AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Lamont went still, his heart skipping a beat. Calm. Be calm. “Explain, please.”
“Well, since you said please so nicely.” A deep chuckle resonated through the phone. “I got a call from my mole in the Choux.”
“Your what?”
“My mole in Le Petit Choux.”
“You hired a—” He broke off, his glance flicking to James, who, thankfully, was paying considerable attention to the midday traffic. “I didn’t tell you to hire someone.”
“Hm. I don’t suppose you did. Because you are my partner, not my boss.”
I’ll be your fucking executioner, you stupid piece of shit.It was Jackass’s fault that he was in this mess to begin with. His partner had kept Rocky’s investigation to himself for years. Hadn’t seen fit to share that there’d been a goddamn witness until the Morrow kid’s name popped up again two months before. “Why did you?”
“Because I wanted to have eyes on our boy’s boy. You wouldn’t agree to killin’ him, after all.”
“You are correct about that last part.” Because killing Rocky Hebert’s son was too damn risky. One washed-up, drunken ex-cop killing himself was totally believable. But his up-and-coming chef son? Who had no history of depression or alcoholism or suicidal tendencies? That would never fly. Although now that the son had hired a PI, he might need to rethink that decision. “Nor did I agree to hiring someone.”
The deep rumble on the other end grew cold. “Do you want to know about the PI or not?”
“I do.” He gritted his teeth. “Please.”
“She came into the Choux to see Rocky’s boy. Left with the boy and his cousin.”
“The co-owner.”
“The very one. Both cousins seemed agitated and worried, but the woman PI was as cool as a cucumber.”
Agitated and worried. Dammit. “Wait. He hired a woman?”
“He did. Pretty thing, too. Wearing a jacket in this heat.”
Which meant she’d been armed. Fucking hell. He hadn’t anticipated this, but knowing that Gabriel Hebert suspected something was good intel. The mole had been useful, not that he’d ever admit it. “Do you have a name?”
“My mole got a gander at her license plate as she was driving the cousins away. Registered to a Margaret Sutton. Got her PI license a few years ago.”
“Her background?”
“Been here in New Orleans for three years. Before that, she was a cop in North Carolina, State Bureau of Investigation. Before that, she was a Marine.”
Fuck.She’d be formidable, then. “Who’s her employer? Or does she run her own business?”
“Not sure yet, but I’m gonna find out. There’s one question you didn’t ask, but should have.”
He ground his teeth again. “Which was?”
“Why she left the North Carolina SBI.”
After a pause of several seconds, he ground his teeth harder. “Why did she leave?”
Another annoying chuckle. “I thought you’d never ask, Monty. She killed her own brother-in-law.”
He blinked. He hadn’t expected that. “Why?”
“It was ruled self-defense, but you know how that goes. One cop coverin’ for another.”
“Yes,” he said dryly. “I know all about that.”
“I’m sure you do. I’ll find out who her boss is and let you know. I suppose the question we both should be asking is, why now? What does Rocky’s boy know that had him hiring a PI?”
