Page 95 of The House on Prytania
Jolene hid her disappointment at Jaxson’s absence by scooping up Mardi and covering him with kisses before grabbing a bag and heading upstairs. We had barely finished bringing in all of our luggage from the car when Sunny arrived. She said she’d been shopping on Magazine Street when she’d received my text that we were on ourway back, and she’d decided to stop by and discuss anything new we might have discovered.
I was surprised to see her so soon, since even Sam had said that to give me a chance to breathe she’d wait until the following day. I hadn’t heard from Beau at all, making me wonder if he might be with Sam and too busy to text. Not that it was any of my business.
Sunny plopped herself down on the sofa while Mardi dug Eeyore out from behind the end table and brought it to her. Bending down to scratch him behind the ear, she said, “I can’t believe he doesn’t object to Mambo’s cat hair all over me. And I know I must be covered in dander, because Mambo is like my shadow. He even sleeps on my pillow.”
“Probably because Mardi is an equal opportunity attention seeker. If you pet him or scratch him behind the ear, he’ll love you forever,” Jolene said. “Just be glad he doesn’t seem to have any Mississippi leg hound in him. My uncle Virgil once had a dog that even a piece of furniture wasn’t safe from him humping the varnish off. Once, he—”
“Thanks, Jolene,” I said, cutting her off. “We get the picture.”
She disappeared into the kitchen to “whip us up something tasty” for supper after getting a count of how many were eating. Cooper was a yes, but Sunny declined, saying she already had plans.
“I’ve been dying to hear how the weekend was! I can’t believe I agreed to radio silence while you were in Mississippi. It was torture worrying about you all and dying of curiosity all at the same time.”
Cooper and I joined her in the living room, sitting down in the mismatched chairs. “It wasn’t what we expected at all,” I said. “In a nutshell, Angelina and Robert claim they had nothing to do with your kidnapping and weren’t even around when it happened. I’m going to ask Christopher to verify that, but if it’s true...” I shrugged. “And I really liked them. They’re very nice people and have deliberately kept a low profile over the years in deference to Mimi’s and Beau’s grief. They have even tried to reach out to Mimi over the yearsto tell their side of the story, but Mimi hasn’t been interested in hearing it, which is why they’re in a stalemate.”
Jolene entered the room to place a creatively displayed charcuterie board on the coffee table. “I liked them, too. But nice people can be criminals, too. John Wayne Gacy was a clown for children’s parties, remember.”
“Thanks for that, Jolene,” I called out to her departing back. Turning to Sunny and Cooper, I said, “I didn’t get serial killer vibes from them at all.”
“Well, that makes this easy,” Sunny said, her excitement making her face glow. “No more need to hide stuff from Beau or try to dig up dirt on the Sabatiers. Do you want to tell Beau, or should I?”
“Hang on,” Cooper said. “What about what Michael did to you, Nola? Did they plead innocent about that, too?”
“No, actually. They admitted to being responsible, which made me like them even more. But their reasoning—which I will discuss later, when I’m not so hungry and can explain better—made sense to me. Not that it makes it any less warped, but there you have it.”
“So Michael’s off the hook, too?” Cooper asked.
“Not quite. I’m not sure what he did to me is forgivable.”
“I’m glad to hear you say that.” He smiled, and I felt that warmth in my chest again.
“But we’re done, right?” Sunny asked. “Chapter closed?”
Cooper was still looking at me. “Maybe not. I think there’s something else that’s bothering Nola.”
I looked at him with appreciation. He’d always been accurate when reading me, one of the reasons why when we were together we never talked a lot. We didn’t need to. “Yeah. Just a loose end, really. But it’s there kinda like a hangnail, you know? It’s not that big of a deal until you accidentally touch it.”
“What is it?” Sunny asked, her elation somewhat diminished.
Sarah had emerged from her room, where she’d been repacking for the flight home that evening, and joined the conversation. “The crying baby, right?”
I nodded, then turned to Cooper. “I didn’t hear it, but Sarah and Jolene did.”
“I tried to find out where it was coming from, but every time I entered a room, the sound moved. And we were too far away from the next house for it to have been coming from there.”
“Maybe it’s from one of Mrs. Sabatier’s miscarriages?” I asked.
Sarah screwed up her face, thinking. “It’s possible, I guess. Except I’m pretty sure it was just one baby.”
“It seems to me,” Sunny said, “that the baby might be connected to the property and not the Sabatiers. Didn’t you say they didn’t own it until nineteen hundred and something? I’m sure other houses have stood there. It probably has nothing to do with this.” She pulled out her phone. “I can call Beau now if you like.”
“Hang on,” I said. “I’d like to tell him myself. And we need to talk about the other problem, and how to get rid of it.”
“Do you mean...?”
“Don’t,” Sarah and I shouted together. “Angelina Sabatier said it’s best not to say his name out loud.”
“Why?”
