Grim Reaper (LaStanza New Orleans Police Novels) by O'Neil De Noux

Author:O'Neil De Noux
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: new orleans, homicide, police, jack the ripper, nopd
Publisher: O'Neil De Noux

Chapter 6

North Murat Street

There was an explosion in the media, the likes of which had never been seen before in New Orleans. It started the morning after the Exposition Boulevard Murder. The newspaper ran an electrifying headline that Saturday morning which read: Co-ed Mutilated In Audubon Park. Below the headline was a college yearbook picture of Lynette. It was the kind of neat headline that grabbed your attention. It was the worst news article I’ve ever read.

Mark saved it for me. He gave it to me at the office on the Monday morning after the murder. The article told a story of how a ‘terror-filled young woman’ was chased through the park as she vainly attempted to get home from a date. It told of how the killer had attacked her from behind and had slashed her back with a ‘huge butcher knife’ and then raped her. Then it made up the rest.

It told of how a weeping boyfriend had found her and called the police and how an exhaustive search of the park had surfaced no clues, and how the killer was still at large, ‘Lurking in the city’s shadows’. The article ended with the information that the police were holding Lynette’s boyfriend for questioning.

“Where do they come up with this shit?” I asked Mark.

“The Science Fiction Hall of Fame,” Mark responded, “Check out the article on page two.”

I turned the page and there was a half-page layout on Lynette Anne Louvier, daughter of one of the leading families of New Orleans. The article had more college pictures of Lynette, with statements from classmates and friends and one interesting old neighbor who had heard howling at the time of the murder.

“You see that old bitch?” Mark pointed to the picture of the old-lady neighbor. “I woke her up on my canvass. She didn’t hear shit, she’s seen too many fuckin’ werewolf movies.”

Over the space of one weekend, the media had grabbed the city by the throat and choked it with gut-wrenching headlines. Not to be outdone, the television stations paraded somber anchor-person preaching about the plight of the city. And there were mini-cam reports from Audubon Park and Exposition Boulevard, where equally concerned reporters told and retold the grisly details of the murder, each time adding nothing to the story except misinformation.

The reports had an immediate effect on New Orleans. The City That Care Forgot did not suddenly start caring, it just went ballistic with worry, gripped in a vise of fear. The ever present, dutiful media played it to the hilt. They had a hot story, one of the hottest ever, and they milked it for all it was worth.

One enterprising television station sought out the opinion of the common person. On Monday morning, a little blue-haired lady was interviewed while leaving the D. H. Holmes Department Store on Canal Street. Mark and I watched her on the TV in Mason’s office. We watched the woman tremble as she was interviewed by a pushy reporter.

“What do you think about the murder?” The reporter asked the blue-haired woman.

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