“So we both watch our backs,” I said. “And you keep Deputy Breaux in the loop. No playing James Bond, loner spy.”
“You’re one to talk.”
“Oh, my back is always watched.”
“I know. It’s the two watching it who worry me the most.”
Chapter Ten
Carter only stayed long enough to finish off my leftovers, then he headed home for a shower and some sleep. We’d both decided to reschedule steak grilling for a better night. Neither of us was much in the mood for talking and given we’d been at odds most of the day, I figured we could use a break. We didn’t spend every night together anyway and I was perfectly fine with that. I still needed my space and I assumed Carter felt the same way. Neither of us had been looking for a relationship when we’d met and although I don’t think either of us could have picked a better match, the reality was our relationship was going to be an ongoing negotiation, probably for the rest of our lives. Or at least until one of us retired.
I actually slept decently for a change and even beat Merlin out of bed, which made him purr with excitement over the possibility of having breakfast a bit early. I indulged since he’d slept quietly rather than subjecting me to a night of pacing the halls or pouncing on threads on the comforter. As I put on coffee, I thought about Walter and Ida Belle. There was another relationship that was perfect and yet fraught with difficulty—mostly because of Ida Belle. Walter was the easiest-going man alive. And then I thought about Carter and me. Carter definitely was not the easiest-going man alive, or even second easiest. And I rivaled Ida Belle in stubbornness, so our future was likely to be even bumpier than Ida Belle and Walter’s.
But it was still doable. And anything worth having was worth working for, right? Director Morrow always said that to me. He was talking about the job, of course, but I supposed it could apply to most anything in life. I was just sitting down to my first cup of coffee and a slice of toast when my cell phone rang. It was barely 8:00 a.m. so I figured it was Ida Belle, Gertie, or Carter, but was surprised when I saw Angel Denis’s number come up on my display.
“Hello,” I answered. “Ms. Denis?”
“Please call me Angel. I hope I didn’t wake you. I’m taking some classes at the university and have to leave in a few minutes, but I didn’t want to wait until after…”
“No worries. I was just having some coffee. Thank you for returning my call.”
“So does this mean you took the case?”
“Yes. And I’d love to talk to you and get more information. No one around here knew Molly all that well and I’m hoping you can fill in the blanks about her personal life.”
“And that’s important?”
“Unless a crime is random, who the victim is almost always indicates why they were killed.”
“That makes sense.” Angel sniffed and I immediately felt guilty. I’d started right in on my desire for information and hadn’t even thought that this woman had just lost her best friend.
“I’m really sorry for your loss,” I said. “I just met Molly a couple days ago but I liked her. I wish I’d gotten a chance to know her better.”
“Thank you. Molly was…something else.” She let out a single laugh. “She was tough but kind and had worked hard to get her life together. I was proud of her and she was happy, for probably the first time since I’ve known her. This is all so unfair.”
“It is. Do you have time today to talk to me? I can come to New Orleans if that makes it easier on you.”
“That would be great. I only have an hour or so in between classes and my last one ends about two hours before my shift at the restaurant. I could talk to you in between classes or before I go to work.”
“Let’s do it before you go to work. I don’t want to interrupt your studies.”
And that would give me time to track down information on Molly’s father and Dexter Nutters, both of whom were in the New Orleans area. We could make a day of investigating in the city.
“I really appreciate what you’re doing,” Angel said. “It’s important to me and Nickel. More important than you’ll ever know.”
“Well, I can’t do anything to bring her back, but I can certainly try to bring her justice.”
“I’m not interested in justice, Ms. Redding. I’m interested in retribution.”
Two hours later, Ida Belle, Gertie, and I were in her SUV and NOLA-bound. They hadn’t so much as blinked when I’d told them that Carter was still looking into things. That didn’t mean he was calling it homicide but it was sketchy enough to commit more time to.
After getting Molly’s father’s name from Nickel, we’d managed to locate an address for him, and the old boy was still kicking. And I did mean old boy. Molly had been in her early thirties. According to the information I could drum up on the internet, her father was over seventy. And either he didn’t like change or he didn’t like to spend money because according to the property tax rolls, he’d inherited the property from his parents. I assumed it was the house Molly grew up in.
Dexter Nutters had been a bit harder to get a fix on. I’d found an apartment address, but the manager had told me, not so politely, that Nutters had run out on rent and if I saw him I was to tell him that Winky Bear never forgot a debt. The man I’d spoken to sounded like a heavy metal singer, practically growling into the phone, so I was sorely tempted to make a drive by the apartments and see what a man called Winky Bear but with a voice like thunder looked like. But our first stop was Silas Broussard, Molly’s father. We’d already seen the document leaving the catering business to Ally, but we didn’t know who the rest of Molly’s belongings would go to. Without a will, next of kin stood in line, and as far as we knew, that meant Silas. Since I was certain Ally hadn’t killed Molly to inherit, I was moving on to the next in line.
“Carter’s probably notified Molly’s father, right?” Gertie asked as Ida Belle hurtled us down the highway at one and a half times the speed limit.
“I’m sure he has,” I said. “He had Angel’s number and I’m sure she could provide his name and address, especially as he hasn’t moved since birth.”
Gertie nodded. “A lot of those old bayou people are like that. Sometimes multiple generations live out their lives in an old shack on a single plot of land. Heck, some never even leave their local town. There are people living out in the bayous around Sinful that have never even been to New Orleans.”
I couldn’t imagine hiding away from the world, but then I’d traveled a lot of it and not the pleasant places, either. I could handle whatever was thrown at me. But for a hermit type, who’d never been out of the weeds, so to speak, a place like New Orleans was probably overwhelming. Quite frankly, based on some of the things I’d seen overseas in the sandbox, electricity could be overwhelming. A cell phone was straight-up the devil.
“I was going to try to get more information about Silas from Nickel,” I said, “but he couldn’t talk last night and I couldn’t reach him this morning.”