Robert Walker - Pure Instinct

“ Said he was most upset not about the money so much as having lied to you, Alex, to steer you away from any serious investigation into Surette's past. And obviously it was working, up until your nightmares began and you began to put two and two together.”

“ Money? Who, Carl? Who offered him money to stomp all over the case?” Alex was still disbelieving, but at the same time his mind raced over moments when Ben had wanted to go in another direction, as when they'd gone looking for Gilreath, and later when they'd returned to Surette's apartment.

“ You gotta understand,” Landry said. “He never felt Surette was connected-you know, to the string of murders- least not at first. He was like me, hell… like everyone else…”

“ Who offered deYampert the bribe?”

“ She didn't want to tell me, but I made her.”

“ Who?”

“ It came through Dr. Wardlaw, Frank Wardlaw.”

“ That son of a bitch. I knew it… knew all along that he was covering something. Christ, can't believe Ben'd turn over like that. And why?”

“ Ben was hurting financially. Made him an easy target. Anyway, Ben rationalized it all out for himself and was living with it just fine, but for the lies he told you. According to Fiona, Ben just thought he and Frank were protecting someone high up from any public embarrassment-about Surette, I mean.”

“ One of Surette's regulars in high office, you mean?”

“ Actually, no… not exactly.”

“ What then?”

Kim Desinor and Jessica Coran listened intently as the drama of truth unfolded.

“ Seems Victor Surette was related to someone high up, and they-the family-didn't want it dragged out, you know, public embarrassment, ridicule, all that.”

“ Christ, so the guy was a transsexual, AC/DC… big deal. My God, only in the South today would anyone bat an eye,” moaned Alex. “All right, did Ben ever tell Fiona who it might be?”

“ I had to shake it out of her, but yeah, he did. It goes very high up.”

Alex released his white-knuckled grip on the dash.

“ Fiona asked that I take the money, all of it, back,” Landry went on. “Said it was set up in a trust fund for their boys, but that it only got Ben killed. Something about how God punishes the wicked.”

“ You reckon Ben earned every cent?”

“ I do, and it'll stay with their boys.”

“ So who was making payoffs to Wardlaw and Ben?”

“ She didn't know just how high up it went, but the payoffs to him and Wardlaw came from Richard Stephens.”

“ Stephens? Commissioner Stephens?”

“ Wardlaw threatened once to expose him in Ben's presence, but the P.C. was being pushed from someone above too. I suspect the Raveneaux estate.”

“ Jesus, then this thing has come full circle,” said Jessica from the rear seat.

Alex allowed this news to sink in before he asked another question. “So what're your plans for our pal Frank Wardlaw, Captain?”

“ He's out. Went down to see Frank at the lab. He honestly thought he'd be protected.”

“ Protected by the P.C.?”

“ He claimed Stephens and Lew Meade set up the whole deal; said they said it was for the good of the city to keep such filth from staining the Raveneaux name. He truly thought he'd still have a job when this was over.”

“ Damned fool,” muttered Jessica, “tampering with evidence, the chain of evidence and the integrity of that evidence in a murder investigation. Damned fool.”

Landry continued. “I gave him a choice to either step down or face charges.”

“ Either way now he's ruined,” Jessica suggested. “I mean, when we expose the bastards behind the cover-up of Surette's link with the Queen of Hearts killings and the subsequent body-snatching, none of the old boys who'd put him up to it will be standing with him.”

Kim nodded. “They're likely all scrambling at the moment to save their own butts.”

“ Name of the ancient game,” added Alex dryly, concealing the wellspring of emotions surrounding Ben's involvement as best he could.

“ But are you sure Meade and Stephens were involved in this sordid body-snatching effort?” asked Kim. “I mean, the P.C. and the head of the New Orleans branch of the FBI? Literally robbing us of evidence and planting a false confirmation of our suspicions?”

“ You know anyone else who enjoys playing God behind the scenes more than Meade?” Alex asked.

“ That's one hell of an accusation, Alex,” Jessica cautioned, not wanting to believe the New Orleans FBI Bureau Chief had manipulated evidence.

“ If it wasn't them, who else, Dr. Coran?” asked Alex. “Who else in this city wields such authority and omnipotence?”

Carl Landry put up his large right hand for silence. He then said, “I asked myself that same question, Alex. I also asked myself who could buy a cop like Ben, an M.E. like Wardlaw, a way around the investigation, and why?”

“ So, how did you make Wardlaw come up with Stephens and Meade?” asked Alex.

“ I put the fear of death into Wardlaw,” Landry began. “He was in his office when I burst in knocking files and pencils and cups over and shouting threats. Wardlaw lunged for the phone, but I'm afraid I sent it flying through a pane of glass.”

“ God, wish I coulda been there,” Alex interjected.

“ It was Wardlaw who had done the crime-scene lab workup at the Surette murder investigation. He also did the apartment where Ben died since Jessica was in no condition for it. He was already unnerved and shaken by deYampert's death, and I blamed him for it. Told him he'd gotten Ben deYampert killed before Ben ever set foot in that apartment in the Quarter.

“ To hell with you,' “ he told me. Then he attempted to throw me out of his office, which resulted in him getting his lip cut. I then grabbed the good doctor and pushed him against his door, the glass partition shattering against the man's back. Raised my fist then and threatened him. 'Talk, you SOB, or your face is going to look like yesterday's pizza,' I assured him.”

“ Let me guess,” said Alex. “He only did what he was told, and even then the bastards tried to send him packing.”

“ I damn sure did a double take when he finally came clean.” Landry recalled how at first he'd been unable to decipher the words which accused Stephens and Meade. “How did they ever expect to get away with it?” Kim asked. “And then to bring in Jessica Coran and me. It seems crazy.”

“ They truly believed at the time of Surette's death that his murder was a one-time occurrence. Even after the other Hearts killings, even when they brought you on board, Dr. Desinor, they still believed there was no connection. Wardlaw was to cover up the Surette killing as much as possible, to shield it as much as possible from the public. Frank never knew why; he never wanted to know why. That's how it started, and that was supposed to be how it ended. Then Sincebaugh wouldn't let it go, coming back again and again to Surette even though Frank gave Alex nothing whatever to link that first killing with those that followed.”

“ Must be some psychic talent at work in you, Alex,” Kim commented.

Landry continued. “Everyone by then was of a mind that since there were so many other killings, we didn't all need to keep pecking over Surette's carcass to locate the killer, and when I suggested the psychic exhumation and autopsy, they almost lost everything in their pants right then and there. I recall how nervous they all got, including Frank.”

“ What the hell was Frank Wardlaw thinking from the beginning? Just following orders?” asked Jessica, disgusted with Wardlaw.

“ Meade had something on him, holding it over his head.”

“ Black mail?”

“ You never heard of a G-man who'd stoop to blackmail?”