Chapter 37
Grace
Camille sang like the proverbial canary. After Blaze and Henri left, Blaze came back, and we met with his mother again.
”Can I go now?” Camille demanded.
”No. I”m afraid not,” I told her. ”We are arresting and booking you for attempted murder. Unless you have some information to trade, which can help lower your sentence.”
Camille looked scared, and I guessed it was because Henri had threatened her. Blaze”s resting angry bull face was even more prominent when he all but growled at his mother. ”I can fight for witness protection,” he muttered.
”What? I”m not leaving my life,” Camille protested adamantly.
”Your life is over, Camille,” Blaze barked. ”You tried to have Rome and Gaia killed. Not once, but twice. What the hell is wrong with you?”
”Not Gaia,” she admitted, looking from Blaze to me. ”Not my daughter.”
I raised my hand to stop her speaking. ”Blaze, is your client confessing to the attempted murder of Rome Decuir?”
Camille bit her lower lip, completely out of her element. As the reigning queen of Bayou Belle, she knew how to rule, but here, in a dark, oppressive NOPD interview room, she had no power.
”She could be. But we need to talk sentencing and witness protection.”
I shook my head. ”I need more if I”m going to call upon U.S. Marshals Service. They don”t let just anyone join WITSEC.”
The Witness Security Program was one of the ways that the United States used to protect witnesses and their family members who were in danger due to their cooperation with federal prosecutors and law enforcement.
”I heard your conversation with Henri” — he glared at her when she tried to speak — ”I”m your lawyer; there is no attorney-client privilege, and especially since you two were working to further a crime.”
Camille laid her hands on the table and swallowed. Defeat looked incongruous on her. It made me feel awesome. I would fight tooth and nail for her to go to prison and not end up in Kansas somewhere as part of WITSEC. She didn”t deserve that. I wanted her in an orange jumpsuit in Angola, working the fields. I wanted her punished.
”Lucien lost a lot of money. Made bad investments. Bayou Belle Holdings would be gone in a few years,” Camille began. ”When I took over, it was to save the company. Rufus knew Ivan Kuznetsov—”
”He”s Anatoly Volkov”s fixer and partner?” I asked for clarification.
”Yes.” Camille”s eyes were downcast. ”They were in logistics, and it made sense to partner with them. Henri approved. Lucien didn”t.”
”What made Grandpère finally agree?” Blaze asked, controlled violence in his tone.
She jerked her eyes to look at Blaze. ”Henri convinced him that it was a good idea. We got more partners…they were all Volkov companies. I didn”t know that they were going to use us to launder money. Blaze, I would never do that.”
Blaze shook his head. ”You wanted an easy win. You wanted to rub it in Grandpère”s face that you were a better CEO. That”s what this was.”
”We hired Will to become the new CFO. Henri brought him in. Will needs money, so…I didn”t know this when it all started,” Camille pleaded for her son to understand, but he watched her with a sneer on his face.
”By Will you mean Will James the Third who is currently in Federal custody?” I clarified for the record.
Camille nodded. ”Yes. We were seeing massive profits, and with Will”s help, we were able to launder vast sums of money. Our cut was moved around so it wouldn”t raise suspicion. After Lucien died, we thought that we”d have free rein over the business….”
”But he left everything to Rome Decuir,” I interjected.
”I didn”t expect that,” Camille seemed like she was still in disbelief about Lucien”s will.
”He did it to save the company,” Blaze remarked. ”He did it because he knew you were killing BBH with corruption. Did he know about Henri?”
She shook her head. ”I don”t think so.”
I made a note to include that in my interview with purported Lucien Doucet whisperer Matty Benedict, who we also suspected of assisting in his suicide. Louisiana was not a state where medical aid in dying was legal, and even if it was, what Matty had done was not that. Assisted suicide was still murder.
”Rome began to investigate. He fired Will. He got rid of all of us. Henri tried to keep him away from certain things…but we knew it was only a matter of time, which was accelerated when Rome brought in a financial investigator.” She paused then and took a deep breath.
I went to the table where we kept water in a plastic jug and filled a paper cup for Camille. She drank the water thirstily.
”Blaze, I can”t go to prison.”
”I”ll try my best,” he said without looking at her, and I knew he would. The man had integrity, and as her lawyer, he would do what was right for his client. Right now, he was insisting she cooperate to mitigate her sentencing.
”Lucien had asked Henri to set aside some money for Pierre and Clare because…he knew they didn”t have much. I did. You all…well, you all were fine. Henri set up the accounts in the Cayman Islands, so we”d be able to use them as well.” She drank some more water.
She didn”t speak for a while. The tension in the room was as thick as gumbo on a slow simmer.
”Who ordered the hit on Rome Decuir,” I prodded.
Camille took another deep breath. Her fingers were all but clutching her pearls. ”I did…well, I paid through Pierre”s account. Henri hired the person.” She clutched Blaze”s arm. ”I thought it was only Rome. I didn”t know why Henri added Gaia to the hit. I don”t know.”
Blaze deliberately removed her hand from his body and set it on the table. He was gentle, almost kind. But his eyes were a different matter. He wanted to kill his mother. I”d met enough murderers in my life to recognize the anger I saw in Blaze”s eyes. I didn”t blame him. It was all kinds of fucked up that your own mother tried to kill your sister.
”Rome wasn”t giving up, so we had to keep trying. But then Gaia was attacked, and…she killed someone.” There was awe in Camille”s voice. Hell, we were all impressed with Gaia.
”You know what happened with the next one and—”
”Mrs. Doucet, you said Henri Allard contacted this hitman. Is that correct?”
She nodded, and then, because I”d let her know prior to the interview that I needed verbal answers for the record, she cleared her throat. ”Yes, Henri. I don”t know how he knew who and how to contact. I only transferred the money.”
”Why didn”t he?” I asked. ”He had access to the same bank accounts.”
”He didn”t want me to have plausible deniability. We were partners. We were all involved.”
”What happened with Yves Noel?” I continued.
”The Volkovs started to get antsy, especially when we found out that Yves was getting ready to talk to the Feds. The money had stopped coming in, and we had NOPD and the Feds crawling around. He got scared.” Camille rubbed her forehead with a hand in a Victorian lady gesture.
I really wanted to see her in an orange jumpsuit.
There are no pearls and Chanel Number 5 in prison, bitch!
”The Volkovs” hired Vory Zakone. I found out from Henri after Yves was killed. Henri tried to stop it, but…it was too late.”
”Why Rufus?”Camille closed her eyes for a moment and then licked her lips. ”You”ll have to ask Henri.”
I looked through my files on my computer. The way Camille had not wanted to talk about Rufus made me think of something I”d seen in some documents. I didn”t smile when I found what I needed.
”Were you and Rufus Stark getting divorced?”Her eyes flashed shock. ”Ah…no.””Mr. Stark had a meeting on his calendar a few months before he was killed with a J. Bloodsworth, and I just put two and two together.” Janet Bloodsworth was a famous divorce lawyer. She”d made sure the former First Lady of Louisiana took her husband to the cleaners.
”Rufus and I were—””He was contesting the prenup, wasn”t he?” I wheedled. ”And since you were sleeping with Henri you asked him to help you out?”
She shook her head. She wasn”t a moron. She wouldn”t admit to having Rufus killed.
”For Christ”s sake, Camille, were you fucking Henri?” Blaze raged.
”Language, Blaze,” Camille snapped.
”For fuck”s sake, woman, you were fucking Henri, and you”re worried about my language?” he fumed.
I decided to move on. We”d come back to Rufus another time.
”Why did Zakone try to kill Blaze?”
Camille shook her head as if in despair. ”After Rufus was killed, I pulled away from everything. And I mean everything.”
”You ended your extra-marital relationship with Henri?” I prodded.
She fidgeted with her Cartier watch. ”I did. After the Masquerade Ball, when I found out they were trying to kill me, I ran. I don”t know why Blaze was targeted.”
Blaze pressed the pause record button then.
”Probably because I was insisting on keeping the investigations going even after the Feds were saying they were done. It was too hot to go after Rome, but the tattooed asshole who never cared about the family business, eliminating him would give Henri the majority he needed in the BBH board to maintain the terms of the partnership with the Volkovs,” Blaze filled in. ”This was off the record, Grace.”
I nodded. He wasn”t here to give a statement; his client was.
When Blaze gave me the go-ahead, I restarted the recording.
”Do you have proof, any kind of corroboration, Mrs. Doucet, to support your statements about the involvement of Henri Allard?” I asked. Her statement was well and good, but the truth was it wasn”t enough since she was accusing Henri of being a co-conspirator.
She shook her head weakly. ”Henri…he never dirtied his hands. It took me a while to figure that out. That”s why I paid the hitman and—”
”Whose idea was it to make Pierre Doucet the fall guy?” I questioned.
”Me.”
I kept at it for a while until I knew I had everything Camille knew.
”Mrs. Doucet, you have no evidence to support your statement about the Volkovs or Henri Allard,” I explained at the end of the interview. ”We will need to investigate before we proceed. Until then, you will be remanded, and a bail hearing will be set.” I went through the process of ending the interview and the recording.
”No,” she wailed.
”I”ll get you out on bail,” Blaze muttered. ”I assume you”re going to take her in now?”
”Yes, and the bail hearing will probably take place in night court. I hear you have influence there,” I quipped. Blaze had gotten Zephyr out on bail when we”d arrested him on suspicion of the murder of Yves Noel.
Blaze chuckled and followed me out of the interview room.
”You make sure she”s in protective custody,” Blaze ordered.
”No, I was thinking of putting her in gen pop, you know, right next to some bratva bitch,” I threw back at him.
Blaze ran a hand through his hair. His eyes scanned the bullpen and fell on his fiancée as she was walking with Ash to the captain”s office, where I needed to go as well to debrief.
As soon as Blaze saw Nick, he softened. It was a thing of beauty to watch this big bad man turn into a softy.
”She dies. You have no case,” he warned.
”I still have no case. But what I do have is information to find the corroboration I need.”
”How will you get it?” Blaze asked.
I winked at him. ”Now, counselor, that would be telling.”