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Rick’s lips pressed together mutinously, and he said nothing.
“How did you get to Cardozo’s last night?” Corey demanded.
Rick looked away, a cry escaping him when Corey hit him a third time. “I took your van and stole some license plates so that nobody would know it was yours.” He closed his eyes. “What are you going to do to me? Keep me hostage?”
“Nope. I’m gonna hand you over to the cops.” Rick’s body, anyway, along with a note Corey was going to sign as Sixth Day that would have Cardozo laser-focused on Dewey Talley. Not on me.
Rick’s eyes flew open. “You can’t!”
“Oh, I can.” Corey leaned in until he was nose-to-nose with Rick. “But first, you’re going to tell me who helped you. Who told you where you could find Cardozo’s kid?”
Rick looked away. “Nobody.”
Corey smiled. “Fine. Bobby’s real good at making people talk. Aren’t you, Bobby?”
A slow Cheshire Cat grin spread over Bobby’s face. “I am.”
Rick had grown deathly pale. “What? What are you talking about?”
Corey patted Rick’s cheek hard enough to hurt. “Don’t you worry your emancipated little head about it. You’ll find out soon enough.”
With a smirk, Bobby gathered the items he needed from one of the drawers in the entertainment center. He placed the wires and alligator clips on an end table and dragged it over so that Rick could see them. The kid’s eyes widened in fear.
Bobby leaned down to murmur in Rick’s ear. “I don’t give you more than ten seconds. Current to the balls? It really hurts. You’re going to wish you’d told Corey what he wanted to know when he first asked.”
“No, please!” Rick blurted. “I’ll tell you.”
Corey flashed his brother a smile. “Oh, I know you will.”
Mid-City, New Orleans, Louisiana
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 25, 12:45 P.M.
Val stared up at the ceiling of Elijah’s bedroom in awe. “Wow.”
“You like it?” Elijah asked shyly.
A model airplane collection hung from the ceiling, arranged in battle formation. “Did you do this, Elijah?”
“He did,” Kaj said from the doorway. “He made all of the planes and hung them.”
Val turned to Elijah in amazement. “Is it Midway?”
Elijah sucked in a breath. “How did you know?”
“My dad’s a history professor at Tulane. We watched all the war movies growing up and Dad pointed out all the ways the filmmakers had gotten it wrong. I recognize the planes.”
“Did you fly any planes in the Marines?” Elijah asked.
“Nope. Only rode as a passenger in one of the troop transports.” She made a face. “No in-flight movie or free drinks.”
“The very nerve,” Kaj said, and Val chuckled.
“I did jump out of one once, though,” she said brightly. “But that was a normal skydive.”
Elijah beamed. “I want to do that, Dad.”
“When you’re eighteen,” Kaj said. “Then I can’t stop you.”
