Tori Carrington - Submission

“DETECTIVE CHEVALIER? I have another emergency call for you. I’ll patch it through.”

I nearly snapped the cell phone in two.

This was the sixth call I’d received in three hours. It seemed Astrid was keeping her promise to keep calling me until I agreed to stop by and see her. During my last brief, tense conversation with her, she’d said she wouldn’t try anything; she just needed to see me.

Somehow I didn’t believe her.

I quickened my step as I walked from the precinct to my car and climbed inside. At least she hadn’t told dispatch who she was. I could be thankful for at least that much. But there was no telling how long that would last. Astrid Hodge was a woman used to getting what she wanted. And for some godforsaken reason she wanted me.

“Hello, Alan.” Her voice came through the tinny speaker dripping with self-satisfaction.

My every bone tensed.

“You know, your calls can be traced via your home number,” I said. “What’s your husband going to say when he sees the bill?”

“I’m calling on my personal cell. And he doesn’t have access to the bill.”

Which made her intent doubly suspicious.

“When are you stopping by, Alan?”

“Never. I value my job too much.”

She made a tsking sound. “More than me.”

“Much more than you.”

“That hurts.”

“Not any more than you’ve hurt me over the past ten months.”

“We both know that what happened between us was mutual.”

Was it? I was no longer sure. I mean, for all intents and purposes, I’d believed that in the beginning. But as time wore on, and after she’d accidentally told her husband—my captain—about our affair of one night, I was beginning to wonder if I’d fallen into some sort of dark trap designed to help Astrid spice up her marriage.

“Give it up, Astrid. I’m not coming over.”

She started to say something, but I clicked the phone shut on her.

I sat for long moments in the car, staring at everything and nothing. All I could do was hope that she’d finally give up and stop calling. But a part of me knew that she wouldn’t. That eventually she would win and I would have to go over to her place.

The sex hadn’t even been that good.

I put the car into gear and pulled from the curb, my destination Hotel Josephine. I’d received an anonymous tip that the hotel’s only guest wasn’t who he claimed to be. While the owner, Josie Villefranche, had told me Drew Morrison was in town for a convention, it turned out her guest’s intentions weren’t quite that innocent. A few calls had verified that while he was registered at the Innovation in Auto Parts convention at the Marriott, his area of expertise wasn’t car engines; it was in getting people to sell what they didn’t want to. Namely he was there to convince Josie to sell her hotel.

While it didn’t make him suspect material—especially since the Quarter Killer’s first victim, Molly’s twin sister, had been killed more than two weeks ago—it did shine a poor light on him. And it was worth checking out if only to see what else Mr. Morrison might be lying about.

The cell I’d dropped into my lap chirped again. I hated these damn devices. There was a time not too long ago that you could escape the telephone. When you walked away from the office, you were out of contact. Period.

At the very least, couldn’t they make the damn things sound like a real phone?

“What?” I barked after fumbling to answer it.

“Alan?”

My ex-wife.

MOLLY MADE ARRANGEMENTS to meet with FBI agent Akela Brooks in Jackson Square at three. It was a week before Halloween, and she guessed that this time of year was a busy one for the city, second only to Mardi Gras for pulling in visitors. People clogged the tourist attractions, signs all over touting the weeklong All Hallow’s Eve festivities beginning tonight. A group of five individuals of about her age brushed past her dressed in full-out vampire gear, their faces painted white, their black capes flapping in their wake.

Molly gave a shiver.

“Takes all kinds, doesn’t it?”

She turned at the sound of Akela’s voice. She’d met the agent when she’d picked up the box of her sister’s things upon her arrival. While the meeting had been brief, Molly had liked her. She was direct, no-nonsense and friendly. And the fact that she’d held on to Claire’s things even though their mother hadn’t wanted them to be forwarded to her spoke volumes.

“Thanks for coming.”

“Sure.” Akela looked over her shoulder toward the Café Du Monde. “You want to get some coffee and walk while we talk?”

Molly agreed, and after they stood in line at the popular spot, Akela handed her a coffee and a sugar-covered beignet.

“You can’t come to New Orleans and not try the Café Du Monde beignets,” she told her.

Molly smiled and accepted both.

“So, what’s on your mind?” Akela didn’t waste any time getting to the point as they walked across the square.

“I met with the prosecutor this morning.”

“Ah, Grissom.”

“Yes. And he mentioned something about Claude Lafitte being released from custody as the result of specific evidence pointing in another direction.”

Akela looked at her as she ate her own beignet and sipped her coffee. She didn’t say anything.

“I also understand you have a personal interest in the case.”

The agent sighed. “Well, I guess that wouldn’t be too hard to find out.”

Molly pinched off a piece of the French doughnut and put it into her mouth, not answering until she’d swallowed. “You’re right. It wasn’t difficult. All I had to do was access the Times-Picayune between the time of my sister’s death and now.”

Akela nodded. “Yes, I do have a personal interest,” she said. “Let’s just say that I’m as interested in finding the Quarter Killer as the NOPD. More so, actually.”

“Are you working the case?”

“In an unofficial capacity, yes. You see, until the real killer is found, Claude won’t be completely ruled out as a suspect.”

“So the evidence pointing in another direction isn’t that strong.”

“Strong enough to get the department to release him but not enough to completely take him off the suspect list.”

“I see.” Molly squinted at her through a shaft of sunlight. “You wouldn’t happen to want to share that piece of evidence, would you?”

Akela made a face. “I don’t like playing coy, but right now that evidence is about my only ace in the hole.” She cleaned her hands with her napkin after finishing her beignet. “You do know there’s been another Quarter killing, don’t you?”

The coffee sliding down Molly’s throat turned bitter.

“It’s all over the morning papers and the news on TV.”

She’d been so busy, she hadn’t thought to read the newspaper or watch local television since her arrival. Especially since she was in the middle of chasing down leads in her sister’s case.

But if there’d been another murder, that might mean more evidence.

“Yes, Chevalier questioned Claude on it this morning. But I got the impression the action was somehow just his covering all the bases.”

“How so?”

“I don’t know. I think he doesn’t necessarily believe the two murders are connected, even though they took place at the same hotel and, apparently, in the same way.”

“The victim’s neck…”

“Was cut,” Akela finished when Molly didn’t.

“When?”

“Yesterday morning.”

Yesterday morning. That meant that Alan had known about the killing before he’d met with her for lunch. The coffee hit her stomach like a stone. She’d known that she couldn’t rely on his sharing everything with her, but concealing that there had been another murder went beyond the mere protection of important facts.