“All we need now is the CIA, ATF and Homeland Security to show up and we’ll have just about every law-enforcement agency covered and accounted for,” Rafter said.
“I hate how our quiet life here has been turned upside down.”
“It’ll all blow over soon.”
“I can’t wait, Jon. Normalcy can’t come soon enough.”
Rafter scrunched his eyes. “Hey, isn’t that your old boss talking to Sheriff Tubbs?”
“Yeah, that’s Newton Laskey. I wonder how he became involved here.”
“I think we’ll find out pretty quick.”
They walked up to the two men. Tubbs and Laskey turned their attention to them. Newton looked at her and Jon, his face showing exhaustion and relief. “Pardon my language, Jon, but you look like hell. Are you hurt?”
Rafter shook his head. “Only my pride hurts. The red on my shirt is paint, not blood.”
“What about you, Annie? Is your face bleeding or is that paint?”
Annie pawed at her face. “It’s paint.” She looked at Laskey as she wiped at the red paint. “So how did you end up coming here, Newt?”
“I was working the town hall debate in Copeland with Brubaker and Grant. One of the candidates has a stalker. We were here to make sure the stalker didn’t crash the debate. And then after the debate ended we heard about a cop killing that took place here. So we headed over.”
“I’d much appreciate you folks telling me what happened here over the last few hours,” Lester Tubbs said, steering the conversation back toward the night’s events.
Annie nodded. “The Charbonneau brothers, along with their girlfriends, rented out all our rooms. And then they took over our house. Arcadias swears up and down a Jean Lafitte treasure cache is hidden somewhere on our property. He and his brother tied us up so they could search for the treasure. Sometime tonight a policeman came by. Arcadias stepped out onto the gallery and talked to the cop for quite a while. And then we heard gunshots,” Annie said.
Sheriff Tubbs looked at Rafter. “Colette Williams has an arrow stuck in her arm. She says you shot her with a bow and arrow. You want to explain that, Mr. Rafter?”
“They locked us up in the attic. While we were up there I found a longbow and some arrows. Annie and I figured out a way to escape the attic through the chimney. We tried to make it down to Ned Hoxley’s house. We intended to call the police from there. But we were discovered and had to take a detour into the woods. We eventually made our final stand in the gazebo. Colette shot at us several times. So I shot back with the longbow,” Rafter explained.
Annie quickly jumped into the conversation. “Do you have a laptop handy, Sheriff?”
Tubbs nodded.
“Much of what happened tonight will be on video. We have multiple hidden security cameras here. One is in the foyer, another is in the parlor, and one is on the gallery near the swing. I’m sure the slaying of the police officer was captured. All the cameras turn on at sunset. I can give you the password so you can download the digital images.”
“That would help us a great deal, thank-you.”
“Annie, are you getting the itch to come back to the Bureau yet? It’s been over three years,” Laskey said.
Annie shook her head and looked at Jon. “I like my quiet life as a bed and breakfast operator.”
“But I see you still have a knack for attracting criminals. So you might as well carry around a badge and a gun.”
“My bad luck has to stop at some point,” Annie said. She noticed Jon looking all around, scanning the grounds in every direction, concern shining in his eyes. “What is it, honey?”
Rafter looked at Laskey and Tubbs. “Where is Arcadias? Haven’t you apprehended him yet?”
Tubbs answered in his trademark southern drawl. “Not yet, but we’ll catch him. He can’t get far.”
Rafter looked toward the northwest and the distant Atchafalaya Basin. Darkness cloaked the swampy wilderness. “He’ll head for the swamp, you know that, Sheriff.”
“He’d be a fool if he does, especially on foot. The gators will eat him for lunch. And if they don’t the madness will eat him up. He’ll go stark raving mad, city boy like him.”
Rafter shuddered at the thought. “God have mercy on Arcadias,” he prayed under his breath.
Chapter 56
Two weeks later
It was the first time he’d been in the attic since the incident, and this time he felt no stress whatsoever. With Frank Sinatra crooning The Best is Yet to Come from a nearby boom box, Rafter reached into a five-gallon bucket with his trowel and scooped up some mortar.
For the past few days he’d been repairing the damage left behind by the Charbonneaus. Luckily the damage was minor for the most part and easy to fix. There had been a few holes where he had to repair the plaster, and a few murals he needed to touch up, but that was it. The only damage they turned into their homeowner’s insurance had been the hole cut into the ceiling in the pantry.
Earlier this morning he’d nailed a new baluster to the widow’s walk where the old one snapped off. He planned to paint it later if the repairs to the chimney went smoothly. Annie wanted to reopen for business by summer, a little over eight weeks away, so he’d put everything else on hold, donned his tool belt and went to work.
Rafter picked up a brick and buttered one side with the mortar and set it into place. He then wiped off the excess mortar. He wasn’t an expert bricklayer by any stretch. He was actually a newbie at it. To learn how to lay bricks he’d watched a YouTube video. He figured since the repair was up here in the attic and out of sight it didn’t have to be pretty, just functional and safe.
Rafter didn’t mind making the repairs too much. Hard work benefited the body and soul. And he’d grown accustomed to endless remodeling. He’d been making minor repairs to the house for the past ten years, ever since he relocated to Louisiana. A house this old requires constant refurbishment.
Making the repairs also kept him in check. If he didn’t have to work on the house he would spend all his time painting. And his passion for painting would turn into an obsession; much like Arcadias obsessed about finding Lafitte treasure. He didn’t want to fall into the same trap.
His painting had to come fourth in the pecking order. God and His Kingdom came first, and then Annie, followed by Grace, their infant daughter they’d brought home only four days ago. He never wanted to deviate from that order. But it was hard to keep the proper order and remain selfless. He battled a persistent urge to barricade himself into his art studio and do nothing but work on his art. There were so many scenes in his mind he wished to paint, and not nearly enough time to paint them.
Rafter picked up another brick, but then set it back down. He had never checked the other side of the chimney to see if there were any loose bricks there. He stood up, grimaced at the kink in his back, and then moved around to the chimney’s backside.
He sank to his knees once again and tapped at a brick with his trowel. The brick quivered slightly. Rafter set down his trowel and tried wiggling the brick with his hand. The brick indeed moved from its place. Perturbed, he tried another brick. And this one moved as well. Rafter sighed and rolled his eyes. This chimney is in worse shape than I thought.
Rafter tried other bricks adjacent and above the ones he just moved. He found seven more bricks all in the same vicinity. Rafter pulled a chisel out of his tool belt. He began to chip away at the loose mortar with a hammer.
What he hated most about repair projects were the surprises. He hadn’t counted on finding more loose bricks. So the time he allotted for this repair just ballooned, throwing his schedule all out of whack.
Stay calm, stay happy. It’s no big deal, he told himself. Rafter went to work and concentrated on his nearby boom box. He sang along with Sinatra as Frank crooned Fly Me to the Moon. Time fled as he worked. After a half hour of chipping he’d removed all the failing mortar from between the bricks.