Safe Passage (11 page)

"Sure, if you're up for staying."

Gen swallowed her coffee and a broad smile broke across her face. "I think I can find it in me to stick around." Jules grinned, hoping Gen had meant the double meaning there that she'd picked up on.

The two finished their breakfast, and Jules rinsed the dishes and put them in the sink to take care of later. Gen went back up to Jules' room, trying to find something to wear. She came back down the stairs wearing one of Jules' T-shirts and a pair of shorts. "I just thought of something."

"What's that?"

"You have all your aunt's old papers in that fourth bedroom, right? We should look through them for information."

"NO! Don't go in there." Jules had actually stood up and looked like she was going to block Gen's path to the stairs.

"Um, Jules, you really don't want me to go in there because of a mess? Because I'm starting to think you have a room set up where you make torture porn or something?"

"It's nothing like that."

"Jules? Why won't you tell me?" Gen stood waiting patiently and Jules hung her head in defeat.

"Okay. I try to be all normal and everything."

Gen paled and shook her head. "Oh, God! Now the other shoe is dropping. What is in that room?"

"It's nothing scary, it's just embarrassing. I promise it's not an S and M chamber or anything. Let me explain before you run out the door. Okay?"

"Sure?"

"Okay, so most people who know me think of me as kind of awkward, but in general I'm relatively normal. I mean, part of me is a jock and I know that helps to hide the other part of me a lot."

"And that part is?"

"I'm a huge nerd, Gen. I mean, people tend to forget that I'm a math teacher. But I am a huge sci-fi fantasy nerd and that room is full of all that stuff. And when I date, like, normal girls, they tend to see that stuff and run pretty quickly, afraid they're going to wind up in forty-year-old virgin territory."

Gen laughed. "Oh, God, is that all?"

"Yeah."

"Jesus Christ, Jules, that's adorable."

"You're not running the other way?"

"Um, no. Jules, I know for a fact you are not a forty-year-old virgin. You are way too good in bed for that." Jules smirked and stood up a little straighter in pride. Gen rolled her eyes and continued, "I think it's cute that your nerd stuff is your secret shame. Just out of curiosity, are we talking about comic books, or Star Wars, or Xena, or what?"

"All of the above, plus Doctor Who, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Star Trek, Battlestar Galactica, and some other miscellaneous things."

"Renfaires?"

"No."

"Dungeons and Dragons?"

"No."

"Okay, I can work with this."

"Really?"

"Yup, take me to the room where you hide your secret loves."

Jules walked up the stairs behind Gen and walked over to the room. "Are you sure? We can pretend this room doesn't exist."

"Jules, I like you, and I want to get to know all of you. So, open the door, mon petite geek."

"Saying it in French doesn't make it cuter, Gen."

"No, but it makes it sexier."

Jules rolled her eyes and opened the door. Along one wall were bookshelves and filing cabinets. Gen walked over and looked, seeing trade paperbacks for many different comics. There were framed posters on another wall, all comic art and movie posters. There were a few action figures in boxes, but not many, and a few replicas of props were on the shelves. "Girls actually dumped you over this stuff?"

"Yeah. They thought they were getting a cool Olympian they could show off, not a closet nerd."

"Idiots."

"Thanks."

"What's in the filing cabinets?"

"Comics. The last one on the left has auntie's stuff in it." Jules opened the top drawer and pulled out folders, setting them on top of the cabinet.

Once Jules had removed everything, Gen turned to her. "Let's take these things out of your nerd cave and go downstairs, okay?"

"Sure."

Jules opened the closet and took out a milk crate that had other in box action figures in it. She piled them neatly on top of the other filing cabinets then put all the file folders in the milk crate. Gen worked hard to suppress a smile.

Jules bit her bottom lip. "What?"

"It's actually quite endearing, and it explains some of your insecurity."

Jules walked toward the door with the crate and turned back to Gen who still stood in the middle of the room. "You coming with me? Or are you trying to get a geek contact high?"

Gen laughed. "No, I'm coming." She followed Jules downstairs and watched as she set the crate on the coffee table and sat down on the sofa. Gen grabbed a folder for each of them, handed one to Jules and snuggled up next to her. They went through the documents quickly. When they were about halfway through the box, Gen's cell phone rang. She looked around the room, and found her purse on the hall table where she'd dropped it the night before. She pulled out the phone and turned to Jules. "It's Jake, this should be good. Don't say anything." She put the call on speaker.

"Gen, thank God. I was afraid she'd turned out to be an axe murderer or something."

"Jake, I'm fine. Jules made us breakfast, and now we're working on that thing with the letter for a bit."

"Okay, if you're in trouble but can't say I want you to say the word nose." Jules rolled her eyes and had to work not to reveal that Jack was on speakerphone.

Gen laughed and shook her head. "Jake, I'm fine."

"Okay, okay. Just checking. Do you need me to swing by and pick you up?"

"I don't know." She turned to Jules. "I have no problem driving you whenever you'd like to go, Gen."

"Okay, well, I'll stay long enough to finish that box."

"Oh! Ewwww! That was the most disgusting thing you could have said with me still on the phone."

"Not what I meant, Jake." Jules eyes were closed as she tried to hold back her laughter.

Jules openly laughed at Jake's hysterics.

"Okay, well, I'll let you two get back to whatever you were doing. I'll see you later and we can chat."

"Okay. Bye."

Jules had been flipping through a folder when she found receipts from a crematorium. She checked the dates. "Oh, wow, she had her cremated."

"What?"

"She had her cremated, she brought the ashes here. They used to be in her bedroom. I remember the urn. It was gone when she started to get sick."

"Where did she put it?"

"I don't know. I mean, she started to go a little nutty."

"Is there a Delacroix family mausoleum?"

Jules was still reading the paperwork that followed the cremation information and distractedly answered, "Yeah, two."

"Two?"

She looked up. "Yup, one in New Orleans, and one down on Delacroix Island."

"Which one is your great grandfather in?"

"He was on Delacroix Island, but he washed away into the swamp with Katrina's storm surge, every Delacroix in the island mausoleum went that way."

"Where's your Aunt?"

"Both places."

"What?"

Jules sighed. "Her directions were specific. She wanted to be cremated and have her ashes split. Half would go in the new mausoleum on Delacroix Island, because they needed to have a Delacroix out there. The other half would be in New Orleans at our mausoleum in St. Louis number two."

"Well, let’s go check them both."

"Okay, well, as cute as you look in my clothes, let me shower and put something real on then I'll take you home to do the same."

"Why don't I just take your car home shower and change and then come back and get you, it'll be faster."

Jules thought for a second. "Okay." She got up and retrieved the keys from the hook by the door. She walked over to Jules and pressed the keys into her hand then kissed her deeply. "Can you drive a stick?"

"Yes. I had a very temperamental Peugeot in Paris."

Jules grinned. "So hot. Okay, well, be careful."

"It's cute you worry about me."

"What're you talking about, I love that car."

Gen slapped Jules on the butt and headed out the door. Jules walked her out and opened the car door. Gen climbed up into the Xterra and worked to get the seat adjusted to her much shorter legs. "I'll see you in about two hours," she said.

Jules nodded as she closed the door. Gen pulled away from the curb. Jules had been holding her breath but didn't hear any gears grind and Gen didn't stall so she relaxed about the idea of Gen driving her car and went back inside to shower.

*~*~*

Jules pulled on jeans and a black V-neck T-shirt. She figured if she were going to be spending the day in cemeteries she should look the part. She added a heavy leather belt with a fleur-de-lis belt buckle and biker boots to complete the look. Then she sat down and waited for Gen to come back with her car. She knew she had some time so she went to put everything back in the filing cabinet and put her nerd cave back in order. She went back downstairs and sighed. She hoped they found something in the New Orleans crypt. She hated going to Delacroix Island. She sighed and went to the albums on the shelf at the side of the living room. She pulled out Blood on the Tracks; if she had to go to Delacroix Island, she had to listen to "Tangled up in Blue" before she went. She started the album, and Dylan's voice filled the living room as she sat down to wait for Gen.

Forty minutes and several sudoku puzzles later, she heard a car door slam outside her house. She opened the door before Gen could ring the bell. Gen smiled as she walked up onto the porch. She was wearing jeans and a tank top with blue converse. Jules hadn't seen her so casual before, but she guessed that Gen had factored in the trip to Delacroix Island as a possibility.

"You ready?" Gen asked.

"Yup, just let me get a leash on Sam and set the alarm."

"He's going with us?"

"Yup."

"Why?"

"Well, I'd like him in St. Louis number two, so we are safe from any thieves who might be around, and if we have to go to Delacroix, I feel safer with him there too."

"Because of wildlife?"

"And gay bashing rednecks."

"Ah, okay."

Jules shut the door and activated the alarm. She led Samson out on a leash and he walked calmly beside her. "You are going to have to teach me how you do that. Belle is a spaz on a leash."

"Oh, I didn't do it. My brother William is a dog trainer. He did it, I just maintain it." Jules grinned as she took her keys from Gen and opened the back door, giving Samson the command to get up on the seat.

She closed the door and went to open Gen's door, but saw she was already in the car. "Sorry, Jules, that's what happens when you put your dog before me." She winked and smiled.

"I'll remember that."

The drive to the cemetery in the Quarter was short. Jules honestly believed that her auntie would have put Evie here, so she could come see her whenever she wanted. They walked across the cemetery, Samson walking alongside them, Gen's fingers interlaced with hers. When they reached the center of the cemetery, there was a marble mausoleum with polished brass letters spelling out Delacroix under the name was a shield with a large cross and the words "Fideliter et Constanter." Gen laughed at the crest. "Appropriate, I think."

"Loyal and steadfast? Makes me feel a bit like a dog."

"So." Gen gestured to the lock. "You have a key?"

"Yup." Jules took a key ring out of her pocket and unlocked the mausoleum. Both women walked in and Jules went over to her auntie's niche. "Come on, Auntie, where did you put Evie?" She removed the urn and looked behind it. Nothing.

"There aren't even any other urns," Gen noted.

Jules turned to Gen. "Before Auntie, Delacroixs were interred, not cremated. The church wasn't big on cremation before. Evie isn't here. You want me to drop you off so you don't have to go to Delacroix Island?"

"No, I want to see this through." Jules nodded and led the way back to the car. Gen was texting someone, Jules assumed it was Jake.

"Is Jake worried I'm going to leave you in the swamp?"

Gen laughed. "How'd you guess?"

"I'm psychic, and apparently I give off a serial killer vibe"

"He's not actually worried. He likes, you. He is just mad he hasn't gotten details yet."

"He barely knows me."

"Well, I like you and he hears a lot about you."

Jules smirked. "So I heard, since August."

"I could kill him for that."

"Don't worry, when you meet Beth, she'll say she got very sick about hearing about 'the hot straight French teacher.'" Off Gen's look of irritation, Jules explained further. "I always used your name, but Beth is bad with names so she called you HSFT, though now she'll probably amend it to HFT."

Jules smiled and pulled the car onto the highway that lead out of the city and down to St. Bernard's Parish. They followed along and eventually onto Delacroix highway. Finally they reached the town of Delacroix.

"Your family doesn't seem to have stayed here long," Gen said. "I mean they've been in New Orleans since God was a boy."

"Some stayed here, overseeing fishing and trapping. After the civil war, no Delacroix really lived here, but they were still buried here." Jules pulled over to the side of the road at the cemetery and walked up to a brand new mausoleum. She unlocked the door and followed Gen inside.

"Your aunt is the only one here?"

"Officially."

They started looking around the mausoleum and Jules found a plain, brass compartment next to her Aunt's niche. She opened it and saw a small urn.

"Gen, this is it."

Before she could retrieve anything from the niche, she heard metal hitting metal. Jules turned around and saw a sheriff who was banging his flashlight on the metal door.

"What are you ladies doing in here?"

"Officer, I am Julianna Delacroix, this is my family's crypt, and I'm following up on some instructions left to me in a letter from my late great Aunt."

"Well, Ms. Delacroix, you can show some ID?"

"Of course." Jules pulled her wallet out of her back pocket and showed her ID to the cop. "And are you also part of the Delacroix family, ma'am?" He leered at Gen. Jules moved to stand between the man and Gen.