He pressed his hand against her cheek. “I can’t fix it if you don’t tell me what’s wrong.”
“Somebody mailed a video to Chance,” she said finally, looking down. “I don’t want to discuss the specifics, but the tape involves me and Chad.”
He lifted her chin so he could see her face, his heart rate quickening. “Are we talking about a sex tape?”
Her answer was barely audible. “Maybe.”
“Shit.” He recalled her earlier assertion that Chad hadn’t been able to perform during sex, and wondered why Chad would have taped that. “And that’s why you’re so upset? Because he videotaped the two of you?”
She shook her head. “I’m worried there might be more tapes. I’m thinking about going to Chad’s to look for them.”
Shep jumped up before he realized it. “Absolutely not. You are not going anywhere near Lejeune.”
“I could go when he’s not home.” She sprung up next to Shep, grabbing his arm. “I could pick the lock, look for the tapes and get out. He’d never know I was there.”
“Exactly how many locks have you picked, Ryan? Any?”
“No.” She collapsed back on the sofa, tears rolling down her cheeks. “But it can’t be that difficult. They do it on TV all the time.”
“You really think he’s got more tapes of you?” He sat next to her again, wiping the tears from her face with the bottom of his shirt.
“Maybe. I’m not sure.” She looked down at the pile of ashes on the floor, a mixture of shame and sadness on her face.
“Babe, you know you can’t break into his apartment. It’s too risky. Not to mention illegal.”
She clutched his arm, a look of desperation on her face. “Shep, the Sarge is looking hard at Chad. It’s just a matter of time before he manages to get a search warrant. If Chad does have other tapes of me, they’ll be taken as evidence. I can’t take a chance that daddy or Sean or the guys at the station would ever see me on a tape like this one.”
He nodded in agreement. “You’re right. The whole squad would see those tapes, regardless of what your father might think.” He scratched his head. “Okay. Is this tape marked or identified in some way? Or the tape jacket?”
She walked to the TV and popped the tape out of the machine.
“The tape has my first name and the date. I assume any others would be the same.” She slid the tape back in the jacket and placed it on top of the television. “Why?”
“Powers said Lejeune has a preliminary hearing tomorrow for hitting his girlfriend. I’ll go to his apartment and look through his video collection while he’s at court.”
“But you just said it’s too risky,” Ryan protested feebly.
“For you,” he answered. “Trust me, I’ve got it covered. Now, does he have any type of alarm system?”
She shook her head. “He doesn’t have an alarm, but he does have a security camera outside his front door that’s motion-sensor activated. It records to a VCR in the living room. Shep, are you sure about this? If you get caught —”
He cut her off. “I won’t. Do you want to hear about Travis Dalton?”
She nodded, a wave of relief washing over her face.
“We found a bloody baseball bat, five thousand dollars in cash and a bag of crack from the evidence room at criminal court. The only thing we didn’t get was Dalton. His girlfriend showed up while we were executing the warrant and said she hadn’t seen him all day. We explained to her the importance of him getting to the station before the cop he hooked up with gets to him first. She wasn’t too impressed.”
Ryan frowned. “How did Dalton manage to get his hands on crack from the evidence room?”
“I was going to ask your opinion on that. Who would have access to the evidence once it’s logged in at the property room at court? I ran the item number on the bag and got the Docket Master from court. It’s a case that was pled three months ago in McAllister’s section.”
Ryan grabbed the wine bottle and took a sip before Shep could stop her. “Property room guys. Any of the assistants who handled the case could have called up the evidence whenever they wanted. Defense attorneys on the case.”
“Don’t they have to sign something?”
She shrugged. “In theory. Things get so hectic sometimes that the property room just sends a runner to drop the evidence off. We sign for it when we call them to pick it back up. So if a runner brought the evidence down and no one ever called property to have it picked up, the clerks wouldn’t have worried about. Or if the evidence room was closed when court let out, the D.A. would have to hold on to it until the next day. One night I had to bring home an assault rifle and a Schwegmann’s grocery bag full of marijuana, because the evidence room was closed and the ad-hoc judge wouldn’t let me lock it up in chambers.”
Shep thought about that for a second. “So I could look at the prosecutors who were in McAllister’s section when this case was open, and the defense attorneys for those cases. And the property people. I can’t imagine anybody like that would be involved with Dalton.” He squeezed her shoulder. “You going to put that bottle up now?”
“Not yet. I’m still conscious.”
“I’m going to call Sean and see what he thinks about Durrell Wilson getting released.”
He spoke to Sean for a few minutes and they decided that Sean would come over and spend the night, just to keep an eye on things. Shep didn’t mention the tape to Sean, nor his intention to break into Chad Lejeune’s apartment the next day and look for any others. Sean wouldn’t understand. When Shep hung up, he turned to tell Ryan the plans for Sean coming over, expecting an argument.
Instead, he found her sleeping on the sofa, the wine bottle tipped over, spilling onto the hard wood floor. He righted the bottle, and looked over at the tape still resting on top of the television. It would only take a second to preview it, and Ryan would never know. He stared at the tape for a second, and then decided against it. If she didn’t want him to know what was on the tape, he would respect that for now. If he decided later he needed to see what was on the tape, he would find a way.
Thinking Sean wouldn’t appreciate finding his sister passed out drunk on the sofa, Shep carried her to her bedroom, and gently placed her in the bed. He covered her with a blanket and then went back into the living room to clean up the ashes and wine mess before Sean arrived.
FRIDAY
10:00 A.M.
Ryan massaged her temples, trying to ward off the headache that was threatening to strike while Mike conducted a motion hearing. The hangover was not as bad as she expected, and recalling the video, she was thankful she had passed out when she did. Otherwise, she would have drank even more.
Until she had seen what was on that tape, she hadn’t really thought Chad could be involved in the murders. She knew without a doubt that Chad could be violent. But smacking around his girlfriend was completely different than slaying a bunch of strangers. And killing people to win her back, especially after the way the relationship ended, just didn’t make sense. But then, she hadn’t realized just how demented Chad was until she saw the tape.
The judge announced a fifteen minute recess.
Ryan took a migraine tablet out of her purse and used the break to go downstairs to buy a bottle of water from the snack vendor. She took the pill, gulping half of the twelve ounce bottle in one sip.
She hurried upstairs and was halfway back to her courtroom when she saw her oldest brother, Patrick, talking to Spence Badon of the day shift SID. She headed in their direction, but stopped and whirled around when she sensed someone staring at her from behind. She caught her breath as she found herself frozen, staring into the most chilling jade eyes she had ever seen.
The man was standing only three feet away, with a superior smile on his face. His blonde hair was fastidiously styled, and Ryan knew that he spent at least thirty minutes in front of the mirror getting his hair so perfect. He had soft features, smooth skin, and a too-long straight nose that didn’t detract from his captivating good looks.
His only imperfection was a slight limp, evidenced by the cane in his hand.
Patrick turned to hug her, said something she didn’t make out, and then stopped in mid-sentence. Ryan just stared, recalling the last time she had seen the man who was now regarding her with blatant amusement.
“It’s been a while,” he said coolly, an arrogant smile on his face, and then started walking away, leaning heavily on the cane. His other arm was being held by the hand of a small brunette, who had a black eye and a bandage across her nose. The girl gave Ryan a bemused look.
Ryan stared after them as Shep walked up and extended his hand to Patrick. Patrick, red-faced, ignored Shep and followed quickly behind the man with the cane.
“Patrick,” Ryan called after him, wondering what Patrick was going to do.
Shep looked questioningly at Ryan, then at Spence. Ryan turned away quickly and Spence just shrugged. Shep ran behind Patrick, wondering what he had just missed, when Patrick suddenly grabbed the blond man by the back of the shirt and threw him against the doors to the Section C courtroom. The cane fell to the floor with a clang.
“Stay away from my sister, Lejeune,” Patrick said in a low voice. “Since your breakup, I’ve come across a place I could stash a body where nobody would ever find it.”
Shep wondered what he should do. He certainly didn’t want to defend Chad Lejeune, but he also didn’t want Patrick getting in trouble for beating the man in the hallway.
“You can’t threaten him like that.” The brunette grabbed Patrick’s arm in an unsuccessful attempt to pull Patrick off of Lejeune.
“There’s plenty of room for two,” Patrick said, and then stared hard at her bandaged nose and black eye. “Did Lejeune do this to you?”
“Yeah,” the girl said, “with his balls.”
Chad Lejeune smiled derisively, and Patrick seemed about to go after the man again until Shep pulled him away.
“Dude, chill,” Shep ordered, holding Patrick back as one of the doors opened and a man walked out. Patrick didn’t attempt to fight Shep, but continued to stare at Lejeune, an uncharacteristic fury in his eyes.
Shep turned to Chad, whose lips were still curved in a taunting smile. “You might want to take this opportunity to get the fuck out of here, Lejeune.”
Chad Lejeune looked back at Shep contemptuously, and then finally picked up his cane and walked into the courtroom, slightly dragging his right leg. The brunette followed closely behind him.
Patrick jerked his arm from Shep’s grasp, and walked down the hallway, muttering under his breath, and then continued down the steps of the court, leaving the building without a word.
Shep walked back to Ryan and Spence.
“Patrick almost beat the crap out of Chad Lejeune,” Shep told them. “Did I miss something?”
Ryan looked down and played with a button on her suit jacket. “Not that I know of.”
“His girlfriend looked like she had been roughed up,” Spence said. “I don’t know what that would have to do with Patrick.”
“She said it was consensual,” Shep told him, and then looked back at Ryan. “And I got the impression the smack down wasn’t about Lejeune’s current girlfriend.”
Ryan looked up. “I have a trial.” She started to walk towards her courtroom.
Shep followed her.
“Do you want to tell me what that was about?” Shep asked, wondering what Patrick knew that he didn’t. It seemed unlikely that Patrick was aware of the problems between Chad and Ryan in the bedroom, and even less likely that Patrick would want to kick Chad’s ass over it. And while cheating on Ryan would have earned Chad the Murphy’s ire, it was hardly the type of thing that would drive Patrick to violence, especially three months after the fact. But maybe there was more to Ryan’s story than Chad cheating on her.
Ryan just shook her head and started walking away again.
Shep walked next to her. “Travis Dalton was shot to death early this morning. Looks like another dead end, no pun intended.”
Ryan closed her eyes and rubbed her forehead. “That was not the news I needed to hear right now.”
“Babe, are you feeling okay?” Shep asked, concerned.
Instead of entering the courtroom, she detoured to the bench across the hallway and plopped unceremoniously on the seat. “I have a headache,” she said, looking away. “No big surprise there. Thanks for taking care of me last night. Sean didn’t mention the mess, so you must have cleaned up for me. I guess I owe you one.”
He sat on the bench next to her, and nudged her knee with his own. “You don’t owe me anything. Unless you want to tell me what that was all about with Lejeune.”
She turned her face away. “Not right now, okay? I have a lot on my mind, and I don’t really feel like talking about Chad. And after the video —” She cut the sentence off. “I just can’t talk about this right now.”
He decided to cut her break for now. He had another way to get the information. “I have that errand to run right now anyway. But I’m not dropping this Lejeune thing.”
“I kind of figured that,” she answered with a sigh, and walked back across the hall and into the courtroom.
As soon as the doors closed behind Ryan, Shep called the D.A.’s office on his cell phone to find out Edie’s section of court. The operator told him section L, a slow-moving section where the judge was constantly getting off the bench to take phone calls in his chambers and chat with the endless line of attorneys and politicians that seemed to stop in his section on a regular basis. Sometimes, the judge would just leave court, for hours at a time, leaving the court staff and attorneys sitting around doing nothing, wondering if the cases were ever going to be heard. It was a really fun section of court. But at least Shep would have ample opportunity to talk to Edie.
He walked in and found Edie sitting at the state’s table with her head on the desk, sleeping so hard she was snoring, a small spot of drool at the corner of her mouth. Shep walked to the front of the courtroom, smiling at the people he knew and winking at the minute clerk out of habit. He sat in the chair next to Edie.
Without lifting her head, Edie said, “Tomas, you smell good enough to eat today. New cologne?” Tomas was Edie’s junior.
“No, just my regular stuff,” Shep said. He couldn’t see how somebody like Ryan ever became friends with somebody like Edie. Edie lifted her head and opened one eye. Her frizzy hair was secured on top of her head by a hodgepodge of paper clips and brass fasteners.
“Oh, no wonder you smell so good. You’re not Tomas.” She smiled back at him, out of one side of her mouth, wiping the corner with drool. “What brings you to my little neck of the woods? And if you’ve heard I’ve been checking up on you, it’s strictly for a friend. I’m taken, sorry.” She laughed at her own joke.
“Do I know this friend?” Shep asked, starting to like Edie a little bit more.
She raised a bushy eyebrow and gave him a crooked smile. “Can’t betray a confidence.”
“Fair enough. I don’t know if you can help me then.” He waited, baiting her.
Edie was curious, and bit. “What do you need?”
“Information. About Chad Lejeune.”
“What makes you think I’d know anything about that turd?” She sat up straight, both eyes open now.
“Because you’re Ryan’s best friend. And I think you know what kind of information I’m after.” He leaned on his elbow, staring at her.
Edie stared back at him, seeming to weigh her words. “Anything you’re thinking about him is probably too good.”
“How exactly was their relationship?” He glanced around quickly to make sure no one was listening.
“She went out with him for three months. He just wasn’t very nice to her most of the time, not even in front of other people.”
He waited, knowing there was a lot more to the story.
Edie lowered her voice. “I think he hit her.”
“What?”
She shook her head. “I know. It’s hard t
o believe Ryan would let anybody get away with that. They had been together for about a month when they went to a fund-raiser together. Chad’s father kept making passes at her all night. Ryan was upset and embarrassed, but Chad was laughing about the whole thing. They got in an argument and finally left.
“I called her the next day to see what happened, and she said they had it out when he brought her home. Chad blamed her for the whole thing, saying if she hadn’t dressed like a whore his father wouldn’t have been playing grab-ass with her all night. She didn’t come out and say it, but I got the impression it got physical. That Monday at work she wore a lot more makeup than usual. I think she was hiding a black eye.”
“This happened just the one time?” Shep strained to subdue his anger.
“She told me about a few other big fights, but she never told me he hit her. I guess I assumed he might have. I didn’t know why she was staying with him.”
“What happened when they broke up?”
Edie leaned closer to him. “I don’t know for sure. She went to her parent’s house and told Angie to get her dad and brothers to pack her stuff, that she was never going back to her apartment again. She refused to explain what was wrong. Her mother even called me to see if I knew what happened. They thought maybe somebody had broken in and attacked her. All I could tell her was that Ryan caught Chad cheating on her and broke up with him.”
He grabbed Edie’s arm. “What do you think happened, Edie?”
“Ryan wouldn’t talk about it, but a few days later, I saw all these horrible bruises and welts all over her. She tried to hide them from me, but there were so many I couldn’t help but see them. She made me promise I wouldn’t tell anybody.” She stopped, and then lowered her voice. “I told Angie anyway. I couldn’t help myself. I had to let her know what I thought Chad had done to Ryan.”
Shep sucked in his breath. “And nobody went after Chad for this?”
Edie shrugged. “I’m sure her dad or one of her brothers did. I mean, look what happened to Chad a few days after I told Angie.”
Shep frowned. “Why wouldn’t Chad have pressed charges?”
“Tit for tat. Ryan didn’t report him, so Chad didn’t report the captain. Or whichever of her family members maimed him.”
Gumbo Justice Page 15