The boy comes over and Beau says, “Jack’s a good dog, isn’t he?”
The boy nods and holds out his hand for the tennis ball.
“His name is Jack, isn’t it?”
“Yeah.” The boy goes down on a knee. “Jack. Jack. Come here. Come here.” The dog goes over and the boy looks at Beau with wide eyes. “He’s mine now. Y’all can’t take him. Mr. Sherman gave him to me yesterday. I know he ain’t got a collar.”
Beau goes on his haunches and reaches for the dog. Jack comes over and lickes his hand and Beau pets its head.
“Good dog.” Beau stands and bounces the tennis ball to the boy who catches it. “Nobody’s going to take your dog, son. What’s your name?”
The boy runs off with Jack following, both running in the opposite direction of Sherman Pecan’s house. Beau gets back in the SUV.
“Did you just let the canine accomplice get away?”
“Don’t tell the bishops.”
Beau hears Juanita calling for a 5th District unit to meet them on an arrest warrant before his cell rings and she tells him she’s got the search warrant. They wait for her. She arrives just as two cops Beau never met arrive in a marked unit and he tells them what’s up before everyone gets out and walks the half-block to Pecan’s house.
Gate of the dilapidated wooden fence is unlocked and Beau leads the way up the two steps of the front stoop as Officer Tulley moves down the side of the house to cover the back door and officer Stevens follows them to the front door.
Beau knocks on the door and it rattles. Nothing. He knocks again.
“Police! Open up or we’re kicking the door in.” He and Jordan have their weapons out and stand on either side of the door which quivers and opens to a middle-aged man in a dark green jumpsuit.
Beau raises his magnum half way.
“Let’s see your hands.”
The man raises his hands and Beau smiles, says, “You shaved your beard, Sherman B. Pecan.”
Beau guides the man back into the house.
“You’re under arrest and we have a search warrant.”
Beau holsters his weapon, pats the man down and cuffs him behind his back before searching him more closely, coming up with a new wallet, pack of Kool cigarettes, lighter, couple dollars in loose change. He sits the man on his sofa and notices two stuffed canvas suitcases.
“Going somewhere?”
The man’s chin sinks. “Not anymore.”
Juanita and Jordan start searching. Beau moves to the first suitcase, finds new clothes in it. He finds the money in the second suitcase.
“Looks like about $5,000 minus a couple hundred.”
“Go to hell.”
“Hey,” Jordan calls out from the back of the house. “Got a black Huffy bicycle here.”
Beau waits for Pecan to look up at him.
“The black cat you murdered bit you, didn’t it? Scratched you, didn’t it? I bet we’ll match your DNA to the blood and skin the cat got off you. Whaddya think, Sherman?”
As they leave, Jordan asks the man, “How’d you train your dog to do what he did?”
Pecan looks at Beau. “He don’t know shit about border collies, does he?”
THE THREE BRING the $5,000 Wells Fargo check to the archbishop’s office, Beau leading Juanita and Jordan, Bishop Eskine letting them in, Archbishop Peeyabo standing in front of his desk.
Beau and Juanita kiss his ring.
Hillel Jordan says, “Sorry, your holiness, I’m half-Jewish.”
“What is your other half?”
“Baptist. I kiss your ring and I’ll get warts.”
The archbishop sits and waves for them to sit, Jordan ending up on a bench at the back of the room.
Juanita opens her notebook. “His name is Sherman B. Pecan. In 1962, he was expelled from Saint Aloysius High School for starting a fire in a trash can. Lives on Clouet Street across from the defunct Grease Cat Bar.” She looks up. “Hence – greasycat1962.”
Back to her notes, “Joined the navy, served in Vietnam on one of those river boats.” She looks up. “You saw Apocalypse Now?”
“I did.”
“Called a PRB – Patrol Boat, River. He received two purple hearts and the Navy Cross for saving the crew of a downed helicopter along the Mekong River while under heavy enemy fire. He’s on 50% disability from the navy. He has a messed-up leg.”
“He still in jail?”
“He can’t make bail.”
“What is he charged with?”
Juanita looks at Beau who says, “Extortion. Arson. Criminal Damage to Property and Aggravated Cruelty to Animals.”
“Animals?”
“He murdered a cat. Remember. At the Cathedral?”
The archbishop glances at the check, the back up at Beau.
“How did you catch him?”
Beau looks at Juanita, who smiles.
She goes, “Ben Franklin said three may keep a secret, if two are dead. The man’s accomplice gave him up.”
“What accomplice?
Beau answers, “Jack. The dog.”
The archbishop looks at one of the windows in his office, rocks back and forth.
“The man’s a war hero?”
Beau knows what’s coming.
“If we drop the charges, you think he’ll try to extort us again?”
The archbishop gets no answer.
Juanita eventually says, “You can drop all the charges except the Aggravated Cruelty to Animals.”
Beau add, “I call her Donna although the cat called herself Rat Killer. We’re not dropping that charge.” He stands and the others follow.
They put their sunglasses back on as they step outside.
“At least he thanked us,” says Jordan.
The Sioux war drums start up and its SA Donna Biondolillo.
“Hi, there.”
“Hi, there yourself. Kansas City Mafia Boss Phillip ‘The Pillbox’ Racconto, Boss of the family and his underboss Rocco ‘The Rock’ Roditore were gunned down after breakfast this morning. The first hit on a Mafia Don in a long time. The Don’s nephew Al ‘The Thrill’ Racconto has already taken over.”
“They called and told you that.”
She gives him the raspberry over the phone.
“Al ‘The Thrill’ is a good, close friend of Lucy Incanto.” She lets that sink in. “Think your Jessie is a maneater? Lucy Incanto is a tigress – lethal beauty.”
“She told me she was a Mafia Aphrodite.”
“Sexy violence. An All-American girl.”
THE YELLOWED ENVELOPE arrives at LA Bank at 8 a.m. and James Leopold retrieves it, takes it to Jessie’s house since she’s home while her office is being repaired. He shrugs as he passes it to Jessie. She takes it into better light, reads the typed paged clipped to it with a large paper clip:
Miss Carini,
The attached has been held in our vault with instructions to deliver it to you today.
J. Rollinald Smith
Western Union Office
New Orleans, LA
Across the top of the yellowed envelope, stamped in red ink is:
DELAYED DELIVERY
DELIVER IN A.M.
Today’s date is written in pencil below.
The upper left corner of the envelope reads: WESTERN UNION TELEGRAM. The 3¢ green Iwo Jima US Postage stamp with an image of the Marines putting up the flag was cancelled at New York, NY August 15 4–PM 1945. Through the cellophane strip at the bottom she sees:
EFM MISS JESSIE CARINI
LA BANK MONLEZUN BUILDING NEW ORLEANS LOU
Jessie takes it to the kitchen and pulls out a sharp knife and carefully opens the envelope, pulls out an equally yellow sheet of paper and unfolds it. It’s a WESTERN UNION telegram with teletype tape glued to it and date and times stamped in the same blue ink. The teletype tape reads:
SHOULD HAVE BROUGHT A PHOTOGRAPH OF YOU stop SHALL RETURN PRESENTLY TO OBTAIN ONE stop YOUR DEVOTED TRAVELER stop LORD PALMER
A series of init
ials in pencil line the bottom right corner.
She sits at the kitchen table and reads the message again, looks up the number for the Western Union telegraph office and calls.
MOONLIGHT FALLS ACROSS Jessie’s Nude in Red oil painting, giving it a soft glow. Beau’s vision moves to the wampum belt, the moonlight dancing on the white beads, black and purple shells.
Jessie comes out of the bathroom to climb into bed next to Beau. They lie side by side for a few moments before they slide together to snuggle.
“I don’t know what to think about the telegram,” she says.
“Gotta be a prank.”
“Western Union Manager J. Rollinald Smith showed me the safe. There are other telegrams set for delayed delivery but he wouldn’t show any to me, wouldn’t say if there’s another with my name.”
“We know a lotta jokesters, including the master – Stan-the-Man Smith.”
“He’s not that bright.”
“When it plays out, I think it’ll be classic.”
She looks at him, narrows her left eye.
He shakes his head. “It isn’t me.” He snickers. “Wish it was. This is going to be legendary. The Earl of Fucking.”
“5th Earl of Fulking.”
“You need to check if there is a current Earl of Fulking.”
“Already have. Edward Lake, Lord Palmer, the 9th Earl of Fulking does not remember his great-great uncle Emerson who disappeared in 1920.”
“Damn. Did you ever ask him how he had no money but he had a silver certificate?”
She lets out a breath. “I forgot.”
“We’ll see if this Advanced Human shows up again.”
She resettles against him.
“Any significance in the date on the telegram?”
“It was VJ Day. The end of World War II. Which means he was in New York City that day. You’ve seen the pictures. People celebrating in Times Square. Sailor French kissing that nurse.”
A breeze flows in through the transom and Beau hears the leaves outside.
“She’s whispering to you?”
He listens, wishes there was a voice.
Jessie sighs again.
“So, what are we gonna do, Darling?”
“We’re not going witness protection,” Beau says. “We stay. We have the home-field advantage here.”
She nods. “I’m not leaving New Orleans. Louvier, LLC, has the money to pay for bodyguards for the Louvier family, me, my family. We’ll do that.”
The sound of rustling leaves rises and Jessie’s breath falls on Beau’s neck, even breaths and he closes his eyes and listens to the gentle whispering in the breeze – Blue Swan, Daughter of the Wind, reaching across the long years, from the highest of the Twelve Heavens as she waits for the living to arrive.
THE END of 12 BULLETS
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
Stand-Alone Novels
Battle Kiss
Bourbon Street
Death Angels
Mafia Aphrodite
Mistik
Slick Time
USS Relentless
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
8. The Long Cold
9. Saint Lolita
10. Righteous Sentence
Beau Series Novels
1. John Raven Beau
2. City of Secrets
3. Nude in Red
4. The Great Beau
5. 12 Bullets
Caye Series Novels
1. New Orleans Rapacious
2. Enamored
3. Hold Me, Babe
4. Dame Money
Dugas Series Novels
1. The French Detective
2. Howls in the Night
Lucifer Series Novels
1. Lucifer’s Tiger
2. Lucifer’s Falcon
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 © 2019 O’Neil De Noux
For more information about the author go to http://www.oneildenoux.com
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 12 BULLETS 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
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.
NUDE IN RED
Saturday – off-duty NOPD Homicide Detective John Raven Beau spots a long, tall brunette in a short black dress crossing a street just as a bank robber rushes out of a bank. Beau catches the robber and Miss Long-legs-in-a-black dress is there with a Glock in hand. She’s a private eye and cousin of an old friend who warns Beau – she’s a maneater. Beau can’t resist the temptation. Jessie Carini is irresistible and finds Beau hard to resist as well.
Monday – the new superintendent of police has a surprise for Beau, promoting him to Chief Inspector of the new Critical Investigations Unit (CIU) and assigns a murder case with a secret attached. Beau chooses his new partner, Juanita Cruz, and the two tackle a case involving high priced call girls, The Mafia, a Romanian organized crime syndicate and more victims.
THE GREAT BEAU
The mysterious death of an elderly man draws NOPD Chief Inspector John Raven Beau into a complex case involving priceless art, stolen Nazi loot, a dead deerhound, a haughty countess, a ruthless killer and featuring the irresistible NUDE IN RED woman. Bang. Bang. The shocks keep coming when a priceless cache is found hidden in an uptown attic
– a legendary treasure which stuns archaeologists, forensic scientists, historians and the entire art world.
Has NOPD located one of the great treasures of the ancient world? How does Beau become a Hero of the French Republic?
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
Web Site: http://www.oneildenoux.com
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