Nancy K. Duplechain - Dark Trilogy 01 - Dark Bayou (11 page)

“I thought you weren’t the kind to pry.”

“Sorry. Didn’t mean to ruffle your feathers.” That was the first time I noticed a hint of anger in him since I’d been back. I certainly didn’t like the feathers reference, either. That made me think of the Man from Bancker’s pet, and how it haunted my dreams. It brought my attention back to the package.

I nodded at the package. “It might be something important in there.” He glanced at it quickly and put his eyes back on the road as the light turned green again.

“Speaking of prying,” he said, coyly.

I rolled my eyes. “Fine.”

We drove in uncomfortable silence the rest of the way to Snook’s, which was about five miles from where we were. When we got to the parking lot, my black Mustang was one of two vehicles there. The other was a black F-150 truck that looked pretty new. The bar was closed, so I guessed that someone else had to be driven home last night. I’m sure it was because he had one too many and not because he was being terrorized by birds or skinny old, white-haired men.

“Thanks,” I said as he pulled his truck up next to my car. Lucas allowed me to let myself out. I fished my keys out of my pocket and walked over to my car. He drove his truck around in a semi-circle so that the driver’s side was across from my driver’s side. He leaned out the window as I was about to get into the car.

“Are you going back to Clothilde’s?”

“I guess. Unless you have something else in mind.”

He grinned, his hazel eyes twinkling. “Follow me.”

Puzzled, I followed him in my car.

Instead of going back through Lafayette, he led me north, down Ambassador Caffrey Street and we hooked a right to get to I-10 East. We drove for a couple of miles and took the exit that led to the city of Breaux Bridge. I had no idea what he had planned, but my curiosity was thoroughly peaked. I thought he would have gone into the city, but I soon found us driving down an old country road, just outside of the city limits. We were surrounded by a wooded area on the left. On the right, sparsely-placed one-story houses with large front yards whizzed by us as the speed limit picked up to fifty-five. We continued down this road for about eight miles, and then Lucas slowed down. I eased off the accelerator and gently pressed the brake. He put on his right turn signal, and I did the same. We turned right and continued down another country road, this one narrower with fewer houses. There were a couple of farms here and some sugar cane fields. The cane was still young—harvesting time would be in late fall. That’s when the smell would be intense, sweet and earthy.

After another five miles, Lucas slowed again, and we made another right. A few yards away, the road ended into a large dirt parking area. Beyond the parking area was a beautiful lake, filled with Cypress and Tupelo trees covered in Spanish moss. Along the bank were a few boats and pirogues. I pulled up behind Lucas, who came to a stop in front of one of the boats. He got out, shutting the door behind him. I did the same and walked over to him. The sun was high in the sky now and the humidity was stifling.

“Pretty,” I said, taking in the scene before me.

“You don’t remember this place, do you?”

I thought about it, but I couldn’t think long because the sun was too much of a distraction. “Come,” he said, and led me down to the bank where there was plenty of shade, and it instantly felt at least five degrees cooler. “You remember when David and I came out here with Michelle and Liv Fontenot?” My mouth hung open, remembering. Lucas laughed at me. “Yeah, I guess you remember now.”

And I did. I remembered being thirteen. Carrie was visiting at our house and Lucas was visiting David. Carrie and I were eavesdropping on the boys, who were in David’s room with the door closed. They kept laughing and there was an air of excitement and secrecy oozing from his room. We overheard that they were taking their girlfriends to a lake somewhere out of town. We didn’t know why that was supposed to be a secret but that made us want to know more. We found out the date and time and then Carrie had called her cousin, Holli, who had just gotten her driver’s license, to follow the boys when they went on their date. Holli and her friend had picked us up that night, telling dad we were all going to a movie. We left the same time David and Lucas left the house to pick up their dates. Holli did a great job of being inconspicuous. We followed them all the way to the lake.

The boys each took their girlfriend and a motorboat and went out to the middle of the lake. After they had gone, we snuck up to the bank and borrowed an old row boat. We rowed out toward the boys’ boats, careful to hide among the trees. It was very dark, but the moon reflecting off the lake made it easy to see their silhouettes in the distance. As we got closer to David’s boat, the girls started to giggle at David making out with his girlfriend who would, in a few short years, become his wife. I had no desire to see my seventeen-year-old brother doing anything like that, so I whined until we rowed over toward Lucas’ side of the lake.

It was more difficult to navigate that side because of the large roots of the trees sticking up. As we got closer, we heard soft moaning, and we tried to stifle our giggles. We wanted to get closer, to actually see something, so we rowed further toward Lucas’ boat. Suddenly, our boat scraped up against a giant root, making a very noticeable screeching noise. We froze in terror. We then saw Lucas suddenly jump up in his boat. He was wearing his Lafayette High baseball cap and nothing else. We screamed in surprise and Lucas, startled, fell backwards into the water. That tipped off David, who revved up his boat and steered toward all the commotion. We frantically tried to row away, but the motorboat was too fast. David caught up to us just as Lucas, who was already swearing at us, pulled himself back into the boat. When David saw me, I thought he would never stop cursing. He ordered us to go home. We did and laughed all the way.

“Lake Martin,” I reminisced.

He chuckled. “Yeah.”

“David was so mad at me that night.”

“So was I. I would have strangled all of you girls if you were in arm’s reach. But after you left, we continued with our dates and, well, let’s just say the night ended on a good note.”

I glanced at him, and his boyish grin made me laugh. “So, what are we doing here?”

He shrugged. “Not sure. Just seemed like the best place to talk.”

“We drove all the way out of town, down two long country roads, just to talk?”

“It’s easy to talk here. No distractions. Besides, this is where I usually come on my day off.” He gestured to several boats along the bank. “I own a few of these boats that I rent out. I bring Jonathan out here a lot during the summer. He loves to go fishing. Sometimes, we just go out in the middle of the lake and relax after the sun sets.”

“That sounds nice,” I said. He bent down and started pushing one of the boats into the water. “You really want to do this now?”

He squinted up at the sun. “We can stay on the shady side.”

That’s not what I meant, though. I wasn’t so much worried about the sun as I was about what he wanted to talk about. I felt a surge of panic at the thought of spilling my worried guts to him. I hadn’t been kidding when I told him I was up for weirdo of the year. He would ask me again why I was really back in Louisiana, and I didn’t want to be dishonest with him. I would tell him I was there for Lyla, but he would think I meant that I was there to take care of her and raise her. But I was really there to protect her from some monster with a pet bird. How would that sound?
Pretty damned crazy
, my mind taunted. I agreed with myself. Ghosts or no ghosts. I didn’t care what mysterious cases Lucas had to deal with at work. It still wouldn’t prepare him for my crazy dreams and impulses.

“You comin’?” While I was lost in thought, he had pulled the boat into the water and was holding his hand out for me. I knew I wasn’t going to win. I didn’t want to see him get angry again. He was a good friend, and they seemed far and few between these days. I took his hand, and he steadied me as I climbed into the little motor boat. We sat and he started the motor, steering us around the lake, careful to avoid the big roots on the sides of the Cypresses and Tupelos.

I had forgotten how truly beautiful South Louisiana waters can be, especially the swamps and bayous. If the moss-draped trees weren’t pleasing enough to the eye, there were beautiful and exotic-looking plants and flowers seeming to float on the surface of the murky water. Now and again, we would see a snake, lazily meandering through the shallow water. Turtles perched on fallen logs, warming themselves in the sun. We didn’t see any alligators today, but egrets and blue heron kept a silent watch from the trees and banks, every now and then stretching their great wings in the sun. These birds weren’t frightening. They were majestic. Of course, doves were always beautiful, but the Dark Man’s dove was terrifying because it did his bidding. It was a part of him somehow. I fought off a shudder and returned my focus to the tranquility of Lake Martin.

We finally settled on one shady spot near the northeast bank. He let the motor die down and we sat in silence for a few minutes, taking in our peaceful surroundings. I suddenly remembered my dream last night. I found myself scanning the bank, looking for an old cabin with a front porch, but I didn’t see one. And it didn’t have the same feel here as I had in the dream. This couldn’t be the same lake that Lucas and I had escaped to after the Dark Man chased us. It all looked familiar, but that’s what dreams do. They take what you know and use that as reference points. After all, if these dreams were somehow prophecies—and I mentally snorted at the idea—how would I know what the geography of a place looked like if I had never been there before? After awhile, Lucas broke the silence.

“So, you think you can answer my question from earlier?” He was polite, but adamant.

I sighed and said, “I’m here for Lyla.” I hoped he’d let it go at that but knew he wouldn’t.

“You’re taking her back to California with you, aren’t you?” He sounded worried. And I now understood why he wanted to know so badly. And I understood why he brought me out in the middle of a lake to talk about it. It was so I couldn’t run away. He was determined to get this over with.

“Is that what you’re worried about?”

He looked out at the lake and took a deep breath. “Jon and I would sure miss her. Clothilde, too, of course. I know you’re her godmother and her aunt, but I’m her godfather. Her family’s here. Her friends are here. I can’t stop you from taking her back with you, but I know she wouldn’t be happy there. I would be more than glad to take her.”

I didn’t know whether to be offended or relieved. I couldn’t believe he would think I would take Lyla away from him, from Clothilde and Jonathan. But it was a relief to know how much he loved her and what he would do for her. I cleared my throat. “I’m not taking her to California,” I said, trying to hide a smile. He looked confused.

“Then what are you doing here?” The smile I was trying to hide went away.

I sighed and decided to get it over with. “I’ve been having these … dreams. About Lyla. Someone’s after her in these dreams. I just feel like … something bad’s going to happen to her if I’m not here to protect her.”

Lucas was silent, and I suddenly felt very uncomfortable. The heat and humidity were becoming too much. If he didn’t say something soon, I felt I would jump into the water and swim back to my car. He leaned back in the boat and put his hands behind his head. He looked up at the white clouds high up in the blue sky.

“What kind of dreams?”

I really didn’t want to go into detail, but I could tell he wasn’t going to let me get away with being vague. “Nightmares. About a man. About … the Dark Man. You know. The one Jonathan told you about. In my dreams, he looks like this man I met at the cemetery the day of the funeral.” I swallowed hard in my throat and licked my dry lips. “He was a skinny old man with white hair.” Lucas’ eyes flickered to me as I echoed the words Roger had spoken almost an hour ago. He returned his gaze to the clouds and didn’t talk for a minute. The silence was killing me. As I was mentally judging the swimming distance between the boat and my car, Lucas spoke.

“Does he have a bird?”

My eyes popped. “Yes,” I whispered.

He sat up and looked me in the eyes. “Is it a black bird?”

“Sometimes. Sometimes it’s a white dove, though.”

He breathed deeply through his nose. “Jonathan said the Dark Man has a big black bird for a pet.”

“Can we go back to your truck?”

“Why?”

“Because we need to open that package.”

7

Lineage

W
hen we got in Lucas’ truck, it was a virtual oven. The heat blasted us as soon as we opened the doors, and he quickly put on the AC. We both stared at the package still on the armrest. I wanted to tear it open, to get it over with. Lucas was more patient. He gently picked it up and pulled the packaging tape off the sides. He dug into a corner with his finger and ripped along the seam in the middle. He hesitated slightly before opening the flaps. Inside was a manila envelope. Lucas tossed the empty box onto the dash and slowly opened the envelope as I held my breath. Inside were dozens of pictures. We eyed each other, baffled. He put the envelope on the armrest, and we stared at the first picture. It was a white man in his forties, balding with a nice smile.