Crescent City Detective

by Vito Zuppardo

  “Yes, that is my son, Darrell,” she said, pointing to the driver of the car. “And the other young man is his friend, Rodney. Are they not allowed to wait for me in my own car parked on a public street?” she said, putting the overnight bag on the ground.

  The two men turned, and Mario got his first good look at them.

  “Oh, shit, Atlanta Falcons ball caps,” he mumbled to himself.

  They were both wearing red caps with the traditional black Atlanta Falcon football logo on the top of the rim, something he didn’t see when standing on the side of their car.

  The woman was upset over him treating her son and his friend like criminals. “What is your name, officer?”

  “I’m Detective Mario of the New Orleans Police Department. The car looked suspicious—it’s my duty to check this thing out.”

  “Well, Detective Mario, since you are so concerned, maybe we should go inside and have Judge Bernard vouch why they are there. My name is Ora Mae Jefferson, and I sit with the judge’s ill wife at night,” the black woman said with a firm attitude.

  “Crap! Of all the houses, this is Judge Bernard’s?” Mario whispered to himself.

  “So, you’re Atlanta Falcons fans?” he said, trying to make light of the incident.

  “Yes, they grew up in Atlanta, is that a problem too?” the woman asked.

  “Have a lovely day, madam,” Mario said as he got into his car and drove off.

  You stupid fuck! You have to calm your ass down. There are people other than gangs that wear red ball caps, Mario thought, mocking himself all the way to Police Headquarters.

  Mario took the stairway to the briefing and roll call room. The meeting had started, and he slipped into a seat in the back next to his partner, Truman, who gave him a look for being late.

  “I was catching bad guys,” Mario whispered to Truman, smiling just thinking of his stupid actions that could have backfired on him and his paranoid ways.

  The briefing was short, and Mario just made the roll call. The group broke, and some gathered in the coffee room. Among them was Olivia Johansson, who caught a glance of Mario and called him over.

  “Detective, you have a second?” Olivia asked.

  “For you? Anytime,” Mario said with a chuckle.

  “Yeah, right,” Olivia shot back. “I retrieved my report from the coroner’s office on Ruth Weitman.”

  “And?” Mario said, pouring a cup of coffee.

  Olivia waved off his gesture offering her a cup. “No thanks. I think you have a problem at that Riverside place.”

  “How’s that?” Mario said, blowing on the hot coffee before taking a sip.

  “Ruth was injected with a high level of potassium, causing her to have a heart attack.”

  Considering Ruth’s age, Olivia didn’t know if it would hold up in court. It looked like a pattern, since Zack was injected a year earlier with dangerous levels of potassium but got lucky and doctors were able to reverse the possible cardiac arrest. Olivia was the one that proved the rag with chloroform found on the side of Zack’s bed was a botched job by Jack, the then house nurse, in an attempt to kill Zack and Dave.

  “Slow down, take a breath,” Mario said, taking her by the arm and walking her to his office. “Close the door,” he told Olivia as she sat on the side of his desk.

  “One last thing. That woman, Angie Browning, we found traces of chloroform on her pillow. She was knocked out with chloroform and then injected with a high level of potassium. She didn’t die of an overdose. The cocaine never entered her system. Now Ruth Weitmam? There are just too many people dying of the same process.”

  Mario fiddled with a pencil on his desk. He knew Doctor Ross had something to do with the people that died in Riverside, but Angie Browing? She had no connection with Riverside or Doctor Ross.

  Olivia leaned over the desk with her arms folded and looked at Mario. “I’m a forensic expert. I can only tell you how the people are dying. You’re the detective. It’s your job to put the pieces together—good luck.”

  “Thanks for the information,” Mario said. “Let’s keep it between us—for now.”

  “I have to go. I’m late for court,” Olivia said.

  Mario grabbed Olivia by her shoulders. “You did great work. I don’t think anyone else would have checked the potassium level.”

  Olivia looked surprised. “No, but…no ‘good job for a Tulane Grad’?”

  “No—just a damn good job,” Mario said.

  “Well, thank you.” That was a first, Olivia thought, then walked away, smiling.

  Mario had a lot on his plate working two homicides, making sure Kate was safe, and people dying of overdoses of potassium. Riverside was taking up a lot of his time, and it wasn’t even an open case.

  It was time to fill Zack in on the news. He grabbed his coat and took the stairwell. Living at Kate’s parents’ house for the last week, he had not had his morning run through the French Quarter. The staircase wasn’t precisely the workout he wanted, but it satisfied him to know he got some exercise in for the day.

  CHAPTER 28

  Mario pulled out of the underground parking garage at Police Headquarters. It was a beautiful day except for the view of the neglected downtown area. Every time a new mayor was elected, their platform was to clean up the city—make the owners of the old, abandoned buildings lining Tulane Avenue clean them up and rent them or bulldoze down. The owners always had the same disagreement at City Hall meetings. Why spend money to refresh the buildings? Who was going to put a business in an area infested with crime, drugs, and homeless people sleeping on the street? The owners always came back with wanting money from the broke city of New Orleans to assist in revitalizing the area.

  Promise after promise, each mayor failed on their campaign platform, and some got re-elected for a second term anyway.

  Mario stopped at the corner of Dumaine and City Park Avenue, an area where homeowners kept manicured landscapes and freshly painted houses. From Bayou Saint John to City Park Avenue, it was an area that was always kept spotless as long as he could remember. Dumaine Street ran into one of the many entrances to the park, and he stopped, allowing some tourist to cross the street before making a turn. A lady and two young boys passed in front of his car. Something caught Mario’s eye with one of the boys. He had a red Atlanta Falcons football cap on, and Mario couldn’t stop looking at him.

  Rolling the driver’s window down, Mario shouted, “Go Saints!”

  The family smiled and yelled back, “Falcons!” They waved at Mario.

  Mario gave them a thumbs up and made the turn onto Dumaine Street.

  Pulling up at Riverside Inn, Mario parked in his usual place, half on the curb and half still in the street.

  “Officer, you can’t park like that,” Andrew said as he planted flowers on the porch.

  Mario smiled. “Hopefully, someone will broadside that old piece of junk. I’m due for a new car.”

  “Well, if you’re lucky, the ten-fifteen a.m. bus heading for the park might run over your jewel of a car. The bus drivers do fly down this street,” Andrew said.

  “Today might be my lucky day.”

  Checking in at the front desk, the receptionist waved Mario through, and he knew where to find Zack at that time of morning.

  “Good morning, boys,” Mario said as he entered the garden area. Zack and Dave were perched on a stone bench making comments of articles they were reading in the newspaper.

  “Is it a good morning?” Dave asked in his usual grumpy tone.

  “You’re on the right side of the grass. That’s a good thing,” Mario said.

  Dave put the newspaper down. “I guess so. That’s what we do here. Sit around waiting for the calling.”

  “He’s still pissed off that they don’t have a morning and an afternoon newspaper delivery,” Zack said, laying his paper to the side.

  “They stopped afternoon delivery fifteen years ago,” Mario said. “Get over it.”

  Dave stood, pulling a chair u
p for Mario. “Easy for you to say. This paper was printed about one this morning. If anything major happens in the last twenty-four hours, I won't hear about it until tomorrow morning.”

  Mario shook his head because he and Dave had had this conversation several times. “That’s why they have the six p.m. and ten p.m. news—on television.”

  “Television?” Dave grumbled. “They jam ten stories in a few minutes, tell you the same bullshit weather prediction every night, which never is correct. A few minutes of sports shit happening in other cities. And twelve commercials on crap I don’t want to buy.”

  “You had to go there, Mario? Really,” Zack said.

  “Sorry, Dave. But it’s called progress. That reminds me of something. The Saints?” Mario said, pulling his notepad out of his pocket.

  Flipping the pages, Mario showed them a drawing he made earlier of an Atlanta Falcons ball cap. “You’ve been to a Saints and Atlanta Falcons game?”

  “Never missed one since the first game in nineteen sixty-seven,” Zack said.

  “Do you remember the Atlanta ball caps having a Falcon above the rim on a slant? Angled to the right?” Mario said, showing them the drawing.

  “Hell no,” Zack quickly said.

  “No way,” Dave chimed, in saying, “I’ve sat next to a lot of Atlanta fans—no way it’s on a slant.”

  Mario detailed for them his encounter with the two guys in front of the judge’s house earlier. Zack and Dave stuck to their remembering of the Falcons’ logo.

  “Had to be a knockoff. China might have made it for fifty cents,” Dave said.

  “It’s not an official NFL product—every stitch is perfect. And for sure the Falcon is dead center on top of the rim on an approved NFL cap, ” Zack added.

  “That’s what I thought,” Mario said, putting the notebook back in his pocket.

  Zack moved his chair closer to Mario. “You working on something?”

  “No. But something just doesn’t add up with these two young punks I pulled out of a car this morning.”

  Mario explained Darrell and Rodney, the delinquents he’d labeled this morning. Before the judge’s nurse came walking out the house, they had such attitudes, especially Rodney—he had an arrogance about him. He was the one with the Falcon cap on a slant.

  “You can’t arrest them for wearing a knock-off cap,” Zack said.

  “No, but I don’t have to trust them either. Anyway, we need to talk. Let's go inside. It’s getting hot out here,” Mario said, taking his coat off.

  “Well, it should be very comfortable. The weatherman said it was going to be a high of sixty-five degrees today. See what I mean? Those lying bastards never get anything right,” Dave rattled on as they moved inside.

  The kitchen was preparing for lunch, but coffee was always available. Dave and Zack took a seat at a table while Mario got coffee. He returned with the three cups and immediately went into details of Ruth Weitman’s death.

  Zack wasn’t surprised. It was something he had suspected for over a year. He was impressed with Olivia’s research. She seemed to be the only person with interest in the deaths being related and all, but one died in Riverside. The detective in Zack knew Dr. Ross had something to do with the sudden heart attacks but just couldn’t prove the doctor’s involvement.

  “We need to build a case against Dr. Ross. Something solid that the doctor can’t get out of with some high-profile lawyers,” Mario said. His mind was a million miles away. “We need a plan. Something to lure him in.”

  Mario went into each case he and Olivia had discussed, leaving out Zack and Andrew’s wife. He now believed what Zack had said all along, their wives’ deaths were misclassified. The scary part was both wives were under Walter Ross’s care at the time of death.

  “Guys, I have to get going and get some work done. I haven’t been able to work late in weeks, and now staying at Kate’s parents’ house, I don’t get much sleep either.”

  “You should sleep like a baby with a patrol car watching the house,” Zack said with a chuckle in his voice.

  Mario knew the second the words rolled off his lips that telling them the surveillance team was no longer watching the house was a mistake. Zack jumped into action and offered to take the day watch with Dave.

  “We’ll watch the house during the day, and you can sleep with one eye open at night.”

  Dave smiled. “Do I get a police radio?”

  Mario considered. “Maybe? Just for a few more days. Then I’ll take her to my condo, and she’ll be safe on the second floor. Plus I have a doorman.”

  Zack’s eyes lit up. The retired detective—rejuvenated. “We’ll be on the job tomorrow at seven a.m. sharp.”

  “I’ll get you a two-way radio that connects to me; it never leaves my side. Hopefully, you don’t have to call.”

  Mario got up and placed his cup in the kitchen. Zack and Dave were into the planning stage. Dave was more worried about snacks they’d need during the official stakeout.

  “I appreciate your help. Please, no guns or any other type of weapons you might have. You are strictly a lookout. You see something suspicious, you call me. I can have officers on the scene within minutes.”

  Dave and Zack grinned and looked at each other then responded, “No problem.”

  CHAPTER 29

  Zack and Dave met Emma Lou and Pearl Ann for lunch in the dining room at Riverside. Zack unveiled the new surveillance job to their lady friends. Emma Lou was not thrilled to learn about the dangerous task he had volunteered for without thinking it through.

  Zack quickly reminded Emma Lou, “I was a cop for thirty years. A little stakeout is nothing more than sitting in a car and observing the target location.”

  “And what if something suspicious happens? Remember, you’re not thirty-five years old anymore,” Emma Lou pointed out.

  Dave chuckled. “You got that right. It takes him ten minutes to roll out the bed in the morning and another few minutes to stand up straight.”

  Zack shot him a look. “I’m still in good shape for my age.”

  “Besides, we have guns, billy clubs, and a stun gun,” Dave spurted out.

  Zack slammed his hand on the table, shaking the water glasses. “There are no weapons,” he said, shooting Dave a look that could kill.

  Dave took the hint. “Sorry, no guns. I was making that shit up.”

  “Shut up, Dave. You are a terrible liar,” Pearl Ann said.

  Zack turned the subject to a more significant problem that concerned all of them and explained what Detective Olivia Johansson found while checking into Ruth’s death.

  They all agreed, and like most people in the house, they, too, believed Doctor Ross was somehow involved.

  To get an investigation started against the doctor, they had to find information that would tie him to these deaths, or as Zack preferred to call it, murders.

  The room was filling up, and the lunch buffet opened just as Doctor Ross walked into the room. He sat at his reserved table with his trusted assistant, Aiden James.

  “There is your answer. Find someone that knows everything about Doctor Ross,” Dave said. “All of his business, and Aiden is that person.”

  “Who?” the three of them asked.

  Dave pointed to the corner table where the doctor and Aiden were sitting. “Just like Jack, I bet Aiden knows everything about the good doctor and all his secrets.”

  Zack turned and looked, staring them down.

  Dave got up and walked to the buffet and picked out some fruit. He walked back to his table the long way around and stopped at Doctor Ross’s table.

  “Good morning, Doctor Ross. Aiden, how are you?” Dave said.

  The doctor gave a friendly smile, and Aiden said, “Dave, how are you this morning?”

  There was a Louisiana Fair Grounds racing form on the table. It was midway through the racing season, and Dave had heard the doctor liked betting on the ponies.

  Picking up the form and turning some pages, he said, “Got a h
orse you like today?”

  “You like the horses?” Doctor Ross asked.

  Dave was surprised. In all the years he’d lived there, the doctor had never talked directly to him or acknowledged him personally.

  “Oh, I’ve made a living gambling on horses for many years.”

  “Really? A handicapper?” the doctor said.

  “Call it what you want. I made a lot of money with the ponies. Enjoy your breakfast,” Dave said as he walked away.

  “Hey!” the doctor said. Then, turning to Aiden, he asked, “What’s his name?”

  “Dave Thorton,” Aiden said.

  “Dave, you ever want to go to the race track, just let Aiden know. You can sit with me in my box,” Doctor Ross said like they were old friends.

  “Will do,” Dave said.

  Back at the table, Zack confronted him about his brief conversation with Dr. Ross. Dave tried to give him the details in a whisper while Pear Ann was engrossed with her lunch. He let Zack know she knew nothing of his past life as a handicapper and following the horses city to city during racing season. He planned to tell her one day, but for now, it was best left alone.

  Dave gave a glance the doctor’s way. “I think I have a new-found friend—and I need to get closer to him. I like this undercover work.”

  All day Pearl Ann and Emma Lou stayed close to the guys, making it hard for Zack to ask questions regarding Dave’s encounter with Doctor Ross. It was getting late, and the two couples said good night and headed to their rooms. Zack wanted to get a good night’s sleep to be fresh for his surveillance job early the next morning.

  Dave pulled out a shopping bag of snacks, water, and a book to read during the stakeout and checked through the bag for the third time.

  “We are going to watch the house and make sure it remains safe while Mario is at work. I don’t think you’re going to have time to read a book and snack out all day. And furthermore, if you drink all that water, you’ll spend half the day looking for a place to take a whizz,” Zack said.

  “True,” Dave said. “Never thought about that. I’ll limit my water intake, but I’m bringing my snacks.”