could certainly use Casey’s help. She slammed the Bucar in gear and pressed the accelerator down, pulling onto St. Charles. “Fine. Then put on your seat belt. And you will do what I tell you to do when I tell you to do it.”
“Of course,” Casey said. “I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
63
Alexa drove through the streets at forty-five miles an hour, holding a half-mile distance behind LePointe’s Mercedes 500 sedan.
“The other tracker,” Casey said. “It’s off the screen.”
“Let’s just worry about ours for now,” Alexa said. “I suspect they’ll converge eventually.”
“Left at the next light,” Casey said. “I thought you’d have like fifty people covering this.”
“In retrospect, I should have added one more person with local geographical knowledge.”
“You’ll be glad I’m along,” Casey told her, resting her hand on Alexa’s leg for a second. “You’ll see.”
Alexa needed Casey’s help at the moment, but she was increasingly uneasy having a civilian along on what could be a dangerous operation. Worrying about Casey could keep her from taking chances she might need to take. “Just remember what I said about doing exactly what I say. I’m dead serious.”
“It’s your call all the way. Do you really think Grace could be involved in Gary’s abduction? Left at the light.”
“What about her personal life?”
“She spends most of her days with me. She’s a very dedicated and hardworking individual. Gary doesn’t appreciate her. He thinks…Well, it isn’t important why.”
“It might be,” Alexa said.
“He thinks she’s too dedicated. Jealous of him. I know it’s silly.” Casey laughed nervously. “He thinks she’s in love with me.”
“A girl crush?”
“More than a girl crush. It’s nonsense. If she were, you know, I’d know. She loves me because we’re close friends. Gary was just being…Gary. He watches out for me.”
“Does Grace ever seem to dislike Gary?”
“Grace seems to like him just fine.”
“Does she have a boyfriend?”
“Well, she did mention a while back that she met a man who’s in medicine, but she said it wasn’t serious. She calls someone and someone calls her, but she never said it was the same man. She’ll tell me if it gets serious. Right at the next street. That one.”
Alexa glanced at her. “What else do you know about him?”
“Not much. I’ve never met him. I don’t even know his name. I told her to invite him along to a couple of functions, but she always said he was too busy. Wait a minute, she didn’t tell me he was a medical professional. I overheard her answer the phone once; she called him Doc.”
“Does she spend much time with you socially?”
“Well, she’s my friend.”
“Does Grace know about Sibby Danielson?”
“She knows she murdered my parents.”
“Could she have known Sibby was at River Run?”
“How could she? I didn’t know it myself!”
“You’ve been to River Run.”
“Yes, but never on the wards.”
“Do you know what Sibby looks like?”
“No idea.”
“So you could have seen her and not known who she was?”
“Once I took pictures of some of the mental patients. Grace was with me. But those inmates weren’t dangerous or anything. The orderlies brought them in to the cafeteria, stayed while I worked, then took them out again. It wasn’t like I was in any danger. Grace assists me, but out there she was less helpful than usual.”
“Why? Was she frightened?”
“No. She was sort of flirting with one of the orderlies. Small guy. But I don’t really need an assistant for sessions.”
Alexa’s cell phone rang.
“Manseur,” she said, opening it.
“Decell and the Bentley have led us on a wild-goose chase over the twin bridges, out to the English Turn golf course. It looks like we’re heading back to the twin spans.”
“Decell and the Bentley are red herrings,” Alexa told him. “LePointe is going to make the drop. We’re tracking his Mercedes out of New Orleans, along River Road. Maybe we’re heading toward River Run.”
“They’re both headed back to LePointe’s; we’re coming that way. Just keep me posted on your location if you change roads.”
Alexa closed the phone.
“I guess it’s up to us,” Casey said.
“Looks like a definite possibility,” Alexa said.
“Unko’s turning right,” Casey said.
“What’s this way?”
“Nothing,” Casey said.
64
Leaving River Road, LePointe’s Mercedes sped up dramatically. It turned down a series of county roads that Casey said were taking them toward Lake Bourne. By telephone, Alexa fed Manseur each turn. Manseur was racing to intersect them, but evacuation traffic made his route slow going. Alexa could imagine him blasting his horn, using the shoulder like a lane, and using the flashing blue lights like a snowplow.
It appeared that LePointe was carrying the bonds to some remote location. Unless Decell was hidden in the Mercedes, she prayed she could get to the drop before LePointe got himself hurt. If he did get hurt, she and Manseur would catch hell. She would do the best she could, and her first priority was to keep Casey out of harm’s way. The potential for what the feds called a cluster-fuck event was too real.
They were on a narrow gravel road that wound along a mossy bayou. They passed several cabins, but saw no one, nor did they pass any other vehicles.
“He’s stopped just ahead,” Casey reported.
According to the tracker, LePointe had come to a stop or maybe he had reached some predetermined spot and thrown the briefcase from the car. Alexa cut her lights and drove slowly down the gravel road. When the tracker’s location was fifty yards away, she pulled off beside some moss-covered trees and cut the engine. She called Manseur and told him where she was.
“I want you to stay here and wait for Detective Manseur,” Alexa told Casey. She handed her the cell phone, took her Glock and badge case out of her purse, and slipped the ID and the extra magazines into her jacket pockets, one side of the handcuffs behind her belt, one outside.
“But you might need a hand,” Casey protested.
“This is not a negotiation, Casey. You swore to do what I said.”
“I rarely ever swear, but I did agree. Please be careful, Alexa. If you get hurt helping us, I’d never forgive myself.”
“Just stay in the car.”
Casey nodded. “I’m disappointed that you don’t believe that I can handle myself, but your command is my
