The Ghosts Of New Orleans (A PARANORMAL RESEARCH AND CONTAINMENT DIVISION (PRCD) CASE FILE) (14 page)

While Eloise began to read, Sally
scanned the pages into her computer.

“Why are you doing that?” Eloise
asked.

“Because while you read them one by
one, I can convert it to a document and then search for key words,” Sally
explained.

“You are amazing,” Eloise said.

“Nope, technology is amazing,”
Sally replied, “Hey, I’ve been wondering about something.”

“Shoot,” Eloise said, placing the
journal to the side.

“Okay, from what you’ve told me,
when you send spirits forward, you have them look for a light in the sky,
right?”

“Yes, it’s either a light or a
doorway with light shining through it,” Eloise answered.

“But a light is usually connected
with something good, heaven or something like that, right?” Sally asked.

“Yes, you’re right,” Eloise
responded.

“So what happens when you’re trying
to move someone like Delphine from earth to the beyond?  Does she go to the
light?”

“No, we get the reward that we earn
here in life,” Eloise said, “That’s why so many evil ghosts cling to this life
– they don’t want to face what is waiting for them in the next.”

“So, what happens?”

“I’ve only had one personal
experience with sending a bad spirit to the other side,” Eloise said, “I was
fairly new and thought that I could do anything. In 1997 the State of
California Park Services decided to allow night tours on Alcatraz.”

“In case you weren’t freaked out
enough visiting it during the day?” Sally asked.

Eloise nodded. “But before they
allowed the public to go through, they decided to send a team of us in for the
night, just to check things out. As I mentioned before, I was pretty cocky and
decided that I could handle a place they called ‘The Hole,’ also known as Cell
Block D.’”

“Oh, that sounds like a nice,
friendly place,” Sally quipped.

“Cell Block D is dark, cold, and probably the most unfriendly place you
can imagine.  It’s an underground maze of hallways and four-by-eight-foot
cells, fourteen cells in all. The Hole is the area of the block that contains
no windows or lights, except for a single dim light in the exterior hallway,”
Eloise explained, “When Alcatraz was used for a prison, the prisoners were
routinely stripped naked, beaten, and tortured prior to being shoved into the
blackness of their cells, where they were often left to die of starvation or
exposure.”

Sally shivered and wrapped her arms around herself. “This doesn’t sound
good.”

“So I went down to Cell Block D and
decided that I was going to contact spirits and help them go forward,” she
continued, “The first thing I noticed is how cold the area was – much colder
than anywhere else on the island.  The second thing I noticed is that when I
entered Cell 14 – a place where a man was supposedly murdered by a creature
with red glowing eyes – there were several spirits.”

“Several?” Sally asked.

Eloise nodded.

“Of course, even I was smart enough
not to try to take them all on, but I decided I’d try to help this very large,
very angry looking spirit.  I walked right up to him and explained that I was
from the PRCD and that I was going to help him relocate,” Eloise laughed, “I
was such an idiot.”

“Anyway he laughed right in my face
and then suddenly he was holding me up in the air by my neck, not a comfortable
situation.  Obviously he was not intimidated by me. I felt my breathing passage
constricting and I started to see black spots before my eyes. But I continued
to tell him that he needed to go forward, that he needed to move beyond.

“Suddenly, on the side of the cell,
the bricks started to fade away.  At first I thought that I was finally
fainting, but only some of the bricks had vanished, the rest of them were right
were they should be.  The fellow holding my neck turned toward the bricks and I
saw a look of fear on his face I have never seen since.  He dropped me onto the
floor and tried to back away – moving to the furthest corner of the cell.

“I watched as this grey smoke
started rolling out of this hole in the wall, then suddenly, it wasn’t just
smoke, it was arms and hands.  They circled around the spirit while he screamed
in agony and then they closed in and pulled him back into the hole with them.”

“What did you do then?”

“I ran upstairs and outside as fast
as I could and quietly got sick on the lawn outside the Visitor’s Center.”

“Whoa, that is so bizarre,” Sally
said, “So where do you think they took him?”

Eloise shrugged, “I don’t know, but
it certainly wasn’t a place where I ever want to go.”

“Well, let’s see if we can book a
one-way trip for Delphine to visit your Alcatraz friend,” Sally said.

 “I think that’s a great idea.”

Eloise went back to her reading. 
Her journal was from 1835, the first year of exile for Delphine.  The first entries
were Delphine’s attempts to convince her in-laws that she needed to continue
her experiments. It was obvious from her writings that the entire family wasn’t
crazy – only Delphine.  She wrote about her daughters and the time she was able
to spend with them; walking around the estate, boating on the lake and horseback
riding in the barnyard, but now only under the careful watch of her husband or
another male relative.

They don’t trust me
,
she wrote. 
They don’t trust me with my own daughters. What fools!  Don’t
they realize that the knowledge I have has been passed on to my lovely
daughters.  Don’t they understand that I had to teach them so the work could go
on? Someday soon, they will find out how smart I am.

Eloise shivered and turned another
page.

“Oh, I can’t believe it,” she
cried.

“What?” Sally asked, pausing in her
work.

“She killed them, she killed all of
them,” Eloise said.

“Who did she kill?”

“Let me read this to you,” Eloise
replied, “It’s incredible.”

Today is the day.  My sweet
daughters have brought me the graveyard dirt; I was lacking for only this and
now the Goofer Dust is complete. Now those who will not listen to me will die.

Tonight as they sleep I will
sprinkle the dust around their beds and in the morning they will be dead. 
Farewell my sweet husband, farewell my sweet sister, farewell my sweet brother
– I am sad that you have to go, but at least this death will be quick.  Then I
can be free to pursue the noble calling to which I am destined.

Eloise flipped the page to the next
day.

Hallelujah, the dust has done its
deed.  The poor doctor was so confused, never had he seen so many people die in
their sleep.  He is worried about swamp gas – stupid fool.  He will never
suspect Hoodoo – he is too ignorant to believe.

My girls have been so clever.  Not
only did they help their dear momma, they also took some initiative and
sprinkled the dust in the bedrooms of their dear cousins. Now there is no worry
about who the heir to the estate is – we are the only ones left.

The funeral will be tomorrow.  We
will all dress in black and cry piteously. And then, after the company departs,
we will review the inventory.  There are quite a few specimens that seem very
interesting.  I can hardly wait!           

Eloise put the journal down and
wrapped her arms around herself. 

“This is a journey into insanity,”
she said, “Could she actually believe that some dust mixture she created
actually killed all of those people?  I wonder if she just got up in the middle
of the night and strangled them herself?”

Sally shook her head. “Nope, I’ve read
about Goofer Dust – it’s a combination of graveyard dust – or the dust from
decaying corpse – and some other herbs and minerals.”

“But Goofer Dust?  It sounds like a
Disney character.” Eloise said.

“Actually, the English word “goofer”
is derived from the African word “kufwa” which means to kill.  African slaves
brought that word with them and integrated it into the English language,” Sally
said. “Goofer is the verb form which literally means to kill, but actually
means to put a particular curse on someone.”

“So people have actually died from
this Goofer Dust?” Eloise asked.

“Yes,” Sally replied. “While Voodoo
is a religion, Hoodoo is a natural alchemy incorporating herbs, roots, and oils
- it is a practice used to control people – whether it’s a love potion or a
death sentence.”

“Does it work?”

Sally shrugged. “It sure sounds
like it worked on the late Lalaurie family.”

“This sheds a whole new light on
Delphine.” Eloise said. “If she gained some knowledge of Hoodoo, we really don’t
know what we’re up against.”

Sally nodded.  “I think we need to
make another field trip. We need to talk to a Hoodoo expert.”

“So, where are we going to find a
Hoodoo expert?”

“Well, it stands to reason that
most of the Hoodoo shops in New Orleans are either under water or abandoned, so
I vote for a trip to Baton Rouge.”

“So how do we escape Bert and
Ernie?”  Eloise asked.

“Tell him that we are going
shopping for some female products,” Sally said with a grin. “Do you really
think they’ll want to come in?”

“They might,” Eloise said, staring
down at her hands for a moment, then looking up at Sally with a grin she added,
“But if we tell them that you need to do grocery shopping – they’ll never
come.”

Sally stuck her tongue out at
Eloise and then turned back to her work.

“Fine, you go sweet talk them and
I’ll finish scanning this journals,” she said. “Then I suggest we go to bed. 
I’m wiped out.”

“Good idea,” Eloise said, opening
the door and walking down the metal steps.

The night air was cool and the
night was clear.  She could see a sky full of twinkling stars.  She walked over
towards the tent and called out.

“Hello, Sergeant Turner and Anderson,
are you there?”

Immediately the two men were
outside, their automatic weapons in their hands.  Turner turned towards Eloise
and Anderson scanned the area.

“I’m sorry to disturb you,” she
said, not moving until they were a little calmer. “But I just didn’t want to
break the rules again, so I thought I’d ask permission.”

“Yes, ma’am, we appreciate that,”
Turner said.

Anderson, his perimeter scan
finished, turned to Eloise, his weapon at ease.

“What can we do for you, ma’am?” he
asked.

Eloise came closer to the tent. 
When she stood within the glow of the safety light, she heard Sergeant Turner
inhale sharply.  She looked up and saw that his gaze was focused on her cheek.

“What happened?” he asked sharply.

Unconsciously, Eloise brought her
hand up to her still tender cheek. “Oh, it was just an encounter with an
unfriendly,” she replied.

She dropped her hand and fingered
her amulet. “Not to worry, I’ve got protection now,” she said with a smile.

“Ma’am I’m afraid that I’m going to
have to report this to the Major,” he replied.

Eloise shook her head. “I’d really
rather you didn’t, Sergeant,” she said, her calm voice contradicting her
pounding heart. “If the Major hears about it, he’ll just make a big deal over
nothing.  Really, it’s just a scratch.”

“She shouldn’t have done that,”
Sergeant Anderson said, staring at Eloise’s face.

“Oh, no, it wasn’t Sally,” Eloise
explained. “Really, it’s no big deal. And if you tell the Major, he’ll feel
responsible and he’ll leave his new post and get in trouble.  You don’t want to
get him in trouble do you?”

Both men immediately shook their
heads and Eloise was pleased at the loyalty these men had for their commanding
officer.

“Now, what I came to talk to you
about is tomorrow,” she said, changing the subject. “Sally and I need to go
into town for some supplies.  Sally needs some more ingredients for her, er,
her special recipes.”

Both men grimaced and Eloise hid a
grin.

“We also need some, um,” she looked
around, feigning embarrassment, “some feminine supplies.”

Both men looked very uncomfortable.

“So, would you like us to give you
a list of what we need?” she asked innocently, “Or can we just buzz quickly
into town and pick it up?”

“Where are you planning to go?”
Turner asked.

Eloise shrugged, “We were thinking
about heading up to Baton Rouge. It’ll probably take all day while we walk
through the shops. Would you like to come?”

Eloise could see that neither man
looked forward to a day of following two women through a shopping spree in
Baton Rouge.

“We thought we’d stop for lunch in
this great organic food restaurant,’ she added, hoping to seal the deal.

“Of course,” she added, “I suppose
I’m a little concerned about the equipment here at the base.  It’s pretty
valuable and if we left it for the whole day, perhaps I should stay and you two
should go with Sally.”