Page 22 of Hurricane Irene

“Son-of-a-bitch,” he muttered. He held up the business card.

Carli Smith – Agent Pelican Insurance

“This cannot be a coincidence,” said Luke.

“We need to get closer to Pelican and see what the fuck is happening. Anyone want to lay odds that all six worked for Pelican?” said Joseph.

“That’s a sucker’s bet,” said Luke. “Let’s get these poor women into storage and notify the sheriff and coroner. Send a team back to that slab and see if we can find anything at all to tell us what was there.”

“I’ll go,” said Luca. Oliver and Theo nodded, stepping forward.

“Are you boys sure?” asked Cam. “This isn’t your usual gig.”

“Doesn’t matter sir. We found ‘em. I’ve got three sisters of my own. I can’t imagine…” His voice trailed off and Cam nodded.

“Ben, take Wade and Magnus with you guys and see what you can find. Anything at all. If there wasn’t a structure there, we need to know why and how a concrete slab was placed inside one of the most desolate bayous in the area.”

“Got it,” nodded Ben. “Let’s go fellas. Lead us back to that place. We’ll do the search, mark it, and make sure nothing was missed.”

“Get back before dark. It’s too dangerous to be out there at night,” said Luke.

The men nodded and headed back out to the slab. It seemed faster the second time but perhaps because they had a mission this time. They needed to recover what was out there.

The trip back to the location seemed to move faster than before. Maybe it was the men with a sense of urgency and a desire for answers. Maybe it was the currents pushing the debris away from the place they knew the men needed to be. Either way, they were nearly there.

Theo tied off the boat to a nearby cypress knee and stepped onto the slab. Ben and the others followed, all of them jumping up and down to feel the security of the structure.

“This thing has to be fifteen, twenty feet into the mud,” frowned Magnus. “How does someone get steel pillars into the mud in a bayou and lay slab of concrete without anyone noticing?”

“They knew the area. Knew what they were doing,” said Ben.

The men crawled on their hands and knees, feeling for any little thing on the slab. A lost earring, a bracelet, a comb or brush, anything that might give them a clue as to who was there.

Wade kneeled at the edge of the slab and peered over the side, praying that there wouldn’t be eyes peering back at him. There was a rope attached to a u-ring on the side of the slab and he pulled it, hoping it would come willingly.

“What did you find?” asked Oliver.

“I’m not sure but something is attached to this rope,” he said. He continued to pull on the rope and it came toward him, nothing holding it back. When the object surfaced, they all stilled, staring at one another then back at the water.

A clear kitchen bag was sealed with several pieces of paper inside, as well as licenses.

“It’s them,” said Luca. “Those are the women we found.”

Ben nodded, opening the bag to pull out the remainder of the contents. There were a number of business cards, all belonging to people who worked for Pelican Insurance. The driver’s licenses showed the pretty faces of the now deceased women.

On a slip of paper, the ink streaked from rain no doubt, was a scribbled note.

“If you find this you know who to look for. We refused to do what they asked. Tell our families we love them.”

“What now?” frowned Luca. Ben stood, staring at the other men.

“Now we hunt.”

CHAPTER TWELVE

The storm had spent its rage inland by the time Kip Melancon, deputy parish coroner, reached Belle Fleur Medical Center. Rain ticked against the ambulance-bay doors, and runoff whispered through the gutters beyond the loading dock. Inside, the emergency department had gone to generator power. The hall lights burned a tired amber, while somewhere behind the walls pumps and ventilators labored against the dark.

The six women had arrived before him, transported from the flooded bayou behind the Belle Fleur property. They lay in the medical center’s morgue on separate stainless-steel tables, each beneath a clean white sheet. Their chains had been cut from the concrete slab during recovery, but the cuffs and short lengths of link remained secured at their wrists, padded and packaged so the metal would not shift or lose trace evidence.