Belle - Lesley Pearse [77]
He said that for a few years it was good to have hand-tailored suits and silk shirts and stay in the best hotels, and he was making more money than he’d ever dreamed of. But a scare with the English police had made him go back to Paris to lie low for a while, and during that time he went home to Marseille and met a girl he fell in love with. He wanted to marry her, and he felt it was time to put the money he’d made to good use and start a legitimate business, before his luck ran out.
‘So I told Jacques my plan, and he asked that I give him another two years. When that was up I went back to Marseille and married Elena, and in partnership with her brother who is a chef, we opened a restaurant there. But I was wrong to think I could just say goodbye to Jacques; he didn’t like anyone to escape from his net. Every now and then he would send word that he had a job for me, and I couldn’t refuse him.’
‘Was that jobs like collecting me?’ Belle asked.
‘No, I told you I had never done anything like escorting girls before. It was always strong arm stuff,’ Etienne explained. ‘Mostly I have to threaten someone who isn’t toeing the line, or maybe is standing in Jacques’ way. Often I have to use violence, but you must understand these people were all thugs and gangsters, so it is nothing to me. But I wish now that once I had the restaurant I had refused point blank to do any more work for him.’ He sighed. ‘He wouldn’t have liked it, he would have made things tough for me, but by going along with it I’ve just got in deeper and deeper.’
Belle listened to him attentively and asked if there was any way he could get out of it now.
‘By escorting you here I have put myself in an even worse position,’ Etienne replied glumly. ‘Strong arm stuff between thugs and gangsters is understood and accepted by most people, but now Jacques has involved me in trafficking such a young girl, he has got an even stronger hold over me.’
‘What does your wife think about this?’ she asked.
‘She thinks I am an aide to a businessman with many companies, and although she doesn’t like me to be away from her, she likes the extra money I bring home. If I am truthful, I always enjoyed being the big man who sorted out grievances between criminals. But I don’t feel that way now, not now Jacques has made me do this job. Trafficking young girls is wicked, and I do not wish to have any part in it, nor would I want my wife and children to ever discover that I have done.’
‘We’re kind of in the same position, aren’t we?’ Belle said glumly. ‘I can’t run away from you now because I’d be afraid what would happen to you. And you can’t help me go either because of what might happen to your wife and sons.’
He turned to her and cupped her face between his hands. ‘Belle, I would take that risk if I could be certain you’d be safe, for I could easily tell Jacques the immigration people caught you, and he’d believe that for he’d have no way of checking. But what would become of you? You would either have to find work here, with all the risks that go with being a young girl alone in a dangerous city. Or you’d tell the authorities that you were brought here illegally, and get them to send you back home.’
Belle knew that hope must have registered on her face, for he shook his head.
‘That might seem the perfect solution to you, but this man Kent you tell me about back in England, he will hear from New Orleans what has happened and he’ll have to get to you and kill you to save himself. I know how these men work, as he will be much the same as Jacques.’
‘Is there no other way?’ she asked.
‘You are a remarkable young lady,’ he said sadly. ‘It is this which makes me sure you will conquer New Orleans on your own terms. It is many things, a corrupt, dangerous place, but it also has a soul, and I think on balance you will be safer there and get the opportunity