In the backdrop stood Mrs. Raveneaux, looking ashen, pale and drawn, her gaunt figure hardly more than a stick. Kim believed she looked like she had been through an emotionally draining day. It was past dusk now, and the matriarch of this place watched as her plantation was being overrun with police vehicles. Jessica, Kim, Alex and Landry got out of the lead car and walked toward the waiting aggregate of power standing above them on the pure-white porch, the lights emanating from the house brilliantly bathing the mansion, spreading attenuated shadows out from each of the huge Grecian columns on either side.
“ Mr. Raveneaux,” said Landry, taking the initiative, “I'm Captain Carl Landry of the-”
“ I know very well who you are, and I'll thank you all to leave my property at once. This entire proceeding is without foundation, based on the word of some lunatic killer who has nothing whatever to do with Raveneaux.”
“ Sir, isn't it true,” Jessica began, “that Victor Surette's stolen body was exhumed by your order and buried in your family plot here at Raveneaux?” She was bluffing, a thing she did well. “We have forensic evidence to prove as much. We don't need the testimony of the caretaker or his men. Now I asked myself, what interest would you have in Victor Surette's body, and naturally-”
“ All right, Victor was my son, goddamn you-Victor Raveneaux, and as soon as we learned of his horrible death, we… we brought him home. Is there any crime in that?”
“ Well, there could be, sir, yes,” Jessica said.
“ You've got no evidence any crime has been committed by this man,” countered Lew Meade, standing as stiff and erect as his paunch would allow, carrying out his own bluff. Had he arranged for Jessica's earlier findings to somehow be lost or skewed? she wondered.
“ Dr. Coran's findings tell us differently,” Alex countered.
“ That's right,” Landry agreed.
“ It's clear that the grave-robbing took place only in recent days,” Jessica added, “and that you let Victor's body stay in that paupers' cemetery all these months, Senator, until there was the threat of an exhumation.”
“ That's a lie.” The general's voice was firm, steady, the voice of a man always in control.
His wife whispered some disturbing words to him, making the general turn and scowl at her, ordering her indoors.
“ You know how microscopes have a way of pointing to the truth, General,” Jessica continued. “Microscopes don't lie about fresh striations against stone, sutures and that sort of thing, so I'd say you aren't being entirely forthcoming with us.”
“ We only Learned recently that Victor Surette-the deceased going by that name-was our son,” the senator replied. “We moved the body on learning this. It's been quite enough strain on Mother… on us all, and in the meantime, you people've done nothing whatever to apprehend this fiend who viciously killed Victor and has wantonly destroyed others for…for their hearts.”
“ We're going to look around, General Raveneaux-just to be thorough, you understand,” Landry said, playing the diplomat.
' The very idea that you men have come on such a preposterous mission, Captain Landry, jeopardizes your jobs. I hope you know that,” replied Stephens firmly, his eyes like dark, seething coals, the threat taking on a venomously slithering nature.
“ Is that a threat, Richard?” asked Landry. “Or would you place that kind of talk under job harassment or maybe even blackmail, sir?”
Kim Desinor could see that Captain Landry was now too angry to suppress his emotions; not this time, she thought.
“ It may interest you to know that we know you blackmailed Frank Wardlaw into this game, and you paid off Ben de Yam-pert,” he went on.
Meade erupted now. “Goddamn it, man, it was the general here who called in the FBI and financed Dr. Desinor's coming here! He wants New Orleans safe for everyone, you fool! And now you turn the investigation against him and his family?”
“ This is absolute madness, Landry, and tomorrow morning you can damned well clean out your office.” Stephens's teeth were gnashing. “That goes for you too, Sincebaugh.”
“ You can pick your friends, General,” Alex called out, his bandaged arms white against the night, “but you're stuck with your kin and their sins, right? Victor, your son, is somehow at the heart of all these nasty deaths.”
“ Do you know of a man or a woman named Michael Emanuel Dominique?” Kim asked the general.
“ You're not obligated to answer any of these questions, General Raveneaux,” cautioned a gray-haired, three-piece suit, likely a lawyer.
“ Be that as it may, we have a court order here saying we can search the premises and all outbuildings and mobile units.” Landry informed the man, depositing the papers in his hands as he ascended the porch stairs.
Alex added, “And we're here to exercise that right tonight, before things go cold on us and people wash out their unmentionables.”
Raveneaux looked to his powerful friends for support. Meade took the court order from the lawyer, scanned it as the lawyer had and said, “Ridiculous… Judge Flint… that natty-haired neegra booze-hound's got some nerve. He won't be able to sit on a park bench after this.”
“ Let me have that,” added Stephens, tearing it from Meade, ripping it to shreds and throwing it at Landry's feet like a gauntlet. “That's what I think of a warrant from Judge Homer Flint.” Landry stared in disbelief at Stephens. “What the hell're you men covering up here?”
“ Stand down, Carl.”
“ No, Richard, I won't.”
“ You men,” shouted Stephens to the uniformed cops who'd come in behind the detectives. “Arrest Captain Landry and Detective Sincebaugh. They're trespassing here.”
Landry and Sincebaugh snatched out their weapons almost in unison, backing to each side, Alex tugging at Kim to stay close to him, Jessica siding with them, her own. 38 raised and poised. The uniformed deputies, confounded, not knowing what to do, looked to their sheriff, a man named Hodges, for a sign.
Hodges calmly presented Meade and Stephens with the federal warrant given him by Jessica then he just as calmly stepped off the porch and told his men, “Boys, we're here to uphold the law as I see it, and these fellas might be pricks and assholes with nothing worth a lick of sulfur to base their allegations on, but… they got a federal warrant, so they got a right to serve that warrant. We back 'em.”
Alex felt a sense of relief fill his chest, and Landry put his weapon away in a show of good faith, saying, “Thanks, Sheriff Hodges.” Jessica Coran was the last to holster her weapon.
Hodges looked up at the general and apologetically appealed to the others with a shrug. “Let's just get this damned search over, boys, so's these folks can go back to the peaceful business of their lives. Whataya say, Commissioner, Chief Meade?”
“ I'm giving the orders here,” countered Meade. “This is an official FBI matter now, so you men will do as I say!” Meade's eyes were surveying the situation, and as he spoke, he reached for his weapon.
Kim shouted, “Don't do it, Meade! You'll be dead before you hit the stairs.” She had a gun trained on him.
“ This is rank insubordination, Agent Desinor. I'll have you up on charges.”
Alex stared at her, his mouth open wide, finally repeating the word, “Agent?”
“ FBI,” she admitted, her mind's eye filling with an image of a raging Paul Zanek storming about his office, wanting to know why she'd drawn her weapon against the New Orleans bureau chief. “Are we going to get on with this search, General Raveneaux? Or will you be responsible for bloodshed on your lawn?”
“ Davis, Scully,” Captain Landry said to the two uniforms he'd gotten to know a bit. “Take Chief Meade's weapon and any that Commissioner Stephens is packing.”
The officers hesitated, staring at one another for the courage to take the first step.
“ Just do it!” shouted Hodges, startling his men into action to defuse the explosive standoff.