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“Guess someone should’ve warned me about the dangers here in Sinful.” Jax lifted one hand in the air then used his free hand to withdraw his cell phone from the inside pocket of his jacket. “I’ve been on the phone with Bob Myers. His number was the last one dialed.”
“Where’s Elle?” I asked, not buying his gentle demeanor act.
“She’s outside asleep. I asked my bodyguard to keep an eye on her. She’s had a rough couple of days.”
“Just a couple?” Ida Belle scoffed. “When you first came here to the bayou, we heard about this businessman who had gotten his granddaughter out of the city because she’d witnessed a murder and could ID the gunman. My, my how things have changed.”
“Changed how?” He tried not to focus on the red dot jerking one way and then the next.
I smiled. “Let’s not pretend that Gertie has her finger on the trigger.”
“She ought to pull it just because of your dimwitted question. Who proposes marriage and affairs in the same breath?” Ida Belle asked.
“That can wait,” I said, ignoring Jax’s rapidly fading smile. “Gomer told us he didn’t kill anyone. He said you needed a ‘fall’ guy.”
Ida Belle backed up a step, probably on the chance that Gertie accidentally fired off a shot. “Why would a seventy-something year old man with a granddaughter as a sidekick need a fall guy?”
Gomer had recently said that he was a little smarter than the average Hollowman, relying on the proof that he was able to cheat death and prison, but the truth wasn’t so cut and dry. Gomer Hollowman was a decent and kind human being. It infuriated me that someone would try to exploit that.
“I shouldn’t have involved him,” Jax said, hitting the number seven on his phone then selecting the speaker option. “Maybe Bob can clear up a few things for us.”
The phone only rang twice. “Hello, this is Bob Myers.”
“I’m here in Sinful,” Jax said. “I’m at Fortune’s home.”
When he said the word home, I couldn’t help but feel anxious. This man was a made man, or worse.
“Are they all there?” Bob asked.
“Gertie is unavailable,” I said. “I’m Sandy-Sue Morrow, but everyone calls me Fortune. I’m here with Ida Belle, a friend who has military training and is also a darn good shot.”
“Last part was for me, I take it?” Jax smiled. “You have a right to be concerned. Never think I’m discounting that.”
“You called us to clean up a mess for the mob,” I said, keeping a deliberate accusatory tone. “The least you can do is tell us why we were called in the first place since we now have reason to believe that you have the resources to clean up your own dirty laundry.”
“I shouldn’t have involved Gomer, or you,” he said.
“I’ll handle the explanations,” Bob said. “Ladies, when Mr. Daigle bought the Wasteland property, it was for a legitimate purpose.”
“He may have told you that story.” I paused. The red dot on Daigle’s shirt reappeared, jumped around, left, and returned again. I lost my train of thought. “What is she doing?”
The red dot zigzagged once again. This time, I leapt from my chair to make sure she hadn’t slipped off the roof.
“Someone’s here,” Ida Belle said calmly. “It’s a signal.”
“You’ll have to hold a moment, Bob,” I said.
About that time, Carter knocked, but entered without waiting. “Anyone home?” He grinned. “Daigle, when I dropped you off, you said you were turning in for the night. How’d you end up here?”
“Do we need to have this conversation at another time?” Bob asked.
Carter stared at the phone. “I’m Deputy Carter LeBlanc. Who’s this?”
Bob introduced himself and gave his credentials. In short, he was a Fed.
“Mr. Daigle has undoubtedly gained the attention of your Sinful residents.”
“That’s an understatement,” Carter said.
Ida Belle said, “He wanted the attention. He proposed to one woman, asked another to be his mistress, called us to retrieve dead bodies as if we were morticians, and asked his granddaughter to feed us information, all in an attempt to throw us off his trail. And the more legitimate reasons for why he’s here.”
“We may have had something to do with that,” Bob said. “So why don’t I just tell you what you need to know and Jax can fill in the rest?”
“Sounds like a good plan,” Carter said.
I leaned over the phone. “We’ve never met you. Why should we believe anything you tell us?”
“We have a mutual acquaintance. Shall I go on?” He waited. The silence was daring, at best. What had Harrison told him? When I didn’t stop him, he continued. “Jax’s son is now the head of the Irish-French-American mafia. Jax was an underboss and set for the head of family until his son became more suitable for the job.”
“Ouch,” Ida Belle said. “That must’ve stung.”
Carter shook his head. “Let him finish.”
“When Elle was born, her mother went to Jax and asked him to release them from the family. Jax planned to orchestrate their deaths then help them escape at the last minute. He wanted his granddaughter to have a new life, but for that to happen, his son had to be willing to go along with the plan.”
Jax looked down at his hands. He stared at them as if he were truly disgusted. Made men, all of them, had blood on their hands. Jax wasn’t the exception. If he’d changed for his granddaughter, for any reason, and was permitted to start a new life? He was getting away with murder somewhere, maybe multiple murders.
He not only stole people’s lives. He ruined families and yet here he was, wanting a free pass for his own.
I closed my eyes and thought of the bodies we’d sent to Harrison.
He had gotten away with multiple murders right there in the bayou.
“Tell us about Rizzy,” Ida Belle said.
“Rizzy Spinelli served as a soldier under Daigle. He was playing both sides, but when Elle called him, he came to the bayou with a few of his men. Elle’s dad’s phones are tapped. He was never notified of the hit Rizzy planned, mainly because Brigham Cable, known primarily as Cable, has one order for his men. They shoot to kill Jax and then bring Elle to him.”
“Your son ordered a hit on you?” Carter asked.
Jax nodded. “Rizzy was Elle’s personal bodyguard for over five years. That’s why he really came here. He wanted to be the one to take her back. He came here alone because he couldn’t risk scaring her. She trusted him.”
I hadn’t gathered that from my previous conversation with her back in the summer.
“And you took out Rizzy and his men?” Ida Belle shook her head. “Why would you kill someone who had kept your granddaughter safe?”
“I’m a made man, Ida Belle,” Jax said. “But I’m a changed man. I tried to leave the mob countless times, but couldn’t. The Italian-French-American mafia was my father’s dream and he built a solid organization. No one has ever turned state’s evidence.”
“Until you,” I said, still disgusted.
“That’s right,” he said. “I wanted to undo what my family started and still intend to right my family’s wrongs.”
“And you didn’t think it was important to tell Sheriff Davidson all of this?” Carter asked, staring at the phone.
“He’ll be my next call,” Bob assured him.
“You used your granddaughter as bait,” I said believing that was a significant tell. When a grown man used a child, no one could respect them. “Couldn’t you find a better way?”
“There wasn’t one,” Bob said. “Jax will be found unless he follows our requests.”
I was beginning to wonder if the Feds weren’t using Jax to take out the mob. Maybe they were more interested in criminals’ deaths than saving one life.
“That bloodbath at your place?” Carter face flushed. “My girlfriend was in the middle of that. One slipup and she could’ve been killed.”
“She was never in any harm, Deputy,” Bob said.
“They killed each other,” I said.
“We made it look that way,” Jax said. “It was Bob’s men.”
I processed. Ida Belle, Gertie and I already knew that the best of the best had been hired to protect Daigle, but we had believed they hadn’t shown up for work. That’s when it hit me. “You sent the Sheriff and Deputy out of town because you knew what you planned to do. You’re picking them off, all of them.”
“It’s the only way,” Bob said. “This outfit is like the Italian mob on meth. Their hitmen are lunatics. Their end game is to have their hands in every reputable business from one sea to the next. We have the best Marines and SEALS joining our ranks here.”
“You didn’t call us to Wasteland seeking our help,” Ida Belle said with fire in her eyes. “You wanted to scare us away.”
“We don’t want you prying in Jax Daigle’s business,” Bob said with finality.
Carter threw up his hands. “Bob, you must’ve missed the memo. Ida Belle and Gertie are the dynamic duo. Throw Fortune in the mix and you’ve got the three stooges.”
“Thanks,” I said.
“Welcome,” he mouthed, but something in his eyes told another tale. Carter would run interference from here forward. While he’d been read in and now knew I could handle myself, even the best CIA agents would have a difficult time if they faced off with Daigle’s crew.
“I’m not asking,” Bob said. “From here forward, you’re out. Understood?”
Ida Belle and I swapped glances before I said, “I’m a librarian. I have better things to do than to watch blood dry.” Carter grunted and I asked, “Too graphic?”
He nodded.
“Does Elle need to be involved?” I asked. “She’s a child.”
“It was the only way to make this work,” Bob said. “Going forward, we hope she won’t be, but we can’t guarantee anything.”
“My son is a terrible man,” Jax said.
“And who’s to blame there?” Ida Belle snapped.
“You’re right,” he said, regret filling his eyes. “I failed my son.” He took a deep breath then lifted his head. “But trust me when I say that I will not fail my granddaughter.”
And right there was the man I wanted to see, the killer that had been born and bred. He may have been taking a high road now, but he’d walked in the muddy trenches, every single one that life had offered him, and came out of them with the filth all over him.
“That must’ve been some deal you were offered,” Carter pointed out.
He nodded once. “But let me ask you something, Deputy. If you had a chance to make a new life for someone you loved? Would you do it?”
“I wouldn’t think twice,” Carter admitted, refusing to look at me then. “But there’s a big difference between us. I would never put someone I love in danger so she wouldn’t need a new life.”