A Dark Horse

by Cooper, Blayne

  Adele checked the GPS on her phone. She killed the headlights and eased the car deeper into the night’s shadows before shutting off the engine. “This is it.” She cringed and couldn’t help but feel a tiny bit bad for Billy Hobson. Not only did he live in a shithole, he was about to have a really bad night.

  “Oh, God, this is awful,” Natalie murmured. Heavy clouds overhead blocked out the moonlight and stars, and there were no streetlights to speak of. But even without getting a good look, it was clear that this run-down old motel was scraping the bottom of the barrel when it came to lodging. “This makes the trailer park back home where Misty’s mom lives look like Beverly Hills.”

  From inside the car Natalie and Adele could hear a couple in one of the units arguing and cursing, their bellows interspersed with a relentlessly barking dog. “Welcome to the deep South.”

  Natalie patted Adele’s hand.

  A long dormant sense of excitement began to pound through Adele’s veins. “When we’re both inside, I’m going to have to check on the car periodically. I’m afraid it we leave it empty too long, it won’t be here when we’re through.”

  “I don’t think we could get a cab to come to this area.”

  Adele snorted. “You’re right about that. It’s apartment sixteen. Should be the one on the very end. It’s even the most secluded, which is good.”

  Natalie craned her neck to see past Adele. The blinds were closed and no light shone from behind them. “It doesn’t look like he’s home.”

  “Good. Then we go with Plan A. Okay, I’m going to go inside to wait. You wait here and if anyone starts messing with you or the car, lay on the horn and I’ll be out in a flash. But it looks quiet here tonight.” She smiled reassuringly. “You’ll be fine.”

  “I could always come inside with you now.”

  “No way. But soon.” Adele took the sack from Natalie, grabbed her cane from the backseat, and handed over the car keys, wrapping them in Natalie’s palm.

  “Ella?”

  Adele was halfway out of the car, but stopped at the soft pleading in Natalie’s voice. “Yeah?”

  Natalie’s eyes shimmered with worry and the look made Adele’s heart lurch. “Be careful.”

  * * *

  Less than an hour later, an old pickup truck pulled in front of the last unit, backfiring a couple of times as it rolled to a stop. A man exited, taking care to lock the truck. With a paper grocery sack in his arms, he disappeared inside apartment 16.

  Natalie felt lightheaded and forced herself to breathe so she didn’t pass out, praying she wouldn’t hear a gunshot. The minutes ticked by slowly and she found it almost impossible to sit still. What if Adele, who had been lying in wait inside Billy’s apartment, needed her? What if at this very second Billy was hurting Adele? What if she was injured so badly that Adele couldn’t flash the apartment lights to signal Natalie to come inside?

  With every mile closer to Shreveport, Adele had grown more and more serious, quiet even. She’d said she was just getting her game face on, but it still made Natalie uneasy and anxious. What if—?

  The lights in the apartment flashed. Natalie had to look hard to make sure she was seeing what was actually happening and not merely what she wanted. She opened the door with a trembling hand and locked the car, shoving the keys deep into her pocket. She didn’t feel the biting wind against her skin or hear the vicious growl of the dog as she quickly walked by its apartment. Her mind was on one thing only: Adele.

  When she reached the last apartment Natalie sucked in a shuddering breath and let herself inside.

  She was promptly horrified by what she saw.

  The apartment, which was unconscionably messy and furnished like a college crash pad, was lit by a single floor lamp in the corner. There had clearly been a struggle as the coffee table that was covered with sticky-looking bottle rings, now only had three legs and was tipped over on its side. Groceries were scattered across the floor and sofa. And the furnace had been turned on to full blast, and the room was somewhere between roast and broil.

  Billy had a dingy green pillowcase over his head that was held in place by a thick coil of duct tape wound around his neck. A wet bloodstain, the size of a silver dollar, marred the cloth near his mouth. He was seated in a rickety-looking kitchen chair, his wrists bound behind him. His shins, chest and thighs were also secured to the chair by bands of tape. He wasn’t going anywhere.

  Adele was nursing a bloody nose that had dripped down her chin and onto her white button-down shirt, speckling it in red.

  Appalled, Natalie sucked in a surprised breath. When Adele had insisted on subduing Billy before Natalie came inside, Natalie hadn’t expected to walk into something that looked like a Middle Eastern hostage crisis.

  “Looks like we’ve got company, Billy!” Adele announced loudly, mouthing an “I’m fine” to Natalie, who stopped in front of her to examine her nose.

  “Who?” He craned his neck in all directions, panicked.

  “None of your goddamned business!” Adele snarled from her place behind him.

  “I’m sorry. I’m sorry!” Billy cried, his voice a little muffled by the cloth over his face as he struggled against his bindings. Sweat stains ringed the armpits of his T-shirt and had begun to form on his chest and stomach. “I won’t come back to New Orleans again. I swear it. Please!”

  Adele just shrugged, indicating she had no idea what he was ranting about or why he was this upset. She hit the back of Billy’s chair with the metal ball end of her cane, startling him and causing him to jump.

  The man was plainly terrified. Natalie wrinkled her nose at the pungent odor of perspiration as sweat poured off him in rivulets and mixed with the scent of dill and vinegar from a broken jar of pickles near the front door.

  “I’m s-s-sorry,” he carried on brokenly, his body quivering. “I haven’t been back in all these years. A few days ago was-was the first time. I pr—promise. I won’t do it again. Jesus, I can’t believe he sent a woman after me.”

  Adele’s eyes turned feral and her glare unconsciously drifted to Natalie’s bruised throat, then back to Billy. She drew her gun from the waistband of her jeans. “What were you doing in New Orleans a few days ago, Billy?”

  Adele’s voice was deceptively calm, but Natalie swallowed hard at the sound, hearing the fury behind the words. If he admitted to being the one who broke into the inn and tried to strangle her, well, she wasn’t completely sure what Adele would do.

  “I-I—”

  “Spit it out!” Adele growled, moving around to stand in front of Billy. She wiped the remainder of the blood from her nose on her shirtsleeve.

  Natalie’s heart rate tripled. Seeing someone with such a naturally gentle persona looking so fierce, had thrown her.

  “I went to t-t-take care of her.”

  Adele’s grip on the .357 turned white. “You son of a—”

  Faster than she thought she could move, Natalie was back at Adele’s side, calming her with a hand on the arm. “It’s okay,” she murmured, just loud enough for Adele to hear.

  Their eyes met briefly, dueling, then Adele nodded and exhaled with exaggerated slowness, and visibly calmed herself. “Who were you coming to take care of in New Orleans? I want a name.”

  “Oh, Jesus! Fuck. I-I can’t tell you.”

  Adele mouthed an “I’m sorry” to Natalie and then placed her gun right alongside Billy’s ear so he couldn’t mistake the sound of her cocking it.

  His entire body jerked.

  “That was the wrong answer.” Adele’s purr sounded deadly, and her face was so close to his her breath ruffled the pillowcase.

  Holy shit. Natalie was about to wet her pants. She didn’t know how Billy already hadn’t.

  His hands gripped the metal chair railings so hard the metal began to creak. “I can’t tell you her name. But she doesn’t know anything. Honest. My girlfriend. She’s pregnant. She usually comes here bu-bu-but her car broke down. I’m sorry. I know I was supposed to dis-disappea
r, but I had to go back just this once.”

  Adele relaxed and straightened.

  Natalie felt dizzy with relief.

  “Billy,” Adele began, scrubbing her face, which was slick with perspiration, “I don’t give a crap about your girlfriend, or about you coming to New Orleans to help her. Do you understand?”

  “Uh…no.”

  “Then let me explain it to you. I’m here to ask you some questions. You can make things easy on yourself by answering them. You’re obviously in some deep shit. I might even be able to help you out of that shit. But you have to help me first.”

  “I…no one can help me.”

  “But I can try. Now, you said you couldn’t believe he sent a woman after you. Who is he?”

  Billy turned his head to follow Adele’s voice as she paced in front of him. “You mean, you don’t know?”

  Adele and Natalie shared a worried look. Seconds ticked by and Natalie was sure Adele had no idea how to respond. Finally, Adele said, “Your old partner, Jay Morrell.”

  “I knew he sent you!” Billy began struggling wildly against his bonds.

  “Whoa. Okay, you can relax now that we’re getting somewhere. Just take a deep breath. I don’t want to hurt you.” Adele crooned, in a soothing tone, “One more breath now, so you don’t hyperventilate and pass out.”

  He obeyed instantly.

  Natalie wasn’t sure whether to be impressed or freaked out by Adele’s Jekyll & Hyde performance, and she had no idea how Adele had picked Morrell’s name out of the hat. She blinked at the tender quality Adele’s voice suddenly adopted.

  “Jay Morrell didn’t send us, Billy.”

  “What?” he said incredulously, his voice rising to a near yell. “Then who the fuck are you, you crazy bitch?”

  Natalie wondered why Billy hadn’t recognized Adele on sight. Then again, maybe she’d gotten the bag over his head before he got a good look or maybe she’d gotten to him before he’d turned on the light. Natalie was also astonished at how Billy had gone from sniveling captive to calling Adele a bitch, in a matter of seconds once he believed Morrell wasn’t part of what was happening.

  He’d just given Adele all the leverage she needed.

  Adele tapped Billy’s knee gently with her cane. “Do I need to remind you what I said would happen if you got too loud?”

  Natalie actually heard Billy’s teeth snap together as his mouth closed tight like a steel trap.

  “Now, to answer your question, I’m the crazy bitch you’re going to answer with the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God. Got it?”

  Silence.

  “You can speak, Billy.”

  “Wh-why should I-I answer your questions?”

  Adele tucked her gun back into her jeans and gave Natalie a long-suffering look. “Considering your position, I would think it’s obvious. But in case that’s not incentive enough, if you don’t answer me, I’m going to tell Morrell exactly where you are and that you’ve been coming back to New Orleans.”

  “You can’t do that!” Billy insisted, utterly unnerved. “He’ll kill me.”

  “Why?”

  Billy’s bony shoulders sagged. “How…if I tell you, how do I really know you can help me?”

  “You don’t have a choice.” Adele let him stew over that for a full minute before asking, “Do you remember the night of the Joshua Phillips murder?”

  Billy cocked his head like a curious puppy. “Yeah.”

  “Tell me what happened at the Dixie Brewery. And don’t leave out a single detail.”

  He was quiet for several seconds. “Detective Le-Lejeune?” His voice was high and tight.

  Maybe Billy wasn’t as dense as he seemed.

  “Tell me!” Adele demanded, ignoring his question. She didn’t seem particularly bothered that he’d guessed who she was. Natalie was now certain that the pillowcase on Billy’s head had been placed there for her benefit. “Tell me and I promise to help you.”

  Then the dam broke and the words rushed out of him in a tidal wave. “When we got to the brewery, the vic was already dead, just like we said! And Crisco was there passed out. I don’t know anything about the actual killing.”

  “You didn’t see anyone else there that night?”

  “No. The place was deserted.”

  “What happened between Morrell and Crisco?”

  “Morrell told me it was obvious that Crisco did it, so we needed him to confess. Then he woke Crisco up and started beating the shit out of him. Crisco tried to fight back, but it wasn’t any use. The old drunk just started crying and repeating everything Morrell told him to say. I-I-I didn’t know what to do. It had never been that bad before! Then you showed up.”

  Natalie smiled sadly, feeling a flash of guilt. Adele had been right all along and not a single person, herself included, had cared enough to stand by her.

  “If you didn’t have anything to do with it, why did you lie to the Public Integrity Board for Morrell? If you hadn’t, you wouldn’t have ended up in some dead-end job and living in this dung heap.”

  “You don’t get it, do you?” Billy growled brokenly, his spittle bleeding through the pillowcase. “I was just trying to stay alive. I was right too. When Crisco crossed Morrell, he ended up facedown in a ditch.”

  Natalie sucked in a breath.

  Adele’s back stiffened. “Morrell murdered Crisco?”

  “Maybe it wasn’t him,” Billy allowed with a shrug. “But if it wasn’t, it still wasn’t an accident. I wasn’t taking any chances. Morrell made it clear what would happen to Crisco if he took back his bullshit confession. Crisco took it back and then ends up dead. What would you think?”

  Adele dragged her fingers through her hair in rapid, frustrated movements, sending the short, slightly wavy locks into disarray. “How was Morrell dirty, besides what you’ve told me?”

  Billy shook his head. “I…he hurt lots of people. Got off on roughing them up. Made him feel like a big man, I guess. Sometimes he’d run drugs or money. A couple of times he helped one of the gangs by letting them know just before a bust was about to go down.”

  “The drugs and money weren’t for him?”

  “Morrell liked to act the big shot, but he was just somebody else’s bitch.” That fact actually seemed to make Billy a little happier. “You think I’m worried about Morrell? He’s petrified of his boss. And before you ask, I dunno who it is. Morrell never trusted me enough to tell me.”

  “So you helped Morrell with the drugs and gangs?”

  Natalie watched in awe as Adele rattled off her questions so fast that Billy didn’t have time to do anything but spit out the answer. There was no time to think of a lie.

  “No! I mean…not like you think. I covered for him, yeah, if he smacked around some jerk or something. He was my partner. I couldn’t help it if he actually enjoyed doing it.”

  Adele winced.

  “I never worked the drug or gangs angle. Not that I would have anyway, but Morrell never asked me to. He said he couldn’t trust me not to screw something up, and he wasn’t going to get banged up because of me.” Resentment invaded Billy’s voice. “My only job was to shut up and follow his lead like a good boy. Racist, asshole.”

  “But you took a plea bargain and left the force…”

  “That was bullshit! Morrell said I was a weak link. He wanted me gone. I’d already agreed to leave town, even though I’m born and raised in New Orleans and my girlfriend is there. But then the bastard went to the PIB anyway, and told them I was the one roughing up suspects. Got a couple of his confidential informants to back him up, and before you know it, I had to take a plea just to stay outta jail.”

  Adele groaned. She clearly wasn’t getting everything she wanted. “Tell me again what happened that night at the brewery.”

  Billy repeated his story and it stayed the same, only he seemed to grow more upset during the second retelling.

  Natalie felt a stirring of pity. Then she remembered what had happe
ned to poor Crisco while Billy stood by and watched, and what had happened to Adele while he continued to lie, and her pity evaporated.

  “I told you everything,” Billy said urgently, his chest rising and falling unevenly. “Just like you asked. Now you promised to help me.”

  “But what you told me didn’t help me. I already knew Morrell was an asshole and that Crisco’s confession was crap.” Adele sighed and gathered the bag she’d brought that had held the duct tape. “I think it’s time for us to go now.”

  “Wha-what!” Billy looked around the room as though he just remembered a second person was with them. “You can’t leave me like this?” He tried to stand, but the tape held firm.

  “Sure I can. I’ll just tape a sock in your mouth and then come back in a few days and see how your story has changed.” The dog a few units down barked loudly again, and Adele listened at first with visible annoyance, then something else. “In fact, I think I’ll go buy that noisy dog off your neighbors and then leave him in here with you. I wonder how long it will take him to get really hungry? Is he a Doberman or a pit bull? With a deep bark like that, I’m betting pit bull.”

  Natalie’s jaw sagged. She knew Adele was lying and it was still hard not to believe her.

  Billy whimpered loudly. “But I told you everything!”

  “Tell me something I don’t already know,” Adele roared, slamming the end of her cane down on the floor near Billy’s feet. “Start at the beginning.”

  “I already told you. Morrell got a call to come to the Dixie Brewery. We were going to dinner and—”

  “Whoa. Whoa! Hold up.” Adele leaned closer, her focus like a laser. “Morrell got the call? Personally? Or your car was dispatched to the scene?”

  “I-I…we were in the Tremé when he got a call on his cell phone. He hung up and said we had to go to the brewery to deal with…he said it was a disturbance, I think. I figured that meant a drunken fight or somethin’.”

  Billy hesitated and Adele rumbled, “Keep going!”

  “After l-l-like half an-an hour, the weather had the streets half flooded, and it took forever to get across town. We pulled into the brewery and then Morrell said he wanted to let the weather get better before we got out of the car. Maybe fifteen minutes later, the dispatch went out. We took it, the weather was still shit, and went in anyway.”