by BJ Bourg
She leaned back in her chair and folded her hands in front of her on the desk. “Well, what do you want to know?”
I spent the next hour asking question after question, and she answered every one. It seemed we had figured things out mostly how they actually went down. She had been having a hit-and-run affair with Ralph for years—whenever she felt the need to get high—and she decided she’d have to cut it off now that she was running for the office of district attorney. Two days after their last romp on the table, he had called and demanded that she reduce the charges to a misdemeanor or he’d release the tape to the media. She didn’t believe he had a tape until the next day.
“I got outplayed,” she said. “It’s as simple as that. I knew Bill would never believe Ralph if he said I was snorting blow, but when Ralph showed me that video on his cell phone at the golf tournament”—she shook her head—“I knew it was all over. I had to do something, so I went to his office later to beg and reason with him—I even offered to sleep with whatever prosecutor got assigned the case—but he refused to play ball.”
“Whose gun did you use?” I asked.
“I got it from Doug,” she explained. “He said he took it off of a suspect many years ago and filed the serial number away. He called it a throw gun. It was actually Doug’s idea to kill Ralph. He said I had to get real close to him and put the gun right against his head to make it look like a contact wound. Of course, it wasn’t hard to get close to Ralph. All I had to do was unbutton my blouse and he turned to mush. I walked right up to him and pulled the trigger before he even knew I had a gun in my hand.”
Isabel paused and shook her head. “I’ve seen so many photos of homicide victims, but it’s nothing like in real life. There was a look on his face right before he died…it…it was horrifying. He looked right at me for a brief second, as though he was trying to tell me something, but nothing came out and his head collapsed to the desk.”
She went on to say that Doug was waiting out in the car, and when she summoned him, he came in and staged the scene to make it look like a suicide, including moving the laptop into the conference room and writing the suicide note.
“He’s quite good,” she said with a twinkle in her eye. “He almost had y’all fooled.”
I thought about pointing out to Isabel that Doug had made a number of mistakes, but there was something else on my mind.
CHAPTER 57
“The Remember the Fallen wristband—was that used as a prop to frame me?” I asked. “Was that your intention all along, to set me up as a fall guy so you and Doug could ride off into the sunset without having to look over your shoulders?”
Isabel’s eyes moistened and she reached across the desk for my hand. I pulled it away, but she pretended not to notice. “I’m so sorry you got accused of attacking Kim. That wasn’t supposed to happen. It wasn’t planned. It was just a coincidence that you and Doug wore the same wristband. And what were the chances that you would scratch yourself searching through that barrel for my burned clothes?”
As I listened to her, I sat amazed that this was the same woman with whom I’d worked for so many years. I had the utmost respect for her and had trusted her unequivocally. I would’ve taken a bullet for her. It suddenly occurred to me that the prospect of even more power was what had ruined her, just as positions of power ruin many others.
I began to wonder if I was susceptible to such influences. What was it that separated me from her? Mine was also a position of power that—in the wrong hands—could be wielded as a weapon to do harm to the innocent. If Isabel and Doug could be turned, why couldn’t I?
During this entire ordeal, Susan had never once suspected that I’d done anything wrong, but I was positive Isabel’s husband would feel the same way. So what’s the difference between you and me? I thought.
I suddenly I realized her problem. She had grown accustomed to the power of the job. She now took it for granted. She was addicted to it and wanted more of it—it was all about her. As for me, I had never viewed myself as a powerful person, nor had I ever viewed my position as powerful. I had always considered myself a public servant. I worked for the people; therefore I could by fired by the people. Proceeding in that manner could always keep one honest.
“…when David was presenting his case against you I felt terrible,” Isabel was saying. “I really did, and I almost said something right then and there, but I have faith in the criminal justice system. I knew DNA evidence would eventually clear you and then you could sue them and make a shitload of money, so it was actually a blessing in disguise for you.”
Isabel paused and shook her head. “But when they told me about Doug’s car being seen in the area of Kim’s house and how Amy found his mask? I knew it would only be a matter of time before y’all were all over Doug’s ass. If he went down, he was taking me down, so I had to act. I had to get rid of him. I couldn’t let Bill pick someone else to lead the district attorney’s office forward—the people of the parish didn’t deserve that. They deserve only the best representation, and I’ve been preparing my entire life for this job.”
“How’d you kill Doug?” I asked, intentionally using the K word, since I noticed she had avoided it. “I can’t imagine he asked you to.”
“Well, when I went to his house to get the iPad he took from Kim Plant, the gun was sitting right there on the table next to the device,” she said. “We talked about his car being seen and his mask being found and there probably being his DNA under Kim’s fingernails, but he assured me everything would be okay. I wasn’t convinced, so I just reached over, picked up the gun, and shot him in the forehead.” She frowned. “I learned my lesson from shooting Ralph, though. I didn’t look him in the eyes after I did it. I looked away.”
“He just let you pick up his gun and shoot him?” I asked, doubting her.
She placed her left hand against her left breast and coyly said, “I might’ve exposed a little skin to distract him.”
“Were you really gonna give Doug the job?” I asked, starting to feel a little sorry for the man. “Or did you only dangle it in front of his head to make him do your dirty work?”
“No, I was really giving it to him,” she said quickly, “along with a big raise. After all, he helped me stage the crime scene when I took care of Ralph. If I went to jail, he also went to jail, so he had a strong incentive to keep his mouth shut about that, but after he messed up with Kim I realized he was a liability.”
“I’m curious,” I said. “How’d you get him on board to kill Ralph? Did you pull out your boobs and get him all juiced up to go along, or what?”
“It was actually his idea.”
I blinked. “What?”
“I met with Doug a few times after offering him the job,” she explained, “and one night he just came out and said he’d hide a body for me. I laughed it off, but he said he was serious. He said he wouldn’t let anyone mess with me, because he believed in what I was about and he wanted to be a part of it. He made me feel protected. Anyway, after I left Ralph’s office on Saturday, I called Doug and told him everything was off, that it was over.”
“How’d he react?”
“He wasn’t having it.” She smiled. “I think he was more ambitious than me. He told me I had to keep fighting. As I joke, I asked if he was still willing to hide a body for me, and that’s when he devised the plan to kill Ralph and make it look like a suicide. We met right away and he gave me a crash course in suicide investigations. He took me to the woods and showed me how to use that gun. He said I was a natural. He then started following Ralph until he caught him at his office alone, and that when we put the plan into action.”
“Did you screw him, too?” Susan asked from beside me, a look of disgust on her face.
“No, of course not,” Isabel said. “I don’t screw my employees.”
“Well, at least you have some standards,” Susan said.
I stifled a chuckle and glanced at my notes. My head was hurting worse than earlier and I had about al
l I needed from her. It was time to transport her to the jail. I was about to stand up and tell her we would walk her out the back when she spoke again.
“I can’t believe you figured it out,” she said after a moment. “It was so perfect. Doug’s wife had left him and he was skipping work, so everyone would think he was depressed. Cops commit suicide all the time, especially those about to go to prison. How’d you figure it out?”
I shot my thumb toward Susan. “She figured it out, but we’ll keep you guessing on that one.”
“Hmm...” Isabel stared at Susan, but her eyes seemed to see right through her. “You caused all of this.”
I tucked the photos back in my folder and was about to tell Isabel that she was formally under arrest when Susan suddenly dove sideways, smashing her shoulder right into mine. Spinning to free her right arm, she lifted her right hand and started blazing away with her pistol. She fired four shots in rapid succession, all of her bullets striking Isabel in the chest at near pointblank range.
Time seemed to stand still as I watched each bullet pluck at the front of Isabel’s white blouse. Blood immediately began pouring from the holes, and Isabel stared down in horror at the life slowly drained from her body. Throughout the entirety of Susan’s attack, the prosecutor hadn’t moved a single muscle. Now, even if she wanted to, she couldn’t, because she was dead.
My ears rang. The smell of gunfire filled the small room. I had been knocked halfway out of my chair and I was leaning against the wall to my right. Every inch of my body screamed in pain as I stared in horror at the carnage before me. My wife had seemingly just murdered the first assistant district attorney in cold blood.
“Sue, what in the hell happened?” I finally asked in a shaky voice. My head was swimming. Had I missed something? “Why’d you kill her?”
Susan didn’t answer me right away. Instead, she stood slowly to her feet, holstered her pistol, and walked calmly around the desk. Fighting through the pain, I worked my way to my feet and made my way around the desk. I could hear startled screams emitting from somewhere down the hall, and people running around hysterically.
Susan pointed under the desk and I bent over to see what she was looking at. I cursed out loud when I saw an empty holster mounted to the underside of the desk, and a loaded pistol dangling from Isabel’s lifeless hand. I then shifted my gaze to the chair in which Susan had been sitting, and was shocked to see a dime-size hole through the backrest right where Susan had been sitting just moments earlier.
“But…but how’d you know?”
“Isabel learned from Doug,” Susan explained, “and Ashley Cagle told me he keeps a pistol mounted under his desk.”
CHAPTER 58
Three weeks later…
The Mechant Loup Pumpkin Festival
It was a beautiful October day and the Bayou Tail Park was bustling with activity. There was a large food tent on the eastern end of the park, a mid-sized tent for beer and soda that was more centrally located, and smaller tents featuring various activities were scattered up and down the bayou side. Going into its third and final day, the festival was showing no signs of slowing down. To say it had been a huge success for the town was putting it mildly.
I had just finished eating a platter of fried shrimp and a bowl of jambalaya at one of the tables under the food tent, and I decided to go find my wife and daughter. Amy, Baylor, and Takecia were still eating, and they waved to me as I left. I stopped briefly near the beer tent to speak with Melvin and Regan—they were working the festival today—before continuing on my way.
The last I’d seen of Susan, she was watching Grace get her face painted. I had been worried about Susan after the shooting with Isabel—considering we had known Isabel for so long—but she had bounced back right away. Bill Hedd had been stunned to learn that his first assistant was a murderer, and he was shaken by the shooting in his office. So much so, that he made his retirement effective immediately. He had named Assistant District Attorney Britt Lucas as his replacement, and—after a thorough investigation of the shooting by Detective William Proctor from Empyrean Parish Sheriff’s Office—she had wasted no time in clearing Susan of any wrongdoing.
After William had taken my statement about the shooting, I’d asked about that kid, Shade Rankin. He said the sheriff had launched a full-on investigation into the warden after the riot and—among other problems—it was revealed that Shade had been disciplined for filing an abuse of force report against David Monier.
“The kid’s file was wiped clean and he’s being sent to the next police academy,” William said. “By this time next year, he’ll be on patrol and on his way to a bright future in law enforcement. The warden…well, let’s just say the sun had set on his abysmal law enforcement career.”
I had been happy to hear of it. Shade Rankin would always have a special place in my heart. Thanks to him, I was walking above ground on this beautiful day and enjoying a great time with my friends and family.
“Daddy, daddy,” Grace shouted gleefully when I approached the tent where she and Susan were carving pumpkins. “Look, I’m cutting him’s face!”
“His face,” I corrected. Susan was squatting beside Grace helping her carve a crooked mouth into a large pumpkin. Susan had on white shorts and a bright orange shirt that accentuated her tanned legs and arms, and I found myself standing there enjoying the looks of her.
Susan glanced up and smiled when she caught me staring. She paused to push a lock of brown hair behind her ear. “What’s going on with you?”
“I’m just happy to be here with y’all,” I said, reflecting on my brief time in jail. I couldn’t help but wonder what Susan and Grace would be doing if I hadn’t made it out alive. I knew they probably wouldn’t be sitting here carving pumpkins, but I couldn’t imagine what they would be doing.
“Daddy, this is my best-of-all.” Grace jutted out her lower lip and expelled some air to blow her red bangs out of her eyes. “I’m a pumpkin, too, and this is my Pumpkin Best-of-all.”
“It’s festival,” I said, laughing and ruffling her hair. “If you do a good job, we’ll put that pumpkin at the police station for everybody to see.”
“Yay!”
Susan was studying me intently, but she relaxed when I gave her a wink. We had made love this morning and it was the first time in two weeks I hadn’t felt any pain when she’d gotten on top of me.
“You okay?” she asked. “You have a strange look in your eyes.”
“I’m better than okay.” I waved a hand around. “This fall weather makes me feel young again. I’m tired of sitting around doing nothing. I’m ready to get back to work.”
“But you are working.” She gathered up the plastic carving tools and stood to kiss my cheek. Grace went to coloring hair on her pumpkin, and for some mysterious reason, she picked red. “You haven’t stopped working yet.”
“I’ve been pulling desk duty,” I said with a grunt. “That’s not my idea of work. I’m ready to get back out in the field.”
Susan’s jaw tightened ever so slightly. “The doctor hasn’t released you yet.”
“I’m releasing myself. Come Monday, I’m back.”
She took a slow breath and I could almost hear her counting to five in her mind. “The doctor said you can’t take any blows to the head for at least a month.”
“And I won’t.” I flashed a lighthearted grinned. “I’ll be good. No fighting, no chasing, no fun stuff until the end of October. If I need to arrest someone, I’ll sic Amy on them.”
Before Susan could lodge an objection, someone called my name. Saved by the bell! I turned to see Mayor Pauline Cain and Perry Goldsmith standing near the neighboring tent. They were waving me over. I told Susan I’d see her later. Her look said, You better believe it—we ain’t done here!
I made my way through the crowd, caught up to Pauline and Perry, and followed them to a quiet place under a large oak tree. It was cool in the shade and a few strands of Pauline’s long black hair danced in the gentle breeze.
“Are you feeling better?” Pauline asked. “You certainly look good.”
“Thanks.” I nodded. “I’m going back to full duty on Monday.”
Pauline shifted her eyes to Perry, but didn’t say anything. She knew how stubborn I could be, and I guess she decided this was a battle she didn’t want to pick.
“Pauline told me the DNA evidence came back from the lab,” Perry said. “She said Doug’s DNA was everywhere.”
“Yeah,” I said. “It was on the ski mask, under Kim’s fingernails, and on the drop gun in Ralph’s office.”
“Did y’all ever find the burner phone that Isabel was using?” he asked.
“Amy found it taped under the dash in her vehicle. We had to call the number and listen for the vibration, but we got it.” I stopped talking long enough to allow a passerby to get out of earshot, and then I continued. “Thanks to the GPS coordinates on the phone, we were able to place Isabel at the scene of Ralph’s murder and also at the scene of Doug’s murder. It’s not that we needed it, considering she’s dead, but I like to tie up all loose ends on a case.”
We talked a bit more about the evidence that had been processed and the other aspects of the case. I told them how Doug had been killed with his own gun, the blood we’d found on the back of Ralph’s laptop had, indeed, come back to Ralph, and Ethan Bruce had been granted clemency in Empyrean Parish for his role in solving our case.
When there was a lull in the conversation, Perry and Pauline traded glances. I suddenly got the feeling they were there for a very specific purpose.
“What’s going on?” I asked.
“What do you mean?” Perry asked innocently. “There’s nothing going on.”
“I saw the way y’all looked at each other.” I folded my arms across my chest. “Something’s up.”