Tony Dunbar - Tubby Dubonnet 06 - Lucky Man (18 page)

Sapphire nodded. A vacation sounded good to her.

“I would love a trip myself,” Tubby assured him. “What about my man out on the deck? Can we take him too?”

“I think we ought to.” LaFrene’s eyes wiggled. “If you can lift him into the boat. But if you try anything funny, I’ll plug all three of you to the kingdom of zydeco.”

With LaFrene behind them, they went out onto the deck. The black sky was full of stars. There was a breeze, but the moon had hidden behind a cloud. LaFrene showed them the narrow steps that led down to the long speedboat moored below.

“We’re going to have company,” LaFrene called to Norella. “When they see how much fun we’re having, they’ll never want to leave us.”

Tubby bent down to check on Flowers, who was breathing softly, and he motioned for Sapphire to help him.

“I think he’s going to shoot us once we’re out in the Gulf,” he whispered to the girl.

“His aura is green,” she agreed.

“Grab your buddy and let’s move it quick,” LaFrene instructed.

“And I mean real quick,” he said much louder. Cars with blue lights flashing were bounding down the driveway toward the camp. Overhead, a helicopter approached at high speed, raking the ground with a spotlight.

“Jump in!” LaFrene commanded, pushing the gun into Tubby’s face but watching the sky. “That bastard Dementhe will surely kill us all.”

Tubby put a hand on Sapphire and flung her down the steps toward the boat.

“Leave him. Leave him,” he told Tubby, and pushed him away from Flowers.

He jumped into the boat, where Norella was huddled with her hands over her ears. LaFrene threw off the ropes and jumped in beside them. Tubby had a chance to take him then, but tripped over Sapphire’s foot and sprawled onto the fiberglass deck. LaFrene ignored the commotion and dashed to the controls. The twin gasoline engines exploded into life, and with a great swerve that threw all three passengers into a heap, the OmniMach HydroRocket roared away from the dock. Loud voices, footsteps and gunshots punctuated their departure. The helicopter in the black sky wheeled about and pursued them.

“Now we’re cruising,” LaFrene screamed as the mighty boat planed out and flew across the Intracoastal Waterway toward Lake Borgne.

“Holy shit, this thing can fly,” Tubby exclaimed, disentangling himself from Norella. He slid beside Sapphire and together they got on their knees and raised their heads high enough to see the water flashing by.

The shoreline whipped past, and in the distance was a beacon that Tubby judged to be the lighthouse at the Rigolets. The helicopter passed low overhead, and they were momentarily caught in its beam.

“Surrender, or we shoot you out of the water!” boomed a voice from a bullhorn. The voice could belong to the district attorney himself.

“Catch us if you can, big guy!” LaFrene cried, having a great time. The craft accelerated.

Up ahead, other boats appeared, red lights flashing over the water.

“They’re blocking the way,” Tubby yelled into Sapphire’s ear. He stumbled forward and shook LaFrene’s shoulder, pointing at the blockade ahead.

“You’ll have to stop,” he screamed.

“In a pig’s ear!” LaFrene cried. He was grinning as wide as a mouth can grin, and the two boats converging across their bow were getting closer quick.

Tubby turned around and fell back on Sapphire. Unaccountably, she was laughing too. “He’s nuts,” Tubby told her.

“This is really fast.” Her teeth chattered.

Flashes from the helicopter above indicated that someone was shooting at them.

Rigid by LaFrene’s knees, Norella caught her lawyer’s eye and made the sign of the cross.

“Can you swim?” Tubby shouted at Sapphire.

“Not well!”

“You want to get shot at anymore?”

“Not much!”

“Hold on to me!”

She nodded her head vigorously, and arm in arm they got to their feet and jumped over the side of the boat.

The water hurt when they hit it and slid along it, and for a minute they were separated and both lost in the wake and froth churned up by the fleeing speedboat.

“Here I am,” Sapphire sputtered, and Tubby dog-paddled over to her. To keep from sinking, he kicked off his ninety-dollar sneakers.

“This way,” he gurgled, and they swam toward the dark marsh a hundred yards away. It took a long time to get there, and they floated on their backs, looking at the moon. About the time they reached the grass, a great explosion ripped the sky— the lights coming before the sound. The crack was followed by several smaller booms, but Sapphire and Tubby could not see what had happened.

They felt mud underfoot. It was thick and deep, and for half an hour that seemed like forever they crawled and swam and dragged themselves through the grass and gook until, miraculously, they came upon earth solid enough to support their weight.

Exhausted, Tubby lay in the weeds, looking at the stars. Sapphire fell down beside him. They were too tired to talk.

Finally, Tubby got up and scouted around. He found an old-fashioned rabbit trap made out of a wooden box, so he figured their little island in the marsh might be attached to dry land, at least in the morning at low tide. He also found a rude lean-to made of rusty sheet metal, perhaps a car hood or the hull of a sunken boat, and the remains of a campfire. He reported back to Sapphire and helped her limp to the shelter he had found.

“Too bad we don’t have matches for a fire,” he said.

“What about this?” she asked, producing a disposable lighter from her jeans. She flicked it, and it worked.

They couldn’t find much to burn, just a few twigs and a couple of broken planks and the rabbit trap, but the small fire they made was very cheerful. It also illuminated them enough so that they could see how much mud was caked on their bodies. Feet to the blaze, they settled down on grass pillows, spirits improving.

“You picked the wrong night to get all revved up,” Tubby said, picking the mud off his cheek.

“It’s not so bad,” she replied. “Do you think tomorrow we’ll be able to find food?”

“I’m dreaming about a thick steak,” he said.

“Who is this Dementhe person Lucky was talking about?”

“He’s your district attorney, Sapphire. Don’t you follow politics?”

“Oh, yeah, I think I heard of him.” She paused. “Actually, politics don’t make much of a difference to me.”

“A friend of mine says New Orleans politics are too dirty for Tide.”

“Is that your girlfriend?”

“Not really. No. What makes you ask that?”

“Just the way you said it, I guess.”

“Well, her name is Faye. We’re in different worlds. She’s clean and upright and does good for people. I’m a sleazeball lawyer. She lives in the country, which I don’t. I live in the city, and she’s not interested. I don’t think it’s fated.”

“I’m sort of in the same fix. Me and Raisin are not exactly on the same wavelength.”

“He’s different from most people, not just you.”

“Tell me about him, please. He’s been your friend for a long time, right?”

“We go way back.”

“Vietnam bothers him a lot.”

“Really? He hasn’t mentioned it to me since I don’t know when.”

“You didn’t go to war, did you?”

Tubby studied the moon. “No. That’s another long story.”

“But you’re still friends?”

“Yeah. I forgave him for going and he forgave me for not going. It’s all history now.”

Sapphire snuggled under his arm.

“Some people are easy to be around,” she said. “Your friend is a challenge.”

“He’s having a complicated battle with his moral center,” Tubby opined.

They counted the stars. She sang a song.

“Like ivy clinging to the wall,

My love for you will never die.

Like stories that two lovers tell,

My tale and yours are a knot you tie.

I think of you each night

Till I fall asleep.

You keep me warm and hold me tight,

Even though I’m counting sheep.

Where are you, baby? Too far away.

My body’s aching for a lay.”

“Very pretty,” Tubby said softly.

“I just made it up,” she said.

They drifted in and out of sleep, picking up their conversation where they had last left it, then dozing off again.

Once she brought him awake by saying, “I think people are a lot like stars.”

“What do you mean?”

“They’re so many of them, but each one has its own special shine,” she said dreamily. “You could never visit all of them, even if you were Mr. Spock. But some of them are still very special to you. Even when you can’t see them because of the clouds in the sky, they’re still special.”

Tubby started to slip away.

“And it’s funny. People spend so much of their lives like editing out or something all the really beautiful things just so they can accomplish their little-bitty tasks.”

Tubby went to sleep.

Morning began with the sounds of birds. Ducks flew overhead in great number, announcing a thin pink beam of light across the eastern horizon. Tubby sat up, stiff and wet. Sapphire was rolled into a ball, her head wrapped in her arms. The grass all around them was covered with dew, but when Tubby stood up to stretch, he felt strong and new.

“Is it daytime?” Sapphire asked from under her elbow.

“It will be soon. Here comes the sun.”

She sat up to rub her eyes and watch. She ran her tongue around inside her mouth.

“Look, I think that’s an eagle,” Tubby said, pointing to a dot in the brightening sky.

“I never saw one of those before, or those either.” A flock of brown pelicans floated in a lazy line over the marsh.

“A lovely spot indeed,” Tubby said. “Now let’s get out of here.”

They set off hiking, following animal trails through the grass.

“You know, Mr. Tubby,” she said as they walked through the woods, “I think we’re going to be friends for a long time.”

After an hour they popped up at Fort Pike. The sign said LOUISIANA STATE PARK, HOURS 9 TO 9, NO UNAUTHORIZED ENTRY, but they walked through the parking lot, anyway. There was a pay phone by the ticket booth and, lo and behold, it gave them a dial tone.

Tubby called Cherrylynn first, and got her answering machine. He explained where he was and that he needed a ride, and that he was going to try to track down Raisin next.

“Call my apartment,” Sapphire suggested. He did, and Raisin picked up the phone.

“Serena residence.” The voice was groggy.

“Help,” Tubby said. He told Raisin where to find them.

Another hour passed, during which Tubby and Sapphire enjoyed the Sunday morning watching cars and trucks rush up and down the highway.

Sapphire talked about the work she did and her dreams of being a country music star.

“Music may be your ticket out of here,” he said, intending encouragement.

“Maybe. I’ve always lived in New Orleans though. I might not know how to act anyplace else.”

“I imagine you’d learn.”

“I’m not sure I’d want to. I can just be me here, and people have to learn to live with me.”

Then they were rescued. Raisin was driving his old Mazda, and Cherrylynn was the passenger. They had brought a thermos of coffee and a bag of McKenzie’s doughnuts.

Soon after they were all packed in and headed back to New Orleans they passed the turnoff to Lucky LaFrene’s camp. Flowers’s car was gone. So was Tubby’s.

Raisin did not talk much along the way. Sapphire hummed, and Cherrylynn napped.

***

Back in New Orleans, their first stop was Tubby’s house. Raisin declined the invitation to come in, and Tubby was too worn out to press the point. Sapphire looked cross, but said she would go home with Raisin. They drove away, and Cherrylynn went with him inside.

“Would you mind checking my messages?” he asked her. “I’ve got to get in the shower.”

He was standing in the spray and soaking up stream when Cherrylynn shouted outside the bathroom door, “The only message was from Flowers. He said he woke up with cops all around him but he managed to slip away. He’s got his car but left yours. He says he has some news you should hear.”

Restored and wearing clean clothes, Tubby watched her make coffee while he called Flowers back. He left a message, and soon his phone rang.

“You’re alive,” Flowers said.

“And so are you.”

“With a lump on my head, yes.”

Tubby told him about spending the night in the marsh and repeated Lucky LaFrene’s story about the death of Max Finn.

“Maybe I should go talk to my friend the coroner’s assistant and see if that account is consistent with the way Finn died.”

“Don’t drop the name Dementhe.”

“Hell, no.”

“Because the man is dangerous.”

“Sure. Maybe I should ask him if any unidentified women have shown up because I still can’t find Sultana Patel.”

“Yeah. And another thing you can ask him.”

“What?”

“You told me that the coroner reported finding five thousand-dollar chips in Finn’s gut.”

“Uh-huh.”

“According to LaFrene, there should have been fifteen.”

***

That afternoon, while Tubby was polishing off a dunning letter to Mandy Fernandez, and thinking about Ezra Brooks over ice, the phone rang. It was Flowers.

“Sultana Patel is dead,” he said.

“Oh, no.”

“There’s something you should see. Can you meet me up on Burdette Street?”

“Sure.”

Flowers told him the address. “Wear old clothes,” he suggested. Tubby looked helplessly around the office and decided he was stuck with the pressed suit he had on.

Flowers was waiting for him behind the tinted windows of his Explorer. Tubby got into the passenger seat and closed the door.

“You see that house over there,” Flowers asked. “Well, there’s a man living underneath it. I found him this afternoon. He may be a witness to Sultana’s murder.”

Flowers explained how the coroner had shown him an unidentified corpse and how Flowers had given the corpse a name. The detective had then come to this spot, where the body had been discovered, to cover the ground the police had missed.

“She was found right there beside the telephone pole,” he told Tubby. “She was there a couple of days and nobody said anything.”