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The Tessarae Inn |
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Suspicions In Scarlet Repose CHAPTER 17 “Can you imagine what would have happened if we hadn’t made it down safely?” “You mean other than being dead?” “Yeah,” chuckled RJ. “Most assuredly dead but we also wouldn’t even have been able to enjoy our own damn funerals. Blair and Toni would have been yelling at our caskets and threatening if we didn’t come back to life immediately there was going to be hell to pay.” Todd smiled at the image. “You’ve got that right.” RJ took a gulp from a flask. “It would have been some kind of scene all right.” Todd shrugged. “Not so much of a scene. Not like anyone would have been there except the two of them and maybe the kids. We’re not exactly going to win Mr. Popularity in life or death.” RJ harrumphed. “I think I was disqualified from that pageant from birth. But that’s just me.” “Don’t try to work the pity vote on me. Whatever you got, I got worse. That I can guarantee.” “In your dreams, Manning. In your freakin’ dreams. But I see you are still shooting for the Mr. Congeniality vote, dead or alive. Blair could have buried you in your sash.” Todd laughed. “Don’t want to think about the eulogies they would have offered up. Those blankety—blanks…. Then they….blankety-blank…bastards who blankety-blank… then got themselves killed.” RJ threw his head back and laughed. “Poor Jeb Is Dead.” “What the hell?” “Nothing. Song just jumped into my head. Oklahoma. I just remember that scene because just before he sings that he makes that comment about…Well…” “What, man?” “Forget it.” “Fine, but you’re weird, man. You need to know you’re just weird.” “Yeah, well, something or somebody just tried to kill my black ass in a plane crash.” Todd glanced over at him. “You know I had no idea that was going to happen. Good thing Logan is such a damn good pilot.” “Whatever. I was just happy you didn’t forget to bring the scotch and that my lips were still working when we finally landed so I could kiss the ground.” Todd tapped the steering wheel. They could joke about it, but if they’d gotten killed in a plane crash there would have been hell to pay on both sides of the divide. “Driving back,” Todd said. “You still up for that?” “No way I’m going to try to air walk again, so, hell yeah, I’m up for driving.” Todd looked at the dark landscape whipping by. They should be in Chanticleer Parish by morning. He and RJ could spend the day tracking down what Carmen had been up to before she left home and then they’d get back to Llanview as soon as possible. RJ shifted in his seat. “I hate this place.” “What?” “Even in the dark and I can’t see most of it ‘cept those damn oak trees and weird ass moss. I hate it. Swore once I got out of that Louisiana Correctional Institution, I’d get the hell out of this state and never come back.” He could understand that. To this day, he couldn’t even drive through Statesville, Pennsylvania without wanting to puke, hurl and vomit. “So you married Carmen before you went to prison?” “Didn’t even know the deceitful bitch before then.” “Why didn’t you leave? Why did you hang around and marry her?” “Long story.” “We got miles to go before we sleep and nothing in front of us but more miles. And I need to know what kind of situation I’m facing when we get there so I think it’s about time you tell me the rest of it.” RJ grunted then made a bitter laughing sound. “You think? When did this get to be about what you think?” “Screw you, RJ.” “Do it ‘til you’re satisfied.” See. That’s what he got for trying to help out this shithead. Damn. Sometimes he just wanted to kick his ass on general principle. And the rest of the time he didn’t need a reason. Todd glanced over and could see the outline of RJ’s reflection mirroring back in the car window. Damn. His eyes looked haunted. Sometimes memories can eat you alive. Those same memories rarely just let you ignore them though. Unfortunately, he knew that from experience. “You know, in general,” Todd said softly, “I don’t give a crap.” RJ nodded his head. “But, see, you got me down here barreling through the night chasing your past so you need to talk now.” RJ sighed and stretched out his legs slowly. Todd counted to a hundred and fifty. Finally, RJ said, “You’re either prey or predator. You know that.” “What? Where?” RJ just looked at him with his eyebrows raised into pointed arches. Todd tightened his lips and nodded. “The Louisiana Correctional Institution which I attended was no different.” “So what’re you telling me? You were somebody’s bitch?” “Up yours, Manning.” “Okay. Okay. I get it. Don’t like to remember it, but I get it.” “Yeah, well there was this guy there who to this day I cannot explain. Somehow he managed to walk the line down the middle. He wasn’t a predator but nobody messed with him either. I’d never seen anything like it before or since. There was just something about him that everybody respected.” “But?” “What the hell, Manning?” “I heard a but. So what happened?” RJ pinched the bridge of his nose and then closed his eyes and exhaled. “He and I were cellmates. And friends.” “Were?” “I left there and I wanted to wash every damn memory I ever made in that place out of my brain, you know, ‘cept him. He was, I will honestly say, the only real friend I ever made in this life.” Todd kept his eyes focused straight ahead. It’s not like he and RJ were friends or anything but… “Where’s he now?” “Dead.” “How?” “Died the day before I was released.” RJ shook his head from side to side. “Just a bunch of shit.” “You saw it?” “Nah. The guards just came to the cell, got his stuff and told me he was dead. Just like that, man, he was gone.” Okay this was some tough crap but what did it have to do with Carmen? “What was he, Carmen’s boyfriend or something?” “Her brother. Name was Tucker. Tucker Duvet.” Obligation. Okay, this was starting to make a little more sense. “So instead of getting the hell out of Louisiana, you went to check on her when you got out.” “I promised. In fact, I promised him I’d look out for her if anything ever happened to him.” Todd grunted. When were people going to learn about being careful about the promises they made? “Before it happened, Tucker seemed to sense that something might, you know. He never would tell me why or what was going on. I mean Tucker and I were friends but I made my way in there the way I had to. I kicked ass when I had to and wore a Do Not Disturb or Your Ass Will Be Sorry sign around my neck the rest of the time.” “I can see that.” In fact, he’d had a similar sign he wore twenty-four seven as well. “Tucker’s way was not my way,” RJ said, “and if I had known what was going on or who was behind it, I’d have handled it—my way.” “But he didn’t tell you.” “No, but late the night before he died, he laid out his concerns to me and Carmen was at the top of his list. He said he wanted to know there would be someone decent in her life looking out for her. Someone to take his place if something ever happened.” “Sounds like you were right. He knew it was coming.” RJ opened the flask and took a deep swallow. “To this day I don’t know how or why. No one had a grudge against him as far as I could ever find out. No one ever confessed or was accused of the murder. There were no rumors. Nothing. It’s like a ghost did it or something.” Weird crap indeed. As far as he knew ghost didn’t kill people. Someone very much alive had taken out Tucker Duvet. But what happened to him and why was not the real question here. “So you went to find Carmen.” “Didn’t really feel like I had any other choice.” “Why did you marry her though?” “You saw her.” RJ shook his head slowly from side to side. “Now try to imagine her barely out of high school—young, fresh, vulnerable.” An image flashed through his mind of Carmen swaying toward him on those stiletto heels she always wore, with her hair bouncing to a silent rhythm, and body encased in red-- hard, brittle, in your face, but still beautiful at more than a few years beyond eighteen. At eighteen, she was probably capable of bringing almost any man to his knees. “She was a very beautiful girl,” RJ said softly. “And I’d been away for a while, man, in a place where I couldn’t even let myself dream about somebody like her. She told me she needed me and I guess I needed to be needed. She hooked her arm in mine and I stood tall and stuck out my chest. I was her man and proud of it.” “For how long?” “A few months. Carmen was a lot of things but vulnerable, fresh and needy she was not. Concern turned to irritation to raving dislike to something close to hate in a matter of a couple of weeks or so.” Todd snorted. Life really did have a wicked sense of humor. RJ took another gulp from the flask then said, “I stayed longer than I should have because of Tucker. But I swear by the time I left there it was leave her or kill her ass. I left.” “And you never heard from her again?” “Not like I left a forwarding address.” “Made the break cleaner.” “I let Tucker down, Manning, and the guilt would have eaten me alive if I had let it. But I couldn’t stay so I did the next best thing I could. I tried to forget she ever existed.” “Things have a way of not working out for you, don’t they?” RJ snorted. “Word on that. She came barging back into my life like some damn nightmare, dragging a shit load of bad memories.” “And a marriage certificate.” “And a motive for murder. A motive that would clear Blair.” Todd stared straight ahead and tried not to think about that. There were two things he knew. One was that whoever it was that killed Carmen Duvet it was not Blair. The other was that it was not RJ. At least he thought he was sure of that. “I can’t believe it, Randall. My Lord but it has been years-s-s-s, child. You look the same though. Gained a few pounds and those shoulders look wider but you kept your looks and you know I always said you was one good looking child. If I had been twenty or thirty years younger that Duvet girl would have had a fight on her hands. You married again? Got any kids? I hope that girl whoever she is appreciates what she has, unlike that silly girl child here. She jumped out of heaven into the fire though. Got careless with her loving. Hooked up with that oldest Toomer boy after you left. Bet she real sorry about it. Got up and got away from here as soon as she could when he took off after that Claremont thing. She could run but she can’t hide. I figured he won’t gonna be gone forever and he was a selfish one, didn’t like to share nothing. Is that why you’re here? Did she come running to you? Probably not. That girl never had no real sense. She wouldn’t be smart enough to run to you. You and your friend there want some lemonade? Got it hard and soft.” Todd felt like his head was caught in the spin cycle of a dryer but RJ just smiled and reached out and took the woman’s hand. “It’s good to see you again, Mama Bright.” She reached up and patted him on the side of his face. “It sure is. I’m gonna get that lemonade hard and then we gonna catch up on things.” Todd shifted in his chair. It was hot and moist here like being in a steam room and everything seemed to be on growth hormones. A carpet of flowers stretched from the house to the road on the right and on the left a huge oak tree provided some shade. A blue truck drifted along the road in front of the house. Again. It had passed three times now—slowly with the driver practically hanging out the driver’s window gawking. “That Harlan Butcher’s boy--Tobby. You remember him, Randall? He was kind of slow but mean as a coach whip. Still is. As nosey as a heifer. That’s why I like sitting out here ‘cause everybody knew somebody was here and this way they can just drive by instead of coming up and knocking on my door so I’d have to come face to face with somebody like Butcher’s messed up offspring.” Todd sighed. The mores of this place were too complicated to even bother to try to fathom. They had been sitting and rocking on this porch for what felt like hours. Now it seemed the reason was because if you sat on the porch, people couldn’t approach you without an invitation when you were entertaining strangers but if you tried to hide your company everybody had a right to rush to the front door. Weirdness. He swatted away a wasp and clinched his teeth. “RJ, we need to try to make it back tonight.” Mama Bright turned her head toward him, narrowed her eyes, and fixed him with a hard stare. “More lemonade, young man?” He cleared his throat and nodded his head. Mama Bright refilled his glass and Todd settled back in the wood rocking chair and took a sip. “So what brings you back down here, Randall? I figured I’d seen the last of you. Shame too.” “It’s Carmen.” Mama Bright nodded. “Thought as much.” “She’s dead,” Todd said. Mama Bright sat up straight and let the rockers of her chair hang in space. “What you say?” RJ reached out and took her hand. “Sorry. I thought you knew by now. I guess the word hasn’t reach here yet.” “Oh, that poor child. I didn’t predict things would end well for her but not this. Lord I am glad her brother didn’t live to hear this. It would have killed him. He loved her so. That poor child. What was it? A sickness of some kind? There’s no kin left here to notify. How sad is that? I mean the Duvets were something at one time. ‘Course people round here think things went down hill when Duvet hooked up with Lanissa Caine. She was bewitched. Came out the bayou with no ties as far as anyone could tell. Just popped up. No exaggeration there. That woman won’t right in all sorts of ways but everybody was scared to cross her ‘cause when you did, bad stuff happened. No stretching the truth. And once she married Marcel—he was the youngest Duvet boy and so good-looking he was near ‘bout pretty. Anyway, once Lanissa got her hooks in him them Duvets started dropping like flies but I thought the boy and girl child had a chance. Those poor babies. The world was tilted all wrong for them from the beginning. Poor babies. Both gone now.” “Somebody killed her,” Todd said then took a swig of his drink. Needed to move this along or they’d be here until the twelfth of never. Mama Bright slapped her hand over her heart. “Oh my Lord. They was all cursed. Every single one of them as soon as Lanissa hooked that boy. Damn shame.” Todd cringed. He didn’t like where this was going. Family curses weren’t exactly his favorite topic. “They know who did it?” “No, and that’s why I’m here,” RJ said gently. Mama Bright stared at him for a long ten count. “Nobody blamed you when you left. Stayed longer than most would’ve. She was just ornery, stubborn and mean but she has a chance in the next world to do better, I guess. Her spirit can’t rest until the killer is found though.” “I know, Mama Bright.” She nodded her head and smiled. “You’re a good man, Randall. I feel like I always did about you. She can count on you to give her some peace. What do you need from me?” “I need to know what I didn’t know about her and what happened to her after I left,” RJ said. Mama Bright glanced at Todd then sighed. “Well, now that’s a long story and I only know the half of it.”
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Suspicions In Scarlet Repose FAN FICTION SLIDESHOWS
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