“ Actually, no… not exactly.”
“ What then?”
Kim Desinor and Jessica Coran listened intently as the drama of truth unfolded.
“ Seems Victor Surette was related to someone high up, and they-the family-didn't want it dragged out, you know, public embarrassment, ridicule, all that.”
“ Christ, so the guy was a transsexual, AC/DC… big deal. My God, only in the South today would anyone bat an eye,” moaned Alex. “All right, did Ben ever tell Fiona who it might be?”
“ I had to shake it out of her, but yeah, he did. It goes very high up.”
Alex released his white-knuckled grip on the dash.
“ Fiona asked that I take the money, all of it, back,” Landry went on. “Said it was set up in a trust fund for their boys, but that it only got Ben killed. Something about how God punishes the wicked.”
“ You reckon Ben earned every cent?”
“ I do, and it'll stay with their boys.”
“ So who was making payoffs to Wardlaw and Ben?”
“ She didn't know just how high up it went, but the payoffs to him and Wardlaw came from Richard Stephens.”
“ Stephens? Commissioner Stephens?”
“ Wardlaw threatened once to expose him in Ben's presence, but the P.C. was being pushed from someone above too. I suspect the Raveneaux estate.”
“ Jesus, then this thing has come full circle,” said Jessica from the rear seat.
Alex allowed this news to sink in before he asked another question. “So what're your plans for our pal Frank Wardlaw, Captain?”
“ He's out. Went down to see Frank at the lab. He honestly thought he'd be protected.”
“ Protected by the P.C.?”
“ He claimed Stephens and Lew Meade set up the whole deal; said they said it was for the good of the city to keep such filth from staining the Raveneaux name. He truly thought he'd still have a job when this was over.”
“ Damned fool,” muttered Jessica, “tampering with evidence, the chain of evidence and the integrity of that evidence in a murder investigation. Damned fool.”
Landry continued. “I gave him a choice to either step down or face charges.”
“ Either way now he's ruined,” Jessica suggested. “I mean, when we expose the bastards behind the cover-up of Surette's link with the Queen of Hearts killings and the subsequent body-snatching, none of the old boys who'd put him up to it will be standing with him.”
Kim nodded. “They're likely all scrambling at the moment to save their own butts.”
“ Name of the ancient game,” added Alex dryly, concealing the wellspring of emotions surrounding Ben's involvement as best he could.
“ But are you sure Meade and Stephens were involved in this sordid body-snatching effort?” asked Kim. “I mean, the P.C. and the head of the New Orleans branch of the FBI? Literally robbing us of evidence and planting a false confirmation of our suspicions?”
“ You know anyone else who enjoys playing God behind the scenes more than Meade?” Alex asked.
“ That's one hell of an accusation, Alex,” Jessica cautioned, not wanting to believe the New Orleans FBI Bureau Chief had manipulated evidence.
“ If it wasn't them, who else, Dr. Coran?” asked Alex. “Who else in this city wields such authority and omnipotence?”
Carl Landry put up his large right hand for silence. He then said, “I asked myself that same question, Alex. I also asked myself who could buy a cop like Ben, an M.E. like Wardlaw, a way around the investigation, and why?”
“ So, how did you make Wardlaw come up with Stephens and Meade?” asked Alex.
“ I put the fear of death into Wardlaw,” Landry began. “He was in his office when I burst in knocking files and pencils and cups over and shouting threats. Wardlaw lunged for the phone, but I'm afraid I sent it flying through a pane of glass.”
“ God, wish I coulda been there,” Alex interjected.
“ It was Wardlaw who had done the crime-scene lab workup at the Surette murder investigation. He also did the apartment where Ben died since Jessica was in no condition for it. He was already unnerved and shaken by deYampert's death, and I blamed him for it. Told him he'd gotten Ben deYampert killed before Ben ever set foot in that apartment in the Quarter.
“ To hell with you,' “ he told me. Then he attempted to throw me out of his office, which resulted in him getting his lip cut. I then grabbed the good doctor and pushed him against his door, the glass partition shattering against the man's back. Raised my fist then and threatened him. 'Talk, you SOB, or your face is going to look like yesterday's pizza,' I assured him.”
“ Let me guess,” said Alex. “He only did what he was told, and even then the bastards tried to send him packing.”
“ I damn sure did a double take when he finally came clean.” Landry recalled how at first he'd been unable to decipher the words which accused Stephens and Meade. “How did they ever expect to get away with it?” Kim asked. “And then to bring in Jessica Coran and me. It seems crazy.”
“ They truly believed at the time of Surette's death that his murder was a one-time occurrence. Even after the other Hearts killings, even when they brought you on board, Dr. Desinor, they still believed there was no connection. Wardlaw was to cover up the Surette killing as much as possible, to shield it as much as possible from the public. Frank never knew why; he never wanted to know why. That's how it started, and that was supposed to be how it ended. Then Sincebaugh wouldn't let it go, coming back again and again to Surette even though Frank gave Alex nothing whatever to link that first killing with those that followed.”
“ Must be some psychic talent at work in you, Alex,” Kim commented.
Landry continued. “Everyone by then was of a mind that since there were so many other killings, we didn't all need to keep pecking over Surette's carcass to locate the killer, and when I suggested the psychic exhumation and autopsy, they almost lost everything in their pants right then and there. I recall how nervous they all got, including Frank.”
“ What the hell was Frank Wardlaw thinking from the beginning? Just following orders?” asked Jessica, disgusted with Wardlaw.
“ Meade had something on him, holding it over his head.”
“ Black mail?”
“ You never heard of a G-man who'd stoop to blackmail?”
“ Blackmail for what?” Jessica asked.
“ Frank had a wife and kids at the time of Surette's death; they've since left him, of course.”
“ I hadn't heard.”
“ Meade had him on a couple of things… gambling, skirtchasing… I never knew Meade could be so vicious, but for reasons of their own, he and Stephens wanted the Surette kid's death kept as John Doe as possible, you understand?”
“ Hell, was Meade sleeping with the guy?” Alex sneered.
Landry smirked, and then laughed full-blown, which eased the electrified air inside the car. “Both the P.C. and Meade have powerful connections. That's all Frank needed to know. He wasn't going to trust his fate to a grand jury investigation into his alleged wrongdoings. Now, he'll be facing one anyway.”
Alex nodded grimly. “So you've deduced from the amount of pressure put on Frank that whoever Stephens and Meade were out to protect, these people have position and wealth and power-like Susie Socks tried to tell Ben and me, Ben already knowing. People with old-money connections in the highest circles, the mayor's office, the governor's office.”
“ And we get squeezed by the mayor's office and the state to close out the Queen of Hearts killings so that Surette-with the same first name as Raveneaux's son-can be quietly forgotten as having had no relation to the crimes,” Carl concluded. Kim sat shaking her head in disbelief, fearful of the truth. “All nice and tidy for the people who took Surette's body, people who obviously don't give a damn about the whereabouts of either Surette's heart or his killer, or whom the butcher might choose next.”
“ Hey, wealth and position can do that to a person, you know that, Kim,” replied Alex with a warm look over his shoulder for her.