Murder in the Rue Ursulines

“You want to know what I think?” Venus glanced over at Blaine, who shrugged. “I think Rosemary’s our killer. Her story checks out, but barely, and it means nothing anyway. She could have just as easily killed Glynis, left the house and ran her errands, making sure everyone in every store and the waitress at Angeli remembered her-she made herself very conspicuous everywhere she went; making sure she talked to a clerk in every store about something strange-something they would be sure to remember later-and then went back to the house, met Joey there, let him in, she keeps him there and watches until someone comes along, and then gets him to leave and he’s seen…”

“And then he called her last night, and she killed him.” I swallowed.

“Well, we were inclined to write it off as a mugging.” Blaine replied. “He’s a small guy, for one thing, and he was carrying a backpack filled with cash as well as his wallet. His fellow dancers warned him to take a cab rather than walk back to the Marigny-but all he said was, he wasn’t going home. His phone was taken, his wallet was emptied, and the backpack, and he was shot twice in the chest. He was dead by the time help could reach him. Someone in the vicinity heard the gunshots and called it in.”

Venus interrupted Blaine. “We’re tracing his phone carrier to get a record of his calls. One of the other dancers, I forget his name, said that before he left he called someone and was talking very quietly on his phone. The other dancer just assumed he was setting up a trick or something. Apparently, Joey was very secretive.”

I closed my eyes. “He called Rosemary, told her someone recognized him, was asking him questions about that night and what he was doing in the house?”

“And he asked her for more money.”

“He played right into her hands. I wonder if she intended to kill him all along.” I shrugged. “All she had to do was take his phone, his wallet and his backpack, and presto! It looks like another random mugging, another murder in the Quarter.”

“And we have no way of proving that she killed either of them.” Venus sighed. She stood up and gave me a long hard look. “Don’t beat yourself up over this, Chanse. This wasn’t your fault. You couldn’t have known he was going to be killed-nor do you know for sure that it was because you talked to him.”

“Thanks.” I walked them to the door. It was nice to hear, but I didn’t believe it for a minute.

“If you find out anything-not that I am encouraging you to keep investigating, mind you-next time let me know right away, all right?” She gave me a hug.

I closed the door behind them and ignored the sound of the reporters shouting questions at them. I lay down on the couch and covered my eyes. Poor Joey. You never try to blackmail someone who’s already killed. But then, he had no idea she’d been killing people for years.

At least, if she truly is Karen Zorn.

My fax machine rang, startling me. I jumped up and walked over to it. It whirred, and a piece of paper started printing out. My heart started racing as I looked at the caller ID and recognized the Kansas area code.

When it finished printing, I grabbed it.

It was a reproduction of a senior class photo. Across the top of the printout, before the photograph, was written This is Karen’s senior picture. If you see her, tell her to call her mother.

I stared at the picture.

She’d changed over the years, but there was no mistaking her.

Rosemary was Karen Zorn.

I remembered Brett saying, “She told me she was relatively new in town, didn’t know anyone, so I kind of always tried to be nice to her. But it was like she took my being nice the wrong way. She started buying me presents. At first, it was just kind of sweet, you know what I mean? Nothing inappropriate…, like she always had the kind of protein bars I liked… She would call me all the time-on the stupidest pretext… I figured she was just lonely and wanted someone to talk to, you know? Then it started getting really weird … I let it go as long as I could. Finally I told her she had to stop buying me things and calling me all the time. And then she turned on me. She told Glynis I’d said some inappropriate things to her.”

And Freddy: She used to bring me presents, buy me lunch and stuff like that… She was always willing to buy beer or food or something. She was always around. It got to be a joke around the house-my little stalker. I wouldn’t sleep with her. There was just something about her that didn’t strike me as being quite right, you know what I mean? But at that party, I was just drunk enough… the next morning I was hungover and felt like shit. And she wouldn’t shut up. She kept going on and on about how happy she was… it freaked me out. I told her I’d made a terrible mistake, that I didn’t love her, and she needed to leave…and then on Monday she went to the dean and accused me of rape.”

A definite pattern of behavior there.

I picked up my phone to call Venus when it started ringing.

The caller ID said PAIGE. I flipped the phone open. “Hello?”

There was silence at the other end. “Hello? Paige, are you there?”

And then I heard Paige say, clearly, “Rosemary, you aren’t going to get away with this, you know. You might as well put the gun away.”

Goose bumps sprang out all over my body.

I heard Rosemary say, “It doesn’t really matter at this point, does it? I don’t really care about getting away with anything. You missed the entire point of this, didn’t you? All of you?” She laughed, and it sent chills down my spine.

“You can’t shoot me in your apartment and think-“

Her apartment. I had that address.

The phone went dead.

Chapter Fifteen

Rosemary’s house was in the Bywater, on Desire Street between Burgundy and Dauphine.

I tried calling Venus as I ran out of the house and got into my car, but only got her voicemail. My hands were shaking so hard I could barely hit the speed-dial number. I left her a very tense message, and then debated calling 911. I got the car started, pounding my hands on the steering wheel as I waited for the gate to open. Come on, come on, come on! I glanced at my gun, which I’d tossed into the passenger seat. Finally the gate finished opening, and I flew down the driveway and out onto Camp Street. I drove as quickly as I could, stopping for red lights only when I could see cars coming the other way. I didn’t care if I got pulled over-although with the gun in the seat, it could be a very sticky situation. I made it through the CBD, and for the first time in my life, the lights were actually on my side. I flew around the curve where Rampart Street became St. Claude, and the traffic became heavier. I sped around cars, changing lanes and cutting people off, and the insane thought that I was living one of Jephtha’s video games raced through my head. My palms were sweating and I was gripping the steering wheel so tightly veins were popping out on my forearms.

And my cell phone didn’t ring.

It reminded me so much of the nightmarish drive out to Bay St. Louis, when I finally figured out the truth about Paul’s disappearance. That drive too was little more than a flash of memory, my heart pounding the entire way as we drove about 100 miles per hour with the siren on Venus’ police car screaming through the night. All those horrible memories were flashing through my head, and all I could think right now was that Paige, my Paige, was in the hands of a deranged killer. Nothing could happen to my Paige. Life just couldn’t be that cruel. No matter how hard I tried I couldn’t get those horrendous thoughts out of my head. Paige can’t die, that bitch can’t kill Paige, nothing can ever happen to her, I don’t even want to think about what my life would be like without her. Losing Paul was hard enough-that had been horrible. I don’t think I could ever get over losing Paige.

Memories flooded through my head, one image fading into another. The night we first met, in my room at the Beta Kappa house. My door had been unlocked and she’d let herself in to smoke a joint and listen to the Pink Floyd CD I had on, getting away from Little Sister rush. I’d walked in to find her standing in the middle of my room, the joint in her hand, grooving to Pink Floyd. And as soon as she opened her mouth, I knew I’d found someone special to be a part of my life, to make it richer and fuller. I was right. My life had been the better for knowing her. She was