Page 44 of Knife in the Back (New Orleans #4)

Molly had rolled in a whiteboard. The sight made Burke’s team smile and tease her about her penchant for whiteboards.

Molly just rolled her eyes. “We need a place to post our notes,” she said. “We’ve spent enough time cowering in this house, afraid for our children.” She flipped the whiteboard over, exposing the other side, which was covered in notes and photos.

Photos of Cresswell, Gaffney, Winnifred, the Delgado brothers, and the woman who’d saved Harper. But it was the question that dominated the center of the board that had Naomi’s attention.

WHY NAOMI? was written in all caps with a red marker. “We have still not answered ‘Why Naomi?’ and this really bothers me,” Molly said. “I think it’s fair to assume that Naomi is intended to be the fall guy for something.”

“Just as she was six years ago,” Ruthanne said.

“I think a follow-up question should be: why did they want to keep her in prison? They threatened me to keep me from pursuing an appeal. Why? I thought this might be just petty mean-spiritedness on Gaffney’s part, but the bank accounts and the stalking of Everett indicate it’s much bigger than that. ”

“Good point,” Molly said and added the question, also in red. “Both the planted drugs six years ago and the fraudulent bank accounts this year indicate time and planning. Why?”

“Naomi could have been a random choice,” Val said.

“But I have the feeling there’s a stronger connection.

We’ve been wondering about your job with NOPD.

You handled evidence. We know that Gaffney and Cresswell stole drugs from evidence.

We also know that at least once—when they framed you—they substituted ground-up Sheetrock for the cocaine.

What if something went missing that you’d processed?

Or something was substituted for real evidence?

It could have been drugs or guns or even something else.

Something big, something that once you saw it, made you a liability.

The discovery of missing or tainted evidence would trigger an immediate investigation. ”

Naomi shook her head. “Well, not immediate. When evidence went missing, usually it had simply been moved or stored in a slot different than what the system had recorded, and we found it pretty quickly. But if the evidence wasn’t found, then, yes, there should have been an investigation.”

“ Should have been?” Lucien asked. “Wasn’t it always investigated?”

“I don’t know,” Naomi admitted. “I thought so six years ago, but I also didn’t know drugs were being stolen out of the evidence room or that they were being replaced with ground-up Sheetrock so that no one suspected they were gone. Clearly someone was keeping those thefts from being investigated.”

“Fair point,” Molly conceded. “But we’re still going to assume that whatever led to you being framed six years ago had something to do with evidence you either saw or processed.

It might not even have gone missing. It might have been enough that you saw it.

For now, let’s assume that whatever that evidence was, it went missing and Gaffney needed someone to blame.

That was you. Let’s also assume that it wasn’t drugs, because Gaffney had a system for keeping missing drugs from being investigated. ”

“Okay,” Naomi said, mind racing. “So something other than drugs. That could be anything. But I think it has to have had something to do with John Gaffney. Or maybe Cresswell.”

“Or both,” Burke murmured.

“Or both,” she agreed. “They were good at covering their tracks. Gaffney still is. This would have had to have been damaging enough that it could have brought them down.”

“Real evidence,” Burke said. “Not rumor like I used.”

Naomi nodded. “Exactly. I also think it would have to have been something unique. Something I’d remember.

Something I’d be able to swear in court that I definitely saw.

Something that could be used to connect Cresswell and/or Gaffney to an actual crime.

And it has to have been six years ago or longer. ”

“I’m betting closer to six years,” Lucien said. “Not longer. Otherwise, why the push to get you out of the way?”

“True.” Naomi drew a breath. We might actually have something here.

“So we’re assuming that I saw something that was connected to a crime that could have taken Cresswell and/or Gaffney down.

You said whatever it was might not even be missing, but I can’t imagine that it’s still in evidence storage.

If it was damaging enough for them to go to all the trouble of getting me out of the way, they wouldn’t want to chance someone else finding it and using it against them—either legally or through blackmail.

If I’d been Cresswell and Gaffney, I’d have taken that evidence and destroyed it so that no one ever saw it again. ”

“I agree,” Burke said and everyone nodded.

“Planting the drugs in Naomi’s car could have been their way of getting her arrested and out of the NOPD, but it also served to destroy her credibility.

If whatever she saw ever did come to light or if she figured out what had triggered all this and reported it, nobody would believe her. ”

Destroying my credibility certainly worked , Naomi thought. Except that it hadn’t. The people in this room believed her. Enough that, when their children were targeted, they hadn’t turned their backs on her.

“And that’s why keeping her in prison was important,” Ruthanne said quietly. “And why, now that she’s out, they want to send her back. To make sure no one ever believes her again.”

“We believe her,” Molly said fiercely. “Let’s run with this theory for now. Antoine, can you create a list of cases that might fit our scenario?”

“I can,” Antoine said. “I’ll start with investigations that happened in the year before Naomi went to prison. It might be a case that was either closed or went cold for lack of evidence. I’m betting we’ll find a lot of those.”

“Antoine,” Burke asked, “can you access the evidence database and make a list of the evidence Naomi handled? We can exclude drugs and probably guns as well.”

Antoine frowned. “Yes, but listing every piece of evidence Naomi handled won’t tell us what’s missing. We’d have to do an internal audit and we don’t have that kind of access.”

“Or that kind of time.” Naomi was overwhelmed by the scope of the effort required.

“Identifying a missing piece of evidence when we don’t know which case, which defendant, or even which year it was processed?

I handled somewhere in the neighborhood of five thousand pieces of evidence each year—so fifty thousand in all.

This could be a true needle in a haystack. ”

Everyone turned to her with wide eyes.

“Fifty thousand ?” Burke repeated.

“Girl,” Val said. “You were busy.”

Naomi shrugged. “Evidence gets brought in every day of every week of every year. It adds up.”

Molly looked undeterred. “We’ll start with the year before your arrest, cross-checking evidence entered with cases touched by Cresswell or Gaffney. Then we’ll regroup and see where we are.”

“But the answer to your question ‘Why Naomi?’ might not even be a piece of evidence, missing or not,” Naomi cautioned.

“Then we’ll regroup,” Molly said patiently. “An investigation doesn’t normally involve getting shot at in a flower shop or witnessing someone being murdered. Most of the time it’s dull, boring data analysis.”

“At which Molly excels,” Burke said with a smile. “Does anyone have anything else? Because I have a few next steps to assign.”

Eleanor waved her hand. “I do. I’ve seen that woman. The one who saved Harper.”

All eyes turned to Eleanor in stunned surprise.

“Why didn’t you say something?” Burke asked.

“Because Molly here was trying to keep you focused on the question in red marker. I figured my thing would keep.”

“So where did you see her?” Molly asked.

“Coming out of the Delgados’ house. I saw her at least once a week, sometimes several times. She wore a nurse’s uniform—scrubs—so I figured she was home health care for Carmen, the grandmother.”

“Anyone can buy scrubs,” Val said. “She could have been trying to pass as a home health aide when in reality she was working for the Delgado brothers and/or Gaffney.”

Burke’s expression became grim. “According to André, there were two teenage girls in the Delgado house when it burned. He thinks they were trafficking victims. Maybe it was Donna’s job to deal with newly kidnapped teens.

Or maybe she really is a nurse and she was treating victims who became injured or sick? ”

Naomi suddenly had a terrible, awful thought. “What if she is a nurse? What if she’s a nurse at the hospital with the sixteen-year-old girl who was nearly beaten to death by her john? That poor girl would be a sitting duck.”

Burke blinked. “That’s a bit of a leap,” he said slowly. “But not out of the question. Can we check the woman out, Antoine? Maybe find out if she works at the hospital?”

Ruthanne went to the whiteboard and took the photo down so that she could study it.

“If she does work at the hospital, she’s probably a recent hire.

I worked there for more than twenty-five years and I don’t recognize her face.

I didn’t know every nurse, but I do have a decent memory.

” She returned the photo to the whiteboard. “I can ask around if you want.”

“Please do,” Antoine said. “I haven’t found her anywhere yet.”

“Mom,” Naomi said, thinking of that sixteen-year-old girl lying alone in a hospital, “I’d like to talk to the girl. She identified Pablo Delgado as her abuser.”

“You want me to find out which room she’s in?” Ruthanne asked, returning to sit beside James.

“Only if you can do it discreetly,” Burke said.

Ruthanne nodded. “I know who to ask. Linda’s my oldest friend in the hospital. She works in the office, so she’ll have access to patient lists. I’ll tell her that we want to visit, but I won’t tell her why.”

Eleanor dug into her pocket, bringing out a flip phone. “You can use the burner that Antoine gave me. Just in case someone is monitoring her calls.”

Naomi couldn’t imagine why Linda’s calls would be monitored, but she said nothing because her mother’s face had lit up like the sun.

“I’ve never used a burner before,” Ruthanne said, sounding almost giddy.

“We can be badasses together,” Eleanor said dryly.

Ruthanne laughed. “We can indeed.”

Burke looked amused. “Okay, that was one of the items on my list, finding the young woman. Ruthanne, you have responsibility for that.”

Ruthanne nodded once. “On it, boss.” Then she grinned. “Always wanted to say that.”

James kissed her cheek. “You are too darn cute.”

Burke’s lips twitched. “Thank you, Ruthanne. Moving on, Naomi and I are going to see Amanda Cresswell today. I’m going to offer protection for her kids. I don’t think she’ll accept, but it’s the right thing to do. Children should not have to pay for the sins of their fathers.”

“And maybe you’ll create a bit of goodwill at the same time?” Lucien asked. “In case Mrs.Cresswell knows something about her husband’s life of crime?”

“Exactly. I don’t think she’ll be happy to see me since we were involved in getting her husband incarcerated, but I’m going to try. Molly, can you summarize our next steps?”

Molly flipped the whiteboard over and started writing. “Antoine’s going to pull cases that involved Gaffney and Cresswell, and Val and I will cross-reference evidence that was collected in each case against evidence Naomi handled.”

“I will,” Val said. “Molly and Lucien need to sleep. They were on night duty.”

“Okay,” Molly allowed. “But I’ll help once I’ve woken up.

I don’t want to miss out on all the data-crunching fun.

Ruthanne is going to find out if Donna is a nurse locally and also, if she can do so discreetly, the location of Delgado’s sixteen-year-old sex trafficking victim.

Burke and Naomi are going to visit Cresswell’s widow to see if she knows anything about her husband’s extracurricular activities. ”

“I’ve got a next step,” Antoine said. “I want to know why Winnifred Timms told Burke that he was ‘living on borrowed time.’?”

“And that his time was up,” Naomi added.

Molly wrote it on the whiteboard, then stood staring at what she’d written, a frown furrowing her brow. She turned to Burke. “Do you have any idea what she was talking about?”

“Not yet. But I’m betting it has something to do with Cresswell. Either retaliation for getting him arrested two and a half years ago or…”

Naomi looked up at him. “Or?”

“I always thought my leaving the NOPD was a little too easy. I wonder if Cresswell was just biding his time, waiting until I’d been off the force long enough that he could have me killed without it boomeranging back on him.”

“That might be a topic to broach with the widow,” Naomi said.

He nodded. “I figured the same.” He cleared his throat. “I have one more thing. Eleanor has called her neighbors and found a few who are willing to talk to us this evening, but not here and not in our office. And definitely not on their own street.”

“Understandable,” Molly said, “considering that the neighborhood’s had two arsons linked to the Delgados’ enterprise. You need a meeting place, Burke?”

“Yes. I thought about asking Gabe if the private room at his restaurant was available, but, even if it is, he’s too connected to us. I won’t put Eleanor’s neighbors in danger.”

“I know a place, Burke,” Val said. “There’s a private conference room in the building where the QuarterMasters skate.”

James perked up. “The roller derby team? I love them.”

Naomi was surprised. She had no idea that James was a roller derby fan.

“We go to all the games,” Ruthanne added.

Naomi stared at her mother. “Since when?”

Ruthanne hesitated, then answered. “Since you went away. James asked me to go with him to one of the games, and I had a great time.”

“Val’s a star on the team,” Burke said proudly. “She’s Val-Killer-Rie.”

James looked starstruck. “We have to get your autograph.”

Val laughed. “Of course. I haven’t played in a while, though. I’ve been busy with work and Kaj, Elijah, and Jace, but I’m hoping to go back next season.”

“But it’s not the regular season,” James said. “Won’t Eleanor’s neighbors stick out like a sore thumb, all their cars parked in the lot alone?”

“There’s actually an exhibition game tonight,” Val said. “We’re sold out, but I can get Eleanor’s neighbors tickets so they can get through the doors. The meeting room will be empty during the game. I’ll be your security, Burke. It’ll be fine.”

“Thank you, Val-Killer-Rie,” Burke said. “I guess we all have our marching orders. Molly and Lucien, go to sleep. Naomi, we’ll leave to see Cresswell’s wife in thirty minutes, if that’s okay.”

“I’ll be waiting at the door.”