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“Maybe not, but I’m going to ask. I also want everything about the Gates brothers and all of their minions. Faces, past jobs, criminal records. Everything.” She added full background checks to the list. “In case they try to grab Elijah again.”
“They’d be crazy to try,” Molly said. “Then again, it was crazy to try it the first time.” She lifted a brow. “Not that anything Sixth Day ever did made a lot of sense.”
“True enough.” Val understood why Molly was emphasizing the point. Today wasn’t the first time she’d done so. But Val wasn’t interested in a therapy session. She leaned back in her chair, studying her friend’s face. “What have you been up to? And how is Gabe?” She said Molly’s beau’s name slyly, chuckling when her friend blushed.
“He’s fine. I, however, have gained five pounds from his chocolate cake.”
Gabe was part owner and head chef of Le Petit Choux, a restaurant in the Quarter. His chocolate cake was absolutely decadent. “It would only be two and a half pounds if you’d shared with me.”
Molly grinned. “Sorry, not sorry. ADA Cardozo isn’t exactly chopped liver.”
Val’s gaze darted to Elijah, relieved to see his headphones still in place. She glared at Molly. “Hush. I’m his son’s bodyguard.”
Molly lifted a shoulder. “The supporting scenery is pleasing, I’m just saying.”
Val rolled her eyes. It was true, but she wouldn’t admit it. “Shut up and help me think of things to ask Antoine to research. I can’t allow these assholes to come near Elijah again. I don’t want to think of what they’d have done to him if they’d been successful last night.”
Sobering, Molly nodded once. “Get the police reports. Antoine knows how to find what isn’t public record. Given ADA Cardozo’s connection, I’m thinking they’ll put a rush on any DNA evidence they got from the ski mask that Rick Gates was wearing. It’s not likely, but his partner might have handled the mask. With any luck, he will have left something behind—hair or skin cells.”
Val added it to the list for Antoine. “I’ll ask if they found fingerprints on the gun Rick left behind. Rick wore gloves but the driver didn’t. The van’s license plate belonged to a car that was reported stolen last night, so that’s a dead end.”
Molly slid off the desk. “That list is a good start and Antoine won’t mind if you add stuff later. I gotta run. I’m on parent lunchroom duty at Harper’s school today because my sister can’t make it.”
Val had a soft spot for Molly’s niece. “Tell Harper I said hi and that I’m saving her a seat at my next game.”
Molly chuckled. “My sister is still annoyed that Harper has added roller derby queen to her list of careers. Call if you need me.”
“Will do.” With a wave, Val returned her attention to her computer screen, sending the email to Antoine and then running a new search on Sixth Day and Dewey Talley. She’d ceased her stalking of the organization two years ago on the advice of her therapist.
Squaring her shoulders, she prepared to dive back into the world of the insidious drug-running bastards who’d taken so much from her and her family. She’d do this for Elijah and his father.
Maybe even for me.
And then she saw the first search result—a breaking headline from only a half hour before. Attempted Abduction of ADA’s Son Linked to Drug Gang.
“Well,” she murmured as the last of her hopes that Sixth Day wasn’t involved slithered away. She clicked on the link and a video filled her screen. A big, muscular man with a shaved head wearing a severe black suit stood on the front porch of a house as he spoke to reporters.
Corey Gates, brother to Aaron and Rick, looked exhausted and devastated as he pleaded for the public’s help in locating his brother, even offering a ten-thousand-dollar reward for information leading to Rick’s return.
Because not only had Rick started using drugs. He’d fallen in with a drug gang. And not any old drug gang. Rick Gates had fallen in with Sixth Day.
The boy was only sixteen. But Sylvi hadn’t been much older when she’d started buying from Sixth Day. Val’s little sister had forever broken their family, just like Aaron and now Rick had broken the Gates family. It was such a waste.
Corey Gates seemed sincere enough. He was clearly out of his element in raising a teenager, which most people would understand. He also appeared to fully accept that his brother would need to face justice for his crime.
And then the reporter asked him about his father, and the man’s whole posture changed. His body stiffened, his shoulders going back, his chest puffing out. His hands clenched into fists at his sides. He was angry.
She added a background check on his father to her list for Antoine. The father had reportedly served time for murder, so the apples hadn’t fallen far from the tree, at least when it came to Rick and Aaron Gates.
She supposed that only time would reveal if Corey Gates was a decent person. But at least she no longer doubted who was behind Elijah’s abduction. Even if the driver wasn’t Dewey Talley himself, he’d been associated with two of the four Gates brothers, and that was enough. The only silver lining in this mess was that the driver had had a split second of conscience and let Elijah go.
Val wouldn’t give him a second chance to try.
Metairie, Louisiana
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 25, 10:25 A.M.
Corey pulled the Chevy SUV’s door shut and fastened his seat belt. “Let’s go, Ed.” Settling into the back seat, he studied Dianne, who sat beside him. Her eyes were still vodka-dulled, but some of the color in her cheeks had returned after their flight from the media.
