The Cain Casey Series

Chapter Five

When Muriel received the call telling her what had happened to her two junior associates, she squeezed the glass she’d been holding so hard that it shattered. She was sitting in Cain’s kitchen with two telephone lines going, having personally talked to everyone on her staff, from secretaries to file clerks, except for the two young attorneys.

Fortunately, the glass was the only victim of her Casey temper, and she hadn’t sliced her hand open.

“Just stay home tomorrow until we regroup. The files can be re-created from the backups in the safety deposit box, so stop worrying. Call me if you hear anything else.” Muriel put the phone down gently and pinched the bridge of her nose. She felt like hitting something, but now wasn’t the time for a meltdown.

“Who shot and killed the men on the street?” the detective standing in Muriel’s personal space asked.

“And you are?”

“I asked you a question first,” he replied, a smirk firmly in place.

“And I asked you one second. What difference does it make?” She stood up and took a step closer to him, getting him to take one back. Muriel was no stranger to intimidation tactics, but she was usually the one doing the intimidating. “Either state your name or get out.”

The slightly overweight man glared at her through slitted eyes before he acquiesced. “I’m Detective Newsome, and I’d like some questions answered, Muriel.”

“I didn’t realize we were on a first-name basis, Officer.” She rifled him a glare at the familiarity, making his dull brown eyes disappear further behind his lids.

“Ms. Casey, then. Who took out the guys on the street?”

“Our security people killed these men in self-defense. I gave someone with the police department all the necessary paperwork pertaining to gun permits and carry licenses. If you’ve walked through the upstairs, I’m sure your keen detecting skills deduced that we did not provoke this fight.”

His pen scraped along the notepad in his hand long after she finished talking. As a veteran cop he knew she could tell him precisely who had pulled the trigger, since each of the dead men had tight bullet patterns to the middle of his chest and forehead.

But this was Muriel Casey. Any information he would get out of her would be with a court order in hand. Like her infamous cousin, Muriel never volunteered anything.

“And I’m sure you know nothing about any identification these guys might or might not have been carrying?”

“If I were to send hired killers to someone’s home, I’d make sure they left their wallets and credit cards at home, Officer. Of course, since we have no experience with that sort of thing, I’m only guessing. Call it pure conjecture on my part.” She watched as the smile came to his lips, giving him an echo of one herself.

“Of course.” He laughed. “And you probably have no idea why this happened, do you? Law-abiding citizens have crazed killers showing up at their houses all the time. It’s a regular citywide epidemic, from what I hear.”

“None. My cousin is a tavern owner. I have no idea why someone would want to harm her family. Maybe it was someone who thinks her beer is flat.”

The feminine laughter coming from the doorway made both Muriel and Newsome turn around. Agent Shelby Daniels, wearing a conservative dark suit with a light-colored silk blouse, leaned against the door frame with her arms folded against her chest. Both members of her audience took a visual tour down her body to the black pumps, then back up again, but Shelby cared about only one perusal.

“You shouldn’t stand so close to her, Detective. The lightning might take you out too when God strikes her down for telling such lies. I’m sure Muriel is way ahead of us already.” Shelby pushed off and stepped into the room, stopping a couple of feet in front of a smiling Muriel.

“Ms. Casey prefers not to be addressed by her first name,” Newsome said with authority. “And you are?”

“Agent Shelby Daniels, meet Detective Newsome, one of New Orleans’s finest. Detective, you best be on your best behavior now. The feds have arrived, and you don’t want a bad report on your job performance, do you?” Muriel said. She was clearly teasing, and Shelby brought a hand up to her mouth to cover a laugh she tried to disguise as a cough. “Now that we all know each other, to what do I owe the pleasure of your company, Agent?”

Shelby Daniels’s presence wasn’t a surprise since she’d become a fixture in their lives almost from the time Cain had met her trying to bug Vincent Carlotti’s plane. The head of the Carlotti family, and also one of Cain’s strongest allies, had wanted to throw Shelby out of the plane for the infraction, but Cain had intervened and saved her life. That encounter had evolved into innocent flirtations between Shelby and Cain, until it became clear to Shelby that Cain was off-limits for a number of reasons, starting with what she did for a living. Her cousin Muriel was another story, though, and Shelby found her incredibly attractive.

“Two explosions in one day? With all the excitement how, pray tell, did you think I’d stay away? Tell me a story, Barrister Casey.”

“Would you excuse us, Detective?” Muriel buttoned her jacket and started walking toward Cain’s office. When Newsome attempted to follow them, two men stepped in his way and refused to move.

“I’m not finished with my questions,” Newsome yelled after the two women.

A closing door with more than a few bullet holes in it was his only answer.

Shelby scanned the room with a critical eye and shivered when she thought of Cain sitting in the chair behind the desk, one of her favorite spots in the house. The amount of firepower the hit men had concentrated on the room would have cut her in two had she been sitting there.

“They did a number on this place, didn’t they?” Muriel said, breaking the silence.

“Who was it?”

“I don’t know, Shelby, and that’s as far down that conversational road as we’re going. Why are you here, really?”

“We’re here to help, if we can. The city has enough problems already without a gangland war breaking out. Trust me, Muriel, my team and I just want to help catch the guys who did this. You and Cain lost people today. Don’t you want someone to pay?”

Muriel pushed aside a pile of broken glass with the toe of her expensive Italian leather loafer as she appeared to think the offer over. “Ask the staff whatever you please, but I want to know if you’re planning to leave any surveillance equipment behind. Granted, closed warrants will cover your ass from answering truthfully, but if you lie the trust between us will vanish. You betray Cain and me, and I’ll cut you out of our lives.”

“We’re here only in an investigative capacity for now. How’s that?” All Shelby saw for a long moment was the top of Muriel’s head as she continued to stare at the ground and move around broken glass. “Who was sitting in here when hell broke loose?”

Muriel looked up at her. “What makes you think someone was?”

At the edge of the desk, almost as if Merrick had just put it down, sat a glass half filled with milk. Everything else in the room was in tatters, but the glass sat untouched. Muriel just started laughing, a heartfelt, belly-shaking sound that made Shelby join in without knowing why.

“What’s so funny?” Shelby asked, as she watched long fingers wipe tears away from the sudden outbreak of humor.

“I’ve never compared Cain to an inanimate object, but does that glass remind you of her? The room is totally destroyed, but no one touched this.” Muriel picked up the glass of milk and set it down next to her. “All my life I envied her the ability to just walk through the chaos and end up just like this—untouched and whole. Cain’s mother, my aunt Therese, used to say it was because she was touched by the angels.”

“As a wise man told me on a plane ride one night, Counselor, Cain was the reason Agent Barney Kyle’s hair was so gray. She was graced with more than her share of Irish luck, I swear. That was very true, though your comparison would’ve been more accurate had it been a glass of beer.”

“Nah, Irish whiskey is her favorite, but I’ve never known her to turn her nose up at a good brew. As much as I enjoy your company, Agent Daniels, I really must get back to my duties.” Muriel’s fingers touched Shelby’s elbow as she passed by her on the way out the door. “Have a good day.”

“Could I maybe buy you a drink later?” Shelby asked in a soft voice.

“Am I your consolation prize?” Muriel walked back into the room, with more than a touch of humor in her voice.

“Truthfully, your cousin was more a passing fancy, so no, you’re not.”

A low chuckle stopped Shelby from continuing. “The forbidden fruit, eh?”

“Cain is more like the whole tree, but you’re a different animal altogether, aren’t you?” Shelby watched Muriel cross her arms and lean on Cain’s desk. “I just thought that since you’ve lost so much today, you might want to unwind a bit. Once you’re done, of course. I like you, Muriel, and now, more than ever, you could use a friend.”

“Where would you like to go?”

“How about someplace neutral? The bar at the Piquant, perhaps?”

Muriel opened the door and waved, signaling that Shelby should go first. “I should be done by eight. If you like, I’ll just meet you there. We wouldn’t want your bosses to think any less of you if you’re seen riding in a car with me.”

“It’s a date, Counselor.”

The way Shelby looked at her as she spoke made Muriel feel as if the excitement in her life was about to begin, and bullets and explosions would have nothing to do with it.