Muriel scanned the room to see if anything jumped out at her, but all she noticed was that Anthony was a slob, no matter how neat he appeared in public. The man in the pressed suits and shiny shoes didn’t quite fit with the condition of this place. She sat at his desk and tried to go through the drawers without moving too much around, but they were so overfilled he’d probably never suspect anyone had been there.
It wasn’t until she called Katlin to unlock the top right-hand drawer that Muriel found any order to the madness that was Anthony’s life. There in neat files was what she was looking for. His bank records, retirement funds, and investments were in color-coded binders, and at the back were his social security number and birth certificate. For someone in law enforcement to have such sensitive information all in one place was crazy, but very considerate since that’s what she was after.
Carefully holding a pen light in her mouth, she copied the numbers she needed in order, so she could put the pages back as she’d found them. When she got to the last folder, she fell back in the chair and was tempted to turn on the light to fully appreciate what she’d found. She rifled through pictures and meticulous notes of Cain and her schedule whenever he’d tailed her, all dated. The follow-up notes revealed different patterns he was working out regarding Cain. Most of them were from when Anthony was still with Shelby and her team, but the last ones had come after his supposed suspension.
“Find something?” Katlin asked.
Muriel held up the last picture in the file—of Cain the night she’d had dinner with Remi and Dallas at the Steak Knife. Cain was laughing at something Emma had probably told her, and Anthony had drawn a red circle with an
“What do you think this means?” Muriel asked.
“Our boy’s got a bigger crush than we thought. What other pictures did you find?”
Muriel took the file from the drawer and let Katlin flip through it. He must have collected most of the stuff when he was off duty, which could only mean that his hate ran deep. Katlin stopped when she got to a photo of Emma alone, or as alone as Emma ever was. She was standing outside Mr. B’s restaurant in the French Quarter, and she and Merrick were waiting for the car to be brought out. Emma had just finished having lunch with Marianna Jatibon, since the two served on a committee to raise money for Children’s Hospital.
“Cain, I understand, but why this one?” Katlin asked.
“The ones of Cain feed his appetite, but Emma has to do with his new boss. This one was recent, though, and Juan’s supposedly gone.”
A car door slammed outside, and Katlin quickly handed the file back to Muriel and stepped to the window. Anthony lived on the third floor of an old building uptown, which gave them the amount of time it would take him to climb the steps to get out, since he was heading in quickly.
“Put the file back exactly where you found it,” Katlin ordered, then set out to lock the drawer. That one had been easy, but the ancient deadbolt on the door had been another matter. “Wait a floor up for me,” she told Muriel, “and don’t come down no matter what.”
She had unscrewed the light on the second-floor landing and heard his footsteps slow down, but still the damn lock wouldn’t turn. “Great, it’s like some Hitchcock movie,” she muttered to herself as she turned the picks trying to catch the locking device until finally feeling the satisfying click.
With her fingers to her lips, she stared at Muriel and stood just at the top of the steps leading to the fourth floor. If Anthony glanced up, he couldn’t miss them.
She stood still as Anthony stopped but didn’t hear the sound of the key going into his lock. His breathing, though, was hard to miss. He was puffing so hard he sounded like he had run a mile as fast as he could instead of having climbed several flights of stairs. Then he slammed his hand into the doorjamb and laughed.
Slowly, as if Anthony could hear the sound of fabric rubbing on fabric, Katlin raised her hand and stuck it in her jacket, resting it on the butt of her gun. The last thing she wanted was to shoot him, but she wanted to be prepared. When he finally unlocked the door and went inside, she brought it down just as slowly. It didn’t take long for the muffled noise of the television to filter out to the hall.
Katlin turned to leave, but Muriel put her hand on her collar. “Wait.”
“For what?” Katlin asked.
“If he finds anything out of place, he’ll do it in the next five minutes.”
After a while, Muriel pushed on Katlin a little, and they passed the doorway of Anthony’s place just as quietly as they made it down the stairs. If he did notice anything, he was biding his time and not running out to see if the trespassers were still close.
“Are you going to the house, or home?” Muriel asked once they were on the street and walking toward their car parked three blocks away.
“I moved Merrick to your place until this is over, so we’re going in the same direction, don’t worry. I want to wait until tomorrow to tell Cain. It’s late and I’m sure she’s in for the night. This will hold until the morning.”
“But not much longer than that.”
*
Cain entered the house and stood by the back door waiting for her eyes to adjust to the low lighting. She’d skipped dinner when Katlin had gotten back from Bob’s place and showed her what she’d found after an extensive search that had included his attic. That’s where she’d found the boxes of VHS tapes of Dallas’s short stint in the skin-flick business. Sitting on top was the master tape Cain figured Bob had stolen to protect his interests. She’d given it all to Remi when she’d gone to meet her.
“His cash cow was too lucrative to throw to the wolves that prowl the entertainment business,” she said softly as she opened the fridge. Bob and his dirty secrets were gone, making Cain wish she could solve all her problems so easily.
“I made you a sandwich,” Emma said, turning on the light over the stove. “Have a seat and I’ll get it for you.”
“No hello kiss?”
She set the plate down with a glass of milk and pulled Cain’s chair out for her. “I’d love to, but I just finished throwing up and don’t want to gross you out.”
