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“I have to get out of town. Out of the country. I’ve waited too long as it is.”
“Look, I didn’t tell you to gut Holmes. You did that on your own.”
“Because he knows. He called me last night, said I had to meet him this morning at work, early. I knew something was up because he sounded too casual. Everyone knows he runs at the same time every morning, so I went to his house early and waited for him to come out. He saw me and we fought. He told me that he knew it was me, that he saw me near Cardozo on video.”
“What video?” Corey mouthed.
“What video?” Bobby asked.
“It was work I was doing for Talley. He wanted to know Cardozo’s weak spot, which is his kid. But Talley couldn’t find anything on the kid, so he asked me to investigate.”
“You were on Dewey’s payroll, too?” Bobby asked, surprised.
“How do you think Talley stayed hidden all this time?” Drysdale demanded.
“Huh. So what’s this about a video?” Bobby asked, serious now.
“I was standing in the lobby of NOPD in the Quarter and heard Cardozo take a call from his kid. The kid had come from a math competition and Cardozo was excited for him. I looked up math competitions for all the schools and figured out which one Cardozo’s kid attends. It’s some small private school, which is why the boy was so hard to find. I told Talley and he was going to grab the kid on Monday night.”
“But Rick did it instead,” Bobby said slowly.
“I don’t know why the Gates kid did it. But Cardozo figured that was how his son’s schedule was found out—from that overheard conversation. Holmes asked me to view the tapes, to figure it out. I scrubbed that part of the tape.”
“But Holmes found it,” Bobby said.
“Yeah. There was another server—a backup—that I didn’t know about. Holmes found the video and confronted me.”
“Why didn’t you just kill him?” Bobby asked.
“I tried. I didn’t want to fire my gun. We were outside his house and his fiancée would have heard a shot, so I stabbed him. I really thought I had killed him, but the bastard didn’t die.” Drysdale’s voice ratcheted louder and higher as he spoke. “His fiancée found him and now he’s out of surgery and waking up. I waited as long as I could. I helped you today. I made sure no one checked who was driving the bakery van and I redirected the cops to give you time to get away from Cardozo’s house, but I need to get out of here. Now.”
“Ask him where Cardozo is,” Corey mouthed.
“Okay. I’ll get you the money. I promise. As soon as I get to where I’m going, I’ll put it in your bank account. But I need a little more info. Where is Cardozo now?”
“In the hospital with his kid. We didn’t know it, but his kid was in a safe room inside the house. The kid’s here now, along with Broussard and all of the others.”
What? The kid was there all along? Fucking Cardozo. Building a fucking safe room. Fucking dog keeping me out of the room.
“With Broussard?” Bobby clarified. “He’s alive?”
“Yes.”
“Well, fuck. I thought we’d killed him. What about the bakery girl? And Corey’s asshole little brother?”
“They’re all still alive.”
“Damn,” Bobby muttered. “Did you know Jace was there?”
“Hell no! I would’ve told you. When will I get my money?”
“Tell him to follow Cardozo,” Corey mouthed. “We’re going to call Cardozo in a minute.” To demand he tell them where Bella Butler was hiding.
“I need you to do one more thing while I’m getting your money together,” Bobby said. “I’m about to call Cardozo and give him our terms of release for the blonde. I want you to keep tabs on him.”
“No. I told you, Holmes is in recovery. When he wakes up, he’s going to tell who stabbed him. I do not want to be around when that happens.” The man drew a breath. “I have more information that you’ll want, but I want my money.”
“What is it?” Bobby asked. “Tell me and I’ll tell you what it’s worth.”
