Moses scans the cemetery, and I see the exact moment he spots the cop next to a tall blond guy who doesn’t fit the mold of NOPD at all. Too fit and good looking.
“Where’d you see him before? Tailing you?”
I shake my head. “No. But ... I swear I recognize him from somewhere ...” I pause as it hits me, and I spin to face Moses completely. I don’t need them seeing the shock on my face. “In the Quarter. By my new house. He said he was a new neighbor. Needed direction to a café. He’s a cop too, isn’t he?”
Moses looks over my shoulder at where they’re standing, positioning themselves between us and the SUVs. “Whatever Cavender is after, he must be really sure of himself to show up here.”
“We can’t avoid him, can we?” I ask, hoping like hell Moses will say we absolutely can avoid them, but knowing he won’t.
“As much as I’d love to tell you yes and that you don’t have to talk to that asshole ever again, we probably don’t have a choice.”
“Problem?” Mount stops next to us, and instead of looking at me, he follows Moses’s stare to the two men.
“Not a problem. Annoying inconvenience is all,” Moses says in reply.
Mount’s attention flickers from one man to the other. “Cops. I’ll have security escort them out. This is private property.”
A voice pops into my head, and I swear Ho-It-All is channeling Bernie herself.“No scenes at my funeral, Magnolia. You don’t have a reason to be running from the law, do you?”
It’s probably a good thing she isn’t here to hear me answer the question with a big fatyes. Because I killed a man while defending myself. Because his brother is after me. Because the cop would like nothing more than to pin that and a few other murders on me.
“Then you should’ve told the truth up front,”the ghost of Bernie argues.
“We can have the cars pick us up at the other entrance,” Moses says. “There’s no reason we need to do this today.”
“No. Let’s get it over with. I don’t want him to assume I’m running from him. It’ll only make me appear guilty. And I sure as hell want to know who the other guy is, and how the hell he knew to be snooping around my new house.”
“That’s your choice then. Keira and I will be in the car,” Mount says before sweeping my best friend away.
We watch them both walk right by the cop, and Cavender stares at Mount like he’d love to be the one to put him away. But Mount’s untouchable, even for Cavender.
Me, not so much.
Cavender looks cockier with each step we take toward him and the blond guy.All-American.That’s what I nicknamed him that day. What the hell is he doing here?
“Mr. Gaspard. Ms. Maison. You two are remarkably hard to track down lately.”
“You realize we’re here for a funeral, right?” Moses asks with unveiled irritation. “A solemn occasion.”
Cavender shrugs. “You don’t return my calls, and neither of you seem to be anywhere we look. So I had to do what I had to do.” He stares at me. “Our sympathies for the loss of your great-aunt, Ms. Maison.”
“Who the hell are you?” I ask the blond guy. “Because you’re not here looking for directions to another café, are you?”
“Agent Pomeroy. FBI.” He pulls his credentials from his pocket and flips them open.
FBI.Jesus Christ.The Feds were watching me too?
Even though my brain is going crazy, I manage to keep my expression passive. It doesn’t hurt that I’ve cried out all the feelings in me, leaving nothing but emptiness behind for this encounter.
“What the hell does the FBI want?” Moses asks.
Cavender smiles triumphantly, and I swear I wouldn’t stop if I accidentally ran the man over in a parking lot right now.So sue me.
“Well, we’ve been working with the Bureau on some overlapping areas of interest. Specifically, Desiree Harding’s murder, the death of another female, and the murder of the man in Ms. Maison’s former residence. Who, by the way, we seem to be having trouble identifying conclusively. A whole lot of things aren’t adding up.”
“In her residence? I think you mean in Magnolia’s former condo building, where dozens of other people live as well,” Moses says, correcting the cop.
“You’re right,” Cavender says, tilting his head to the side. “But, funny thing ... we’ve got reason to believe at least two of those murders I mentioned are connected, maybe even all three. Our friends at the Bureau are lending their resources so we can gather the evidence to prove it.”