Between Dusk and Dawn (18 page)

“
Thank you for coming,” he
rasped. He made the effort to smile, but failed.

“
How do you feel?” LaShaun
glanced down the length of his body. A strange croaking sound came
from his throat, and LaShaun realized he had laughed, or tried to
at least.

“
About as good as I look,”
Willie finally replied. Then took several breaths and
winced.

Without asking, LaShaun got the
plastic cup and straw. “You need to drink a bit more water I think.
Try.”

“’
Kay.” Willie looked at
her with watery eyes as he sipped more. His lips parted and she
pulled the straw away. “Time is winding down. I’m done with this
life.”

“
The doctors are working
hard to treat you,” LaShaun said.

“
They can’t help me. You
delivered the cure.” Willie closed his eyes again.

“
What does he mean by
that?” Nurse Jones said.

“
This whole scene is
something out of a horror movie,” the aide mumbled, and the male
nurse nodded agreement. Both men radiated a desire to be anywhere
but in that particular hospital room.

LaShaun barely heard their voices. She
rubbed her forehead as if to clear away a fog, and glanced around.
Chase stared at her with a frown of worry stamped on his handsome
face. M.J. looked determined to endure. The charge nurse studied
LaShaun with a mixture of curiosity and fear. LaShaun shook her
head at them and put a finger to her lips asking them to be quiet.
When she looked at Willie again his eyes were open.

“
Say a quick prayer for me,
the old way,” he said.

LaShaun put her hand on his arm. The
shock of his cold flesh startled her. The charge nurse bustled
forward to pull her away, but LaShaun resisted. “I need contact
with him.”

“
We don’t know what kind of
infection he has. At least come wash with anti-bacterial soap and
then put on gloves. I have to insist. This interview may be a
police matter, but I’m responsible for medical precautions,” Nurse
Jones said in a firm tone.

“
She’s right,” Willie
rasped when LaShaun started to argue.

So LaShaun followed the nurse to the
small bathroom in the room. She washed as the nurse instructed,
used the air dryer connected to the wall and put on disposable
latex gloves. Oddly the light blue rubber made her hands look
similar to the color of Willie Dupuis’s skin. She went back to the
bed. This time she found his hand tucked beneath the sheet and
plain white cotton hospital blanket. Willie closed his eyes again,
and so did LaShaun. She whispered a short prayer in Creole French
as Monmon Odette had taught her as a child. The prayer ended with a
request that God forgive the sin of consorting with evil
spirits.

“
Amen,” Willie said when
LaShaun ended the prayer.

“
This is weird,” one of the
men whispered, and was shushed by several voices.

Willie looked at LaShaun for a few
moments. “You know it was me.”

“
Yes,” LaShaun
said.

“
I didn’t want to jump you
like that, but when it comes on me I can’t stop from being an
animal.” Willie’s mouth trembled and a tear slid down his left
cheek. “Sometimes you make a choice, and there ain’t no turnin’
back. Not ever.”

“
There is always hope and
forgiveness. Remember the prayer,” LaShaun said quietly. She still
held his hand.

“
You think so?” Willie’s
gaze pleaded for reassurance.

“
I know it,” LaShaun said
without hesitation.

Willie let go of a long sigh, and more
tears came. Then he swallowed hard. “I’ve done a lot of bad stuff,
knifed a guy once in a fight on Bourbon Street in New Orleans. I
killed another dude in self-defense. Then there was lots of women,
not all of them were willing. You know what I mean?”

“
Yeah, we know,” Chase
clipped, an expression of disgust stamping his face into a grimace.
His mouth clamped shut at the look M.J. gave him.

Willie’s gaze flickered past LaShaun
to where Chase and M.J. stood. “I deserve to suffer. High on drink
and drugs, I got myself into some real bad company. At first I just
thought we was partyin’ hard. I should have stopped when some of
the others started roughin’ up folks off the street. But I was
sweatin’ to get next to Emelda. That girl could drive a guy crazy
swingin’ those hips when she danced.”

“
What’s her last name?”
LaShaun said softly.

“
Good,” Chase whispered so
low his voice barely made a sound.

“
I don’t know. Said she
grew up in Grand Coteau . Got tired of the small town scene. What a
hot good-looker.” Willie smiled. For a moment he looked like a
normal man remembering sensuous good times. “She took to me. Well,
I had some money at the time. But still...”

“
You had fun at first,”
LaShaun prodded to pull him back from memories of the
woman.

“
My mama used to tell me
the fun wouldn’t last, and she was right. Emelda bit me one night
while we was makin’ love, I didn’t think nothin’ of it. I mean that
girl had some crazy moves. Oh Lord, have mercy.” Willie started
breathe heavy.

“
Damn, that was some kinda
woman,” the male nurse mumbled and wiped sweat from his
forehead.

“
You right about that, sick
as he is just talking about her gets him hot,” his colleague
replied with a leer.

LaShaun ignored the urge to slap sense
into them. They were the kind of men who, like Willie, would be
seduced into trouble that would suck them dry. Evil knew exactly
how to appeal to the flesh, as she could bear witness to from her
own weaknesses in the past. She gestured to Chase and M.J., and
they drew closer.

“
You better clear the
room,” LaShaun said.

M.J. studied LaShaun’s expression for
a few seconds then nodded. She turned to the charge nurse. “I’m
gonna ask y’all to step outside during our interview with Mr.
Dupuis. He may be about to give us sensitive information related to
an on-going investigation.”

Nurse Jones blinked rapidly. “Uh, but
he might get upset and need medical attention. Or what if he gets
aggressive again?”

“
We’ll call you.” M.J.
waved the three hospital employees toward the door. “Just stand
by.”

The two nurses looked disappointed,
but the aide beat them getting out the door. LaShaun continued to
hold Willie’s hand. The latex glove annoyed her. She knew the
sickness eating at Willie Dupuis wasn’t contagious.

M.J. pulled the deputy posted outside
into the room. “Don’t let anyone come in until I say
so.”

“
You got it,” the young man
replied and went back to the hallway. The door whisked shut
blocking out the hum of voices.

M.J. heaved a deep breath and
positioned herself at the foot of the bed. Chase moved closer to
LaShaun. Both of them watched the sick man closely. LaShaun patted
Willie’s hand, a sign of reassurance and that he should continue
his account.

“
I got the fever first,
that’s what me and a couple of guys I was in jail with called it. I
was used to havin’ blackouts because of the drinkin’ and drugs.
That didn’t seem unusual. I’d wake up with blood on my shirt. Just
a few spots. I thought, damn, we must have gotten into some good
fights. But one night I had had blood in my mouth, on my face, and
even in my shoes.” Willie shivered.

LaShaun pulled the blanket up to his
chin. “It’s all over now. But you need to tell us.”

“
Emelda loved it. I’ve seen
some crazy stuff in my time, but I never saw somebody’s eyes light
up like hers would.” Willie gulped in air and continued. “One night
I didn’t drink as much as usual. The party got started the same
way, but then Emelda and the others changed.”

He gripped LaShaun’s hand tighter.
When Chase started toward her LaShaun firmly shook her head to stop
him. “It’s okay,” she whispered.

Willie’s eyes were wide and glassy
when he turned his head sharply to look at LaShaun. “The horror
movie turned real. Their faces got long, and at first I thought my
eyes was playin’ tricks on me cause their skin turned dark. But it
was hair growin’ on ‘em; right before my eyes. Then my jaws popped
and I felt pressure on my neck. I was sittin’ next to a window in
that old shack we had out in the woods. My face was changin’ the
same way. Lord, help me. I didn’t know.” He stopped and whimpered
for a few moments.

“
Of course not. Even with
all you’d done you would never have chosen to go that way,” LaShaun
said.

“
Emelda came over and got
on my lap, and then we had some of the wildest kind of sex. The
others got to it, too. Six men and four women switched up partners
like it was nothin’. When it was all over I thought it was my
imagination. Besides that, Emelda had me by the balls. Pardon my
language, miss.”

“
No problem,” LaShaun
replied, and glanced at Chase.

“
I loved every minute of
being with that girl. It was a high better than anything. We called
ourselves ‘The Pack’. The leader, this older guy, kept us in liquor
and drugs. And fresh girls. Some would leave. At least I thought
they would leave. I found out different later, when we killed one
of girls; a hooker from Baton Rouge.” Willie gazed at LaShaun as if
asking if he had to tell it. When she nodded a tear slid down his
cheek.

“
We dragged her out to the
woods I thought for more fun. After the older guy had her one last
time he clawed her back. She started screaming about calling the
police.” Willie let go of LaShaun’s hand. His skin turned grayer.
“The leader gave a signal and... they ripped her to pieces. Blood
and body parts was all over.”

“
My God,” M.J.
whispered.

“
A few hours later we all
woke up on the ground. We threw the parts into the swamp way out
near the parish line.” Willie’s voice sounded empty of all emotion.
“No use lookin’ for it. I’m sure between the gators, turtles and
fish ain’t much left. Besides, I’m not sure exactly where we tossed
her, or what was left of her. The old guy knew the back roads, and
he did the drivin’.”

“
Give the officers a
general idea maybe,” LaShaun spoke gently to him though inside she
recoiled in revulsion.

“
I wasn’t too clear-headed,
and I’m not from around here.” Willie squeezed his eyes shut. “Not
much I wanna remember, but I can’t get the pictures out of my head.
Things didn’t get much better from there. Tell him to help me.
Please.”

LaShaun moved closer to the hospital
bed. “Tell who, Willie?”

“
I don’t know why he got me
into this mess. Even my mama could smell the demon in me, told me
to leave and not come back. With all I’d done mama had never said
that to me. I’ve got no home now in this world even if I was to
live. I don’t wanna burn in hell.” Willie strained forward and
grabbed LaShaun’s arm in a tight grip. He started shivering and
coughed so hard pinkish spittle dripped from one corner of his
mouth.

“
Let go of her.” Chase
stepped between Willie and LaShaun, and worked to pry the man’s
hand loose.

“
Calm down and give me a
name,” LaShaun said, but her words were drowned out.

The male nurse, male aide and young
deputy rushed into the room with the charge nurse right behind.
They helped Chase push Willie back onto the pillows. The nurse
already had a syringe of medicine on a tray. The charge nurse
briskly barked orders for the deputies and LaShaun to back away.
Willie lay shaking, tears leaking from his eyes. He called out to
God and his mother to forgive him. Two or three minutes later he
slipped into a drug induced sleep. Nurse Jones disposed of the
syringe in the sharps container attached to the wall, and stripped
off her latex gloves. She stuffed them into another trash can with
special markings and then went into the bathroom to wash her hands.
Seconds later she came.

“
Dr. Oliver is coming, and
he’s not happy,” Nurse Jones said, and raised an eyebrow at
M.J.

As if on cue the door opened. A short
thin man with red hair entered. He went straight to the bed to
stare down at Willie. Then he got gloves from a box on the table,
put them one and examined him. He lifted his eyelids and put a
stethoscope to Willie’s chest.

“
I need everyone who isn’t
medical staff out. Now.” Dr. Oliver said without looking at
them.

“
Of course,” M.J.
replied.

Chase, the deputy and LaShaun followed
M.J. as she left the hospital room. LaShaun glanced over her
shoulder once. Willie’s eyes fluttered open and his lips moved. He
seemed to be fighting the drug to keep talking. His message came
through loud and clear to LaShaun, and the sensation caused her
stomach to lurch. She stumbled against the young deputy who caught
her.

“
You okay,
ma’am?”

Chase put a protective arm around her.
“Get a glass of water, please.”

“
Sure.” The deputy looked
at them curiously as he walked down the hallway.

When the deputy returned, M.J. took
the small plastic cup from him and sent him back to stand outside
Willie’s room. “You look shook up bad.”