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“I think he is.” Kaj gestured to the stairs. “Breakfast awaits. Coffee, too.”
Sylvi let out a little moan. “Coffee. Thank you. I’ll have some, then I’m heading over to the shop. I’ve got cleanup to do.”
“Make sure one of Burke’s people walks you to your car.” Kaj started down the stairs with her. He could use another cup of coffee before starting his work for the day. But the buzzing of his cell phone stopped him. It was his boss.
“Cardozo,” Kaj said, stepping into his office.
“Kaj.” Reuben’s voice was tired. “You’re okay?”
“Yes. A little bruised, but okay. Turns out Val and Phin are heavier than I expected. And if you tell anyone I said that about Val, I’ll call you a liar.”
Reuben’s chuckle was weary. “So noted. I have news.”
“About André Holmes? Do you know what happened to him?”
“He was stabbed twice in the backyard of his home and his fiancée found him bleeding and unconscious. He’s in surgery now. That’s all I know.”
Relief mixed with fear. André was still alive, but surgery couldn’t be good. “That’s more than we knew before. Antoine went to the hospital, but we hadn’t heard anything yet.”
“NOPD’s all over André’s house and yard, processing the scene. I haven’t received any updates yet.” Reuben hesitated. “That wasn’t my news. Since I’ve taken on Aaron Gates’s case, I’ve been visiting him every day. Up until this morning, he was still in the infirmary. He no longer is, so I had a conversation with him. He’s through detox and was more coherent than any of the other times I’d seen him. I told him that you were recused because of what Rick did. I told him what Corey did to Rick and how he tried to kill Jace. He was surprisingly angry. Especially that Corey had tortured Rick.”
“At least he has some humanity,” Kaj muttered.
“Not much,” Reuben said. “But he does seem to care about the two younger brothers. He was furious that Rick’s in jail and very worried about Jace. But the big deal coming out of our chat is that he’s ready to talk about Corey. He wants to talk to you.”
Kaj blinked. “Me? Why? I’m recused.”
“I told him that. He’s insisting it be you. Look, Kaj, I need some answers. I want to know where Corey is, because the NOPD is no closer to finding him than they were four days ago. We’ve got eyes in the air, but if Corey and his men are under tree cover, we won’t see them.”
“You want me to talk to Aaron?”
“If you would.”
Kaj considered it. Molly and Antoine were with André in the hospital. Lucien was out of town. “I need to wait until Burke gets here. Security is scant at the moment.”
“Hurry, Kaj. We need Aaron to tell us what he knows.”
“I will. Listen, did André ever ID who overheard me talking about Elijah’s math meet at NOPD headquarters?”
“Not that he told me. Why?”
“It appears that the portion of surveillance video that we were looking for has been erased.”
“What?”
“Yeah,” Kaj said grimly. “We have to find out who’s leaking information.”
“You’re right, of course. I’ll see what I can find about the video.”
“Thank you, Reuben. I’ll call you when I’m on my way to the jail.”
Mid-City, New Orleans, Louisiana
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 28, 8:30 A.M.
“I don’t like it,” Val said for the tenth time. That Aaron had asked to see Kaj after André was stabbed and Noni Feldman was abducted felt very wrong.
“Neither do I,” Kaj said, also for the tenth time. He put his arm around her, drawing her close on the sofa. “But I need to go. If he tells us where to find Corey, we can bring Noni home.”
