45

The mayor of New Orleans and the governor were making another one of the many announcements that Alexa had heard earlier during the day. “I have ordered the police to close off inbound traffic to New Orleans. As of four o’clock, all lanes of state roads are designated as outbound lanes only. We are opening the Superdome as an emergency shelter for residents who cannot leave the city. I have directed that city transit buses will carry residents to the shelter. Residents are directed to immediately evacuate Orleans, Jefferson, and St. Bernard parishes, in an orderly manner. Again, I want to stress that this is a mandatory evacuation and all residents in the affected areas must leave or they will be forcibly removed from their property by law enforcement officers.”

Alexa switched off the radio. She could use her identification to go where she needed to. Grace Smythe kept invading her thoughts as she drove to meet Manseur in his office. She would have sent the supposed West letter to the FBI labs, but she didn’t want to lose the time it would take to courier a package to D.C. on the next flight out. She gave it to Manseur when she walked in, along with the envelopes containing her Glock magazines and some articles of Gary West’s Casey had given to Alexa for collection.

“Tell your lab to hurry it up. We need to check for prints on the West letter. They’ll probably find Casey West’s, William LePointe’s, and Kenneth Decell’s. I seriously doubt you’ll find Gary West’s on either his envelope or the letter.”

“What about the letter carrier? Whoever picks up the mail and gives it to LePointe?”

“The envelope has a crack-and-peel stamp and a peel-and-stick flap, so forget DNA. And to answer your question, there’s no mailman, because there’s no cancellation mark.”

“So whoever came up with this brilliant subterfuge didn’t actually bother to mail it.”

Alexa nodded. “Decell maybe, on LePointe’s behalf. He told me Kenneth Decell had read it.”

“Not Decell’s work,” Manseur disagreed. “He was too good a detective. He would have either mailed it or had LePointe say the letter was delivered to the gate by courier. I suspect LePointe just showed it to Decell, who didn’t bother to look at the envelope, or doubted anyone would ask LePointe for the letter.”

“Know what I think?” Alexa asked.

“No man ever knows what a woman is thinking.”

Alexa smiled. “This letter was supposed to be misdirection, which opens an interesting avenue.”

“I’m listening,” Manseur said.

“I’m wondering if he knew that by the time anyone started snooping, it wouldn’t matter.”

“Because the hurricane would destroy evidence?”

“No. Because he knew that Gary West was going to be home before that. The letter might be an impromptu ruse designed just to get Evans to call us off.”

“So we didn’t find out about Sibby?”

“No. What if Gary’s abductor contacted LePointe, and he’s going to pay a ransom to get Gary West back safely? Doesn’t want us in the way. How he accomplishes getting Gary back—whatever deception or ruse he employs—becomes irrelevant then because everybody’s happy and Gary’s back and nobody is going to look too closely at anything else. So Sibby stays hidden, which has been undone, but he wouldn’t have known that would happen at the time he was pulling the plan together.”

“Makes sense,” Manseur said.

“Although I can’t prove it yet, Sibby’s vanishing act from the hospital, Gary’s abduction, and the Fugate murder are directly related,” Alexa said. “The tipping of the press at this moment is too coincidental. The same people are behind the grab and tipping the press to Sibby’s exit from River Run. I have a feeling that they knew about Sibby before they grabbed Gary, and they may have killed Fugate and framed Sibby. Maybe she didn’t leave earlier because she hadn’t done anything—didn’t know Dorothy was in the basement.”

“That’s a stretch. I mean, it might be true, but there’s nothing to support it but your hunch. And the press might have been snooping on their own.”

Alexa nodded. “LePointe and Fugate were much more than coworkers. It’s just my gut talking, but I think that not only did LePointe know Sibby was at Fugate’s, but he knew Fugate was dead, and was only surprised that I brought it up. I’d bet his and Fugate’s phone records will tie him to her.”

“He’ll have plausible denial. You may well be right about the ransom,” Manseur said. “It would explain one thing.”

“What?”

“Why Kenneth Decell arrived at his office two hours ago, picked up a briefcase, and then went to a bank. He left the bank twenty minutes ago carrying said valise and proceeded directly to Dr. LePointe’s house, arriving there twenty minutes after you and Casey West left.”

“How do you know that?”

“Because my old partner Larry Bond staked out Decell’s office.”

“Your partner’s working on this case?” Alexa asked.

“My former partner. We worked together for six years.”

“You failed to mention to me that you brought him in,” Alexa said.

“I just told you.”

“I’m not always good with time lines, but you mean to tell me your ex-partner wasn’t already watching Decell’s house when we were at River Run?”

“You think I’d keep information from you on purpose? I didn’t think it was important, I guess. I didn’t know for sure how Decell was involved.”

“Gosh, Michael, I sure hope not. If I thought I couldn’t trust you, I’d be really upset. You are the one who pulled me into this mess,” she said, anger rising.

“Casey West did that,” he protested.

“If I hadn’t been in Casey West’s kitchen, she would never have asked for me. Who was it that woke me in the middle of the night, and placed me there?”

“Not like you were asleep.”

“Is this about who gets the credit?”

“No! Look, I wanted to compile more before we had a meeting to assimilate our separate findings and make a plan for bringing this to a joint close. Sometimes I play things close to the chest. Habit. I’m sorry.”

“Okay,” Alexa said. “Clean slate. So what have you compiled so far from Fugate’s?”