Voodoo on Bayou Lafonte Read online

  Table of Contents

  VOODOO ON BAYOU LAFONTE

  Acknowledgements

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  VOODOO ON BAYOU LAFONTE

  SUSAN C. MULLER

  SOUL MATE PUBLISHING

  New York

  VOODOO ON BAYOU LAFONTE

  Copyright©2014

  SUSAN C. MULLER

  Cover Design by Rae Monet Inc.

  This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, business establishments, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.

  The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book via the Internet or via any other means without the permission of the publisher is illegal and punishable by law. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions, and do not participate in or encourage electronic piracy of copyrighted materials.

  Your support of the author’s rights is appreciated.

  Published in the United States of America by

  Soul Mate Publishing

  P.O. Box 24

  Macedon, New York, 14502

  ISBN-13: 978-1-61935-358-9

  www.SoulMatePublishing.com

  The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.

  For Ron and Angela

  Acknowledgements

  Thanks to my children, Ron and Angela, for their love and support, their spouses, Karen and Jason, the best a mother-in-law could want, and my grandchildren, Andrew, Sam, Caroline, and Bode, you fill my heart.

  Thanks to my friends who stand by me when my eyes glaze over and I seem to be in another world. They know I’ve just had a plot idea and will rejoin them momentarily.

  Thanks to Delma who always makes me laugh.

  Thanks to my editor, Debby Gilbert and Soul Mate Publishing for having faith in me.

  Thanks to my critique partners, Jan Nash and Shawnna Perigo, for reading every word and not laughing when I have a character do something that’s physically impossible.

  And thanks to Christie and Steve for so much.

  Prologue

  Comeaux, Louisiana

  Yvonne Dupre held her breath as the highest voodoo priest in the parish shuffled across her threshold. Would her home meet his standards? She glanced around as if seeing it for the first time. The threadbare rug, the shabby sofa, the faded paint. Even her altar wobbled from the one leg she’d mended with thumbtacks and wood glue.

  This visit should be considered a tremendous honor. Unless he had an ulterior motive.

  If only she knew why he had picked today to visit.

  “This way, this way. You must sit here.” She pointed to the best chair she owned and tried to hide the shiver that raced through her body.

  Sebastian Guidry placed his hand on the back of the chair, but didn’t sit. He closed his pale blue eyes and leaned his head back, as if sniffing the air.

  Her heart froze. With all the power the High Priest commanded, could he discern what had happened here this afternoon?

  She had filled the house with the freshest ingredients for new gris-gris bags, only to discover that her son and his strumpet had spoiled everything.

  They had laughed and mixed herbs and powders the moment her back was turned, as if this was a game instead of her future.

  What was she to do with the bags they’d made? They had no power, yet to throw them into the trash might be dangerous.

  Asking Sebastian’s advice could be even more dangerous. Since he’d taken up the mantle of High Priest thirty years ago, the voodoo community in the parish had gradually changed, become darker. All the values the old priestess had taught forgotten, replaced with fear, greed, a hunger for power and more power. Only the chosen few were part of his inner circle.

  And she wasn’t one of them.

  The rest simply tried to avoid his scrutiny. And the High Priest had already expressed his disapproval of her son, Jean-Paul.

  That boy had been a disappointment since the day he was born. She’d taken him to be tested on his first birthday, as the custom Sebastian had introduced dictated, but the priest declared Jean-Paul had no powers whatsoever.

  She had never been strong, and her powers waned with each passing year. With no family member to take over her position, would she be forced to leave the circle? Was that why Sebastian came today?

  She couldn’t survive without help.

  The area was totally isolated, almost an island. Where would she go? How would she manage?

  “Who has been here?” Sebastian’s words reverberated through the small room.

  “No one.” Yvonne fought to hide the tremor in her voice. If the old man realized how frightened she was, he’d find some way to use it against her. “I live here with just my son, but I sent him away for the evening.” It was that damn girl. She must have worn perfume.

  Sebastian lifted his cane and pointed to the kitchen. His musclebound assistant took his arm and led him in that direction.

  The old man’s beard was matted and yellowed, and his teeth brown from chewing tobacco. His clothes were less than spotless, and Yvonne doubted he had bathed that day, or the one before. Yet he commanded a presence. An aura of power surrounded him.

  Power she didn’t have.

  He headed straight to the gris-gris bags she had hidden behind the flour canister.

  “Where did these come from?” He rapped his cane on the floor.

  “My son, he made this one.” Her voice shook as she slid the delicate bag forward. Maybe Jean-Paul had the touch after all. Perhaps he’d had to reach maturity before it manifested.

  Sebastian lifted the bag to his nose and inhaled. “Pfft,” he said, and dropped it into the trash.

  “What about this one?” He held out the other bag.

  Yvonne smoothed a shaky hand down her skirt. That Hough girl had always been trouble. Just like her mother before her. With her blond hair and seductive body, boys had been sniffing around her since she was thirteen. Jean-Paul was no e
xception but given time, he would grow out of his infatuation. “The Hough girl made that one. But you tested her as a child. She has no power.”

  “No, she doesn’t.” Sebastian paused, and his smile sent a chill down her spine. “But the child she carries does.”

  Chapter 1

  Houston, Texas

  Remy Steinberg lifted his Stetson off the corner of his desk and bowed to those remaining in the squad room. “I bid you a fond adieu, ladies and gentlemen. I hope you have a pleasant weekend. As for myself, I have plans that don’t include seeing any of you before Monday morning.”

  The room filled with applause, so Remy took another bow. “I would say ‘Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do,’ but that leaves almost everything on the table, so I’ll simply impart these words of wisdom. Remember, condoms are only 98% effective. And that’s if you use them correctly. Something I’m not sure all of you are capable of doing.”

  A hailstorm of wadded paper rained down on his head, but nothing could dampen his good mood. Within the hour he’d be knocking on the door of that cute little waitress from Kim Song’s and he didn’t plan to see daylight again until he left for the office on Monday.

  His phone rang and he glared at it. No good could come from answering this late on a Friday afternoon, but he still had ten minutes left on his shift. It was one thing to slip out when you finished your work, but to turn his back on a ringing phone . . .

  He glanced at his lieutenant’s office. Hard Luck Luchak stared back at him. Damn. Remy gritted his teeth and reached for the phone, hoping like hell he wouldn’t be delayed.

  “Homicide, Steinberg.” Maybe it was one of the guys in the back, playing a joke on him.

  “Remy?”

  Shit. Ball Breaker Number One. What could she want? He’d mailed his child support payment in plenty of time.

  “Gabrielle, what is it? I’m just leaving the office.”

  “Adrienne didn’t come home from school today.”

  He sighed. Poor Adrienne. She never had any freedom.

  “For God’s sake, Gabby, she’s sixteen. She can’t be more than an hour late. She’s probably gossiping with a girlfriend. Cut the girl some slack.”

  “She’s seventeen, which you’d know if you paid her any attention.”

  He knew how old she was, he just didn’t like to think of her as anything except a gap-toothed kid.

  Gabby didn’t give him time to answer. “Remember what kind of trouble we got into at that age? Besides, she hasn’t been missing for an hour. She’s been missing for over thirty hours.”

  His heart caught in his throat and he couldn’t speak for several seconds. In his job, he’d seen what could befall a young girl in that length of time. He might not be the world’s best dad, but he was her dad just the same.

  “What? For over a day? How could you let this happen?” His voice rose and he couldn’t control it, despite the eyes he knew were trained on him. “Why weren’t you keeping track of her? Have you called the police?”

  “I’m calling you, aren’t I? You’re the police.” The tremor in her voice might not have been noticeable to anyone else, but he recognized just how scared she was.

  “And I’m three hundred miles away.” A good four and a half hours from Comeaux. More like five on a Friday afternoon when half of Houston headed across the state line to do some gambling in Louisiana.

  He tightened his grip on the phone. What the hell had happened to his daughter? He wanted to believe she was getting into the same sort of mischief he was at that age, but something in his gut told him her disappearance was far more sinister.

  Remy gritted his teeth and turned off his flashing light bar as he crossed the state line. His badge might carry some weight in Texas, but not in Louisiana. Those guys had a hard-on against everything from Texas except the money that rolled in.

  Well, too damn bad. He felt the same about their whole fucking state. Had since the day his mother dragged the family there from New Jersey.

  He understood, forgave her even. When his father died, she needed someplace that felt like home. Only it never felt like home to him. In fact, it felt more like purgatory. And he got out of there as fast as he could.

  Unfortunately, that meant dragging Gabrielle and Adrienne to Texas with him. And Gabby had refused to do that. She’d given him an ultimatum. Come back or get a divorce. Well, he’d never much liked ultimatums. And he sure as hell didn’t plan to ever live in that state again.

  He’d gone to Texas in search of work, sure that if Gabby loved him enough, she’d follow. Only she hadn’t, and he’d refused to give up a good job and return to a hand-to-mouth existence, sponging off of family, and feeling like a failure because he couldn’t support his new baby and his wife.

  The same wife who hadn’t loved him enough to come with him.

  His hands tightened on the wheel until his fingers went numb. Would things have been different if he hadn’t been so bullheaded? Was Adrienne paying the price for his stubbornness?

  He could beat himself up later for rash decisions. All that mattered now was his daughter’s safety.

  Two of the detectives in his squad, Adam Campbell and Ruben Marquez, had stayed late at the station to work the phones, something he appreciated, knowing that Adam’s wife could pop at any minute. The guys might tease him about his height, his western clothes, or his New Jersey accent, but when the shit hit the fan, they had his back. Even Hard Luck was pulling all the strings he could, but Remy knew he was on his own.

  And every minute that passed, the knot in his gut grew.

  He stopped for gas, a quick burger, and to study the map. He hadn’t been here for at least three years, probably four, and if it weren’t for Adrienne he wouldn’t be here now. As soon as she was old enough to fly alone, he’d brought her out to join him for her weekend visits.

  Nothing had changed. A few more fast-food joints, a few more casinos. But that damn swamp was still only feet off the road in places. And the people that lived in it were still as superstitious and backward as ever.

  The burger tasted like cardboard, but he didn’t care. Just fuel for his body. No different than the gas he put in the car.

  Another hour of driving, and he turned off the interstate, into bayou country. The lights fell away and he was left with only his headlights poking a hole in the darkness. Even the air felt heavy, like the weight on his shoulders.

  God, how he hated this place. And now it had taken his daughter.

  Gabrielle Hough paced and watched out the window. Remy had phoned every half hour, but she had no news. If only it wasn’t so dark.

  Was Adrienne hurt, frightened? Was she calling for her mama? Or laughing behind her back?

  It was too soon to expect Remy, but she stared into the darkness anyway, wishing he would hurry. No, she didn’t want to see him. Didn’t want to set eyes on him. He’d had no right to raise his voice with her. But he would know what to do, and she wouldn’t be so alone.

  He’d obviously started to work on finding Adrienne. A deputy had come by earlier and said he’d called. They’d checked the school, talked to her teachers, asked questions. All to no avail.

  They had looked at her with scorn in their eyes. Just another single mother who couldn’t control her kid. Probably out partying or ran away to try her luck on the back streets of New Orleans.

  They didn’t know Adrienne. She was a good girl. She had plans. She wanted to go to college.

  But then, so had she. Until that smooth-talking son-of-a-bitch had wormed his way into her pants and they had to get married two days after high school graduation. Almost exactly eighteen years ago.

  That wasn’t fair. She’d been there right along with him. Senior Prom and she’d had it all pictured ahead of time. Her dress on the floor. How he’d look. She’d been dying to see that. He
wasn’t tall, but then, neither was she. He was a handsome devil, with black hair and eyes like obsidian. Two years on the wrestling team hadn’t hurt, either. No, she hadn’t been a bit disappointed, until the condom broke.

  She gazed out the window. At least this was May. The weather was warm if Adrienne was outdoors. Of course, the mosquitoes were out also, and the snakes, and the gators.

  Headlights caught her eye. Remy. Everything would be better now.

  Remy sat at the kitchen table and played with the cup of coffee Gabby had given him. He lifted it to his nose and inhaled. Chicory, that should do the trick. No chance of him dozing off now.

  The same old mug, the same old table. Did nothing ever change around here? Hell, she probably still used the same coffee pot.

  Even Gabby hadn’t changed much. Her eyes were swollen and her nose red, but she still looked damn good. The women he knew wouldn’t leave the house without fifty dollars’ worth of makeup, yet here she was; hair like warm honey, eyes the same rich sapphire that had captured his heart in tenth grade. No worse the wear for the last eighteen years, while the wrinkles around his eyes grew deeper every day.

  He took a deep breath. All he needed to remember was that she didn’t love him. And that together, they’d made a daughter who needed him now.

  Every fiber in him screamed to rush out into the swamp with a flashlight and a machete and start searching for Adrienne, but that wouldn’t help. He forced himself to sit still and listen, learn everything he could.

  “So why was she supposed to be spending the night with Evie on a school night?”

  “The two girls had a project they’d been working on for weeks. It was due on Friday. I dropped her off in front of the school on Thursday. She was supposed to go home with Evie and finish the project that night. Then Evie’s mother would take them to school Friday and she’d come home as usual.”