Cold Blood (52 page)

Juda put her hands on her wide hips.

“I don’t want to go back to LA, Mrs. Page, I want to stay here with my relatives. I’m one tired old woman and I pray what powers Edith and I have end with us, I think they do. Little Ruby don’t have the sight, and you know something? I am glad, because sometimes the pain is so bad. We don’t say what we feel when we have somebody crying at our tables, but we always know. Knowing is an affliction we were born with.”

She came up close to Lorraine and pinched her chin in her fingers, staring into her eyes.

“You’re a clever woman, Mrs. Page, sharp-eyed like a pecking bird, an’ you don’t miss nothin’ with those sharp bird eyes o’ yours, but I can look at you and say you are hurting right now, hurting for some love, and it is tearing you apart. You been a woman with no love for a long, long time, and you ain’t gonna find it in the bottom of a bottle.”

Lorraine blushed and Juda laughed softly.

“I’m right, huh, but you know what I don’t understandwhy can’t I tell when my own nephew is gonna rob me of all my savings, eh? So what good is having this extra vision for every poor bastard that comes to me? How come I can’t know things that’d warn me? Life is not easy, is it?”

Lorraine sat forward, not wanting to ask, but unable to stop herself.

“What do you see for me, Juda, in the future?”

Juda laughed softly.

“Honey … it’ll cost you fifty bucks.”

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Lorraine went to open her wallet, but Juda put her hand on Lorraine’s head.

“No … don’t. You got to walk away, you make your own future, sweetheart, believe me. You don’t want to know what’s in store for you. Besides, I don’t have the energy to get into it.”

Missy appeared.

“Mrs. Salina, she’s askin’ for you, she says you got to stay here, she doesn’t want you to leave.”

Juda nodded, and pointed to the door.

“I’m keeping her alive, Mrs. Page, and if she pays me for it, who am I not to take it? I got a niece set her heart on being a queen in a fancy dress and a dressmaker asking for more money than is decent. So if you want to go up and see her, you go do it. I need to wash, freshen up.”

Lorraine watched Juda walk to the door. She seemed weighed down, not just by her bulk but by something else, a sadness. And Lorraine remembered Fryer’s saying that once she had been beautiful.

Lorraine tapped on Elizabeth Caley’s bedroom door.

“Juda, is that you?”

The voice was like a frightened child’s, and when Lorraine eased open the door she saw the room was in semidarkness, the shunters closed. Even in the gloom it was clear that Elizabeth’s stricken face was as white as paper, so pale that Lorraine was alarmed.

“It’s me, Lorraine Page, Mrs. Caley. Are )At all right?”

“Go away, I want Juda, I need Juda. I canvsee anyone else right now, go away. Juda, Juda!”

Elizabeth was curled up hugging the pillow, her voice barely audible.

“Please, please, get Juda, I need herI am sick, very sick.”

Lorraine took a couple of steps further into the darkened room as Elizabeth moaned and then uncurled her body. Her hands were clenched into fists, and she began to make deep, guttural sounds, her body thrashing as if she was having a fit.

“Juda! Juda!”

she screamed, and her eyes rolled back into her head, showing only the whites. It frightened Lorraine, who didn’t know what she should do, but then Juda appeared behind her. She’d changed into a big tentlike dress and a blue silk turban, and was barefoot.

“I’m here, honey, rest easy now, Juda’s right here.”

Lorraine watched as Juda ran water over a cloth in the bathroom and then dipped it into an ice bucket by the side of the bed.

“You want to ask Mrs. Caley something? You go ahead. You ever seen

COLD BLOOD

anyone act like this, huh? Take a good Jook, Mrs. Page, these are her demons.”

Lorraine looked over to the bed. Elizabeth moaned and thrashed around the crumpled sheets, but Juda seemed unconcerned.

“She’s been like this for thirty-five ye^rs. Started on that movie she made. They hexed this poor child, made hi er think: the spirit of the snake was inside her, and sometimes it takes her over. Right now that’s what is screaming out. Not the drugs or the booze, but her fears. This is what evil can do. This is what comes of playing with thťe spirits, Mrs. Page. This poor woman was cursed.”

“I don’t understand,”

Lorraine whispered-

“No, your kind wouldn’t. Now, if you got nothing to ask her, leave me to calm her. This is what I am paid for, an’ 1 do it because she can’t trust no one else.”

Lorraine took one more look at Elizabeth Caley and walked out. She closed the door behind her, still not fully understanding what was going on. But she didn’t want to see any more because it was unnerving to see someone so out of control, as if in a fit. By the rime she had walked to her car, that is what she believed was wrong with Elizabeth Caleyshe was suffering from some kind of epilepsy.

Juda sat by Elizabeth Caley s bed, rinsing out the cloth and gently wiping her sweating brow. She would never cease to be in wonderment at Elizabeth s beauty, it always touched her soul, just as the demons inside Elizabeth wrenched and exhausted her. All those terrible curses laid on little sixteen-year-old Elizabeth Seal’s head had created such agony, such fear, that she had lived inside it all of her adult life and there would never be an end to it. Juda knew that all she could do, all she had been able to do, was calm her and stop her from sinking into such a state of terror that it froze her mind and body. She eased that terror now, talking in a soft voice, whispering that it was going to be over any moment. Juda felt the evil, sometimes had taken it through her own body, just as she had felt the loneliness inside Lorraine Page. When she’d looked into Lorraine’s face she had seen deep insecurity, and it made Juda feel compassionnot a lot, but some.

“Juda,”

murmured Elizabeth.

“I’m here, honey, like I always am, right up close, you can reach out and hold me, I won’t leave you.”

Juda felt Elizabeth’s nails cutting into her palm as she clasped her hand tightly. Her body heaved as she retched, but there was no vomit; it

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I

I vvas as if she was releasing something from inside herself, her mouth frothKing and the spittle trickling down her chin as she heaved and her tongue hung out. Then she lay still and her hand slowly released Juda’s. It was I over.

I Ten minutes later the wondrous eyes opened and the fear had gone. I Juda saw the sweet, innocent smile of thanks.

[1

“Everyone leaves me, Juda, but not you. I love you, Juda, I love you.”

Juda kissed the perfect cheek.

“I know. You’re nice and calm now, no fears, nobody will ever hurt you, Marie. My own little Marie Laveau.”

Elizabeth closed her eyes and sighed.

“Tell me some more about her. Tell me how strong she was.”

Juda smiled.

“Well, you remember the day I first met you with that snake and you said to me, ‘Juda, I can’t let that thing wrap around my body.’ And I said, ‘Come on now, if Marie Laveau could, then so can you. What’s more you’re gonna dance with it, fall in love with it, feel its body inside yours,’ and you said”

“Dance with me, through hell and back.”

Juda was rocking her gently in her arms.

“That’s right, honey, you showed you weren’t afraid. You want to dance now, sugar, or are you too tired?”

Elizabeth eased away the bedcovers and, helped b\ Ju^a, stood up, her , crumpled chiffon nightdress hardly hiding the outline of her glistening, sweat-soaked body.

“I want to dance, Juda.”

Ł.

How many times she had had to watch this^ie couldn’t count, but she i watched again as if it were the first time, still whispering encouragements f as Elizabeth Caley stumbled around the room, her arms undulating like I snakes and her thin white gown swirling around her. And fuda wanted to weep, weep for the exotic beauty that had once been Elizabeth Caley, who for one moment had allowed her real blood to shine through, caught on celluloid as the reincarnation of the greatest voodoo queen of all time. It had not been Juda alone but many others who had sworn they saw Marie Laveau come to life for a few brief moments; the cameras had kept rolling, the director said nothing, none of the crew spoke as the big voodoo scene began to take on a life of its own and young Elizabeth Seal danced herself into a state of total exhaustion. It had not ended there, nor had it ended when Juda helped her back to her trailer. She had not come out of the trance, and Juda had been unable to^jtop the men from coming in, unable to stop them from encouraging her to engage in a night of debauchery. Even when the crew and director had packed up for the night and left, the

“dancing”

continued until the men had carried Elizabeth Caley into

ner lair

I

f

CHAPTER

j Rosie replaced the receiver and looJced at Rooney. I

“Caley’s maid said she just left.”

fHe sighed.

“Well, maybe you’re getting yourJRf all worked up over nothing, honey.”

“No, I’m not, Bill, you didn’t see the way she was. You don’t understand, she’s an alcoholicone night off the wagon won’t be the last.”

“Hell, she was up and out before you or me, mavbe she’s more resilient than you give her credit for.”

“Yeah, and maybe I Jcnow her better than she Jcnows herself, Billy, and if you want to know, it’s because I’ve got the same addiction. There’s been plenty of times I’ve thought I could control it, you know, ;ust a few drinks, it won’t matter, but believe me, it matters, and I’m worried.”

“You care a lot about her, don’t you?”

Rosie looked at him in surprise.

“

‘Course I do. I mean, we may yell at each other, but underneath it all she’s the best friend I ever had.”

“Doesn’t look that way to me. She’s got a tongue like a viperI know, because she’s stung me with it pretty good.”

Rosie sucked in her breath.

“Same time, Bill, you and me are both here because of her. You and me could also have one hell of a nest egg because of her. You said it to me often enough, she was one of the bestwell, when she was sober.”

“I know, and maybe, Rosie, what I am facing is that I’m not. She pushes me, and she can work stuff out and get on to it quicker than me, and I feel tired lately, you know? I don’t know if it’s just I don’t have the incentive anymore, but I’m not a number one, never was … didn’t really know it until now.”

“Yes, you were, and you still arelook at the way you got that cop to open up.”

He gave a lovely chuckle.

“No, Rosie, I belong to the old school, a dying breed, and you know something? I’ve even been scared to admit it to myself, but it’s the God’s honest truth I’ve spent my whole life among the dregs of humanity, and I’d like to spend the next part breathing good clean air. I’ve done a lot of thinking about this.”

Rosie suddenly felt frightened; was he saying that he wanted this new life without her? Her heart lurched in her chest as Rooney continued.

“You may not be interested, but, Rosie, if we do get this big cash bonus, we should have us a good time, go on trips, maybe as far afield as Europe. I always wanted to see Viennathat’s somethin’ else I never admitted to anyone.”

Rosie hugged him tightly.

“Bill, I’d go anywhere with you, Vienna, China …”

“China?”

he said, looking down into her upturned face.

“Yeah, I’ve always wanted to go there, don’t ask me why. I’d like to go someplace exotic, stimulating, you know what I mean?”

He beamed.

“China it is. But first, you think we should look out for a ring, you know, make this official?”

Rosie was brimming over with happiness and kissed him passionately in the middle of the hotel lobby, oblivious to the group of old ladies passing by. Nobody paid much attentionthere were a lot of things more interesting to see in New Orleans than an old couple kissing.

Lorraine was parked just outside Tilda Brown’s home, draining her second can of vodka and Coke and trying to think of the best way to go about thingswhether to confront the parents and demand that they speak to her, or go to the back door and talk to the servants. She instructed Francois to head for the Browns’ manicured driveway, and tried to get up the energy to open the car door, but she felt empty and tired out. Robert Caley was now in first place yet again as the prime suspect, and it hurt. Just as thinking about what Nick Bartello had said hurt, his death hurt, everything hurt. She couldn’t get out of the car.

“You okay, Mrs. Page?”

“No, Frangois, I’m not. I’m thinking about a nice guy who died, and

another man who I thought was a nice guy but wasn’t. If I go in there this afternoon, I have to come out with a result or I may not be allowed in again.”

Francois leaned over the front seat.

“You want some advice, Mrs. Page?”

She half laughed.

“Why not?”

“Well, my advice is to come back tomorrow. You’re not strong now, I can feel it. Whatever you need from this house can wait.”

She smiled and then agreed.

“Yeah, you’re right. We’ll come back tomorrow, Francois, and tomorrow I won’t be drinking.”

He gave that wide smile, half gaps, half gold.

“Okeydokey, Mrs. Page.”

Juda stood in the kitchen and just smelling that big pan of hot chicken made her feel good. The small house was spick-and-span, cleaner than she had seen it for as long as she could remember. They had carried her bags into one of the boys’ rooms and she had been touched by the beautiful, fresh, sweet-smelling flowers. The boys, wearing smart suits, and Sugar May, wearing a clean print dress, were laying the table for supper.

Edith had changed and was truly happy to see Juda, embracing her warmly, almost forgetting the terrible thing Raoul had done. They didn’t speak of it right away because Ruby’s dressmaker had arrived for a final fitting, so there was a lot of excitement emanatiiwrom the front room, Ruby screeching that nobody was to enter until the dress was fixed up.