Page 78 of The House on Prytania
He started shaking his head, but I cut him off before he could speak. “Sarah saw Adele again after our lunch at Muriel’s. She wants to help you.” I closed my eyes briefly, trying to remember what Sarah had told me. I had the sense that it was important that I get it exactly right. “She said you need to decide what’s worth the fight. And let the rest go.”
He stared at me without speaking, his body unmoving. Only the steady rise and fall of his chest told me that he hadn’t turned to stone.
“Have you heard that before?” I asked.
His head bent forward in a slow nod before he raised his eyes to meet mine. “My mother. She says it every time I’m stupid enough to answer the phone.”
“Do you know what she means?”
“No. And I’m not interested in knowing. She chose to leave me, and I choose to figure things out on my own.”
I found myself on the verge of laughing, and struggling to hold it in.
He looked at me with irritation. “What’s so funny?”
“You. You’re starting to sound just like me.”
“That’s not funny, Nola. It’s downright alarming. And wrong. I’m fine with accepting help. Just not from her.”
I sobered. “What if we have no other options? What if she’s the only one whocanhelp?”
He looked at me as if I’d just suggested going on a bank robbing spree. Naked. “There must be another way. Like exposing the Sabatier family secrets.”
“And if that doesn’t work?”
“We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.”
I wanted to point out how illogical his reasoning was, that once we reached that bridge it might be too late, but it was clear he didn’t want to discuss it anymore.
“One last thing,” I said. “You might want to talk to Sunny before we get any deeper into this. She isn’t on board with punishing whoever was responsible for her kidnapping. She’s happy now and wants to move forward, and she believes your need for justice is irrelevant. She wishes you’d just let it rest. Don’t forget that she was the victim, Beau. She should have a say.”
“We were all victims. I lost my sister, my parents lost their daughter, and my grandparents lost their granddaughter. And that’s all I’m going to say on the subject.” He didn’t raise his voice, but his words were clipped and hard-edged, letting me know that our discussion was over.
Beau pulled from a desk drawer a square plastic box with a round screen in the middle and placed it on the desk. “Please make sure that your phone is always charged and on. Sometimes cell coverage can be spotty in coastal areas, so I’m letting you borrow my Wi-Fi hotspot so you will at least have e-mail access. Just put ‘SOS’ in the header and I’ll call nine-one-one and head your way ASAP.”
“Do you really think I’ll need that?”
“No. If I thought you’d be in real danger, I wouldn’t ask you to go. I just like to be prepared. I guess I got that from my dad.”
The mention of his father reminded me of something else Sarah had said. “When Adele was talking to Sarah, she made it clear she wanted Sarah to notice that your father wasn’t with her. Do you know what she meant?”
Beau shrugged, and his studied nonchalance left me unsettled. “My dad chose to remain behind instead of coming with me when the storm hit. He made his choice, and I’m now making my own. If he’s out there somewhere, he knows where to find me.”
His voice didn’t sound as hard as his words. “What if he can’t?”
Beau stood, picking up the hot spot and handing it to me. “That subject is closed. Let’s focus on the weekend. Once we’re on the other side of that, we’ll see where we stand. Either way, my parents won’t be part of it, all right?”
I took the hot spot without saying anything, figuring that now wasn’t the time to tell him that he was being stubborn and shortsighted. The same things he’d called me more than once in our long history.
I headed toward the hidden door, but Beau called me back. “Let’s go the other way. I don’t want to take the chance of anyone seeing us coming out of the panel in the kitchen. I’d prefer that not everyone know it’s there.”
“But surely Lorda and Mimi know about it.”
“Yeah, but that’s it. Unless my grandfather or great-uncle told anyone, and anyone they told is probably long dead.”
“What about Sunny?”
He thought for a moment, then shook his head. “Not yet. Hasn’t come up, I guess. It’s a great way to scare the crap out of someone in the dining room, or just pop up downstairs after someone saw yougo upstairs using the front staircase. I think I’ll find the right opportunity to let Sunny know about it.”
