beau and Landry arrived, the Brotherhood Protectors and the Bayou Reapers gathered around a table where someone had laid out a map of the area.
They discussed where water covered the roads, where vehicles had stalled in the exodus, clogging routes into and out of town.
As Xavier moved closer to the group, Lissette hung back, worried about her grandmother.
Anton and Jacques were on their way back to the marina, reporting that everyone had evacuated except a couple of diehards who refused to leave.
Lissette walked to the bathroom, relieved herself and washed her hands. She was about to leave the room when her cell phone chirped. Her heart raced as she dug it out of her pocket, praying it was her grandmother, telling her she was fine and on her way home.
The caller ID read UNKNOWN.
Lissette answered anyway. “This is Lissette.”
“Ms. Gautier,” a man’s voice said into her ear. “étienne Benoit.”
Her hand tightened on the phone. “Where is my grandmother?”
“She’s with me, and we’re taking very good care of her,” he said in a congenial tone. “I’d like to make a proposal.”
“Let my grandmother go,” Lissette said. “She’s done nothing to hurt you.”
“No, she has not. I have no plan to hurt her.”
“You already have by dragging her from her home.”
“Now, I did not condone dragging, and I’ve spoken with my employees about roughing up our guest. But, as I was saying, I would like to make a generous proposal.”
Lissette snorted. “Knock yourself out.”
“I propose to return all the reliquaries back to their designated family tombs—intact and none the worse for wear.”
Lissette knew the mafia. Nothing came without a price. “In exchange for what?”
“You,” he said simply. “Or rather, you’ll make a protection reliquary just for me—tonight, before the eye of the hurricane comes ashore. Do that for me, and you can come work for me.”
“Why would I want to work for you?” she asked.
“You would be accepted and revered, not ridiculed, spit on and called demeaning names.”
She’d taken this kind of job at the same organization before. At the time, it had felt good to belong somewhere.
Not this time. She knew the price she would have to pay. She had done her time and refused to go back.
“I have to decline your generous offer to work for you, but I accept the offer to make the trade on one condition...you release my grandmother when you take me.”
“I hold the cards,” Benoit said, his tone still congenial, almost pleasant, deceptively so. “I have the great Madame Gautier,” he reminded her.
“I’m the only one who can make the reliquary that will free you from the past,” Lissette said, playing on his paranoia. “Only I can close this circle that began with your grandfather.”
“I will release your grandmother after you make the protection reliquary. And yes, you set this path in motion with my grandfather. I understand now that you are the only one who can bring it to an end. But I’m not opposed to just killing you. Perhaps it will free me of your curse.”
Lissette shrugged. “Go ahead. Kill me and place your bet.”
He didn’t speak for a long moment. “If you want your grandmother to live, come alone to the coordinates I share with you. It will get you part of the way to your grandmother. At that point, I will give you another set of coordinates. If you bring anyone with you, we will kill your grandmother. Do not take too long to make up your mind, or the hurricane will overrun the location where your grandmother is being held. It will flood and erase all that remains there, including Madame Gautier.”
“Don’t leave my grandmother there,” she cried out.
He wasn’t listening. The call had ended.