Ascension Day

mechanical.

And so when a teen boy’s voice said, ‘One minute — I’ll get my pa,’ Jac took a second to snap his concentration back. He checked on his pad to see which number it was: one of the two that before had rung with no answer.

‘Ted Levereaux.’

Jac felt immediately more anxious, a faint edge and tremor now in his voice, when, with the number of times he’d been through the same introduction, it should have come across as plain and matter-of-fact.

‘God in a bucket, Bayou Brew — that takes me back a ways,’ Levereaux exclaimed. Then, realizing he perhaps should have done it the other way round — question before commitment — a wariness crept into his voice as he asked, ‘And why, pray, might you be enquirin’… Mr McElvey, was it?’

‘McElroy. Jac McElroy.’ And Jac went into the rest of his prepared speech that he’d rarely had a chance to use: Larry Durrant. Jessica Roche’s murder. Possible alibi from the regular pool games he used to have. ‘If you could remember which night they might have played the week of her murder?’

‘Jeez. Hardly remember which nights I was there myself, now. You spoke to any of the others worked there then?’ As Jac went through the names and outlined what he’d gained so far, Levereaux commented, ‘Didn’t know Harlenson had died, and my goodness… good ol’ Mack, he still aroun’? Still livin’ in the Ninth, you say?’ Levereaux went off at a tangent for a moment about how nice it would be to see Mack again and catch up, before bringing his focus back. ‘I’m sorry, Mr McElroy. Don’ think I can be much help to yer. Too far back.’

‘I wondered if you could try one thing for me. Try, if you can, to remember where you were when you heard Jessica Roche had been shot? I mean, was Durrant’s pool game of that week before or after you heard the news? Because, if you remember the news coming straight after the pool game the night before — there’s a high chance they coincided.’

Put the person in the moment. Jac had read somewhere that they’d remember more. It wasn’t quite the same as everyone recalling where they were when Kennedy was shot. But for New Orleans, Jessica Roche’s murder had been big news, so the chances were reasonable. He’d done the same with Mack Elliott, Nat Hadley and Bill Saunders. Elliott and Saunders had said straight away that it didn’t help, they still couldn’t recall anything — but Hadley had said he’d call him back in twenty-four hours when he’d had a chance to think it over.

‘Yeah, yeah. Know what you mean,’ Levereaux said, and lapsed into thought.

Muted sound of a TV in the background, a women’s voice talking above it for a moment. Snapshot of life at 9.17 p.m. in St Louis; another to add to the brief sound-bite snapshots Jac had gained across half the South the past few nights.

‘Sorry. Still can’ place much from that far back. Not straight off, anyhow.’

‘Do you maybe want to think on it a bit?’ Jac prompted. ‘Call me back?’

‘Yeah, yeah. Okay,’ Levereaux said after a brief pause.

Jac left his number and Levereaux promised to call back the next night.

Jac eased out his breath as he hung up and looked at his notepad on the table.

Four names with lines through them, two names blank, two with question marks; now three, as Jac put a question mark by Levereaux’ name.

Jac had felt each line he’d had to put through a name like a hammer-blow to his chest. And he wondered if that’s why he’d opted so quickly to delay Levereaux rather than pushing him there and then? One more bit of hope left, however slim, rather than another strike against.

But that was how Jac had come to measure everything over the past days: strikes against, another chance gone of being able to save Larry Durrant, balanced against hope remaining.

Another strike against came the following day when Nat Hadley phoned him just before lunch to say that, sorry, he just couldn’t fix in his mind which night the pool game had been in relationship to Jessica’s Roche’s murder.

Then another name added to Jac’s notepad and as quickly crossed off again when at lunch-time he’d gone out again to the Ninth Ward to see the new owner of what used to be the ‘Ain’t Showin’ Mariner’, now a short-order and burger restaurant. Jac was wary of visiting the Ninth at night after the incident with Rillet, but at least the timing had been fortuitous because the proprietor had the previous owner’s number and had been able to raise him straight away on his phone.

But, taking the first bites of a prawn and sliced avocado on rye back on home ground on Felicity Street, a part of Jac wondered whether he wouldn’t have preferred some delay again: two more strikes against in just an hour gave him the uneasy feeling that the few names left on his pad would go the same way, leads evaporating in no time, and then there’d be no hope remaining; nothing left but to sit back and count the days until Durrant died.

Maybe he was kidding himself either way — whether slowly treading water or a quick free-fall, the result would be the same: every name on his pad would end up with a line through it. Coultaine had followed part of the same route at appeal only three years after the murder, and could hardly get anyone to remember anything then. What chance was there, as Larry had aired doubtfully, after twelve years?

On the last few bites, Jac’s cell-phone rang. Bob Stratton with news on the Pontiac registration.

‘Traces back to a holding company of no other than Adelay Roche himself. And the guy driving is one Nelson Timothy Malley, forty-six years of age, down as Head of Security at Roche’s Houma refinery. I’ll get the photos messengered over to you this afternoon.’

A chill ran through Jac with the information. ‘Answers not only who’s been following me, but who apart from Larry Durrant might have killed Jessica Roche.’ Jac swilled back a residue of chewed rye with a gulp of orange juice, but suddenly found it harder swallowing. ‘Looks like the police should have kept doing what they normally do: looking closer to home.’

‘That’s one interpretation, Jac. But don’t get too carried away. The other is that Roche simply wants to know your every move: is convinced that Durrant killed his wife and wants to ensure you don’t get him freed at the last moment on some technicality or rabbit out the hat. Guys as powerful as Roche, seen many a time where they wouldn’t even leave it just to the police, would take justice into their own hands.’

‘So steam-rollering over yours truly in the middle wouldn’t present much of a problem?’

‘True.’ Stratton chuckled lightly. ‘Though there’s another interpretation there, too: we can’t say for sure that they tried to kill you; all we do know is that they’ve been nosin’ and had your phone bugged. The police might have been right on that score: maybe it was just an accident.’

Now it was Jac’s turn to say ‘True,’ but with no laugh attached. He could still feel the cold darkness of the lake shiver through him. Attaching blame, giving it a home, maybe he’d be able to rid himself of it. Or perhaps it meant that he’d keep shivering, because they were still hanging over him like a shadow, listening in on his phone, silently watching, waiting for the next time to try and kill him.

That shiver ran deeper still when, three hours later, the envelope arrived at Jac’s office and he looked at the photos inside. Another for the gallery of Jessica Roche’s possible murderers: Larry Durrant, the mystery e-mailer, now Roche’s henchman: Nelson Malley.

At least it was one bit of positive news after the two rapid name-strikes of earlier, one more shade filled in. Know thy enemy.

Though as quickly countered, the pendulum again swinging the other way, when Ted Levereaux phoned early evening, not long after he returned from work, and told him, sorry, in the end he couldn’t remember anything either. ‘Racked my brain every which way… but nothin’. Nothin’’

Another strike against.

Jac felt weary, tired, his nerves shot from the rollercoaster ride of the past days.

His hand shook as he crossed out Levereaux’ name and looked at the two names remaining: Lenny Rillet and Lorraine Gilliam, the waitress that worked the other shift to Rillet.

Rillet said that he’d phone if he managed to find his old diaries. He’d told Jac and Mack Elliot in parting to say a prayer in thanks to Larry, because that was the only reason he was letting them go. ‘Always felt a sorta kinship with Larry, even more so when he wen’ inside. So I’m curious to see how this one plays out… if you’re gonna be able to save his ass or not?’ But Jac doubted that Rillet would