“Malone wasn’t gutted while hanging from a meat hook because a customer got pissed off when his order came out cold. Malone was a central player in a criminal organization where people die all too frequently. They kill their enemies, or those perceived to be. They kill traitors or suspected ones.
“They kill mercilessly. Insidious deaths like Angela’s staged suicide. Or bloody, vicious deaths like Randy Nelson’s and those two people we found this week in Bayou Coeur. When it came to eliminating Malone, his longevity counted for nothing. He’d worn out his welcome. He was the death du jour. I’m trying to prevent the next one.”
“The next one?”
He took a phone from his pocket and swiped it on. “I was sent a heads-up.” He palmed the phone and held it so she could see it.
She gave a soft cry, covered her mouth with one hand, crossed her arm over her stomach, and turned her head aside.
Mitch set the phone on the bed. “Early this morning, the severed finger was delivered by courier to our department and addressed tome. Whoever killed Malone was sending me a warning. John recognized it as such. That’s why he and Beth beat it out here.”
He placed his knuckle beneath her chin and turned her back to face him. “I don’t think El Paso sent that thing. He probably had Malone’s blood and guts on his hands, but he’s not a thinker, he’s a cobra. He acts on animal instinct. Strikes quick. A much more sophisticated mind would have thought up doing that,” he said, indicating the phone.
“That picture is a threat ofimminent violence, Dylan. And what really scares me is that it probably includes you and Andrew in addition to me. You can’t violate the trust of a dead man, so whatever information you have on Roland Malone you need to share. Right now.”
She groaned. “I understand, Mitch, but I’ve told you time and again that if he had any deep, dark secrets he never confided them to me.”
“Hehadto have had secrets. Something was eating at him, or why did he start coming to you for therapy?”
“It took me a while to determine that myself. In general, I think—and this will sound out of character. I think it was for religious reasons.”
“Religious?”
“He feared dying unforgiven. He didn’t want to go to hell.”
Mitch gave a scornful laugh. “Good luck with that, Roland.” He ignored her look of mild reproach and asked, “What makes you think that was his hangup?”
“I speculate that he did something in his youth that he felt was unforgivable. I don’t know what, but he remarked once or twice in jest about having an imaginary evil twin that he had to keep in line.”
“Like having an angel on one shoulder and a devil on the other?”
“Yes. And he feared that devil’s influence would invoke God’s wrath and condemnation. I’m paraphrasing, but that was a recurring theme of our sessions.”
“Sounds to me like you served as a stand-in priest.”
“Of sorts, I suppose. But he never confessed to committing a blood-curdling crime.”
“He chalked up a lot of them, but he wasn’t the mastermind.”He paused, his eyes narrowing on her. “Did Malone ever drop the name Allen Busby?”
She frowned. “That’s vaguely familiar, but I don’t know why.”
“He’s on TV all the time. Gaudy neckties, shellacked hair, white teeth.”
“The lawyer who does all the commercials?”
“The King of Cash. That was my epiphany earlier.”
“When you looked past the stereotype?”
“Um-huh. Busby looks like a clown, not a criminal. But behind that flashy persona on TV, he’s the mastermind, the drug kingpin. Malone did his bidding, including killing Angela.”
“How do you know this?”
“Well, that’s the hitch. I feel it in my gut, but I can’t prove it. I can’t even officially allege it until I have more than a strong hunch. I was hoping to get to him through Malone. That opportunity is lost to me. So I need to know if Malone ever dropped his name to you. Did he ever indicate that he knew the King of Cash, or even boast that he was a regular at the restaurant?”
She was shaking her head no, and no, and no. “That’s not something I would likely forget. In fact, I probably would have noted it as something to pick up on later. But perhaps somewhere in Roland’s file—”
“Going through all your notes on his sessions would take time. I need something now.Imminentharm, Dylan. Please try to remember. From your first session to the last, in any context, did Malone ever mention him?”
