Read Online Hallowed Bones by Carolyn Haines - Free Book Online
Authors: Carolyn Haines
Tags: Fiction, General, Mystery & Detective, Women Sleuths, Mystery, Women Private Investigators, Single Women, Crimes against, Children, Mississippi, Women Healers, Delaney; Sarah Booth (Fictitious Character), Women Plantation Owners, Delaney; Sarah Booth (Fictitious Charater)
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exactly what she said."
"Then she said, 'And you're traveling down it at breakneck speed.'" It was a funny memory now. Back then she'd nearly scared us to death. I was caught between frenzied hormones, lack of real knowledge about sex, and total fear of a rogue sperm with superpowers.
"She looked totally insane," Cece recalled. "Her eyes were burning with that fervor that put me off religion once and for all."
"She was frightening."
"Remember what else she said?"
I did, but I'd rather have forgotten it.
"She said that God could smell sex on us. She said we reeked of it, and that we'd burn in hell."
"Now that's a series of images I'd rather not have in my head," I said. I had been kissing Roger Wayne Gillum that night and I went home and took six showers before I would allow Aunt LouLane near me. Lillith had truly scared me and most of my friends--but that was before we realized that Lillith was just a crazy old woman. I was thinking about the contrast between Doreen and Lillith. Doreen saw sex as the door to love. Lillith saw it as the threshold to hell.
I looked at Cece. "I wonder why no one ever locked her up?"
"Good question."
Cece eyed the Danish that I'd only taken two bites out of.
"Help yourself. Can we go to the records?"
"Of course, dahling. One should always take up activities that might make one blind just to help a friend."
Cece's fears were far overstated. I knew she wouldn't stay in the microfiche room and help me hunt. But she did get me started, and by
noon
, I'd found three references to Lillith Lucas. Two were notices of a tent revival where she was a featured preacher, and the third was a 1963 arrest for public drunkenness. That was it.
I left the newspaper a little disappointed, wondering what I'd hoped to find. None of this bore directly on Doreen, but somehow, I sensed a connection. Doreen had come to
Sunflower
County
to search out her past--to talk to her dead mama. There was a link here, I just wasn't sure what it was.
I was tempted to stop in at Millie's for lunch, but I went home instead. I called Tinkie and filled her in on what had happened, and she filled me in on the fact that she'd arranged for rooms for us at the Monteleone Hotel in the historic French Quarter of New Orleans for the next several days. She explained that the bank kept several suites of rooms at the hotel for official bank business, but we could use them. Tinkie came through in the most unexpected ways.
"What's got you grinnin' like a 'coon in the chicken house?" Jitty asked from behind me.
I sat down at my desk and took in her latest outfit.
In contrast to my khakis and olive-green cotton pullover, Jitty wore a bejeweled gown that shimmered with iridescence when she walked. It was a sack design and it looked as if she'd somehow bound her chest to fit into the boyish silhouette. Nonetheless, she was stunning.
"I'm going to
New Orleans
for a few days. Remind me to call Lee and ask her if she'll feed Reveler and Sweetie Pie." Lee was a fellow horse-lover who adored her daughter Kip and all creatures with four legs.
"I love
New Orleans
," Jitty said. "That's the town that invented sin and then turned it into an art form. There's not a single vice, from eatin' to drinkin' to shoppin' to sexy late afternoons, that ain't been improved on in
New Orleans
. When do we leave?"
"We?" It had never occurred to me that Jitty would follow me to the
Crescent
City
. Jitty was of Dahlia House. This was the only place I'd known her.
"I been to
New Orleans
. I went with
Alice
when she first married and Dahlia House was being built. We bought furniture and dishes, and they all had to be brought back up the
Mississippi River
and then carted overland in a wagon. I sat with all that china, cradling it in my arms like it was a sick baby."
I'd heard all the family stories of how Great-great-grandma Alice and the slave who'd been hired to be her nanny and who had become her best friend had seen to the design and decor of
"Then she said, 'And you're traveling down it at breakneck speed.'" It was a funny memory now. Back then she'd nearly scared us to death. I was caught between frenzied hormones, lack of real knowledge about sex, and total fear of a rogue sperm with superpowers.
"She looked totally insane," Cece recalled. "Her eyes were burning with that fervor that put me off religion once and for all."
"She was frightening."
"Remember what else she said?"
I did, but I'd rather have forgotten it.
"She said that God could smell sex on us. She said we reeked of it, and that we'd burn in hell."
"Now that's a series of images I'd rather not have in my head," I said. I had been kissing Roger Wayne Gillum that night and I went home and took six showers before I would allow Aunt LouLane near me. Lillith had truly scared me and most of my friends--but that was before we realized that Lillith was just a crazy old woman. I was thinking about the contrast between Doreen and Lillith. Doreen saw sex as the door to love. Lillith saw it as the threshold to hell.
I looked at Cece. "I wonder why no one ever locked her up?"
"Good question."
Cece eyed the Danish that I'd only taken two bites out of.
"Help yourself. Can we go to the records?"
"Of course, dahling. One should always take up activities that might make one blind just to help a friend."
Cece's fears were far overstated. I knew she wouldn't stay in the microfiche room and help me hunt. But she did get me started, and by
noon
, I'd found three references to Lillith Lucas. Two were notices of a tent revival where she was a featured preacher, and the third was a 1963 arrest for public drunkenness. That was it.
I left the newspaper a little disappointed, wondering what I'd hoped to find. None of this bore directly on Doreen, but somehow, I sensed a connection. Doreen had come to
Sunflower
County
to search out her past--to talk to her dead mama. There was a link here, I just wasn't sure what it was.
I was tempted to stop in at Millie's for lunch, but I went home instead. I called Tinkie and filled her in on what had happened, and she filled me in on the fact that she'd arranged for rooms for us at the Monteleone Hotel in the historic French Quarter of New Orleans for the next several days. She explained that the bank kept several suites of rooms at the hotel for official bank business, but we could use them. Tinkie came through in the most unexpected ways.
"What's got you grinnin' like a 'coon in the chicken house?" Jitty asked from behind me.
I sat down at my desk and took in her latest outfit.
In contrast to my khakis and olive-green cotton pullover, Jitty wore a bejeweled gown that shimmered with iridescence when she walked. It was a sack design and it looked as if she'd somehow bound her chest to fit into the boyish silhouette. Nonetheless, she was stunning.
"I'm going to
New Orleans
for a few days. Remind me to call Lee and ask her if she'll feed Reveler and Sweetie Pie." Lee was a fellow horse-lover who adored her daughter Kip and all creatures with four legs.
"I love
New Orleans
," Jitty said. "That's the town that invented sin and then turned it into an art form. There's not a single vice, from eatin' to drinkin' to shoppin' to sexy late afternoons, that ain't been improved on in
New Orleans
. When do we leave?"
"We?" It had never occurred to me that Jitty would follow me to the
Crescent
City
. Jitty was of Dahlia House. This was the only place I'd known her.
"I been to
New Orleans
. I went with
Alice
when she first married and Dahlia House was being built. We bought furniture and dishes, and they all had to be brought back up the
Mississippi River
and then carted overland in a wagon. I sat with all that china, cradling it in my arms like it was a sick baby."
I'd heard all the family stories of how Great-great-grandma Alice and the slave who'd been hired to be her nanny and who had become her best friend had seen to the design and decor of
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