Play Dead

Chapter 47

"What's that look about?" David asked with concern, eyeing Elise closely.

They were on the balcony outside her bedroom, Elise in a wicker rocker, David lounging against the railing. He was barefoot, dressed in faded jeans and gray Savannah Police Department T-shirt. Elise wore a pair of loose black pants and a top in various shades of red that Audrey had dug from the closet and convinced her to wear.

"Does evil move through bloodlines?" Elise asked fearfully. Would it resurface in future generations? In Audrey's children or grandchildren?

"You know what?" David pushed himself away from the railing with his hip and reached to pluck a magnolia from a nearby tree. "I'm just glad you're alive." He tucked the white blossom in her hair, above her ear. "And I'm glad I'm alive. I don't want to think about that other stuff."

He was right. It served no purpose to obsess about something that couldn't be controlled and would probably never happen.

Major Hoffman had offered David his job back, and he'd accepted, along with a year's probation. His criminal profile had been fairly accurate other than the sex and education of the perpetrator. And except for a bit of short-term memory loss that LaRue, who was out of jail and also on probation, assured them would go away soon, David didn't seem to be suffering any ill effects from the TTX.

After forty-eight hours in the hospital, two pints of blood, and eighty-some stitches to four defensive wounds, Elise had been sent home. The all-purpose vest had saved her from any fatal injuries.

Strata Luna herself was alive and in stable condition, the knife blade having missed her heart by a hair.

"When I get outta here, I'm gonna teach you some good root doctoring," Strata Luna had said from her hospital bed when Elise had stopped to visit.

The lights had been draped with blue scarves to chase away evil spirits, and Strata Luna had gotten into trouble several times for burning heal-me-now incense.

"I gotta have somebody to pass the mantle to, and who better than Jackson Sweet's daughter? And later, when the time is right, you can pass it on to your girl."

"I don't know…," Elise had said noncommittally, while at the same time experiencing a sense of excitement at the thought of embracing her past so openly. But she was a cop. A detective. She shouldn't be messing around with root work. And yet…

"You can't let it all just stop. One more generation gone by and nobody will even know what root doctorin' is. Don't waste your heritage, girl," Strata Luna had told her. "You could be using it to be a better detective."

An intriguing notion…

Then the conversation turned to Marie Luna.

"I always suspected she killed her own sister," Strata Luna confided. "But as a mother, I couldn't believe it." She shook her head. "Thought I had to be mistaken. Just in case, I decided to keep her away from school and teach her at home. Maybe that's where I went wrong. Maybe she shouldn't have been denied the company of kids her own age."

"I think you made a wise choice," Elise said. History had proved that someone with Marie Luna's tendencies only got worse when forced into the public education system.

"There were the usual things," Strata Luna continued. "She was mean to animals. I learned real fast that she couldn't have any pets, but she still caught baby birds and tortured them till they died. I tried all kinds of spells, but they seemed to make her worse. For a while, I even tried to keep her sedated."

"With tetrodotoxin?"

"Not a zombie potion, but a relative of it. Meant to take the edge off her energy. Instead of knocking her out it made her so she couldn't sleep. She started prowling those damn tunnels all night long."

"I've heard of sedatives having that kind of negative reaction sometimes," Elise said. If only Strata Luna had asked for help. But there was no use telling her what she already knew.

"Then I caught her with a body she dug up from Laurel Grove Cemetery. She dragged it through the tunnel and brought it home like a dog would a bone.

That's when I'd had enough. I couldn't take no more. I told her she had to leave. I didn't just kick her out with nothing. I gave her money. Enough to last a long time, but she musta spent it in a whirl."

"How did you fake her death?"

"People don't ask me a lot of questions. An old coroner from St. Helena Island signed the death certificate in trade for two fifths of whiskey and a bring-me-wealth spell. And I already had a body to put in a sealed coffin."

"The one Marie dug up."

"Always felt bad about that. But he was a John Doe from a potter's field. Still, it's not right for him to be buried under Marie Luna's headstone. And now I need a place to put her…"

"I can help get him moved."

"First I wasn't sure I wanted her next to Deliliah, but I sent Marie away once. Can't do that again… And it was my fault. I cursed your mother when she was pregnant with you. She musta held up a mirror, cause it came right back on me…"

Elise had subconsciously believed in the power of the root even during the years she'd turned her back on such things. But Strata Luna's statement was a little hard to swallow. If she believed her own curse had come back on her, could the strength of that belief have caused her to give birth to an evil child? Was it possible?

Now, days later, Elise was still puzzling over the question.

"Did I tell you they found Gary Turello?" David asked.

Elise looked up to see him extending his hand. She took it, his grasp firm as he helped her from the chair. "He was in one of the tunnels, tucked into a cozy mattress."

"Turello and about a million cockroaches," she said.

"And the footprints in the cemetery where Jordan Kemp was found," David said, "matched the boots Marie Luna was wearing."

They were going for a short walk. Elise needed to get out of the house. See the neighborhood. "What's your theory on Harrison?"

"Victim of circumstance. Probably unknowingly came into contact with TTX when he was in the tunnel. Maybe got it on his clothes. Later that night, when he changed for bed, he inhaled the substance or absorbed it transdermally."

Elise nodded. "I wouldn't be at all surprised if Marie Luna didn't deliberately leave dustings of TTX near her lair."

"In the way of King Tut's tomb?"

"Seems highly likely."

The French doors were open, and they could hear music coming from Audrey's room. She'd insisted upon staying for the next two weeks so she could keep an eye out and help with the cooking and cleaning. Elise didn't think it was necessary to mention that she didn't cook and rarely cleaned. It was just nice having Audrey there.

While they waited downstairs for Audrey, David put on his running shoes and toured the front of the house, hands in his pockets, pausing in the foyer to admire the horrendous seventies wallpaper. It was shiny, with streaks of silver and pink.

The music above them stopped. A moment later, Audrey came bouncing down the stairs. "These are the coolest glasses."

She was wearing the blue conjurer shades Strata Luna had given Elise.

"I can get a steamer and help you strip this paper," David said. 'There's also a product called Strip-Ease that works like a charm."

Audrey adjusted the blue-lensed glasses.

They looked cute. Very retro.

"I can help too," Audrey said. "And paint. I love to paint." She touched the flower in Elise's hair. "Nice."

Elise had finally told her everything about Jackson Sweet and Loralie. She'd taken it well. In fact, she'd been fascinated and intrigued. But Elise was holding back telling her that Marie Luna was Elise's half sister. Audrey was young and had enough to absorb right now.

"I'm thinking maybe a traditional color," David said, still contemplating the wall. "Say, taupe?"

Mother and daughter gave him a look of horror.

He shrugged, unconcerned. "Just an idea."

"Moss green," from Elise.

"Purple," from Audrey.

"Where are we going?" David asked. "I forgot."

"For a walk," mother and daughter answered in unison.

Outside, Elise waved to her neighbor, Mrs. Bell, who was sitting on the porch.

The temperature was seventy-two degrees Fahrenheit, with high humidity that wrapped around them like a blanket. The tabby shell sidewalk was wide, allowing them to walk three abreast.

Two years earlier, Elise had taken Mrs. Bell in for cataract surgery. Afterward, when the older woman stepped outside, she kept saying, "Oh, the colors! The colors!" as if she'd never seen the world before.

Elise felt like that.

The grass was so vivid; the magnolia leaves were such a deep, dark green. The sky, with the setting sun, was so many beautiful shades of pink and orange. And the smells!

The odor of the pulp mill seemed to have taken a detour around the Historic District, leaving room for a true appreciation of the azaleas and grapelike clusters of crape myrtle, and the fragrant honeysuckle.

A few blocks into their stroll, they passed a group of girls jumping rope, the slap of shoes against cement pounding out a rhythm.

Elise and Audrey paused to wait for David as he picked another magnolia blossom-this one for Audrey's hair. While they stood under the fragrant branches, a chant came drifting in their direction:

A nod to the grim reaper Kiss on shrouded bed Faint whisper through marble lips Only playing dead.