King of Swords

'That was a film, Joe, c'mon!' Max laughed. 'You been smokin' reefer again?'

Whenever they'd smoked weed together, Joe would start talking conspiracy theories about everything from Christianity to the Iranian hostages, and every conspiracy had racism as its prime motive. Some of them had a kernel of debatable truth, but most were utterly ludicrous.

'Nah, man, I'm off that shit for good. I'm just makin' an observation. Hollywood's the best propaganda machine the USA has. See, we do as much if not worse stuff around the world than the commies, but Hollywood always has Uncle Sam as the good guy, always doin' the right thing, savin' the planet; so simple-minded people see it and believe it. You know Birth of a Nation was the biggest recruitment ad the Klan ever had, right? Same with Saturday Night Fever. People see that, they believe the white man can dance!'

'And you can?' Max laughed loudly, remembering Joe's dancing. 'You move like George Foreman on valium.'

'Fuck you, Mingus!' Joe cackled.

ŚYou wanna another brew?'

'Let's talk about our thing first.'

They hadn't had time to discuss how they would go about tackling the real Moyez case, but Max had jotted down a few ideas on a notepad, as had Joe.

Max started.

'Here's what we gotta go on — similarities with the Lacour case. Both Lacour and the Moyez John Doe were completely hairless and they'd had their lips sewn up. Contents of stomach: squares of tarot card — the King of Swords — plus a mixture of bone, sand and vegetable matter. The tarot cards were already part digested, which means they were in their stomachs before they did their hits. I'm thinking this was part of a potion, and I'm also thinking these guys didn't know what they were doing. Lacour killing his family was like a dry run, a test to make sure whatever it was he had inside him was working - that he'd kill on command and without hesitation.

'And there was someone else there with him when he killed his folks. And whoever this person was was the same one who did the Wong family.'

'The Candyman,' Joe said. 'I'm gonna contact NYPD, see if they got a print off that wrapper they found. And I'll

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1 see if North Miami PD came up with anything on their side.'

'Good.' Max nodded. 'Then we'll have to look into gangs who use black magic'

'That's five phone directories' worth — just for Miami alone,' Joe said. 'Seem' that shit more times than not now.

The Mariel crims all got Santeria altars in their homes. Most of 'em offer up prayers and sacrifices to their gods before they go out and commit felonies.'

'I could be wrong, but I don't think this is a Cuban thing,'

Max said. 'I'm thinkin' Haitian.'

'Haitian? If they ain't drivin' cabs or cleanin' floors here, the most they do is muggings and stick-ups in 7-Elevens — strictly small-time shit.'

You gotta keep an open mind, Joe.' Max riffled through a couple of pages. 'Preval Lacour was Haitian. As was his business partner, and so's the only guy he didn't kill — Sam Ismael. And Sam Ismael runs a voodoo store in Lemon City called Haiti Mystique. He was one of the bidders for the redevelopment project Lacour won. Ismael's on my list to interview.'

'He clean?'

'Totally.'

'Moyez wasn't Haitian.'

'Wasn't Cuban either.'

'Best you keep an open mind too.' Joe winked, jotting clown some notes.

'Sure will.' Max smiled and lit another cigarette before going on. 'We don't know who the Moyez shooter was yet.

No fingerprints on file. But he may have killed before — possibly a person or persons close to him.'

'So we gotta check on families or such reported missing (r murdered in city and state,' Joe said.

'If he was from around here. If not, we'll have to do a nationwide search. Shouldn't take long if it's multiple

murder. He used a .357 Magnum with semi-wadcutters. If it's the same MO as Lacour, he woulda used the same piece on his family or friends, so that'll narrow it down some.

Then we'll search for similar-type killings.'

'I got that down too,' Joe said. 'Hairless hitmen with stitch marks on their lips and tarot cards in their guts.'

'Next,' Max flipped over a page, 'the tarot cards. Normally used in fortune telling, but here they were part of a potion.

We'll do a search on the cards themselves. There are literally hundreds of different makes and manufacturers. But these have to be exotic. They've got no faces. Plus we need to talk to card readers too, find out what they know.'

'Check,' Joe said. 'What about de Carvalho?'

'He's on my interview list, along with everybody who was in that courtroom - everybody we can trace.'

'De Carvalho's in a Fed safehouse right now.'

'Know who's in charge?'

'Bill Forsey. He's real tight with Burns.'

'Shit, I know,' Max said.

We could pretend we're talking to him as part of our official investigation.'

'Won't fly. Forsey's a Cutman. Probably knows as much — if not more — about what Eldon's up to than me.'

'What are we gonna do if Eldon finds out?'

'Say we're tyin' up loose ends.'

'You mean cuttin' tripwires.'

'Yeah.' Max nodded. 'We'll just have to make sure we lie convincingly. He gets so much as a hint of the truth and you're done. We can't have that.'

'Let's focus on the positive.'Joe frowned. 'This is gonna involve a lotta paper — reports, lists, photographs. We can't keep it in the office.'

'I've thought of that.' Max grinned. 'Mi casa!

You got the space?' Joe looked back through the window at the untidiness that was Max's living room.

'I got plenty of room,' Max said. 'We'll use here as a base.'

'Dunno,' Joe said. 'Wouldn't put it past Burns to break in here, bug the place, knowwhumsayin? Why don't we rent us somewhere? My cousin knows a couple of places we can use.'

“You gotta point. Let's do that. Other thing is, we're gonna have to fund this all ourselves. I wanna put my informant, Drake, on this, find out what he knows. He don't come cheap. I got some cash put away. You?'

'Some,' Joe said.

'Then there's time. We do this right, it'll mean doin'

double shifts.'

'I know that.'

'Your old lady gonna be all right with that?'

'If she ain't, I ain't . . . with the right girl. She'll be cool.

She already knows how it is.'

'We'll start on this next Tuesday, after the news conference,'