CHAPTER 4: CONSPIRATION?

Another day dawns in New Orleans, a rainy day with water taking over the streets. You can hear the sound of a radio playing in a nearby coffee shop.

"Good morning New Orleans, the sun has not risen, but the day has begun. The forecast for today, February 15, 1946, is for heavy rain, so pack your raincoat or umbrella and have a great day!"

Driving a Ford Super Deluxe through the streets of New Orleans, Don Bachchan is coming to New Orleans for the first time. With the streets flooded and traffic congested, this agent from the OSS (Office of Strategic Services) is driving his newly purchased car while complaining about the weather.

"Why did I decide to come here, the paint on my car is going to get dirty with this dirt from the rain and the streets, as if that wasn't enough, I still need to find out why Gilbert asked me to come here urgently, I have to find him and find out what he wanted."

While walking down the street, when passing a traffic light, he saw a very old man walking and suddenly getting one of his knees locked and falling into a puddle of water. With pity, but unable to help, Don went on his way. Although he is an OSS agent, he is generally frowned upon by the people around him, as he is an Indian and has darker skin, being the target of racism several times. With his straight hair, chubby face, aviator glasses and his cream blazer with a cream striped shirt and his red-brown tie, Don makes his way to the house Gilbert was staying at.

The house was located in the Gentilly neighborhood of New Orleans. A neighborhood that presents racial diversity and its residents are mostly middle and lower-middle class. After an hour's journey across the city, Don arrives at Gilbert's house. A very humble house, which he has on the first floor, a garage with two parking spaces and a staircase that leads to the house. On the second floor, where the house really is, there is a small balcony, with some dry plants and a wooden door with a small glass window, but it is not possible to see the inside properly, due to a small curtain that is there. from the inside of the door.

Don goes up the stairs and approaches the door, seeing that he can't see straight from the inside of the house, he goes to the door waiting for someone to open it, but he doesn't hear any steps or see movement inside the house. Looking around to see if he doesn't see anyone, he notices that a lady is watching him from a window of the house next door. A bit embarrassed, Don gives a wave and moves to the front of the old woman's house. Ringing the bell, it didn't take long until the very white lady came to open the door. With a little fear, the lady who beat next to Don's chest who was 1.88m tall.

"Good morning, I noticed you are new to the neighborhood, may I know what you are looking for here?" - asked the lady.

"Good morning ma'am, I'm behind my friend who lives next door, his name is Gilbert Dorman, you must know him. I was supposed to pay him a visit this morning, but from what I understand, he wasn't at home, did you see him?" - Don replied.

"Ah, so you came to visit your friend, good luck. Well, I didn't see him here, but a little while ago a car pulled up in front of his house and someone ran up the stairs, I couldn't really see who it was as I was doing the dishes and talking to my niece about the Mardi Gras news. When I least realized it, the person left the house running fast, even she got wet in the rain. She got in the car and left in a desperate way, almost knocking over the other neighbor's garbage too." - Answered the old woman.

"Oh, that's good to know, I'll go check with him and find out where he left the key, it's raining a lot and I wouldn't want to be in the middle of the street. I have a cake over there in the car, would you like a piece? It is a symbol of my kindness." – Don said.

"I have diabetes so I can't have your cake, sorry. Be careful, a person of your color could get into trouble around here, especially looking into people's homes the way you were doing, be careful." - Said the old lady.

"Ah, thanks for the tip ma'am. The cake I bring in the car has no sugar, so you can eat it without fear." - Don answers.

The lady kindly accepts the piece of cake from Don, who quickly goes to his car and brings the piece of cake. Returning to Gilbert's house, Don approaches the door with the intention of stealthily breaking it in, but when he turns the handle, the door opens.

(Strange, the door was open, probably the person who came here rushed in and must have come looking for something and ran out afraid of being seen, I'll be very careful.)

Pulling his revolver from its holster, Don slowly enters Gilbert's house. Noticing immediately that there were footprints inside the house, due to the heavy rain and mud in the city, it was possible to clearly see the footprints left. They belonged to a man who was a size 42 and wore dress shoes. Upon fully entering the house, he noticed that there was no one inside and that it was slightly organized. Inside the house, there was a traditional American kitchen, the dining room and kitchen were separated only by a marble counter, which had a stool to sit on. On the counter was a bowl of porridge, which, while not rotten, was quite cold.

Looking at the refrigerator, Don realizes that everything was normal inside it, Gilbert was taking care of himself normally. Leaving the kitchen, he goes to Gilbert's room and realizes that Gilbert's bed was a little messed up, but it wasn't as if someone had looked for something there, they just didn't fix it. Upon opening the wardrobe, Don realizes that everything was normal, nothing was out of place or messed up.

(Who the hell is the person who came into the house and didn't mess anything up, was it Gilbert himself?)

Leaving the room, he noticed that the kitchen garbage was lying on the floor and in a mess. Moving there, he finds two strange crumpled papers.

"I must meet Mr J at Bouvilexx, at 10.30 pm" - Said a yellow paper, which was probably used as a refrigerator reminder.

"I arrived in the city today, took a walk around the neighborhood and apparently it's very quiet. I'm going to start the preparations for the investigation, so I'm going to look into the old cases and I already have a lead on where to start. January 25, 1946.

"It's been 3 days since I've been here and the evidence has apparently cooled down, I haven't been able to find an exact relationship between the cases, so maybe nothing will come of it. January 28, 1946" - That's what it said on a torn page from a diary.

Confused by the information, Don keeps the papers with him and notes in his notebook what he got. Leaving the house, he got into his car and parked in a place where he could see if anyone would enter the house and there he stayed on watch, for a few hours, at least until he fell asleep inside his car.

Time passed and the rain didn't, until Don woke up with a noise like thunder and realized that it was already night and he didn't know what had happened during the day. Looking at his watch, he realized that it was already 11:30 pm. Around 11:45 pm, Don receives a call.

"Hello Don, it was a mistake for you to come here, it was a mistake for me to come to investigate this, we should get out of here as soon as possible. Go to my house and burn it down, leave nothing for these bastards. After burning it, get the hell out of town as fast as you can" - Gilbert said, with a breathless and desperate voice, before ending the call.

Don even tried calling back, but the call went unanswered. Running quickly, Don goes to his trunk and takes out a gallon of gas and heads towards Gilbert's house. Without asking himself why, he simply scattered the gasoline all over the house, lit a match and slowly walked out, almost like a movie scene, while the flames burned behind him. Don stayed on watch until dawn, hoping his partner would show up, while he saw the fire department and some police officers arriving at the scene, during the night. Due to gasoline, even with the rain, the fire took a long time to be extinguished and the police were investigating whether it was arson or accidental.

At dawn, Don decides to look into the Bouvilexx bar. He asks a few questions about the area and discovers that the Bar is in the French Quarter, a neighborhood known mainly for its architecture reminiscent of France and the culture there. Moving there, Don easily finds the Bar, but it is empty and undergoing cleaning. The only person he can see inside is a six-foot man named Gregory Peck, who was cleaning some glasses and the flask. He is a local waiter and wears a black suit with a black tie, has wavy hair, forming a type of tuft to the left side.

There, Don discreetly flashes his agent badge and begins asking the man a few questions.

"Do you know a man named Gilbert Dorman?" – asks Don.

"Ah, Mr. Gilbert. I don't know him very well, but he introduced himself as an officer a few days ago. He asked me some questions too." - Answered the man.

"Could you say what you said to him that day?" - Answer Don.

"Well, I don't remember very well. But as I recall, he asked a few questions about one of our waitresses." – says Gregory.

"Waitress, right. Do you remember her name? And what did he wish to do with her?" – asks Don.

"Her name was Yelena Morosova, if you want I can give you her address, as you must be investigating the case. He had said something about smuggling, he just didn't explain exactly what it was." - Gregory responds friendly.

"I'd like the waitress's address. Was Gilbert here yesterday?" - asks Don.

"He was, he was drinking with Mr. Carter, the owner of this place. Apart from the two of them, there were also two more men, if I remember correctly the name of one of them was Jossef Loy or something like that" – Gregory says.

After the questions, Don says goodbye to the waiter, gets into his car and goes towards Yelena's house, but before he stops at a diner to have his breakfast and a TV is showing this morning's news.

"Good morning New Orleans, today. on the 16th of February, it should rain until around noon, when the sun should show its face! A lot has happened lately, the economic stress due to Mardi Gras is making traders in the area insecure. Sadly, a man ended up committing suicide last night, his corpse was taken to the French Quarter Police Station. We don't have much information yet, but if you need help, just dial the number on your screen."

At the end of lunch, already tired of so much rain, Don gets into his car and tries to go as quickly as possible to the waitress' house, the trip to the place takes so long, because of the congested traffic, that he arrives at the house around 12:00. 6:30 am. Where he comes across a car leaving the house fast, while two men are running into the street looking both ways. Not knowing what had happened, Don gets out of the car and asks.

"Bad day, you're not the only one looking for her, my sister took a disappearing tea." – Alextrov answers in a breathless and worried way, while looking at both sides of the street.

"Damn, how did she get out so fast and the way you said. She was weak and weak, a person in her condition would not be able to do that and the worst thing is that she could get worse because of the rain. Hey you, while you're looking for her, get in the car and drive, we're going to New Orleans Cathedral." - says White, panting a little.

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Continued in the next chapter...