Cypress Nights (19 page)

“I'm going to get a dog as soon as I can,” Bleu said, making conversation. “I think it would be good company. I always had one as a kid.”

“I know,” Madge said. “Why wait? Get a good watch dog.”

“I intend to,” Bleu told her, more sharply than she intended. “I'll have to wait a bit till I can afford it. Most of all, I want a good buddy. I don't intend to spend a lot of time being scared.”

“You're changing,” Madge said, quietly. “You're not so gentle. Why is that?”

Was she being told off for trying to take command of her life? “I'm the same old Bleu, just older and wiser. Do you think I should have stayed beaten down and scared forever?”

“You know I don't.” Madge sounded angry, but Bleu didn't take it personally. Something was on Madge's mind and it wasn't whether or not Bleu was growing more independent. “Sorry. I'm a bit uptight. Cyrus will be a few
more minutes, and I should say some things to you. I've already put them off too long.”

Bleu swallowed, but she made sure she looked interested and approachable. “Then don't put them off any longer. We've always been able to talk to each other.”

“We haven't spent a lot of adult time together. You know what I mean? I'm sure you've got your thoughts about the way I'm living my life. I know it's not too tidy, but I'm doing my best.”

“I know you are,” Bleu said quietly. “You're a special woman. You've always tried to do the best for everyone. I want things to work out for you—in the way you want them to work out. Do you like Sig Smith? You went out for dinner with him.”

Madge's expression closed. “Yes. We had a pleasant evening. Thanks for asking.”

But I don't want to talk about it?
“I'm glad.”

“What do you know about Roche Savage?” Madge said.

Taken aback by the directness, Bleu gave herself time to think, time not to say what she might regret later. “I know what most people know,” she said. “And from my own experience, I think he's pretty special.”

“That's what I was afraid of.”

Bleu felt a little cold. She ran her fingers through Millie's fur, and the dog all but purred.

“I didn't mean that the way it sounded,” Madge said. “All I've got is hearsay but not too much has been said to refute it.”

“You're using big words. They make me nervous.”

Madge sunk her hands deep in the pockets of a pink check dress and pulled the tulip-shaped skirt tighter about her curvy hips. “I won't win any prizes for diplomacy.”

Sweat formed on Bleu's palms. “Just tell me what's on your mind. You're scaring me.”

“Shoot,” Madge said, with a lot of feeling. “Who knows how much is real and how much is just Lil gossiping? I'd almost forgotten about it.”

Bleu resisted the temptation to stand up. There was no need to be confrontational. “Why not tell me what you heard?”

“I shouldn't have said anythin'.” Madge's face flamed. “Be careful, that's all. People can seem one way and be another.”

“Yes, they can. But you're not going to leave me with that kind of hint.”

Madge puffed up her cheeks. She retrieved her dog and hugged the animal close. “Don't you think Roche is a bit worldly for you?”

“Not that I've noticed.” Which wasn't at all true. “You know I had a bad time when I was married.
That
was too worldly for me.”

Madge wouldn't meet her eyes. “Michael was a criminal.”

“Yes. But before we knew that—”

“I meant the way he treated you was criminal.”

Bleu did stand up then. “It was, but I shouldn't have told you about it. You don't need to deal with my troubles.”

“Why?” Madge came closer. “We don't have any other available family. I want to be here for you. I know you'd stand by me.”

“I would.” Bleu looked into Madge's dark eyes and saw how troubled she was. “But there is something you're worrying about—about Roche. Isn't there?”

“He's not your type.”

“Why?” Getting angry or defensive wouldn't help anything. “I'm not his social equal, if that's what you mean, but it doesn't seem to bother him.”

“That's not what I meant. He's a lot more experienced than you.”

“How would you know?” The rising pitch of her own voice embarrassed Bleu. “You mean well, but you're talking about things you can't know. Is it because Roche and I come from such different backgrounds? I'm poor and he's rich?”

“You weren't always so poor. Michael did that to you. You know I don't think about money, Bleu.”

“Have you ever thought you should spend more time thinking about yourself?” Bleu asked. “You could work on straightening out the mess you're in and leave me to deal with my own life.”

“That's mean,” Madge said. “You aren't like that. It's because you don't feel good about yourself.”

Bleu resisted the temptation to snap back again. “You could be right. Let's not talk about this anymore. You want the best for me. Thank you.”

“Has…” The flush that remained on Madge's skin turned much darker. “Has he tried to…you know.”

“Why don't you go ahead and ask what you want to know?”

Silence lengthened after that. Bleu could hear the beat of her own heart.

She jumped at the sound of a bird hitting the window. Millie gave a bark and the creature flew away again. Bleu rubbed her palms together. She was sweating.

“Something happened a couple of years back,” Madge said. She appeared close to tears. “Lil's the one who saw it. A lot of strange things were happening, and she was out at night looking for something.”

“Saw what?” Bleu couldn't smile or pretend anymore. “If you've got something to tell me, do it.”

“I only want you to be careful and—”

“Tell me!”

Setting Millie down, Madge took hold of one of Bleu's hands. “I wasn't there. I'm saying what I was told. Cyrus would hate it if he knew I was telling you, but you're not his cousin.”

“I don't think Cyrus would willingly let me be in danger,” she said.

“He wouldn't. But sometimes he either doesn't believe things, or doesn't really hear them. This was out at the Green Veil clinic when it was just finished. Before Max started having patients there.”

“Okay.”

“It was at night. In the dark. Like I said, Lil was looking for something around Rosebank. Green Veil's next door.”

“I know,” Bleu said quietly.

“The lights were all on at Green Veil, which was unusual then. Lil walked over that way and saw something.”

Bleu nodded.

“There's a reception area in front. It's big and the windows go all the way up to the first floor. Roche was with a woman in the foyer. He chased her and grabbed her.”

Nerves jumped in Bleu's tummy. She had to listen, but she didn't want to.

“That's all,” Madge said, pushing her hair back. “He was a bit aggressive with her. So I want you to make sure you're okay with him.”

Bleu stared at Madge. “That's not all, is it?”

Slowly, Madge shook her head, no. “The woman's clothes were torn.”

“Oh.” Bleu covered her mouth.

“Her skirts went up and she didn't have anything on underneath. Lil said there was sex. And it was rough.”

If she could make this whole conversation go away, she would. Bleu took deep breaths. “Lil's sure this was Roche? Who was the woman?”

Madge's eyes slid away. “She isn't around here anymore. I shouldn't name names. All I can say is what Lil reckoned. She dramatizes, but I would be wrong not to say this. Bleu, she talked about rape.”

E
very breath Bleu took felt thick and old. The weight on her chest only got heavier. Her first instinct after Madge's announcement had been to get out of coming to Kate Harper's, but staying on her own at the rectory was a bad, bad idea.

“It's nice of you two to come along,” Cyrus said. He tucked a trailing vine of pale pink roses back into an arbor over the gate leading to Kate's pretty white house.

“I thought Kate would call the rectory again by now,” Madge said. “Don't you think it's strange she hasn't?”

Cyrus closed the wooden gate behind the three of them. “We did speak again today. I called her. She was sad, but restrained—the way you'd expect her to be.”

“Kate's old world,” Madge said to Bleu. “Proper in a way. I don't suppose she's too comfortable letting people see how she feels.”

“Are you sure I should be here?” Bleu asked. “She's only met me a couple of times.”

“Yes,” Cyrus said. “Jim liked you a lot and he was en
thusiastic about the school and the possibility of a senior center. You knew him, and Kate will appreciate it that you can talk about him.”

Bleu smiled at Cyrus and followed along the gravel path.

What she couldn't ignore was Madge's agitation. When they looked at each other, Madge constantly appeared about to say something, but never did.

Several wide steps up to a screened porch, also loaded with roses, let them see that the front door was open. Cyrus rang the bell.

Not a sound came from inside the two-story house.

“Oh, dear,” Madge said. “Poor Kate. If she wants to be alone, we shouldn't intrude.”

“She likes her gardens,” Cyrus said. “She could be out back.”

They trailed in ragged file onto a fork in the path which looked as if it led around the house. Cyrus walked ahead.

His well-washed check shirt didn't look priestlike. Bleu thought, as she so often did, that he could be any woman's vital husband, the father of rambunctious children. When he glanced back, it was directly at Madge and his smile flashed just for her.

“Bleu,” Madge whispered. “I don't think I should have told you what I did. I haven't heard anything else about Roche—nothing worrying.”

“You did the right thing,” Bleu said. Her eyes stung. It was impossible not to think of being in bed with him, his gentle power and the way he'd excited her made her feel complete. There had been nothing rough or scary about him.

“I only want the best for you,” Madge said.

“I know,” Bleu said, and she did. “Don't worry. It's in my hands now.”

Madge hesitated. “You probably won't see him again, will you? That doesn't seem completely fair. Lil always makes a lot out of a little. I'm sure she saw Roche with someone, but it didn't have to be exactly the way she said.”

Cyrus had stopped in front of them.

“Not now,” Bleu said. She didn't know what she would do about Roche.

Laughter came from behind the house. Cyrus reached the end of the side wall and called out, “Kate? You here?”

More laughter rose. A man and a woman laughing together. Bleu frowned and listened hard. A shared moment. A conspiratorial pleasure.

“She's already got company,” Madge said, joining Cyrus.

Her cousin had only heard laughter, not something secretive or forbidden. Bleu decided her imagination was wayward.

The three of them went forward until they saw a beautiful garden. Lush hedges and shrubs, banks of brilliant flowers, a perfectly mowed lawn that stretched into groves of fruit trees.

Bleu didn't see anyone there.

“That's Jim's house over there,” Madge said, pointing. “I heard he left that to Kate, too. At least she'll be really well-fixed.”

Built of split logs on stilts, Jim's house probably covered four thousand square feet.

Set too far back to be seen from the road, trees all but hid it on all sides except for the one that faced Kate's property.

“I didn't expect anything quite so grand,” Bleu said.

“Jim's house, you mean?” Cyrus asked. “Or this one?”

She blew at a hair caught on her lips. “Both, I guess.”

“Should we come back?” Madge said, already backing away.

“Kate!” Cyrus headed for an archway cut in a tall hedge ahead of them.

He ducked to go through and Bleu followed him.

“Who's that?” Madge asked when she joined them.

Kate sat in a white wood chaise, facing away from them. Beside her on a stool, a man with a lot of curly brown hair talked quietly, his arms wrapped around his knees. A pale denim shirt stretched over his hunched back. Bleu thought he must be tall. He was certainly well-built.

Kate held a glass toward him and he picked up a jug from a tray on the grass and poured. Then he poured for himself, and they laughed again, their heads close together.

“Maybe another time.” Cyrus swung around and the hardness in his face shocked Bleu.

“Father Cyrus, is that you?”

Bleu saw Kate stand up.

The man also got to his feet. He moved a couple of steps away from her.

“Father? You will not go away without talkin' to me. Whatever next? George, get more chairs, and glasses for tea.”

George, unsmiling, left at once.

“Hello, Kate,” Cyrus said, turning around again. “I didn't want to interrupt.”

“That's George Pinney,” Madge said, her voice low. “He and his wife have rooms in Jim's house. George helps…helped Jim with things around the two properties. Mary manages Hungry Eyes. I don't really know them well.”

Bleu and Madge glanced at one another.

“I've met Mary,” Bleu said, wishing it hadn't been while she was in her pajamas. “But you know that.”

She called out to Kate, “Don't go to any trouble, Mrs. Harper. We only want to know how you are.”

“And let you know how the case is progressing,” Cyrus added.

Kate held a starched lace fan. She flipped it open and wafted it very rapidly before her face. Over the top, she stared at them with pale blue eyes. Red hair curled beneath a broad-brimmed straw hat.

George Pinney came back with folding chairs slung behind one shoulder. He had little difficulty holding three in one hand. In the other, he carried glasses.

Quickly, he set up the chairs, lifted the tray from the grass to the stool he'd abandoned and poured for everyone. Then he stood away a little, wiping his hands on his dark pants.

“This is George,” Kate said, looking up at the man from beneath the brim of her hat. “I don't know what I'd be doing without him and Mary. If I had to sit here all the time imagining my poor Jimmy lyin' dead in the church, why, I think I'd just curl up and die. At least I could go to join Jimmy then.”

Bleu pursed her lips to stop a grin. This wasn't supposed to be funny.

“Kate,” Cyrus said. “You know Jim's body hasn't been released—”

“No!” Kate completely hid her face with the fan. She shook her head and the hat brim wobbled. “Don't, please, I can't bear it. Who would do such a thing to a sweet, innocent man who never hurt a fly? I ask you, who would do that?”

“Someone who has lost his way in life,” Cyrus said gently. “We're here for you. The whole town is here for you.”

“Not the whole town,” Kate said.

Cyrus shook his head. “Don't think about any of that. Whatever you need, you've got it. We'll make sure of it.”

Kate sniffed. “Thank you, Father.”

“Do you need something now?” Cyrus asked.

Bleu watched his honest face, looked at Madge watching him, too, and felt so sad.

“What I need is for some people in this town to stop sayin' terrible things about me.” Kate dropped the fan in her lap and raised her pointed chin. She had a smooth, heart-shaped face, pale against her red hair, and now her spirit brought her back up straight. “I do know what's been suggested. Jim and I have kept company for some years. We aren't—weren't—children, but our intentions were pure.”

“Of course they were,” Cyrus said.

“Weren't they, George?” Kate said. “You and Mary have been here. You're my witnesses that Jim and I had a chaste friendship. We were two lonely people who helped each other get through life. He made sure I was looked after. I kept him company.”

Bleu thought about the dinners she had cooked for him. She smiled at the woman. “And you made sure he didn't starve,” she said. “You do remember me, Mrs. Harper. I'm Bleu Laveau. I so liked Jim—he was the best-tempered man.”

Kate's white lace dress settled gracefully around her. Even her neck and the skin revealed between crisp lapels showed little sign of age.

“Jim Zachary would do anything for me,” Kate said,
apparently not hearing what Bleu said. “George here did all the shoppin' and Mary cooked our meals. Jim's and mine, that is. We ate here. They ate over there.” She pointed a pale orange fingernail toward Jim Zachary's house.

“That must have been a great comfort to you,” Madge said. She set the basket of baked goodies down near Kate.

Bleu took inventory of the woman. She wasn't old, or even elderly. Early fifties at the most. And she showed no sign of arthritis that Bleu could see.

“What are you goin' to do about this nonsense talk?” Kate asked Cyrus.

High-heeled pumps showed off a pair of slim ankles.

“If someone says something they shouldn't, I'll be sure to have a chat,” Cyrus told her. “But you don't have to worry about that. You've got other things on your mind.”

“I surely do,” Kate said. Her mouth trembled. “I laugh because I don't want to cry. I talk as if I'm angry because it stops me from screamin'. I dress myself up and put on makeup because there's no way I'm going to let folks in this town, the ones who don't like me, chatter about how I'm lettin' myself go. Jim wouldn't like it and neither do I.”

“I admire you for that,” Madge said. “I don't know if I could be as strong.”

Bleu couldn't keep her eyes off Kate's shoes. They didn't look very big, but neither were they tiny. Were they large enough to make the footprints outside the rectory?

Now she was being a fool. No way would this fastidious woman climb around in the mud—or pack filthy burned books into a box and wrap it up like a wedding gift. And Jim would have had to put his head down on
the pew and hold still while Kate stabbed that knife through his neck.

Bleu swallowed several times.

Even then, it was doubtful Kate could have got the blade to go in, skewer the bench, then pull the thing out.

Nausea washed over Bleu.

Two tears slipped from the corners of Kate's eyes. “I told him not to get involved,” she whispered.

Cyrus caught Bleu's eye and shook his head slightly. “Whoever did that to Jim wasn't rational,” he said. “I think it was a random thing.”

“No, Father. My Jim died because he was too good and because he always championed the underdog.” Her china-blue gaze settled, without malice, on Bleu. “He told me how angry he was that people didn't treat you well, Bleu. He thought the new school was a wonderful idea, and the senior center, well, he couldn't stop talkin' about that. He wanted there to be a place for the old people to go. He talked about hiring a nurse to be there just in case, and makin' the place handicapped accessible. There would be plenty of room in the end, that's what he said. Although I never could figure out how.” She raised her shoulders and she held her glass out.

George Pinney scrambled to refill her iced tea and Kate drank, raising her delicate white throat.

“Poor George,” Kate said. “He lost his job, you know.”

“Now, Miz Harper,” George said, his face darkening. “No need to bother people with my little troubles, not when there's much bigger things to worry about.”

“I think it embarrasses him if I talk about it,” Kate said, as if the man couldn't hear every word of her conversation. “He used to be quite somethin'. Worked for a law firm in N'awlins, not that I know anythin' about things like
that. Now look at him. And Mary's away all day workin' at that café. Not a suitable job for an educated woman at all.”

Bleu's attention repeatedly wandered. She didn't think she liked Kate Harper and felt sorry for George Pinney, who must need whatever he earned working around the two houses or he would never tolerate being humiliated by Kate.

“I'm going to have to get back,” Cyrus said. “But I did want to cover a few things with you first, Kate.”

“Of course, Father.” She leaned forward and slipped a slim hand into one of his big, tanned ones. “You can make me feel safe and that's a blessin'.”

“Would you rather we spoke alone?”