Page 48 of Knife in the Back (New Orleans #4)

The Quarter, New Orleans, Louisiana

“What is it?” Naomi asked, eyeing the envelope Burke had set on the desk in his office. The envelope that had been burning a hole in Burke’s pocket.

It would be important. Which was why he’d waited until his available team members convened in his home office. At this point, it was just him, Naomi, Val, and Antoine. Molly and Lucien were still asleep, and Harrison was on guard duty, but he’d fill them in later.

“Let’s find out.” Pulling on a pair of disposable gloves, he sliced the envelope with a letter opener and shook the SD card into his palm.

It was tiny, yet he felt the weight of it. He slid the card into the slot of what Antoine called his “trash” laptop, the one that had no internet connection and was not connected to any of his other work. If whatever was on the card corrupted his machine, none of his files would be impacted.

Antoine tapped his keys, then squinted as he scanned whatever filled his screen. No one said a word until Val broke the silence.

“By all that’s holy, Antoine, tell us what you see.”

Antoine looked up, frowning. “There’s only one file on the SD card. It appears to be a ledger. A record of payments. Dates and amounts only. No indication of who the recipients were or what the payments were for. The last date was two weeks before Cresswell was arrested.”

“How many entries?” Naomi asked. “And when was the first payment?”

Burke had been about to ask the same things.

“Just over a thousand entries. The first was in July, ten years ago.”

“Are there any repeating entries?” Val asked. “Like regular payments?”

“Yes. Several appear to be repeating.” Antoine’s eyes darted back and forth as he analyzed the numbers.

“At first glance, I’m seeing ten payments on the first of every month, ranging from a few hundred to a thousand dollars each.

In the final year before his arrest, he was paying out seven grand a month just in these recurring payments. ”

“Payoffs,” Naomi murmured. “Or blackmail payments.”

Burke agreed. “But to whom?”

Naomi bit at her lower lip. “For years, he and Gaffney were Teflon. Nothing stuck until Cresswell killed a suspect in front of witnesses. Gaffney is still somehow avoiding justice. Every investigation into him turns up nothing at all. Could we be looking at payments to PIB investigators?”

“It’s likely,” Antoine said. “I compiled a list of PIB officers who investigated either Cresswell or Gaffney at some point in the year before your arrest. We can start with them, looking into finances, et cetera. Are you going to turn this file over to André?”

Burke shook his head. “Not yet. Not until we know who in PIB is on the take. I’ve put protection on Amanda Cresswell and her kids, but I don’t want to put her in Gaffney’s crosshairs again.”

Val and Antoine frowned in question, so Burke explained about Gaffney’s mutilation of Cresswell’s wife.

“Oh my God,” Val said, horrified. “Who could blame the woman for not giving this file to the cops?”

“They’ve bullied so many of us.” Naomi’s jaw tightened. “We need to end it. Exactly how is still the question.”

Burke studied Antoine, who’d gone still. “Antoine? What do you see?”

“A few large payments. One is fifty thousand dollars. It was paid out two weeks after Naomi was sentenced to prison. And it’s the same amount as her ex-husband’s mortgage, which Jimmy Haywood paid off at that same time.

” He looked over at Naomi, his expression both sorrowful and angry.

“I’m sorry, Naomi. I only checked that time period because I’m still pissed off at your ex for testifying against you.

This isn’t definitive, but it sure looks like a bribe. ”

Naomi blew out a breath. “Thank you for checking. I hated Jimmy for cheating on me and lying about me, but I honestly thought he lied on the stand to get full custody of Everett. His taking bribes never entered my mind.”

“I’m not surprised,” Burke said, scowling. “The man is an asshole. But how the hell did he only owe fifty grand? He bought that house after your divorce, right? He would have only owned it a year when he paid it off.”

“James helped him,” Naomi said. “He’d sold his own house because he wanted to downsize.

James had added Jimmy to the deed, so he got a sizable chunk of the proceeds.

With that, plus his half of the sale of the house we owned, Jimmy was able to put a large down payment on his new place with his new wife. ”

“While you had to sell the house you’d bought after the divorce to pay Mason Lord for shitty legal advice,” Burke said, barely managing not to growl.

“Pretty much,” Naomi said, then softened her next words with a smile. “And while I’m grateful for your ire on my behalf, none of that is relevant now.” She turned to Antoine. “How can we find out who the other payments went to? And if Gaffney has continued to pay these recurring amounts?”

Burke sighed. “We need to zero in on Gaffney. We’ve— I’ve —danced around talking to him for far too long.

We know that he’s connected to Pablo Delgado, who’s a human trafficker.

I don’t think that assuming Gaffney is also a trafficker is that big a stretch.

We know that at least two of the teenagers they were selling for sex were being held here in the city.

We suspect the two young women found dead in the Delgados’ house were also victims. Gaffney’s got to be keeping more somewhere in the city—teenagers he plans to sell for sex.

I think I do have a little PTSD when it comes to Gaffney and Cresswell.

The last time I talked to Gaffney, he threatened to send me my godsons in pieces.

But I need to get past that because he has to be stopped. ”

Naomi nodded. “But talking to him would be pointless in terms of getting him to admit something and would only show him our hand. So far most of what we’re learning has to do with Cresswell.

Gaffney could just shrug it all off. He could say he wasn’t involved and that every internal investigation has proven that.

What can we do when he’s made of Teflon? ”

Burke squeezed her hand. “We need to start looking harder at PIB. We need to follow the money and expose their bribes. That will scrub Gaffney’s Teflon away.”

“I agree,” Antoine said. “In the meantime, Naomi, Val has that list of evidence items you processed that are connected to Gaffney and/or Cresswell. If you could go through them with her, that would be great.”

“Bring it,” Naomi said simply. “But I need some coffee or something first.”

“Your mom will have some in the kitchen,” Antoine said. “She’s been keeping us caffeinated all morning. She and Miss Eleanor have been baking, too. Keeping the kids busy. Your mom found some sugar-free recipes for Elijah.”

Naomi’s smile was wistful. “Mom and Everett used to love to bake together, back before everything went wrong.”

“Everett’s been right in the kitchen with them,” Antoine said kindly. “Maybe he just needs to get away from your toxic ex.”

“You really don’t like Jimmy Haywood,” Burke said. “And neither do I. Do you have reasons other than what we’ve discussed?”

“No. I just hate weasels, and Jimmy Haywood is a total weasel.”

Burke couldn’t agree more.

“I need coffee, too,” Val said. “I just texted Ruthanne to see if there’s coffee left. She says give her a few minutes and she’ll make a fresh pot. I’ll go down and get it.”

“Sounds good to me,” Naomi said. “What are we going to do with that list of payouts? Other than fish around for cops in PIB whose bank accounts are bigger than they should be?”

“I’ve been thinking about that,” Val said. “Cresswell was sent to prison for a lot of different crimes. He murdered a man in cold blood to keep him from spilling his secrets.”

“He did,” Burke said, remembering that day. “I was there.”

Naomi turned to him with wide eyes. “Really?”

“Really. It was the case that brought Molly and Gabe together. Gabe’s dad had been murdered and Cresswell’s crimes came out during the investigation.

Val’s point is a good one. There’s a lot of information out there about Cresswell’s various crimes.

We can check this payout ledger against the things we already know he did.

If we can connect any of those payments to known crimes, we can eliminate them and focus on the crimes we don’t yet know about.

Antoine and I can work on this together. ”

Val looked pensive. “We haven’t had a single issue with Gaffney’s people coming after the kids since Monday.

I’m thinking that two of us on duty at all times may not be required.

Put me back into rotation for going out to interview and investigate.

Harrison can stay here on guard duty, especially since Molly and Lucien are here.

They sleep lightly and are trained to wake up and be instantly alert.

If something goes wrong, you’ll still have three bodyguards in place.

” Her jaw tightened. “I think we played right into Gaffney’s hands.

We’ve all hunkered down to protect our kids and we’re not out investigating him in full force. ”

A knock on the door had Burke springing to his feet. Ruthanne stood in the doorway holding a tray.

“Someone rang for a snack?” she asked.

Burke took the tray from her hands and set it on an end table next to the sofa where he and Naomi were sitting. “You didn’t have to bring it up here. One of us would have come down to get it. This is too heavy for you.”

“I’m capable of carrying a tray up the stairs, but I used the lift, so it’s moot.

” Ruthanne turned to Naomi. “I just got off the phone with my friend at the hospital. She was hesitant at first, but I finally convinced her that you needed to talk to the girl who was nearly beaten to death. She has a police guard on the room, though. You’ll have to either convince them or find a way to get past them. ”