The Axeman by Ray Celestin

Author:Ray Celestin
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Sourcebooks
Published: 2015-07-20T00:00:00+00:00

28

Against his better judgment Michael had gone to the courthouse that morning to watch Luca’s case be heard. He wasn’t sure why he had gone—everything had been arranged with the district attorney and the judge in the small hours, but he felt as if he might miss something important. He didn’t think his old mentor had seen him; he had arrived late, sat on the very last row of the gallery, and left as soon as the bail had been confirmed. Luca had struck him as old and frail in the prison cell, on the back foot. But in the courthouse he looked assured, smiling with Sandoval and lying back in his seat with a cockiness that brought back memories of his trial five years previously. The display had made Michael wonder if it had been the right decision to let him go so easily. He ran through all the angles in his mind as he made his way back to the precinct. Was Luca really looking into the killings for Carlo? If he was, then Michael was wrong about the Family being involved—or was Carlo duping Luca, setting him up for something down the line?

When Michael got to his desk at the bureau, a bleary-eyed Kerry was waiting for him with a wad of papers in his hand.

“Jones and Shippey are on first watch at the courthouse,” he said, reading from a message at the top of the stack.

“Good. Search reports?” Michael asked, lighting a cigarette.

Kerry fumbled through the papers. “Detective Hessel did the search on Schneider’s office two days ago. Came up with nothing incriminating. Except this…” Kerry handed Michael a couple of clipped sheets of paper. “Hessel wrote them up yesterday while we were out.”

Michael scanned the papers—Hessel had found a business card in Schneider’s office for the Pinkerton National Detective Agency. He had followed it up, and the man at the agency claimed Schneider had been in there hunting for a bodyguard and had left empty-handed.

“Lefebvre,” Michael said to himself. He remembered the man, an associate of Luca’s, a tremendously fat Creole, drunk and crushed by worries. It didn’t make sense that he’d turn away a job as easy as finding someone a bodyguard. Michael thought of the gun they had found under Schneider’s pillow, and now it turned out he had been looking for a bodyguard. If Schneider had told the Creole why he wanted the protection, and if Michael could make him talk, he would be one step closer to finding a reason for the killings.

“Ask him to come in for a chat,” Michael said.

“Yes, sir,” said Kerry. “Detective Jones checked Schneider’s filings at city hall for the last five years. No cases involving known Family associates or any of the victims. Carter did a re-search last night. Found nothing too, and there didn’t seem to be anything missing.”

Michael thought for a moment and rubbed his fingers across his face. As each new clue presented itself, it just as soon proved worthless. Maybe when

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