A/N: Here she is! The first chapter of Murder in the Bayou. Thanks to allthe phans who have been so patient. I will try to update at least once a week. I'm back at school so I'm a lot busier. And for those of you who have read my Haunted Mansion fic, thanks! I'm really surprised I've gotten more reviews for my HM than my first story on Phantom and the Secretary Mysteries #1: Ring of Fire. (Hint hint, nudge nudge) I will try to update soon. I'm shooting for Friday...not making any promises...Now, I have to read the first chapter to 'Rethinking Home Economics: Women and the History of a Profession'. Don't ya just love textbooks?
please, read and review!
peace, love and lipgloss!
Mlle. Fox
The Phantom and the Secretary Mysteries #3 Murder in the Bayou
Directly after the Roland Richard murder is wrapped up, Antoinette receives a telegraph from her cousin in New Orleans. She is getting married and would like Antoinette to be Maid of Honor. After begging Erik to come as her escort and failing to talk Andre and Firmin from tagging along, she accepts the invitation and soon they all arrive in America. But waiting for them, is a mystery. A former bootlegger is found dead, floating face down in the swampland adjacent to Antoinette's family home. Now Erik must help Antoinette solve the murder before her cousin's eccentric fiancé is blamed for the death!
DISCLAIMER: THE AUTHOR OF THIS STORY DOES NOT OWN ANY CHARACTERS OF THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA CANON; JUST THE ORIGINAL CHARACTERS NOT AFFILIATED WITH THE ORIGINAL STORY. BASED ON ALW VERSION.
1875
"Now you completely understand that the man who was the Phantom is now M. DuL'Soir, and has no intentions of harming anyone?" asked Michael Firmin slowly to the tall redhead sitting before his desk. She sighed and nodded, saying in a thick Italian accent,
"Ci, ci! I underztand that!" Firmin and Andre smiled in relief before La Carlotta said,
"What I don't get iza why!" The partner's sighed in aggravation and sat down by Carlotta again, about to re-explain what they had just told the Diva. Meanwhile, in the outer office, Antoinette stood up from her desk to file away some papers in the cabinet, when a pair of strong solid arms wrapped around Antoinette's waist pulling her close. Antoinette giggled as a pair of warm, soft lips kissed her cheek and whispered in her ear,
"Mlle. Carone, do you know you drive a man to distraction?" Antoinette turned around in Erik's arms and brushed lint off his brick red coat and said,
"Possibly. What are you going to do about it?" Meeting her challenge, Erik pecked her lips and said,
"I'm going to swallow my distractions and spend my evening playing cards!"
"Maurice is having another card game so soon?" asked Antoinette.
"Hmm...he said something about getting his money back." said Erik. Surprised she asked him,
"You're first time playing poker and you won something?"
"Is that wrong?" asked Erik releasing her so she could return to work. She sat saying,
"Well no since nobody wins cards his or her first time around!" Putting his hands behind his back, Erik said,
"Huh. It's a fairly simple game involving reading people's faces and determining their psychological processes. How difficult can it be?"
"Apparently not very for some eccentric genius I know!" she said sarcastically. He bent over and kissed her lips once more saying,
"Tell Jean Claude I won't be home for supper!" As he was about to leave, Carlotta was being shown out by M. Andre. Knowing he had to be polite and hating every second of it, Erik nodded to the woman and said,
"Bon Jour Madame." Suddenly, Carlotta stepped forward and slapped him across the face saying,
"You killed my love!" Then she stomped out leaving Erik to rub his red cheek and say dryly as Andre and Antoinette looked at him with sympathy,
"Glad to see she doesn't hold grudges!"
Later, Erik sat by Maurice Richard's side while three more of Maurice's friends played poker with them. One young man, portly and with round spectacles leaned in and asked Erik,
"Now M. DuL'Soir. Being our second meeting, I believe we have a fair right to engage in a conversation about the fair Miss Carone, wouldn't you agree, M. Pontu?"
"Oui, M. Farmount. Come Erik, tell us. What is it like living with the woman you are courting?" said M. Pontu, a handsome man with broad shoulders and an even broader smile.
"Gentlemen, I hope you don't presume I have compromised her honor in any way. For if you did, I surely would have to deal with you!" said Erik with mostly a possessive defensiveness but just a hint of humor in his voice.
"We don't assume that at all Mousier. After all there are plenty of chaperones in the house of a fair age. We just want to know if you've had to dealt with any surprises, is all!" said the third man by the name of Caver while placing in three chips.
"Surprises?" asked Erik in curiosity raising his bet. Calling Erik's bet, Maurice said while looking at his cards,
"Oh you know Erik. Have you heard her snore? Does she leave things lying about? Does she do any annoying little things that drive you mad yet make you love her all the more? You know. That sort of thing." As the other gentlemen placed their bets, Erik said,
"I'm not sure if she snores or leaves things about...but she does have this annoying habit of placing herself in danger while we are on a case!"
"That doesn't count. We mean things she does at home! Does she hum constantly, or tap her fingers or just stand in a room looking out and staring?" asked M. Farmount. Erik furrowed his brow as he raised the bet again,
"I don't know...we've been too busy to notice that sort of thing..."
"Well you do know about her likes and dislikes, right?" asked Pontu folding.
"Um..."
"Favorite color? Favorite desert possibly?" suggested Caver calling the bet. When Erik shook his head, Maurice shook his head and laughed,
"It sounds like to me, my friend, you have a long way to go if you are going to be serious about Mlle. Carone!" Erik lost fifty francs that afternoon, simply because he was trying to rack his brain on what the woman in his life was all about.
He came home just a few minutes before nine seeing Jean Claude carry down some matching luggage. Luggage that Erik recognized as Antoinette's. Suspicious, and just a little bit worried, Erik asked,
"Jean Claude? What is all of this?" Erik took the heavier bags from the older man, who puffed out of breath,
"The mademoiselle is going to America, Sir!" Erik burst out while darting up the stairs,
"What?" Now he was extremely worried. Was she leaving him? Had she finally come to her senses and realized she could not love a hideous creature like him? Would she go to America and find a handsome rich husband and tell her friends at afternoon tea how she had barely managed to escape the silly affections of an ugly former side show freak? Meanwhile, Antoinette was trying to load her last suitcase. But it wouldn't close. She pressed on it with her hands until finally she lifted up her skirts and sat on the top shutting the latches tight. Then Erik burst in and demanded of her while she let out a small squeak of surprise,
"What is going on? Why are you leaving me?" Confused, Antoinette said,
"Leaving you? Whatever are you talking..."
"Jean Claude said you were leaving for America!" said Erik hotly. Antoinette laughed,
"Erik. I believe you jumped to a conclusion before you sidestepped the truth!"
"Antoinette, just tell me why you are leaving!" commanded Erik. Antoinette folded her arms and said dryly with a smirk on her face,
"My cousin is getting married and she asked me to be Maid of Honor." His eyebrows knitted together,
"Maid of what?"
"Maid of Honor! Honestly Erik, don't you know how a wedding is done?" asked Antoinette turning to her vanity to pack some more jewelry. She saw that little boy in him return as he said,
"All I know there is a bride and groom and a man of the cloth."
"Or a judge if the couple prefers. But Erik, why did you automatically assume that I was leaving you when you heard I was going to America?" asked Antoinette.
"I didn't..."
"Erik! You burst in here as if you owned the room and demanded why I was leaving you as if you owned me as well! Now tell me!" she told him facing him and watching him stare at the patterns of the Persian rug. His voice barely above a whisper, he said,
"It wouldn't be the first time someone I cared about left me..." She smiled and shook her head, stepping forward to wrap her arms around his neck and just hold him. Erik embraced her, fearing she would disappear. As they held each other, Erik realized this was the first time he had been in her room. It was tastefully done in rich hardwood floors and polished cherry furnishings, but the room was bright and filled with every color of the rainbow thanks to flower arrangements, a collection of vases and an odd bedspread of colored patch-work squares. He also noticed, that white roses were everywhere. In every bouquet to every painting on the wall; her room was a variable rose garden of snowy white. She pulled back from him and smiled stroking his cheek,
"Erik, I am not leaving you. If fact, I wanted to ask you to be my escort to the wedding!"
"You...you want me to come with you to meet your family?" asked Erik.
"Of course! Oh Erik, you'll just love America! And the South is so diverse and rich with culture! It's a culture all its own! Please say you'll come!" she asked him excitingly. Ecstatic she wanted him so much she asked him to stay by her side, Erik fingered a lock of her hair and smiled,
"Anything for you, mon cherie!" She giggled and pecked his lips, when Andre pasted by the door and then came in asking,
"Hello, what's all this?" As if they had been caught by the schoolmaster, they backed away from each other and Antoinette answered evenly,
"Erik just agreed to come with me to America, sir!"
"Excellent! I shall tell M. Firmin. He's packing in his room!" said Andre turning to leave. In a panic, Antoinette grabbed his arms and asked,
"What do you mean...packing?"
"For America of course! When you told us at dinner you were to be in the wedding party for that cousin of yours in New Orleans, we knew you would ask Erik to go and thus require a proper chaperone! Well, goodnight!" smiled Andre leaving. Erik chuckled and stepped forward to wrap his arms around her shoulders from behind as she groaned,
"Me and my big mouth!"
Meanwhile, on a secluded dock surrounded by fog, a figure stepped out from the shadows and into the light of the gas lamps. He lit a cigar and waited before hearing over his shoulder,
"Do you have it?" The first man turned and saw a tall, muscular gentleman with long flowing hair and an even longer drawl in his accent just beyond the light. The man pulled out an envelope and held it up saying,
"Took a big chance getting it Mousier!"
"You're paid to take chances." said the second man taking out of the envelope some important legal documents. He tucked it into his jacket and was about to leave when the first man stopped him saying,
"Wait, M. McMillan, what about the girl?" McMillan smiled darkly, his teeth looking like fangs in the shadows,
"She'll be mine before she weds that nut from New Orleans next month!"