AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I pay you enough,” Burke grunted.
“More than,” Antoine agreed. “But a man can dream, right?”
“Dream cheaper,” Burke said. “But Molly’s right. What’s Eckert got in his file that’s so damn secret?”
“Maybe not a what,” Molly said. “Maybe a who.”
“Lotsa maybes,” Willa Mae observed. “Do we know who that poor woman was? The one that ADA Cardozo knew but wasn’t gonna tell us?”
“Nope,” Antoine said. “If her identity is known, it hasn’t been recorded anywhere. Not that I can find.”
“So, Eckert the hit man and the female victim—who lied about being Nadia Hall’s sister and set Molly up to be injured in a house bombing—they have the same level of security?” Gabe asked.
Antoine shrugged. “Maybe. I haven’t even found a reference to her remains being found yet. It’s possible that it’s also being locked down.”
“Interesting,” Molly murmured. “What else?”
“I’ve found more info on your father’s hard drive, Gabe,” Antoine said. “I’ve had my artificial intelligence software piecing together all the fragments I found. The program guesses the letters and words in the gaps based on normal language patterns.”
Carlos perked up. “Like predictive text in reverse?”
“More like predictive text came from the software,” Manny said.
Antoine looked impressed. “Exactly right, Manny.”
Manny smiled smugly, and Carlos shot him a pointed glance. “How do you know this?” Carlos demanded.
“You’re not the only smart one in the family, pendejo,” Manny answered, avoiding Carlos’s punch.
“What did you find, Antoine?” Gabe asked, trying to be patient.
“Oh. The name of the doctor he was looking for, actually, but we figured it out already.”
“Did my dad say how he found Benson?” Gabe asked. “Did he find someone else who knew Nadia?”
“Actually, you were pretty close last night when you suggested checking into medications,” Antoine told him. “The night he found her body during Katrina, Rocky also found a medicine bottle with the name Jane Smith printed on the label as the recipient. The prescriber was from the same practice as Dr. Benson—his partner, Dr. Géraud Cousineau.”
“Nadia used a fake name with her ob-gyn,” Cicely said. “She was either ashamed that she was pregnant or scared of what would happen if someone found out. Like maybe the baby’s father?”
“Poor Nadia,” Molly said quietly. “She so wanted to believe the BS he was feeding her. She wanted a family.”
Gabe sighed, afraid to ask his next question. More afraid of the answer. “What happened to Dr. Cousineau?”
“He’s dead,” Antoine said gently. “Shot himself.”
Gabe swallowed. “Like my dad ‘shot himself’?”
Antoine shrugged again. “Maybe. It happened a few weeks after Katrina. The hospitals and morgues were filled. MEs were working around the clock. If an autopsy was done, I don’t imagine it was too thorough. Benson left the practice after Cousineau’s death. He left the city, in fact, like so many people did. He eventually came back once he retired. He’d lived in the house where he died for less than a year.”
Molly held up a finger. “Wait. April Frazier said that she gave Benson’s name to Nadia. How did she end up with Cousineau?”
“He might not have had any appointments,” Cicely said. “If she was in a hurry, they might have set her up with the other partner. Or she might have seen them both. It’s often encouraged for pregnant women to have at least one appointment with all of the practice’s doctors, in case her own isn’t available for the birth.”
“Okay,” Molly said, frowning. “I guess I was reacting to the fact that Dr. Benson was murdered when he might not have even known Nadia. I guess it doesn’t matter, but I’d like to know.”
“What I’d like to know,” Gabe pressed, “was how Benson’s killer knew that my dad was looking for him. You said that Dad started calling him a month before his death, up until the day Benson died. But how did their killer know that they were talking? Dad was careful. They could have bugged Dad’s phone, but then they would have known a lot more and sooner. Like where Xavier was.”
“Yeah,” Xavier said. “Why’d they wait six weeks after killing Rocky to come after me?”
