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The house seemed to hold court on the corner It sat on Dauphine, one block in back of Bourbon and three or four blocks in froh to keep the noise down in the wee hours of thewhen the music on Bourbon Street pulsed like an earthly druh to the wonders of the city

The actual shape was like a horseshoe; a ave entry to the courtyard, while thecurve of stairs to the front downstairs porch and a double-door entry that was historic and fantastic in its carvings

Jackson turned the key in the lock As he stepped in, the alaran to chirp and he quickly keyed in the code he had been given

"Straight out of Gone with the Wind," Jackson murmured aloud as he surveyed the house "Tara ant reception area, perhaps even a ballroom at one point in tioirling around, led by handsome men in frock coats A piano sat to the far end near an enor and a marble mantel A second, identical fireplace was at the other end of the wall Midroo staircase

What furniture remained was covered in dust sheets

The hallway on the second floor led to the right and left as he headed up

Hehallway of bedrooms Here At the end

This was the roon, a pretty room, one that had already been prepared for occupancy--or that had been occupied A beautiful four-poster canopy bed sat on a Persian rug, covered in white Handso tables sat to either side of the rooe French doors, draped in white chintz and lace, opened out to the balcony that wrapped around the house as it faced the courtyard Would he feel anything? He did not

He walked over to the French doors and threw the out on the balcony

The courtyard below explained why a house that caic history could still win over buyer after buyer It was paved with brick, and in the center, typical of New Orleans, was a fountain and sculpture A beautiful crane spread its s above the bowl and the water splashed e basin

There was a car park to the side, and elegant little wrought-iron tables, shaded by colorful umbrellas, sat across fro room were behind the round tables, and that food could easily be passed out froh a pass-over counter area He wasn’t sure that had been part of the original house He was going to have to study the blueprints again

The only thing that marred the beauty stretched before hiina Holloway had lain after she had fallen

And died

The blood stain had been cleaned, and yet it seemed to remain

The courtyard was closed in by the house itself, and by a nine-foot brick wall, and the double wooden gate, large enough to let a car in But the gate was locked, and it had a key-in pad the same as the main entrances to the house Senator Holloway had never been a fool; the alarnature had been dry on purchase papers All this Jackson knew because he had read the police reports on the "suicide"

He noted, though, that it would be almost impossible to reach the wall froood four feet between the end of the balcony and the wall; a statue of Poseidon with a trident was positioned there, so it would be a pleasant fall if one were to atteain--not iood case for his first back in the working world; it was incredibly sad to think about the death of Regina Holloway, but he could hardly begin to iine the loss she must have felt He’d seen it before Parents weren’t supposed to outlive their children Any loss of a child was unbearable

He heard the doorbell ringing and gri that the house had definitely been built at a time when the third floor housed a nuood distance fro Detective Andy Devereaux, so he left the balcony and the roo The room was just a room He hurried on back to the front door

Andy Devereaux was a tall any in color, with powder-blue eyes that testified to hisof his skin did not He was bald, clean-shaven, fit and trim and tall He wore a baseball cap to protect his pate, jeans and a tailored shirt beneath a casual, zip-up jacket He offered Jackson a firm handshake when they met

"Detective Andrew Devereaux, Andy, to my friends," he said briefly