pressure. When his captors released him, his feet slid out from under him and he went down again. Quickly he surfaced, shaking his head from side to side, and Taubin laughed out loud. “Look at that dumb pecker-wood.”
Dave saw Nettle smile in the moonlight. “I bet he’s ready to talk now. Let’s get him to the bank.”
They pulled him out of the water and plopped him facedown in the mud.
“Who gave you those files?” Nettle asked calmly.
“I don’t remember,” Dave gasped. His heart was pounding hard and fast, and his mouth was filled with the taste of swamp water, blood and fear.
“Someone brought you into this,” Nettle said. “I want a name.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Like I said, we could get your uncle down here, see what he knows. Or maybe we could pay a visit to your old partner. He might know something. Titus has a kid still at home, right? A girl about fourteen or fifteen. You know better than anyone how far a guy would go to protect his daughter, don’t you, Dave?”
“You son of a bitch. You lay one finger on that girl, I’ll kill you. If there’s anything left once Titus gets through with you.”
Nettle just laughed.
“Next time, I say we leave him under longer,” Taubin said. “If he comes back up, we won’t be able to shut him up. If he don’t, we can just leave him for gator bait.”
They moved toward Dave again, but this time he was ready for them. He rolled to his back and slammed his foot into Taubin’s groin. The man’s knees buckled and he fell to the ground in a fetal curl. He lay groaning in pain and rage for the longest moment before slowly rising to his feet, one hand pressed between his spraddled legs while the other hand pulled out his knife.
“You’re a dead man,” he gasped as he started toward Dave. “I’ll gut you like a catfish—” A light caught him in the face and he blinked in shock. “What the hell…?”
A split second later, a bullet hit a cypress tree behind him and the bark exploded into the water. Taubin swore again as he dived for cover.
“This is private property!” Marsilius yelled from the darkness. “I already called the law so you’ve got about five seconds to get the hell out of here before I start blowing some head off!”
To punctuate his warning, he fired off several rounds, hitting targets so close to Taubin and Nettle that there was little doubt about his aim. If he’d wanted them dead, they already would be.
Taubin rose shakily to his feet, keeping his head low. “Let’s get the hell out of here. I don’t want no trouble with the local boys. You ain’t paying me enough to get my head busted open by some redneck deputy with a billy club.”
Nettle glanced down at Dave in the dark. “Do yourself a favor. Stay out of New Orleans and stay out of my business. Next time it won’t turn out so good for you.”
And then they were gone. Pain twisted inside Dave’s gut and he rolled over to vomit in the mud. When he was finished, he lay weak and trembling on his side. It was all he could do to keep from blacking out.
A moment later, Marsilius knelt beside him in the mud. “How bad you hurt, son?”
“I’ll live,” Dave muttered. “Thanks to you.”
“That head’s gonna need some stitches.”
“I don’t think it’s as bad as it looks.” Dave struggled to sit up. “I’ll clean it up when I get home, see how it looks.”
“Don’t talk crazy, son, they laid you open good. I’m taking you to the hospital. Can you walk or do I need to back the truck down here?”
“I can walk.”
His uncle helped him to his feet. “You sure? You’re staggering around like you been on a three-day drunk.”
“I’m fine,” Dave said, a split second before he passed out cold.
By the time they left the hospital, the sky had already started to lighten in the east. They’d waited hours to see a doctor. It was Saturday night and the end of a three-week rotation for some of the workers on the offshore oil rigs, so the emergency room had been packed with guys fresh in from the platforms and ready to party.
Dave had sat holding a towel to his head as he filled out the paperwork, and every time Marsilius went to ask how much longer it would be, the heavyset nurse behind the desk would glower and tell him they would just have to wait their turn like everybody else.
Finally, Dave had been taken to a cubicle and treated by a freckle-faced intern who looked barely old enough to vote. The gash on Dave’s head took several stitches, but he didn’t have any broken bones or ribs, and once the doctor had him patched up, he signed Dave’s release papers because they were short on beds. That suited Dave fine. He wouldn’t have stayed, anyway. He hated hospitals. Something about the smell, he decided as he walked outside.
He rolled down the window in Marsilius’s truck and tipped his head back so the air rushed over his face. Clouds scuttled across the eastern sky where the sun hovered just below the horizon.
As Marsilius turned down the dusty road to home, he cut Dave a glance. “You ready to tell me what happened earlier?”
“I thought it was pretty obvious that I got my ass kicked.” Dave watched out the window as distant heat lightning shimmered just above the treetops.
“You know what I mean. Who were those guys?”
“Just forget about it, okay? The less you know, the better off you’ll be.”
“Yeah, well, here’s the thing. After the potshots I took over their heads, I have a feeling those bastards may not be feeling too kindly toward me. I’d at least like to know who I need to be on the lookout for.”
“I guess you’ve got a point,” Dave said. “The big guy is NOPD. His name is Clive Nettle.”
Marsilius turned to look at him. “A cop? Shit fire, Dave, what are you mixed up in?”
Dave ignored the question. “The scrawny one is an ex-con named Bobby Ray Taubin. I think there was a third one, but I never got a look at him. Bobby Ray works for JoJo Barone. Evidently, he also does some side jobs for Nettle.”
“What do they want with you?”
“I guess they don’t like some of the questions I’ve been asking. Or more to the point, they don’t like the answers I got from JoJo Barone.”
“When did you go see JoJo?”
“Yesterday. He told me that Clive Nettle killed Renee Savaria at a private party he arranged, and the whole thing was covered up by some of the other cops who were there that night.”
“Do you believe him?”
“If I didn’t before, I do after tonight.”
His uncle let out a long breath. “What the hell are you going to do with that information?”
Dave frowned into the darkness. “I don’t know yet. Look for the other cops who were involved, for one thing.”
“You can’t go this alone, son, you’ll need somebody watching your back.”
“Don’t worry about it. I’ve got that part covered.”
“Sure as hell didn’t look that way to me. This is dangerous shit, Dave. You gotta bring somebody else in on this fast. Somebody you can trust.”
“Yeah, well, that’s the problem. JoJo said those parties were attended by some pretty heavy-duty brass. I don’t know how far up this thing goes.”
“What about the D.A.?”
Dave had thought of that, but going to Lee Elliot would be a tricky business, considering his involvement with Angelette. Dave still hadn’t figured out her angle yet, and until he did, he wasn’t about to put much faith in anyone she was that closely associated with.
“What makes you think I could even get in to see Lee Elliot?”
“Maybe you couldn’t, but Claire’s sister could.”
Dave’s laugh was bitter. “You’re joking, right? Charlotte LeBlanc despises the ground I walk on. No way she’d hear me out.”
