by Brian Parker
“Betty, its Zach Forrest. I need to talk to Mr. Ladeaux.”
“Mr. Ladeaux has tried to reach you several times, Detective. Your phone appears to be offline.”
“Yeah…”
“I’ll transfer you now.”
“Thanks.” I breathed a sigh of relief that her software hadn’t recognized my voice from the last time I called.
The phone clicked over and Voodoo answered.
“Forrest. Betty tells me you called earlier.”
Shit.
“No,” I lied. “I haven’t called.”
“You didn’t call and try to play spy about three hours ago? Anastasia went to Whispers after you didn’t call. She’s still there, though.”
“Hmm… Whispers, the strip club on The Lane?” I asked. I’d already started playing dumb, might as well carry it through to the end.
“Yes. That Whispers, Detective,” Voodoo sighed. “I know you met with her. What did you discuss?”
“Ladeaux, I don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about. I was at the funeral for Officer Goldman this morning. I’m still soaking wet to prove it.”
“I’d hoped we could be honest with one another,” he stated. The disdain in his voice was clear. “I suppose you want to know whether I have any leads on the location of the clones.”
“Among other things. I’ve got some questions about Kelsey Bloomfield.”
“Fine, but first, I want to know about my missing clones, or people. We won’t know which until they’re tested.”
“Gotta start somewhere,” I agreed.
“I don’t know where they are at currently. However, I know where they’ll be tomorrow night.”
“Damn. I hoped we’d be able to get moving on this today.”
“Believe me. If I knew where they were, I’d send you over there right now,” Voodoo replied. “The longer those damn things are on the street, without protection, the worse off it is.”
I thought about what Anastasia had said about him being taken advantage of. She was probably covering for Ladeaux somehow. I couldn’t help but feel that he was more involved than they both let on, but I didn’t have any proof of that. It was prejudice developed after a lifetime of being a cop.
“Where will they be tomorrow night?”
He gave me the address of a small theater out in Slidell. That was way outside of my nonexistent jurisdiction. My notebook was on the passenger seat and since I was driving, I didn’t have many options to record the address, so I wrote it in the fog of the Jeep’s windshield. Once it was safe to pull over, I stopped, put the car in park and grabbed my notebook to copy the address before it faded away.
“Alright, I’ll check them out,” I assured him. “Now, what about Kelsey?”
“What about her? Like I said, she’s the COO of the company. I don’t know her well enough to give you any pointers about her if you’re looking to get lucky.”
“Funny, Ladeaux. The mayor and his people ensured it would be a long time before she would be able to be with anyone intimately again.”
“I’m sorry, you’re right. My joke was in poor taste.”
“Damn right it was,” I agreed. “If she’s the chief operating officer of the company, why was she cloned?”
“Hmm… Ahh, well. I’m not really sure. I—”
“Look, I know that you were marginalized in the company. I need you to get past that and tell me a few things if I’m going to be able to help you.”
“How do you—Ana! That little bitch.”
“She only told me in order to help you, Ladeaux. I’ll do everything I can to get to the bottom of this, but you haven’t been honest with me, either.”
“What the hell did you want me to say?” Voodoo exploded. “That I let that piece of shit, Mayor Cantrell and his goons, steal my money and then take over the company? Is that what you wanted to hear, Forrest? That I can’t manage my own fucking business affairs? Or that I should never have tried to get involved with such a political hot-button issue. Is that what you want?”
“Calm down,” I hissed. “I wasn’t meaning to get you worked up about this. I want to know why you cloned the person who was supposed to be running your company. It seems counterintuitive to me.”
“I’ve been out of the company for months, Forrest,” he admitted. “In fact, it was only a couple of weeks after the Sex Club Killer case when the mayor forced me out. He wanted to create a bunch of clones without the consent of the person they were cloning. I refused to go along with it and they pushed me out.”
“And Kelsey was okay with doing that?”
“No, she wasn’t. She came to me, asking what she should do. We thought it would ultimately prove to be little more than a passing interest of the mayor since the clones would only be replicas of the body, not the person. We agreed not to disclose the knowledge of how to map the human brain or the process to transfer the info into the new clone.
“Shortly after that, she called me and said they’d gotten to the chief scientist, who told them everything and showed them how to do it. Within days, thugs began to show up with unconscious people and they scanned them without their knowledge. Kelsey is the one who gave me the info on the thirty-eight missing clones and then began trying to get me to pay her for more information.
“If I were to guess, I imagine Kelsey opposed them creating fully functional clones and they decided to get rid of her—or she knew too much. They probably cloned her to keep up appearances. I didn’t even know that they’d cloned her until that news broadcast.”
“Why would Anastasia tell me to go to the headquarters of Biologiqué International?”
“To put an end to the cloning. Until we can reign this in and get the laws established at the federal level to protect the clones, none of them are safe, so she wants the process to end until the laws are passed.”
“Hmm…” It was in line with what I’d been thinking. What sense did it make to keep adding more problems to the mix? Make no mistake, every clone on the street right now was a problem.
“What ever happened to that clone you used as your delivery boy? You know, the blond guy who looked like Anastasia.”
“Kaine. He had some…issues with the way the mayor handled his clones. Consequently, he was the first casualty in this war as he tried to fight for their rights. Somebody dismembered him and left him to die.”
“Do you have any other soldiers in the front lines, Ladeaux?” I asked, thinking of the Paladin.
The tech in his suit alone would have cost several hundred thousand dollars—quite a bit for the average person. If Ladeaux wanted to stay on the top in Easytown, what better way was there than to finance a vigilante to eliminate his rivals?
“I have a lot of people who work for me, Forrest. I wouldn’t consider any of them ‘soldiers’ though.”
I nodded my head and then felt stupid since Voodoo couldn’t see my movements. “I’m going to go out to Slidell tomorrow to find those clones to keep up my end of the bargain with regards to Amir Khalil and the Pharaoh’s Tomb. Then I’m going to put that factory out of commission and find a way to clear my name in the murder of Karen Goldman.”
“Godspeed, Forrest. I hope you’re able to accomplish all of those things.”
“Thanks. Oh, and Ladeaux?”
“Yes?”
“If you lay a finger on Anastasia out of anger because she helped me, then by God, you will regret it.”
He chuckled. “You really don’t understand me at all, do you, Forrest?”
The line clicked dead and I looked out the window, through the faded address of the place where the clones were going to be tomorrow. I wondered about Voodoo’s statement. Of course I didn’t understand him. Every time I talked to him, I had to drag information from the man because he kept it close to the vest. How could I get to know somebody like that? Why would I get to know somebody like that?
Three loud, metallic taps on my passenger side window made my heart jump into my throat. The cops!
> I turned to see who it was. The Paladin stood outside my car… Again.
“How the fuck do you keep finding me?” I asked after I rolled the window down.
“I have my ways, Detective.”
“What do you want?”
“I want in on the action in Slidell tomorrow.”
“How do you— You know what? Never mind.”
“You need backup and you don’t have it right now. I’m your only option.”
“Why?” I asked.
“I have my reasons.”
I thought back to the night I’d almost arrested him. “That’s right, you’re looking for something. Isn’t that right?”
He inclined his head, the dark suit almost hiding the movement. “I told you there was a war going on that you didn’t know about.”
War. There was that word again. Voodoo had used it only a few moments ago.
“Son of a bitch. You and Ladeaux are in on this together. I knew I couldn’t trust that guy.”
“I doubt Thomas Ladeaux cares enough about your actions to bother lying to you,” the Paladin replied.
“You really know how to make a guy feel special, you know that?” I thought about it for a moment and then said, “Alright. I’ll meet you at the building tomorrow at 2 p.m.”
“Uh…”
“You’re right. We’ll meet a block south at two.”
“I don’t have a way to get to Slidell.”
“What?”
“I don’t have a vehicle,” he coughed.
“Are you serious?”
“I haven’t needed one. I can get almost anywhere in the city within fifteen minutes on my skiff.”
So that’s how the fucker moved, I thought. He was able to fly above traffic, which is probably how he tracked me. He simply shadowed me from above.
“The battery won’t support a thirty mile sustained flight without a rest,” he continued.
“Yeah, sure. You can ride with me tomorrow. Let’s meet at one by the corner of—”
“I can meet you at your girlfriend’s house.”
“Teagan?”
“Yes, the cute African American girl you’ve stayed the past few nights with.”
“Why the fuck are you following me?”
“Whether you want to admit it or not, we want the same thing, Detective. I can’t put an end to the clone murders without help. I had to make sure that your desire to help us was altruistic.”
“Us? You and Ladeaux?” I demanded.
“I’ll see you at one tomorrow,” he replied quickly. “I’ll be in your Jeep.”
He turned and disappeared quickly into the rain.
“What the fuck did he mean by ‘us’?” I mumbled. I missed having Andi’s analytical support for the investigation. Maybe transferring her AI into a droid wasn’t a bad idea after all.
“Oh my gosh, Zach! I love it!” Teagan shouted from the seat beside me.
“Huh? What do you mean?”
“You know what I mean! This is the best Valentine’s Day present I’ve ever gotten.”
I glanced over at her. She held the diamond tennis bracelet that I’d purchased for Avery. I vaguely remembered throwing it on the Jeep’s passenger side floorboard after I got stood up, and now she thought I’d purchased it for her.
“Uh… Happy Valentine’s Day?”
She squealed and jumped over to hug me. The car lurched dangerously to the shoulder.
“Son of a bitch!” I cursed, struggling to keep control of the Jeep. Thankfully, we were only going thirty miles per hour on a side street and I was able to steer us back onto the road without going into the ditch.
“Oh, sorry. I forgot that you’re driving manually.”
“No. It’s my fault. You’ve probably never even been in a car that wasn’t automated. How would you know what would happen?”
She nodded, placing her hands across her lap. I smiled after a minute.
“You don’t have to keep yourself completely still. You can move around.”
“Are you sure?” she asked.
“Yeah. People used to drive themselves all the time.”
She held up the bracelet again. “It’s beautiful, Zach. Thank you so much.”
“Ah… You’re welcome. I’m glad you like it.”
“How did you know that I’ve always wanted one? Did I tell you that a few years ago?”
“I—”
“Or did you ask Rebecca? Ooh, did she know about this and kept it a secret?”
“No, she—”
“Wait, you can’t use your credit chip because the whole fugitive thing. How were you able to buy this?”
“I have contacts,” I replied, which was true. I had tons of contacts, just nobody in the jewelry business—or at least not the legal jewelry business.
I risked a quick glance over at her. The smile on her face melted my old, cold heart. My God, she’s beautiful.
“What is it?” I asked.
“Every time you leave the apartment, you risk getting arrested—or worse. Even though you’ve been out trying to solve the clone case and clear your name, you took the time to think of me. That means a lot, Zach.”
Well, shit, I thought. Should I tell her? If Teagan ever found out that I’d actually bought the bracelet for Avery, she’d be devastated. It would be easier—not to mention smarter—to tell her the truth now and give her some empty promise that I’d make it up to her. It was the right thing to do. Lying to her would only come back to bite me in the ass later.
“Teagan, I think you should know…”
“Yes?” Her voice was full of expectation. I knew right then that she wanted me to tell her that I loved her too.
I also knew that I needed to burn the receipt for that bracelet.
“I want you to know that you are an incredibly special girl and mean so much to me. I don’t want anything to happen to you.”
She reached her hand across and gently massaged the back of my head through my hair. “Don’t worry about me, Zach. I’ll be fine. Nobody knows about me. You need to focus on getting out of trouble.”
“Yeah…” I mumbled as I turned the Jeep into a parking lot for the park.
Her assertion that no one knew about her wasn’t correct. The Paladin knew about her, which meant that Tommy Voodoo probably knew about her, too. Those two seemed to share the same information, further strengthening my belief that they worked together somehow.
“Here, can you help me put it on?” Teagan asked, once again holding up the bracelet.
I put the car in park and twisted in my seat to clasp the bracelet on her wrist. She gripped the sides of my face and pulled me into a kiss.
“Thank you, Zach. It’s beautiful.”
“Not half as much as you are,” I replied.
She pushed me back playfully. “Oh my God! That was so cheesy! You are such a goofball.”
Her grin made me smile, covering my shock. I thought I’d given her a nice compliment and she threw it back at me. I really sucked at this dating thing.
“Come on. I’m hungry,” she said.
We made our way across the wet grass to a semi-secluded area and I set up Teagan’s canopy while she laid out a waterproof blanket. In minutes, we had a nice little picnic set up underneath overhead cover.
We ate a light snack of olives, cheese, crackers and wine, all from the Pharaoh. It was perfect.
“Okay, maybe I was wrong,” I began.
“About what?” Teagan asked, leaning back on her elbows.
“Maybe I do like picnics.”
She laughed. “See, I told you. Maybe you hadn’t been with the right person before.”
I wanted to say something about her being the right person, but held off since that sounded lame—even to me. I settled instead for nodding my chin and smiling.
“This is perfect,” Teagan continued. “The sound of the rain on the canopy, the food, the wine…you.”
“Teagan, I—”
Her eyes went wide and she launched
herself across the blanket, landing on top of me. She kissed me deeply, flattening her body along mine. She was insatiable, practically burying her face in mine.
“Good afternoon, miss,” a male voice echoed across the grass, probably from the pathway.
Teagan slid her hand under my neck and pressed my face into her shoulder as she looked up. “Good afternoon, officer.”
Through her hair, I could see a young cop on the path with his hand on his weapon.
“You two keep it clean, this is a family park.”
“Of course. We’re just kissing. There’s nothing illegal about that, is there?”
“No, there’s not. Don’t let it go any farther than that. Have a good day.”
“You too,” I shouted into her shirt.
“Bye,” Teagan added.
She watched the officer depart and then relaxed the pressure against my neck. “That was close.”
I nodded, kissing her once again when she dropped her face to mine.
“The fairy tale is over,” I stated when we separated. “We need to get back inside. I can’t risk anyone discovering that we’re together.”
“That’s fine by me,” she answered. “My Valentine’s Day isn’t over, though.”
“It isn’t?”
“Not by a long shot.”
“Teagan, I don’t—”
“Shut up, Zach,” she said as she covered my mouth with her hand. The bracelet sparkled in the light. “This is my Valentine’s Day and we’re going to do what I want.”
“And what is it that you want?”
She smiled deviously. “I hope you ate enough. You’re going to need your energy.”
TWENTY: SUNDAY
I’d done a fine job of ruining the “just friends” relationship that Teagan and I had. For months after I found out about her feelings for me, I’d been adamant that I wanted to keep her safe by keeping my distance from her. Now that had all changed.
“Good morning. You awake?” she asked as her finger twirled slowly in the hair on my chest.
“Yeah,” I replied softly.
“How’d you sleep?”
“As good as can be expected.” Teagan had a twin bed. It had been a tight squeeze, but more room than the recliner.
“You thinking about what we did?”
