Ch.15 (No) Southern Comfort

[Silver Priest]

Alex takes a swig of his coffee and answers the phone. "Detective Reynolds speaking."

[Mr. Handy]

"It's William Preston," says William. "I just got a newspaper clipping in the mail from an old friend in Louisiana who helped Lawrence and me get out of a bad situation. Georgie Livingstone, Emily's brother, had disappeared down there, but he's just been found, though the locals don't know who he is yet. Lawrence is coming over to my place at noon, and we'd like to join us. Miss Ripley too if she's interested."

[Silver Priest]

Alex's good mood fades. "Oh. Yes, hello William." He already wasn't fond of the man for the world he had led him into. The lawyer's cowardly actions during their last incursion had grown that into dislike. Still, no reason to be uncivil. He takes a deep breath.

"This does seem like the sort of affair a police officer would be well suited for. I assume this is some sort of unusual situation you think I would be well suited for? I'm not entirely sure we should bring Ms. Ripley, if so. She had a tough go of it last time, and I would hate for her recovery to be compromised. but her skills could be most useful here... I'll give her a call, I suppose. Until then."

He ends the call before dialing Ivy's number. He hopes he's doing the right thing here, but he knows she'd never forgive him if he neglected to contact her.

"Good morning, Ms. Ripley. It's Detective Reynolds... Alex. I hope you are well. I just received a call from Mr. Preston. Something about an old friend of him and Lawrence turning up after being missing for some time. It sounds as though they're planning to go see him and asked if we wanted to come along."

[jp1885]

“Oh! Um…” Ivy is momentarily flustered, but recovers with her usual acerbity. “You know full well that you can call me Ivy; um, Alex.”

“A missing persons case? Well, the warmer climate would do me the world of good, I’m sure. Count me in.”

She puts down the receiver for a moment, half excited, half horrified. What had she just committed herself to?

[Mr. Handy]

William makes sure that lunch is prepared before his guests arrive.

[Bullfrog]

A heavy-handed knock on the door announces Lawrence's arrival at William's house before he lets himself in.
"I've delivered the news," Lawrence says, a pensive expression on his face. "I managed to convince Ms. Livingstone not to accompany us on our trip, which I think is for the better. You know as well as I do how dangerous this stuff is... I've outlived more people than any man my age ought to."

[Mr. Handy]

"That makes two of us," says William. "I wouldn't want to drag her into this. It would, at the very least, set her back. Lunch is ready, so help yourself."

[Silver Priest]

Alex is the next to arrive, having picked up Ivy if she proved agreeable.

"Hello Mr. Preston." He says with a brief nod. "Mr. Gilman. Very glad to see you feeling better. I am... sorry, for your brother. I wish I had been a bit faster. He'd be standing here today if I was." He admits with a sigh, one of someone who had relieved a terrible moment his fair share of times hoping for a different conclusion.

[jp1885]

Ivy nods curtly, unsure how to feel about meeting William and Lawrence - both reminders of an extremely unpleasant experience - again.

“Gentlemen, I trust you are well. Ale- Detective Reynolds contacted me to assist you in your problem.”

She forces herself to suppress a shudder at the mention of Lawrence’s brother.

“I too am sorry for your loss,” she says, memories of a Molotov cocktail sailing towards that horrible snake man flooding into her head.

[Bullfrog]

"Jerry was a good man, or at least a better one than he would ever admit, and if I had lived a different life I would say that his death was the worst thing that ever happened to me. But he knew the risks of my business, and I know that you did what you could, Reynolds. Like I said in France thirteen years ago: we all lose the people we love, and we all have to live with it." Lawrence divulges, looking hollow and resigned; his experiences clearly weighed heavily on his mind, and judging from his sunken eyes, he hadn't been getting much sleep at all.
"This isn't a very happy luncheon at all. We should probably talk about what we were all called in here for, the Louisiana business."

[Mr. Handy]

"Yes, you're right," says William, who doesn't know what happened to Jerry after he got out of the tunnels. "Though the Louisiana business was unpleasant in its own right. We barely got out of there alive, and that was in large part thanks to Oscar the cab driver. He's the one who sent me these clippings." He shows them to the others. "This man is Georgie Livingstone, Emily's brother. We met him down there, but he didn't get out with us."

[Philulhu]

Just in case anyone hasn’t seen the cutting:

[jp1885]

I can’t remember if anyone told Ivy what happened in Louisiana, but if they did, a bout of insanity and a kick in the head from a horse has probably dislodged the information.

“What exactly happened in Louisiana?” Ivy asks. “More specifically, what happened to Mr. Livingstone?”

[Silver Priest]

"I would like to hear this as well," Alex says. "Perhaps over lunch-- I confess I'm famished."

[Mr. Handy]

"Of course, help yourselves," says William, gesturing to the food laid out for them. "Well, Louisiana was really bad. I'm not looking forward to going back. Of course the train ride back was probably worse. It was in Louisiana that we ran into Brophy. We went down there hunting for him, and we ran into a whole mess of trouble."

[jp1885]

"Ugh, that horrible man," says Ivy with a shudder. "I sincerely hope he got his commupance.

"As painful as it might be to recount - we've had some horrible experiences recently - what trouble? How did Livingstone fit it?" she asks, reaching daintily for a morsel.

[Bullfrog]

"Brophy is dealt with forever; beaten and burnt in the past, beaten and burnt in the future. He's an even worse man than you think he was." Lawrence grits his teeth in resentment, recalling the death he was forced to give to James Fraser; he'd had nightmares about it for weeks, returned in his dreams to that stretch of backwoods road.
"We weren't the only ones hunting the Brophy brothers. Georgie was following behind us - we met him at the hotel - and a local gang of snake-worshippers got the drop on us all. We were outnumbered and forced to surrender, after which they hauled us off to their church to keep us prisoner in the basement. Brophy was being held down there, along with James. I could barely recognize him, Brophy had made him into... Into something. We had to work with Brophy to escape and steal a truck, but we lost track of Georgie somewhere in the commotion. While we were driving away..." Lawrence hesitates. He doesn't want to talk about what happened next. "Brophy turned James into something worse. I had to kill him, it was his life or ours. I put a rag in the truck's gas tank, lit it on fire, and beat Brophy to death in a ditch while James burned. I once thought it was the worst thing I would ever experience. I have been proven wrong."
It goes without saying that Lawrence doesn't seem very interested in his lunch.

[Silver Priest]

"Brophy was irredeemable," Alex says with conviction. "I nearly gave him my body to possess to get us home, but thankfully his plan was foiled at the last moment."

He listens to Lawrence's tale. "Snake worshipers?" It's alarming to know yet another group of evil cultists were out there and as far as he knew still active. "It sounds like there are many of them. If they're still in the area we and Mr. Livingstone, could be in grave danger. We also must consider that they let him escape to lure you all back." He thinks for a moment. "Do you have any evidence we could use to bring to the authorities?"

[Mr. Handy]

"In Terrebonne Parish, they were the authorities," says William. "The Sheriff there was in on it. We can talk to the Sheriff in Baton Rouge about Georgie, but he has no jurisdiction in Terrebonne. Let's just hope we don't have to set foot there, and that nobody from there comes to Baton Rouge. The only evidence we have is our eyewitness testimony."

[jp1885]

“Snakes…”

Ivy shivers, putting down her fork.

“I assume you got separated from Livingstone? How so?”