When she asked about dinner plans, Landry said he and Jack had a lot to discuss, all of which involved the Toulouse building. They were welcome to come along, but it would be a working dinner. Cate said they would go somewhere else, but Tiffany insisted on going. She wanted to hear everything they said.
They walked to the Gumbo Shop on St. Peter and settled into a corner table. The place was quieter than usual, and when Landry declined wine and cocktails, Jack said he'd be fine if they wanted to have a drink. Landry refused; Jack was on a fragile path, and he wanted to support him.
Landry wanted to talk about what he learned from Henri Duchamp, but he gave the floor to Jack, who eagerly waited to prove himself. The topic of age-regression therapy could wait until he finished.
Jack had spent the weekend and Monday doing research, and what he found not only dovetailed with Henri Duchamp's information, it provided new insight into the history of the family.
When Lucas and Prosperine LaPiere emigrated from France to New Orleans in 1798, they chose an odd means of transportation. They booked passage on the Couronne Dorée, the Golden Crown. Its manifest showed it crossed the Atlantic carrying over two hundred people. A little digging revealed something very interesting, Jack said.
Only twelve of the two hundred fourteen people on board had bought tickets. Those passengers had staterooms, but the rest were shackled below decks. The Couronne was a slaver. It sailed south from Le Havre, made port on Africa's Windward Coast, picked up its human cargo, and crossed the Atlantic.
Jack continued. "The LaPieres were well off. Within a year they owned several lots near the Place d'Armes, and later they built the Toulouse Street building. So why did they choose a slave ship for their voyage? Why didn't they take a passenger ship straight to New Orleans? They could have arrived a month sooner and under much nicer conditions. I think it's because even in France they were slave traders. The Couronne might even have been his boat. And I'll bet he owned some of the slaves it carried."
"That makes sense," Landry said as the food arrived. "It's as good an explanation as any about why they were on that ship. What else did you find?"
Some of what he turned up they already knew, but confirmation was good. The couple lived in five rooms on the second floor above Lucas's office. They made the newspaper now and then, appearing on the society page along with other prominent Orleanians who attended Mardi Gras balls and charity events.
"Here's something interesting," he said. "According to police records, officers visited the address on Toulouse Street twice." Landry commended him for thinking about police reports. He conceded he hadn't thought of that source and the compliment caused Jack to smile.
The first police report was in July of 1818 when officers responded to a complaint by neighbors of cries and wails coming from the LaPiere building. Lucas LaPiere, the owner, met the officers at the front gate. The officers heard no such wailing, and LaPiere exercised his right to refuse them entry. The report described LaPiere as "a respected member of New Orleans gentility and the owner of several French Quarter properties." Instead of provoking a wealthy landowner, the officers chose discretion and accepted Lucas's assertion that all was well. There was no need to disturb the family further. Lucas and Prosperine somehow stopped the noises, because police didn't return for almost two years.
"Do you think the officers suspected what was going on inside?" Cate asked, and Jack nodded.
"Slave trading businesses rented buildings around the Place d'Armes to be near the auction venue. They held men, women and children prisoner in those places, and the police surely knew that Lucas had some too. I guess as long as they didn't 'disturb the peace,' it was okay. Can you imagine?"
During the conversation they hadn't noticed Tiffany, who now sat rocking back and forth in her chair with her eyes closed. Cate touched her arm and the girl's eyes flew open. She drew back in alarm and shouted in a strong Creole-accented voice, "Stop this talk and let them be! Don't you see they can't rest?"
Confused, Tiffany stared off in space while other patrons shot surreptitious glances in her direction.
She whispered, "I...I'm sorry. I don't know why I did that."
Landry squeezed her hand. "This is important. Tell me what just happened."
"I was listening to Jack talk and thinking how interesting it was. Then the room began getting blurry. My head spun, and I closed my eyes to stop it. Eerie black shapes moved toward me. People maybe, but more like ghostly masses that took over my mind. All this happened in seconds — I could still hear Jack talking, like an echo from somewhere far away, and when he said there were prisoners, I heard their screams.
She put her hands to her face and sobbed. "It was more than I could bear. Those were the most awful, unearthly sounds I've ever heard. They treated those people like animals, her far worse than him. Madam chained them in the attic and tortured them. She was an evil, cruel woman —"
She paused and looked up at Landry, her eyes wide with fear.
"Oh my God, how do I know that? Am I crazy?"
"Not at all. You saw those things. I don’t know how or why, but I believe you did. Jack, let's drop this for now. We'll finish up tomorrow at the office."
"Hold on! You haven't heard the best part. Lucas LaPiere got in trouble again. It was worse the second time."
Jack's enthusiasm was commendable, but in his eagerness, he ignored Tiffany's distress. Landry said,
