“What do you mean?”
I lifted my head back up. “I mean I just let a killer get away because of a goddamned headache. You can’t imagine how that feels.”
She thumbed through the papers in the file then looked back at me with a confused expression. “Are you a police officer?”
“No,” a new voice answered for me. “But, he likes to pretend he is.”
Doctor Miller turned and at the same time, I looked over toward the door. Neither of us had noticed the new arrival until now.
“Detective Fairbanks,” I said with a dispirited sigh.
“You done with him, Doctor?” he asked, flashing his ID.
“Actually, I’d like to admit him for observation. Will that be a problem?”
“If it’s all the same to you, I’d rather not stay,” I interjected.
“You shut up,” Fairbanks instructed, glancing at me. “Right now you’re in custody, and what you want doesn’t matter.” Looking back to Doctor Miller, he continued, “If you need to keep him, that’s no problem, as long as he doesn’t go anywhere. But, right now I do need to talk to him if you don’t mind.”
“Be my guest,” she replied. “I’ll go get the paperwork started.”
The detective waited for her to leave then looked back at me with a stoic expression. After a moment of playing stare down, he said, “I thought we had an agreement. So I’m sure you can imagine my utter dismay at finding out you were still in town.”
“You didn’t really expect me to leave, did you?”
“Yes, actually I did.”
“Well, sorry about that, but I wasn’t finished here yet.”
“What? You just aren’t happy with your visit until you cause a multi-car pileup on one of the busiest streets in the city?”
“That was unfortunate,” I replied.
“Unfortunate?” he harrumphed. “I was thinking more like unconscionable. You’re just lucky no one got hurt. Although, I wouldn’t be surprised if you end up getting sued by a couple of people, and I wouldn’t blame them a bit if they do.”
“I was chasing the killer,” I said.
“That’s what your friend out there told us in her statement,” he agreed with a nod. “But, tell me this-how do you know you were chasing a killer and not just some frightened woman who thought you were going to rape her or something? We have at least two eyewitnesses who claim they saw her running from you screaming just exactly that.”
“You wouldn’t…”
He held up a hand to stop me. “Yeah, I know, I wouldn’t believe you if you told me. That seems to be your excuse for everything.”
“It’s not an excuse, it’s the truth.”
“Yeah, whatever. Sounds like an excuse to me.”
“If I told you, you would think I’m insane.”
“Hell, Gant, I already think you’re insane.”
“Look, you said you’d talked to Ben, and he filled you in on this case.”
He nodded. “You mean this case that you aren’t actually working? Yeah, he did.”
“That’s not the point. What I’m trying to tell you is that the woman I was chasing is Annalise Devereaux. She’s your killer.”
“No, Mister Gant, she is a person of interest to the Major Case Squad in Saint Louis,” he corrected.
“Call her whatever you want, I’m telling you she killed two men in Saint Louis, at the very least one here, and who knows how many more. She’s been implicated in…”
He cut me off. “You aren’t telling me anything I don’t already know. We cops actually know how to work telephones. Some of us even go so far as to use fax machines and email you know.”
“Then why wasn’t someone watching the cemetery? If you knew about her then all of this could have been avoided.”
“Mister Gant, in case you haven’t noticed, we have our hands full around New Orleans. Hell, I’m just down here as a volunteer. I was actually expecting to shuffle papers for a few weeks to help out, but I ended up on the streets working a homicide, and somehow that managed to get me hung with you. All I can figure is that I’ve done something to piss off God because my life normally doesn’t go like this.”
I ignored the sardonic remark and told him, “I’m not the one you need to worry about.”
“Right,” he nodded emphatically. “We need to worry about the mystery woman you chased through traffic.”
“Annalise Devereaux.”
“So you say.”
“She hasn’t come forward and pressed charges, has she?”
He shook his head. “No.”
“She won’t.”
“Statistically, you might be correct. Whoever she is, she’s probably scared shitless to even come out of her house after what you did.”
“That’s not the reason. She won’t come forward because she’s…”
“…Annalise Devereaux, evil killer woman. I know. You’ve told me. So what? You still assaulted her.”
“What I was going to say is that she knows you’re looking for her.”
“How?”
“I told her.”
“You told her we’re looking for her?” he asked calmly, although his expression didn’t fit his tone.
“Yes.”
“Mind if I ask why? And, don’t tell me I wouldn’t believe it if you told me.”
“I don’t know,” I told him.
“Well that’s new and different,” he hmmphed. “Assuming that you are correct, and this woman actually is Miz Devereaux, did it cross your mind that telling her we’re looking for her might make her harder to find?”
“Not at the time, no. Besides, don’t you give that sort of info to the media so it can be broadcast on the news?”
“Not always. And, definitely not right away,” he replied. “This time was one of those definite not yet situations.”
“Well…I guess I screwed up then.”
“You guess? Holy crap, Gant, you’re just a goddamned joy to have around, aren’t you?” he said, his sarcasm expanding to fill the room. “Do you do this sort of shit to Detective Storm too? Because if you do I’m surprised he hasn’t killed you yet.”
“Ben and I work together a little better than you and I seem to.”
“We aren’t working together, Gant. You’re just getting in the way and being a huge pain in my ass.”
“I don’t have a choice.”
“Really? How’s that? What did I ever do to you?”
“I’m trying to help my wife. You already know that.”
“Yeah, I do. I’m just not entirely clear on how chasing after a person of interest in a murder investigation you have nothing to do with is helping your wife.”
“I can’t really explain it.”
“Don’t tell me, let me guess-I wouldn’t believe you if you told me.”
Instead of responding to his sarcasm, I simply replied, “You’re just going to have to trust me on this.”
“I did that once already, and look what it got me.”
“Listen, Detective Fairbanks…”
“No, Gant, you listen. You’ve been in town less than forty-eight hours and you’re already vying for your own position next to Katrina as the worst natural disaster ever to hit this city. You rank somewhere on the order of an empty-handed FEMA bureaucrat at this point, so nobody is really interested in what you have to say.”
