Sabine Tedesco’s message said much the same, asking me to come over to the Tedescos’ house as soon as possible. I relayed the message to Antoine and we headed for Mid-City. As he drove, I returned Davina’s call. It went to voice mail and I left a message, saying we were heading for her folks’ house.
When we arrived, I introduced Antoine to George and Sabine.
“Laurette called,” Sabine said, excited. “She said she and Slade are on a road trip and that she’s sorry she didn’t check in sooner, but she lost her phone. I’m so relieved to hear from her. I guess I was overreacting. I’m sorry about that. You had to stay in town looking for clues. But it’s all right now. Thank goodness.”
Overreacting? I didn’t think so. Not with all I’d learned about Slade in the past few days. But I kept my opinion to myself, for the time being.
“She sent a video,” George added. “Would you like to see it?”
“Yes, I would.”
Sabine picked up her smart phone and accessed the video. It was about twenty seconds long. Laurette was outside, her long brown hair ruffled by a breeze, and she was laughing as she talked. “Hi, Mom and Dad. I just want to let you know that I’m all right. Lost my phone, got a new one now. Slade and I are on a road trip. We’ve been to San Antonio and Austin and some other cool places. I love seeing all these places I haven’t been before. Now that I have a phone I’ll be in touch more often. Love you. Bye!”
“When you talked with her on the phone, before she sent the video, did she say where they were right now?” Antoine asked.
Sabine looked confused. “She said San Antonio and Austin, on the video.”
I shook my head. “They’re in Santa Fe. At least they were there when the video was shot.”
Antoine shot me a look. “How do you know that?”
“Play the video again. I’ll show you.” Sabine started the video, then handed the phone to me. About midway through, I touched the screen and paused the playback. I pointed at a building behind Laurette, long and made of adobe, with thick wooden pillars. “That’s the Palace of the Governors, on the Plaza in Santa Fe. I’m sure of it.”
Sure of it, I thought, because that’s where Dan was, in Santa Fe, New Mexico, working on his travel book. He’d sent me a photo of the Santa Fe Plaza just two days ago, showing the native American vendors selling pottery and jewelry at the Palace of the Governors.
“They have adobe buildings in Austin, too,” George pointed out.
“True enough, but I’ve been to Santa Fe and this looks like the Palace.”
“Texas or New Mexico, they’re still out of town and a long way from New Orleans,” Antoine said.
When I found out Slade had lived in Austin before coming to New Orleans, I’d entertained the notion that he’d decided to move back to Texas. Admittedly, that theory was fueled by Luis Ortega’s comment that Slade was finding it difficult to break into the NOLA music scene and was thinking about returning to Austin, or heading for another city to try working the music scene there.
Now Laurette said they were on a road trip. That implied that eventually, they’d come back to New Orleans.
But I wasn’t so sure.
* *
After leaving the Tedescos’ house, Antoine drove back to his place in Treme, so I could pick up the rental car I’d left parked there. I then turned in the car, since I was heading home the next day. At the hotel’s business center, I used one of the computers to book a seat on a nonstop flight home to Oakland.
When Antoine arrived, we walked over to Bayona, on Dauphine Street. Antoine ordered the pork chop with dirty rice and smothered greens. My plate held sautéed redfish with spinach and fingerling potatoes. It was delicious, just like the earlier meals I’d had at this restaurant.
Now, as we talked, I made patterns with my fork in the sauce on the plate. “This may be over as far as Laurette’s family is concerned, but I don’t think so.”
Antoine cut a slice from his grilled pork chop. “You’re preaching to the choir. I agree with you, a hundred percent. The Tedescos seem to be satisfied that Laurette is safe, but I’m not.”
I nodded as I speared a potato. “First of all, I don’t like this business of Laurette not calling her family because she lost her phone. She could have used Slade’s phone to call them. I am assuming he has one. Almost everyone these days does.”
“I’m with you there. I’m not buying it. Sounds like they wanted to be off the grid for a while.” Antoine raised a forkful of rice to his mouth.
“We’ve found out too much about Slade, too much that’s disturbing. It bears following up. I can give it some pro bono time.”
“Same here.” He paused and reached for his wineglass. “I’ll work the Austin angle, when my buddy there calls me back.”
“And I’ll head back to California and check out Millicent Patchett.” I ate some redfish and sighed. “I’ve been gone for over a week. I’m sure I’ve got plenty of work waiting for me. It will take a while to dig myself out.”
We talked of other things as we finished our meal and the bottle of wine we shared. When the server brought the dessert menu, we decided on coffee and one shared dessert, the peanut butter banana pie, which had toasted meringue and candied peanuts. It was delicious, but I could only eat a few bites. Antoine had no such compunctions. He finished it off.
It would be good to get home, but I certainly had enjoyed the food in New Orleans. Antoine and I left the restaurant and strolled back through the French Quarter to my hotel. We said good-bye and I headed up to my room. Tomorrow I’d have one last foray to Café du Monde for café au lait and beignets. Then Antoine would take me to the airport.
I couldn’t get past the unsettled feeling I had about Laurette, Slade and this case I considered unfinished. But George and Sabine Tedesco had been overjoyed to hear from Laurette, to know that she was alive and apparently just fine.
After I had my nightly check-in with Dan, I got ready for bed. Then Davina returned my call. “I’m sorry I sent you off on a fool’s errand,” she said. “I know how busy you are. And you had to stay extra days in New Orleans. I’ll make it up to you, I promise.”
“There’s nothing wrong with extra days in the Big Easy,” I told her. “We’ll talk when I get home.”