The Ghosts Of New Orleans (A PARANORMAL RESEARCH AND CONTAINMENT DIVISION (PRCD) CASE FILE) (8 page)

“Damn stupid idea,” Paul growled,
as he ran his hand through Eloise’s wet hair, pushing it away from her face.
“She nearly died, again.  This is enough; she’s going back to D.C.”

Eloise’s throat burned from the
salt water and she was exhausted, but she forced herself to speak. “It won’t
matter now,” Eloise croaked, “She wants me dead.”

Paul pulled slightly away and
looked down into Eloise’s face.

“Who wants you dead?”

“Delphine.”

“Great,” Sally exclaimed, “You got
a dead lady gunning for you.”

An hour later, after Eloise had
showered and changed once more, she joined Sally and Paul in the common area. 
Her throat still felt raw from the salt water she had ingested. She was
grateful when Paul handed her a cup of tea.

“Here, take a sip.”

The warm honeyed tea soothed her
raw throat.  She cradled the warmth of the cup in her hands and took another
sip.

“Well I can certainly confirm that
she’s powerful,” she said, a few sips later. “And mad.”

“You mean as in angry, mad?” Sally
asked.

Eloise shook her head. “No, I mean
as in crazy – mad.”

 “That’s not good,” Sally said.

Eloise nodded. “Yeah, I kinda
figured that when I was dancing seven leagues under the sea with a bunch of
corpses.”

Eloise paused for a moment and then
continued, “She did say the strangest thing.”

“What?” Paul and Sally asked at the
same time.

“She told me that I had a great
power.”

Paul shrugged.  “You do.  Your gift
of sight has helped thousands of lost souls.”

Eloise shook her head. “No, she
said it wasn’t my gift of sight.  She said that the power was resting upon me,
guarding me.”

Paul and Sally met each other’s
eyes and Sally lifted her brows smugly as if saying, “
I told you so
.”

“Weird, huh?” said Eloise.

“Yeah. Weird,” repeated Paul and
Sally.

“So what do we do next?” asked
Sally, “Were you able to get any information about the place, where it might be
located?”

“Yes,” Eloise answered. “It’s on a
peninsula.  Its landlocked end is encompassed by a tall ridge – about twelve
feet high.  There looks like what remains of a concrete pier on the eastern
side of the outcropping.”

“Great,” said Paul, “I’ll pull some
topographical maps and we can see if we can’t locate the beach.”

“Okay,” said Sally, “We locate the
place. Then what?”

“Then we put together a plan,” said
Eloise.

“A plan?” asked Sally, “What kind
of plan?”

Eloise shrugged. “Well, hopefully a
plan where I end up dry and she ends up gone.”

While Eloise and Sally researched
more information about Delphine Lalaurie, Paul reviewed the topographical maps
based on the information Eloise had provided. He finally decided on two likely
places, both located on one of the southern tips of St. Bernard Parish.

“Considering how close you were to
the Gulf and the fact that you passed so many smaller islands really helps to
narrow down the possibilities,” he explained.

“So, is it field trip time?” asked
Sally eagerly.

Paul glanced up at the clock.
“Well, I don’t think I want to drive around deserted marshlands at midnight,
how about you?”

Sally glanced up, “Wow! I didn’t
realize it was so late.”

She stretched her arms up over her
neck and arched her back. “I’m going to sleep well tonight.”

She hopped down from the computer
desk and emptied her tea cup into the sink.

“So, do you two want to use
Eloise’s room or put together something makeshift out here?”

“I beg your pardon?” Eloise asked.

“What!?!” Paul exclaimed.

Sally sighed and then explained slowly,
as if speaking to children.   “Delphine knows that we are on to her, right?”

Eloise shrugged. “I suppose.”

Paul nodded.

“We also know that she would really
rather not have us mess up her little plan, right?”

“Okay, agreed,” Eloise admitted
hesitantly.

“We also know that the only time
you are protected from her is when you are in Paul’s arms – the grounding or
whatever, I don’t know,” Sally said, “But other than a surprise blast of Mormon
Tabernacle Choir that has been the only thing that’s worked.”

“Sally I can’t spend the rest of
this investigation in Paul’s arms,” Eloise stated, “No offense, Paul.”

Paul nodded. “None taken.”

Sally shrugged. “Well, you don’t
have to spend the rest of the investigation in Paul’s arms, because when we are
awake and with you and you go off to bad spirit land, Paul can quickly react.”

Sally moved to stand in front of
both of them.

“But what happens if you are asleep
and alone in your room she grabs you?  Can you survive four or five hours with
her?”

Eloise shook her head. “No, but
there has to be another solution.”

“Well, yeah, Paul and I can stay up
all night guarding you while you sleep.  That’ll be a good time.”

Paul stood up and walked to the
kitchen counter. He ran his hand over his forehead, taking a moment to gather his
thoughts.

“Sally, go, get some sleep,” he
said, “I’ve pulled all nighters before, I can do it again. No problem.”

“Okay, I’ll sleep for a while and
then I’ll get up early and you can get some sleep,” she agreed.

Eloise watched them, panic growing
in her heart.  She didn’t want them to sacrifice their sleep, but could she
sleep in Paul’s arms?  The memory of what happened the last time she was in
Paul’s arms came rushing back.

After three weeks of dealing with
the dead in the city of Izmit, Paul had taken her away to escape some of the
sorrow.

“You have to see some of the beauty
of this country,” he had coaxed, “Come for a few hours, you need the rest.  It
will do you good.”

Paul drove her into Istanbul, about 55 miles west of the epicenter of the earthquake.  Even the ancient city
had been affected by the tremors, shaking loose some parts of the old historic
wall that surrounded the city.  The city itself was a combination of old and
new, parks and palaces, taxis and horse-drawn carriages, hotels and mosques. 
Eloise was delighted.

“This place is magic,” she sighed
as she pressed her nose against the car window, trying to take in the ancient
Turkish palaces, open bazaars and narrow lanes lined with shops.

Paul smiled indulgently. “I think
you need some magic.”

She turned and smiled at him.
“Thank you, I didn’t realize how much until just now.”

He returned her smile, took her
hand in his and lifted it to his lips. After a brief kiss on her knuckles, he
smiled again. “Allow me to be your magic genie and show you the wonders of this
city.”

Slightly breathless, Eloise only
nodded.

Paul drove down a narrow lane and
parked in front of a large, ancient building.  The outside seemed fairly
ordinary, but the door was painted in bright traditional designs.  They got out
of the car and Paul opened the door for Eloise.

Once within the building, they
stood under a high domed roof. A softly murmuring fountain bubbled up from a nearby
tiled basin. As the door closed behind them, the noise of the city was
silenced.

“What is this place? It looks like
a palace or a church.  I can’t be in here looking like this,” she said glancing
down at her dusty jeans and cotton t-shirt.

“This is your first wish,” he
replied.

Eloise was confused. “My first
wish?”

Paul moved closer and whispered
into her ear, “Welcome, my lady, to the Cagaloglu Hamam, a 400-year old Turkish
bath.”

Eloise’s eyes widened, like a child
on Christmas morning. “A bath?  A  Turkish bath?”

Paul grinned. “And a massage and a
steam room.”

Eloise impulsively threw her arms
around Paul’s neck and hugged him enthusiastically.

“Thank you.”

Feeling suddenly shy, she dropped
her arms and stepped back, dropping her head and biting her lower lip with
nervousness.

Paul reached out and cupped her
chin in his hand. He gently lifted her head and searched her eyes.  “Your wish
is my command.” 

She looked back into his eyes and
felt the heat rising from the pit of her stomach.  She took a deep shuddering
breath.  If he kissed her right there in the hall she knew that she would melt
right into the tile floor.  His thumb gently stroked the underside of her jaw. 
She felt another burst of heat course through her body.  If he didn’t kiss her
right there, she would explode.

Suddenly he grinned, as if he could
read her mind, and winked at her.

“Come on, let’s go in and get
cleaned up.”

Somehow she got her limbs to
cooperate and followed him down the hall of the ancient building.

“It’s so beautiful,” she said,
after finally finding her voice again, “ Look at the walls, the arches, the
pillars.”

“It is a religious place for the Muslim
faith,” Paul explained. “In Islamic art trying to create a likeness of a living
thing is seen as trying to rival Allah, who is to them the creator of all
living things – so instead, architecture is how they express themselves.”

 Paul paid the fee and a female
attendant took charge of Eloise. The woman, a short, sturdy woman with olive
skin, dark brown eyes and black hair, led her down a tiled floor to a dressing
room.

“Here you take off clothings and
put on pestemal,” she said in heavily accented English, handing Eloise a blue
and white striped cotton fringed wrap. “Wrap around after you take clothings
off.”

Then she handed Eloise a pair of
wooden clogs.

“Then put on malma and come out of
doors to me.”

Eloise changed and wrapped herself
in the pestemal, slipped on the clogs and left the dressing room. The attendant
beckoned her forward and brought her down a short passageway through a set of
swinging doors into a steam room.

“This is hararet, steam room,” said
the attendant, “Here you get hot.”

Eloise thought about the near kiss
that Paul had given her when they entered the bath and didn’t think she needed
to get hot again, but she obediently followed the attendant’s instruction and
laid down on the heated marble platform in the middle of the room.

Eloise could feel the tension seep
out of her body as she was enveloped by the steamy heat. She slowly closed her
eyes, leaving behind the wispy beams of light from the windows in the domed
ceiling.  The only sound in the room was the muffled pattering of clogs and the
soft hiss of the water over the coals. Eloise took a deep breath of the softly
scented steam, she hadn’t felt so relaxed in a long time. 

After about fifteen minutes, her
attendant touched her shoulder, “Come, now you have massage.”

The attendant began a vigorous
massage of Eloise’s body, pulling, twisting, kneading and pummeling her like
bread dough.  At times Eloise feared for her bodily safety, but the attendant
was skilled and soon Eloise felt like a new person.

“Now, time for kurne,” she said.

Eloise was lead to an open cubicle
with a marble basin filled with hot water.  The attendant donned a coarse camel
skin glove and then poured hot water from a copper bowl over Eloise and rubbed
down her back with long sweeping strokes from shoulder to waist.  Eloise
cleaned herself with sweet-smelling milled soap, shampooed her hair and rinsed
with the hot water. She felt wonderful; the primitive sponge baths she had been
forced to take during the past few weeks had been no solution to the dirt and
dust from the site.

She was led to another dressing
room where she changed from her wet pestemal to a dry one and wrapped her wet
hair in a thick white towel.  From there she was brought to a sitting room
where large propeller fans slowly cooled the bathers. 

Eloise sank into a deep soft couch
and propped her feet up on the nearby ottoman. She felt her skin tingle as all
of the opened pores started to close.  The attendant brought her a tall, cool
glass of lemonade and left her to relax.  Eloise slowly sipped the drink and
closed her eyes to enjoy the total relaxation.

She felt the couch sift slightly
and knew that someone else had joined her on it, but was too relaxed to bother
opening her eyes.  She took another sip of her drink.

“You look like you enjoyed your
first wish.”

Eloise’s eyes sprung open at the
sound of Paul’s voice. She turned her head and nearly choked at the sight of
him, right next to her, dressed only in a towel wrapped around his waist.  His
chest was broad, muscular and tanned, with a sprinkling of hair that seemed to
lead your eyes right down to where the towel started.

Eloise quickly averted her eyes
from his chest, but found them looking at his long legs, also well-formed and
tan, resting uncomfortably close to hers.

It was then she remembered she was
only wearing what most people would consider a large towel.  Immediately her
hand moved to the top of the towel to secure it a little better.  She could
feel Paul’s grin.

She glanced up to meet his eyes and
saw that she had been right.

“I thought this was the women’s
section,” she explained, “I’m surprised to see you.”

Paul’s grin spread and he stretched
his body, laying a strong arm on the top of the couch behind Eloise.

“Well, normally, you would be right,
but I rented the entire hamman for us,” he said, “Did you enjoy yourself?”

She nodded and then smiled up at
him.

“Yes, thank you, it was the most
indulgent experience I have ever had,” she confessed, “I could really get used
to it.”

“I’m glad,” he replied softly, “I
hope this entire day is one indulgence after another.”

Then he suddenly stood up and
offered her his hands. “Come on, we have a lot to experience today.”

She took his hands and he pulled
her up to him.  Still holding both of her hands in his; he paused for a moment,
looking at her freshly scrubbed body wrapped in the pestemal.   “Did I mention
that you looked delectable?” he whispered, and leaned forward and placed a soft
kiss on her lips.

It felt like a butterfly’s wing on
her lips and was over before she could react.

Then he stepped back and let go of
her hands.

“I’ll meet you in the front lobby,”
he said and walked down another corridor.

Eloise turned to find her attendant
waiting for her.

“Come, you dress now,” she said.

Eloise followed the attendant to
the dressing room and changed back into her shorts and t-shirt.  She reapplied
her make-up and brushed out her hair until it fell in soft waves over her
shoulders.

Feeling a little self-conscious,
she stepped hesitantly into the lobby.  Paul was waiting for her with a smile
on his face.  “Your genie awaits your next wish.”

She grinned. “How about something
to eat?” she asked.

Paul nodded and tried to look
serious. “A very wise choice, my lady.”

They walked back out to the car and
he drove them to an open air café where he ordered an assortment of Turkish
delicacies. There were dolmas, a combination of sautéed rice, pinenuts,
currants, spices and herbs tightly wrapped in translucent cabbage leaves, that
were surprisingly delicious. There was a spicy lamb kabob and a Turkish pasta
with yoghurt.  There was an assortment of fruits and cheeses and finally, when
Eloise knew that she had eaten more than she should, Paul ordered a piece of
baklava – a dessert that consisted of layers of paper-thin pastry sheets
brushed with butter and filled with ground pistachios and drenched in honey.