Mac, Bobby, and Chief Atkins had assembled all the officers that they could in the area of the Third Street Pier. They paired the officers, and began a search of each building from Third Street down to River Road and across Mulberry Avenue to the river. Eight teams of two officers each, prepared to search about one hundred buildings. They began the search which would take quite a while.
Adam and Toney returned to the Third street Pier and related what they had learned from Calvin. Armed with the new information, and things starting to point more toward Doc Baker and Kara, Chief Atkins spoke up. “Wait, wait, guys. Listen up. Who owns the old mill property? And who owns the old abbatoir?” No one spoke up. “Bobby, take a couple of guys with you, go to the city hall. I don’t care what you have to do, but you get in that City Clerk’s office, to the property records. I want to know who owns those two buildings, and I want to know if Doc Baker owns any of these buildings in the search area. You got that, Pitt.?”
“Yes, sir Chief.” Bobby replied. Bobby looked at Pete Green, “Come on Pete, and bring the ’Bird’ with you, referring to officer Sparrow by his nickname. Captain Shelby, can you send someone to rouse up the city clerk from his home, and have him meet us at his office, asap. Tell him if he is not there in twenty minutes, we’re gonna kick the door down.”
“You betcha, Pitt.” the Captain replied. The three officers left for City Hall.
No one noticed when the old homeless man, Ricky, walked away from the pier area. As soon as he was out of sight of the officers at the pier, he began to run toward Mumford Street and the leather tanning factory, located at Mumford St and the river. It was just around the corner from the High Cotton Club, and the opposite direction of the search.
Ella was lying on the table, wearing the yellow dress. Andre stood there staring at Ella. He was startled when the door upstairs opened. Jacque ran over to the stairs trying to see who had entered the leather tanning factory. Andre took his knife out of its protective sheath and hid in the darkness next to the stairs. They saw a flicker of light as a match was struck and a lantern was lighted. The sound of footsteps on the stairs caused a fear to manifest in the wheel pit. Ella tried to turn to look. The light got closer, and then a short slender older man appeared at the foot of the stairs. “For the love of Pete, Ricardo, you scared the crap out of us.” Jacque said as he let go of a deep breath.
Ella listened to the men as they talked about Doc Baker and Kara. But who was Ricardo, Ella wondered? She didn’t understand all of what was taking place but she was beginning to put together some of the facts. Ricardo Gomez was the third man. He was a Haitian emigrant and lived in New Orleans. Jacque and Andre were also from New Orleans.
“We have a change of plans,” Ricardo started out. “We have to take ‘her’ elsewhere.” He said referring to Ella. Jacque looked sternly at Ricardo, “Why do that?” he said angrily. In a loud voice Ricardo chastised Jacque. “You don’t question me! Do you understand? You simply do as you are told, is that clear, Monsieur le Faun?” Jacque did not respond to him, but went about what he was doing previously. Andre laughed. Jacque finally turned back to Ricardo, “just where will we be taking her?”
“That will be determined by the Priestess.” Ricardo answered. The Priestess? Ella thought of the Priestess they had dealt with in the Latin area of East St. Louis. “Be ready by sundown,” Ricardo said. “I’ll find out the plan and let you know.”
After Adam and Toney had reported to Chief Atkins and Mac, they left to visit dress shops. Their objective was to find out where the yellow dress had come from, if it was purchased in St. Louis. It was about three in the afternoon, and most of the shops would close around six. A few of the shops were storefront with apartments on the second floor. They would wait on these until the others had closed. According to the St. Louis police and fire listings there were forty-one shops that were specifically dress shops and quite a few more general store and emporium style shops. They had to check them all. They started at the intersection of Mumford Street and Depot Street, planning to go down Depot Street and make a big circle checking all the shops that were off on side streets. They had checked about a dozen shops, when they went into Becky’s Emporium on Elm Street. The owner of the shop, Becky Barnes was not there, but her daughter Diane was glad to try and help them. “We are trying to find a shop that sold a yellow Victorian style dress recently.” Adam began to say. Diane spoke up, “oh yes. We had one that stayed in the display window for quite a long time. You know with the new styles coming in we don’t sell a lot of those dresses now. Why this one had been here so long, I didn’t think we would ever sell it. Do you know this customer didn’t even try to get it discounted, just pulled out the money and paid for it? That dress was eight dollars. Why I would have discounted that dress down to about three dollars, but the guy didn’t even ask.”
“Yes, ma’am, Ms. Diane. I understand what you’re saying, but we are more interested in the buyer.” Adam managed to say.
Diane started back up. “Well he was a middle aged man, and his hairline was receding a little. I think that makes a man kinda sexy, don’t you? Why, your hairline is starting to recede a little bit too. Ooo, I like that.”
“Yes, Ma’am, okay. Well I don’t know. Yes Ma’am.” Adam managed to once again slip in another comment.
Off she went again. “Well this feller, he was dressed real nice, and really seemed like a nice feller. He said he was getting it for his daughter, for a special ceremony. Why he didn’t even ask what size it was. Yeah, Becky took it out of the window and put it in a box for him. He paid for it and left.”
When she stopped to breathe, Adam jumped in. “so he paid for the dress, left and you haven’t seen him since?”
Once again, Diane got started up, “Oh no, he came by about three days ago, asking for another dress in that style and I told him, we sure did. He looked at it and said no, it had to be yellow. I told him to check down the street with Annie Porter, that she might have one.”
Adam raised his hand to slow her a little, spoke to Toney, “You get a good description from her, and I will go down the street to Porter’s General Store and talk to Annie.”
Toney gave Adam one of those disgusted looks, knowing he wanted to get away from Diane as soon as possible. Diane was still talking to Adam as he rushed out the door, but she immediately turned her attention to Toney. “Are all the fellers down there at that police station as cute as you two?” Toney sighed when she accented the ‘po’ in police, thinking how country-like she spoke.
Adam hurried down to Porter’s to catch Annie before she went home. Annie and Adam were schoolmates and had always been good friends. Adam entered the general store and spotted Annie. She was talking to Rufus Jenkins, one of the local farmers. “Excuse me Mr. Jenkins,” Adam injected into their conversation.
“Well, Hello Adam, How are you?” Mr. Jenkins said.
“I am good, sir. How are you? Annie, I have an emergency and I need you.” Adam said.
“You go right ahead Ms. Annie. I hope everything is ok, Adam.” Mr. Jenkins replied.
Adam took Annie by the arm and began to pull her to the side. “Adam, what is wrong. Is everything okay?” Annie nervously asked.
“Annie,” Adam began, “Mac O’Hara’s wife, Ella, has been kidnapped. We are trying to find her before…" and he stopped right there.
“Oh Adam, no. how can I help.” Annie was very upset. She knew Ella well. She was a very good customer. “What can I do?” Annie cried.
“A few days ago, Diane, at Becky’s emporium, sent a fellow here. He was looking for a yellow, Victorian style dress. Do you remember him?” Adam inquired.
“Why, yes.” Annie replied. “I had one yellow one. It was in a larger size, but he didn’t even ask the size, just paid for it and left.”
“Annie, tell me everything you remember about him.” Adam said.
Annie began, “I am five feet, six inches and he was my height, maybe slightly taller. He was very slender, maybe about one-hundred fifty pounds, he had dark hair, slightly receding hair line.”
“Kind of like mine?” Adam injected.
”Yes, like yours.” Annie said.
“Kind of sexy,” Adam said disgustedly.
“What Adam?”
“Oh never mind.” Adam said. “Go ahead Annie” “He had a thin moustache, and an accent, I think it was French. And Adam, he wasn’t alone. There was another man with him. He waited with the wagon. He was a much bigger fellow, and had the appearance of possibly being Cajun.”
“Thanks Annie, thanks.” Adam squeezed her hand. “That’s a big help.” He turned to leave, and Annie stopped him.
“Adam, one more thing.”
“Yes, Annie. What is it?”
“You know I am a horse lady, one of the two horses pulling the wagon, had a completely white face, and one blue eye.”