Gumbo Justice
Page 25
“How do I know you’re telling the truth?”
“You don’t. But will you be able to live with yourself if you don’t take that chance?”
“Where do I meet you?” She wrote the address down on the lunch menu.
“And I wouldn’t advise bringing your little gun or anything stupid like that. I would just use it against you.”
“The police took my gun when I shot Cooper. And how am I supposed to get there? I don’t have a car here.”
“That’s your problem.” He hung up.
Ryan thought hard. She had to figure out who he was. And how she would get to him.
Focus. Edie was in the hands of a monster. Edie might be killed, just to punish Ryan. Ryan began to get more angry than scared.
He’s waiting for me, and he’s got the upper hand because I won’t know who he is until he wants me to.
Concentrate. The cologne. She had smelled it at the office before, but it was such a subtle scent it had never stood out in her mind. She now recalled smelling it at the Hole, the night Patti was killed. And at the D.A.’s fund-raiser. Who was wearing Fleur De Lis cologne? And then, like the sun breaking through the clouds, she knew. Even in her muddled state, she knew who he was, and she knew what she had to do. She would go to him, and she would trap him.
She couldn’t take a chance and call the captain, or even Shep. If he saw them, he would kill Edie.
She could handle him. She was smarter than him. She had the benefit of knowing his identity. She also had the benefit of him not realizing she knew. She slowly started to get out of the bed, trying to think of how she would get to where he told her to meet him. She had to save Edie’s life.
A second later, Bo Lambert stood in the doorway, his usual bland expression set in place. “Hey, is this a bad time? I can come back later if you want me to.” He pointed to the hallway. “I saw Big Mike outside and thought you could have visitors.”
She shook her head impatiently and stood up. She was a little dizzy from the medicine, but at least she didn’t feel the pain.
“I need a ride,” she told him.
“You don’t look so good, Ryan. Why don’t I get a nurse for you?” He started to walk back out to the hallway.
“No. Get back in here. I’m fine, but I need a ride. Will you give me a ride somewhere? Please?”
He looked confused for a second. “Did they say you could leave?” He pushed his glasses up and looked back to the hallway, as if looking for someone in authority.
“Yes, they discharged me,” Ryan said impatiently. “I need to get out of here.”
Bo looked even more confused. “Ryan, what’s going on? Daubert’s right outside, if you’re in some kind of trouble.”
“I’m not,” she lied. “I just need a ride to this address, okay? Please?”
“I guess,” he answered reluctantly, looking nervously around the room.
“Can you bring your car to the front entrance? I need to get dressed and I can’t walk too far. And don’t tell Daubert. I don’t want anyone knowing I’m leaving.”
“If you’re positive I’m not going to get in trouble over this. I can bring my car around to the service entrance if you want. It’ll save you some steps. You really don’t look so good.”
“Thank you. I’ll be out in a minute.” She took a deep breath. I can do this.
As soon as Bo left, Ryan went into the bathroom and changed into the T-shirt and sweat pants her mother had brought her to wear home.
When she was dressed, she reached in her purse and removed the gun Shep had brought her. She was sure Shep never imagined she would actually need it.
She checked to make sure the gun was loaded. The revolver had six bullets. Six chances to survive.
She thought as clearly as she could. She still had her holster, but he might search her. He would likely search her waist. He probably wouldn’t think to search her legs. She could conceal the gun under the sweat pants if she could attach the holster to her leg. She grabbed the bondage tape out of her purse. Edie’s penchant for the unusual may end up saving her life. She taped the holster to her left ankle, slid the gun into it and then pulled the leg of her pants back over the holstered gun. If he searched her and found the gun, she would just have to reach it before he did.
She copied the address onto her hand, and wrote a note on her menu, explaining where she was going and why, trying to reassure herself that the calvary would eventually arrive if something went wrong. She left the room, telling Daubert that she was going to the snack machine around the corner. She followed Bo’s instructions and found his white Mercedes waiting.
Bo drove her in silence, seeming deep in thought. She would know for certain in a few seconds. Ryan watched as they passed the street where Bo was supposed to turn. Now she knew for sure she was right.
“You missed the street,” she said. The subtle scent of Fleur De Lis tickled her nostrils.
“God, it’s a nice day.” Bo’s smile was tremendous. Thunder rolled in the sky, followed by a flash of lightening. “You know what’s really funny? That you just begged me to give you a ride.”
“What are you talking about?” Don’t let on you knew already. If he knows you already knew, he might look for the gun.
“You still don’t know, do you? I thought you were supposed to be so smart.”
“What?”
“I’m the one,” he said. “I was always the one.”
“You were always the one what?”
“The one who was making your life a living hell. Me.” He pulled a cell phone out of his pocket, and showed her the distortion device attached.
“Where’s Edie?” She needed to get him talking.
He shrugged. “You should be more worried about where you’re going.”
“Are you doing this because I was beating you for Strike Force?” If she could get him talking, she could figure out his plan.
Bo laughed. “You are stupid, aren’t you? You think I would waste that kind of money and time planning this because you beat me to a promotion? Everything is always about you and your pitiful, pathetic, tiny little world, isn’t it?”
“Where are you taking me?” Once she knew his plan, she could determine the best time to go for her gun.
He smiled. “We’re going back to your favorite place — the St. Thomas.”
“Why?” He thought he had trapped her, so he should feel safe enough to speak freely.
“You really don’t know who I am, do you?”
“I thought you were my friend.”
His laugh was hollow. “Don’t lie to me. We were never friends.”
Ryan tried to remain calm. “Where’s Edie?” she asked again.
“Trunk.”
“Is she dead?”
“Not yet.” He laughed again. “But it’s going to be hot today. I bet it won’t take long.”
Ryan shuddered. “Why are you doing this?” The medicine was still working, something she hadn’t taken into account when she devised the plan to go against him alone. Her eyes wanted to close, but she forced herself to keep them open. “What did I ever do to you?”
The road ahead was blocked for construction, and Bo detoured toward St. Charles.
“Let me tell you the way it’s going to be. You’re going to keep your mouth shut for the first time in your life. I don’t need to hear your stupid, lying, mouth. You’re just like our mother.”
“Our mother?” A second later she felt a slap to the side of her head.
“I told you to shut up. I guess you might as well know why you’re going to die today. You see, our mother was a whore. Good old Patti. Humping anybody she could for a foil of heroin.” He stopped for a red light. He had killed several people, kidnapped Edie and done God knows what else to her. But he stopped for the freaking red light. “To her credit, she did try to keep me.” The light changed to green.
Ryan moved her leg slightly. The feeling of the holster pressed against her gave her a surge of confidence. “What does any
of this have to do with me?” He slapped her face this time. She tasted blood in her mouth as the stitch in her lip ripped.
“Patti made the mistake of taking you back. She was out of money and the demand for used up, skanky whore was low, so she was going to trade you for heroin. One big score was all she needed. Do you remember? I tried to help you. I killed a roach so you wouldn’t be scared. You were a bitch even back then. Instead of being grateful, you cried, and got me in more trouble.”
“It wasn’t dead,” she said without thinking. “You didn’t kill it all the way.” She felt the slap before she finished the sentence.
“It was a fucking roach. It couldn’t even hurt you.”
“They bite.” Ryan licked the blood from her lip.
Her plan had not included getting the crap beat out of her on the way to wherever Bo was taking her to kill her. Certain thoughts were entering her head now. Such as, what if his plan was to pull a gun and shoot her in the car? And that the note she had left on the menu was useless. While it would let her would-be rescuers know who she was with, it would not tell them where he had taken her.
Bo stared straight ahead, his gaze glassy. He seemed unaware of his surroundings, although he continuously obeyed the traffic laws. Just as he always did. Too scared to speed but he could kill without a second thought.
He finally continued speaking. “You ruined everything. When Patti heard the police outside, she sent me away with Jude. I told you to tell the police about me, to make them come back for me. I told you I didn’t want to go with him. You saw what he was like. You knew what he was going to do to me. And you didn’t bother telling them.” He turned to face her. His expression was chilling. Hatred, mixed with pure evil.
She tried to reason with him. “I was only four years old. I didn’t know.” She wasn’t sure if she was slapped this time or not. She seemed to be fading in and out, trying to concentrate.
He ignored her and continued. “For an entire year I lived with Jude, doing things for him little boys shouldn’t have to do. All because you didn’t tell them I needed help.”
“So this is about revenge? You want to get back at me because you were abused? And your life turned out okay in the end. I mean, you were adopted by a family that treated you so much better than Patti ever would have.”
“Not revenge, Ryan. Justice.” He closed his eyes for a second, and Ryan had a glimmer of hope that he would run into the car in front of them, and she would be able to run. She reached for the door handle, and then realized it had been removed. She couldn’t escape.
He opened his eyes and hit the brake. The car screeched to a stop, just in time. The man in the car in front of them shot them the bird. Bo waved back apologetically.
“Getting adopted by the Lamberts was no accident,” Bo continued, his eyes dark. “Beauregard Lambert was one of Patti’s best customers. When I was finally discovered at Jude’s, Social Services tracked Patti down in prison and tried to force her to give me up for adoption. Patti contacted my father and blackmailed him into adopting me. She threatened to expose his sordid urges and drug addiction to the world. And he was, after all, my biological father.” He smiled at the surprise on Ryan’s face. “Chad’s father handled the paperwork. Beauregard thought it would be a good influence for me to hang out with Chad. He had no idea.”
The cars began moving again.
“You know you can’t get away with something like this,” Ryan said. “My family will never let this go.”
Bo shrugged. “That’s where you’re wrong. I can get away with anything.”
She decided to try a different tactic. “I don’t see why you’re blaming me for your crappy life. I didn’t leave you with Jude. Patti did. You should have been mad at her.”
He nodded in agreement. “She was also responsible. That’s part of the reason I killed her.”
“You killed her?” She felt another slap to the side of her head. Her ears were ringing, but she wasn’t in pain. At least if her plan failed and he killed her, death wouldn’t hurt.
Bo’s lips stretched into a demented, but amused, smile. “It’s your fault she’s dead, you know. I overheard you at the Hole, planning your little visit. With Patti’s dementia, she probably wouldn’t have even remembered my name, but I couldn’t take that chance. So I killed her. Not that you should be upset. If she hadn’t told me about you, I would have never been able to find you in the first place. She hated you as much as I do.”
Ryan glanced out of the window. They were driving down St. Charles, nearing Jackson Avenue.
“So you killed those people to get back at me for something I had no control over?” She still couldn’t believe it. She had thought the killer would be somebody dangerous. Not a wimp like Bo Lambert.
“The only person I killed was Henry Cooper. Oh, and some bum on Claiborne. I had to get Detective Asshole out of your apartment last night. But the rest of them, they killed each other.”
“Why kill them at all?” She waited to see if she was going to get hit again, but Bo seemed preoccupied for a second. “Why did you want people to think somebody was killing my defendants for me?”
“To ruin your life before I killed you. My plan was ingenious. I looked through the old dismissal reports to find the defendants. Then I gave a list to Cooper, who arranged everything for me. Cooper simply paid them to kill each other.”
“Why now?” It still didn’t make sense to her. She had known him for four years, what was so special now?
“You are so inquisitive. I don’t think you’ve spoken this much to me in the entire time I’ve known you. But I guess there’s no harm in telling you. It’s our anniversary. Exactly twenty-four years ago today you let Jude take me. But I’ve been planning this since Patti told me who you were. And I’ve given you ample opportunity to prove to me that you weren’t what Patti said you were. I gave you the last four years to prove you didn’t deserve to die. But you didn’t even try to be nice to me. Patti was right all along. You are nothing but a selfish bitch.”
He drove down St. Thomas Street into the development, past Felicity, and then over the sidewalk. Just beyond the empty units, he turned on a gravel road that led to the first inhabited building. He stopped the car behind the building. The car couldn’t be seen from the street. Maybe the resident of the back apartment would look out and figure out something was wrong.
Bo pointed to the open window of the apartment and smiled. “Oh, I don’t think Eulah Mae will be giving us any trouble right now. She’s taking a nice long nap. Now get out. And don’t try anything cute or I’ll blow a hole in your head.” He pointed a forty-five at her.
She wondered if she should try to run. Nobody would even know she was here to save her. Before she could make the decision, Bo opened the door and grabbed her roughly by the arm.
Shep needed to call in a warrant. But it might be difficult to explain how he arrived at a suspect without mentioning the fact that he had just spoken to Chad Lejeune, who was likely dead by now. Shep was nearing the station when he heard the dispatch ordering all available units to Lejeune’s apartment, who was wanted in connection with the murder of Edie Guilliot.
Shep wondered if Chad had somehow killed Edie before Shep had found him. And then he had another thought. While everyone else’s attention was on Chad, Ryan would be easy prey. If she thought Chad was the killer, she wouldn’t be prepared to defend herself against anyone else.
Shep quickly dialed her room at the hospital, and felt a chill when she didn’t answer. He called Angie next.
“Check on Ryan, right now.” He was on his cell, driving around in his car. His only problem was he didn’t know where to go. “I’m going to stay on hold. If she’s not in her room, page her.”
Angie didn’t ask any questions. Shep assumed she had been a cop’s wife long enough to know better. A few minutes later she was back. It felt like an hour to Shep, who had pulled over to wait for the information.
“Shep, Daubert said she went to the snack machine a
while ago, and hasn’t come back yet. He said she had a visitor right before she left.”
“Did he know who it was?” He felt his heart pounding against his breastbone.
“Bo Lambert.”
Son of a bitch. Chad had told him the truth. It was Bo Lambert all along.
“And Shep, there was a note from Ryan on her meal tray. It says that Bo Lambert has Edie, and Ryan went with him to help her. She left an address. Shep, what is going on?”
“Call the captain and tell him to send a unit to that address,” Shep ordered. “I don’t think he took Ryan there, but maybe he left Edie. I’m trying to figure out where he took her. Tell him Bo Lambert has been behind this from the start. He’s Patti’s son.” He hung up.
He put out a call to send a car to Bo Lambert’s apartment, as well as to Bo’s father’s house. Shep doubted Bo would take Ryan to either one of those places, but he didn’t know where else to try. And then he thought about the St. Thomas. Of course. But exactly where in the St. Thomas? It was a massive development, and Shep didn’t have time to go door to door looking for her.
He dialed Monte.
“Carlson.”
“Monte, Bo Lambert has Ryan. He’s taking her somewhere in the St. Thomas. Where?”
“You on drugs man? The SID is taking down Lejeune for being behind this.”
“Chad Lejeune is already dead. And Bo took off with Ryan. So where is he taking her?”
“How would I know?”
“Monte, you know more about this than you’re saying. And if Ryan dies because of you, I will kill you, I swear to God.”
“I don’t know where he took her,” Monte said again. “He might have a hideyhole in the St. Thomas somewhere. One of my regulars heard that a D.A. was walking around the abandoned buildings one night. Maybe he’s got a place in there.”
Shep turned around and drove in the direction of the St. Thomas.
“You didn’t think the information about a D.A. might be relevant?”
“It wasn’t my business. I got tips that the homicides were going down, and that a D.A. might be financing them. All these guys were cases Ryan lost. I figured maybe she was settling the score.”