Page 62 of Gumbo, Ghosts, and Deadly Deception
I’d hate to have seen him in his youth. But he was older now and I was still delusionally optimistic I could take him.
I could see beyond Arthur that a crowd had gathered. Beau was on the ground as if he was passed out and Maggie was halfway between us. She looked like she didn’t know which way she should go.
My goal was to knock the vial out of his hand and hopefully the syringe out of his sleeve all with one gigantic shove. Or maybe more like a cat batting at a ball of yarn. I went for it and ran at him for round two.
Arthur reached his hands out and grabbed my arms, holding me at bay. We ended up like two bears dancing. I tried desperately to shake the vial out of his hand but he wasn’t letting go. I could see the tour goers eyeing us curiously and murmuring to each other but no one was really saying anything. Most eyes were on Beau. A woman was kneeling by his side and I could see someone was on their phone, probably calling for an ambulance.
Then suddenly, out of nowhere, Detective Broussard came around the corner of the tomb and said, “Let her go, Kellum. Now.”
To my shock, Arthur complied. I scrambled away from him and ran straight to Maggie. We clutched each other, not sure what else to do. Clutching seemed like a good option in the circumstances.
"Now drop the vial," Hollis said.
Arthur's confident expression crumbled. But he mustered up the courage to say, "What do you think you’re going to do?"
"I'm not going to let you drag another generation into this."
I was waiting for Hollis to pull out a gun or handcuffs or something but maybe he didn’t want to scare the tourists. Maybe he thought he could deescalate the situation. In any case, he seemed thoroughly calm and in control. I was both impressed by him and annoyed that I hadn’t been able to escape on my own.
Arthur scoffed. "You think you can just arrest me? You think anyone will believe your word against mine? My family has criminal ties in this city for three generations."
That was an odd thing to brag about, but family pride is family pride.
"Maybe not. But I've got forty years of evidence. You may have blackmailed Beau to retrieve it from Harper, but neither he nor Lucien were idiots. They made copies of everything. Photographs, documents, recorded confessions."
That did seem rather shortsighted on Arthur’s part.
“That has nothing to do with me. Besides, maybe the kid did it.”
So that was his angle. Set Beau up as the fall guy.
“You can’t prove that I’ve committed any crimes at all.”
“Wrong. The girl you tied up in the Midnight House attic ID’d you as her abductor in a pic.” He didn’t take his eyes off of Arthur but he did toss me a compliment. “Harper, nice work on keeping up your social media game. Abigail was flipping through videos on the way to the airport and saw Arthur in the background of your garden shot.”
“Thanks. I try to keep it fresh and updated.”
We heard approaching sirens. Hollis must have called for backup on his way. Arthur made his move. He threw the vial of datura at Hollis and lunged toward one of the narrow pathways between the tombs.
"Stay with Maggie," Hollis shouted, taking off after Arthur. "And don't touch that vial!"
I looked down at the broken glass at my feet, the powdered plant matter already being scattered by the wind. Then I looked at Maggie, and we both rushed to Beau’s side.
He was awake but pale and sweating profusely. “I didn’t know what to do,” he said, his voice trembling. “I was just trying to protect you and my family. I didn’t know what I was getting into. I didn’t know murder was involved.”
“Shh, it’s okay.” I felt bad for him. I smoothed his hair back off of his forehead. “None of us have any experience with stuff like this.”
“Can I have some water? Arthur tried to inject me but I knocked the needle away. I think the tip did something weird to me though. I feel off.”
“I don’t know if we should do that,” I said, seeing EMTs coming into the cemetery. “I don’t know if you should ingest water or not. I’m not Poison Control.”
“That stinks,” Beau said, but he gave me a limp smile. “Glad you’re okay.”
“You too.” I squeezed his arm and moved out of the way for the professionals to do their job.
I stood up and shook my head at Maggie. “Well. This was something else.” I took a few deep breaths to calm my racing heart down.
"This is definitely going to be our best podcast episode ever."
