The Unknown Woman (7 page)

“I’m not sure. Jason is from an old New Orleans family. He probably wouldn’t be involved with a waitress and voodoo queen—”

He broke off abruptly.

“What?” she demanded.

Matt reminded Kerry about the tension he’d witnessed between father and son at the wine tasting. “After Jason slammed out of the room, his father said his son thought he was in love, but the person was unsuitable.”

“Like Patti,” Kerry concluded, angry on her behalf. “Do you think Jason even knows she died? It must have been in the papers by now. The guy at the museum didn’t mention anyone asking about her, other than the police.”

“We could be wrong about the friend’s identity,” Matt reminded her. “We’ll have to ask someone. Ashley would probably know.”

Kerry nodded. She took a bite of the cake, which was a cinnamon pastry with gold, green and purple icing. “Oh-oh,” she muttered. She carefully extracted a tiny object that had been in the cake. “It’s like a little doll—a baby,” she said.

Ashley came over and sat on the floor in front of them with a glass of iced tea and a cookie. “That’s very good luck, you know. It represents the Christ Child. The Mardi Gras colors and trinkets represent the gifts of the Three Wise Men to the Baby Jesus.”

“Twelfth Night is the Epiphany, the night they found the stable and presented their gifts,” Matt added. “I read that in the book from the museum.”

Kerry thought this was a good lead-in and gave
Matt a grateful glance. “Did you know the docent there?” she asked Ashley. “Queen Patrice?”

“Patti? Of course.” Ashley looked puzzled. “She works on the float, too, but she didn’t come in this morning.”

“Then you don’t know that she seems to have overdosed on something Saturday night?” Kerry asked.

“Overdosed,” Ashley repeated. “Is she okay?”

“No. She died.” Kerry noted the shock in the young woman’s eyes.

“She was supposed to have worked yesterday afternoon, too,” Ashley murmured. “Jason was very upset when I asked about her. Oh, my God, does he know?”

Kerry had a question of her own. “Was he Patti’s boyfriend?”

Ashley stared at her without answering.

“The owner at the museum said she had a friend whose father was the krewe king,” Kerry continued, “and that Patti worked on the float. That’s why we came—”

“You can’t ask questions,” Ashley said suddenly.

“Why?” Matt asked, his tone hard.

Ashley glanced around as if expecting the secret police to pounce on them. “Jason is from a very old, very powerful family in New Orleans. They will protect their own if you try to implicate him in…in anything.”

“Such as the death of a young woman he was seeing?” Matt suggested. “An inappropriate young woman?”

Tears filled Ashley’s eyes. “Patti was a friend. She was from a family as old and prestigious as the Pichantes, only they lost most of their money long ago. When Patti was eight, her father lost everything they had left.”

“Like what?” Matt asked.

“A plantation—terribly run-down, from what Patti said. Her father committed suicide after that. Her mother had died in an auto accident the year before.”

“Did Patti go to an orphanage or into foster care?” Kerry inquired.

Ashley shook her head. “Her aunt had married money. She and her husband took Patti in. But it was a miserable life, I think,” Ashley confided in a very low voice. “They didn’t want her and made sure she knew it was only by their great kindness that she had a home.”

“How did she meet Jason?”

“University. Her relatives had sent her to Newcombe College. It’s part of Tulane. That’s where all the people of their social status go, so Patti had to go there, too.”

“Did she get a degree?”

“Yes, in fine arts.” Ashley grimaced. “Shh, here comes Jason.”

“I want to talk to him,” Kerry stated.

“Be careful.” Ashley rose and headed toward the refreshment table for a refill of iced tea.

Jason joined Matt and Kerry. “Are you enjoying the work on the float?” he asked.

“It’s different,” Matt said in an affable tone. His smile faded. “There’s something we need to know.”

Jason cast him a wary glance.

“We’re interested in Patti Ruoui. According to the owner at the museum where she worked, Patti had a friend whose father was the krewe king on a float she worked on. The police think she also had a boyfriend. That would be you, wouldn’t it?”

The younger man paled, then twin peaks of color bloomed across his cheeks. “Patti was a friend,” he admitted guardedly. “We saw each other at times. She was a regular with the work crew on the float.”

“So there was nothing serious between the two of you?” Matt persisted.

“No. Nothing.” He rose. “It’s time to get back to work. If you’ll excuse me.”

“Were you with her Saturday night?” Matt inquired.

“Why do you ask?” His eyes seemed to turn black as he stared at Matt, almost daring him to say more.

“Apparently she took an overdose that night and was left for dead in a hotel room.” Matt paused. “Mine.”

“Mon Dieu,”
Jason muttered. “She isn’t…dead?”

Kerry caught the hesitation on the last word. Jason hadn’t answered Matt’s question, she noted, her suspicions aroused. If he had been with Patti Saturday, had he left her, thinking she had merely passed out?

“Yes,” Matt stated flatly, “she died. The medical examiner is doing an autopsy today, I understand.”

“I see. I know someone in his office. I’ll call and find out if they know how she…what caused the death.”

He left them without a backward glance as he went to Ashley and gave her some orders about her crew.

She nodded several times. After Jason left her, she tossed a warning glance their way, then went back to work with the other volunteers.

“Let’s go,” Matt said. “I think we’ve found out all we’re going to here.”

“I agree.”

With a wave to Ashley, they headed out the door and into the sunshine. “It’s after eleven,” Matt said. “Let’s see about that ride on a steamboat.”

“Sounds great.”

They caught a bus back to the river park and found a place to buy tickets on one of the stately river steamers. When Kerry offered to pay for her share for the ride and plantation tour, Matt eyed the bills she held, then her, but he didn’t insist on playing the cosmopolitan spender from the big city, which she would have found insulting.

Another point in his favor.

The list of his virtues was growing quite long. He was more than charming; he was thoughtful in ways she hadn’t noticed in the male population back in her hometown.

However, she seemed to notice a lot more about this man than she did any other. They also had an intuitive
understanding of each other that was surprising and wonderful and maybe a little frightening.

Was she under some kind of spell? She silently laughed at herself as her imagination went wild.

Follow the shining path…

She inhaled slowly, carefully as her pulse went into overdrive. Was Matt her co-traveler on this great adventure, her guide to a magical interlude of romance and excitement on the strangest vacation of her life?

Mentally crossing her fingers, she hoped so. She truly hoped so.

A
FEW MINUTES AFTER
noon, Kerry and Matt were on a steamboat huffing its way upriver. Another boat passed them, its calliope blasting loud enough to “wake the dead,” Kerry said, leaning over to shout in Matt’s ear in order to be heard.

“Or perhaps the undead,” he shouted back.

His lips were so close to her cheek it would have taken very little effort for him to steal a kiss, but he refrained. She wished he hadn’t, or that she had enough nerve to steal one herself.

The thought filled her head with so many other possibilities as he lingered near her for another second. She sighed when he settled back in his seat.

Their food arrived. She tried to figure out how to eat the huge sandwich, which was the local version of a po’ boy.

“Muffletta sandwich?” Kerry said, gazing at the
plate in awe. “This is more than four people can handle.”

“Speak for yourself,” Matt teased. “I’m starved after all that work on the float. I thought we were only going to spend a half hour there.” He lowered his eyebrows at her.

“Well,” she said loftily, “we had to gain Ashley’s trust so she would talk to us.” She picked up the knife and fork, approaching the giant sandwich by cutting it into bites.

“Jason was lying,” Matt said. “He and Patti were much more than friends.”

“I agree. Did you see how pale he went, then those red spots appeared on his cheeks as he tried to be casual about her?”

Matt nodded.

“I don’t see how he could learn of her death and just walk away like that, as if it meant nothing to him.”

“Perhaps it didn’t,” Matt said, softly now that the other boat had passed them and the music was a pleasant melody wafting on the breeze.

Kerry swallowed hard, and her eyes burned as she blinked rapidly. “He couldn’t be that callous.” She gazed at Matt. “Could he?”

Matt lifted one hand and stroked her cheek with the back of his fingers. “I don’t know, honey. I just don’t know.”

K
ERRY WOKE
from a short afternoon nap in a lethargic haze. For a moment, she was disoriented.

“Oh,” she murmured, rising and stretching muscles that felt as if she’d run a marathon. She’d walked a lot since arriving in New Orleans and working on the float, holding those wires over her head, had strained the muscles in her arms, legs and neck.

After a tour of one of the famous plantations along the Mississippi, she and Matt had returned to the city via the steamboat. She’d opted for a nap while Matt went off on pursuits of his own without saying what they were.

She’d started to ask what he was going to do, but fortunately had stopped herself in time. In her family, everyone knew everyone else’s business. They consulted and advised each other as a matter of course. Even though she felt she’d known Matt forever, he probably wouldn’t appreciate the loving closeness that allowed such liberties.

She wondered if Matt had similar feelings about her. He had called her “honey” while stroking her
cheek. But that might have been because he’d sensed her distress and was sympathetic.

Maybe she was imagining things, but she felt she’d bonded with both Matt and Patti for reasons she couldn’t figure out. It was odd, this web of circumstances that had drawn them into the same circle.

The charms on her bracelet tinkled loudly as she rose. As she looked at the three crossed bones, a sudden chill spread over her. Three intertwined lives, one of them already ended in tragedy. What would happen to her and Matt?

Tears stung her eyes as she contemplated the possibility of something terrible happening to Matt. Pressing the heels of her hands against her eyelids, she shook her head as if defying fate and managed a soft laugh.

When had she become so morbid?

After slipping on a light sweater, she went out on her patio and peered across the courtyard. A couple of families were in the swimming pool. A bit cool for that, in her opinion. Others sat at the outdoor tables and chairs and chatted.

She went to the courtyard bar, ordered a raspberry iced tea and returned to her room. The gate was open to the next-door patio suite, the one where Matt had first stayed. She looked in.

“Detective Rothberg,” she said upon recognizing him.

He turned from taking the yellow police tape off the
door. “Hello,” he said. “I recognize your face, but the name escapes me at the moment.”

“Kerry Johnston. I’m next door.” She pointed toward the middle suite.

“Of course. From Minnesota.”

“Yes. Uh, have you learned anything about Patti? Has the autopsy been done yet?”

He nodded. “That’s why I’m taking down the tape. We’re through with the investigation.”

Kerry was shocked. “But why?”

“There was no crime. Miss Ruoui wasn’t murdered, which is what I first thought.”

“So it was an overdose,” Kerry murmured. Patti’s voodoo friends had been wrong about her drug use.

“You might say so.” The detective rolled the tape into a ball and stuck it in his jacket pocket. “But not from drugs. She had a severe allergic reaction to an ingredient in a love potion she drank.”

“A love potion,” Kerry repeated and thought of handsome, angry, moody Jason Pichante.

“Yes. My partner and I pieced the evening together. The bartender and a couple of the servers remembered seeing Miss Ruoui and her escort since they were dressed in black with white faces. It’s a common representation of Death during Mardi Gras.”

“I see.”

“They joined the crowd in the courtyard shortly before the electricity went off.”

“Yes, I remember couples from the hotel’s Twelfth
Night party coming out to the courtyard, plus others from the street.”

He smiled grimly. “Yeah, that’s the Big Easy. There’re no boundaries. Everybody crashes. Anyway, an old woman circulated through the crowd selling voodoo spells. Apparently Miss Ruoui’s date bought two of the popular love potions. One of the servers recalled them teasing each other, then they both drank the potions.”

“He didn’t die,” Kerry said, almost resentful of that fact.

“He wasn’t allergic to the roots and herbs used in the potion. According to the medical examiner it was a common concoction, but the victim went into anaphylactic shock almost immediately. When she felt ill, she probably went searching for the ladies room. Instead she stumbled into this patio. When she saw the door was open, she went inside to lie down until she felt better.”

“Wouldn’t she have been afraid the occupant might return at any moment?” Kerry asked.

“People usually party until the wee hours,” he said with a shake of his head. “And I doubt she was thinking clearly by then. She was certainly in no shape to consider the consequences.”

“Did she die quickly? And painlessly?”

“Well, she would have known something was seriously wrong, but yes, she went quickly. The air passages close up so the person passes out pretty fast.”

“That’s why the CPR didn’t work,” Kerry said. “I tried but it didn’t do any good.”

Kerry knew about allergic reactions. One of her dental patients had had a severe reaction to a numbing compound the dentist had given her before drilling in a molar. Fortunately the paramedics had been able to save her.

The detective checked the room before closing the door. “The investigation is closed as of now,” he told her with an air of finality.

“What about Patti’s date? Did you talk to him?”

Detective Rothberg hesitated before saying, “My partner handled that end of things. Since we know she voluntarily took the potion, there’ll be no further query into the case.”

Kerry noted he didn’t answer her directly or mention a name. Was he covering for the powerful Pichante family? “Since she appears to have no next of kin, is a friend allowed to claim the remains?”

“You can check with the medical examiner’s office on that.” He pulled out a card and wrote on the back. “Here’s the number. The woman who answers is the department executive assistant. She probably knows more about the rules and regulations than anyone. Ask her.”

“Thank you.” Kerry tucked the card in her pocket.

“Better wait until the morning. She’ll be gone by now. The office opens at eight.”

“Right.”

After he left, two maids entered the suite and started a thorough cleaning. Kerry hurried to her room. She could hardly wait until Matt returned so she could share this news. She left a message on his voice mail to call her.

M
ATT LISTENED
attentively as Kerry told him about the detective releasing his former quarters. Her hazel eyes flickered with the fire of indignation.

“I know this is sadistic of me, but I hope Jason—assuming he’s the person who abandoned Patti, and I’m sure he is—was grilled by the cops the way they do in crime dramas on television. The detective never did say Jason was questioned, though, only that his partner had handled that part of the investigation.

“According to witnesses, Patti drank the potion voluntarily,” Kerry continued. “So did her date. Since neither appeared to have been forced, that ended the matter as far as the police were concerned. It really was an accident. I’m glad to know that.”

“Yes. It must have been terrible for Patti, though.”

She told Matt of the dental patient who’d gone into anaphylactic shock so severe the emergency medical team had had to open the woman’s trachea right there in the dentist’s office before taking her to the hospital.

“I remember how frightened she was when she couldn’t breathe,” Kerry said. “She clawed at her throat…”

Matt laid a hand over Kerry’s, the need to comfort her too great to ignore.

“Sorry,” she said. “I’m getting all emotional. Anyway, I hope Jason was scared. He deserves to feel as frightened as Patti must have been when she became ill.” She paused as if shocked at her words. “I didn’t realize I was so vindictive,” she said in a low voice.

“Not vindictive,” Matt corrected, reluctantly removing his hand from hers. “You want justice.”

It was strange how much he wanted to touch Kerry. Part of it was sensual, yes, but there was more to it than that. He felt a bond with her, and a need to comfort her. But most of all he felt pure pleasure at connecting with her.

All these feelings were foreign to him. Usually he kept himself aloof from other people’s emotions. It was just that she was so real, so warm.

He watched as she fingered the cool petal of a flower, her mood introspective. Something drew him to this lovely woman in ways he couldn’t fully explain. Was it her concern for others? Her down-to-earth approach to life? Her obvious love for her family and the closeness they seemed to share? These were aspects of her life that had been absent from his for a long, long time.

Pushing the useless musing aside, he sternly reminded himself that they’d barely met. First impressions were often wrong, as he’d learned from his former fiancée. Things, or people, that seemed too good to be true often were.

He focused on the situation at hand.

“It’s sad that no one seems interested in what became of Patti,” Kerry said, her eyes so beautiful, so filled with pity, he wanted to take her in his arms.

“We’re interested,” he assured her.

“I have a number to call in the morning to find out about the body—what will happen to it,” she added when he raised his eyebrows in question.

“I’ve been doing some investigating on my own,” he told her. “I went to Tulane University and checked their records for the past few years.”

“I didn’t think of that. What did you find out?”

“That she graduated four years ago and would have been twenty-six in June. That she was smart and had a full academic scholarship. That she worked in the registrar’s office to earn her spending money. If she had help with finances, it apparently wasn’t much.”

“Was all that in her records?”

“No, but the woman who worked there remembered Patti and was shocked at her death. She joined me for a break and we had a lengthy chat over coffee.”

Kerry surprised him by leaning over and giving him a hug. “I’m so glad
someone
remembered Patti.”

Her lips were just too close and too tempting. Matt took advantage of the moment and claimed the prize.

Her mouth was soft beneath his. Just as he remembered. Her lips trembled a tiny bit. Just as he remembered. She opened to him when he stroked his tongue over the sweet line of her mouth. Just as he remembered.

Although it was difficult not to become lost in passion, part of him was aware that they weren’t in the most private place in the world. There was a courtyard nearby where other guests chatted, read or swam in the pool. He pulled back from her.

Their eyes met, and he was reminded of the green waters of the Caribbean, rocky pools tucked in among the sandy beaches. He looked away as memories flowed into his mind like waves.

His family had been to the Virgin Islands many times for summer vacations. Left to their own devices, he and his sister had explored to their heart’s content. It had been fun…

For the first time in years, he realized how much he missed their companionship. The two of them had been close as children and as adults, although she was four years older. Until she’d graduated from college and gone to Africa, she’d always been there for him.

He covertly studied Kerry. Was she the one to fill the empty places in his life, to be the companion he hadn’t fully realized he missed until he met her?

Hmm, maybe Romeo and Juliet had fallen in love at first sight, but he knew both he and Kerry were more cautious.

However, the attraction between them was growing stronger with every hour of the day as they worked to solve the mystery of Patti’s past, this unknown woman who just might have changed their lives forever…

Clearing his throat, he said, “I’ve been invited to din
ner at a country club just outside the city tonight. There’ll be a wine tasting afterward. I was told to bring a guest if I wanted. I’d like to take you, if you’re interested?”

She blinked as if caught off-guard by the question. “I’m not sure I should,” she said. “This is work for you. I don’t want to get in the way.”

He chuckled. “You won’t. I’ll take notes and act as if you aren’t even in the room.”

That made her smile. “I’ve been to some wineries in California so I’m familiar with the protocol of a wine tasting,” she assured him.

A smile teased the corners of her mouth, so he was prepared as she continued on a droll note.

“I do have one question. Do I swish the wine clockwise or counterclockwise before I spit it on the carpet?”

“I believe I read a story about that when I took American literature in college,” he informed her.

“Yeah, so did I, but it’s fun putting you on.”

“Do you think I’m a stuffed shirt?” he demanded.

She shook her head, her spiky hair gleaming in the dappled late-afternoon sun, making him want to touch it, to muss it up and smooth it out…

“However, I do want to remind you that a small-town dental hygienist from the Midwest may be intimidated by those who live on a, shall we say, loftier plane.”

“Ha,” he said to that.

“Okay, I won’t be,” she admitted, “but if you see me
trapped by some society matron telling me of all the Mardi Gras balls on her social calendar this season, I expect an immediate rescue.”

“It’s a promise.” He held out his hand.

When she put her hand in his, he did what seemed natural. He lifted it to his lips and kissed each slender knuckle.

M
ATT HAD
a startling revelation when he picked up Kerry for their gala evening—he was going to have a much harder time keeping his hands to himself than he’d thought.

She was enchanting in a long black skirt, a camisole top in gold with bugle beads that shimmered with each breath she took, and an elegant silk scarf, black interwoven with gold, purple and green, draped casually around her neck.

Her eyes seemed as large as the lanterns glowing on a nearby patio and were skillfully outlined in black with green-and-gold shadows highlighting them. A man could drown in those eyes and never regret it…

“Is this okay?” she asked a trifle anxiously. “I bought the scarf the first day I arrived…”