"I'm fine," he assured her. "A mite wet and bedraggled and beat up, but you can bet I'll live."
"When I saw from the window of the hotel room, me, how those men were shooting at you, I knew I had to help you. So I pulled my clothes on and took myself off through the back of the hotel mighty quick-like, and I went to see Marie Laveau."
"How'd you know where to tell her to find me?" asked Longarm, puzzled.
Claudette shook her head. "Marie Laveau, she got her ways of findin' anybody she want to. An' so do I."
The answer didn't satisfy him, but Longarm let it pass for the moment. The important thing was that he and Annie were still alive, thanks to Claudette. Not only that, but several of the men who had been working for Clement and Millard were dead, and the two schemers themselves were now on the run. Their stranglehold on the West Indians who lived in New Orleans was broken.
With an arm around Claudette, Longarm went over to the wagon, which had come to a halt a safe distance from the burning warehouse. Annie was still sitting in the back of the vehicle, looking half-stunned. Near her, the man Longarm had tossed into the wagon was stirring around as consciousness came back to him. Longarm turned to a couple of the curious bystanders and pointed to the man. "I'm a United States deputy marshal," he told the onlookers. "Grab that fella and hang on to him until the local law gets here. He's under arrest."
The men were only too eager to help, even though Longarm hadn't flashed a badge or any other identification at them. They climbed into the wagon and found some rope, which they promptly used to truss up the prisoner.
Meanwhile, Longarm stepped up onto the driver's box and leaned over the back of the seat to hold out a hand to Annie, who was still huddled against the sideboard. "Come on, Annie," he said. "Let's get you out of there."
She looked up at him, hollow-eyed with shock, but after a moment her gaze cleared a little and she was able to nod. She reached up and clasped Longarm's hand. He lifted her to her feet and helped her down from the wagon.
Claudette stood nearby, watching curiously, and over the clanging of the bells from the fire wagons that were approaching, she said, "Mademoiselle Annie is all right?"
"She will be," said Longarm. "With any luck, she will be."
The fire wagons raced by and came to a stop in front of the warehouse, but it was evident that nothing could save the building now. More than half of it had already been consumed by the inferno. The concern now was to keep the flames from spreading to the surrounding structures, and the firemen joined their efforts with those of the bucket brigade that had already formed to wet down the other buildings. With the river so close by, there would be no shortage of water for the tanks on the fire wagons.
Men were running around and shouting, but even in that confusion, Longarm heard someone bellow, "Parker!" Only one man would still be calling him that out of habit, Longarm thought as he jerked around and looked toward the burning warehouse in time to see something that would remain etched in horror on his brain for a long time to come.
A figure lurched out of the fire-filled opening in the wall, and even though flames flickered all around it, the blazing form managed to keep moving. Longarm recognized the human torch as Jasper Millard, and knew that Millard must have tried to get out of the warehouse by some other means, only to fail and be trapped in the blaze.
Annie and Claudette were flanking Longarm, and both of them gasped and cried out. Millard's shambling gait reminded Longarm of the zombies, but no potion or black magic ritual was animating the man's body. Millard was moving and staying alive through the power of sheer hate, and as he stumbled toward Longarm the firemen and the crowd of dockworkers and onlookers fell back, just as horrified as Longarm and the two women were.
Somehow, Millard managed to keep coming until he was only a dozen feet away from Longarm. The flames surrounding him had died out, leaving behind only a blackened, crackling husk of a man. Millard raised his hands and lurched toward Longarm, the bones of his fingers showing through the burned flesh.
Then Longarm raised the pistol he still held in his hand and said, "I'd tell you to burn in Hell, Millard, but I reckon you're already there."
The whip-crack of the pistol shot shattered the eerie silence that had fallen. Millard's head jerked back as the bullet bored through a brain that had already boiled in its own fluids. One more stumbling step, and Millard collapsed. Longarm almost expected him to fall apart in ashes when he hit the street, but the charred corpse remained intact. Longarm slowly lowered the gun as more flames and smoke rose from the burning warehouse.
"Drop that gun, mister!"
The order came from behind Longarm, roared in a harsh voice. Before he turned, Longarm leaned over and placed the gun on the ground, then straightened and swung around to face a furious Captain Denton of the New Orleans police force. The captain's face was brick-red with anger.
"Damn it, I just saw you murder that man!" burst out Denton.
"I'd call it putting him out of his misery--and ours," said Longarm.
"I don't care what you call it, you're under arrest!" Denton gestured to the blue-uniformed men with him. "Take this man into custody!"
A tired grin plucked at Longarm's mouth. "I'll go peaceablelike, Captain, especially if you'll take me to see the special prosecutor."
Denton frowned in confusion. "What in blazes are you talking about?"
"I've got a story to tell that fella... all about Pikes Peak."
CHAPTER 16
Saint Laurent rose green and beautiful from the waters of the Caribbean, an island some twenty miles long and ten wide, its eastern end dominated by a rugged volcanic peak that had long since become inactive. From the mountain, the land sloped gradually to the west in a series of gentle hills and broad valleys filled with stalks of sugarcane. Along the western shore was a sandy beach dotted with clumps of palm trees. It was a truly lovely place, thought Longarm as he stood at the railing of the ship that had brought him here, his hands gripping it tightly.
Too bad Saint Laurent had such ugliness hiding amidst its beauty.
A week had passed since the fire that had consumed the warehouse used by Paul Clement and Jasper Millard to house the goods they smuggled into the country--and sometimes those they smuggled out. Longarm had spent a goodly portion of that week explaining things first to Captain Denton, then to a series of the captain's superiors, culminating in that special prosecutor whose summons had brought Longarm to New Orleans in the first place. Then there had been the flurry of telegraph messages burning up the wires between the Crescent City and the Mile High City as Longarm attempted to clear everything up for Billy Vail. None of it had been easy, but finally everyone involved had accepted Longarm's explanations, and Vail had ordered him to return to Denver.
Longarm didn't like disobeying a direct order, but he had done it before when it was necessary, and this was one of those times.
Paul Clement's body had not been found in the burned-out warehouse, which meant that he had regained consciousness and slipped out of the building before the fire spread, while Longarm had his hands full with other matters. Clement had raped Annie--and even though she had been adopted, Longarm still considered that incest--and he had been responsible for plenty of other evil doings.
As long as Clement was walking around free and breathing perfectly good air, Longarm wasn't going back to Denver.
Avoiding Billy Vail's orders had necessitated a bribe out of Longarm's own pocket to a telegraph operator in New Orleans. The key-pounder had sent back a wire saying that there was trouble along the line and to please repeat the last message, and Longarm had lit a shuck out of that Western Union office and headed for the hotel, then the docks.
Luck had been with him, and within an hour, he was on a ship sailing for Saint Laurent. The vessel had other ports of call in the West Indies, but Saint Laurent was the only one in which Longarm was interested.