Midnight Bayou Page #3

The little trouble you're having

with the former residents of the Hall.

Let me see your hands.

No, I gotta tell you

I'm a pretty reality-based kind of guy.

Humor an old lady.

Tell me where one is

and I'd be happy to.

Come on, now. Let me see them.

All right.

You got a strong hand, Declan.

Strong enough

that you changed your fate.

Took yourself a new road.

You have strong ties to Manet Hall.

You're not alone in there.

One force won't stop at anything

to get you out.

But there's another one...

...pushing you right back in.

Telling you a story.

But you better listen to it.

Most of all,

the parts you don't wanna hear.

Because if the story

doesn't change this time...

...you all stay stuck.

Time will stand still.

Watch doesn't tick.

Watch? What? What watch?

Everything keeps going around

in a circle to the same dark end.

How could Abigail leave her baby,

my grandma, behind?

How could Lucian take his own life

knowing his child needed him?

Shine the light, Declan.

Everything you're trying

to do here...

...it will all come to dust

if you don't make it right.

Make what right?

What are you talking about?

What game are you playing here?

Is this how you got the other owners

to run away with this nonsense?

Why do you think

you were called here, Mr. Fitzpatrick?

To open a legal clinic.

To help people.

plenty of people need help

in plenty of places.

Why are you here?

-Social Services said there's--

-Hey, look at this.

From the city archives,

Josephine Manet's will.

Getting to know

your ectoplasmic housemates?

Learning about my house.

Whatever you say.

This.

"Notarized December 1 st, 1 899."

After the baby was born.

A month

before Abigail disappeared.

"Let there be no mistaking my

intentions to bestow my entire estate...

...upon my youngest son, Julian.

Leaving nothing whatsoever

to the eldest, Lucian."

That would sure explain

why Abigail took off.

No inheritance,

no reason to stick around.

Baby, what is it?

We got no place to get married.

They just condemned the church.

There's some storm damage

they didn't catch.

We can get hitched at a bus stop

for all I care.

Don't tell that to my mother.

There's six conventions in town.

I called 1 00 places. There's nothing.

I know of a lovely

antebellum mansion...

-...that happens to be free.

-No, I cannot let you do this.

Did I say

it was open for discussion?

You are the most wonderful friend

anybody ever had.

-plus you look really hot in that suit.

-Don't go all gushy on him, Effie.

He's giving us the house...

...because he wants to make time

with the caterer.

Now, what is this lunacy?

Abandon all hope of getting away,

Lena Simone.

We are going on a date.

-Oh, Declan.

-First stop is your house...

...so you can change,

this being a formal affair and all.

No need for that.

I'll be right back.

Yo, you three, come here.

This will do.

That is a beautiful watch.

It was my grandma's grandma's.

I only wear it because it's pretty.

Not a jeweler in the state

can get it to work.

See?

The watch doesn't tick,

The watch doesn't tick?

Lena.

Do you believe in spirits...

...coming back to tell us stuff?

Have you been visiting

my grandma?

Are you using her to get to me?

I paid my neighbor a friendly visit.

That works.

Sometimes.

As for what I believe...

...well, I've never seen proof.

But it wasn't for lack of trying.

Okay.

There we go. Let's eat.

And drink.

Open some branches

of the restaurant...

...Lower Ninth, Gentilly, you know,

places where they need it the most.

Then maybe sell the whole thing

and travel...

...see what's in the next chapter.

You?

Get the legal clinic

up and running...

...Iearn enough ltalian

to read Dante in the original.

Get a couch for this room.

Have about seven or eight kids.

Lot of bedrooms in this place.

There's a lot of sadness

in this place.

My whole life, nobody ever stayed

more than a few months.

I just can't believe that Abigail

walked out on Lucian and the baby.

So you're acquainted

with our local legend.

It's quite a story.

And it's just a coincidence

she took off...

...two weeks

after the will got changed?

She read poetry with him.

You know this because...?

Because that's the story...

...that he loved poetry

and so did she.

Yeah, she cleared out, she took

all the jewelry and disappeared.

That's the story I grew up with.

Doesn't make it the truth.

So, what's your theory?

Mama Josephine, in the bayou,

with her hands around Abigail's neck.

No, if Josephine wanted to kill her,

why change the will?

Maybe it was Lucian who did it.

He knifed his brother.

How do you know

he didn't knife his bride?

police said he killed in self-defense.

Well, the Manets own the police.

What else were they gonna say?

Don't you believe in true love?

You're the one who left a girl

standing at the altar.

Maybe that's because

I do believe in true love.

Baby was only a few weeks old.

She wouldn't have walked out on it.

Her daughter.

You think mothers don't walk out

on their children?

I'm sorry about that. I--

I shouldn't have.

Always comes up

one way or another.

Where is she now?

How about

if you never stop doing that?

Could that be arranged?

Do you hear that?

You don't hear that?

The baby crying?

You're lucky you didn't kill yourself

fainting like that.

Come on, get up.

Guys don't faint, they pass out.

I own a bar. I know the difference

between fainting and passing out.

What was that about?

Nothing. I don't know.

You wanna get coffee?

Will you finish it this time?

Yes, Mama.

You don't fool me.

Was I trying to?

I know a glow when I see one.

Oh, no. That's my new skin toner.

So you don't wanna know

what Declan said to Remy?

Well, it isn't so much what he said

as how he said it.

Remy has never seen him like this.

Call him.

No way. You know the rules.

As if you ever lived by the rules

a second of your life.

Now, if he isn't worth an encore,

that would be something else.

Oh, he is definitely worth an encore.

Lena.

Somebody's here to see you.

In the office.

Like a bad penny.

Hey, baby.

What do you want?

I've got a yen to see you.

So I put myself on a bus.

Six over-air-conditioned hours

later...

...here I am.

Why don't you sit down and tell me

everything you've been up to.

I have to work.

Well, you own the place.

You can take off all the time you want.

I told you last time was the last time

you were getting money out of me.

I'm saying I'm sorry.

And I know I was bad,

but I am still your mama.

A cat spends more time with its litter

than you did with me.

I have to work and you have to go.

I got a plan this time.

I could work for you

until I get something permanent.

That way, you could keep your eye

on me so I don't screw up again.

I can stay with you

until I get a place of my own.

So I can come home

and find you turning tricks in my bed?

I was sick back then.

I'm clean now.

I'll take a blood test.

I'd take one now.

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