Murder in the Marsh (20 page)

Forty-Four

Rachel clung to her little perch while the floodwaters raged at her feet. It had been an hour since she first pulled herself up onto the exposed wall, but the hurricane maintained its strength. Several times she felt herself in immediate danger when flying debris barely missed her, and the structure upon which she rested suddenly shifted. Though it wasn’t the most secure, she hoped she could wait out the storm at her present location without having to move again. She knew Adele would be worrying about her, but if Adele was experiencing the same level of flooding she was, then she had her own safety and that of Michelle’s to worry about.

              Just as Rachel began to consider the possibility of making it through the hurricane alive, she heard a faint shrieking carried in the wind. She couldn’t be sure it wasn’t the wind itself, so she cocked her head and listened more intently. A few seconds later, she heard the sound again and felt more certain it was a woman’s voice. Rachel tried to pinpoint the direction from which the cry for help came from, but it was very difficult over the roar of the wind. She heard the screaming several more times, and finally decided it was coming from a one-story house a block away. The house was drifting, and completely submerged in water, except for a few feet of the roof. No windows were visible, but the attic vent on the side of the house could have been the location from which the sounds came.

              For an instant, fear gripped Rachel as she realized someone was trapped in the house, and she was the only one who could do anything to help. But just as quickly, she remembered her thoughts on a faith that overcomes fear, and she felt calmed. She saw no other way to reach the house other than swimming. There were some floating pieces of wood debris swirling around, but none looked substantial enough to support her. Saying a quick prayer, Rachel slid off the wall and into the water using her feet to push off toward the submerged house.

              Though she was soaked through and through, nevertheless, the shock of the cool water reinvigorated her senses and awakened her from the sense of fatigue and drowsiness she had been experiencing. Picking her way through the debris, she swam toward the flooded home. Ten minutes later, and feeling even more exhausted, the roof of the submerged house was only a few feet away. She swam to it and pulled herself up on it. As soon as she pulled herself up, a sudden cry for help emanated from right below her. She was right, there was someone trapped in the attic of the house. She crawled over to the edge of the roof, where she could see down to the attic vent.

              “Is anybody there?” she called out.

              “Yes. Help me! I’m trapped!” a frantic older female voice cried.

              “Okay. I’m going to try to help. What’s your name?”

              “Annette. Annette Dunbar.”

              “Alright, Ms. Dunbar. We need to remove this vent so you can crawl through. Can you push on it?”

              “I’ve already tried. I’m not strong enough. I also can’t get any leverage. I’m floating in the attic.”

              Rachel thought a minute. “Okay, this is what we’re going to do. I’m going to pull on it from the outside and I want you to try to push as much as you can from the inside.”

              “Okay.”

              Rachel swung her legs over the side and dropped into the water below. She then reached up and grabbed hold of one of the wood slats that made up the vent. She saw fingers from inside grasp the same piece. She counted to three and started pulling. At first nothing happened. Then she started to feel the wood slat begin to give way and finally break free from the house. Unfortunately, the whole vent didn’t come off, but if they could pull another couple of slats, the woman possibly could slip through. Rachel explained the plan, and as they pushed and pulled, they were able to pull off two more pieces of the vent to create a sizeable exit hole.

              “Annette, extend your arms out the hole as far as you can, and I’ll pull while you use your feet to push.”

              “Okay,” the woman sounded more hopeful.

              When the woman placed her arms out the hole, Rachel grabbed them while planting her good foot against the side of the house. She pulled with all her strength and the woman began to slide through. Another two pulls and she slipped free from the attic. At first she seemed frantic in the water seeing the massive flooding around her, but Rachel calmed her and guided her over to the edge of the roof. They pulled themselves up until they were out of the water.

              The woman was still in her green robe and sported matted grey hair peppered with yellow attic insulation. She appeared to be in her mid-sixties. She thanked Rachel over and over and embraced her joyfully. Finally, Rachel found her chance to ask what happened. The woman explained that she had no relatives and had decided not to evacuate because she had nowhere to go. She thought she had weathered the hurricane well, until the flooding began. At that point, the water quickly entered the house. Evacuating the house didn’t appear much safer to her, so when the water rose several feet high, she climbed up into the attic. She had not taken anything with her to escape from the attic if she got caught, and just before Rachel came along, felt certain she was going to drown. Having completed her brief story, she again embraced Rachel, thanking her for rescuing her. Rachel returned the hug, while thinking about what their next move needed to be. She feared staying on the floating house much longer, concerned that it could completely sink or collapse.

Forty-Five

Daniel’s joy turned to confusion and then to concern when he didn’t see Rachel with Adele or Michelle. He allowed the family to continue their joyful reunion as he looked down the dim hallway in search of her. After Adele spent a few moments in Claude’s embrace, she turned to Daniel, as she remembered Rachel.

              “She’s not here, Daniel,” Adele said somberly. “She decided to run down de levee during de eye to see if she could find you two at de marina. She take her two way radio with her and she call me and say she was not able to make it back because of the storm.”

              “Where is she now?” Daniel said alarmed. “How far did she get?”

              “She say she got to de Hayes pumping station, and she would try to take cover in a house across from dere.”

              “Which house? Did she say which one?”

              “She didn’t say. Ah know dat area. Dere is a small neighborhood. But ah don’t know which house. Ah told her ah would come to help, but she told me to stay with Michelle.”

              “How far is the pumping station from here?”

              “About a mile up de road,” Claude answered for his wife. “Ah’ll go with you. You helped me find Adele, and ah’ll help you find Rachel.”

              “No, Claude you need to stay here with Adele and Michelle. The hurricane is still dangerous, and they’ll need you here.”             

“Daniel, ah want Claude to go with you. Me and Michelle will be awright,” Adele assured Daniel. “Dis big building has kept us safe. Ah want Claude to help you like you helped him. God has taken care of him dis long, and ah know He will continue to.”

              Daniel looked at Adele and then Claude. Claude gave Daniel a nod, indicating he was ready to help.

              “What about your head, Claude? How’s it feeling?”

              “It’s okay. It’s not bothering me. Ah can make it.”

              “Okay. At least let Adele look at it and see if she can wrap it again.”

              In the next few minutes, Adele retrieved some clothing that had been blowing about inside the apartment, tore it into strips, and wrapped Claude’s head. As she did so, she told Claude about Andre’s situation and his recovery in the hospital. After she bandaged Claude’s head, they embraced, kissed, and said goodbye. Claude gave a final hug and kiss to Michelle, then he and Daniel set out.

              Instead of swimming back down through the first floor hallway and apartment, they departed by the emergency exit at the end of the upstairs hallway. They realized that had they known Adele and Michelle were upstairs; it would have been much easier for them to enter that way. When they opened the door, the howling winds and stinging rain greeted them with a familiar refrain. Slamming the door shut behind them, they held onto the handrail and descended. Several steps down, they reentered the cool water. With their life preservers on, they kicked, swam, and floated their way toward the river levee. The marsh levee was too dangerous with water still overtopping it. It took longer to get to the river levee, but once there they could walk on higher ground.

After thirty minutes, they finally crossed the flooded land. Walking along the river levee was not much easier, as they constantly fought the wind, but they learned to brace themselves when they sensed a particularly strong gust coming.

The journey across the flooded land and up the river levee took a little over an hour and a half, but fortunately no serious problems arose. Once positioned directly across the flooded highway from the neighborhood, Daniel noticed the current from the flooding seemed to be stronger.

“The current is really powerful here, Claude. Any ideas why?”

“Ahm not sure. Maybe we’re near the levee break.”

“That’s not good. That would mean a lot more damage and danger.”

Daniel and Claude looked across the flooded land toward the neighborhood. Indeed, it did look worse than elsewhere. Daniel suspected the levee might have broken near the pumping station. They entered the water and began swimming across the road to the neighborhood, making sure to stay close to one another. As they entered the neighborhood, they couldn’t believe their eyes. Entire streets of homes had been crushed into unrecognizable waterlogged matchsticks. Cars sat on top of houses and houses on top of cars. Homes were crushed together, and large trees floated about, plowing into anything in their path. Claude attempted to identify streets, but managed to do so only with great difficulty, due to their being hidden and blocked by houses, trees, and cars. Only here and there did a house remain standing in its original location, but even these experienced flooding well up the roof.

Daniel wondered how he could ever hope to find Rachel in all of the destruction. He didn’t see any way she could have made it through. They kept searching, calling out Rachel’s name, though their voices didn’t carry far in the wind and rain swept landscape. Daniel knew God had personally intervened for him, but wondered if He would do the same for Rachel. The longer they continued searching and witnessing the flooding and total devastation, the more difficult Daniel found it to maintain hope Rachel was alive.

Forty-Six

The decision of whether to abandon the roof of the house or stay was made for Rachel and Ms. Dunbar. The home had been slowly breaking apart beneath the water, but when it struck a submerged obstruction, the walls splayed outward causing the roof to sink suddenly and rapidly below the surface.

With the top of the roof now underwater, Rachel and Ms. Dunbar swam for the only substantial object nearby, a large log big enough to support them both. Rachel worried Ms. Dunbar would have trouble swimming the short distance to the floating log. She was right. Even with Rachel using one arm to support her, she kept sinking below the surface. After much effort, they both finally reached the log and threw their exhausted arms over it. They could not climb up on it, due to their exhaustion and its instability. They would have to be content with hanging on, floating in whichever direction the current carried them.

After drifting on the log with the current for several minutes, Rachel shouted to Ms. Dunbar over the storm, “How’re you holding up?”

“Just glad to be alive. You’re a blessing sent from the Lord, Rachel,” Ms. Dunbar replied genuinely thankful.

In spite of it all, Rachel appreciated the compliment. God seemed to be teaching her about faith. The words of Ms. Dunbar made her realize God may have planned for her to go through all the trials so she could help others survive. It was a comforting thought, but she felt it would be bittersweet if Daniel and Claude did not make it through. Did God also have a purpose for them being trapped in the hurricane? Were they simply to die, as seemed likely, or did God have other plans in mind? She didn’t know, but it was hard for her to believe she would ever see them again.

“Rachel, how did you get caught in the hurricane?” Ms. Dunbar asked, interrupting her somber thoughts.

“It’s a long story, but I believe it was God’s will.”

“I’m glad to hear you have faith in God. When you’re alone, you have nobody else but the Lord. What about family, do you have any here?”

              Though talking was difficult over the hurricane, Rachel sensed Ms. Dunbar did so to help keep up their spirits.

              “They’re in Mississippi. I teach at Port Sulphur School.”

              “So you were stranded here alone like I was?”

              “I guess you could say that. Actually, someone was helping me to evacuate, but we learned of a family having trouble, and we all got trapped by the hurricane before we could evacuate.”

              “How did you get separated from them?”

              “I stayed with the mother and children, while my friend Daniel went searching for the husband out in the bayou. The mother and child are at my apartment, and I hope okay. We haven’t heard anything from Daniel and the husband.” Rachel felt herself getting emotional. “It’s hard to even believe they could have made it back through the hurricane and the storm surge.”

              Ms. Dunbar paused, realizing Rachel was having difficulty talking about it. Finally she said, “Rachel I know we just met, but I can tell you’re someone who trusts in the Lord. I’ll pray for them, as I know you have, and we’ll have faith that God will protect them.”

              “Thank you for your prayers, Ms. Dunbar. I needed to hear that.”

              The two women continued to cling to the log as they slowly drifted along. Though they floated past several partially submerged houses and a tree or two still standing, they never came close enough to swim to them. Rachel felt the strength in her arms beginning to ebb, and realized Ms. Dunbar must be having difficulty too. They needed to find a resting place better than the log!

              Fifteen more minutes passed, and then Rachel noticed something unusual about their movement through the water. Their speed had gradually picked up. She noticed they were drifting in the direction of the marsh levee, but when they finally broke out from behind an overturned tree, she saw their danger. Though heading toward the levee, they also floated toward the levee break by the Hayes pumping station. Water still rushed through the break at a tremendous volume. Worse still, once the water roared through, it slammed against the crushed walls of a house that stood in its path. This caused the water hitting it to curl back on itself creating a monstrous, foaming white hydraulic, potentially fatal for anyone caught in its deadly swirl. The current ensnaring them was pulling them straight toward the rushing water and the hydraulic.

              “We’ve got to kick!” Rachel shouted to Ms. Dunbar over the roar of the rushing water. “We’re heading toward the levee break. We’ve got to make this log go back the other way!”

              Ms. Dunbar looked and quickly realized their danger. Though she was weary from clinging on to the log, she found the extra strength to start kicking along with Rachel. Though kicking frantically, they made little progress steering the log away from the surging of water. At best, they only slowed their drift, with it quickly becoming evident they could not avoid being pulled into the crushing torrent.

              Rachel slid closer to Ms. Dunbar, and the two joined arms to face the trial together. Rachel didn’t know what would be best; to cling to the log as long as possible or release it in hopes they wouldn’t be injured by the heavy timber as they went through the rapid. In the end, the sense of security it provided, as well as keeping them afloat, convinced them to hang on.

              Both women prayed as they experienced the final moments before being pulled in. When the leading edge of the log protruded into the fast moving current, the women felt themselves whipped around sharply, at once becoming a part of the flow. The log rushed forward, heading straight for the crushed and jagged walls of the collapsed house. Being in front, Rachel had an unobstructed view of the danger blocking their path. As they entered the pull of the hydraulic, Rachel felt the log being ripped away from her. She also felt Ms. Dunbar’s arm being torn loose from her’s, despite the fact she was holding on with all her might. Rachel suddenly felt a wall of water smash into her face, as she finally hit the hydraulic rapid. Her body struck the walls of the collapsed house, and whipped up and over as the water fell back on itself. The last thing Rachel remembered was being circulated around and around, helpless against the powerful forces of the surging rapid.