“Nice to be the boss. I gave myself permission to go in late.”
By ten o’clock, Beau figures the Swedes won’t be calling so he heads home to his other girl. The fuzzy one.
Friday
• Police Headquarters, 3:00 p.m.
“Did I mention you clean up nicely?” Juanita looks back over her shoulder as she leads the way into the superintendent’s large conference room Beau did not know existed. She cleaned up well herself in a black skirt suit. Someone’s been teaching her how to apply makeup and switching to a brighter red lipstick really makes her lips stand out.
She draws eyes as they come in, Edwards directing them to the far end of the table. Beau nods for Juanita to take the end and sits next to her. Superintendent Janet Féroce comes in before they are settled. She’s in a gray skirt suit and accompanied by ASAC Esposito in a dark gray suit. Juanita writes the names of everyone present, SA Biondolillo, SA Ocheski, JPSO Detectives Bryan Turner and Joe Guevara and Intelligence Lt. Ashton. Edwards sits in a chair in the corner with his notepad and pen.
“Thank you all for coming,” the superintendent begins, sitting up straight at the head of the table. “I’ve always been a big fan of Agatha Christie so we are here where all will be revealed by our Critical Investigations Unit.” She nods across the table. “Chief Inspector Beau?”
Beau planned on letting Juanita deliver it all but he just got off the phone with Saint Paul PD and has updated info, so he sits up. “Much of this y’all already know.” He looks at his notes.
“Shortly after three a.m., Wednesday morning, NOPD rescued federal witness Maria Mirescu. She was hiding at L’hotel Crais on Lee Circle. We were fired at by an unidentified assailant and became involved in a running gun battle in which the UNSUB (an FBI term Beau had picked up some time ago) was killed by Inspector Cruz and me. He was in possession of a Beretta 9mm that ATF is unable to trace its point of sale. In the UNSUB’s back pocket was a garrote, the type we suspect was used in the murder of high-class prostitute Judy Allure at the DeSaix hotel last year.
“FBI fingerprint comparison failed to identify the UNSUB. ASAC Esposito informs us that checks with INTERPOL, The Sureté, Scotland Yard, The Royal Canadian Mounted Police, the Italian Carabinieri and the Politia Romana Romanian National Police has failed to identify this individual.”
All right. No mistakes yet.
“We sent a photo of the UNSUB, taken at his autopsy, to the Saint Paul Police Department. Minnesota. The man who tried to strangle another high-class prostitute, Consuela Suarez, earlier in the investigation was from Saint Paul and was associated with a Romanian organized crime group called the Bucuresti. Our UNSUB was recognized by SPPD as associated with the Bucuresti up there but was only known as ‘the beard’. SPPD executed a search warrant on the UNSUB’s apartment and discovered three garrotes with blood and skin attached.
“We sent the DNA profile of Judy Allure and JPSO’s victim, Angelina Goolime, whose body was found next to the Causeway Bridge in Jefferson Parish to SPPD. Goolime had lived on Poeyfarre Street here in the city and was also a high-class prostitute.
Beau looks up from his notes and tells them what he’d just learned.
“SPPD confirms DNA on one of the garrotes matches Goolime’s DNA.” He looks at the superintendent now. “DNA from the other garrote matches the DNA of Judy Allure.”
He lets that sink in a moment.
“We feel, if the UNSUB were alive, there is enough probable cause to arrest him for the murders of Angelia Goolime and Judy Allure.” He sits back.
Superintendent Féroce slowly nods, takes in a deep breath and says, “FBI ASAC Esposito will update us on the killings of suspected Mafiosi and Bucuresti here in New Orleans and the Mississippi Gulf Coast.”
For the next minutes Esposito explains the FBI’s belief this entire episode was part of a gang war over high-class prostitutes in which our local La Cosa Nostra Boss Nicholas Cataldo seems to have solidified his position by eliminating suspected Bucuresti, along with rival Mafiosi from the Caruso side of the family.
Judy, Angelina, Consuela. Caught up in what the FBI calls an ‘episode’. Fuckin’ gang war. Girls just trying to make a living with the world’s oldest profession. Beau thinks – there’s a song. Something about sending in the clowns. Fuck. Why is Beau’s throat getting tight? These girls were slaughtered by fucking gangsters.
I will dream for years of slaughtering gangsters.
No matter how many he kills there are always more and as he sits at the table, Beau hears the war drums, the sad, electrifying rumble of drums, the hurried stampede of ponies racing across the wide prairie, long black-haired warriors raising lances, pointing rifles at the unending tide of white eyes that swarm across the great plains like locusts. No matter how many they kill. There are always more. Always.
What did he tell Juanita? “We are not supposed to kill each other.”
That was the Cajun speaking.
It isn’t the warrior whose heart beats hard in Beau’s chest as all is revealed.
He realizes the meeting is over when the others stand and Juanita touches his arm.
“If the inspectors will remain a moment,” the superintendent says. The others leave, except Edwards. Janet Féroce twists her shoulders as if she’s working out a kink, says, “I will inform the Secretary of your findings, Chief Inspector Beau. Good work from both of you.” She waves at Edwards, who stands, brings a folder over.
Féroce – “I have another case for you two.”
Saturday
• Saint Charles Avenue, 7:00 p.m.
Beau hears her moving upstairs. He’s in the foyer wearing a new white shirt and black slacks. He has a light weight gray jacket to cover his baby Glock. He hears her move to the top of the stairs, just beyond view as she calls down, “I’m sure you’ve heard how the Holy Grail of women’s dresses is the little black dress.”
She comes around the railing and starts down the stairs, slowly, on spiked high heels. Her red minidress is so short he can see the tops of her thigh high stockings and white panties as she descends. She moves with feline steps down to him.
“Well, mister. Welcome to Lucifer’s Unholy Grail of women’s dresses. The little red dress.”
Those light green eyes seem to sparkle at him, her full lips shiny with dark cranberry lipstick, her long hair streaming past her luscious breasts. Her light perfume floats to him. She brushes his crotch with the back of her hand, a wicked smile on her lips now.
“For the next few hours, Babe. We’ll dance and I’ll tease everyone in this ‘fuck me’ outfit. Long legs, flashing panties. I want you to think of one thing. Under this skimpy dress, bra and panties, I’m your nude in red, Babe.”
She moves to the small table, picks up a tiny purse with a long gold chain strap.
He takes her hand, pulls her close.
“I might have to reapply my lipstick.”
He moves his lips so close to hers he feels her breath but doesn’t kiss her. Yet.
“You know,” she says when he pulls back. “We’re going to make this work.”
“What? Dancing?”
“No, John. Us.”
He nods slowly. “You know it, Babe.”
THE END
About the painting Nude in Red by Vincent De Noux (2015, oil on canvas)
Jessie Carini modeled for the cover painting of this book during the autumn of 2014, for Louisiana artist and sculptor Vincent De Noux who based the positioning of his model from the description of the fictional painting by Pablo Cortez.
There have been a number of previous red nude paintings, beyond the masterpiece Red Nude by Amedeo Modigliani (1917, oil on canvas)
Here is a list of the better known red nudes. None of the paintings looks anything like the other.
Nude in Red by Aisha Khan
Nude Rouge by Greet Lakiere
Red Light Nude by Lutz Baar
Red Nude by Beth Maddox
Red Nude by Sid Solomon
Red Nude1 and Red N
ude2 by Jan Morrison
Note from the Publisher
BIG KISS PRODUCTIONS
If you found a typo or two in the book, please don’t hold it against us. We are a small group of volunteers dedicated to presenting quality fiction from writers with genuine talent. We tried to make this book as perfect as possible, but we are human and make mistakes.
BIG KISS PRODUCTIONS and the author are proud to sell this book for as low a cost as possible. Good fiction should be affordable.
Also by the Author
Novels
Battle Kiss
Bourbon Street
Mafia Aphrodite
Mistik
Slick Time
USS Relentless
The French Detective
LaStanza Series Novels
1. Grim Reaper
2. The Big Kiss
3. Blue Orleans
4. Crescent City Kills
5. The Big Show
6. New Orleans Homicide
7. The Blue Nude
Beau Series Novels
1. John Raven Beau
2. City of Secrets
3. Nude in Red
Caye Series Novels
1. New Orleans Rapacious
2. Enamored
Short Story Collections
LaStanza: New Orleans Police Stories
New Orleans Confidential
New Orleans Prime Evil
New Orleans Nocturnal
New Orleans Mysteries
New Orleans Irresistible
Hollow Point & The Mystery of Rochelle Marais
Backwash of the Milky Way
Screenplay
Waiting for Alaina
Non-Fiction
A Short Guide to Writing and Selling Fiction
Specific Intent
•
Cover Design © 2015 O’Neil De Noux
For more information about the author go to http://www.oneildenoux.net
O’Neil De Noux would like to hear from you. If you liked this book or have ANY comment, email him at [email protected]
If you enjoyed NUDE IN RED and would like to read more adventures of NOPD’s John Raven Beau you may want to check out these books:
JOHN RAVEN BEAU – BEST POLICE BOOK 2011 (policewriter.com)
Before Katrina – New Orleans is the murder capital of America and her troubled streets give rise to a cop who hunts killers with methodical, calculating precision, innate in a man half-Cajun and half-Sioux. While others lose their heads in the maddening hunt for a cop-killer, John Raven Beau focuses his instincts in the relentless pursuit of a murderer.
John Raven Beau must be fearless, must be cunning, ruthless on occasion, but remembers he is part of the good earth. In the midst of this horrendous case, Beau, a loner, meets an alluring, young woman with aquamarine eyes and a mind as sharp as his, a woman who draws him to her.
This story begins in the French Quarter and ends in a swamp, all within the city limits of America’s eternal city, a city that cannot be destroyed – New Orleans.
CITY OF SECRETS – a novel
Two months AK - After Katrina - the water is gone, along with most of the people. The mud is dried and much of the city is coated in a gray, brown film of silt and dirt. Pockets of the city have electricity and natural gas. The city lies prostrate, almost helpless, as people return to reclaim their lives. Others come to the deserted town, ruthless criminals moving in to stake their turf. Murder returns to New Orleans and the killers collide with a man who hunts murderers with methodical, calculating precision, innate in one who has the blood of the great plains warriors in his veins.
NEW ORLEANS NOCTURNAL is a series of nine short stories featuring New Orleans Police Homicide Detective John Raven Beau. Half-Cajun and Half-Sioux, Beau is a relentless pursuer, a man who will track a killer across miles of dark streets, through swamps, wastelands, over rivers and bayous. He will never give up. And he’s an excellent marksman who also carries an obsidian hunting knife. Claims that he’s scalped a few murderers is a persistent rumor.
Nocturnal. Occurring at night. Darkness.
Not all of these stories occur at night, but each explores the darkest places in the murder capital of America and the dark recesses of the human heart. Come spend some time with John Raven Beau. He’ll show you a few things.
STORIES INCLUDE:
“Love and Murder” • “Don’t Make Me Take Off My Sunglasses” • “Murder Most Sweet” • “When the Levees Break” • “Pretty Rita” and “The Bonnie and Clyde Caper” – runner-up for The Short Mystery Fiction Society’s 2009 Derringer Award for ‘Best Long Story’.
These and OTHER BOOKS by O’Neil De Noux
http://www.oneildenoux.net
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