Page 32 of Knife in the Back (New Orleans #4)
The Quarter, New Orleans, Louisiana
From the passenger seat of Burke’s company SUV, Naomi watched Captain Holmes drive away. They were right behind the cop, Holmes heading back to his office, only a few blocks from the condo Naomi had seen Winnifred Timms entering. Which was where she and Burke were headed.
“Should I have apologized to Holmes?” she asked when indecision got the better of her.
“No,” Burke said, his drawl a deep rumble that sent butterflies fluttering in her belly. “He knows you were wronged.”
“But not by him.”
“No, but he understands. He went through that with me, too. And with others who’ve left the force. You’re not the only one.”
She frowned when he turned away from where she thought they were headed. “Burke? Where are you going?”
He held up his phone. “Antoine texted me the names and address of the kidnapping brothers. He couldn’t tell me in person while André was there.”
Pablo Delgado was the one whose arm was broken when he’d tried to take Everett. His brother, Ernesto, had tried to grab the other kids.
“Are we going to their house?” she asked.
“We are. I don’t expect to find Ernesto there, especially if he knows his brother is dead. But we can scope out the place, talk to the neighbors.”
“Investigate,” she said, satisfaction welling up within her. “Antoine said the brothers were part of the STs gang, but that they left to work for Gaffney. I didn’t think that walking away from a gang was so easy.”
Burke glanced over at her. “It’s not. What are you wondering now?”
“If they actually left the gang at all. Gaffney wanted me to transport drugs for him. What if the Delgados are running Gaffney’s drugs using their gang members?”
“It’s certainly possible. Probable even. I’ll have Val start researching gang members, see if any of them are in prison. Maybe we can ask to talk to them when we go to see Cresswell.”
“Kaj talked to you, then?” she asked.
“He did. They might not let me go with you, but Kaj’s boss is a good guy. You’ll be safe.”
“I’ll feel safer if you go with me.”
He looked pleased. “Kaj said he’d try. Can you text Val? Ask her to start researching ST members.”
“She’ll appreciate having something to do. She and Lucien were questioning if all of them need to be there to guard the kids. I think now that it’s daytime, things are looking less apocalyptic. But that’s when they get you.” She winced. “That sounds so paranoid.”
“Except that it’s not.”
She texted Val and, as she’d expected, Val was enthusiastic.
“Val’s off and running. She says Antoine is still trying to determine the identity of that couple who pretended to help Harper last night.
Which has also been bothering me. The couple, I mean.
If they were involved in the plot to take Harper, why get in Delgado’s way?
Why let her go?” She bit her lip, hesitant to share her thoughts.
But Burke seemed open to them, so she plowed ahead.
“They could have had a change of heart. Like maybe bugging your people’s cars was okay, but stealing a child was not.
Except that they were there , where an attempted kidnapping was about to happen. ”
“And?”
“And…their involvement just doesn’t make sense, whether they were only pretending to take Harper or if they were serious. I feel like there’s an important piece that we’re missing.”
He gave her another sharp glance. “I’ve been thinking that, too. I even wondered if we should keep the children on lockdown, but there are too many unanswered questions—like why that couple saved Harper. I’m hesitant to remove the protection detail just in case I’m wrong. It’s not worth the risk.”
“Except now your people are guarding their children and you’re stuck with me,” she said with a shrug.
“Hey.” He snapped the word, making her eyes widen in surprise. “You don’t talk like that. I’m not stuck with you. I asked you to accompany me because you notice things and you’re smart.”
She was torn between shrinking away from his harsh tone and lifting her chin in pride. She went with the latter, because she knew this man wouldn’t hurt her.
That was a good feeling. It had been a long time since she’d experienced it.
Security.
Burke Broussard was safe .
And handsome, too. But a pretty face could fool. One had to only look at Burke’s friends to know that he’d proven his loyalty and good heart.
Her phone buzzed. “Val texted. She says that Antoine’s done a quick-and-dirty search on the Delgados and sent it to both of us.” That was another good feeling.
Inclusion. Respect.
She opened the file. “The Delgados live with their mother and grandmother. Well, I guess just Ernesto does now. Pablo’s living in hell.”
Burke chuckled. “And the claws come out.”
“I’m not sorry Pablo is dead. I might be questioning Ernesto’s motive for Harper’s attempted abduction and maybe even Jace’s, but Pablo wanted to hurt Everett.
Okay, so the mother works in the local elementary school cafeteria and the grandmother is retired.
They had a good relationship with their neighbors until the brothers moved home. ”
“When was that?”
“In September. When Everett’s phone was probably hacked.”
“Is September when the Delgado brothers supposedly left the gang?”
“That’s less clear.” She read further, skimming the police reports Antoine had sent for the most relevant information.
They wanted to talk to the neighbors, so she focused on them.
“Looks like the neighbors did not want the brothers living there. They called 911 on the Delgados several times. The neighborhood started getting ‘gang punks’ driving through. Cars would rev their engines in the middle of the night, blow horns, knock down mailboxes. Nuisance stuff. But then there was a drive-by shooting at the house that the mother and grandmother live in.”
“Like Sylvi’s shop today?”
“More than that. At Sylvi’s shop, it was just broken glass and some bullet holes high on one wall.
In this shooting, the bullets hit high in the Delgado house, just like Sylvi’s, but stray bullets hit the neighbor’s house, too.
A six-year-old boy who was sleeping upstairs was hit by one of the bullets. He didn’t die, but it was close.”
“Damn,” Burke breathed.
“Yeah. After that, the neighborhood took legal action to make the brothers leave. They wanted the Delgado women’s lease revoked.”
“It didn’t work, I take it, because they still live here.”
She sighed as she read on. “No, because the house belonging to the woman organizing the legal challenge burned down. The woman died of smoke inhalation. The arson investigator found the fire was deliberately set. After that, the neighbors withdrew their legal action. I don’t think the neighbors are going to talk to us, Burke. At least not openly.”
“You could be right, but we can try. When was the fire? And did the NOPD think it was the gang who set it or the Delgado brothers?”
“The fire was this past November and the police report doesn’t say who they suspected of arson. It does say that not a single neighbor would talk to the investigators.”
“Getting any information is looking kind of bleak, but we’ll still try.”
“Good.” She read to the end of Antoine’s report. “Oh, this is interesting. The house the Delgado women were renting was recently sold. Guess to whom?”
“The Delgados?”
“Yep. The women—the mother and grandmother—are listed on the deed. And the house was paid for in cash.”
“And that’s not suspicious at all,” Burke said sarcastically. “Two women, barely scraping by, suddenly buy a house with cash. It had to have been the brothers’ money.”
“Clearly. It’s harder to get rid of the Delgado brothers if the women own the home. Well, if we don’t get anything from the neighbors, we still have Winnifred Timms.” Her lip curled at the very thought of the woman who’d sandbagged her. “We can go to her condo after we’re done at the Delgados’.”
“Except she’s not home right now.”
Naomi lifted her brows. “You’ve got eyes on her?”
“Yep. I texted one of my part-timers last night after you gave me the condo’s address. Sent him over to keep watch.”
“You keep a lot of part-timers?” Because he’d mentioned that he’d put a part-timer on his godsons’ protection detail the night before.
“I do. Cops who I trust or old military buddies who don’t want to work full-time or those who have other jobs. Harrison Banks was a part-timer, but he’s retiring from NOPD and asked to be bumped up to full-time.”
“I’m so glad he did.” Because Everett was safe. “So do you know where Winnifred is? Or just that she’s not home?”
“Devonte followed her to Loyola. She’s in class at the moment.”
“Must be nice,” Naomi muttered. “She gets to go to college and I got to go to prison.”
He reached across the console, took her hand, and gave it a brief squeeze before releasing her. A shiver tickled her skin from the contact, and she missed the warmth of his hand once it was gone.
“We’re looking at her closely,” he promised. “We’ll find out if she was involved.”
“She was.” Naomi was sure of it.
“I think so, too. In her case, we’re following the money.”
“Thank you. That condo of hers isn’t cheap. Average rent for the building is three grand a month.”
His lips tipped up. “Looked it up, did you?”
“I did.” She hesitated, then shrugged. “I also tried to follow the money, but I didn’t get far. Not so easy when you don’t have police credentials. I don’t think that stops Antoine, though.”
He chuckled. “Antoine’s never met a firewall he couldn’t break through. Did you find out anything about Winnifred?”
“That she continued seeing that older guy she met that night for dinner.”
He glanced over at her before returning his eyes to traffic, which was stop-and-go. They’d left the Quarter behind and were heading east. The area wasn’t plagued with tourists flooding the streets like it was in the Quarter, but there were many more cars on the road than normal.