Page 28 of One Last Regret

"Did you hear it?" Gabriel asks. His voice is hollow. Empty. "It was here. The music. Everywhere. Could you feel it?"

A chill runs through me. I don’t respond to him. Instead, I take his hand and Amelia’s and lead them out the back of the Midnight Melody.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

I arrive home to see police cars in front of the house. I remember the young man who offered to help me when I went a trance on the street. I didn’t tell him the children’s last name, but the Lacroix’s are a prestigious family in New Orleans, and once the police hear their first names, they must know immediately who is missing.

I steel myself for the coming storm. I have a feeling I’ll end this night unemployed. Perhaps that’s for the best. I need to focus on finding Annie, and the dysfunction surrounding this family might be greater than I can handle.

In some ways, this is like the position in Monterey. There, I care for a seventeen-year-old girl, the child of an artist. It turns out that the artist new Annie many years ago, and there is strong evidence to suggest that Annie’s departure from that coastal town triggered the depression that caused his mentor to commit suicide. This, along with the artist’s infatuation with Annie, leaves him deeply depressed and sometimes dissociative. Raising his daughter in that environment causes her to be emotionally stunted, withdrawn and suicidal.

I don’t believe Gabriel is suicidal, but he is withdrawn and prone to dissociation. Amelia is showing signs of diving deeply into rebellion, a path that leads nowhere good. Both children are emotionally stunted, and while neither Josephine nor Etienne are as disturbed as the artist in Monterey was, cracks are showing in Josephine’s façade.

There is no logical connection between the level of dysfunction in these two families and the possibility of my sister’s presence in both cities, but should I discover a connection, it will be one of the least surprising things to happen to me since beginning my search for Annie.

The moment I step in the door, the chaos begins. We walk inside to find Josephine and Etienne talking to two police officers. As soon as Josephine sees the children, she shrieks and rushes to them, wrapping them in a bear hug and weeping loudly.

Etienne sighs with relief and collapses into a squat. “Oh, thank God. Thank God.”

“I’m sorry, Grandma,” Amelia whispers through her tears. “I didn’t mean to.”

Gabriel doesn’t cry. His lips move, and while no sound comes out, I can read the movements well enough to know what he means to say.Did you hear it?

Another chill runs through me, but that chill is dispelled an instant later when Josephine stands and slaps me hard enough that I see stars. I stumble backwards, my hand to my cheek, my mouth open wide.

“What the hell were you thinking?” Josephine cries. “What the hell made you think you could take them outside?”

I’m too stunned to respond, but Amelia comes to my defense. “You said we could go, Grandma! I asked you and you told us, remember?”

“The hell I did!” Josephine cries out. “Thisbitchtook you outside without my permission!”

“That’s not true,” I protest. “Youdidtell me to take them. I told you it was a bad idea, and you—”

She moves to slap me again, but Etienne grabs her hand. “Children, go to your room.”

“Let’s walk this way, ma’am,” one of the officers says, touching my arm and gesturing for us to step outside.

I follow him, my cheek stinging from the slap. I can’t bring myself to feel angry. I deserve it. It’s true that I only took them out because Josephine instructed me to, but I knew that she wasn’t in her right mind when she gave me permission,and I knew it was a terrible idea to bring children into that environment. I didn’t anticipate that I would have a fugue while watching a street show, but it was my fault for putting myself and them in that position. With a sinking heart, it occurs to me that my own resurging mental health issues are another excellent reason to leave my employ with the family.

I should have just rented a room here and looked for sign of Annie. Looking for a governess position was a mistake. One that could have gotten these children killed.

“What’s your name, ma’am?”

I stir at the officer’s words. “Mary. Mary Wilcox.”

He repeats my name as he writes it down on his notepad. “I’m Officer Nathan,” he tells me when he’s finished. “Can you tell me what happened tonight?”

I swallow. “I… I took the children out to enjoy the street fair. I didn’t want to take them, but Amelia asked her grandmother, and her grandmother said it was all right.”

“And what is your relationship with the Lacroix’s?”

“I’m their governess.”

The officer nods and makes the note. “All right. And do you know why we’re here tonight?”

“Um… I assume the young man called me. The one at the street corner with the dancers.”

He nods. “Yes. We received a call about a woman in severe distress asking for the whereabouts of missing children by the names of Amelia and Gabriel. My watch commander is an amateur jazz musician familiar with the scene in the Garden District. He suggested we contact Miss Josephine. As you see, we did, and we learned that her grandchildren had been missing for some time. She claims not to have given you permission to leave.”

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