Ruby (Landry 1)

supposedly born," he began.

"We had that mulatto woman, Tituba,

remember?"

"I remember. I remember hating her. She was

too sloppy and too lazy and she frightened me with

her silly superstitions," Daphne recalled. "Dropping

pinches of salt everywhere, burning clothing in a

barrel with chicken droppings . . . at least Nina keeps

her beliefs private."

"And so we let Tituba go right after Gisselle

was supposedly born, remember? At least, that was

what we told the public."

"What are you getting at, Pierre? How does that

relate to this trifling problem?" she asked caustically. "We never told the truth because we were

working with private detectives," he said.

"What? What truth?"

"To get back the stolen baby, the twin sister

who was taken from the nursery the same day she was

born. You know how some people believe that

missing children are voodoo sacrifices, and how some

voodoo queens were often accused of kidnapping and

murdering children?" he said.

"I always suspected something like that,

myself," Daphne said.

"Precisely. No one's ever proven anything of

the sort, however, but there was always the danger of

creating mass hysteria over it and causing vigilantes

to go out and abuse people. So," he said, sitting back,

"we kept our tragedy and our search private. Until

today, that is," he added, pressing his hands together