He and Cate crawled into the entresol. He directed his light around and saw debris — rotting cloth bags lay all around, and dozens of wooden crates filled the cramped area.
"Look for another trapdoor in the ceiling," he said. "There has to be a way to get to the next floor from inside the building."
They examined as much ceiling as possible given all the trash but didn’t find an opening. They came back down and went outside where Jack and Tiffany huddled in a corner of the courtyard. She shivered as Jack held her tightly and whispered that she was safe.
Jack seemed himself again. "I heard her crying in a room off the corridor. I think she's in shock."
"I'm in shock myself," Landry muttered. "Jack, we'll talk to you later. Tiffany, do you have any idea what happened?"
She shook her head, nestled closer to Jack and murmured, "Later. Talk later."
Atypically aggressive, Jack told Landry to leave her alone and Cate suggested taking her back to the apartment, Landry padlocked the gate, and they walked down the sidewalk with Landry supporting Tiffany on one side and Jack on the other. They looked perfect in New Orleans — three partygoers, one of whom having had a bit too much to drink.
Cate tucked her in bed with a cup of hot tea, closed the door and joined the men in the living room. Landry told Jack the odd things he had said, but he seemed mystified. After walking in with them, all he could remember was hearing Tiffany's cries from an interior room. He'd brought her to the courtyard and held her in his arms until they came.
"Did you hear those sounds from up above?" Cate asked. "Screams — pleas. People begging for their lives. Some of it was in French. Did any of you hear it?
Landry had. "There can't be people up there today. I believe we heard something from the past. Nobody's in the house now — not living people, anyway. I have to get into the rest of the building. I think the answers are up there. I need someone's permission to explore the place. Tiffany could have died in there. You too, Jack. You said you caught your jacket on the railing and saved yourself from hitting the pavement. Someone will die if we don't solve this fast. Get your research notes. I have some questions for you."
Landry asked who owned the building today. Jack thumbed through his notebook and said that an entity named LaPiere Family Trust had owned the property since 1892.
"And prior to that?"
He flipped pages. "Sometime before 1805, Lucas LaPiere bought the property. In 1832, it went to Prosperine."
"No surprise there. That's the year she killed him."
Jack said, "Okay, that makes sense. Prosperine deeded the property to Toulouse Holdings Trust in 1861, soon after Louisiana joined the Confederacy. In 1892 someone created the LaPiere Family Trust, and that entity has owned the building ever since."
Landry had three questions — did Lucas and Prosperine LaPiere have children, did she remarry after his death, and who signed the 1892 deed? Jack didn't have those answers but said he'd go now and find them.
Before leaving, he said, "How about fronting me the money for one of those prepaid phones? I'll pay you back when I get money of my own. It would help when I'm out working, and you can keep up with me."
Landry laughed at that, gave him fifty bucks, and they agreed to meet again around five.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
Cate stayed with Tiffany while Landry went to the station. Around three Tiffany emerged from her room, saying she felt great and was craving breakfast. Cate called Landry to meet them at Café Beignet, a tiny place that served breakfast all day. They took an outdoor table on a next-door patio that lay alongside the same police precinct station from which officers went to the LaPiere building two hundred years earlier.
Jack called on his new phone, learned where they were and joined them. He smiled when he saw Tiffany looking much improved, ordered a soda and said, “Are you ready for your three answers?”
Landry nodded.
“Question one. Did Lucas and Prosperine LaPiere have children? Answer, not according to the records I found. She died after Lucas, of course, and apparently had no heirs.
“Question two. Did Madam LaPiere remarry after she murdered her husband? Answer, no. After Lucas died in 1832, she ran the slave brokerage business until Louisiana seceded from the Union. I was surprised to learn that even though Southern states supported slavery, the auctions had stopped by then, thank God. In 1861 she closed the business and transferred the building to Toulouse Holdings Trust.”
“It would be interesting to know who the trustees were.”
Jack smiled. “I thought so too. Prosperine and someone named Charles Richard were co-trustees. I didn’t do a search on him, but I can follow up if you want.”
Landry said it might be important, and Jack continued.
“You asked who signed the 1892 deed that transferred the building to a different trust. That’s a great question, because by then Prosperine was dead. She passed away at age eighty-seven in 1865. It’s likely Charles Richard handled the trust’s business until his death sometime later.
“In 1892 a local law firm called Godchaux and Hart created the LaPiere Family Trust. Its trustee was another person named Richard. This one was Empyrion Richard who by the last time was likely a family member. He signed the deed that moved the building into
