Johnny Cachet was a very rich young man. He was thirty two years old and had made two billion dollars investing in hedge funds, derivatives, and other high risk properties since leaving college. He was regarded to be a financial wizard on Wall Street. But the game had gotten old for him. Investing, riding the adrenaline high as his portfolio increased exponentially, the dinners, the partying, the whores, the cocaine. He was tired and three weeks after his thirty second birthday he officially retired. He put his money in long term, low risk investments, saved some on the side for a little day trading here and there, and toured the country. He was vacationing with a purpose. He had decided to leave New York and settle somewhere, build an estate, and settle down. He just wasn’t sure where.
He decided on Louisiana, near New Orleans. He had spent some time in NOLA over the years and his family had actually sprung from the Cajun bayous of the area. He loved the city but decided he wanted to live outside town near the bayous and swamps. He settled on a little place about thirty five miles Southwest of New Orleans called LeBeau Township. He had found a property that fit his needs exactly. The place was on a large (one hundred twenty acres) parcel of land and had been a working farm in years past. There was a large Southern style farmhouse and several outbuildings on the property. The land included lots of bayous, several streams, fields ripe for hunting, wood lots, forest, and acres of unused fields that could be farmed. He would invest a lot of time and money gutting and restoring the main house and he would have the perfect environment to develop some of the interests he had been cultivating over the years. These included hunting and fishing, learning to smoke food, and learning to grow organic produce which he might sell to local restaurants if things turned out well. He quickly completed the purchase and set about the initial renovations, which took about a year. During this time he stayed at the hotel in the small township, got to know some of the people and inculcated himself into the day to day doings of the village.
The local townfolk weren’t too sure what to make of Johnny. Outsiders weren’t too common in this neck of the woods anyway, but it was unheard of for somebody to come from as far away as New York and settle in LeBeau. They didn’t trust his money nor his intentions and kept a wary eye on him and his place. A local construction company were hired to do the work on the house and a stream of gossip ensued about the cost of the woods and furnishings going into the place. For his part, Johnny loved the local culture and did his best to make a good impression. He wanted to fit into his chosen village and did his best to get people to like him. At the completion of the construction on the house he threw a big house warming picnic and invited the whole town. They did it Cajun style, slaughtering live pigs and making roast pork, cracklings, and boudain. The beer and white lightening flowed and a good time was had by all.
Johnny fell in to a daily routine which included a couple of hours of paperwork, running errands, taking field trips, hunting, fishing, and working around the farm. He liked to keep things varied to avoid boredom, and because he was interested in doing many different things. He loved bringing home a mess of fresh caught catfish or some squirrel for his cook and housekeeper, Lulu, to transform into a sumptuous Southern dining experience. Lulu’s husband Ike, acted as the straw boss on the farm, managing the few hands they kept and seeing that things got done.
A few months after moving into the house, a friend from Wall St. called. Saul Greenly was a brilliant investor and a ‘mergers and acquisitions’ man, with a reputation as a cutthroat corporate raider. He was a fast liver with an acute disdain for most human beings, especially those who were not rich. He was a well known figure on the noveau riche Hamptons scene and had made quite a bit of money in his lifetime. There were, however, a lot of rumors of insider trading and mob ties. He was known as a tough customer and was known to have been involved in several public brawls. He was known to have a quick temper and to be capable of violence. Some regarded him as a psychopath and refused to have anything to do with him. However, Johnny had done a lot of business with Saul. A lot of deals, late nights, bar crawls, and had never had a problem with him. After inquiring as to his welfare and other pleasantries, Saul mentioned that he needed some advice and asked Johnny if he might visit him for a few days. Johnny was more than happy to accommodate him, happy to have a guest in his new home.
Saul flew into NOLA the next day and Johnny picked him up and headed back to the farm.
“Hey man, I thought we’d get some good cajun food while we’re here.” said Saul
“Oh, we will, but not in town. My housekeeper is the best damned cook I’ve ever seen. She was working on some turtle gumbo when I left. You’ll eat really well tonight, don’t you worry.” Johnny assured him
After a fine dinner that included turtle gumbo, crawfish etouffe, and several other dishes, they settled into the study for some brandy.
“So, what can I do for you?” Johnny asked
“Well, I lied to you Johnny. I don’t need any advice. I need sanctuary.”
“What do you mean? Sanctuary from what?” Johnny asked
“Not what. Who. I’m wanted by the SEC for insider trading, and I’m guilty. I probably just beat those guys to the airport to come here. They want to bust me on sixty four counts and my lawyer says they’ve got enough evidence to convict me. And if that’s not bad enough, the mob is after me too. I invested a bunch of their money, millions, into a deal that I thought couldn’t miss. It missed, and they don’t want to hear that their money is gone. I’m in a world of shit. I just need a place to hide for a while until I figure out my next step. Maybe a week. What do you say Johnny?”
Johnny was stunned by the enormity of Saul’s problems. He figured Saul had come down to try to talk him into some investment or maybe a load, but this? The big question for him was how exposed he would be if Saul were found by the authorities on his property. How culpable would he be?
“Wow Saul. It sounds like you’re really in trouble and I’d like to help. Let me think about this and we’ll talk tomorrow, okay? We’ll go to town tomorrow morning and hash it out over breakfast.” he said
…
The next morning they drove to town and had breakfast at the hotel restaurant which served excellent food.
“I’m going to help you Saul, but I have to tell you, I do not want to be pulled into this shit you’ve gotten yourself into. If the SEC finds you here, you make damned sure that they know that I did not know you were wanted. Clear?” he asked
“Clear as a bell Johnny.”
“Now, I’m making some rules. No trips to NOLA. You stay at the farm, or come here to town. They’ll know you flew to NOLA, but with any luck, they won’t know about me being here. Also, down here is a slow pace. Be polite. Low profile, get it?” he asked
“I hear you Johnny.”
“I’ll give you a week and then you have to go. If it wasn’t the SEC and the mob I might have been able to put you up longer, but with both of them, it won’t be long before they find you here. So one week. Agreed?” he asked
“Agreed. One week. And thanks man.”
Over the next couple of days Johnny spent a lot of time with Saul. Took him fishing and showed him around the place. He noticed that Saul seemed sullen and moody, but he guessed that was to be expected, given the man’s situation. At dinner on the second night, Lulu brought Saul a plate of food which he accepted. Looking down, he noticed that the biscuits she included had been buttered.
“What the fuck is this?” he demanded
Lulu was stunned by the foul language and aggresive tone.
“I’m sorry Mr. Saul, what do you mean?” she asked
“These biscuits are already buttered! Why do they have butter on them?”
“I buttered them so that you wouldn’t have to sir. Oh, I’m sorry, let me bring you some without butter. I just assumed.” she apologized
“You’re goddamned right you assumed. I can put my own fucking butter on my biscuits you bitch!”
At this point Johnny quickly rose, ran around the table and punched Saul in the side of the head. Hard. Saul toppled to the floor and began to curse but Johnny was on him.
“Apologize!”
“What?”
“Apologize you son of a bitch or I’ll beat you to a bloody pulp. Don’t test me!”
He hauled Saul to his feet.
“Apologize now!”
Saul apologized and Johnny sat him back down in his chair.
“Miss Lulu, I cannot tell you how much I regret what this man said to you. Say the word and I’ll drive him to the airport right now and you’ll never be bothered by him again, I swear!”
Lulu regarded Johnny then looked pensively at Saul.
“Mr. Saul, I meant no offense by buttering your biscuits and I’m sorry that any of this happened. I won’t ask Mr. Johnny to take you away, but you listen to me. If you ever speak to me that way again you will be very sorry and it won’t be because of any whipping Mr. Johnny gives you. You understand me?” she asked
“If you know what’s good for you, you will politely say ‘yes’ and not have this lady mad at you. Trust me.” said Johnny
Things were tense the next day and Saul spent much of the day by himself or sleeping.
Friday of that week Saul had gone to town and the phone rang. Johnny picked it up.
“Hello?”
“Hello, Mr. Cachet?”
“Yes, who’s speaking please.”
“This is deputy Fontaine at the LeBeau pollce department.”
“Yes deputy?”
“Sir, do you know a Saul Greenly?”
“Yes Deputy I do. Why do you ask?”
“Well sir, we’ve got him down here at the jail. He’s drunk. He got into an altercation down at Frost’s bar.”
Johnny didn’t want to hear this.
“What happened Deputy?”
“There was a girl down there. You know Cade Simpson over at the garage? His daughter Mary. Anyway, seems Mr. Greenly was harassing Miss Simpson and making indecent advances to the point that she was crying and ran out of there. When she got home her father asked her what happened and when she told him, he headed down to Frost’s with his son Bobby. They had words with Mr. Greenly and he swung on Mr. Simpson. As you know, Simpson is nobody to mess with. He’s about six foot six and three hundred pounds of solid mean when he gets mad and well, Mr. Greenly is pretty messed up. You wanna come get him?”
“What’s the bail?” Johnny asked
“Oh, no bail. Simpson saw to it that he apologized profusely, then he beat his ass good. He’s not pressing charges.”
“Alright I’ll be down.”
Johnny did not need this kind of shit. He liked these people and did not want to cause them trouble. He angrily burst through the door of the police station and told the deputy who he was.
“We’ll get him right out for you Mr. Cachet. Do you mind a little advice sir?” he asked
“What’s that?”
“Sir, your friend. Mr. Simpson is not to be trifled with as we’ve seen. But his wife’s people are creole and they’re into the voodoo in a big way. If your friend continues to mess with these people, bad things will happen. Understand me. Mr. and Mrs. Simpson are pillars of the community. They never cause no trouble. Their children are both well behaved and never been in any trouble. That girl was only in that bar today because she’s working there this summer as a waitress. You might want to tell your friend to be real careful. Just a little advice.”
“Thank you Deputy. I appreciate it and I’ll definitely pass it along.” he replied
…
Two days later then news came. Miss Lulu had returned from the grocery shopping and poked her head into the study.
“Yes Miss Lulu? What can I do for you?” he asked
“Mr. Johnny, I was at the market and I thought you should know. They found Mary Simpson’s body this morning down on Morning Glory road. She was all beat up and cut up. Somebody had done raped that poor child.” she said, shaking her head
“My God! Do they have any idea who did it?” he asked
“The thing I heard was somebody said that Mr. Saul had some problems with her daddy the other day.” she replied
“Okay Miss Lulu. Thank you for letting me know about this.”
He immediately climbed the stairs and went to the room Saul was using. He opened the door and there was Saul, sleeping soundly. Johnny noticed the soles of his bare feet were dirty and his dirty clothes were strewn in a corner of the room. He noted that the pants had dried mud on them. He shook Saul awake hard.
“Wake up Saul!” he snarled
“What, what?” Saul asked confusedly
“Were you out last night?” asked Johnny
Saul sat up in the bead, rubbed his eyes, and yawned.
“What do you mean?” he asked
“I mean, after you came up here to bed last night, did you leave the house?”
“Uh, no. I came up here about eleven o’clock, read for a little while in bed, then passed out.” he replied
“Right. Mind telling me how you got your feet dirty and your pants muddy?”
“I confess. I was too tired to bath last night. The feet and pants are from traipsing around yesterday afternoon. I was walking around barefoot for a while. It felt good. Why are you asking all of these questions?” he asked
“You know that girl you made cry the other day? The one whose daddy handed you your ass?”
“Yeah, what about her?”
“They found her body this morning. Somebody raped her, beat the shit out of her, then cut her up. You know anything about that?”
Saul’s face drained of all color.
“Shit! This does not look good! I swear Johnny, I don’t know anything about this! I had nothing to do with it! I was drunk the other day, but hey, I got what I deserved, I had practically forgetten about the whole thing. Somebody killed that girl? Who would do such a thing?” he asked
“I don’t know, but I were you I’d get up and bathed, cause you can bet the police will be out there to talk to you.” he said
“Hey, fuck that! I’m outta here man! I’m not gonna have a bunch of hicks railroad me!” he exclaimed
“No Saul. You are not out of here! You came here to hide and I took you in. I’ve put up with nothing but a bunch of bullshit since you got here. That’s why I left New York, because I’m just tired of this kind of bullshit and guys like you who think they can do whatever they want because they know how to cheat the market. Well fuck you! If what you’ve told me is true, then you have nothing to worry about, and if your lying, then you’ll get what’s coming to you. You’re not going anywhere.”
The police showed up about an hour later and asked to see Saul. They interviewed him for about forty five minutes, then talked to Johnny and Miss Lulu. Nobody had seen or heard Saul leave his room after retiring and the police had little evidence to pursue any kind of case against him at that point.
After the police left Saul decided to take a walk and headed for the woods out behind the house. As he walked through the woods, admiring the sky and trees, he replayed the events of the previous night. He had gone out through the window and climbed down the trellis to the ground. He had done some checking and he knew that Mary was working that night and that she usually walked home via Morning Glory road. That would never happen in a big city, but out here in the sticks nobody ever bothered anybody, hell, nobody probably even saw anybody at that time of night. So he waited, and sure enough, along she came. He was gonna pay that little bitch back for causing him trouble, and he was going to pay daddy back for the way he’d beaten him. Saul was gonna make him regret that beating for the rest of his miserable fucking life. And then she was there. And he had his fun.
…
The sun was getting lower as Saul moved through the woods and he suddenly realized that he was entering the bayou. Water squished beneath his feet as me moved along the swampy ground and he began to notice the sounds and the smell of the swamps. Soon he was confronted with pools of water all around him, filled with cedar trees draped in Spanish moss and their stumps, jutting skyward. A ground fog had begun moving along the ground around him and all of the birds sound had suddenly ceased. He looked around and could no longer see the sun, nor get his bearings. He seemed to be lost. He was suddenly hit hard on the back of the head and crumpled to the soggy ground, unconscious.
He awoke to the sound of drum beats. People, black and white, danced around him in a circle by firelight. Several others in varying masks, facepaint, and costumes sat opposite him. He was bound to a large cedar stump with his arms spread by a cross board that had been nailed to the stump. His head hurt. Soon, one of the people sitting opposite him rose and began to dance. She appeared to be a middle aged woman, slender and agile. As she danced she sipped some liquor and ignited it as she spat it out, speaking in some foreign language. Saul didn’t understand any of it.
“Where am I?” he shouted
“Who are you people? Why have you tied me up?” he demanded
The woman moved toward him and smacked him hard in the face with a burled cane.
“Silence murderer!!!” she spat, and danced away
“I’m not a murderer!” he cried
The woman signalled and the drums stopped while the dancers moved toward her.
“Ah, but you ARE a murderer!” she said “Legba told me!”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” said Saul
“We know you don’t. But we know that you are a murderer. We know that you raped and killed Mary Simpson. We know!”
Saul was growing frantic. How did this bitch know what he had done. Had he been followed? There couldn’t have been any security cameras out on that abandoned road! What the fuck was going on here?
“Calm yourself murderer. You were brought here to pay for your crimes and that is what you will do. We are going to sacrifice you to Legba, then we will give your body to the reptiles of the swamp. We want you to know this so that you can suffer. Like Mary suffered as you beat and raped and murdered her!” she said
She then drew a large knife across Saul’s chest, cutting him deeply. The drums began again and the dancers started up. The woman danced in front of him and raised a chicken above her head. She danced back and forth and produced a straight razor in her other hand. Saul had seen a film about this, she was about to cut the chicken’s throat in sacrifice and spread the blood. Saul struggled with his bonds trying to free himself. For some reason, he did not want to see that chicken die. He couldn’t. The drums pounded and she danced in the firelight, teasing with the razor and the chicken. Back and forth, back and forth. Saul knew when the time had come for the chicken to meet its end. As the woman raised the chicken to dispatch it, she quickly stepped forward and cut Saul’s throat from ear to ear.
A loud cheer went up from the dancers while Saul gasped to try to breath, twitching as he quickly bled out and died. The woman signalled and the drums stopped.
“Tonight we have honored Legba, yet the chicken goes free.” she said freeing the chicken to fly away from her
“Nothing can bring our Mary back to us now” she said removing her mask “but we take comfort in knowing that her death is now avenged. She can now rest.”
Cade Simpson emerged from the shadows and took his wife’s hand and the two of them walked away and out of the bayou. Two men cut down Saul’s body and drug it to the water's’ edge where several alligators awaited their dinner.
…
Two days later Johnny pulled into Cade Simpson’s service station. Saul had obviously blown town, but Johnny wanted to tie up some old business. He found Simpson in his office.
“Hello, Mr. Simpson?”
“That’s me, what can I do for you?” he asked
“Hi. My name is Johnny Cachet, I’ve got the big place just outside of town?”
“Oh yeah. I’ve been meaning to try to run across you and say hello, but it just hasn’t happened yet. I was out of town when you had your house warming. Welcome to LeBeau!”
“Yes. Well thank you. I stopped by because, well, this is my home now and I really want to be part of this community. It’s important to me that I make friends here. I’m was very sorry to hear about your daughter Mary. And I wa already planning to come see you to apologize about the incident with my associate Mr. Greely and Mary and yourself. I don’t know what got into him and if you hadn’t given him the beating that you did, I might well have. I am sorry for the whole thing.”
“Well, I don’t see how it’s any of your responsibility Mr. Cachet. He is a grown man!” he said
“Please call me Johnny. And I appreciate that Mr. Simpson. I’m walking a bit on eggshells here, but when they found your daughter I questioned Mr. Greenly the minute I heard about whether he had anything to do with it. I know he was a real asshole to her but I don’t think he had anything to do with her murder. Neither the police or anybody in the house could find any evidence of him leaving the house that night. I just wanted you to know that we did ask him.”
“Well Johnny. It never occured to me to even think that it might have been your friend. Truth is, sometimes these things happen and they just don’t get solved. Drifters move through, commit some horrible violence and don’t leave any evidence for the police to go on. I’m sure that whoever did it will get his or her comeuppance.” he said
“Well, that’s quite a positive attitude Mr. Simpson. Are you a man of faith?”
“Oh yes Johnny. I’m a man of great faith.” he replied
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