The Ghosts Of New Orleans (A PARANORMAL RESEARCH AND CONTAINMENT DIVISION (PRCD) CASE FILE) (17 page)

“And you seek me, why?”

“We read her journals,” Sally
explained, “They had references to Hoodoo – she used Goofer Dust to kill her
relatives.”

“When we fight her, we need to be
as prepared as possible,” Eloise added.

Isabel moved to a shelf behind the
counter.  There were several old leather bound books on the shelf.  She looked
them over and finally picked up a large volume.  She brought the book back to
the counter and opened it to the Table of Contents.

“So, she has tried to keep the
souls of those who want to depart?”

Eloise nodded. “Yes, she has fought
our attempts to free them. She has even killed one of my friends.”

“Do you know where her spirit
resides?”

“Yes,” Eloise said, “At a
plantation in the wetlands below New Orleans. I believe that she wishes to
reunite the souls of the dead with their corpses.”

Isabel looked up at Eloise for a
moment and then quickly flipped through the book.  She pointed to a section.

“This is Yemanja, she is the Voodoo
Goddess of the waters,” Isabel said. “At times she is a loving goddess, but she
can also be very jealous.  The people of New Orleans have forgotten her and she
is not pleased. “

“So we have an angry goddess of the
waters,” Sally said, “That doesn’t sound good.”

Isabel shook her head. “In two days
time is her feast day.  Those who place offerings to her will be able to
request her help.”

“Even mad spirits?” Sally asked.

“Yes, she will be willing to help
anyone who will be willing to pay her homage.”

“So, if she releases the bodies of
those who were washed out to sea, then what does Lalaurie have to do to reunite
the souls with the body?”

“There is a hoodoo potion that can
reunite the body and the soul.  I can show you the ingredients...”

“No,” Eloise said, “I don’t need to
know the ingredients; I just need to know how to stop it.”

Isabel shook her head, “I don’t
know how to stop her, that takes greater magic than I have.”

“Well, great,” Sally said, “We’re
back to square one.”

“No, we’re not,” Eloise said, “At
least we know that we only have two days to stop her.”

“One more question, if you don’t
mind,” Eloise asked, “If the bodies come back from the sea and are reunited
with the spirits – what could happen?”

Isabel shuddered and reached out
and took Eloise’s hands in her own.

“All armies would be powerless
against the Army of the Dead,” she explained, her eyes wide with fear.

“And her power would increase with
this army,” Isabel continued, “She would not be stopped. You have heard of
Armageddon? This would be the start.”

Eloise nodded. “I guess we’ll just
have to stop her.”

“There is something else I must
tell you,” Isabel whispered softly, leaning over the counter towards them.

“Yes?” Eloise asked, leaning
towards Isabel.

A loud bang from the room behind
the counter startled Isabel. She straightened and looked back over her
shoulder.  “Wait here,” she said. “I will be back.”

Eloise and Sally could hear muffled
angry conversation in the back room.  A moment later another woman, thinner and
less friendly than Isabel, came out of the room.

“I’m afraid that Isabel has other
things she has to attend to,” she said, “She asked me to give you this
address.  She said that you were to go to this place, from there you will
receive the information you need.”

Eloise took the piece of paper.
“Please send our thanks to Isabel,” she said.

They walked back to the car which
had been guarded by the men at the front door.  When they climbed in, Sally
turned to Eloise. “Okay, this is always the part in the movie where the heroine
goes where the piece of paper directs and then she gets there and it’s a trap.”

Eloise nodded. “Yes, I’ve seen that
happen time and time again.”

“So, what are we going to do?”
asked Sally.

“Go to the place on this paper,”
Eloise answered.

“Yeah, I kind of thought we would,”
Sally sighed.

The address led them to a small
shop on the shores of Spanish Lake Basin. Big Al’s Alligator Tour was printed
in big bold letters over the caricature of a smiling alligator.  The cheery
grin on the face of the reptile was inconsistent with the entrance to the
ominous moss-draped alligator swamp. Tall Cyprus trees with five foot tall
“knees” stood as sentinels guarding the secrets of the swamps. Egrets, herons
and ibis glided into the water and dove for food.  The air was heavy with
humidity and the hum from the bugs was so loud you almost had to yell to be
heard.

A very large man, obviously Big Al,
with a florid complexion and short, blonde hair came out of the shack to greet
them.  Even dressed in a friendly Hawaiian shirt and Bermuda shorts, Big Al
looked like a former mobster.  His narrow eyes seemed to match those of the
reptilian mascot for his store – except Big Al’s eyes were not as friendly.

“Afternoon, ladies,” he said in a
slow Southern drawl that reminded Eloise of a snake, “Ya’ll interested in
taking a tour?”

“So, are there real alligators out
there?” Sally asked.

Big Al lifted his lips in the
semblance of a smile and ran reptilian eyes slowly up and down Eloise and
Sally.  “Yes, ma’am, we guarantee that you will encounter an alligator or two,”
he said, grinning at his own joke. 

With his lips parted, Eloise and
Sally noted that most of his teeth were missing and there was quite a large
amount of chewing tobacco shoved underneath his lower lip.

“Yes, ma’am, plenty of real
gators,” he continued, “Course they’re pretty quiet in the middle of the day.”

“So, what do alligators eat?” Sally
asked.

“Well, honey, they eat whatever
they want to,” he laughed for several minutes at his own wit.

“We were referred to you by some
friend in Baton Rouge,” Eloise stated, “They said that you might be able to
give us some information that would help us.”

The man’s eyes narrowed and Eloise
was once again reminded of an alligator.

“Yeah, I got a call about you two,”
he said, “Didn’t mention you were lookers. Sure, I can help you, I can help you
real fine.”

“Well, I appreciate that,” Eloise
said, “If you could just show us the information.”

Big Al shook his head. “I ain’t got
the information, but I can send you to someone who does.”

Eloise shook her head, “I don’t
understand, send us?”

Big Al gestured over his shoulder
to the swamp. “I got a map that leads you to where you want to go.  We’ll just
get that map out and we’ll get you on your way.”

“In a canoe?” Sally asked.

Big Al turned to Sally and a slow
grin spread across his face. “No, ma’am,” he replied.

Sally breathed a sigh of relief.

“I’m sending ya’ll out in a kayak,”
he finished, “I ain’t got no canoes for rent.”

Eloise looked around and saw dozens
of canoes all resting on a network of metal poles that held the canoes above
the ground.

“What about those?” Eloise asked,
pointing to the canoes.

“Well, those are up for repair,”
the man said, spitting a stream of yellow tobacco juice out of the center of
his mouth, “You know, gator bites and such.”

“And this kayak, what does it look
like?”

The man turned and pointed to a small
fiberglass two-man kayak sitting at the bank of the lake, already prepared to
go.

“So how much will it be to rent the
kayak?” Eloise asked.

The man shrugged. “Cost you $100
for the tour.”

“A hundred dollars?” Eloise asked,
“Seems like that’s a little high compared to the other tours in the area.”

The man turned to Eloise. “But we
both know this ain’t no normal tour.”

Sally shook her head, grabbed
Eloise’s arm and pulled her a short distance from the man so they could talk
privately. “Okay, this is too much – this is the part where the bad music
starts. This is the part where people die,” Sally said, “We can’t go into the
swamp in a kayak.”

Eloise pondered Sally’s words for a
moment and then looked over at the man.

“He’s almost taunting us not to
go,” Eloise said, “What if there’s something there that we need to know in
order to stop Delphine?”

“Yeah, but what if he’s using reverse
psychology?” Sally countered, “What if he’s taunting us because he knows that
we’ll take him up on it?”

“He reminds me of an alligator, patiently
waiting,” Eloise said, “I don’t think he’s as stupid as he looks.”

Sally nodded. “I agree.  Do we want
to deal with an alligator?”

Eloise shrugged, “Well, maybe if we
have an alligator trap.”

She walked away from Sally and up
to the man.  “Great, we’ll take it.”

She reached into her purse and
pulled out the money. “I’d like to see the map before I turn over my money.”

The man smiled, it sent cold shivers
down Eloise’s back, “Yes, I have the map.  I’ll be right back.”

Sally walked up to Eloise. “I
thought that we agreed that we were going to die old,” Sally said.

Eloise smiled. “Okay, trust me a
little.”

The man handed Eloise the map and
Eloise handed him the money.  She opened the map and studied it for a moment.
Then, instead of taking the two tattered life preservers he was holding, she
turned and walked back to the SUV. 

The man watched, confusion spreading
across his face, as Sally and Eloise got in the SUV, turned it on and backed
out of the parking lot.  Then, his face red with anger, he tried to run in
front of them to force them to stop.

“Get back here,” he screamed, “You
ain’t just walking away from me!”

“Looks like the alligator just
missed lunch,” Sally commented as Eloise drove around him, across the grass and
back on to the highway.

“Boy, I just hate when that
happens,” Eloise said with smile as she continued down the highway.

Several miles later, Eloise pulled
off the main road and drove down a small dirt-packed secondary road for several
miles. She pulled off the road, partially hidden by some large trees, and put
the SUV in park.  She pulled out the map the man had given her.

“If you look at the swamp, it
follows the road pretty closely,” Eloise pointed out to Sally, “I figured that
we could drive down the road awhile until we either find a way to get to our
destination, or we find another canoe rental place.”

“I vote for the road for as far as
we can go,” Sally said, “I have a feeling that the angry alligator isn’t going
to sit quietly.”

They drove south for several miles.
 The road was surrounded by small tributaries and marshy plants. After twenty minutes,
the road started to veer off towards the west.  They followed a cross road to
the east and came upon another small store that offered canoe rental. 

“Okay, this looks less spooky,”
Sally said, climbing out of the SUV. “Well, as less spooky as a bayou marsh can
look.”

Eloise smiled. “Well, hopefully
we’ve shaken whoever from our path and we can follow that map and see where it
leads.”

They stepped up onto the bare
wooden porch and pushed open the screen door. The little store was an
interesting combination of hunting and fish bait equipment, as well as little
craft items and specialty foods.  Eloise walked to the counter where a young African-American
teen-age girl sat weaving a basket from local reeds.  She had her hair pulled
up in two pony tails and was wearing denim shorts and a red and white print
top.

“Wow, that’s great,” Sally said, as
she glanced around the shop at the inventory of baskets hanging from the
rafters and the walls, “Did you do all of these?”

The girl smiled. “Me and my ma did
them – she showed me how.”

“She’s very gifted,” Eloise said.

The girl put her weaving down and
came to the counter. “How can I help you?”

“Well, we’re interested in renting
your canoe and taking a little tour of the bayou,” Eloise said.

The girl smiled, “Sure, it’s ten
dollars for the afternoon.”

“Sounds like a deal to me,” Sally
said, “And when we get back, we can do some real shopping.”

The girl smiled at Sally. “Where
y’all planning to go?  I can tell you about some real purty spots in the
bayou.”

Eloise pulled the map out and laid
it on the counter. “Well, we want to end up here,” she said, pointing to the
red mark on the map, “But we’re not quite sure where we are.”

The girl studied the map for a
moment, and then she looked up at them with a frown.

“I need to call my ma,” she said. 

She called back into the room
behind the shop and soon a middle-aged tall, slender black woman joined them. 
Without asking permission, the girl gave her mother the map.