LeOmi's Solitude (6 page)

“There you are. I should have known. Grab
your stuff and meet me outside. Libraries give me the creeps.”

It hadn’t been a request. He just said it and
turned, leaving no room for arguments.

He paused and turned to see if she had done
what he had told her to do. LeOmi scowled at him. He simply pointed
to her back pack and the things on the computer desk and mouthed,
“Pick-up and go outside.” Then he turned and left. He went out the
main door and stood by a bench just outside and under the shade of
an old oak tree.

What was so important that he tracked me
down at the library?
She gathered her things, paying for the
printed pages and taking her time, but she knew that he knew she
would come. She had to know whatever he had to tell her.

“How did you find me? Are you and my
grandmother in league with each other?”

“Oh please, can’t you just see that.”

She laughed at the thought of the two of them
forming some type of alliance. Grand-Mère had given him the cold
shoulder. Not just the regular cold shoulder either, this was the
one that she saved for people who really annoyed her. It was truly
amazing and worthy of any award that was given for that sort of
thing.

“How did you find me? I guess you just used
those detective skills that you spoke of at The Celtic Wheel.”

“More pleasantries.” He gave her a smile.

Then he made the gesture like –well just look
at me, “Heck, don’t you know that anybody can be found now-a-days,
you just have to follow their electronics and it don’t matter if
the cell phone is on or off…in case you plan on cutting it off next
time.”

LeOmi used the same scowl from a few moments
before.

“And...What makes you think it is okay for
you to come up to me, out of nowhere, and tell me to get up and
come on? I don’t appreciate you taking that type of attitude with
me. If we are going to be pleasant to one another, you need to be
conscious of my feelings too.”

“Do you want to look at this or not?” He held
up a file folder.

She grabbed it and went to sit down on the
bench.

The label on the file read Yvonne Jones.

“Before you read that, I want you to be sure
you know what you’re doing. I could lose my job over this, but it
seems to me that you haven’t gotten a fair shake on this.”

He held his hand so that it hovered over the
folder, “I also want you to know that you can’t erase these things
from your memory after you’ve seen them, but you can choose not to
view them at all. I can give you a summary of everything that this
file contains.”

“Sergeant, I think you already know that I am
going to look at this file.”

“I thought so, no matter what I said.” He
moved his hand away, “But I wanted to give you the option.”

“You won’t get in trouble for showing me
this?”

“What they don’t know won’t hurt ‘em.”

He remained standing and started the cigar
ritual. This time, to light it he used a wooden stick match that
came from a little square box about the size of a saltine cracker.
Every step was a performance, a distraction that left LeOmi little
option but to watch in fascination as the man’s obvious showmanship
demanded. It was almost as if he needed this time to gather his
thoughts and to feel out what was the appropriate course to take.
He probably did this for everything.

“I hate to see what your lungs look
like.”

He pointed to the folder, “I took out some
stuff...things that you don’t need to see. I know you’re tough and
all that, but you’re still a kid.”

She scowled at him again, not saying a word,
just opening the file and starting from the front.

“But there is a picture of the knife that I
want you to look closely at.”

There was not much in the file, just a couple
of sheets. Forms filled out and a little drawing of her mother’s
body position when she was found, an autopsy report stating that
she bled out from a knife wound to the chest, piercing her heart. A
little box on the bottom of the report had a simple drawing of a
body showing the wound location, things that she should not have
wanted to see, but she did. She felt she needed to know all the
facts, no matter how uncomfortable they made her feel, no matter
how eager she was to be alone, running with the constant thump,
thump, thump of her shoes hitting the ground.

He reached for the file.

She snatched it back, fully focused.

He waited while she read over it all,
patiently letting her absorb all the facts.

She already knew almost all the information,
except for the knife. The picture of the knife was the final page
of the file papers. She hadn’t known that there was anything
peculiar about the knife that was used to kill her mother, but
there was. It looked like it was an antique with rubies and
emeralds and in the top of the handle, on the very tip of the hilt
was a large round ruby. The knife was fashioned to look like a flat
ram’s horn, with a slight curve from tip to tip. It looked more
like a long elegant letter opener than a knife. Someone had circled
and labeled what the stones were and the value of 1.5 million
dollars was written and circled on the bottom of the photograph. It
was a delicate knife, as if it had been made for a woman—maybe
hundreds if not thousands of years old.

“Did you ever see this knife before?”

“No. I assume this was the knife that was
used to kill my mother.”

As always while contemplating an answer to a
question, as if to make a show of it, or to distract his opponent,
Sergeant Polaris leaned back and forth on the balls of his feet,
puffing on his cigar. The humidity was oppressive and the smoke
just seemed to hover around him and slowly ooze to the ground. He
folded his arms across his chest. “My—you are all grown up aren’t
ya? Do you really want to know the details? They aren’t
pretty.”

The scowl was all he needed.

“I left some things in the car. I didn’t know
how much you wanted to know, or how much I wanted to tell you.”

“I want to know it all, Sergeant.”

“I thought you would say that.”

“You know that your mother was stabbed and
she bled out on the floor in The Celtic Wheel. Her arms had been
restrained behind her...by her jacket, midway of her arms.”

He turned and with his arms at his back
pointing to the places that her arms were restrained. “A twisting
method that I hadn’t ever seen before...and I’ve seen a lot. It
must have been quick—quick enough to surprise her.”

“Why?”

“Whoever did this to Yvonne Jones not only
knew her but knew that she would have a knife, maybe even that
particular knife. I think they left the knife to tell us something.
Or else why leave a valuable knife, and why wipe it clean on her
blouse sleeve and shove it back into the sheath on her belt?”

She looked up from the file to search his
face. “While my mother was...bleeding all over the floor of the
tavern, they cleaned the knife on her blouse?”

It was his turn to nod, searching her eyes to
see if he should go on. “You wanted to know, but what is more
important is that you need to know how ruthless her killer is.”

“Sergeant, you know that my dad is a Chaplain
and a counselor for the Navy. Most preachers and ministers do
counseling.”

“Oh yeah, I know.”

“Anyway, my dad has dealt with some pretty
brutal things in his office. My sister and I used to listen in
until he found out about it. After that we were shuffled off to the
beach or the library with my mother when he had after hour
appointments. But then my mother left us. Three different times,
and each of these times, I got to know my dad more and more, and I
also got to see all sides of his profession. He is really very good
at what he does.”

“Really? Maybe you should tell him that, and
then maybe you two wouldn’t be so angry at each other.”

“I didn’t say his skills extended to our
family.”

“Huh. Sometimes it’s easier to see the faults
in others. I read in a book one time that it is easier to continue
to be angry with someone than it is to forgive them, but then
again, sometimes you need that anger to do what has to be
done.”

“Anger...anger makes people do some really
terrible things. None of us are beyond the occasional quick temper,
but the military can bring some really horrible things out of
people. There are some wonderful people in the church that help
with the church functions, but there are also people who think they
can do some really terrible things during the week as long as they
go to counseling and show up for Sunday worship, and then there are
those who want revenge. We had a guy come to church and kiss and
hug people after he had informed everyone that he had AIDS. In his
ignorance he thought he would give it to us all—we hadn’t done
anything to him, but yet to him that was a justification. He hadn’t
wanted AIDS and by using a dirty needle he had contracted it so he
felt if he gave it to others who didn’t want it he was fulfilling
his need for revenge.”

“Sad, because if he gave my family AIDS I
would want revenge on him.”

“But don’t you see –that is just what he
wanted. Then someone from his family would want revenge and then
someone from your family would want revenge and before you know
it…”

There were squirrels in the tree jumping from
limb to limb. LeOmi had some peanuts in her back pack. She pulled
out one and stuck it in the crook of a limb. The squirrel promptly
came down, grabbed the nut and perched a few branches above them
toward the trunk, watching them as he ate.

“Some people’s hearts remain evil and the
only thing they want is to not get caught. Those don’t usually even
have the gumption to set foot on the church grounds, unless of
course it is to cause as much havoc as possible.”

She gave the file back to him. He took out
the picture of the knife. “I need to know why your mom had a
priceless hand-forged antique dagger. It seemed to be part of her
wardrobe the way she carried it around. I don’t think she used it
to clean her nails. So I need to know if she expected something bad
to happen, if she had been threatened in some way. Or was it just a
fashion statement, some people wear huge diamond rings or drive
cars that are worth a fortune. I wonder if she knew how much it was
worth.”

“I have no idea where she got it Sergeant,
probably from her boyfriend. I know my father couldn’t afford
anything like that. Remember, I come from a poor military
household.”

“How about your grandmother? She is loaded,
could she have given it to her?”

“I doubt if she would have given her
anything. They had not been speaking to each other for years.”

“Huh. Yet she came back to New Orleans.
Why?”

“It is the last place I thought she would be
Sergeant.”

“Yet she was here. Was it for Compton? Was it
because of her mom? Yet you say there was no love loss there, or
was it for something else? Did she know anyone else in New
Orleans?”

“I’m sure she did. She grew up here. I had
never heard her speak of anyone. She briefly talked about
grandmother and Hannah and I have seldom if ever heard her speak of
her father or any other relatives, as I said, she never volunteered
information. You should talk to Grand-Mère or even my father. They
may have some information about any other friends or family.”

“It is amazing how some people are so
secretive, even to their own family.”

The squirrel was back and he had brought a
few friends. LeOmi pulled out several more peanuts and as she
placed them the squirrels didn’t even wait for her to move before
they were un-tucking and chewing off the outer shell and dropping
it below, some pieces landing on Sergeant Polaris shoulder and
shoes. He did not seem to notice, or care. He blew the smoke from
his cigar and they scurried up to other portions of the tree.

“Well from what you have told me, and what my
research has established, it seems that your mom could disappear
whenever she wanted to. There is not much on the books about her
living in New Orleans at all. Not just recently either, there is
hardly anything from when she was growing up. She has always had
her passport up to date, even when she was a child, but there were
no documented travels. The only thing I found was a marriage
certificate to your dad. There is no birth certificate on file for
her, your grandmother or your grandfather for that matter. I
couldn’t even find a death certificate for your grandfather. Do you
know anything about that?”

“He was out of town on business and there was
a car accident. That is, I assumed it was a car accident, but no
one ever said. The only reason I know about that was when I was
enrolled in school they asked if there were any diseases in the
family and they asked my mom what her father had died of.”

“I’ve got another question for you and don’t
start jumping around and acting all crazy, just keep talking
normally. While we have been talking, there has been a guy that
keeps peeking around the building. Is he with you?”

“Is he an old guy wearing a filthy SAINTS cap
and missing his front teeth?”

“Yeah.”

“Yes, that is one of Grand-Mère’s tattlers.
My grandmother always has me followed.”

“Followed?”

“There are different ones. Sometimes I give
them the slip. She is not the kind of person to leave things to
chance. She makes a point to know everything that goes on in the
city.”

“Do you think she knew your mom had returned
to New Orleans?”

LeOmi paused, “I had thought about that. I
can almost guarantee that she knew.”

The squirrels were circling again. LeOmi
threw some nuts on the ground and three were brave enough to come
down and hurry away.

“What did you do up north?”

“Who is the detective here?”