The Laura Cardinal Novels

by J. Carson Black

  She wondered how it felt to have your whole police force devastated in the course of a split second. She thought of how his life had been laid out just the way he liked it—his teenage daughters, his sleepy town, dispensing his good ol’ boy wisdom.

  In twenty-three years, I never had to draw my gun in anger.

  That record was shot to shit.

  Laura kept her eye on Andrew Descartes, feeling dizzy. Look at him until you detach. Step back, detach, do your job.

  Never before had her job felt moot. Never until now did she realize what a small dent seeking justice made into grief. Yes, she helped pick up the pieces, but they were still pieces. The aftermath of a tornado. In the face of that destruction, you were helpless. Now it had struck home, and she wondered if her job was worth anything at all.

  She continued to stare at him, like serving some godawful penance. Filling her eye, her soul with him. Her mind straying away, and she patiently bringing it back around and around again to the fact: You did this. You’re responsible.

  But now she had to do the right thing. Look around, figure it out. Do your job.

  Buckshot. She guessed .00 buckshot from the look of the wound. A single pellet, slicing through his carotid like a tiny razor.

  Tears formed at the edge of her eyes, threatening to brim over, a still pool. That, she could not allow to happen. So she blinked. She blinked so hard and so fast she could feel it in the back of her skull, a corresponding ache to the one inside her gut.

  Where was Chief Redbone? The deputy was the only other member of law enforcement here, but when she looked for him he was gone.

  Out to meet the reinforcements, she hoped.

  She heard the toilet flush somewhere in the house. The kid had used the bathroom at a crime scene.

  She’d ream him out when he came back.

  And then she realized it: You have no standing here. She would not be the investigator of this crime. That would fall to the state police, her counterpart in Florida.

  But Laura couldn’t leave. She couldn’t leave Andy Descartes here alone.

  Late in the afternoon, Laura and Chief Redbone drove up to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement regional office in Tallahassee to give their statements after handing the crime scene over to two FDLE agents. Both of them were preoccupied with their own thoughts and did not speak. Laura found refuge in the scenery as they drove in and out of the lengthening shadows. The grass along the roadside was a dazzling kelly green from the rain earlier today. The sun’s horizontal rays ignited the trees and shimmered on the blacktop like gold. Laura found herself looking back at the sunset behind them, the left-over clouds turning from tangerine to cherry-red to dark plum.

  Andy Descartes would never see another sunset.

  At FDLE, Laura gave her statement, as clear and detailed as she could remember. When she was through, Special Agent Jack McClellan shut off the tape recorder and smiled. Laura noticed he smiled a lot, but she wasn’t sure why.

  “That should do it. You’re free to go.”

  Free to go where? Laura thought. She pictured herself getting a ride to the Tallahassee airport, changing her ticket, boarding the plane. Maybe sip a cocktail as they passed over the Mississippi and she put the south behind her. Just a quick trip in and out of Florida, leaving an obliterated Apalachicola PD and broken lives in her wake.

  But that wasn’t who she was. “There’s the disposition of the evidence. We need to work that out.”

  “I wouldn’t worry,” said Jeremy Poitras, McCellan’s co-agent. He was a massive black man with an exquisitely-shaped shaved head. He wore an expensive suit. “I’m sure we can come to some accommodation.”

  A fancy-ass word for a fancy-ass man. Laura said, “We’ll need to do forensics on the computer, if you find one.”

  “We can work that out,” Poitras said.“ We have very good people here—we can do the specific computer forensics.”

  “I want the computer to go to the DPS lab in Phoenix.”

  McClellan broke in smoothly, “First of all, we don’t know he even has a computer. But if your agency can make their case to us, there’s a good chance we’ll release to you all the evidence that doesn’t pertain to our investigation.”

  “I want to go into the de Seroux house. You understand I have a vested interest in this. Your guys are going to be looking for other things.”

  “That’s fine by me,” Poitras said. “You can certainly tag along, but …” He consulted his watch. “You’d better get down there soon. I have a feeling they’ve already gone in.”

  Laura felt her hostility rise to the surface. “I hope nobody opened any trapdoors,” she said.

  The de Seroux house itself seemed normal compared to Lundy’s secret place. Cheap generic furniture. Plenty of fingerprints, but little else. There was a desk for a computer, a cheap printer, split phone lines, a surge protector, and APS, but the computer (or computers) were gone.

  Again, Laura had the feeling that Lundy wasn’t coming back. He had left the furniture, but taken all his paper trail with him: checkbooks, statements, records. There was a square of less-worn linoleum in the room where the computer had been—she guessed it was where he kept his file cabinet.

  The place felt like an abandoned ship.

  The first to enter the de Seroux house was the FDLE Hazardous Devices Unit, entering through the tunnel from Lundy’s side, past the deployed weapon, looking for traps along the way. They found nothing on the other end except a corresponding trapdoor in the floor of de Seroux’s tool shed.

  Laura wondered if Lundy expected his house to be searched and planned for that eventuality.

  She had never been so tired. Perhaps it was because she felt like a guest at her own scene. She was allowed to gather evidence, but always under the watchful eyes of the FDLE special agents. She chafed; she never did well where she didn’t have some control.

  They finished processing the house early in the evening of the next day. Laura realized she was starving. She went by the deli on Market and got herself a submarine sandwich and a bottle of water, took them down to Battery Park. It was the first food she’d had all day.

  After finishing her sandwich, she walked out onto the long dock. There was a slight squall out in the bay tonight, the scent of rain hanging in the air, and the sky alternated between bruised blue and copper when the sun came through. Fishing boats—she guessed a lot of them were charters—were coming in at sunset.

  Why did he booby trap the tunnel? That bothered her. If he was protecting the de Seroux house, did he really think the booby trap would stop the police? Or maybe was it just to kill whoever got that far—because he could.

  Maybe he did it because he was embarrassed by the house itself, what it said about him—his obsession with Misty, his shrine to his mother’s memory, the Victorian parlor. Mother and son sewing together. Maybe he wanted to hurt whoever became privy to his secret life.

  Impossible to know what was in his mind.

  Tomorrow morning they would search the tunnel again. Maybe she’d find her answer then. But she was beginning to believe it was just what her mother used to call pure bloody-mindedness.

  She’d have to ask him when she met him face to face.

  A pristine white sportsfisher was coming in, dropping down into idle just inside the no-wake zone. Freedom’s Daughter was written in blue cursive on the bow. Laura felt her spirit lift just looking at it.

  “I’ve always wanted a boat like that,” Chief Redbone said behind her.

  For a big man, he was light on his feet.

  “Lot of work though,” he added, leaning on the dock railing. “Time and money both.”

  The light had turned red now.

  “That’s a beautiful name for a boat,” Laura said.

  “I sure do second that.”

  Laura felt uncomfortable around him. The only time they had spent together since the tragedy was on the drive to FDLE in Tallahassee. She had not seen him since.

  “How’s it
going over there?” he asked now.

  She shrugged. “We haven’t found much.”

  He sighed. “Glad I’m out of it.”

  He didn’t sound devastated. He sounded like his old self. Laura wondered if that was a front.

  “How’s Mrs. Descartes doing?”

  He leaned his back against the railing. His eyes looked like dark pebbles in his face, which seemed unusually slack. “About as well as you’d expect, which is not good at all.”

  “I should have gone with you. I feel responsible.”

  “It wasn’t your fault.” He said it, but she could tell he didn’t believe it.

  “Will she be all right? Financially?”

  “She and Andy belong to the Church of Christ. Don’t have to worry about making ends meet, not in this town. We take care of our own.”

  Laura opened her mouth to tell him she wished she could help, but said nothing. She could tell from the tone of his voice that she in fact wouldn’t be asked to help. She was the stranger here.

  And so she watched Freedom’s Daughter glide under the bridge and into the Apalachicola River. Such a beautiful town. Easy and slow. She’d brought her big city troubles here, destroyed lives.

  Chief Redbone stared straight ahead. “Thought you’d want to know Jerry Oliver’s been upgraded to guarded. They think he’ll be all right, although he lost the eye.”

  She nodded. “There are a few things we need to discuss. Will you be in the office tomorrow?” she asked him.

  “Nope. I’m pretty much done here.”

  “What do you mean?”

  He leveled his gaze on her. “I’m through with this. It wasn’t what I signed up for.”

  “You mean you’re quitting?”

  “Been there, done that, as they say.”

  “What will happen now?”

  “They’re plenty of folks wanting this job. They’re welcome to it.”

  “What are you going to do?”

  “Me?” He thought about it. “First thing I’m gonna do is go fishing.”

  She thought he was done, but he stared back out at the bay and continued, “Hasn’t been one bad thing that a few days of fishing didn’t cure, at least for me. Even my divorce. Thing is, though," he massaged his forehead over one eye, “I don’t think I can ever get that picture of Andy out of my mind.”

  40

  Chief Redbone left not long after that. Laura remained until it was dark, staring out at the bay and the ocean beyond. It was a short walk to the Gibson Inn, but as Laura started back she became aware of someone in the corner of her eye angling toward her at a rapid pace.

  She was reaching for the Sig Sauer on her hip when she smelled the aftershave.

  Old Spice. A familiar shape.

  She left the gun where it was as Frank Entwistle materialized beside her. She heard the tiny wheezes through his nostrils he always made whenever he tried to keep up with her.

  “What are you doing here?”

  “Thought you could use some backup. Emotionally speaking.”

  “Emotionally speaking.”

  “Yeah, you know. Be your sounding board." He waved his cigarette and the cherry danced around them like a flying saucer.

  Laura was weary of this.

  “If you’re so tuned in to me and my problems, why didn’t you give me a heads-up on the booby trap?" Why didn’t you save Andy Descartes?

  In the dark, his face was the color of ash and about as amorphous. “Could you slow down a little? You know I have a bum knee.”

  He stopped, so she stopped too. “To answer your question, I’m not a mind-reader. I don’t have a crystal ball either.”

  “Then what the hell are you?”

  He shrugged his shoulders in his ill-fitting coat and loosened his tie.

  “I been tryin’ to figure it out. You’re not the only one who’s affected by this situation.” He swiped at his forehead with the back of his hand. “Damn, it’s humid here. This is only a hunch, kiddo, but it could be I’m part of your subconscious.”

  Laura watched as a stream of cars came down the Gorrie St. Bridge, headlights flaring behind the dead homicide dick and turning him into a silhouette.

  “Why are you here?”

  He shrugged. “Beats me.”

  “Then why do you keep showing up?”

  “Look, you’re the one who’s pulling all the strings. It’s pretty clear you need me.”

  “Need you?”

  Her phone chirped. She recognized the number that flashed on the screen—Victor’s home phone.

  Frank was saying, “If I were you I’d—“

  “Just a second,” she said to Entwistle, holding up a hand. She wanted to catch Victor before it went to voice mail. Maybe he’d had some luck tracing Lundy.

  Entwistle said: “You sure you want to answer that?” just as Victor said something in her ear.

  Laura stared from the phone in her hand to Entwistle. “Why wouldn’t I want to an—”

  “Why wouldn’t you what?” asked Victor.

  Laura looked at the spot where Entwistle had been. Gone.

  Gradually it came through, what Victor was saying.

  Frank Entwistle was right; Laura wished she could somehow deflect the words coming from Victor’s mouth.

  41

  SUMMER

  Summer didn’t like lying to her mom, but she knew she’d never get to meet James if she didn’t. There was no way she was going to miss out on the most important day of her life.

  “You sure Chrissy’s mom’ll bring you home?” her mom said as they pulled up in front of McDonalds.

  “Uh-huh.”

  “I don’t want to impose.”

  “She doesn’t mind. She likes driving.”

  “You have to be home by nine o’clock. No later.”

  “Sure, Mom.”

  She got out of the car, holding her new shoulder-strap purse that went with her sandals, leaning in and giving her mom a kiss on the cheek. And then she was free.

  Her mom pulled out and nearly got wiped out by a bigger SUV. She never did pay attention to her driving. She was just totally unawares, driving away but looking back, waving. As if she’d never see her again.

  She always did that.

  Her mom treated her like a kid in so many ways, but she also treated her as if she was already an adult. She really liked to “talk things out." Communication was a big thing in their house. Her mom—who had just recently asked Summer to call her Beth—always said, “There’s no problem too big to tackle if we just communicate.”

  Summer glanced at her watch. Seven o’clock. She was glad about the timing. Butthead Bryan was coming over tonight, and when that happened, her mom, who was usually pretty level-headed, kind of lost it. She would do anything for him. She acted like a servant, waiting on him hand and foot. Bryan would be thrilled that she, Summer, was out of the way, over at a friend’s house. That way they could do the nasty.

  She knew that James wouldn’t pat her butt the way Bryan patted her mom’s, right in front of her. James had respect for women. When she and James made love, it would be beautiful. It would be right.

  She found a table by the window inside so she could see the parking lot. It wasn’t dark yet, but it was getting harder to see, especially because headlights were just coming on and they glared in the plate glass windows. Still, she’d know a Z4 anywhere.

  She waited, and she waited.

  It was getting darker by the minute. Every time a car pulled into the parking lot, she felt this incredible thrill. But none of them was a Z4. She glanced at her watch again. Had it really been ten minutes?

  That was when the first doubt crept in. Maybe he was going to stand her up. She pictured having to walk to Chrissy’s in the dark and facing her friends, telling them he didn’t show up.

  No. He wouldn’t do that. She and Jamie had some very open and honest conversations in the two and a half months since they’d met on WiNX, had talked for hours online and on the phone. She had fall
en in love with him even before she knew what a hunk he was.

  She knew he loved her. He sent her the MP3. He wouldn’t have done that if he wasn’t planning to meet her.

  Of course her dad found out and took the MP3 player. He even read their e-mails!

  Her face flamed as she thought of that.

  “Summer?”

  She looked in the direction of the voice. A middle-aged guy was making his way through the restaurant toward her.

  “Are you Summer?” he asked.

  “Uh-huh.” She waited for him to come up to her. He was breathing through his mouth and sweating from the heat. He wasn’t much taller than she was and looked a little like Mr. Murray, who taught fifth-period math.

  “I’m a friend of James. He got tied up and couldn’t make it, so he asked me to pick you up." The man added, “I bet you’re thinking you shouldn’t go with me, but really, it’s all right. James is staying with me while he’s here.”

  “You’re Dale?”

  He looked surprised. “He mentioned me? Well, that’s cool. All he’s been talking about is Summer Summer Summer. I didn’t think he’d even mention me.” He smiled. His smile was so homely, it made her feel good. “Let’s go rustle up old Jamie.”

  She followed him through the parking lot to a white GEO Prizm—not exactly what she’d been dreaming of.

  He held the car door open for her, and for a moment she almost balked. Technically, he was a stranger. But if she didn’t go with him, it would all be for nothing. She wouldn’t get to go on her date.

  Plus, James had mentioned Dale.

  Dale was looking at her, frowning a little. As if he thought she didn’t trust him, and this disappointed him.

  She got in.

  They pulled out of the parking lot and drove south on Swan. She was aware that he kept sneaking peeks at her. She knew she looked good in her denim skirt and her pink peasant top; getting looked at was nothing unusual. “Why couldn’t James come?” she asked him.