Chapter 19 #2
“Good Lord, yes. Had the lunch crowd headed out of the café, and a baby shower at the Catholic church just finishing up. I’m telling you, a bunch of those church women got the vapors.
I think some others might have got some ideas but that’s too sad to contemplate.
Anyway, Carter starts yelling at Calahan about him flashing the whole danged universe, and then a man stepped out of a car that had just pulled up after Carter did. And it was Calahan’s commander.”
Now we all hooted.
“Calahan flashed his commander?” Gertie asked.
“I’d say given the height of the car, the commander got a full frontal, and he was not impressed.
He got out, and Calahan was scrambling to find the ties that were dangling from Carter’s truck door.
The commander yelled at him and he froze like he was in some sci-fi movie.
Then he realized who it was and twisted his arm up behind his back so hard he yelped trying to hold that gown together. ”
“I would have given up my stash of Nora’s weed to see that,” Gertie said.
“It’s all on the department camera, but I have a feeling the commander is going to demand we hand it over as soon as he realizes his department is bucking up against a lawsuit from a bunch of distressed diners and an entire religion.”
“So what happened with the commander?” I asked.
“He demanded to know why Calahan was wearing a hospital gown. He sputtered some excuse about the hospital laundering his clothes, but the commander wasn’t buying it.
I mean, come on, go back to your hotel and dress before you come to work.
Or for the love of Pete, he had to have passed at least one Walmart on the way out there to accost Carter.
I was just about to say all of that when Carter stepped on my foot. ”
“He knows you too well,” Ida Belle said.
“Got that right, and I have to admit, he made the right call on this one. If I’d have gone off then the commander might have felt obligated to defend Calahan, as he is, after all, the state police’s employee.
But we all just stood there in silence and the commander let loose on him.
Said he’d gotten a call from the hospital that Calahan had basically snuck out and was working without proper release, which set them up for huge legal problems. So if you can believe it, Calahan gets indignant and then tells the commander that Carter is the real problem that needs to be addressed and the commander is not taking him off this case. ”
“I can believe it,” Ida Belle said, and Gertie and I nodded.
“Well, the commander turned red as a beet and told Calahan that not only was he being suspended, but he was being placed under investigation himself. Then he looked over at Carter and asked if he’d like to press charges on behalf of everyone downtown.
Carter just shook his head and said that wouldn’t be necessary as long as Calahan removed himself permanently and never returned. ”
I smiled. “Well played.”
“Agreed, so Calahan was just about to blow his top and launch into a tirade when the commander told him that he needed to pack up his belongings, go home, and forget he’d ever heard of Sinful or Sheriff LeBlanc, and if he ever so much as breathed a word of anything to do with this investigation that he’d have him up on charges faster than he could disrobe.
Well, that last sentence is where I finally lost it.
I’d been holding it in all that time, and I just couldn’t anymore.
I laughed until I collapsed in a heap right there on the sidewalk.
Took Carter and Deputy Breaux both to get me up. ”
“I think you deserve a medal for keeping it in that long,” Gertie said. “So what about Kim? Is she talking?”
“Not a peep except to ask for her phone call.”
“Tell Carter we’re on our way with evidence,” I said. “I think what we have to show him is going to make him almost as happy as Calahan getting his due.”
“I’ll let him know.”
Gertie grinned. “Best. News. Ever.”
Carter must have been watching for us because he was waiting at the front door when we pulled up. He waved us in and back to his office.
“You heard about Calahan?” he asked.
We all nodded.
“I think Myrtle called as soon as she could breathe again,” I said. “It couldn’t have happened to a better person.”
“I have you guys to thank for it—you and Cassidy.”
“I’m sure we have no idea what you’re talking about.”
He grinned. “Of course you don’t. Myrtle said you have some evidence for me? I can’t wait to see what you’re willingly turning over to a police investigation.”
“Hey, I’m a law-abiding citizen.”
“You’re a citizen.”
I pushed the envelope across the desk. “Rambo tracked that off Kim’s scent. It had been thrown into a thorn bush just off the trail I chased her down. We’re certain it’s what she lifted from Mildred’s cabin.”
He pulled out the paperwork and his eyebrows lifted when he saw it was a PI report. Then he started to read. He seemed to find the first page—the one about Zion’s marriage—only mildly interesting, but when he got to the second page, he jumped up and yelled.
“Yes!” He shook his fist. “I’m calling the North Carolina police now.
If they don’t have enough to arrest him, I can still detain him for questioning for forty-eight hours.
If this PI came up with this much information that quickly, then I think it’s just the tip of the iceberg.
A couple more days, and his entire life will unravel. ”
He pressed his phone. “Myrtle, get Breaux back from lunch. We need to pick up Zion Gates for questioning.”
“What about Kim?”
“She can talk to her lawyer when he gets here, but I’m not releasing her. She racked up a bunch of charges—felony charges—in a short amount of time. I’ll be sending her to New Orleans tomorrow and the ADA can figure out what he wants to do with her.”
“Her attorney is going to want to speak to you—try the whole naive, taken-advantage-of route to work up sympathy,” Myrtle pointed out.
“Tell him the person she tried to kill was my fiancée and he’ll know not to bother.”
“Perfect! I’m so glad I’m on the clock today. If I was working tonight, I would have missed all this fun.”
We all rose and walked out with Carter, giving Myrtle a thumbs-up before we left. Deputy Breaux was just walking up, and he jumped in Carter’s truck and they headed off.
“We better go fill Mildred in,” I said.
We’d just left a very surprised and relieved Mildred when Carter called.
“Zion is gone. No personal belongings at the cabin, and Sapphire swears she has no idea where he is and that she hasn’t heard anything about him since yesterday, when her attorney handed him a duffel bag with twenty thousand in cash. What the heck is wrong with these people?”
“Got me,” I said. “If she’d just waited a day or two, she could have gotten rid of him for free via the penal code. But don’t worry. I have a good idea where he might be.”
I told him about Kim’s new purchase on Horn Island.
“Jesus. Did they really think they could hide on an island a couple hours away for the rest of their lives?”
“I’m sure that’s what Zion told Kim. But I have no doubt he was going to use that cash to get a fake passport and leave the country. Things were starting to snowball.”
“You’re sure this information is accurate?”
“Yes.”
“And you came by it, how exactly?”
“A new source connected to the NOLA wealthy and the real estate community. It’s where I’d be going right now if I hadn’t given you all my good intel.”
“Guess I’m off on a road trip then. I’ll leave Breaux to handle Sinful and tap Harrison for the takedown.”
“I mean, Gertie took him down with a bad knee.”
“Gertie is as big a menace as Zion, just in a different way,” he said and disconnected.
“What now?” Gertie asked.
“I think we’ve wrapped this one up,” I said.
“As much as it can be wrapped anyway. We’ve pulled together evidence, motive, and opportunity for drugging Eleanor.
It’s up to the ADA if he wants to pursue that angle at all, but my guess is Zion will have plenty of charges once they start unraveling his past.”
Gertie smiled. “So…hot tub and champagne to celebrate? You are technically a bachelor tonight and Lord knows my body could use it. Amazing how something that is supposed to be so Zen wrecked my body and mind.”
“Murder is never Zen,” Ida Belle said.
“I meant the yoga and meditation.”
“There is nothing Zen about twisting your body like a pretzel. And there darn sure isn’t anything Zen about sitting still for an hour and trying to get your brain to think of nothing. It’s far more relaxing for me to rebuild a carburetor, and it accomplishes something useful.”
“Walter might appreciate some of those pretzel moves. A couple weeks ago, Jeb and I—”
“No!”
I smiled. It was good to be back to normal.
It was after midnight before Carter came in, completely exhausted. I had spent the entire afternoon in the hot tub consuming far too much champagne, so I was half watching TV, half dozing on the couch when he arrived.
“Shower before anything,” he said before shuffling upstairs.
Since I knew exactly how it felt to have the adrenaline rush course out of your body as quickly as it arrived, I just nodded and waited. I wasn’t worried. If they hadn’t found Zion, he would still be out there looking. I just had to wait on the story.
Thirty minutes later, he walked back into the living room and sank into my recliner.
“You hungry?” I asked. “I can fix you a sandwich.”
“No. Harrison made us pick something up on the way back.”
“So can you tell me how you took him down? Or do I have to finagle it out of Harrison tomorrow?”
“How do you know we took him down?”
I raised one eyebrow and he smiled.
“Yeah, we got him. He was right where you said he’d be. It was a huge parcel, though, and took us some time to locate where he was hiding. Found him in a closet clutching a Bible and a bottle of whiskey.”
“I guess all that meditation didn’t work. Boy, that was anticlimactic.”
“Were you hoping for a gunfight?”
I shrugged. “I was figuring more on a footrace, but I guess he just gave up.”
“He was definitely a weak opponent. I guess I was expecting more. Harrison was disappointed. Said going on a call to the Swamp Bar was more dangerous.”
“Naturally. Zion was a bully and he intentionally picked victims who were at their weakest point. He would have never made it past a savvy woman with no trauma. The three other women at his retreat got his number quickly and were playing his game back on him for discounts.”
“Really? Good for them.”
“Not good for Eleanor.”
“No. But she will be the last of his victims.”
“There’s still Kim.”
He sighed. “Oh yeah. That’s going to be a tough one.
Given her money and family name, I’m going to bet the ADA offers her a plea deal as long as she gives information on Zion.
I know he’s already talked to Sapphire. I don’t think they know anything about his previous life, but I passed that PI’s file over to Blanchet and he’s working it for me. ”
“Blanchet’s a good call.”
Andy Blanchet was a retired cop who filled in at the sheriff’s department and did some consulting when Carter needed help.
He was excellent at his job and was always willing to pretend he saw nothing where I was concerned.
I think Carter was still on the fence as to whether that was a good thing or a bad thing.
“So I guess that’s it,” I said. “You’ll close the file tomorrow and pass it all to the ADA. Then he’ll decide if he wants to add any charges regarding Eleanor’s suicide.”
He nodded. “I’ll be glad to have this one behind me. Everything about it made me feel like I needed to shower.”
“Well, you did spend most of the week with Calahan on your heels. But hey, at least we saved the next guy from his reign of terror. Celia’s going to be disappointed that the guy who was supposed to be investigating you for lacking is now under investigation himself.”
“Given that Celia was one of the people who saw his, um…true character today, I think she might be willing to concede this one.”
I laughed. “Myrtle didn’t tell us that.”
“She didn’t know. Celia had left before the rest of the shower attendees and was already in her car. I guess I need to talk to Myrtle about telling you police business again.”
“Is it really police business if it happens right there on Main Street? I mean, does the sheriff’s department get to claim everything as confidential just because it happens in the parking spaces in front of your building?”
“Good point. I’m going to head up. I’m beat. You coming?”
“I’ve been waiting on you.”