Angel in Training (The Louisiangel Series, Book One) (33 page)

He yawned and shook his head. “They took him
to the hospital, but he was DOA,” he shot me a look. “Dead on
arrival,” he explained. “But then, I guess you would know
that.”

“Yeah,” I muttered, distracted by the
traffic.

“I did manage to track his buddies down,”
Joshua continued. “He was one of the guys that got thrown out of
Bee’s.”

My head whipped around so quickly, it flung
my hair in my face. “When we were in there?” I asked, pushing my
hair back behind my ear.

Joshua nodded. “Could well have been the same
guy that hit you.”

“So, does that mean we’re going to search
Bee’s?” I asked him.

“
Firstly,
you
won’t be searching anything,” Joshua informed me.
“Secondly, we need a warrant, and we need probable cause. We have
neither.”

“But he was thrown out of Bee’s,” I
objected.

“And he probably went into half the bars on
Bourbon Street. We don’t have any evidence that places any of the
other victims at that bar,” he pointed out.

“What about me?” I asked him in frustration.
“I was heading there before I died.”

“Angel, I’m only just starting to accept the
whole angel thing. How on earth do you propose to explain it to a
precinct full of officers who don’t exactly like the idea of you
being there as a psychic?” he asked me in exasperation.

I snorted. “Maybe you shouldn’t have
introduced me as a psychic then.”

“Look,” Joshua said, halting me in any rant I
may have been about to start. “I spoke to the bar’s employees this
morning. The bouncers remember throwing them out, and a couple of
girls remember serving them, but that’s it. The CCTV has been
requested and a uniform is collecting it shortly.”

I pulled a face and stared out the window.
The sulk that I had intended to not-so maturely go into was put on
hold as I watched the public, or the lack thereof. The roads were
busy – mainly with people heading in one direction – out of town.
The streets were nearly deserted. Shops, bar, restaurants... most
were closed with large portions of them boarded up. “Did I miss
something last night?” I asked, turning back to Joshua, my
frustration forgotten about.

“Tabitha changed direction,” Joshua frowned.
“She’s now heading straight for us. We’re expecting landfall
tonight.”

“I get Katrina scared the hell out of a lot
of people, but Tabitha’s only a category three,” I said, watching
the panicked actions around us. “At this rate, New Orleans will be
a ghost town before sunset.”

“She got upgraded to a five and it looks like
she’s going to stay that way.”

I gave Joshua a sharp look. A category five
was the strongest category a hurricane could fall into. “Then why
are we heading to the precinct. Surely the prudent thing would be
to get out?” I asked. “You’ve been working for the last eighteen
hours – doesn’t that count for a day off?”

“I’ve actually got the next three days
off.”

“Then why are we still heading back to the
precinct?” I demanded.

“I swapped shifts with Leon,” Joshua told me
as we grew closer to the precinct.

“Why?” I again demanded.

“Leon has a family,” Joshua explained in
exasperation. “I don’t. I took his shifts so he could get them to
safety.”

My mouth fell open as I glared at the
detective. “You don’t think that considering you’re the one with
the guardian angel, that maybe you should be protecting
yourself?”

Joshua let out a frustrated grunt and pulled
the car over to the side of the road under the noisy objections of
several horns. “You think my life is more important than someone
else’s?” he asked, incredulously. “Leon has a kid, Angel. His wife
is in a wheelchair. If he doesn’t get them out now, he won’t.”

“Then why doesn’t he just go?” I asked. “Why
don’t you just go? Why have either of you got to work?”

“You mean aside from the fact it’s my job?”
he asked me. “Or that I swore an oath to serve and protect my city?
Or that I don’t want the same things happening in this city as they
did during Katrina? Or perhaps it’s because we lost two people
after Katrina – not because they died in the storm, or they broke
the law, but because they got their families out and because the
storm stopped them from getting back, they were accused of
abandoning their post?”

“Oh,” I mouthed silently. It’s official. I’m
an ass. A thoughtless ass.

“Yeah, ‘oh’,” he snapped. “Now, if you want
me to turn the car around so you can get the hell out of Dodge,
tell me now?” I stared ahead, up at the deceptively clear blue
skies and shook my head.

Silently, Joshua pulled the car back into the
flow of traffic and continued driving to the precinct. We pulled up
in the parking lot and I made to unclip my belt, but Joshua shook
his head. “Just wait here a moment,” he muttered. Not wanting to
upset him again, I nodded and watched as he got out, hurrying into
the building.

He was gone for nearly an hour. I had opened
the door to let a bit of a breeze in at some point, and had kicked
my shoes off to prop my feet up on the dashboard. When he
eventually reappeared, he was frowning. I sat upright as he slid
into the driver’s seat. “What?” I asked, eyeing his expression
suspiciously.

Wordlessly, he handed me his iPhone over. It
was open in the phone’s photo album at a picture of the whiteboard
we had painstakingly put together the day before. “I don’t get it?”
I muttered, peering at the picture.

He leaned over and flicked the picture over
to the previous one. “Someone’s been in there.”

I peered at the pictures, flicking back and
forth between the two.

Joshua sighed and then punched the side of
the steering wheel, making me jump. “Sorry,” he muttered as I
scrambled to get the phone that had slipped from my hands.

“The board looks the same to me,” I told him,
handing the phone back.

“It’s not the board,” Joshua said. He pointed
to the table. “Someone has been through the files.”

“Maybe they wanted to help?” I suggested.

Joshua shook his head. “I went in to add the
latest victim information and thought it looked different, but I
couldn’t work out what. When I checked through the Richmond case
file, I discovered a witness statement.”

“Well, maybe someone found some of the
missing information and returned it for you?” I again offered.

“The statement was from Dale Richmond. It
said his sister had run away from home and that he found a letter
to his parents that said she had gone to Tennessee.”

“His father was under the impression that she
was going to Bible study, so why would Dale tell me that she was
going out partying?” I frowned. “Why wouldn’t he just tell me that
she had run away?”

“And then I checked the Johnston case,”
Joshua nodded. “There was a statement from a friend who was adamant
Preston had gotten caught up with a gang. His murder was
retribution for his gang initiation.”

“Could that be true?” I asked, knowing I was
clutching at straws. Something in me told me if that was the case,
Mama Laveau would have told me so.

Joshua punched at the steering wheel again.
“Someone in there is trying to lead us away from the case. If it
wasn’t for you, they would have succeeded.”

I blinked in surprise. “Me?”

Joshua looked over at me, through his fringe,
and nodded. “You connected the dots. I would never have seen how
the cases were related.”

I was embarrassed. I glanced back down at the
phone, unable to meet his gaze. “Do we need to talk to your
lieutenant?” I asked him.

From the corner of my eye, I could see Joshua
shake his head. “Not yet. I don’t want internal affairs breathing
down everyone’s neck when I could still be wrong.”

“But you don’t think you are,” I told him
firmly, looking back at him.

He sighed and then punched the steering
wheel, twice in quick succession. “Angel, I don’t think any of them
could do it. I don’t
want
to
think any of them could do it.” He sighed again. “I’m also the new
kid, the detective in training, the rookie. I have to be completely
certain before I talk to anyone about this.”

“Well what do you want to do? How can we fix
this?” I asked him, quietly noting the frustration etched clearly
on his face.

He raked his hands through his hair.
“Asmodeus has given me a couple of hours off,” he told me, starting
the engine.

We pulled back out of the parking lot and he
fell silent, opting to turn the radio on instead. I had suspected
that he was going to drop me off at the convent so he could get a
couple of hours sleep. I had even considered that he was going to
consult with Leon. But he took me down some back routes I didn’t
recognize to avoid the traffic.

“Where are we going?” I asked eventually.

“I need to convince Maggie to leave town. She
has a sister in El Dorado she can stay with.” At my confused look,
he rolled his eyes. “El Dorado, Arkansas. I want her to get out
before the storm hits.”

I nodded. “I can wait in the car, that’s not
a problem.”

“No,” Joshua said, sharply, causing me to
flinch. He shook his head. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to snap. It’s
just, I was hoping you would talk to her. She didn’t leave for
Betsy, she didn’t leave for Katrina, but I’ll be damned if she
stays for Tabitha.”

“What good would I be?” I asked in
surprise.

“I don’t know,” he admitted, turning across
the traffic. “But I know she won’t listen to me, and I saw how you
were with Mrs. Montgomery.”

“I didn’t know what I was doing!” I yelped,
my voice becoming an annoying higher pitch.

“I only want you to try,” Joshua pleaded.

I bit my lip and stared out the window. The
further into the suburbs we got, the more it was apparent that we
weren’t the only ones with the idea of getting out of the city.
Every occupied house we drove past either had someone boarding it
up or packing their cars up. “Okay, I’ll try,” I muttered. When I
glanced back at him, I knew I had said the right thing – he looked
relieved. The problem was, I wasn’t sure I would be able to
deliver.

“You’re back in your head again,” Joshua
muttered.

I shrugged. “Just listening to the
radio.”

Joshua sent me a look of disbelief. “Country?
Which you don’t like?”

“Just listening out for a weather update,” I
told him. “And I was thinking that I should make sure my aunt is
alright.” The sound of the song coming to an end, and a guy talking
over the top of it had me leaning towards the radio, turning the
volume up.

“
Well, it looks like those winds we were
praying for aren’t coming to alter the course of the hurricane.
According to the latest update from the National Hurricane Center,
the projected path is heading straight for New Orleans, and it has
officially been upgraded to a Category Five storm.

“
The official word from the Mayor’s office
is to get out and not to take any risks. All contra-flows will be
operational within the hour. The emergency radio stations will be
giving more detailed information, and anyone with any doubts or
queries can call 211.”

“Crap,” I mumbled, turning the radio back
down.

Joshua put his foot down. Not enough to be
seriously speeding, but enough for me to feel the sudden burst of
acceleration. Soon enough, we were pulling up outside Maggie’s
house.

Her little Toyota was still parked up under
the car porch and there was no indication that she had been
preparing for the storm. Joshua was out of the car and half way up
the drive before I had even removed my seatbelt. I jumped out and
quickly followed him into the house.

Maggie was sitting in the front room,
watching a sitcom, seemingly oblivious to the oncoming storm. She
looked up at us in surprise, which quickly changed to a smile when
she realized who it was.

“Maggie, how many times have I told you, you
need to keep your front door locked when you’re in the house?”
Joshua chastised her.

“Joshua? Angel? I wasn’t expecting you
today,” Maggie told us, getting to her feet and ducking past us
into the kitchen. “Let me get you a drink.”

Joshua let out a sigh and followed her down
the hallway. “Maggie, this isn’t a social visit. Haven’t you been
watching the news?”

“Of course I have,” Maggie told him, barely
paying attention to the question as she moved around the kitchen,
filling the kettle up and pulling chintz mugs from her cupboards.
“Do you want coffee, or would you prefer a tea?” she asked, turning
to look at me.

“Neither, thanks,” I told her as I spared a
glance at Joshua. “You know there’s a hurricane headed this way,
don’t you?” I asked her slowly.

“It’s a bit of rain and wind,” Maggie
replied, brushing the question off with a wave of her hand. “I have
some fresh beignets in here somewhere.”

“It’s not just a bit of rain and wind,”
Joshua told her, barely able to keep the growl from his voice.

Maggie either didn’t notice or chose to
ignore it as she rummaged through her cupboards, eventually
locating the pastries she had been looking for. She turned,
offering the tray to us.

“It’s a hurricane, Maggie,” Joshua sighed,
ignoring the offered food. “They’ve ordered an evacuation.”

“They ordered an evacuation for Katrina and
we were fine,” Maggie started.

“Maggie!” Joshua snapped, the exasperation
evident.

“Joshua, why don’t you see if there’s
something to board up the house,” I told him, my hand wrapping
around his forearm. He glanced down at my fingers and, biting his
lower lip, nodded, retreating from the room.

“You two make a lovely couple,” Maggie told
me, returning her attention to the kettle which had just clicked
off. “You’re good for him.”