A Dish Best Served Cold Part 2

Written by Soar

Jean-Luc LeBeau, glorious leader of the New Orleans Thieves Guild and LeBeau Clan Leader sat in his study. He no longer even pretended to study the reports scattered all over his desk. He jumped as a knock sounded at the door.

"Oui?" he called out, his heart missing a beat.

It was Tante Mattie. His shoulders slumped again. "'Allo Tante, what can I do fo' you?" he asked the elderly woman.

"Not'in you can do for me Jean-Luc, what can I do fo' you?" she asked him instead.

"I don' know what you mean Tante"

"Don' lie t'me boy. I had you over my knee when you was jus' a boy-chile. I know that somethin's got you all riled up, only yo' not talkin' 'bout it. Now tell me wha's wrong and we see if we can' deal wit' de problem."

Jean-Luc sighed. He opened his mouth about to tell her his suspicions when there was another knock at the door.

"Oui?" he called out.

This time Thierry Thibodeux entered. Jean-Luc sat up straighter in his chair. "Salut Thierry. You got de paper? Good. De results I asked for?"

Thierry shook his head. "I'm sorry Jean-Luc, de hair attached is Remy's we ran de results twice to make sure. But dere is no error. The hair attached to de paper was taken from Remy."

Tante hissed in shock. "Wha's goin' on Jean-Luc, what dat boy got hisself into now?"

Jean-Luc buried his head in his hands. "It's all my fault Tante. Dis was done to hurt me."

"How?" Tante Mattie asked.

Jean-Luc ignored her. "Thierry what about de letter. Anything? I didn' t'ink dere would be but it was worth de try. Fine. You can go, but would you ask Pierre to come in on de way out please. Tante Mattie, please just a moment. I have to organize a meeting and den everyt'in' will be explained.

 ------------------------------------------------------------------------

Belladonna Bordreaux absentmindedly picked up the phone as it rang.

"Hello," she said.

"Belladonna," the voice at the other end said simply.

Bella gasped at the outrageousness of this call. "Jean-Luc LeBeau, dis is a private line you know," she said coolly.

"Belladonna, I need t'call the councils together. Tonight."

"You take a little too much upon yourself Monsieur LeBeau." Bella could feel anger starting to form as a hard knot in her chest.

"It's Remy…" The anger melted away. "Belladonna?" Jean-Luc continued after the long pause.

"Midnight." Bella said simple and hung up. Picking up the phone again Bella dialed another number. "Justine? Call the council together for a meeting tonight."

 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Although the Guild’s happily utilized modern technology for their work, some things were still bound by tradition, and this was one of them.

A meeting of the two Guilds could only take place on sacred ground. Ground that neither side would dare violate. So the church that bordered their two territories in the Bayou was often used for such clandestine meetings.

The meetings also took place in full robes with only torch lit sconces to light the way.

As Belladonna and the council of the Guild of Assassins approached the small room at the back of the church her lips pursed in annoyance. The lights flickering under the doorway gave away the fact that the Thieves had already arrived.

She pushed the door open and entered, her chin up and her eyes flashing fire. She was about to make a scathing remark but stopped when she noticed the atmosphere in the room, and in particular Jean-Luc LeBeau, who as Leader of the Guild of Thieves sat at one end of the large table.

He looked old, Bella thought at once, and then tired, defeated. What could have happened to make this seemingly invincible man a mere shadow of his former self. Belladonna felt tendrils of fear snake their way through her heart. Jean-Luc had said something about Remy on the phone. What had happened to him then that could do this to the LeBeau Clan Leader.

Instead she took her place at the other end of the table, the rest of her council taking their places around the table.

"May I ask what is so important dat you have called us all here tonight?" she began coolly.

Jean-Luc sighed. "My son, Remy has been taken…"

He got no further as the council of the assassins began shouting out what that had to do with them.

"Who took him?" Bella asked and her voice pierced the melee.

"Ellis McCarthy," LeBeau replied.

Belladonna frowned. The name seemed familiar. It teased the edges of her memory, but she did not get chance to ask the Thieves leader to elaborate.

"How? Dat was taken care of years ago, he was never supposed to bot’er us again." This was from Pierre Dubois, one of the eldest and wisest members of her council.

"Dere was a fire at de mental home and she escaped. We can only assume it was his work. I do not know how he tracked her down t’ough. Dat location was supposed to be secure."

Illumination flooded Belladonna’s mind. That Ellis McCarthy. The one that had temporarily united the two Guilds against his greedy grasp. The Guilds had united to take care of the problem. They had decided finally that it would be better to leave him alive and to teach there other competitors a valuable lesson, so the man’s daughter had been taken and hidden away from him. They had ensconced her in a mental institution and paid to keep it all very quiet.

So how had he found her.

"What do you propose to do about it?" Pierre asked Jean-Luc.

Jean-Luc turned a hard gaze on the Assassin and he flinched at the intensity, and the rage he saw suppressed.

"I intend to retrieve my son and teach dis man a lesson dat he will remember always."

And the meeting began in earnest.

End of Part 2