at the same time--he turned back to Marie Laveau and went on. 'The fella you call the evil one, he's kidnapping folks here in New Orleans and shipping 'em back to the Caribbean where their ancestors came from in the first place, isn't he? Slavery's still legal in some of those little island nations--like Saint Laurent.' Marie Laveau nodded solemnly.
'That's why Millard's men loaded that cargo on those ships of his in the middle of the night and didn't let the regular dockworkers near them,' continued Longarm. 'It was human cargo.'
'Human cargo bound for the sugar plantation of the man who works with the evil one,' said Marie Laveau.
'Paul Clement,' Longarm said through gritted teeth. Clement was just as crooked as Millard, was in fact his business partner.
Longarm hoped that Annie wasn't in the scheme up to her pretty neck as well.
'Why come after me?' he asked. 'Just because I work for... well, you know who I work for.'
'You were to be brought here to me,' explained the Voodoo Queen. 'You would have been placed under my control and sent back to the evil one, so that we would know his plans.'
'You were going to make a spy out of me. I'd've wound up a zombie.'
What passed for a smile tugged briefly at the old woman's mouth. 'It is a different spell, requiring different charms. But your ultimate fate would have been the same, once we were through with you. When our efforts did not go as planned, it was decided that you could best serve our purposes by dying, thereby robbing the evil one of a strong right hand.'
'So you sent those fellas to put a giant snake in my room.'
'Many creatures obey my commands,' said Marie Laveau, 'not merely those that are human.'
'What made you change your mind?'
'This one,' said Marie Laveau, pointing once again at Claudette. 'As I told you, once I had spoken with her, I knew there was more to you than there appeared to be, M'sieu Parker. Now that you are here, I am more convinced than ever. You are not an evil man. Why have you allied yourself with one?'
Longarm took another deep breath. So much of the puzzle that he had found in New Orleans had been cleared up here in this unassuming little house by an old woman who looked like she would fall over if somebody breathed hard on her. Under the circumstances, he supposed it was time to tell the truth.
'I'm a United States deputy marshal,' he said bluntly. 'My real name is Custis Long. I came to New Orleans to find out who was responsible for murdering another federal lawman who was trying to break up some smuggling rings.'
Claudette stared at him, wide-eyed with surprise. Marie Laveau merely nodded, as if his words came as no shock to her at all.
'The man in the bayou,' she said. 'I heard of the fetish made to look like him which was placed outside the door of the chief marshal's office. It angered me greatly to think that someone would bring voudun into their petty criminal activities.'
'You and your folks didn't have anything to do with that?' asked Longarm.
'Your law has nothing to do with us, we have nothing to do with it,' said Marie Laveau. 'We wish only that the evil one be stopped.'
'Do you know someone named Royale?'
Once again that faint semblance of a smile appeared on Marie Laveau's gaunt face. 'I know the name,' she said.
'Is Royale smuggling slaves back to the West Indies too?'
'The one you call Royale does nothing to harm my people. That is all I care about.'
Longarm wasn't sure why he believed the old woman, but he did. The friction between Royale and Millard was an added complication for him, but it had nothing to do with the voodoo angle. Which meant, he supposed, that the finger of guilt was pointing straight back at Millard again--and Paul Clement. Even though Millard professed to hate voodoo and want nothing to do with it, that didn't mean Clement felt the same way. Clement could have been the one responsible for placing the voodoo doll outside the chief marshal's office, in an attempt to muddy the waters and throw a false trail into any investigation of Douglas Ramsey's murder. The theory made sense, Longarm realized as he turned it over in his mind. The whole voodoo business had certainly had him guessing and coming up with some wild ideas, when once again, as usual, the motive all came down to money. He wondered how many other sugar plantations in the West Indies were being supplied with slave labor by Millard and Clement, and how high the price was.
But no matter how much those other plantation owners were paying, the price in human misery was even higher.
Marie Laveau steepled her bony fingers in front of her and asked, 'What are you going to do about this matter?'
'I'm going to bust up that slavery ring good and proper,' declared Longarm. 'I'm convinced now that Mill-that the evil one and his partner are responsible for the murder of that other lawman. I'm going to call in some reinforcements and throw the whole lot of 'em behind bars.'
'You can do this?' asked Marie Laveau.
Longarm thought about how that special prosecutor would react when he heard the password 'Pikes Peak' and then Longarm laid this whole mess on his desk. He had a hunch Captain Denton and the other honest policemen in New Orleans would soon be paying a visit to the Brass Pelican and also to the Clement mansion on Chartres Street. Once again, he hoped that Annie's involvement in the affair had been slight or even nonexistent.
'I can do it,' he promised Marie Laveau.
The Voodoo Queen nodded, evidently satisfied with his answer. 'Then go. Put a stop to the evil one's crimes. But if you do not... then I will deal with him.'
