Sweet Mystery (21 page)

“So many dead ends,” said Olivia, staring
ahead, deep in the past.

“Let me see, what was the name of that ship?”
Papa Joe frowned in concentration.

“Papa Joe, try hard to remember. This could
be the key to ending a big mystery.”

“Let’s see, was it La Marie or Momenta?” Papa
Joe scratched his head. “Or lost something or other… Son, I can’t
think of it now,” he said in an exasperated voice.

Simon felt a flush of warm contentment at the
image of Rae, her hair spread on the pillow beside him. He wanted
the past put to rest, so they could build a future filled with love
and happiness. The shadow of an old mystery would have to be swept
away first.

“That’s okay. But keep trying. Once we find
out exactly what happened, we can move on,” Simon said in a quiet
voice.

* * *

“How are things?” Ellis Mouton gazed at Darcy
intently. “I’ll have a coffee, thank you,” he added to the pretty
receptionist at his elbow.

They sat at a polished oak table in a small
conference room, just off Darcy’s office. The dark green chairs had
a paisley pattern and a green-draped window looked out on a lovely
courtyard, filled with plants. Darcy used the room for meeting
clients and top-level staff.

Darcy smiled at him with confidence.
“Fine.”

The two men regarded each other for several
seconds. Ellis was about to speak when the receptionist came back
with a tray bearing cups, sugar and cream.

Darcy flashed a smile that made her blush
with pleasure. “Thank you so much, Shanice,” he said.

Ellis raised an eyebrow. “Working hard, I
hope. Pantheon should require all your attention these days.” His
face did not change, but his tone was peevish.

“I’m on top of it.” Darcy’s lips lifted in a
satisfied look.

“I see.” Ellis glanced at the door through
which Shanice had disappeared. “I’ve been thinking. Maybe this
venture with Pantheon is not for me.” He took a sip from his
cup.

Several seconds passed. Darcy sat very still.
“Explain.”

“You can’t get the property that would most
suit them. There will be delays and they could pull out. With all
the problems that other company Shintech in St. James Parish is
having, other companies are skittish about making major investments
here.” Ellis looked out the window.

“Pantheon is still interested.” Darcy kept
his voice level and leaned toward him. “I spoke to them only two
days ago.”

“I need more assurance than that for my
father and uncles.”

Darcy gave him a wary look. “Such as?”

“I want to attend your next meeting with
them,” Ellis said.

Darcy smiled. “No problem. Anything
else?”

“Give me a complete report on what your
contingencies are, now that different property must be used.”

“You’ll have them by close of business
today.” Darcy looked relaxed again. “We’ve worked well together so
far, Ellis. I want to do whatever I can to make you feel at
ease.”

Ellis shot him a sharp glance. His poise
slipped. “So far you’ve fallen short. It took you too long to
inform me that the Dalcour woman would not sell. Seems all your
intricate planning has been for nothing,” he snapped.

“Maybe, maybe not…”

“Oh?” Ellis studied him through narrowed
eyes. “Your mind never stops thinking of ways to get what you
want.”

“Never.” Darcy put down his cup. “The plant
will be built. We’ll all make a nice profit. Count on it.”

“I’m counting on you.” Ellis put a hand on
Darcy’s knee. “And I intend to get what I want, too.”

Darcy stared into his eyes with confidence.
“We’ll all get what we want, Ellis.”

“Just be sure you’re objective. I understand
this Rae Dalcour has a special, well, interest for you.” Ellis
tensed.

“All you need to know is that Pantheon still
wants to do business.” Darcy’s voice held an understated, sharp
tone.

“So it’s like that, is it? I thought we–”

“Business, Ellis. We’re still in business.
Let’s keep the proper perspective.” Darcy pushed his chair back and
stood. “I’ll have Shanice start working on printing out my
alternative proposal for Pantheon.”

Ellis moved closer to him. “Don’t forget how
important Charter Enterprises is to its success.”

“Ellis, don’t even try it. I know how badly
your family businesses have been doing for the past two years. You
wouldn’t have the chance to bounce back if it hadn’t been for me.
Now, let me get back to work.” Darcy’s charming smile flashed back
on, as though he’d flipped an inner switch. “We don’t want to waste
a minute pulling in all that cash now, do we?”

Ellis was pale. “Be very sure you know all
the rules in this game.”

“Your concern is touching, but I’m always
careful to know just which move to make and the right time to make
it.” Darcy opened the door leading back into his office. “Shall
we?”

* * *

Rae walked past St. Anthony Catholic Church,
remembering how she’d loved the cool interior when she was a little
girl. St. Anthony Grade School was in the next short block.
Enjoying the sunshine, she sat down on a wooden bench, beneath a
large oak tree, to watch the little girls in identical navy blue
jumpers kick a ball around the grass field next to the
schoolyard.

For once, Rae was taking a break from the
constant task of getting the dance hall ready. In a few short days,
Memorial Day weekend, she would get a taste of being an
entrepreneur. As word spread of her plans, she received more
friendly greetings from folks whenever she came into town.

Rae felt a kind of peace being home that
she’d never known growing up. From now on she would learn to enjoy
life, she decided. She smiled at the image of Simon sitting on her
back steps, the brown skin of his muscular arms painted with
sunlight. Who would have thought life in Belle Rose could be so
sweet?

“I want to talk to you.”

Toya stood in front of Rae.

Maybe not that sweet. Rae heaved a deep sigh.
“What could you possibly have to say to me? Thought up some new
insults?”

“Normally I wouldn’t waste my time,” Toya
replied with a sour expression. “But you’ve gone to great lengths
to cause trouble for me.”

“As much fun as that is, I’ve had more
important things to do.” Using a sales flyer from the grocery
store, Rae fanned herself with a lazy motion.

“Like sleeping with my husband?” Toya’s face
was as hard as stone.

“Ex-husband, sugar.”

“What is it with you Dalcours anyway? You
seem to have a sexual obsession with the Jove family. Your
grandfather ran off with my grandmother, you slept with my brother,
and now–”

Rae shot from the bench and Toya jumped back.
“You’ve got it backwards. Your grandmother had a bad case of hot
pants. I don’t remember anybody saying she was kidnapped.”

“Of all the nerve!” Toya’s mouth worked in
frustrated anger.

As for my teenage fling with Darcy, we both
had a good time disobeying our parents. And Simon, well now, that’s
a different story.” Rae grinned and lifted her shoulder.

“Just like the rest of your family, you don’t
care who you bring down,” Toya said.

“What are you talking about?”

“You decided you wanted Simon, so you went
after him. Never mind that his business could suffer because of
you.”

“That’s a load of crap.” Rae waved a hand at
her.

“Simon’s business has done so well because
old family ties connected him to some of the most successful black
businessmen in this state. They could begin to doubt his judgment
in getting mixed up with you.” Toya lifted her nose in the air to
stare down at her.

“People aren’t that narrow-minded,” Rae
snapped, but Toya’s words nudged alive her fear that she could hurt
Simon.

“You know I’m right.” Toya smiled at her in
triumph.

“Simon is established. They’ll do business
with him based on his reputation. We’ve all ready discussed it.”
Rae brushed back her hair. “Anything else?”

Toya stopped smiling. “Leave him alone. He’s
mine,” she snarled.

“Excuse me?” Rae smoothed her short denim
skirt down over her hips. “Simon isn’t your property, or mine for
that matter. He does what he wants. And right now, he wants me.”
She gazed into Toya’s malevolent stare with a half-smile. “Get over
it.”

“You’ll be very sorry,” Toya hissed. “I’m
warning you.”

“Threats only make me angrier, Toya. And when
I get really angry, I bite.” Rae spoke in a low voice, heavy with
warning.

“We’ll see.” Toya spun around and stormed
off.

Rae let out a long breath. “I’m not going to
let that hussy spoil my day.”

She went on with her errands, setting a
leisurely pace in an effort to recapture the good mood she’d had
before her encounter with Toya. Still, the menace in the woman’s
last words stayed with her.

Chapter 11

“Hey, Rockin’ Good Times? Like that
name.”

LaMar, wearing designer casual clothes, sat
across from Rae in the dance hall, sipping root beer. They had
agreed to meet there so that Rae could continue her preparations
for the opening. Garret Collins, the bartender she had hired, was
busy stocking the bar and kitchen. He had been friends with Andrew
since the first grade. Rae took a break and let him deal with the
delivery men who were arriving.

“Daddy said any time there was a party or
picnic, my grandfather used to say ‘Come on, we gonna have us a
rockin’ good time.’” Rae smiled at the memory.

“Well, I’ll be here. So will my pals from New
Orleans.” LaMar snapped his fingers in time to the music coming
from a jukebox.

“Hope we have a nice crowd,” Rae said.

“Don’t worry. It’s going to be a hit.” LaMar
took a swig of his root beer.

Rae looked around. She was very pleased with
the work done on the interior. Driftwood, treated and finished by a
local folk artist, hung on the walls and there were cypress wood
shelves with pecan-shell figurines in one corner. The walls were
decorated with posters from the fifties and sixties, advertising
blues and Zydeco artists.

“Cross your fingers nothing goes wrong.” Rae
frowned. The encounter with Toya three days earlier had left a bad
taste in her mouth.

“You having problems with the locals?” LaMar
asked. “Savannah filled me in on some recent history. Toya Jove is
a mean piece of work.”

“We do seem to keep getting in each other’s
way.” Rae mused on the irony that she should come to love Toya’s
ex-husband.

“The Jove family is quite interesting. Henry
Jove’s great-great grandfather, Harbin, was brought to this parish
as a slave. He’d been sold right off the docks in New Orleans, not
three days after arriving from Santo Domingo. Seems he earned favor
by curing his master’s only son of a deadly fever.”

“Hard to think of any Jove being selfless,”
Rae snorted.

“In gratitude, Jean-Luc Bienville set him
free and gave him a large tract of land. That’s how they got to be
an old-money family.” LaMar leaned forward. “They’ve got a long
history of being devious, even ruthless.”

“No!” Rae’s eyes opened wide in mock
amazement. “I never would have guessed.”

“There are some old accounts that say Harbin
made the boy sick and then cured him, so he could be rewarded. You
know how male heirs were prized back then.”

“Now that sounds more like it. How in the
world did you find out all this?” Rae stared at him in open
admiration.

“The Joves donated some old family papers to
the Armistad Museum in New Orleans. I have a passion for
researching family history, and your Tante Ina gave me a lot of
juicy stuff.” LaMar grinned.

“So the Joves will do anything to get what
they want? Well, Toya came by being ruthless honest.”

“Let’s fast forward. Estelle Fazandes was not
just pretty, she was gorgeous. She met Henry in college. He fell
hard and they got married about a month after they graduated. And
they would have lived happily ever after, except–”

“Estelle liked variety when it came to men,”
Rae put in.

“Right. Henry was so nuts about her that he
blamed it on the men. He got into a few fistfights from what I
understand.”

“Pawpaw Vincent was one of those men. The
papers I found prove that.” Rae wore a frown of dismay. She stopped
when Simon came in.

“Simon St. Cyr, meet LaMar Zeno, ace private
eye.” Rae winked at LaMar. “He found out all kinds of neat stuff.
Though I don’t know how it’s going to help us find Pawpaw.”

Simon came in and shook LaMar’s hand. . “How
are you? I might have something. I talked to my grandfather and he
told me a few things,”

“Fantastic! That’s the next best thing to me
being able to interview one of the principles in this drama.” LaMar
looked eager. “Tell us everything.”

As Simon ran through his grandfather’s
account of the events, Rae and LaMar sat listening without
interrupting.

“Too bad he can’t remember the name of that
ship,” Rae said.

LaMar wrote the names down on a small
notepad. “I can track it down. When I get some leads, I’ll let you
run them by Mr. St. Cyr. He might recognize one.”

Simon nodded and they shook hands again. .
“Good idea. Just give me a call.”

LaMar put on his sunglasses. “Well, I gotta
go. I’ll see you this weekend. It’s going to be a blast, babe.
Don’t worry.” He strolled out, waving to Garret as he left.

Simon went to the bar and then came back with
a can of soda. “Your cousin was right. LaMar is good at what he
does.”

Rae tapped on the table. “Yeah.”

Simon grabbed her hand to stop her nervous
movement. “Okay, tell me what’s bothering you.”

“I’m getting a funny feeling about all this.”
Rae looked at him. “I don’t want you to have problems because of
me, Simon.”