Chapter 2:

They went to Rory's French Quarter walk-up. It was ten minutes to her office on foot, less than three in Louise's zippy little sports car.

Madeline had given it to her as a gift two years ago-or so Louise had claimed. Rory had a feeling this gift, like so many others had been bestowed out of guilt rather than generosity.

Not that Madeline wasn't generous she loved to give. She donated to several charities that Rory knew of and spent hours every week trying to entice Rory to move in with her and Louise. She would buy them a three-story house in the Garden District, large enough so that they could all have private suites.

"I can afford it." She told Rory only last month. "You know I hit the adoption jackpot, and now that my mother and father are both gone, their money's just sitting there, waiting to be spent."

"But not on us." Rory had countered. "Take a Mediterranean cruise, Maddy. Meet men, flirt, dance, do something that doesn't involve dirt, fertilizer and root rot."

"I love my garden, and I don't know how to flirt." She started to take Rory's hand, but stopped herself as she invariably did. "I inherited a lot of money, Rory, more than Louise knows about or could ever finagle out of me."

"Invest it then and I don't mean in a bigger house."

"You don't want to move, do you?"

"Not really, I like my place."

"It's very nice, but it's so small. You can spread out or grow bushes or even many herbs. I know you're used to tiny spaces because of where you lived in San Francisco…"

Which had nothing to do with anything as far as Rory was concerned. Amused, she replied. "I grew up in suburbia, Maddy, not the backwoods. My parents left their hippie groove before I finished grade school. My mother actually went back to college and got her degree in philosophy."

"And now she's teaching at LSU." Madeline supplied.

"Was." Rory corrected. "She accepted a position at Florida State last fall, remember?"

"She moved away?"

Madeline appeared confused. Her short attention span and recall for details puzzled Rory. Louise called them day trips. Rory wondered if there might not be more to it than that.

She was thinking about Madeline as she unlocked the wrought iron gate at street level and climbed the outer stairs to her apartment. Her sister had actually located their biological father. The why of it aside, she gave her credit for persistence. By all accounts, including that of their natural mother, the man had died years ago.

"It feels like a thousand degrees." Louise complained. She had removed her leather jacket and now wore only a faux-leather halter top with her tight pants and spiky heels. "Maddy could be in trouble up to her big green eyeballs, and…" Her own eyes widened. "Why are your windows closed?"

"Because Amorin would jump out onto the porch. Then she'd dig up the courtyard or get hit by a car." Rory explained, smiling at the thought of her beloved cat. "The ceiling fans are on, but talk to me about Maddy, Louise. What did the police want from her?"

The question had a surly edge, Rory realized. Her experience with the New Orleans force as a whole hadn't been good. With one member in particular it proved disastrous.

But, that was a memory for another time, maybe twenty years from now.

It took three shoves, a kick and two thumps with her fist to open her apartment door. Thunder rumbled on the river and for a moment after she touched the light switch, Rory thought the power was going to fail.

"Just what we need in Hemmingway Central," Louise muttered. "A candlelight vigil." At the look from Rory, she kicked off her shoes. "Yeah I know, cut the chit-chat. What can I say? There's background stuff, I suppose, but we both know whatever went down in that plantation graveyard, Maddy didn't hit Stiles on the head and take off."

Rory tried the second light. It flickered but stayed on. "Is she a suspect?"

Louise fussed with her hair. "She's a person of interest at this point because like I said, she's the last person the cops know of who saw this guy alive. She saw him twice, so it looks a bit more suspicious. What's worse, she doesn't have an alibi for the time of the murder either."

"She met this guy twice?" Rory struggled to digest everything as she turned on her temperamental air conditioner.

"That's what she says. I didn't know about either meeting until the cops showed up tonight. My point is, you know some cops right?"

"Don't start." Rory warned.

Louise tapped impatient fingernails against the countertop. "Forget the past will you? You do know some cops. You could get information."

Rory could be stubborn too. "Louise, the only cops I knew have either quit or been reassigned."

"What about that prosecution lawyer you dated last year?"

"You want me to ask him to spy for us?"

"If necessary, yes. Look, I don't think you're clueing in here. This little scenario has the potential to go very bad, very fast."

"Do the police have a murder weapon?" Rory sighed, not liking this predicament one bit.

Louise shrugged. "I get the impression no. I think the sticking point is that several people at the restaurant where they ate heard Jason laughing-and not in a nice way. That's why Maddy got upset and took off. You know how lame she is at hiding her feelings."

"What did Jason do, professionally?"

"Businessman, big time. Made millions off insurance."

Rory leaned on the kitchen counter and stroked her white cat. "Powerful people tend to cultivate enemies." She mused.

Louise snorted. "Oh hell, I hear a cell. Is it mine or yours?" She reached for her bag and began to dig through it.

"Must be yours. My ring tone doesn't sound like a bad disco."

"It's Beethoven." Louise dug the phone out of her shoulder bag. "What is it? I'm busy."

If she hadn't seen it happen, Rory wouldn't have believed it was possible. In the span of five seconds, the blood had drained from Louise's face. Leaving her pasty white and gaping.

She hissed into the phone. "You can't be serious! When? Are you sure?" She rubbed a large circle into her temple. "Okay, let me think. Let me think." Her eyes open and slowly slid to Rory's face. "A lineup." She murmured. The fingers that had been rubbing the circle pointed to Rory. "Hey-yeah, it could work. It really could…what? Oh sure, I know the precinct. Thanks Dev., no just lock up and go home."

"Who was…" But Louise had already ended the call and began dragging Rory into her bedroom.

"Are you crazy?" Rory jerked her arm free. "Who was that?"

"The neighbors. The cops came again. Madeline's been taken in for further questioning." Louise eyed her sister, waiting for her signal to continue.

"Go on, I know there's worse to come."

"They have a witness."

"Someone saw Madeline murder Jason Stiles?"

"Apparently."

"That's ridiculous."

"No, that's New Orleans." Louise's eyes glittered. "You know the justice system, Rory. All it takes is one bad cop and you're screwed. He wants Maddy guilty, then bam, she's guilty."

"It's hardly that simple, Louise." Rory didn't want to go there in any case. "What's your point?"

"Look at you, Rory. Look at your face, look at your hair, dark, thick, long. Green green eyes. Gorgeous features."

Rory saw it coming, she might be a step behind, but it was only a baby step. "You and Madeline are ringers."

Rory resisted. "Louise, we're not…"

"To a stranger, you are." She caught Rory's glare and shrugged. "Well, you're close enough. Or at least you will be once I fix up your hair and you change into jeans and a pink t-shirt."

"Louise…" Rory began.

"Look, Madeline's our sister, you have to do this. And we both know whoever this witness is he or she is lying. Madeline doesn't even swat flies. She wouldn't hit a man on the head and kill him." Louise argued.

"Ugh…" Rory whined.

"Please, don't tell me you have an alibi for Sunday night."

"I don't need one."

"Stop being difficult. What did you do on Sunday?"

"I had dinner with Dolores at her place." Rory relented, knowing she would in the end.

Dolores Boyer was their natural grandmother and the only family member Madeline, Louise and Rory all got along with. She made her home north of New Orleans in the bayou and only came to the city when she absolutely had to.

"That's perfect." Louise arranged Rory's hair into a messy bun like Maddy always wore. "She'll go along with you once she finds out what's at stake. You were alone right?"

"Yes." Rory peered up at her sister. "Look, Louise…"

"There's no look. Our neighbor specifically said the word lineup. You have to be in it."

And no matter how much Rory protested or fought with Louise on this. Guilt and a sense of obligation meant that she would be. She'd call in the favor and end up in the lineup.

For some reason, Louise's words from earlier came back to taunt her. "For deeds long past chère child will reap, my vengeance curse of death-or worse."

For the first time since she heard in ten years ago, the malice behind it made Rory shiver.

All right, we're grooving now. This fic is gonna rock, I can feel it. So leave me a review and tell me what you think. The next chapter we meet our leading man. And you'll find out whom I chose.