"You don't understand —"
"That's an understatement, and you're going to enlighten me. Start at the beginning. Tell me about how you and Charles fit into this mystery.”
Landry and Jack watched Empyrion closely. His facial muscles tightened, he shifted positions in his chair, and he lowered his head. After muttering whispers to himself, he straightened his body, put his hands in his lap and spoke.
CHAPTER FIFTY-SIX
"If I give you what you request," he began, "I require your word as a gentleman that you will leave matters in the courtyard alone, and you will not allow others to disturb the flagstones. Will you swear to do that?"
Now Landry knew his hunch had been correct. For whatever reason, this man would do anything to keep the bodies in the ground. Now at last he might discover why.
"If you truthfully answer every single question I ask, you have my word. For as long as you are alive, I will do everything within my power to ensure the bodies stay buried. Let's start with the background."
As he began, he looked at a point on a far wall and not at either of them. "Charles and Richard were brothers. Like so many others, they were captured along the Windward Coast of Africa where their tribe lived. America had outlawed the African slave trade by then, but the business was so lucrative that many captains considered the voyages worth the risk.
"Lucas LaPiere dealt in slaves, and he kept some as house servants as the need arose. The servants had an incentive to keep the master and mistress happy, because housework was far better than that in the fields. Charles and Caprice were two of the house servants.
"At some point Madam LaPiere learned that her husband was having an affair — a plaçage — with a servant named Elberta. Plaçages happened between master and servant now and then. Often the wife overlooked it, but in this case Elberta made things impossible to ignore. She demanded her infatuated lover take her out in public and allow her to live in the big house instead of the servant quarters. A distressed Prosperine eventually heard the gossip, and it all came to a head one day in 1832. She came home unexpectedly, caught them in bed, and went into a fit of passionate rage. A peaceful person by nature, Madam lost her temper and ended the affair then and there."
Landry snorted and Empyrion asked if he found the story humorous.
"The story? No, it’s horrific. What’s laughable is your bizarre description of it. Poor Prosperine LaPiere, the scorned wife who lost her temper and made a mistake. What a load of bullshit. Were there slaves chained in the attic at the moment she was committing the murders? Were there men locked in those tiny cells? While Lucas and Elberta were cavorting around under the bedsheets, was Prosperine up in that secret room, torturing people just for kicks? Why can't you admit Madam LaPiere was an insane sadist?"
About to reply, the man thought better of it. He said, "Shall I continue?"
Landry nodded.
"After her husband's demise, Prosperine took over the business and began relying on Charles for help —"
"Stop right there. Let's settle one thing now. I believe you and Charles are the same person. Am I right?"
"That's incorrect. He lived, he died, and his body lies in the family cemetery beside Prosperine's crypt. I am not Charles Richard."
"But you have the same last name, so you're related."
"Correct. He is my ancestor."
"Prosperine took over the business and began relying on Charles for help. The family was into slave brokerage. Charles was a slave himself. That makes no sense."
"Although uneducated, Charles was intelligent and quick, and he proved himself a valuable asset. He was a slave, as you mentioned, but after Lucas's death, he was promoted to house servant and given more and more responsibility. Initially he was a glorified errand boy, but later he helped with moving people back and forth to the Place d'Armes, and at some point, he became her partner."
Landry said, "She trusted him so much that she named him co-trustee of the building. After her death he controlled it and now you claim it's yours."
"I call it my building because it is my building. There's no mystery to that."
"I disagree, but let's stay on track. How close were Charles and Prosperine? Were they lovers?"
Empyrion shifted uneasily. "At some point, yes. If you'll permit me to continue, I'll get to that part. A year or two after Master Lucas died, Charles's sibling, Richard, contracted scurvy and passed away too. Charles grieved for months at the loss of his beloved brother, who had made the awful trip from Africa chained in the hold of a ship with him and was the only family Charles had.
"After a few years, Charles became Prosperine's trusted second-in-command. As these things sometimes happen, they engaged in a plaçage of their own. She was twenty-four years his senior, and they were worlds apart in every imaginable respect, but a sexual relationship began.
"You know how close around the courtyard the buildings are. While Prosperine and Charles carried on in the upstairs bedroom, the servants went about their work down below. Prosperine was careless — or perhaps unconcerned — about leaving the doors open, and servants sometimes looked into the bedroom and observed every, shall we say, sordid detail of their relationship."
He took a sip of water. "As happened when young men and women lived in close quarters, there were trysts between the staff as well.
"Charles
