Drive Thru Murder

by Colleen Mooney

  “Sully,” I said. “He told me his name was Sully.”

  “We’ll need your landlord’s name and contact information. Why did you call your landlord asking about a previous tenant?” The Captain asked me.

  “Because I found something under the floor boards one day in my closet and I assumed someone forgot them here,” I said. “They looked valuable so I thought I’d call him and try to find out if they were hers. I gave them to my attorney for safekeeping and to see if he could help identify the owner.”

  Jiff added the part about identifying them as opal rings and that he had them in his possession trying to help me find the rightful owner. Jiff told them about the note and what was written on it.

  Dante and Hanky looked at each other when Jiff mentioned the note, and Dante said, “I’d like to come take a look at that box of rings and the note inside.”

  “Anytime, Detective. Here’s my card with my cell number. Call me on my cell if you need to look at them outside normal business hours,” Jiff said.

  Dante and Jiff were being overly cordial to each other and I had to think it was for my benefit.

  I led them upstairs and I saw Hanky mouth to me ‘let me’ as she stepped right behind me going up the stairs. Southern men with manners, and all of these men had manners, will always let the ladies go first, even if one is a cop and they treat her no differently on the job.

  When I opened the door to Suzanne’s room I noticed one of her T-shirts on the bed. It wasn’t there earlier. Hanky walked past me and looked at me, then the T-shirt. I had already guessed that’s what she wanted me to give them.

  “Look, she wears this a lot when she comes home so she probably had it on last. That’s her cell phone and her purse with the wallet in it. I know something has happened to her,” I said picking up the T-shirt and handing it to Dante. He asked for a tennis shoe also and I gave him one of hers I found in the closet.

  “This is a long shot but maybe the dogs will get a lead,” he said, and they turned to leave the room.

  “What if she got in a car?” I asked. “Can the dogs tell that?”

  “Sometimes. They can follow a scent even if a vic,” he corrected himself quickly, “a person gets in a vehicle. These dogs are pretty good.” Hanky and the Captain nodded in agreement.

  “Ok, we’ve got work to do,” the Captain said and all three went after the search and rescue team to give the dogs the scent to track.

  Jiff and I waited and watched from my porch. The handler waited with both dogs leashed and muzzled while Dante held the T-shirt and the sweater. The dogs sniffed maybe a second then started pulling the handlers in the direction of the street.

  “How are they ever going to find her?” I said.

  We didn’t wait long. The dogs dragged the handlers straight across the street to Sandra’s house.

  I said to Jiff, “Suzanne came home with Sandra just a couple of nights ago in a cab, and I thought she most likely got out of it over there on Sandra’s side of the street. I bet that’s what the dogs picked up.” He put his arm around my shoulders and squeezed me.

  The dogs stopped at the street, sniffed, moved in a circle a couple of times then started to go down the side of Sandra’s house, around the burned-out car with the cat food in the trunk toward her backyard. I wondered how those dogs could pick-up any scent between that smelly cat food in the trunk and all the cat pee over there.

  Jiff and I watched as the dogs, the handlers, Dante, Hanky and the Captain disappeared around the back of Sandra’s house. Hanky came running back around the front and up Sandra’s steps taking them two at a time removing her gun as she climbed them. She hammered on Sandra’s front door while using her megawatt voice saying, “This is the NOPD. Sandra Sullivan open up.”

  There was no response. I saw Hanky talking into her radio again and a few seconds later I heard a loud crash. Hanky was still on her radio and I could see she was talking rapidly and her body was tense. I started across the street and Jiff grabbed me by the arm. “Let them do their job,” he said.

  Police sirens could be heard approaching, and then the screeching of tires as squad cars slammed to a stop, and police jumped out running to the rear of Sandra’s house. I had a sick taste in my mouth as I watched Sandra and Sully led in handcuffs out to a police car. I noticed how close in size and body height Sully and Sandra were, seeing them standing next to each other. Sandra was thrashing around like one of her feral cats caught in a Have-A-Heart trap.

  Hanky said something to her and Sandra started screaming. “You’re next, cop woman!” Threatening a police officer, that should keep her locked up for a while.

  An ambulance pulled up, and Hanky met it and led two EMS responders carrying a stretcher to the rear of the house. Jiff put his arm around my waist and asked me if I wanted to go in and sit down.

  “I have to see how she comes out on that stretcher,” I said. I didn’t want to leave the porch until I saw how they pulled her out of there. I knew it was going to be Suzanne, but I had to know if she came out in a body bag. I braced myself for the worst.

  It felt like hours before I saw them reappear pushing the stretcher with her on it and Hanky holding a drop bottle that was hooked up to her, and moving alongside the stretcher as it was lifted into the ambulance. Suzanne was alive. She didn’t appear in good shape, but she was alive.

  “I’ve got to go with her,” I said to Jiff and took off running to catch up before they closed the doors and left.

  “I’ll follow you in my car,” he shouted behind me.

  Hanky handed me the drip bottle, helped me step up into the back of the vehicle with Suzanne, and told the responders, I was her friend. “It might help if she sees a friendly face,” Hanky said.

  All the way there I only said one word answers to the questions they asked me.

  What’s her name?

  Suzanne.

  Is she allergic to anything?

  Peanuts.

  Is she a recreational drug user?

  No!

  I moved when they told me to move, held the drip where they told me to hold it, and with my free hand I stroked Suzanne’s arm. The two responders moved quickly with such precision that there wasn’t a motion or move wasted or repeated. They took vital signs, hooked up wires that looked like an EKG to monitor her heart. They were constantly focused on her and when they spoke to each other it was to get information the other was checking or working on so they could adjust a dosage or confirm a reading.

  One continually checked the monitors Suzanne was hooked up to and wrote down the readings. I had no idea what they were or what they were looking at. The only one I recognized was the one with the heart-beat. It looked steady. The male responder checked the drip and added something from a syringe into the bag and another one to the IV they started on the other hand. I couldn’t even bring myself to ask what happened to her.

  “You can talk to her,” the female responder told me. “She might hear you and feel better if she recognizes a voice.”

  I started telling Suzanne where we were and the responder shook her head no, so I began to tell Suzanne how the dinner went at my parents’ house. I saw a faint smile on her face when I told her my mother threw the mashed potatoes at me and they landed on the wall behind my dad’s head.

  As we pulled up to the Emergency Room Entrance on Napoleon Avenue, the woman responder looked at me and said, “She’s looking better.” She asked my name and wrote it on Suzanne’s chart and told me that someone would come get me in the waiting room as soon as she was out of the ER and moved to a private room. Her partner was already pushing the stretcher down a hall and out of sight.

  When I realized I didn’t have my cell phone, I was just about to ask the desk if I could make a call to see if Jiff had left my house. I wanted him to bring my cell and purse. When I turned to the desk I saw Jiff coming through the emergency room entrance carrying my handbag and Suzanne’s.

  “I brought these for you two. I know how you women hate to be w
ithout your pocketbooks,” He said.

  My dad called ladies’ purses pocketbooks and I hadn’t heard that term in a long time. It made me smile.

  “Don’t worry about the dogs. Hanky said she would go walk and feed them after they finished at Sandra’s house and before they came down here. She’ll call you and let you know when everything is done. I gave Hanky your key. I called a locksmith who will meet us there when I take you home to change the locks. My security guy will come over and install a security system with cameras.”

  “Thank you,” I said. “No one’s called her family.”

  “Dante said he would since he’s her cousin, and it would be best coming from him,” Jiff said.

  I just put my arms around his neck, hugged him and he hugged me back. Jiff never left my side.

  About three hours later, a doctor finally came out to talk with us. He told us Suzanne was awake and had a near scrape with death. Sandra and Sully had tried to make it look like an overdose.

  “She’s very lucky they found her when they did,” he said. “They had her tied up to where she could barely breathe.”

  “Why? Why would someone want to hurt Suzanne?” I asked.

  “That’s something the police will have to answer,” the doctor said.

  Dante called Jiff on his cell and asked him to bring me to the station, along with the box of rings I found, so I could give a statement and timeline on Suzanne before she went missing. Jiff told Dante he’d bring me straight from the hospital.

  I went over almost everything again that Hanky and I had discussed. After I gave my statement, Dante said he would use my information to interrogate Sully.

  “Once he knows someone can place him as the last person to see Suzanne before she went missing, he’ll come around. He’s got a sheet and he’s a multiple offender now,” Dante spoke to me and pretty much ignored Jiff, and at one point told him to wait outside.

  “I’m her attorney. If I go, she goes with me,” Jiff stood to leave and Dante shrugged indicating he could sit back down.

  Dante took my landlord’s name and phone number to verify that Mr. Chauvin had seen Sully living there and to ask him if he ever changed the locks between tenants. I gave him Suzanne’s key and said he could keep it if it helped match one Sully or Sandra had.

  I asked Dante what was going to happen to Sandra. He said they both are going to prison for a long time, but Sully was likely to be more cooperative. Sandra was still on a screaming rant.

  Sandra had come into the precinct yelling, kicking and biting. She took swings at anyone in arm’s reach. She repeatedly threatened to go after Hanky, then me. This was not endearing her to any of the cops she came in contact with, especially Dante.

  Dante put her in a room handcuffed to a table with a guard, waiting for her to calm down or wear herself out before he talked to her.

  When Dante was finished taking my statement he stood and said to Jiff, “Thanks for bringing these. The coroner found a ring sewn in the lab coat pocket of the woman who was buried in your backyard. I’m pretty sure it will be the missing twelfth ring.”

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  That following Saturday morning, Dante stopped by our house on his way to work. Hanky was with him. Suzanne was recovering at her mother’s house, and when I saw Dante’s car pull up to the front I started to make a fresh pot of coffee. He knocked, and when I answered, he said they just had a minute and wanted to let me know what the outcome was with Sandra and Sully. They stepped inside, but remained standing when I asked if they wanted to sit or if they wanted a cup of coffee. Dante answered for the both of them and said no.

  Hanky said, “We wanted to come by and let you how it all went down. Dante interrogated him and you won’t believe what he found out. I’ll let him tell you what he got Sully to confess to.” Hanky said, and looked at him.

  “It seems they were twins raised in foster care. You know the system can turn out more problems than it solves,” he said. I nodded and he went on. “Sully rolled on her. She still isn’t talking, but we have enough from what he said and what we recovered at her house to convict. The key you gave me matched one Sully and Sandra each had on their key chains.”

  “Was it Fara Theriot in the backyard?” I asked.

  “Yes. Sully said Fara had told Sandra she thought the rings were family heirlooms worth a lot of money. Sandra wanted Sully to steal them.”

  “Oh, that is so sad,” I said. “Mr. Chauvin said Fara Theriot bought things at a second-hand store to make it look like she had a family that left them to her. Sandra and Sully were in foster care with Fara and knew she didn’t have a family.”

  “Sully said they hadn’t seen Fara since they were in grade school. Sully killed Fara Theriot trying to make her give him the rings. When he couldn’t find them in the house, he had to clean it up and move all of her things to make it look like Fara moved out. Sandra took most of it. He kept a key to get in and out, but once you moved in and he saw a police car come by fairly often it was harder for him to get in and snoop around,” Dante said.

  “Oh my God, he could have hurt the dogs if he got in,” I said.

  “Then I would have shot him,” Hanky added.

  “Your landlord did not change the locks when he thought Fara moved because she, or rather Sully sent back her key. I advised him that he could be held responsible for what happens to subsequent tenants he rents to if he doesn’t change the locks. He won’t be doing that again, and he said he would have yours changed asap,” he said.

  “They’ve already been changed,” I told them, leaving off the fact that Jiff had called a locksmith that night and had them changed for me. “Who killed the CluckIt workers?”

  “That was Sully too. He didn’t want Sandra getting interested in some guy. Sully needed Sandra for the lottery pool and the phone sex line to make money to pay for his sex change. Sully was, or rather had been, a cross-dresser for some time. The reason they bounced around so much in foster care was because he kept dressing up in Sandra’s clothes, or the clothes of any women who lived in the same house,” Dante said. “He admitted all this when we found boxes of cash in Sandra’s basement and a bank account with a lot of money in it. Deposits were all from credit cards made from the phone sex line,” Dante said.

  “We found a lot of women’s clothing and shoes in Sully’s basement apartment,” Hanky added.

  “Sandra thought Charles Ballon had some money somewhere since he offered to put up the handrails on her house, and Sully wanted him out of the picture if he did. He rolled on Sandra and said it was her idea to kidnap Charles and force him to give them the money,” Dante said.

  “Sully was angry with Charles because he made fun of the transvestites at CluckIt, saying how he got James Batiste to buy things and do the work for him. He was a hustler too. Takes one to know one,” Hanky added.

  “Or, maybe Sully was jealous that Charles Ballon didn’t come on to him, instead of Sandra,” I said.

  “That’s a possibility too. He said he shot James Batiste so Charles would know what was in store for him if he didn’t cooperate,” Dante said, shaking his head.

  “Sully listened in on the phone sex line when it was slow at the bar so he’d know what men want to hear women say or do to them after he got the change,” Hanky added.

  “Oh, that’s disgusting. Who was calling the police on Sandra for the cats?” I asked Hanky.

  Hanky looked at Dante and he answered. “We think Sully used Fara Theriot’s phone when he lived here to call. The caller gave the name of Opal to dispatch. The dispatchers just take down the information. They never speculate or comment on whether it sounds like a man or woman.”

  “Why would he call the police on the cats?” I asked.

  “Any number of reasons,” Dante said. “Maybe he wanted the police to scare Sandra into getting rid of all the cats. Feeding that many cats draws attention from the neighbors, and drawing attention to yourself when you’re up to no good is never a great idea.”

&nbs
p; “Or, maybe Sully didn’t like cats,” Hanky said.

  “Did Sandra get Sully to kill the palm reader in the French Quarter?” I asked.

  Hanky said, “It seems that Sandra wasn’t making money when the other palm reader was around. After Sully had his operation, she planned to stop working the sex phones and do the palm reading full time. Sandra got Sully to do her bidding by threatening to stop helping with the money for his operation. She told him if she didn’t have any competition she would keep working that job too. Sully did it to please Sandra and to keep the cash cow happy.”

  “In a lot of ways, she’s more dangerous than he is. They worked as a team. I don’t think he ever acted alone. I think she gave him the ideas,” Dante said. He turned to Hanky and said, “I’ll meet you in the car.”

  After she was out of earshot he said to me, “You were right. They were all connected. I should have listened to you.”

  “I felt they were connected, but you and Hanky put it all together. I just told you what I saw,” I said to him. As much as I wanted to slap him upside his head and say yes, you should have listened to me, I decided to let him off the hook.

  I walked out to their squad car with him, where and Hanky was leaning against it scrolling through her cell phone. I asked, “How is Jesus doing? Have you found a new name for him?”

  “He’s doing great and yes, I have a new name for him. I thought about the name that man who called you wanted to give him, and the more I thought about it, the more I liked it. I named him Happy Valentine. I’ve never had a Valentine before, and now I’ll have one every day,” she said.

  “I don’t care what you call him as long as you love him and give him a good home,” I said and I hugged her. I knew she didn’t like getting hugged, but she gave me a pat on the back before she pushed me off. Maybe there was hope for Hanky and me to be friends yet.

  After they left, I realized I forgot to ask how Sandra knew I was at CluckIt.

  Chapter Thirty