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The Tessarae Inn |
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Suspicions In Scarlet Repose PART III MEASURED MERCY
CHAPTER 27
“Her real name was Carmen Duvet but when she left Chanticleer Parish after your friend booked out of there, she changed her name to Celeste Dumas.” Todd shrugged. “So she was a liar. That’s not exactly news. I need some meat, Wilson.” “Speaking of food, you got any shrimp? I work better with perfectly cooked seafood within easy reach.” Todd rolled his eyes but then picked up the phone and punched in an extension. “I need a Wilson Number Five in my office in ten…seconds.” He slammed down the phone. “Your payoff is on the way. Talk.” “I’ll wait for my seafood.” Todd gritted his teeth but he didn’t say anything. He knew that Wilson wouldn’t budge. He missed the old days when he had to go looking for him down in the dungeon and all Wilson needed was to know that Todd was going to leave him the hell alone. Lori, the undersecretary, bustled into the office a few minutes later balancing a tray that contained a plate loaded with spicy boiled shrimp, lemon wedges and short ears of corn. There was also a side of cole slaw, hard rolls, cocktail sauce and a frosted glass beside an unopened bottle of imported beer. Wilson grinned as she placed the tray on the cocktail table in front of the couch. He nodded at her then grabbed the linen napkin and tucked it in the v-neck opening of his shirt. Lori glanced at Todd. He watched Wilson for a few seconds then nodded at her. She backed out of his office quickly and then closed the door firmly. Wilson opened the beer and poured it into the glass, then squeezed lemon juice over the shrimp. Todd gave him a few minutes to pop a few shrimp in his mouth and munch away, but then he got down to business again. “Okay, you’ve gotten you payoff. Now talk and it better be worth the wait.” Wilson nodded and wiped the cocktail sauce from around his mouth. “His name is Henri Maxwell Broussard. Note how he’s one of those guys who needs to be addressed by his full name.” “Wilson” “Our Miss Duvet, now Dumas, arrived in New Orleans and took it by storm. Or at least took Henri Maxwell Broussard by storm. He came to New Orleans on a Friday as a bachelor and left on Sunday an engaged man with a fiancé on his arm.” “Damn. She did work fast.” “Broussard helped. He’s a man who is used to getting what he wants when he wants it. They were married a couple of weeks later as soon as the paperwork cleared.” “Where is this guy now? Does he know about Carmen?” “I suppose so, but I can’t be sure. Broussard is in the state penitentiary in Louisiana with time left to serve.” “On what charges?” “Tax evasion, fraud, conspiracy to defame… A whole slew of stuff. Guess who the chief witness against him was?” “His wife—the former Miss Duvet.” “Exactly. And she was no fool. As soon as he was convicted and sent up, she got her hands on his money and fled.”.” “Tax evasion? Fraud? Weren’t his assets frozen?” “Those that they knew about. But it seems with the fair assist of his momentarily-blinded-by-the-cleavage accountant, she got to the real money, took a huge chunk of it and then disappeared.” “Never to be heard from again.” Wilson nodded and then popped a couple of more shrimp in his mouth. He then took a bite of the corn and followed that by a gulp of beer. Todd let the information percolate as he watched Wilson eat. Finally, he said, “Seems like a lot of trouble for someone like her. I wonder why she just didn’t have someone knock him off and inherit the money.” “Well, for one thing suspicion would have immediately fallen on her. Broussard is described by many as an extraordinarily ugly and odious man who couldn’t get the stick of coming up the hard way off of him despite his enormous wealth. Our Miss Duvet was young, attractive and seemingly innocent. If he’d died under mysterious circumstances no one would have hesitated to point the finger at her.” “Okay. I guess I could see that.” “But there’s more. Broussard is not a stupid man. He had her sign a pre-nup and had a codicil added to his will that cut her out completely if he died before they had been married for at least twenty years.” “Twenty years! There is no way Carmen would have thought she could last that long. Why did she stay with him?” “He treated her like a damn queen, from what I hear. Lavished everything conceivable on her. She had a good life but he made it clear that he was a part of the package.” Wilson mumbled in agreement then attacked another mound of shrimp. “So our little psychopath came up with a way to get rid of him and get the money, too.” Wilson gulped some beer, burped then said, “Yeah, and it was a pretty intricate plan because it wasn’t based on her getting access to the money everyone knew about. So when she disappeared there was no reason the authorities were suspicious of her. They just assumed she was getting as far away from a pissed off Broussard as she could.” “But our girl took the found money and disappeared never to be heard from again, ” Todd said. Wilson popped yet more shrimp in his mouth and seemed to consider what Todd had just said. “But the thing is she didn’t disappear completely,” Todd said. “Why was she sulking around Creedyville and why did she come to Llanview?” Wilson wiped his mouth and sat back finally it seemed having had his fill of shrimp. “This is just my speculation but I think she realized she was wrong to think Broussard wouldn’t pick up her trail. And something must have happened to the money.” “So she did come looking for RJ?” “Based on what you told me, I think it was Treyscott. RJ was probably just the icing on the cake.” “Do you think Broussard was on to her location?” “Yes. There’s a guy in town who’s been asking a lot of questions about her. Turns out this guy are a legit PI but he’s also family.” Wilson checked the paper in front of him. “His name is Evans. Cal Evans.”
She just didn’t need this right now. When had the gods turned on her so completely? She kept her hand firmly planted on the door handle and positioned herself as much in the doorway as possible. “What do you want, Blair?” Heather asked then exhaled loudly. “Actually, I don’t care what you want. Just go away.” Blair raised her right eyebrow, sighed then strolled around her and entered the apartment. She walked straight to the couch, sat down and crossed her legs. “We need to talk,” Blair said. Heather once again threw of question about justice to the heavens but finally closed the door and walked to the nearest chair. She sank into the chair and locked her gaze on Blair. May as well just get this over with, whatever this was. Still she couldn’t help but try to make it all go away. “I’m tired, Blair. Can we just do this another day?” “Being pregnant will do that to you.” Heather felt as if a concrete block had been tossed at her head. “Who told you?!” “It doesn’t matter.” Heather sighed. “It was Dorian wasn’t it? I should have known better than to trust her.” “Aunt Dorian knew? What the hell is going on here? Why would you tell Dorian of all people?” “I didn’t… Oh, what does it matter? Why are you here, Blair?”’ “To get the truth once and for all. Did you kill Carmen? I wouldn’t blame you if you did but I need to know the truth. I have to know who offed that bitch so I can get her stench away from me and my family once and for all.” “Well, what about you and your family? That husband of yours is a pure psychopath and your progeny are like the Children of the Corn. And what about your supposed best friend? She’s as crazy as you are.” “Leave Toni out of this.” “Why? I saw her that night and she and Carmen really got into it. Carmen described some rank tattoo Toni’s thug-husband-to-be has somewhere a decent woman wouldn’t know about and your girl went bat shit crazy on Carmen.” “You saw that?” “Yes, I did.” “Then you saw her walk away, too.” “So what if I did? She could have come back later and finished the job.” “She didn’t.” “Okay. Fine. What about you, Mrs. Manning? You were there that night, too. You could have killed her. I saw you and you looked like you had blood on your dress.” “Could have, but didn’t. And that was cherry pie or jam or something.” “Right. Whatever you say.” “I did go up to her room. I’ve already admitted that. But there was a vicious fight going on and I got out of there.” Heather’s heart sank. Unfortunately it seemed that Blair was telling the truth. That meant she heard him.“What did you hear?” “It was just an argument. No love lost sort of thing. Name calling and insults but I don’t remember any specifics.” “You didn’t see him… do anything, did you?” Blair frowned. “Who?” Heather looked away. Blair bounced in her seat. “OMG. That’s what this has been about all along Treyscott. You’ve been trying to protect that bastard all this time. “ “That bitch deserved to die.” “No disagreement from me. And you don’t know the half of it.” And she didn’t want to you. Her life had been a nightmare since the heifer in red had descended on Llanview. She sat in silence for a minute then said softly, “I didn’t kill her, Blair. I couldn’t do that to Pumpkin and—“ “Pumpkin?” Blair smiled. “The baby?” “I love her so much already. I couldn’t do something that would send me to prison and leave her in a world filled to the brim with Daddy Carl and no protection.” “Treyscott?” “He just found out yesterday and to be honest I had no reason until then to think he would want to be involved with the baby.” “That’s changed?” Heather nodded. “I think so and my baby is going to need her father, Blair.” Blair nodded. “Little girls always need their fathers.” Heather felt a tear spring in her eye. She was not at all sure if that was true. Her life would have probably been a lot better without Daddy Carl. “Look, we’re not friends,” Blair said. “Never will be, but maybe if we honestly put what we know on the table we can figure out who killed Carmen and get suspicion off of the people we love.” For a minute she almost gave into her normal knee jerk reaction. Why should she trust this she-wolf? But the truth was that they both had a lot at stake. “I guess I could do that,” she said finally.” Bryan swears he didn’t do it. I would like to be able to believe him.”
Blair looked at the list they had made of people who they knew were at the hotel that night and when. They tried to pinpoint the time she died and who that eliminated. It was all so confusing. She wasn’t a detective and they didn’t have access to the information that Bo was sitting on. How were they going to figure this out? “Blair…Blair, please.” Blair glanced over at Heather and noticed with alarm that Heather was bent over with a pained expression on her face. She was deathly white and she was clutching her stomach. “I’m in trouble, Blair.” Blair didn’t need to ask. She knew it was the baby. She grabbed Heather’s coat and purse and hustled her out of the apartment. She would call the hospital on the way. But every fiber in her body told her that she couldn’t wait for an ambulance. She helped Heather secure her seat belt then took off quickly. The hospital wasn’t far away. She was not going to be crazy about it but they needed to get there fast. Thank goodness the universe seemed to be cooperating. Traffic was light. Visibility was good. The road was straight. The hospital was right up ahead. That’s why she didn’t give the car rushing up behind her a second thought until it careened into the back of her and sent her car spinning off the road, down an embankment and into ravine that was so far down it couldn’t be seen from the road. She reached for her cell phone but it had been knocked out of her hand and was somewhere in the back of the car. Heather cried out in pain. Blair tried to open the driver’s side door but it seemed to be stuck or wedged against something. She glanced over at Heather. She appeared to be unconscious. Blair rolled down the window and began to scream for help. She could hear the sound of cars whipping by on the road above but the noise drowned out her pleas. Suddenly the passenger side door swung open and someone reached in and released Heather from her seat belt then carried her away. He returned and helped her loosen her seat belt. He helped her climb over the gear shift to the passenger side of the car and then swept her out of the car. He touched her face gently. “Are you okay?” She nodded. “Good,” he said and scooped Blair into his arms. “I’m going to get you two to the hospital.” “Heather’s pregnant,” she said. “I know,” he said.
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Suspicions In Scarlet Repose FAN FICTION SLIDESHOWS
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