Chapter 7

I Want Him

Church bells.

The first thing Lu noticed was sound of church bells. It was quickly followed by a dank, musty smell that reminded her of her Daddy's hunting cabin. Mother wouldn't be caught dead out there is why she loved it so much. Funny, the cottage was nowhere near church. This wasn't right. Instead of soft tick mattress underneath she felt the rough, hardness of old masonry. She remembered boarding a paddle-wheeler to finish her wedding trip to New Orleans with her new husband, Matt. Woodrow was there...then...

Panic overrode her normally cool demeanor. She sat up with a rush. Darkness; she couldn't see a thing. She stifled a scream.

Soon her eyes adjusted to the pale light of her surroundings. Four stone walls. And a door! Lu scrambled from where she lay. She fell on her hands and knees when she toppled to the floor. She ignored the scrapes on her hands and ran to the door. There were voices on the other side...

"Why is she still breathing?"

She knew that voice...but where?

"Have you seen her?"

The second voice wasn't familiar.

"Of course, do you take me for an idiot!"

The harsh bite of the New England accent made Lu jump back. Lu remembered where she heard that voice before. It was in her father's study. Mr. Pollack from Boston. He wanted her father to invest in his shipping business. Daddy never did business with people he didn't know. He politely refused and sent Mr. Pollack packing. That was of course after a party her family hosted on the eve of her wedding. There were so few eligible handsome men in attendance Lu begged for him to come. If only to make Matt a little jealous. He's so attentive when he's jealous.

"Then you'll agree with me that she's worth more alive than dead..." the second voice drawled. "That hair alone with fetch a top price out in Frisco. You know how they like their blondes."

"Very well. You'll have to handle the arrangements yourself. I have business here and I'd getting impatient..."

There was silence for a second. Lu thought maybe they walked away. She pounded the heels of her hands against the door...

"LET ME OUT! Please, I beg you!"

"Shut her up," Pollack said. "Or I will..."

"SHUT UP IN THERE! OR I'LL SHUT YOU UP!"

Lu realized her mistake and backed away from the door. In the dim light she groped for purchase behind her and came upon the platform she was laying. It was at that moment she realized her jail cell was in actuality a mausoleum. She was in a crypt...

She couldn't stop her scream if she had too.


Jordan shifted from one hip to the other making her rented hoop and Swiss-dotted organza sway out of control. "Oh give me a break Nigel! Isn't holding the kidnapped bride in a crypt just a little bit over kill?"

Nigel harrumphed. "I'm telling this story. Next time you step up to the plate with Party Disaster Plan B..."

Jordan rolled her eyes to assure everyone present this would be her first and LAST costumed murder mystery party.

"You have to admit the other guy had a point," Matt gesturing with his soda can. "If they could get a good price for her at the brothel why waste it? The only tragedy I could see was the poor bridegroom was going to cut out of the profit..."

Lily gasped and slapped Matt on the arm with her fuchsia feather fan "I can't believe you just said that!"

"I can't either," Lu smirked. "I wonder if that constitutes grounds for a divorce."

Even Garret chuckled at that.

"Right, right," Woody cut in impatiently, a little upset that Nigel's story was interrupted. "What happened next? Did the Pinkerton guy have a plan?"

"No," Nigel beamed, beginning to weave his tale again. "Actually, it was our hero ..."


Nigel paced the length of the main dining room as he spoke. Bug, Lily, Jordan and a few choice members of the crew listened ardently.

"The plan is simple. Jordan agrees to Pollack's demands only on her terms."

"Which are?" Bug asked.

"He has to win a card game first..." Jordan volunteered.

At first, everyone in the room looked at Jordan and Nigel as if they had lost there minds. A smug smile crossed Lily's lips as it dawned on her what Nigel's plan would entail.

"The one thing JD desires more than anything is to win," Jordan explained. "We are going to host a by-invitation-only event, here on The Marker, when we hit port in New Orleans. The prize is the boat and everything on board her."

"I don't understand," Bug interrupted. "Why rest the fate of all our livelihoods on a turn of the cards..."

Nigel smiled. "Because we're going to control that fate ourselves."

"We're going to grift him?"

"Come on Buggles, we've been doing it just for fun for months now. The system is fool proof. All we need to do is make sure Pollack and I are playing that last hand. He'll never know what hit him. He'll be too embarrassed to try anything again."

"Or Jordan could be the next woman dead...I don't know."

"It's not your choice to make Bug," Jordan said standing up. "Now if you'll excuse me, I'm sure the local officials have finished talking to Mr. Hoyt and Mr. Seeley about Mrs. Seeley disappearance."

"I heard a rumor that Mr. Hoyt and Mrs. Seeley were looking pretty familiar on deck before dinner," Lily stated matter-of-factly. "Do they think that maybe he had something to do with her disappearance?"

Jordan shrugged. When the alarm went up that Tallulah Seeley was missing, Jordan's immediate reaction was to look for the pretty blonde in the company of her unwelcome passenger. Instead, she found Woody the main lounge engaged in a friendly card game with four of the people in that very room. If the circumstances weren't so grave she would have questioned the Pinkerton's seemingly cavalier evening with her friends. Instead, she was oddly relieved he had an alibi...and Nigel too.

"I don't know, but I do know it's out of my control. We need to concentrate on flushing JD out and bringing this nightmare to an end..."

Jordan squared her shoulders as she left the room. Nigel had seen that pose many times before. And it broke his heart every time. Jordan was probably the strongest woman he'd ever met. He loved her beyond reason...but he didn't love her. He was sure the feeling was mutual. In all the time he's known her, the beautiful Miss Cavanaugh trusted him with a grain of salt. She was putting her fate completely in his hands and it scared the hell out of her.


For the second time in a week Woody helped search the boat from stem to stern looking for a missing woman, this time they didn't find her. She simply wasn't on board. The local authorities deduced that her disappearance could very well be unrelated to the other missing women. After all, the prime suspect in the killings was still behind bars up river.

Woody couldn't be sure. This could very well be a straight forward kidnapping. Apparently, Mr. Seely was from a large publishing family. He voiced concerns that maybe someone in his family was involved. With his marriage, Matt stood to inherit a large interest in the company. Deep down inside, Woody couldn't totally rule out that maybe Lu had staged this herself. He can remember she was given to dramatics and assuming the reactions of others.

He left Mr. Seely onshore waiting for her to contact him...or to receive the ransom demand. There was nothing much left for him to do. He needed to get to New Orleans and follow his lead. With Bug piloting the boat they steamed toward the delta. Woody caught up with Jordan on the forward deck.

"How are you holding up?"

Jordan looked at him like he just suggested that she should take off all her clothes and hop like a chicken.

"Very well under the circumstances Mr. Hoyt," she bit out, staring out at the river before her.

Woody smiled at the chill. "Don't tell me you're still mad about yesterday..."

"Don't concern yourself Mr. Hoyt. As distasteful as being held against my will was, I have more important things to worry about..."

"Good. You can tell me right where to find this Pollack when we dock in New Orleans."

"Here."

"What?"

Jordan turned her attention away from the river and to the man beside her. "While we're in port I'm going to host a by-invitation-only high stakes poker tournament."

"How do you know he'll be there?"

"Because the grand prize is my boat..."

"WHAT! I don't have a case on him yet! I can't arrest him."

As Woody's voice rose with his temper, Jordan's stayed cool and unemotional. "I didn't ask you to."

"You can't be serious."

"He'll jump at the chance to make me look like a fool in front of the cream of his contemporaries."

"Just like that. You're going to let him waltz on board and get away with all this..."

"I have no intentions on letting him win, Mr. Hoyt..."

"How...? Never mind. You're merry little band of con-artists are planning on fixing the tournament."

"It's just the matter of getting Nigel in front of him for that last hand."

"You're crazy."

"No sir, I'm just tired of fighting."

"It'll never work."

"It has to...or who's to say how many more people will die."


Jordan pawned her ruby necklace to bankroll the tournament. It broke her heart, but she was pleased to see the handful of businessman she invited in attendance. The forward lounge sparkled with freshly polished fixtures, gleaming stemware, and flowing champagne. The first few hands were already underway when she stepped in the room. She dressed with care that night. Her hair was piled high and garnished with deep burgundy feathers that matched her gown perfectly. JD once said it was his favorite color on her. She didn't want him to miss her when she walked in the room...

...and she wasn't disappointed.

With cat like grace, JD slowly made his way across the room toward her. The way he moved was one of the things that first attracted her to him. His rugged good looks and impeccable charm left a trial of broken hearts where ever he went...hers included. Even though she knew what kind of man he was, Jordan couldn't help but feel her heart flutter just a little when he stopped in front of her.

"Rosebud," he smiled taking her ungloved hand. Instead of kissing the back he turned it over and kissed the palm. "I was delighted to get your invitation."

From across the room, Woody witnesses the exchange. He had weaseled himself in the game by threatening to disclose their plan. He knew he wasn't the only set of eyes watching the twosome with keen interest.

So this was Pollack. Woody had sized the man up earlier. His face looked like it had met the lethal end of a barroom fist more than once. His clothes were impeccable but his hands were rough like a man that didn't mind getting them dirty. Woody had a bad feeling about this whole situation.

Jordan gave JD a smile designed to put him at ease, at least as far as polite society was concerned. She didn't miss the way he watched her lips. She already had the upper hand and she meant to keep it.

Pollack asked her to sit with him for luck, but Jordan graciously declined telling him that it wouldn't be fair to her other guests.

"I plan to win Jordan," he whispered in her ear.

She ignored the challenge in his voice. "There are a dozen other man in this room that would beg to differ."

"But they're not playing for the same reason I am."

"Then I guess you'd better play your best game." Her laugh left him hard as a rock.

Jordan walked over the bar and asked for glass of champagne as play resumed. She left the glass untouched on the bar because her hands were shaking so hard. Lily stood on the small stage singing a ballad about unrequited love in the key of "C" letting Bug, the acting busboy; know that Nigel's opponent was looking at an inside straight.

Jordan found it impossible to relax even as Nigel's pot grew. One by one the players that had been disqualified, including Woody, had started side games biding their time until a champion had been named. Every once in awhile, Jordan could feel Woody's eyes on her. It was like he could tell she was ready to explode and was offering her some kind of support. Whatever it was, it made her more self conscious and she wished he would stop.

Just after midnight the final table was beginning to be prepared. As the final hands were being played, side bets were placed and brandy flowed freely. Jordan noticed Woody was acting quite drunk even though she had only seen his glass filled once all evening. It was all she could do not to demand to know why he was tormenting her so. When Woody staggered over to the stage and began to "sing" with Lily. Jordan couldn't take it anymore.

"Mr. Hoyt," she hissed. "I believe you have imbibed a bit much. Why don't I call a steward to escort you to your stateroom?"

"Patience darlin'. You'll just have to wait until Miss Lily and I are done with our duet," Woody said drunkenly, "and then you and I can somewhere quiet an make our own music."

Jordan tried to roll away in disgust, only to be stopped as he gently caught her wrist Woody's voice was oddly sober sounding when he whispered in her ear, "Pollack has been watching Nigel like a hawk the last few hands. I think he's getting suspicious."

Jordan's jaw drop and she turned to look, but Woody was quick to cover. He was unsteady on his feet as he pulled her against him, snaking his free arm around her waist. As she gasped in protest he dropped his lips on hers with a loud, sloppy kiss.

Jordan reacted by delivering a resounding slap across his face. She barely heard the chuckles around that room, nor the comments that he wouldn't remember it in the morning. She was so upset with him that she barely noticed the last two tables were finished playing and the final pairing had been named.

As tradition, the final game was played on a fresh table with a new deck of cards. JD lit a thin cigar as he watched the dealer open the deck. He looked at Jordan throw the haze of the smoke and said, "Why don't we make a little side bet of our own, Rosebud?"

"I should think my boat would be enough."

JD rolled the cigar in his mouth for a second before he said, "No. If your player wins I kick in my winnings so far. At last count it was just under twenty thousand..."

"And if you win?"

"You become mine. For one night."

Jordan locked eyes with Nigel, completely ignoring Woody's drunken outburst about JD keeping the money because he was sure his balls would surely freeze off.

Trying to feed off her friend's confident stare, she said, "I accept."

"One more thing," JD drawled. "I'm not comfortable playing with your sharp. As your guest, I demand to choose another player..."

"Of course," Jordan said looking over heads for Bug. He was the only other man in the room that knew the code.

JD pointed to Woody, who was looking to everyone in the room, like he was ready to pass out. "I want him."