'I do this for you, Custis,' she whispered as she broke the kiss. 'Don't worry, you. The Voodoo Queen got no reason to put a spell on me.'
'Well, all right,' Longarm said grudgingly. 'But be mighty careful.'
'I will come to your hotel when I find out anything.'
Longarm nodded and told her the room number. 'Aren't you coming back to the Brass Pelican now?'
She shook her head. 'No. Tell Mr. Millard how very sorry I am, but I have a more important job now, you bet. I help you find out who are your enemies, no?'
She had unofficially deputized herself, thought Longarm, and he had allowed such a thing to happen. When this case was over, he might have to be a little creative in the report he wrote for Billy Vail.
But then, a lot of things had already happened that Billy wasn't likely to believe!
Longarm kissed her again and repeated, 'Be careful.'
With a smile and a wave, Claudette left him there, a few blocks from Gallatin Street. He sighed as he watched her disappear into the crowd. There were still plenty of revelers abroad on this night of nights. Longarm turned and made his way through them, heading for the Brass Pelican. He still had to find out if Millard had heard anything about Paul and Annie Clement.
'What the hell happened to you?'
Millard greeted him with that growled question as Longarm came up to the bar in the Brass Pelican a few minutes later. Before Longarm could answer, Millard went on. 'Paul Clement said you got in some kind of a fight at the Mardi Gras parade.'
'Clement's been here?' asked Longarm sharply.
'Of course. He and his sister came back here earlier. They said you and that girl Claudette ran off together, that there was a fight and some shooting.'
'Paul and Annie were all right?'
Millard frowned. 'They were shaken up a little, but yeah, they were all right. What's going on here, Parker? You're acting mighty strange.'
Longarm felt a surge of relief. So Annie and Clement had just gotten separated from him in the crowd and hadn't been kidnapped by Royale after all. He looked around the room. 'Are they here now?'
Millard shook his head. 'No, they left a little while ago. Annie was upset by everything that had happened. She was worried about you, Parker. Now, damn it, I want some answers.
'Royale,' said Longarm. 'He had some men dressed up in Mardi Gras costumes, and they followed us through the crowd and tried to kill me at the parade.'
'Son of a bitch!' Millard's hands curled into fists. 'Every time I start to hope maybe that bastard's given up, he tries something else. Were you hurt? What about Claudette?'
'We got away from Royale's men after I winged one of 'em.' That was almost the truth, thought Longarm. He was just leaving out any mention of zombies. No need to spook Millard--or make the man think he was crazy. 'I don't know if Claudette's coming back here to the club or not. She was pretty shaken up by the whole thing too. She's spent most of her life in the bayou country. She may have decided she doesn't much like New Orleans after all.'
'Blast it!' exclaimed Millard. 'She was a mighty pretty little thing. I was looking forward to getting to know her better.'
I'll just bet you were, old son, thought Longarm. He knew exactly how Millard intended to get to know Claudette better. Maybe she was safer going to see that so-called Voodoo Queen after all.
'At least everything's been peaceful here,' continued Millard. He swept a hand around to indicate the crowd of gamblers and drinkers, many of them attired in costumes. 'This is going to be one of the most profitable nights of the year.'
'If Royale doesn't butt in again,' Longarm pointed out.
Millard glowered and nodded in agreement.
Longarm spent the rest of the night in the Brass Pelican, and as Millard had predicted, it was a lucrative evening for the club. The place was still doing a booming business as the new day dawned.
'Go home,' Millard said to a yawning Longarm. 'We've made it through the night, and I don't think Royale's going to try anything now.'
Longarm nodded. He was anxious to return to the St. Charles and see if Claudette had shown up there following her visit to Marie Laveau. Bareheaded, since he hadn't had a chance to retrieve the planter's hat that had been shot off in the ambush attempt, he left the club and walked through streets littered almost ankle-deep with the debris of the previous night's celebration. Quite a few people were still on the sidewalks, most of them staggering along drunkenly in costumes disheveled by hours of partying. In the light of dawn, everything that had seemed so colorful and exotic the night before now appeared faintly seedy and disreputable.
Longarm stopped at the desk of the St. Charles and asked the sleepy-eyed clerk on duty, 'Has a young woman been here looking for me?'
The man shook his head. 'No, sir, not that I recall. Let me check your box for messages.' He looked around, then shook his head again. 'Afraid not, sir.'
Longarm felt a sharp pang of disappointment and worry. He had thought that Claudette might be waiting for him in the lobby or even up in his room, if she had been able to persuade the clerk or one of the bellmen to let her in. He said, 'If a lady--young, attractive, dark hair, talks with a Cajun accent--shows up, send her right up to my room, will you?'
Even as sleepy as he was, the clerk managed to smirk a little as he said, 'Yes sir, Mr. Parker. Right away.'
