Chapter 25
Zephyr
”Jesus, Grace, what the fuck is up with you?” I demanded when I saw her in the police station.
My mother was in an interview room with Blaze as counsel, and I couldn”t understand why Grace would have arrested her. We were working together, the Doucets and the police—this came from left field. I had no loyalty toward my mother, but this was going too far.
”Keep your voice down,” Grace snapped, ”and watch how you talk to me.”
I took a step back; she wasn”t the Grace I knew. This woman was the Ice Maiden everyone talked about. Was she acting? Was this real? I had no fucking clue anymore. I wasn”t designed for undercover work. I wasn”t a fucking cop. I was a jazz musician and bar owner.
”What the hell is going on?” I got into her face.
”Back off.” She glared at me. ”I”m an Assistant District Attorney. I can get a ham sandwich indicted if I set my mind to it, so your mother was easy.”
Everyone in the bullpen was watching us. Thankfully, it was the middle of the night, and there weren”t too many people—but who we had was enough to get the gossip ball rolling.
”Detective Renault, please walk Mr. Doucet here to the waiting area.” She spun around and walked away.
I looked helplessly at Nick, and she subtly shook her head. I was in the middle of a fucking play, and I didn”t know my lines.
”What the hell is going on?” I raged when she dragged me into an empty interview room.
”Calm the fuck down,” Nick muttered. ”Grace is playing an angle. It”s a good one. Your mother is neck-deep in this shit and wants immunity. Grace can”t just hand those out like candy, okay?”
I gave her a blank look. ”I….” She flicked a switch, and the wall screen lit up.
”Since you”re part of this operation, Cap gave the go ahead for you to watch the interview. We need to be very clear that you don”t talk to Blaze about this.”
I ran a hand through my hair. ”Why the fuck not?”
”Because he”s your mother”s lawyer.”
”Jesus, Nick, this whole thing is getting out of hand.”
”The ME”s report just came in. Guess what? Someone murdered your grandfather. He died of a morphine overdose.”
I felt the air escape my lungs.
”Yeah, so we now need to investigate that as well. Can you imagine the scandal? We need to know everything your mom does.”
”She”s a lot of things, but she”s not a murderer,” I said reflexively.
”Just the kind of woman who tricks her daughter into having an abortion,” Nick reminded me.
I tucked my hands in my jeans and stared at the screen where Blaze and my mother were speaking. Since it was a privileged conversation, the audio feed was muted.
”I hate my mother…” — I shook my head — ”not because of anything she did to me but because of Gaia, because of Rome, because of Blaze. Of all of us, I”m the one who feels the least for her.”
Nick patted my shoulder.
”I can”t believe that she wanted to kill Gaia, her own daughter. I just can”t.”
Nick didn”t say anything. Her phone buzzed, and she read a message.
”Who”s interviewing Camille?”
”Grace and Captain. Ash and I are not allowed to because of Blaze.”
I watched as Grace and Captain Simone Baptiste came into the room. The feed was unmuted.
”How”s it goin”, Camille, Blaze?” Captain was in an immaculate pantsuit in the middle of the night…shit…it was early morning now. Grace was in one of her sheath dresses, looking like she could go into a courtroom or a garden party.
Grace rattled off the case number and who was present at the interview for the sake of the video recording.
”Camille, we now have proof that Lucien Doucet was indeed murdered. What we need to know is what you know about it?” Grace spoke calmly.
I saw the shock in Blaze”s face and then anger. She”d not prepared him.
”What da fuck, Grace?” Blaze barked.
Grace pushed a document toward Blaze and Camille. ”As you can see, Mr. Doucet, the ME has determined that Lucien Doucet died of a morphine overdose and not pancreatic cancer, though that was killing him and soon.”
Camille didn”t look at the document but sat stiffly. Blaze read through the document and pushed it away. He leaned to whisper into Camille”s ear, and I saw her eyes dance with fear. Camille spoke in a low voice to Blaze, and he nodded.
”My client is ready to speak, but she needs immunity,” Blaze said patiently, though his tightened jawline spoke volumes about the control he was exerting on himself.
Someone had killed Grandpère?I couldn”t wrap my head around it.
”I am authorized to offer Camille limited immunity for the murder of Lucien Doucet unless she testifies that she administered the morphine. There is no immunity for the attempted murder of Rome Decuir, Gaia Decuir, or…Blaze Doucet.”
Captain was lounging like she was watching the Saints play. Her demeanor was easy as if she had all the time in the world.
Camille and Blaze whispered again.
”She needs immunity for the money laundering.” Blaze looked like he was ready to punch his fist through a wall. I almost smiled at his frustration. He hated being a lawyer. He hated all of this, and yet, here he was.
”Again, I am authorized to offer narrow immunity on money laundering charges regarding knowledge before, during, or after the fact. If she participated in the act, then there is no immunity.”
I”d never seen Grace in lawyer mode. She was stunning—her poise, her grace, the emotionless mask on her face. It made me want to make her come just so I could watch the mask break into a million pieces to reveal the real Grace, my Grace.
Camille nodded weakly.
”I had nothing to do with Lucien”s murder. I know about the morphine overdose because he told me that was how he would go. He wanted to choose the time and place, and he wanted to die without pain.”
”You sayin” that Lucien Doucet committed assisted suicide, Camille?” Captain demanded, disbelief evident in her voice.
”Yes.”
”Who assisted him?” Captain demanded.
Camille looked at Blaze, and he nodded. ”I don”t know,” she admitted. ”Lucien wouldn”t tell me.”
”Could it be Henri Allard? He was close to your father-in-law.” Grace dropped the bomb without as much as a flinch.
Camille”s nose curled. ”Henri would never do that, no matter how much of a friend he was to Lucien. He knows it”s illegal. He wouldn”t take the risk.”
”Then who?”
Camille shook her head. ”I don”t know.”
”Why didn”t you come to us with this earlier?” Grace questioned.
Camille shrugged. ”He had a few weeks, months at best, to live. He wanted to die with his dignity. I couldn”t begrudge him that.”
”But then, why did you tell your son?”
Camille licked her lips. ”Because I need his help in staying alive. I…I thought that if I dangled this information, he”d be more compliant to…protect me.”
”Why do you think your life is in danger?” Grace leaned back on her chair, her back ramrod straight.
”Five years ago, BBH was in massive trouble. Lucien lost a lot of his personal wealth due to bad investments, and he was getting riskier with BBH. I took over as CEO and found a mess. We needed an infusion of cash to keep the business alive and get it back on track. Rufus brought in partners so we could offer full-service logistics support. One of those partners was VK Corporation.”
Camille picked up her glass of water and drank.
”I didn”t know they were part of the Bratva or whatever it is they”re called. I thought we had a partner. Rufus was in on this with Will; they even recruited Hugo and Yves as board members so that they could have all the signatures they legally needed to move money around. It took me a while, but I finally figured out that they were using three of our subsidiaries to launder massive amounts of money.”
She paused again and looked at her hands.
”I talked to Rufus, and he told me what he was doing. I wanted to stop it, but we were doing so well that I wanted to wait until the company was on firmer footing before ending the partnership.”
I believed her. From everything I”d investigated about Camille, her identity was wrapped up in being a Doucet, and that meant a successful Bayou Belle Holdings. It was all intertwined.
”Then Lucien died….” Camille rubbed a hand on her forehead. ”And he gave the company to Rome.”
”We have testimony from Hugo Noel that Yves Noel, his brother, was planning to talk to the Feds, and that”s why he was killed.”
Camille gave out a harsh laugh. ”Why do you think I need protection? And not just from security guards I can hire. I need…to live a life where I”m not looking over my shoulder.”
”Is that why you turned to your son for help?” Grace seemed to know more than I thought she did, more than me, at the very least. I felt anger surge through me. I thought we were in a relationship.
Maybe not. After all, she did say she thought I”d just go get my dick wet with whomever. I was still pissed about her remark from a few days ago. Now, even more so that she”d kept all this information from me.
”I can”t fuckin” believe that she didn”t tell me any of this,” I growled under my breath.
”It”s her job…our job,” Nick stated and then sighed. ”Blaze is gonna be pissed at me.”
”How do you handle that?”
”Blowjobs help, sha,” Nick said with a big smile.
”Christ, Nick, I didn”t need that image in my head.”
”We have a deal. Church and State! Police work and Doucet business. He can get angry, sure. I can get pissed off, certainly. It doesn”t affect our relationship.”
”How”s that working out for you?”
”Fifty-fifty,” Nick admitted. ”Why do you think I want this case wrapped up? As much as I like makeup sex, the stress on Blaze is breaking my heart.”
I watched the interview through to the end. Camille needed to be in protective custody, that much was obvious. If the Volkovs had murdered Yves for wanting to speak to the Feds, they”d definitely string up Camille for actually talking to NOPD and the ADA.
Grace didn”t ask a question about the hit on Rome and Gaia. Nick explained that had been out of bounds for this conversation as Camille wasn”t going to speak about that without sealed and signed immunity.
”What happens now?” I asked Nick.
”Now we wait for the dominos to drop. I suspect you should be hearing from the Russians within the week.”
”And then?”
”I don”t know, Z. We have to follow the trail and see where it leads us.”
I really didn”t like the idea of not having a plan or a clear idea of the destination. I was walking in blind, and it scared me.
For someone who”d gone through life without feeling much fear, this was new, like so many things seemed to be in the past few months. I felt like I was becoming a different man than the one I used to be—though my memory of him was already fuzzy. Living today meant not looking back all the time but moving forward.
”I need to talk to Grace,” I told Nick.
She shrugged. ”Not in public.”
”Let her know I want to talk to her.”
”Will do.”
I kissed her on her cheek and walked out of the bullpen, feeling like my world would never right itself again.