Page 60 of Knife in the Back (New Orleans #4)

It was a photo of two men. Both wore suits and fedoras. The suits appeared to be expensive. The fedoras hid their faces. One of the men was about six feet tall and burly, the other a few inches shorter and lean. The boss and the assistant?

Naomi leaned in closer and nodded. “His shoes.” The shorter man wore brown loafers which, even with the photo’s low resolution, appeared to be made of soft leather. “Do you think we can get a clearer image of the shoes?”

“Antoine may be able to.” He looked up at Eleanor’s neighbors. “We want any footage you can provide, but we definitely want this one.” He tapped the photo of the two men. “Whose security system captured him?”

The husband and wife of the third couple raised their hands. Eleanor had introduced them as RJ and Irma. “That would be ours,” RJ said.

“Excellent,” Burke said. “The shorter one has been mentioned to us twice already.”

Naomi was startled. “Twice? It was only Susan. What do you know?”

He winced.

Val sighed. “You didn’t tell her?”

Naomi narrowed her eyes. “Tell me what?”

“We went to see Jimmy and McKenzie today,” Burke admitted.

“Her ex,” Eleanor explained to her friends. “And his new wife.”

“And?” Naomi prompted.

Burke’s brows rose. “You don’t seem surprised.”

“I figured that’s where you’d gone. None of your people would talk about McKenzie. They kept changing the subject. They’re not subtle. What did Jimmy and McKenzie say?”

“Well, they did take money for testifying against you,” he began, only to have Eleanor’s neighbors erupt into angry chatter.

Burke raised his hands placatingly. “Her ex is scum. You are correct about that. He was greedy and opportunistic, but he didn’t plan to frame you, Naomi.

Anyway, McKenzie said she visited Winnifred’s condo one time and saw this guy.

” He tapped the shorter man in the photo. “She commented on his shoes.”

Irma’s brows lifted. “Those must be some shoes.”

“I hope they’re unique enough to be a decent lead,” Burke said. He continued sorting the remaining photos, then stopped again. “Who is this?”

There were two men getting out of an Escalade with very shiny hubcaps. They’d made no attempt to cover their faces.

“Punks,” Zachary said with a sniff.

“How often did they come?” Burke asked.

“Once a week,” Zachary said. “You know them?”

“No,” Burke said.

“Yes,” Naomi said. Burke and Val stared at her.

“How?” Burke asked.

“While you were doing your errands ,” Naomi said, “Lucien said that he thought Gaffney might be working with the gang the Delgados supposedly walked away from. Antoine did a search on the gang after our work session and this guy is the leader. His name is Desi Ortiz.”

The neighbors murmured among themselves, agitated.

“We’ve seen him, too,” Seema said, and her husband nodded. “They come by once a week. On Sunday mornings.”

“We knew they were drug dealers,” her husband said. “We even called the police on them, but no one came.”

“They were there when that little boy was shot,” Irma said. “We told the cops that, too.”

Burke sighed. “I’ll pass that on to my NOPD contact. He’s a good cop. He’ll find out why no one responded.”

“After calling three times we gave up,” Seema said, her voice trembling with anger. “NOPD didn’t care about us.”

“That’s when we got together as a community to try to get rid of the brothers,” Zachary said. “But then Maisie Richardson—our leader—was killed when they burned her house down, so we backed off.”

“André should be able to find these guys,” Burke said.

“If André can’t,” Naomi said, “Antoine can.”

The remaining photos were either repeats or too blurry, so Naomi and Burke thanked the neighbors, gave them email addresses to send the footage to, gathered all the stills, and let Eleanor bid her friends goodbye.

It had been a very long day and they still had a lot of work to do.

—

The Quarter, New Orleans, Louisiana

Wednesday, February 26, 9:45 p.m.

“I found your shoes,” Antoine said as Burke walked Naomi into his study, his hand at the small of her back.

All Burke wanted was to take her to his bedroom and continue what they’d started that afternoon, but his team was assembled and they appeared to have been working for hours.

Molly’s second whiteboard was now filled with names and photos of PIB investigators and photos of men’s wedding rings. Naomi had told Burke about the ring epiphany on their way to meet Eleanor’s neighbors.

How they’d find the ring, and its significance, were still unknown.

“You got the shoes based off that photo I sent you?” Burke marveled. “I’m impressed, Antoine.”

Molly and Cora were picking up papers from the love seat, making room for Naomi and Burke. Val took the papers from Cora’s hands and shooed her away.

“Sit. You’re pregnant. I’ll do this.”

Cora sighed. “Fine.”

Burke smiled at her fondly. “They’ve worn you down about resting, haven’t they?”

Cora nodded. “Yep. Tell us everything.”

“I want to hear about the shoes first,” Burke said. “Antoine?”

“I was able to get enough detail from the still to do an image search. Found it on the website of a custom shoemaker here in the Quarter. They’re two-thousand-dollar shoes.”

“Are they gold?” Burke demanded.

“Two thousand isn’t that expensive for custom shoes,” Naomi said. “One of the women on my cellblock got busted for selling counterfeit shoes for fifty bucks. She said the originals went for four or five grand.”

“Wow.” Antoine shook his head. “The shoemaker shop is called Hedden’s, and it’s open tomorrow. I’ll try to break into their server, but I’ll have a better chance in the morning if they open an email from me with a phishing link.”

“La la la,” Burke sang. “I don’t want to know.”

“Like what’s in hot dogs,” Val said to Naomi. “We don’t ask.”

Naomi laughed, and Burke’s lips curved. She had a lovely laugh.

Sitting on the arm of the love seat next to him, Val snorted. “You’re grinning like the Cheshire Cat, Burke.”

“You really are,” Molly said. “It’s kind of cute.

Let’s get through this because Val’s been on duty all day.

She needs to sleep. And yes, Burke, I had a nice nap while you were gone.

I’m good to go for the night. Val, Harrison, and I are going to overlap coverage, with two of us being on at all times.

I’ll show you the schedule. But we can’t maintain this level of security for too much longer, especially with Lucien being assigned to your godsons.

Either we solve this thing, or we’ll need to bring in more people. ”

“Understood,” Burke said grimly, wishing he knew why the hell Kaleb had dismissed the protection for Juliette and the boys.

Maybe it is a brain tumor. Because the Kaleb he knew would never leave his family unprotected.

“I found three PIB investigators who are living beyond their means,” Cora said proudly. “Well, Antoine helped.”

“Only with the first one,” Antoine said. “You’re a fast learner.”

Naomi was watching Antoine. “Antoine, when do you sleep?”

“He catnaps,” Molly said. “We’ve been telling him for years that he needs better sleep habits, but he does not listen.”

Antoine’s smile was wan. “I’m a stubborn cuss.”

Few knew it, but Antoine had developed PTSD in the army, just as Phin had. Phin had anxiety attacks and Antoine struggled with endless, sleepless nights because of his nightmares.

The woman who’d trained Phin’s service dog was training one for Antoine as well, but it would be another six months before the dog was ready. Antoine hadn’t mentioned it to the team, so Burke hadn’t, either. But there was hope for Antoine on the horizon.

Burke thought Naomi would ask Antoine more questions, but she didn’t, and he felt a rush of affection for her for respecting Antoine’s privacy.

“Who are the PIB investigators?” she asked instead.

Cora rattled off their names. “We got into the bank account of one of them, and he gets monthly deposits that match the dates and amounts in Cresswell’s ledger. So that explains how he and Gaffney skated all this time. The fix was in from the get-go.”

Damn. Burke would have sworn those cops were honest as the day was long.

He was starting to feel like he’d lost his touch. He hadn’t noticed any stress in Kaleb and Juliette’s marriage, either.

“You’re not a superman, Burke,” Naomi murmured. “No one’s caught them all this time for a reason. They’ve probably learned by investigating all the other dirty cops.”

“You have a point,” he admitted, feeling marginally better. “What about the rings?”

“We did some searches, Molly and I,” Cora said. “We figure that none of the rings we found will be the ring you saw in the evidence room, but you can tell us if we’re hot or cold. Then we’ll go back and look for more rings until we find the design you remember.”

“I might have a shortcut to that,” Antoine said. “Another person who saw that ring is the guy who found it. I went back into the BEAST system and found your notes, Naomi. You entered his name and phone number, and I contacted him.”

Naomi grinned. “That was smart of us—‘past’ me and ‘present’ you.”

Antoine grinned back. “It was. Like I said, I contacted him. Told him I was a PI looking for input on a cold case. We’ll see if he bites.”

“You think he’ll remember the ring design after all this time?” Val asked.

“I think he’ll still have a photo of it,” Naomi said. “He’d be in his late twenties by now, but then he was a fresh-faced college kid who really wanted to be a detective. I bet he’s told the story to every girl he’s taken on a date.”

Burke chuckled. “I bet you’re right.” Then he startled when his phone buzzed. “It’s André.” He hit accept and lifted the phone to his ear. “Hey. I’ve got my team here. Should I put you on speaker?”

“Yeah,” André said with a sigh. “Might as well only say it once.”

That sounded upbeat. Not.

Burke put the phone on speaker and turned up the volume. “It’s Antoine, Val, Molly, Cora, and Naomi.”

“Cora?” André said warmly. “You’re joining the team?”

“I’m on maternity leave and bored out of my mind,” Cora said. “I have a feeling I’ll be too busy taking care of a baby to join the team past this week.”

“Good. Can’t wait to meet the newest Burkette.”

Burke groaned. “For the love of all that’s holy, let it go.”

“Joy, our office admin you met on Monday?” Val said to Naomi. “She coined the term. Burke and the Burkettes. I think we’re fabulous.”

Naomi pursed her lips, trying not to smile, but it was no use. She giggled. Burke would make himself get used to the stupid name if it would make her laugh like that.

“Best rock band name ever,” Naomi said, then sobered. “André, what’s wrong?”

“You know that Gaffney’s gone under.”

Everyone nodded. “We do,” Burke said. “How did he know to run?”

“Because Elaine Billings had an open phone call when she shot at you this afternoon. If any of you said anything about Gaffney, whoever she was talking to heard it.”

Val went still. “Oh my God. It was me.”

“Tell us what happened,” André said, kindness in his tone.

“I didn’t know about the phone,” Val said.

Burke took her hand and squeezed. “Of course you didn’t. Did you tell Elaine that NOPD was going to arrest Gaffney?”

Val nodded, her expression miserable. “Yeah. That’s exactly what I did. I was hoping she’d tell us who her boss was. I was so mad, Burke. I heard Susan talking and…” She swallowed audibly. “It took me back.”

Back to her own sexual assault, Burke understood.

He didn’t let go of her hand. “I imagine it did.”

“I was so mad when I saw Elaine Billings in the garage.” Val’s eyes flashed fire.

“She shot at you. She nearly killed Naomi. And she abused teenagers she was supposed to be protecting. I guess I lost control. I wanted to shake her until she spilled her guts. I did shake her, but she didn’t say a goddamn word. ”

“She still hasn’t,” André said. “Val, don’t beat yourself up. It wasn’t ideal to spill those particular beans, but Gaffney didn’t come in to work today. He called in sick. I think he’s probably holed up in the house where Susan was kept.”

“And all the others,” Naomi said quietly.

André’s voice hardened. “We will find those kids. We’ve got alerts out to all the airports, train and bus stations for Gaffney. The Coast Guard, too, in case he tries to escape via the Gulf. We weren’t going to find him at home or work today anyway.”

“Thank you,” Val said, wiping her eyes viciously. “I’m still sorry.”

“We all make mistakes,” André said. “I trusted those PIB guys whose names appeared anonymously in my inbox. I don’t want to know how you came by the information, Antoine. Nobody will know that those bank accounts have been accessed, will they?”

Antoine scoffed. “It’s like you don’t even know me.”

They all smiled at that. Even Val. Antoine’s wink let Val know that making her smile had been his intent.

“You’re awesome, Antoine,” Val said quietly.

“I know.”

Burke loved these people. Like Kaleb and Juliette, they were his family. “André, what about the condo where Winnifred Timms lived? Have you searched it?”

“Huh.” André sounded surprised. “I know something before you. Go me.”

Burke was tired of bad news. “What happened?”

“My detectives got a warrant but the condo was on fire. Up in smoke.”

Molly leaned toward the phone. “Was anyone hurt?”

“No, everyone got out, including their pets. It started in Timms’s condo, which is a total loss. The arson investigators are waiting for it to cool down before they go in. The firefighters said that the fire probably started in the home office, and there were definitely accelerants involved.”

Burke rubbed his forehead. “You’re always the bearer of good tidings of great joy, André.”

“Don’t I know it,” André said. “Well, that’s all I needed to tell you. Y’all get some sleep. You had a busy day.” He ended the call.

Val hadn’t moved from the arm of the love seat, so Burke gave her a hard hug.

“You are awesome, too, Val. We all make mistakes. I’ve made many.

Get some sleep, everyone. All of you except for Molly, since she’s on guard duty.

Let’s solve this thing quick. I want to enjoy the parades. Mardi Gras only comes once a year.”

“Thank the good Lord,” Val muttered before dragging herself to her feet. “I’m tired. See you all in the morning.”

Burke stood, holding his hand out for Naomi. He wanted to pick up where they’d left off that afternoon. But she shook her head regretfully.

“Let me look at the rings. Cora and Molly spent so much time on them.”

Burke shoved his frustration away. “Cora, do you have a ride home?”

It was late enough now that the roads should be clear.

“Phin’s coming for me. He and Sylvi are just finishing deliveries from the flower shop.”

“Then I’ll let you ladies talk about rings.”

“Meet you downstairs later?” Naomi whispered. “In the living room?”

He gave her a slow smile. “It’s a date.”