taken another route home.
Nathan’s visits to the cemetery had become both easier and harder over the years. Easier because it was the only place where he ever felt any real peace. Harder because it always hit him anew how much he’d lost when Teri died.
“Hello, Nathan.”
With an effort, he opened his eyes. He hadn’t even realized he’d drifted off, but when he saw the man standing over him, he came fully awake and a warning shivered down his spine.
He couldn’t see the man’s face, but he knew that voice.
“Long time no see,” Nathan said as he dropped his hand to the ground beside his leg. “I was about to give up. Thought no one was coming. I’d have been mighty pissed, too, after driving all the way up here to see you.”
“Have you ever known Sonny to go back on his word?”
Nathan shrugged. “Like I said, it’s been a long time. People change.”
“You sure have.” The man kicked Nathan’s foot with the toe of his boot. “You look like shit.”
“Thanks a lot.” He lifted the bottle and took a long swig.
“You need to take better care of yourself. Maybe try a steady diet of something besides Jim Beam.”
“I’ll make you a deal. You live your life, I’ll live mine.”
The man laughed softly and turned to glance around. “I didn’t see your car on the street. How’d you get over here?”
“Walked.”
“From where?”
“From where I left my car,” Nathan said, evading the question.
The man turned back to him. “The feds are bound to know you’re back in town by now. You sure you weren’t followed?”
Nathan snorted. “None of those fuckers know New Orleans like I do.”
“Don’t get too confident.”
“I’m not,” he said. “Matter of fact, I ran into a little unexpected trouble when I was here earlier.”
“Yeah, we know about that.”
Nathan looked up in surprise. “You know? What, you guys spying on me?”
“Just keeping an eye on things,” the man said. “Big difference.”
“What did Evangeline Theroux want?” he asked.
Nathan scowled. “What do you think she wanted?”
The man hesitated. “Let me rephrase that. What did you tell her?”
“Nothing, man.”
“She sure seemed upset when she left. So I repeat…what did you tell her?”
Nathan wiped a shaky hand across his mouth. “She kept asking about that night. I had to tell her something to get her off my back.”
“And?”
“I told her about the woman.”
Another long pause. “I see.”
“At least now she’ll stop asking questions,” Nathan said hopefully.
“You think?”
“Yeah, man, we’re chill.” He handed up the bottle to his companion. “Have a drink and relax.”
“No, thanks, but you go ahead and knock yourself out.”
“Don’t mind if I do.” Nathan took another swallow and recapped the bottle.
“What else are you on?” the man asked conversationally.
“What do you mean?”
“I’m talking about drugs, Nathan. Narcotics. Chemicals. What gets you baked these days?”
“Hey, I’m clean.”
“Sure you are. That’s why you look like a walking corpse. Hooch didn’t do that kind of damage. If I was a betting man, I’d put my money on meth. The nirvana of the Southern redneck.”
Nathan’s hand was still beside him on the ground. Just a fingertip away from his gun. “Something tells me you didn’t come here just to insult me. Why’d you want to see me anyway?”
“We’ve got some loose ends that need tying up.”
“Such as?”
“You’ve got an addiction, Nathan. That makes you dangerous to Sonny. Especially with the feds breathing down his neck.”
“Nah, man. What are you talking about?” Nathan’s fingers inched closer to his weapon. He didn’t like where this conversation was headed.
“When you run out of money, you might be tempted to start selling secrets. We can’t have that, now can we?”
Nathan reached for his gun, but he was too late. He barely caught a glimpse of the silenced weapon before a bullet caught him square between the eyes. His head flew back, spraying blood and membrane all over his dead wife’s tomb.
He was dead instantly, but the killer pumped two more rounds into his chest for good measure. Then he squatted beside Nathan’s body and rummaged through his jacket until he found a wallet and car keys.
Standing, he pocketed the booty, then turned and made his way to the back of the cemetery, where he slowly walked down the row of vaults, reading the plaques.
Johnny Theroux.
A moment later, he disappeared into the night.
The next morning, Evangeline pulled to the curb in front of the address Lapierre had given her the day before. It was a little before nine, and she was glad to have a few minutes to herself before interviewing the mysterious Lena Saunders.
Evangeline hauled out the notes she’d scribbled earlier at the station, but she found it impossible to focus her thoughts. Her eyes burned from fatigue, and she squeezed them closed for a moment against the blinding sunlight that bounced off the windshield of a parked car.
She hadn’t slept much the night before. Too much on her mind.
On the heels of Nathan’s disclosure had come the news of her parents’ impending separation. She supposed the trouble in that marriage had been brewing for a long time, too, but she’d managed to convince herself they’d work things out. If their relationship had survived the hell her brother, Vaughn, had put them through back in his youth, she would have thought they could weather any storm.
Apparently, she’d been wrong about that, too.
Her parents. Mitchell and Lorraine. And now the memory of her and Johnny’s marriage was tarnished with doubt.
Glancing at her watch, Evangeline saw that it was almost nine. She climbed out of the car and took a moment to gaze around the neighborhood. Lena Saunders lived only a few blocks over from Meredith Courtland in the Garden District. The houses along this street were slightly smaller, but the yards and gardens were just as well kept, the white facades of the homes just as sparkling in the summer heat.
Out on the street, two boys rode by on bicycles, ball gloves swinging from their handlebars. They laughed and clowned as they sped through the lawn sprinklers, and Evangeline wondered for a moment what her life would be like when J.D. reached that age.
