"You looking for me?" Rock said in a deep voice.
The figure yelped and then came closer, and he realized it was a woman dressed in black leggings and a long black tunic. Her black hair was pulled up in a high ponytail. She looked to be a little older than him. "Do I know you?" he asked.
"Let's go inside," she said in a low voice, her head constantly turning as she looked all around her. He followed her inside. Instead of turning on the lights, she lit a kerosene lamp, the flame dancing as it created long shadows over the wood floorboards. The flickering light illuminated their features, and the woman motioned for Rock to take a seat.
He sat down. "You going to tell me who the hell you are and what the fuck's going on? Why did you wanna meet me?"
She spread her hands out on the table. "I'm Madame Vincennes's great-granddaughter. My name's Tessa." Her blue eyes bored into his. "You're sitting on the chair my great-mawmaw was murdered in."
"What the fuck?" Rock jumped up.
"Mawmaw was killed a few days ago." Her voice hitched. "She was strangled. The killer used his bare hands."
Madame Vincennes is dead-killed? This is some crazy shit. How the hell does this involve me? "I'm sorry ‘bout that, but I still don't know why the hell you wanted to meet with me. Did Madame send me the mojo bag?"
Tessa nodded.
"And you sent me the second note, the one saying my dad didn't kill my maman."
She nodded again. "Mawmaw asked me to send it because her handwriting was too shaky." She looked at the windows, then lowered her voice. "She saw who killed your ma, and it wasn't your pa. She swore it was two men, but she only really saw one. She got a good look at him, and he saw her. She ran as fast as she could hoping he didn't recognize her, but everyone in the parish knew her."
Is this for fuckin' real? Pa is innocent? "Why was she in our neighborhood that night?"
"She had to perform a healing for your neighbors a few doors down. Their daughter was very ill with the fever. After she finished, she began to walk home and came to your house. She felt an evil presence surrounding it. At least that's how she told it to me. Anyway, she went up to it and was going to make sure your parents were okay. She always liked your ma. When she got up to the porch, she heard loud voices, moaning, and a gut-wrenching cry. She ran in and that's when she saw a tall man with a knife stabbing your ma. Your pa was on the floor, crying and jabbering. The man looked at her, and she told me he had the devil in him. He was pure evil. When she told me that, it gave me the chills. I'm getting them again just telling you."
"Why didn't she call the police? Why did she let my maman be gutted like a pig?"
"Don't blame her. Your ma was already gone when she got there. Her eyes were flat. The next day the tall man found my mawmaw, and he threatened to kill her children and their children. He told her she must never talk. And she didn't for years, but it always ate at her."
Rock sat there in silence, trying to make sense of the information he'd just been given. If his dad hadn't killed his mother, who did? Who was this tall man Madame had seen that night? He'd have to find him and tear him apart with his bare hands. "Did your grandma get paid to keep her mouth shut?"
She nodded then added hastily, "It wasn't like you think. She had to help the family. We were born poor, and she did her best to help all of us out as best she could. She had a bad dream a couple months ago and you were in it. She saw an evil force trying to swallow you up whole, and your ma was there trying to protect you but she wasn't strong enough. Anyway, it scared the daylights outta Mawmaw and she felt that it was your ma telling her to give you some protection and to tell you the truth about your pa. It killed her that you hated your pa for something he didn't do." She pursed her lips. "And now she got killed for telling you."
Rock's gaze locked with hers. "How'd the killer find out she told?"
Tessa shook her head. "I don't know. It's like evil always knows when something is comin' to destroy it. I met with you tonight to tell you the truth. That's what she would have wanted me to do. I'm also telling you to be careful. The evilness that destroyed your ma wants you."
Silence fell between them, the spitting of the wick in the kerosene lamp the only sound in the small house. After a long while, Rock stood up. "Thanks for telling me. I'm sorry Madame had to die, but I promise you I'll find the fuckin' sonofabitch who killed her and my ma. Where do you live?"
"Not so far from here."
"I'll walk you home."
"Thanks for the offer but I drove. I parked a few blocks away."
"I'll walk you to your car, then. I want to make sure you weren't followed."
She extinguished the kerosene lamp and darkness engulfed the house. They walked quietly to her car and he watched her drive away until he couldn't see her anymore. Then he went back to his sister's car and headed home.
* * *
Rock slipped through the back door and went downstairs. He didn't want Isa asking him a lot of questions, and he had to be sure the information Tessa had given him was true before he told his siblings. His gut told him it was. Why would anyone want to kill an old lady who didn't have anything but concoctions of herbs, bones, and oils? He quietly went into the bedroom and stripped down to his boxers. Watching Clotille's body as it moved up and down with her steady breathing, he pulled back the covers and slid in next to her. She stirred slightly and he flung his arm over her waist, pressing close to her. Vanilla mixed with sandalwood wisped around him and he kissed the top of her head. She craned her neck and smiled, her eyes sleep-filled.
"I'm glad you're back. How'd it go?" she asked in a soft voice.
"Fuckin' intense." He squeezed her gently.
"I tried to wait up for you but I fell asleep."
"That's okay, chérie. I'm fuckin' tired."
She pushed back into him, not leaving any space between their bodies. "I love being in your arms."
"And I love holding you, chérie."
He held her until she fell back asleep. For a long time, Rock stared at the surrounding darkness as he attempted to make sense of what the hell was going on. A couple months ago, life had been so much simpler. Now it was all kinds of complicated.
Simpler is way the fuck better.
Then sleep overtook him, and the tumble of thoughts was put to rest until morning.
Chapter Eighteen
The gloom of the day reflected the mood of the four siblings as they sat in the waiting room of the Louisiana State Penitentiary. Isa twisted her purse strap over and over around her fingers, Lille fooled around with her phone, Henri kept glancing at the large wall clock, and Rock stared stone-faced at the concrete walls. Being at the prison brought back rough memories; he never thought he'd see the inside of this hellhole again. Their father's impending death brought them together as they waited to see him at the medical department on site.
After a twenty-minute wait, a corrections officer told them to follow him. Inside the treatment center, they passed by rooms housing ill inmates, who were chained to a bed, overseen by bored prison guards idling away their time with TV and card games.
The officer stopped in front of a room on the east side of the building. Normally it would've received a lot of sunshine, but that day the sun was blocked by gray, dense clouds that carpeted the sky. "He's in here. You only got thirty minutes with him."
Rock held back and let his siblings go in front of him. Since he'd entered the medical facility, a cold clamminess had settled into his bones. For so long he'd hated his father for killing his mother, and he didn't know how to change that.
"Pa, can you hear me? We've come to see you. It's me, Lille, Henri, and Roche," Isa said. Rock entered the room and saw her bending over their dad, who was hooked up to beeping monitors with tubes of fluid flowing into his veins.
"Roche?" his father said in a hoarse, low voice. Isa stroked their dad's cheek and looked at Rock.
He walked over to the side of the bed. His father had aged so much since he'd last seen him: gray hair, deep wrinkles, hollow cheeks. Due to his illness, lesions dotted his face and his eyelids were swollen. Fuck, he's lost so damn much weight. Rock's stomach dropped. "Hey, Pa." His dad's bony hand reached out for his and he grasped it, surprised at how cold it was.