Cypress Nights (29 page)

N
obody made a whimper for a long time.

Bleu stepped closer to Roche—for his comfort, and her own. Cyrus stood at her opposite side.

“That's spiteful.” Madge's voice rang out, and it shocked Bleu to her toes. She looked at her cousin, standing with her chair pushed back, and wondered what else she didn't know about her. Fury changed her face, filled it with passionate loathing.

Bleu wanted to turn toward Cyrus, to see his reaction. She stayed right where she was. And she dreaded how devastated Madge would be if he tried to soften her outburst.

“I'm goin' to have my way,” Kate said in ringing tones. “That land's valuable. It'll be sold when I decide. That won't be anytime soon. If you want some place for meetings, put it where the old school was. We don't need another one. That school's done enough killin' already.”

“I'm sorry for your loss,” Madge said.

Bleu held her breath.

“We're sufferin' right with you over Jim,” Madge continued. “We're never goin' to be the same. He wanted the school replaced. Each of us will have to decide what we think is the right thing to do.”

Bleu let the breath out.

“Let's get to those pledge cards,” Ozaire boomed.

The trance snapped, and talk broke out. Bleu dared to check out Cyrus's face. He was staring straight at Madge, who continued to stand. She looked back at him. Bleu had to turn away. It hurt too much to see the yearning in her cousin's eyes.

“Madge has some spirit,” Roche said in her ear. “It runs in the family.”

She didn't know how to respond, but she smiled at him. He was working a miracle for her, changing just about everything about her, or helping her to change it.

And she was scared, Bleu realized, afraid to accept that the wonder of it wouldn't all go away. People had affairs all the time, but that didn't make them commitments.

“Don't worry about the land issue,” Roche said. “Kate's grieving. She's raw. She'll come around. If she doesn't—we'll figure out something else.”

We.
He talked about them as a couple, a pair. She wanted to relax and believe it. She wanted to giggle all the time and go nuts with amazement that he was here and he wanted to spend time with her.

She was afraid.

Roche pulled her away from center-stage and into a spot where they had privacy. “I'm a tough guy,” he said.

Bleu blinked. “Of course you are.”

“I am. I've got more bad habits than you can imagine, but I'm trainable, Bleu.”

“What does that mean?” she said.

“It means I hope you'll give us a chance to see what we can be together.” He smirked, there was no other description for his expression. “I'll expand on that. I already know what we can be together. Exhausted and silly-happy. But you know what I mean. ‘Can I be what you need?' is the question. And whether or not you're even interested.”

“I'm the one who needs the work,” she told him.

Cyrus interrupted. “We don't have enough pledge cards,” he said. “I never thought I'd have a reason to say that, about anything.”

“I don't suppose it would be cool if I yelled, ‘whee!'” Bleu said. She and Roche exchanged a long look. Later there would be a lot more to say. “I was trying to be optimistic, so I brought a big bundle of cards. I'll run and get them.”

“Kate's left,” Cyrus said. “I'll have to go and see her again.”

Telling him to save his breath wouldn't go over so well, Bleu decided. There was something incredibly selfish about Kate Harper. Or maybe she really wasn't herself at a time such as this.

“Be right back,” Bleu said.

She hurried to get the cards from Annie Savage's office. Bleu had left all her things there when she arrived. Annie and Max were very different, too. Could Annie help with all the questions Bleu had about being with Roche?

Terrible idea.

She didn't know Annie well enough for that.

“You're a wizard,” a woman said as Bleu passed.

“No,” she responded. “This is a very special parish.”

On her way across the deserted lobby, she paused to check out the guest book the Knights of Columbus had
left there. She couldn't take the time to read all the names, but the number of them made her do a little jig.

A thump behind her was followed by a sharp current of air.

Bleu shot around and let out a squeal. The outside garbage can had fallen over and wedged the door open.

She hurried, grabbed the door open wider and bent over to right the can. A length of cloth, jammed into her open mouth, made sure she didn't get a coherent sound out.

She and the garbage can were dragged hastily outside. The creep who had her dropped the can, but half carried Bleu straight across the upper parking lot and into the trees.

Bleu retched. The explosive bumps in her chest sapped her strength. All she could make were gurgling noises. The trees seemed to suck her in and close her off from safety.

The steel-armed person punched the middle of her back.

She threw up around the gag. Her head, shoved forward while the cloth was loosened, stopped her from choking to death.

The instant she took a clear breath, he gagged her again.

Her arms wouldn't work. They had no strength. She couldn't stand.

He jerked her upright and cuffed her across the side of the head.

She heard voices. People coming out of Pappy's. Were they looking for her?

“No one out here,” someone yelled.

The voices went away.

Bleu shook, couldn't stop shaking. She didn't try to see who was behind her. He wouldn't let her anyway but if she
could
identify him she would have no hope of getting out of this alive.

The pressure of the arm around her chest slackened.

Before she could try to move, a dark, rough bag shot down over her head and upper body. Wrapped tight, she heard the distinctive sound of tape ripping from a roll, and felt that tape whipping around the outside of the bag to trap her inside.

She was going to die.

A short time later the same night

“T
hose folks out there pretty much take care of their own problems.” Spike couldn't remember the last time one of the bayou settlements had come to him for help.

“Bill Pelieu, it was who phoned,” Rose said. He stood, straight-backed in the doorway to Spike's office. Rose was still sorting out just how close he wanted to get to his boss.

“Good guy,” Spike said. “Did he say exactly when it happened?”

“He's not sure. Reckons they don't use that boat often. It's old and they keep it for emergencies. But it's his and he doesn't like it that someone else decided to clean things up for him. That's the way he put it.”

A pirogue had gone missing from behind Pelieu's house. He and his friends had searched for it but had come up empty-handed.

“Damn.” Weary, Spike shoved back his chair and stood
up. “This has to be seen to. I won't have those good people being picked on when someone decides I'm too busy with other things to do anything.”

He
was
too busy with other things, but he'd deal with the problem just the same. “Do you know how to get out there and take a complaint?”

The horrified expression on Rose's young face said it all. Rose was new to the area. He came from Texas.

“Of course you don't,” Spike said, rubbing his eyes. “I'll go myself. It's time I showed myself out there again.”

Rose coughed. “If I could be spared to come with you, I'd know how to get there next time.”

“You've got it.” Spike grinned and made for the coffee pot. “Call Pelieu back and tell him I'll be out in the mornin', first thing.”

“Will do.”

The phone rang as the door closed behind Rose.

“Devol,” Spike said into the receiver.

“Roche here. I'm out at Pappy's for the fund-raiser. Bleu's gone.”

“What d'you mean,
gone?
” He didn't need the coffee anymore.

“Disappeared. As far as any of us can tell, she's not on the premises. We haven't found any sign of her in the parking lots, and we're going through the surrounding areas. Spike, I think someone's got her.”

The desperation in Roche's words matched the way Spike felt. “I'll put out a call for help, and we'll be right there.” Dear God, don't let Bleu turn up dead.

“Someone already tried to get at her, remember?” Roche said. “They think if they can get rid of her, everything will stop with the school. We've got to talk about that—once we get Bleu back.”

“Sure. Do you think what I think? It doesn't ring true that someone's so obsessed about the school, they'll kill to stop the project.”

“I can't talk about killing now. But yeah, that's what I think.”

Spike tried to measure his response. “They intend to take down as many as they have to.” He'd never been much of a diplomat.

A little later the same night

“W
ill I be all right?” she said. “No one will know I did anything wrong?”

Justice snatched up her panties and bunched them over her mouth. “I told you not to talk. I hate a woman to talk when I'm busy. Say another word and you'll be swallowing these.”

Little wonder that no one had a clue what was happening. He, Justice, ran them around, confusing them more with every move he made.

He kept his hand where it was and held her against a wall in the closet. “You're going to like this,” he said. More important, he was going to get what he needed: she would do what he wanted, when he wanted. Everything must come together quickly now.

She'd happily taken off her own underwear when he'd told her to. “You follow orders really well.” He consid
ered how he wanted this to happen. He didn't have much time, so it had to be fast.

But he also had to be satisfied.

He grabbed first one, then the other of her wrists and trapped them in manacles hanging by chains from the low ceiling.

She started to shriek.

“Shut your fucking mouth,” he said, pushing his face into hers.

Everything but her underpants was still on her body. He hauled her skirt above her waist. Too bad he had to do so much of this by feel.

She felt just fine. But he couldn't locate what he wanted to use quickly enough.

He laughed aloud. He was slipping. From its sheath against his side, he removed the Italian knife. He gave himself a second to think, to make a decision. Then he reconsidered.

Still laughing, he plunged the handle of the knife between her thighs and inside her.

The chains rattled, she threw herself back and forth, her knees hitting at him as if she were a dancing marionette. Gasps of breath jolted from her. Why didn't she try to scream and shout again? Why didn't she beg?

If she thought he'd stop because she didn't beg him to, she was wrong.

Three more times he sunk the knife handle into her.

She jigged and puffing sounds came from her throat.

Time to use the part of his knife he loved the most. He withdrew it and felt her sag.

He flicked out the blade, pulled the neck of her top away from her body and positioned the knife inside. Swiftly,
expertly, in one swift slash, he slit her clothes open until they fell away. He sheathed the knife and felt her.

Big breasts. That's the way he liked them. Her destroyed bra still hung from her shoulders. That was a picture he could see and like in his mind.

He had a pole stiff enough to do pull-ups with.

Pinching, squeezing, he pushed her breasts together.

She was panting again.

Women were so predictable; this kind played the game of “nice” when they were as raunchy as they came.

Pursing his mouth, he drew hard on one breast, sucked, knowing how he would mark her. She swung, shoving herself harder into his face.

If he had fifteen more minutes, he was lucky.

The zipper on his pants opened loudly, and he pulled himself out. Once he started, he gave her a little piece of news with each thrust.

“You made a big mistake.”

Using only his penis, he lifted her from the floor.

“You tried to make deals with me.”

He didn't give her feet a chance to settle on the floor again.

“You're sorry now.”

This time the chains jumped.

“Listen closely.”

He was getting too close, and he hadn't finished talking. Pulling out didn't make him happy.

“I'm getting everything I want. No one will get in my way. Don't try. Give me what I want, when I want it.”

One more slam and he came. He clutched at handfuls of her torn clothing for balance, but he wasn't like other men. He recovered almost instantly.

“It's too bad there's another potential problem to get
rid of. Someone was careless. Was it you?” He shoved his face into hers. “We both know it was. You didn't think I'd find out we've got a crazy lady who knows too much, did you? You should know me better.”

“No one would believe her—”

“Shut up. She won't be left around to tell inconvenient tales—you'll help take care of that for us.”

When she was out of the manacles, he said, “Don't do anything stupid. And be ready when I come for you.”