“Not now, Clarence,” he said, edging around him. “They’re waiting on me. Catch you later.”
He opened John’s office door and barged in even as he apologized for being late. “I was following up with the lady who delivered Malone’s finger,” he lied. “She had the gift of gab.”
John asked, “Anything new there?”
Before Mitch could reply, Nix chimed in. “I talked to her earlier.”
Mitch was relieved to yield the floor to her, which she readily seized. “Houma PD is checking security cameras in the area of the strip center where the courier business is located. No vehicle has been isolated yet. So far all they’ve got is an unrecognizableindividual in a hoodie arriving on foot, dropping the package on the doormat, and then taking off at a sprint.”
Lear deadpanned, “That narrows it down.”
Nix turned to Mitch. “Somebody wanted you to receive that package awfully bad.”
“Go figure. It’s not even my birthday.”
“Any idea who sent it?”
“Yes.”
That goosed a surprised reaction from her, and even from Lear, but John was quick to say, “Mitch and I have been following some leads, but so far they’re unsupported.”
“Unsupported?”Mitch said with incredulity. “Like hell.”
John gave him a quelling look, but didn’t address the outburst or the anger behind it. He began passing along to Nix and Lear information that Mitch already knew about Roland Malone. He only half listened, his mind on what arm-twisting and bartering tactics Marshal Greer was using on Davis.
He tuned back in when John asked the two detectives if they’d seen the BOLO for a person of interest on the Malone homicide.
“David Rodriguez,” Nix said with her know-it-all briskness. “Goes by El Paso.”
John said, “That’s where he’s from and where he’s well known to authorities in Texas and Mexico. He’s a member of the Caballeros. If he was their emissary to New Orleans to negotiate a deal with Malone, who it’s generally believed was active in our regional drug trade, the meeting must’ve gone south.”
Lear asked, “Was Malone affiliated with Oz?”
“As yet unproven but suspected,” John replied.
Nix said, “Maybe MalonewasOz.”
Mitch, seated with his elbow propped on the chair’s armrest and his hand cupped over his mouth, said, “He wasn’t.”
Nix didn’t relent. “The cartel might have sent El Paso here to eliminate the competition. If Malone was Oz, mission accomplished.”
“But Malone wasn’t Oz.”
Mitch’s second mumbled contradiction caused her to bristle. “How do you know?”
He lowered his hands and answered quietly but clearly. “Malone was an assassin who did Oz’s killing for him. But it has occurred to me that possibly Oz himself was behind Malone’s murder. Maybe he was looking to replace Malone as his chief hit man, and killing Malone was El Paso’s audition.”
Nix scoffed. “What reason would Oz have to replace his chief hit man?”
“I guess he fell out of favor.”
“Guessbeing the operative word,” she said.
Mitch barely restrained himself from giving her the finger.
Lear was expressing his own skepticism. “If El Paso went over to Oz, Caballeros would consider him a traitor. He’d be signing his own death warrant.”
“Just a theory,” Mitch said.
