Divisible man the eleven.., p.23
Swamp Sweets, page 23
So while I broke tile, Ida Belle and Gertie attempted to remove the wallpaper on that one sad papered wall. But it was stuck on so well that they only managed a tiny bit at a time. The construction foreman said a steamer would help and so now, Ida Belle was steaming and Gertie was scraping everything she could reach from a chair as her legs had started protesting about ten minutes into standing. Gertie had called dibs on the steamer but been outvoted by Ida Belle, me, Ally, and the construction crew, who either knew her well or had seen her YouTube exploits. The foreman had mumbled something about liability insurance before promptly setting the device in Ida Belle’s hands.
It was getting on toward 5:00 p.m. and the contractors were just knocking off when Carter called. I stepped out the back door to take the call so no one could see my face if Carter told me that I’d ruined everything.
“I’ve made an arrest,” he said.
“Holy crap! That was not at all what I expected to hear, but fantastic!”
“This is obviously not for public consumption but I’ve arrested Dirk. He’s being held in New Orleans and the DA is reviewing everything.”
“What is everything?” I asked. “And please don’t tell me you can’t say because we visited Dinah this morning and I almost cried.”
“I’ll give you the highlights,” he said. “I got an email in the middle of the night from an anonymous source. They claimed they’d seen Dirk haul something big and wrapped in a tarp into the back of a blue Ford truck the night Miles was killed. They even had the license plate on the truck.”
“Good Lord!” I said. “Could you trace the email?”
“No. He hid his tracks. But the information was solid. I tracked the license plate and found out it was stolen off another vehicle so nothing doing there as far as identifying the owner, but I put out a BOLO for the truck with the NOLA police and got a phone call an hour later. The truck had been dumped in the Ninth Ward, in an abandoned neighborhood. It was in an empty lot and burning.”
“Crap! That means no forensics.”
“That’s where I caught a lucky break. It was spotted by firemen who had just left a warehouse fire a few blocks over. They put it out before the fire got past the engine. The bed smelled of bleach but we recovered traces of blood from the bumper, and the DNA test was a positive for Miles. I tracked down the used car lot that is the last registered owner of the truck and the salesman identified Dirk as the purchaser.”
“But unless you find this witness, Dirk is just going to say that the salesman is mistaken or someone stole it and used it. I know we have Spice’s word that he was driving it when he went to her apartment but they’ll kill her character on the witness stand. And they’ll claim Walter saw him at a distance and at night and he’s old so probably bad eyesight.”
“He can say all he wants, but we pulled hair out of the cab. No prints, so I assume he wore gloves while driving it, but he couldn’t wear a bubble suit.”
“I just love Locard’s exchange principle.”
“Me too,” he said. “And three individuals, unknown to one another, putting Dirk in that vehicle carries plenty of weight regardless of who they are. Add to that, I got a warrant to search his financial records as far back as he existed. I think we’re going to find that Dirk has assets his tax returns don’t explain. And another interesting thing, do you know what the first commercial deal Dirk ever closed was?”
“What?”
“The Bayou Bank & Trust building.”
“Inside knowledge,” I said. “That’s what the news stories hinted at, but they focused on employees. But the broker would know the building inside and out as well.”
“Exactly. I doubt we’ll ever be able to make it stick, even with the bills found on Miles, but I thought you’d find it interesting.”
“I assume Dirk isn’t talking.”
“Right on that. He asked for his lawyer and hasn’t said a word since.”
“Then we still don’t know how Bart figures into this. And who’s lurking around helping Dirk clean up old business. My money’s on Jasper, but with Dirk arrested, my guess is he’ll disappear again.”
“Unless he’s planning on taking another run at Bart, that’s probably the case.”
“But why bother? If no one has located Jasper all these years, why not just bow out again?”
“True, but has anyone been looking for Jasper all these years?”
“That’s a good point. I suppose no cover is foolproof forever. Do you still have guards on Bart and Dinah?”
“Unfortunately no. With Dirk arrested, the state police didn’t feel it was a good allocation of their assets any longer. I’m going to have Deputy Breaux cover tonight but he can’t make it there for a couple hours because he’s handling other things. It should be all right though. I have less fear of things happening during the day, and with everyone at the hospital on alert, he’d be foolish to take another shot anyway.”
“What about Spice?” I asked. “I assume the DA is going to want to speak with her.”
“Definitely. I would say she’s good with Dirk in custody, but since he might have a partner still running around here, I wouldn’t advise returning to her apartment just yet. You can tell her about the arrest and that the DA will be contacting her, but don’t give her any other information, other than he might not be working alone.”
“Sounds good. I made some calls today about her living situation and got her a better option lined up. But I don’t want her right back out working until things are more concrete. She’s too easy to spot and he probably knows her areas.”
“Agreed. I’ve got to go sign off on some paperwork before I can leave but I’m heading back to Sinful as soon as I’m done here.”
“Great. We’re still at the bakery doing some work. The construction guys just cut out but we wanted to finish a little more before we leave. The demolition has been cathartic and the more we do, the more money we’ll save her.”
“I’ll check to see if you’re there when I get to town. If not, I’ll head to your house. Please tell me you have leftovers.”
“Ally is living with me. Of course I have leftovers. What can I tell my people?”
“Everything. But they can’t repeat it.”
“Great. And Carter, thanks for not yelling about my screwup. I promise that I will think harder about chain of evidence and all before I do stuff in the future.”
“Hey, if you didn’t butt in, some of these cases might not have been solved. PIs are allowed a little more latitude than cops, but if you could keep things to mostly legal, I’ll admit, it would be less stress for me.”
“Mostly?”
“I’m a realist. Asking for always is akin to begging for disappointment.”
I laughed as he disconnected, then headed inside to bring the girls up to speed. We didn’t have all the answers, but a killer was behind bars.
That was good enough for now.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Ally had brought cookies with her, and Ida Belle had the forethought to snag a cooler of beer from her house when we’d gotten back from the hospital, so now we all sat around on old cabinets, eating cookies and having a beer while I filled them in on Carter’s call. Everyone was stunned that an arrest had happened so quickly but happy that at least part of things had been settled.
“So Dirk killed Miles and hauled the body to the bayou in his truck, then came back for Miles’s car, ditched it at the strip center, and stole a scooter to get back to his truck?” Gertie asked. “Why not just haul Miles’s body away in his car? That would be more efficient.”
“It would,” I said. “But remember, Miles’s car was already stuffed with all his belongings and he didn’t have a garage. So Dirk would have had to unload the trunk or back seat before even hauling the body out. He was already taking a big risk of being seen with just carrying the body out and then retrieving the car later, but if he started moving things around outside at night, it would have set off dogs.”
Ida Belle nodded. “Which would have had people looking out their windows. His method took longer but was the safer route.”
“So do you think it was Dirk pulling those robberies?” Ally asked.
I shrugged. “We’ll probably never know for sure because Dirk won’t ever admit it. But given his connection with Bayou Bank & Trust, and the fact that he had plenty of business dealings with the questionable sort who got robbed, I’d say he was on the ground floor for knowing not only who to target but what systems they had in place.”
“Might have been him and Jasper,” Gertie said. “Heck, could have been Bart too for all we know.”
Ida Belle nodded. “He faked his death for a reason and is back for a reason. I just wonder how much of this will never be explained.”
“Probably far too much for our liking,” I said. “But at least we’ll have a killer off the streets and we’ll know people are safe in Sinful, especially Ally.”
“Thank the Lord,” Ally said, and looked at me. “So what is that Locard thing you were talking about?”
“Locard’s exchange principle,” I said. “Basically Edmond Locard, who was a pioneer in forensics, said that anyone present at a crime scene leaves something behind and takes something with him.”
“So Dirk’s hair and skin cells are part of that,” Ally said.
I nodded. “And I have no doubt his financial records, or lack thereof, will also help build the case. Dirk doesn’t have to talk. The evidence will pile up against him.”
“Do you think Carter will be able to find the anonymous tipster?” Ally asked.
“Hard to say,” I said. “With some smarts, it’s easy enough to hide on the internet. I know he’ll try because the DA would love to have the testimony, but his success will depend on how good the tipster was at burying their identity.”
“Who could it possibly be?” Gertie asked. “I can’t see any of Miles’s neighbors not coming forward when they had the opportunity. Anyone decent would have as soon as they heard about Miles’s murder.”
“I had a thought about that one,” Ida Belle said. “What if it was Jasper? This whole thing has gotten out of hand. Miles’s body was found, Ally attacked, Bart turning up after supposedly being dead. Their carefully constructed lies are falling apart. Since Jasper has ways of disappearing, maybe he decided to let Dirk hang for it all and vanish with the wind. Maybe both of them were at Miles’s house that night and Dirk left with the body and Jasper left with Miles’s car?”
I nodded. “It’s risky but clever. Even if the cops manage to find Jasper and trace the tip back to him, he’ll just use his testimony for a commuted sentence. As long as he’s not the one who killed Miles, he’s not looking at the death penalty.”
“So are you going to try to find Jasper?” Ally asked. “Or are you going to let it go?”
“What do you think?” I asked.
She grinned. “I think Jasper should be very concerned.”
“Darn skippy!” Gertie said.
I smiled. “I don’t like loose ends either.”
Ida Belle jumped up from her cabinet and headed for the door. “Walter’s locking up the store. Let me tell him we’re staying put for a while.”
We watched as Walter broke out into a huge smile as he caught sight of Ida Belle crossing the street. He gave her a hug and a kiss and we all smiled.
“I am so happy that she finally married him,” Ally said. “Ida Belle is awesome and Walter is…well, Walter’s just the best. I hope I can find someone like that someday.”
“Maybe you’ve already met your Walter,” Gertie said.
“Oh, I don’t think so,” Ally said. “I know everyone in town and no one’s made me feel that way.”
“Please,” Gertie said. “There were more sparks between you and Mannie the other day than there are here on July Fourth.”
Ally blushed. “I can’t…I don’t…”
“Don’t you?” Gertie inquired.
Ally huffed a bit. “Okay, so he’s a good-looking man. Everyone can see that, but I can’t get mixed up with him. Not as long as he’s working for the Heberts. You know how that would go over in Sinful, and I’ve got the bakery to consider.”
Gertie frowned for a moment, then shook her head. “Honestly, I don’t think it would stop a single person from coming into the bakery. Except maybe Celia, but that seems more like a perk than a disadvantage.”
“Ha!” Ally said, then she was quiet for a moment. “You really don’t think people would talk?”
“Good Lord, girl,” Gertie said. “This is Sinful, not heaven. Of course people will talk. But I just don’t think anything they say is going to change their minds on buying your wares. Oh, maybe a few more stick-in-the-muds like Celia will turn their noses up, but the eventuality is they’ll either get over it or keep driving into NOLA for decent—but not stellar—baked goods.”
“Hmmm,” Ally said. She didn’t have another comment, but I could see that Gertie had her thinking, which tickled me. I wouldn’t mind seeing Mannie and Ally together. Maybe it couldn’t work long term, but it would probably be a fun ride in the meantime. And Ally deserved some fun. Mannie did too, for that matter. Keeping the Heberts in line couldn’t be a stress-free job.
Ida Belle popped back inside and handed Ally a long cardboard box. “Delivery was outside the door. Looks like it was for Miles though.”
“Oh,” Ally said. “Then we shouldn’t open it, right?”
I tapped the side of the box. “Says on this sticker that they’re apologizing for losing this. Likely something he ordered a while back and just turned up. It’s not like there’s any forensic evidence on it, so I say open it because I’m nosy.”
“Definitely,” Gertie said.
Ally tore open one end of the box and tilted it up to slide out the contents. It was a roll of wallpaper. A roll that looked like the one on the back wall. I picked up a slip that had fallen out.
“Past Time Papering,” I said. “Looks like they specialize in re-creating old wallpaper.”
“It’s probably a decent niche market,” Ida Belle said. “All those remodeling shows on television have people buying up those run-down historical homes. And a lot of them are looking to keep some of it original.”
I shook my head. “I’m not sure why someone chose that wallpaper once, much less twice. And look at this—two hundred bucks a roll. That’s a lot of money to look so ugly. Good Lord, and looks like this wasn’t the only roll. He ordered two of them. I wonder if the other is lost as well.”
I frowned at the ticket. Something was bothering me, but I couldn’t figure out what. Then my phone rang and I saw it was Carter again.
“You finish up there already?” I asked. “That was quick.”
“No, I’m still here,” he said. “But I just got a phone call from the FBI requesting an explanation of events and medical status on Special Agent Bart Benoit.”
I jumped up from the cabinet. “Holy crap! Well, that’s one I hadn’t put on my guess list.”
“Me either.”
“Was he here on a case? Do they know he faked his death?”
“Apparently, he’s supposed to be undercover, but not in Louisiana. They found out he was here when I ran his prints, and since they didn’t call right away, I can only assume they are well aware that he is supposed to be dead to everyone here and were trying to figure out how to handle this since obviously, they don’t know what’s going on either. But when I asked for information, I only got silence.”
“What the hell, Carter? Then the FBI must have been in on him faking his death. If that’s the case, he’s been deep undercover for a long time. Why resurface now?”
I stared at the ugly wallpaper that was now half on, half off the wall and then back at the receipt and suddenly a flood of things went through my mind—Miles and the money from the old bank robbery, Jasper disappearing, the destruction at Miles’s house and the break-in at the old dry cleaner’s, Bart’s return, and the roll of wallpaper. And then the comments.
I had no choice…you made me—
Kids hear everything. They just don’t necessarily realize what it means.
Done doing other people’s bidding.
A cash-only-no-invoices sort of deal.
Nondescript older men tend to fade into the wallpaper.
And with everyone at the hospital on alert, he’d be foolish to take another shot anyway.
I grabbed a scraper and went furiously at a section of wallpaper on an inside corner that Ida Belle had steamed earlier. A large strip came right off, and I could see the drywall patch beneath it.
“You’ve got to get to the hospital!” I said to Carter. “Bart is in danger!”
“The hospital staff aren’t going to let anyone into his room,” he said.
“They’ll let one person in. I’m on my way.”
Chapter Twenty-Seven
The others had jumped up when I did and had remained silent during my exchange with Carter, but when I’d made the comment about Bart being in danger, Ida Belle had dashed out and started her SUV, Gertie close on her heels. As I rushed out, Ally yelled for me to be careful, then I jumped in the SUV and we were off.
“Is it Sharon?” Ida Belle asked. “She’s the only person I know for sure can get into Bart’s room.”
“No. It’s Dinah,” I said.
“Dinah?” Gertie gave me a shocked look. “Why on earth? She can’t possibly be so angry over him faking his death that she’d actually kill him.”
“Not that alone, but I think it factors in,” I said. “Along with him being paralyzed if he survives and the biggest reason, because Bart is an FBI agent and Dinah is our thief.”
“What!”
“No way!”
They both yelled at once.
“The woman is disabled, remember?” Gertie said. “She can’t walk across the living room without a walker. How the heck was she breaking into high-security facilities—scaling walls and climbing through windows and through vent shafts and the like—because those burglaries the Heberts heard about had to be done by a pro. The bank robbery definitely was.”
