| |
Gertie called Officer Gene and updated him on what we’d found. With $25,000 in cash missing and a hotel key under the bed, one would think it would have cast enough suspicion to create an investigation.
“Damn,” Gertie said, hanging up the phone. “I love Gene to death but he can be dense.”
“What did he say?” Ida Belle asked.
“Gene said since Toddy had not seen Boudreaux for over five years, there was no way for him to know for certain there was $25,000 in cash in a shoe box in the closet. He also said Boudreaux’s bank account had almost no activity—no withdrawals or deposits.”
“Makes me believe he kept cash in the house,” I said, “but it’s not proof. I understand that.”
“What about the hotel key?” Ida Belle asked.
“Gene said the key could have come from anywhere. Unless there was evidence that Boudreaux had cash, and Georgia stole it, there is no reason to suspect foul play. Unless we find proof the key is meaningless.”
I looked at the hotel key. It was white with an Extended Stay logo on the front and a simple magnetic stripe on the back. No phone or address and no room number on the card.
“What are you doing?” Ida Belle asked.
“Getting ready to make a few calls,” I said. “Gertie, you’re driving.”
I had been using my smart phone to locate Extended Stay Hotels in the area. I groaned. There were twelve such hotels in the New Orleans area and seven more within a fifteen-mile radius of Boudreaux’s house. There were nineteen total possibilities assuming she was still there. That was a big assumption.
I used my navigation device to locate and call the closest one first.
“Thank you for calling Extended Stay,” a young woman answered.
“Hi,” I began. “Please connect me to the room of Georgia Fame.”
“How do you spell the last name?” she asked.
“F-A-M-E,” I said. “First name, Georgia.”
There was a pause.
“I’m sorry we have no one here by that name,” she said.
“I may have gotten the name wrong,” I said. “I saw her at the Saucy Goose earlier today and she dropped a piece of jewelry. I’d like to return it.”
I gave her Georgia’s description and ended with, “She may be staying with a man named Bill.”
“I’m sorry, I don’t know who that is and even if I did, I can’t give out that information,” she said.
“Thank you anyway,” I said, and hung up.
“My guess is, the other eighteen hotels will give you some version of the same response,” Ida Belle said.
She was right, but I had to try.
I made seven calls without success before Gertie pulled into the parking lot of the VFW. Since it was a member-only club, I still did not understand how we would gain admittance but Ida Belle didn’t seem worried.
The VFW looked like an ordinary building. They painted the wood trim powder blue, and the awnings were burnt orange. The American flag was flapping front and center in the gentle breeze. There was a reader board attached to the left of the door announcing next Friday’s fish fry. Below it was an invitation to the rifle range this Wednesday. We passed a bronze memorial plaque which honored all the members of this chapter who had passed away. I noted there blank area of considerable size reserved for future listings.
We also saw a handmade sign with an arrow drawn in black magic marker directing us around the back for the event, though it said, “members only,” an admonishment we intended to ignore.
Around the back, there was a giant tent erected and attached to the building. Ida Belle confidently strolled up to the woman at the receiving desk.
The woman was about Ida Belle’s age, heavy set with short, tightly curled gray hair and tiny black horn-rimmed glasses which did nothing to flatter her face. She wore a flowered sack dress and orthopedic shoes. The name badge pinned to her dress read, Hello, my name is Louise. I looked at her and imagined whether that would be me in forty-five years. I got chills thinking about it.
“Hi Louise,” Ida Belle said, smiling as though she was greeting an old friend.
“Name and membership card,” Louise replied flatly without bothering to look up.
“Oh, we’re not members,” Ida Belle said. “We’re here to see Raymond.”
She took off her reader glasses and looked up at us. I couldn’t tell if the expression reflected annoyance or suspicion. Likely it was some of both.
“Raymond Miller, Raymond Decker or Raymond McCoy?” she asked.
“Raymond McCoy,” Ida Belle said confidently.
“We don’t have a Raymond McCoy,” she announced. “I don’t have a Raymond Decker or Raymond Miller, either. Why don’t you tell me why you’re really here?”
Correct answer = suspicion.
Ida Belle’s face nearly went white. She was so shocked that she got busted within seconds it literally rendered her speechless.
I suppressed the urge to snicker and turned to Louise. “How did you bust us so quickly?” I asked.
“We only have one Raymond here,” she said. “He doesn’t have a granddaughter which is all you could be, and if he knew either of these other two characters, I’d know about it.”
I smiled and nodded. I had underestimated this woman. She was sharp. I stepped forward.
“What’s your story, sugar britches?” she asked.
“You’re right,” I said, trying to control an involuntary smile at the sugar britches reference. “We’re here looking for a woman.”
“They have bars in New Orleans for that kind of thing. You’re in the wrong place,” she said.
Gertie could not squelch a small chuckle.
“I’m sure you’re right but that’s not what I meant,” I said, myself unable to hide a faint smile. “We were at the Lick Skillet last week and a waitress told us she saw the woman we are looking for with Raymond. The only thing she could really tell us about Raymond was that he wore a VFW cap. So we took a chance coming here.”
Louise looked at me, considering whether I was as full of crap as Ida Belle or not.
“And this woman you’re looking for,” she said, “I take it she wronged y’all some way or another?”
“Not us,” I said. “She’s hurting men like Raymond. We think she seeks out older, lonely men. She may be a gold digger after Raymond’s money.”
Louise stiffened at the mention of a gold digger.
“What makes you think that?” she asked.
“That’s a long, complicated story,” I replied.
“If Raymond had a new girlfriend, I’d know about it,” she said.
“This would have happened recently,” I said. “She works fast. Can you tell us if Raymond will be here tonight?”
Without looking at the guest list she nodded. “Yeah, he’s coming, but he didn’t get an extra ticket for a guest. He’s coming by himself like always. That probably shoots your little idea in the foot now, doesn’t it, princess?”
“No, not exactly,” I said. “This woman has done this kind of thing before, and it’s more likely she would want to avoid a large gathering. In her line of work the fewer people who can identify her later, the better off she is.”
Louise paused for a moment, nodding to herself in thought.
“So, you think she’s after Raymond’s money?” she asked.
“I don’t know for sure,” I said. “I’d just like to ask Raymond some questions.”
Louise shook her head, still somewhat unconvinced, “How do I know y’all ain’t just making this whole thing up?”
“You like Raymond, right?” Gertie asked.
“I do,” she said. “He’s good people.”
“You’d never want to see him get hurt?” Gertie added.
“Of course not,” she said.
“I’ll tell you what, my friends and I will sit over in the corner and wait,” Gertie replied. “When Raymond gets here, you tell him you heard he has a brand new girlfriend named Georgia, and you were hoping to meet her. If he denies it, we’ll leave and you will never hear from us again.”
Gertie paused. I saw Louise lean in for the inevitable “but.”
“But,” she continued right on cue, “if he admits to having a new girlfriend named Georgia and tells you she made a lame excuse not to come, you introduce us and let us talk to him. What do you say? Deal?”
Louise looked at Ida Belle and scowled, then looked at me with a curious eye. I tried to smile. She then looked back at Gertie before slowly nodding. “Ok, that sounds like a plan, but I want you three to sit on that bench where I can see you.”
All three of us nodded and made our way to the bench.
“How d'you know that would work, Gertie?” I asked.
“I didn’t,” she replied. “Someone had to do something, though. You two weren’t getting anywhere.”
“She’s an ornery one, that Louise,” Ida Belle said.
“Oh hush,” Gertie said. “You’re just bent because she busted you out of the gate.”
“What if he shows up with her?” Ida Belle wondered. “You know darn well Louise will blow our cover and she’ll be on to us.”
“She won’t be with him,” I said. “Georgia Fame is clever. If she fleeces Raymond out of his money, or worse yet, kills him, the last thing in the world she’ll want is a hundred witnesses who can identify her in a lineup.”
Louise cleared her throat loudly to get our attention, and I saw Raymond for the first time. He looked exactly as described, tall and handsome, bald on top, white hair on the edges and a neatly trimmed white beard.
“Hi Louise,” I heard him say. “It’s good to see you.”
“Hey Raymond,” Louise replied. “Good to see you too. I think we’re gonna have a full house tonight. It should be fun.”
Raymond handed over his ticket and smiled. Louise continued, “So, a little bird tells me you are courtin’ a young thing.”
Raymond smiled and turned red. “How d'you know?” he pondered. “I just met her. And she’s over 60, so she ain’t exactly a young thing.”
Louise stole a glance in my direction, “So what’s her name? Do I know her?”
Raymond waved his hand and shook his head. “Naw, she’s from out of town. Her name is Georgia. She’s a sweet lady. I like her.”
Louise glanced our way again. She was having an ‘aha’ moment, “How come you didn’t bring her?”
“I tried to,” he said, “but she came down with a headache at the last minute. Next time.”
Louise smiled at Raymond and turned to us, waving us over, “Raymond, there are three nice ladies who have been waitin’ to talk to you. I think you should hear what they have to say.”
Raymond looked over at us as we approached. A confused expression formed on his face. Ida Belle introduced us. Despite not knowing us from Adam, Raymond’s southern upbringing must have kicked in because he found us a table and ordered all three of us drinks.
He took a sip of his drink, a Long Island Iced Tea. “Now, what can I do for you ladies?” he asked politely.
“It’s about Georgia,” Ida Belle began. “We believe she might not be who she appears to be.”
Raymond paused and leaned back in his chair, drawing a deep breath. He sighed, “Go on.”
“My name is Fortune,” I said. These are my friends, Ida Belle and Gertie. They live here full-time.”
He looked at me cautiously. Finally he broke eye contact.
“What makes you think Georgia is the way you describe?” he asked.
I told him the story about seeing her in the Lick Skillet, connecting her to Bossier City. I described the history of the woman I thought Georgia to be. I told him about Willard and Boudreaux. He gasped when he heard Boudreaux had suffered a sudden accident.
He let out a breath, and I could almost hear the wheels grinding in his head. “You know, if you’re wrong about her, you all have created one hell of a character assassination.”
“She’s not wrong,” Gertie said.
“Raymond,” I concluded, “We think she is out to steal your money or worse.”
He looked at me for a long time. I felt a lump form in my throat. It was obvious I’d crushed the man’s spirit. His eyes were moist and turned a little red. His lips quivered slightly. His hands trembled; he folded them in front of him on the table.
“We’re so sorry to bring news like this to you,” Gertie said. “Believe us when we tell you, we wish none of this were true.”
He tried to speak, but no words came out. He paused and cleared his throat trying to collect himself.
“Have you noticed anything unusual about Georgia?” Ida Belle asked.
He sighed again. “Yeah, there were odd things that popped up right away. I ignored them but they’re there. My wife of forty-five years passed away about four years ago and this has been the first woman to... uh... you know.”
“Yes, we do,” Gertie said. “What have you noticed?”
“She is hiding where she lived,” he admitted. “She won’t let me call her and when she calls me, she blocks the number. She says she’s borrowing a phone from a friend, but that’s a lie. I heard a phone buzzing in her purse twice.”
“Did she ask you questions about your money? Your finances?”
He nodded. I thought I noticed his eyes moistening. “She did. She was trying to be tricky about it, but she was interested in how well off I was financially. I thought maybe she wanted to avoid a man one step away from the poorhouse, but I have to admit, her questions made me feel funny.”
“When are you going to see her again?” I asked.
“I don’t know,” he said. “I invited her to come with me tonight. She said she would but at the last minute said she had a headache. She said she was visiting her sister and that she’d call me in later in the week.”
“Did she say where her sister lived?”
“Come to think of it, she mentioned Des Allemands once,” Raymond said.
“The catfish capital of the world. That’s about 35 miles from New Orleans,” Gertie said. “Maybe a little more important is that it’s about halfway between the Lick Skillet and Saucy Goose.”
“Why is that important?” Raymond asked.
“She likes to meet men at roadside diners,” I replied.
“Did you answer a classified ad?” I asked.
“No, why?”
“How did you come to meet her?”
“A waitress at the Lick Skillet introduced us,” he said.
“Wait! What?” Ida Belle said. “You two were introduced?”
He nodded.
“I used to go to the Lick Skillet every so often to have dinner,” he said, “more than anything just to get out of the house and kill a little time. I would go on Tuesday nights because there was a waitress I was fond of, Ellen. She only worked there part-time. To tell you the truth, I was hoping she and I would hit it off. She always seemed real friendly and flirty. I was working up the nerve to ask her out when she told me about this woman who came in the diner regularly. She thought Georgia and I would hit it off. Ellen is the one who set up my first meeting with her.”
Until that moment, I had never considered Georgia may have used anything other than personal ads to meet men.
“Do you think I should call the police?” he asked.
“You can try,” I said. “We already have. The coroner ruled Boudreaux’s death an accident and there was no money missing from his bank account. So, officially, there’s been no crime and they won’t get involved. We think Boudreaux had cash in his house and she killed him for it. She’s smart, and she’s covered her tracks. As far as I can tell she has done nothing illegal with you... yet.”
He sighed, “That’s what I figured.”
“Raymond, I’m giving you all three of our cell numbers,” Ida Bell said. “Will you call us when she reaches out to you again?”
“I will,” he said.
“I know this is hard, Raymond,” Gertie said, “but it's best you know. Please be careful. If we are right, she’s murdered at least two men for money.”
“I’ll be real careful,” he promised. “There’s one more thing you should know.”
“What’s that?” Gertie asked.
“Georgia knows someone is looking for her,” he said.
“Really?” Gertie said. “What makes you think that?”
“She came over last night. We had a few glasses of wine and then... you know... had relations. I got up to take a shower. When I got out, I heard her whispering in the other room. She was on the phone. I heard her say, ‘How did they find me?’”
“You heard her say that?” Gertie asked.
He nodded. “That’s all I heard. I wasn’t supposed to know she had a phone, remember? I didn’t want to ask too many questions and scare her away, and the truth is I didn’t think much of it. We were just...”
“Having a good time?” Gertie said, completing his sentence.
He nodded again. He sniffled. Tears had formed in his eyes. He pulled a handkerchief and dabbed away. I started to tear up too. It was breaking my heart how this evil woman was affecting these men.
“I wonder how she found out about us,” Gertie said.
“We haven’t been exactly subtle,” I said. “We’ve been asking questions everywhere; the Saucy Goose, the Lick Skillet.”
“I’m sorry that we burst your bubble, Raymond,” I said.
He nodded. “Me too.”
“What’s the story with Louise?” Gertie asked.
“Louise?” he replied. “She’s a friend. I’ve known her for years.”
“She cares about you a lot. You know, right?” Gertie said.
“Well like I said, we’ve been friends...”
“I don’t mean that. She thinks of you as more than a friend,” Gertie interrupted.
He waved his hand. “Louise? No way. What makes you think that?”
“She hasn’t taken her eyes off you since we all sat.”
He looked over at Louise, who was looking at him. When she saw Raymond looking her way, she did not look away in embarrassment. Her look was one of concern. Gertie was right; she cared about Raymond.
“Well, that’s just... you know... she’s just...”
“You think about it, Raymond,” Gertie said. “She may not be as young and attractive as Georgia, but I’ll bet she has many of the same interests as you, and she’d be fun to spend time with. I’ll bet she’s a good woman.”
“She is that,” Raymond admitted.
“You think on it, Raymond,” Gertie said.
Raymond nodded and stood, walking toward a group of men hanging out at the bar. He laughed and made a joke about the slacks one man wore, a horrible pair of green and yellow plaid polyester slacks. Raymond asked the man where he could find himself a pair of those slacks. The man responded that he didn’t exactly remember but there was probably some poor shit-kicker in a trailer park missing the curtains on his windows.
Raymond chuckled and ordered another drink.
It was a typical man response; I thought. We had just delivered news that had broken Raymond’s heart, and yet, he tucked all those emotions away and was cutting up with his buddies. None of them had an inkling of the pain their friend was suffering at the moment.
We thanked Louise as we walked away.
“Thank you all for coming,” she said, humbly. “He’s an old goat, but I don’t want to see him hurt.”
“I know you don’t,” Ida Belle replied. “Let me give you a small tip, dear.”
“What’s that?” she asked, cautiously.
“Before next Friday’s fish fry, you go down to Sears and you buy yourself a nice dress.”
“Sears is closed down,” she replied.
“Go to Target, then.”
“Who do you think you are? You need to mind your own business and...” Louise began.
Ida Belle ignored her and continued, “Stop off at the beauty parlor and get your hair done and get rid of those glasses.”
“I can’t see ten feet without my glasses,” she said, “and I don’t appreciate...”
“Look around dear,” Ida Belle responded. “What is there to look at in here?”
She paused and nodded in agreement. “I see your point.”
“Put on a little makeup—not too much,” she continued. “When the music starts, you ask Raymond to dance.”
Her back stiffened, and she pulled away. “I can’t do that,” she said. “Raymond and I are old friends...”
“We both know how you feel and we both know how old you and Raymond are. Don’t waste another minute, Louise.”
Tears formed in her eyes. “I... I can’t...”
Ida Belle put her hand on Louise’s arm. “You can, and he’ll say yes.”
“You think so?” She said sheepishly.
“I do,” Ida Belle said.
“I do too,” added Gertie.
“What if he says no?” she asked.
“He won’t say no,” Ida Belle said.
Louise tried to reply but choked up. A tear flowed down her cheek. She smiled at Ida Belle and nodded.
Once we got to the parking lot, I hugged Ida Belle. I grabbed Gertie by the neck and pulled her in for a group hug.
“You two are amazing,” I said. “I love you both. You know, right?”
Gertie smiled. “We love you too. Now let’s get back to business.”