All That Glitters (Landry 3)

couldn't nudge away.

After the funeral drive back to New Orleans, I

collapsed with emotional exhaustion and slept into the

late morning. Beau woke me to tell me Monsieur Polk

had just called.

"And?" I sat up quickly, my heart pounding. "I'm afraid it's not good news. The experts tell

him everything is identical with identical twins, blood

type, even organ size. The doctor who treated Gisselle

doesn't think anything would show in an X ray. We

can't rely on the medical data to clearly establish

identities.

"As far as my being the father of Pearl . . . a

blood group test will only confirm that I couldn't be,

not that I could. As Monsieur Polk said, those sorts of

tests aren't perfected yet."

"What will we do?" I moaned.

"He has already petitioned for a hearing and we

have a court date," Beau said. "We'll tell our story, use

the handwriting samples. He wants to also make use

of your art talent. Monsieur Polk has documents

prepared for us to sign so that we willingly surrender

any claim to Paul's estate, thus eliminating a motive.

Maybe it will be enough."

"Beau, what if it isn't?"

"Let's not think of the worst," he urged. The worst was the waiting. Beau tried to

occupy himself with work, but I could do nothing but

sleep and wander from room to room, sometimes

spending hours just sitting in Pearl's nursery, staring

at her stuffed animals and dolls. Not more than fortyeight hours after Monsieur Polk had filed our petition

with the court, we began to get phone calls from