Too Far Gone

66

Alexa was content to let Manseur handle the evidence collection and the crime-scene investigation, under the color of her authority. She would work out the details with her superiors later, and if there was a positive outcome, there’d be plenty of credit to go around for the FBI, the New Orleans Police, and the parish. Manseur ordered a van to remove Kenneth Decell’s body. The New Orleans crime-lab technicians were more than competent to collect any evidence in and around the cabin.

If this case had gone sour, it could have devastated her career, but every case had that potential. Her director had told her to help the NOPD with this, use her best judgment, and that was what she was doing. She didn’t want an FBI team she wasn’t familiar with walking in on the case at the present point. Then she’d have to go by the numbers. Anyway, at that moment most of the local agents were either making sure their families were out of the city, or battening down the offices before leaving themselves.

Alexa and Manseur were out behind the cabin down by the place where the boat had been tied up earlier.

“How badly did Casey hit the little guy?” Manseur asked her.

“She hit that valise and maybe those bonds slowed or stopped most of the rounds, but Casey shot him at least once. Maybe more when he turned to flee.”

“She tell you she was armed before you got here?”

“She has a concealed carry permit for the. 380, and she was certainly justified in her actions.”

“So, the answer is no?”

“Of course she didn’t. You can’t blame her for carrying, though, can you? She handles a weapon better than I do.”

“You mean she hung on to hers.”

“Dry up, Manseur. Leland wants your gun, he’ll take it. I gah-rhone-tee.”

“I’ll put out an alert to area doctors and hospitals. Maybe he’ll show up for treatment if he’s still among the living.”

“Good,” Alexa said. “Have your techs collect everything and we’ll decide what needs to go to the FBI lab. I’ll ask for expedited blood and DNA evidence on Doc Doe.”

“If this case is still that hot up there. I have a feeling Evans might want to put us on banging on doors, now that West is going home.”

“We still have to find Sibby Danielson.”

“Yeah, I expect that’s going to be right up there beside finding out where Hoffa’s buried.”

Alexa stepped back and felt something under her heel. She bent, parted the weeds, and, using her flashlight, saw that the object was a cell phone. “One of them must have dropped this,” she said.

Manseur picked it up carefully by the antenna and dropped it into an evidence envelope. “With any luck we can trace it to one of them. Looks like it has blood on it.”

“Hopefully it’s a prepaid cell on our sheets. Michael, Leland called the guy Casey shot Doc. I think he’s Grace’s man friend. We need to get her picked up. The

phone will connect her to Doc and to this. Doc-he could be a physician, dentist, chiropractor, maybe a Ph. D.”

“Or a tree surgeon,” Manseur said.

“LePointe might be upset since Decell gave up the bearer bonds, and he didn’t get his notebook,” Alexa said.

“He has to act happy, because he’s got Gary West back, and he sure as hell can’t ask us about the notebook. Be interesting to see who does ask.”

“My money’s on Jackson Evans. Christ! What the hell’s wrong with me?”

She raced around to her Bucar, opened the passenger side door, reached in, pulled the computer out, and opened it on the hood of the car. “The tracker is still in the briefcase.”

“The tracker is out of range now or got damaged by a round,” Manseur said, after seeing there was no blinking dot on the screen.

“We could use a plane to locate the bug if it wasn’t damaged. If they keep the bonds in the briefcase, and they don’t discover the tracker, maybe we can find them.”

“That I can handle,” Manseur said.

“I hate to leave this in your lap, but I need to go to the hospital. I want to see how Gary and Casey are. Maybe you can send Kennedy by Smythe’s address and pick up Grace. You get her in an interrogation room, call me.”

Alexa got into her car, plugged the hospital’s address into her GPS, and drove away. She was feeling light-headed from a lack of sleep. As soon as she made sure Casey was all right, she had some reading to do. After that, she was going to grab a cat nap.