Suffer II (25 page)

Evan stood on the back deck as the weary team secured and cleaned the boat. He had been manning the computer console since they left. His job was to make sure nobody he was able to track followed them from the boat ramp.

When the team was outside of cell coverage, he could only track the satellite phone on the boat. Evan knew the general plan and where they were going, but Grey left out some of the details. Judge Hall’s red dot was moving away from Eddie’s and Bullet’s. The screen showed the two brothers still inside Bullet’s car. He had a feeling the dots would disappear once the batteries in their phones died.

“Everybody okay?” asked Evan, seeing blood stains and smelling bleach.

“Yes,” said Kate, giving him a hug. “We’re all fine, but I’m exhausted. I need a hot shower and my bed.”

“I need a cold beer and my chair,” said Chief. “Take your time, Kate. I’ll grab mine after yours. The water pressure sucks in this place.”

“Okay,” said Kate, giving Chief and Grey a hug. “Goodnight, boys. Thank you.”

Chief went inside and came back with three beers. Grey dropped his bag and melted into his chair. Evan took a seat across from him.

“The judge went with you?” asked Evan.

“Not voluntarily,” said Grey. “Kate changed the plan.”

“Strange,” said Evan. “That’s not like her.”

He earned a laugh from Chief and Grey, but it was short-lived. Evan could sense they were thinking about where they had been and what they had done. He leaned forward and rested his elbows on his knees. Grey noticed him peeling the label off of his beer.

“What’s on your mind?” asked Grey. “You do that when you’re nervous.”

“I’m not nervous,” said Evan. “I just don’t know the etiquette. Should I ask you what happened out there or let it go?”

“You earned the right to ask us anything a long time ago, son,” said Chief. “We did the same thing to Eddie and Bullet that they did to Emily. Kate brought the judge along so she could see what they did to her.”

“Holy shit,” said Evan, sitting up straight. “That must have been terrible. How do you get those images out of your head?”

“I can tell you one beer ain’t gonna do it,” said Chief, heading back to the kitchen.

“You don’t get them out of your head,” said Grey. “Ever.”

“I’m not a gore junkie, but how do you deal with that?” asked Evan. “You saw two men get eaten by alligators. That would give me nightmares for the rest of my life. Hell, just hearing about it might do it.”

“You justify it to yourself,” said Chief, returning with another round. “I deal with it by thinking about two things. They’re not human to me, and they’ll never hurt anyone again.”

“I get the second part of that,” said Evan. “I’m not sure about the first.”

“They kidnapped, tortured, raped, and then murdered Emily,” said Grey. “They violated her with tools and anything else they could find in the shack. They sliced her open and threw her overboard as food. She wasn’t human to them. She was a worthless object. We adopt the same mentality with them.”

“I won’t have nightmares about them,” said Chief. “All my nightmares are about the various stages of decomposition of their victims. The body parts of a missing woman we found in six different dumpsters. The boy who we found burned in the woods after being molested by a family friend. The remains of an eight-year-old girl we found in a sewage canal half-eaten by animals. Those are the things that give me nightmares, not the evil, sick fucks that put them there.”

“Good Lord, Chief,” said Evan. “I don’t know how you guys did your jobs for that long.”

“Neither do we,” said Grey. “Half the people we put away are already out of prison or getting closer every day. Very few, if any of them, are sorry for what they did. Their brains aren’t wired like ours. Eventually their impulses and appetites will overwhelm them, and then they’ll do it again. They’ll keep doing it until they get caught again. It’s a cycle we couldn’t break as cops.”

“Bullet, Eddie, and Brad won’t be doing it again,” said Chief. “It gives me a little bit of comfort knowing I was part of the reason why. For me, it’s as simple as that. It’s why I’ll be able to sleep as soon as my head hits the pillow.”

“What about Kate?” asked Evan. “She never had to deal with the stuff you guys did. Don’t get me wrong; I know why. I just don’t know how.”

“How she deals with it?” asked Chief.

“Yeah,” said Evan. “I mean, she killed the guy that hurt her family. Why does she want to keep doing it?”

“You’re still helping her,” said Grey. “Why do you keep doing it?”

“That’s different,” said Evan. “I’m not feeding them to alligators.”

“Look, son,” said Chief. “We’re all here for our own reasons. Some of those reasons we share; some are more personal. Her reasons are on a deeper level we’ll never comprehend. Grey and I always show up after a crime; Kate experienced it. She looked into his eyes and saw the darkness behind them. She lived through that evil and came out the other side a different woman. I understand why she wants to get rid of all of it.”

Chief did sleep well. They all did. It was only a few hours of rest, but enough to clear the fog.

Sheriff Lewis arrived at the house after lunch. He wanted Kate to know that her favor was being honored. After the anonymous payment was received, Mark was transferred to a different facility outside of New Orleans.

As instructed by Kate, Judge Hall made it impossible for anyone to post bail for her son. He was to stay behind bars until Sheriff Lewis arranged his release. Cassandra wasn’t concerned when Lewis didn’t make that happen on the first day. She did become concerned on the third. On the fifth day with no word from the sheriff, or anyone else, she defied Kate.

Her caseload was transferred to other district judges while the judiciary commission investigated her son’s arrest. It was unlikely they would recommend that the Louisiana Supreme Court remove her based solely on Mark’s conduct. But the fact that the investigation was in its fifth day caused her an extreme amount of stress.

The sooner Mark was cleared, the sooner the investigation would end. Each hour they continued was an opportunity for them to find another bone from the skeletons in her closet. She had been in control of everything and everyone since Emily went to the hospital the day after her rape. Losing that control to Kate was becoming unbearable.

Sheriff Lewis noticed Judge Hall’s car in his driveway an hour before he stepped outside. He wasn’t surprised she was there. He was surprised when she stepped out of her car. She was a mess.

Judge Hall was the second youngest Supreme Court judge in Louisiana history to be appointed by Congress. She was fit, attractive, and sharp. She took great pride in her appearance and beamed confidence whenever she appeared in public. As she walked towards him, he saw none of those things.

Her hair was pulled back, but still managed to look disheveled. For the first time in the twenty years he had known her, she wasn’t wearing makeup. Dark circles accented the bags under her eyes. It looked as if the pale skin on her face wanted to follow her frown down to the pavement. Her tailored power suit had been replaced by sweatpants and an oversized jacket. If it weren’t for her car, it would have been difficult to recognize her until she was standing in front of him.

“Good morning, Judge,” said Sheriff Lewis, raising an eyebrow. “Did I miss something?”

“No, James. I was wondering if I could speak to you for a moment. I apologize for my appearance and showing up at your doorstep, but this is a very personal matter. I didn’t want to meet in your office.”

“Okay,” said Lewis. “I have a little time before my morning briefing. Please come inside.”

“Thank you,” said Cassandra.

“Can I get you a cup of coffee?” asked Lewis, showing her into the living room. “I just turned off the pot, but it’s still good.”

“That would be great.”

“You look tired,” said Lewis, returning with a cup.

“It’s been a rough few days,” said Cassandra. “I’m sure you know why I’m here.”

“I have no idea, Your Honor.”

“James, please,” said Cassandra, setting her cup on the table. “I need you to release your statement. The judiciary commission is crawling all over me. It’s only a matter of time before they’re at your door. They’ll find out everything.”

“What are you talking about?” asked Lewis. “What statement?”

“Stop it! Just stop it!”

“Calm down, Judge,” said Lewis. “Is this about your son? If it is, I promise you that I had nothing to do with it.”

“Yes, it’s about my son. I made a deal with Kate. If I gave her the brothers, you’d tell the prosecutor Mark was set up by Bullet. You were supposed to get the charges dropped four days ago. What are you waiting for? Are you enjoying my suffering, James?”

“I never made a deal with Kate,” said Lewis. “What do you mean you gave her the brothers?”

“I watched her kill them,” said Cassandra, glaring at Lewis. “They kidnapped me, dragged me out into the swamp, and then they killed them. Kate cut them open, threw them overboard, and let the alligators tear them apart. I thought they were going to kill me too. She’s insane, James. You have to stop her.”

“Let me get this straight,” said Lewis, standing and walking to a window. “You were kidnapped, forced to watch two murders, and then struck a deal with Kate to get your son out of jail.”

“There’s more to it than that,” said Cassandra. “Kate told me she wanted Bullet and Eddie. She used me to lure them away from their gang and set up a fake meeting. Once I turned them over, I was supposed to go home and wait for you. Instead, she shot me with a Taser and took me with them. She started babbling about how I needed to see the way Emily died.”

“Jesus Christ,” said Lewis, rubbing his head. “They’ve gone too far.”

“You and I both know I had nothing to do with that,” said Cassandra, sensing an opportunity. “You knew it was Bullet and his brothers that took Emily. I’m sorry I told her it was them. I had to, or she was going to kill me and leave Mark in jail. I didn’t know what else to do.”

“The drugs and the gun were planted?” asked Lewis, sitting beside her. “Are you positive it was them?”

“Yes. Kate stole them from Bullet and followed Mark. When he went inside a bar, they somehow gained access to his trunk. He was pulled over later that night. He was set up, James. I swear to you, he was.”

“Okay,” said Lewis, giving her a ray of hope. “Give me a day to look into it. I don’t trust Kate, and I want her and her sidekicks out of my town. If I find out she did it, I’ll help you get your son released.”

“Oh dear God, thank you,” said Cassandra, hugging the sheriff. “Be careful going over there. They’re all a bunch of animals.”

“Go home,” said Lewis. “You need to get some rest. I don’t want you talking to anyone about this until you hear from me. If you do, I’ll have no choice but to arrest you for not reporting those murders. Do you understand?”

“Yes.”

It was her first smile in five days. After providing the sheriff with more details about the murders, she felt a sense of relief while driving home. The only obstacle left was getting her hands on the recordings. Once she had them, she would be in control.

Judge Hall wasted no time getting to the sheriff’s office after he reached out to her. His news that Kate and her team were in custody took her by surprise. He didn’t want to give details over the phone and requested her presence so he could ask a favor. She was more than happy to oblige.

Sheriff Lewis saw a different woman walk into his office. It was the same person he had barely recognized in his driveway eight days earlier, but the version in front of him was rejuvenated and beaming. He smiled as she took a seat across from him.

“It’s been a crazy few days,” said Lewis, folding his hands on his desk. “We arrested Kate and three of her men this morning.”

“What are the charges?” asked Cassandra.

“For starters, three counts of murder, trafficking, and possession of stolen guns.”

“Three counts?”

“Yes,” said Lewis. “We found Brad Simmons. Bullet and Eddie recovered his body and took him to their mother’s home. They were preparing him for burial, but we were able to collect evidence off of him.”

“And Bullet and Eddie? Did you find them?”

“Parts,” said Lewis. “But enough to verify it was them. We obtained search warrants for Kate’s rental house and their boat after we found the bodies. Our techs discovered blood on the boat, on their clothes, in the house, and on a knife belonging to Kate. They tried to clean everything, but they failed miserably. They’re not the professionals we thought they were.”

“I’m impressed, James,” said Cassandra. “This is going to help your career in ways you never thought possible.”

“It gets even better for your son,” said Lewis. “We took samples from the drugs they found in Mark’s trunk and the drugs we found in Kate’s house. They have to run a few more tests, but they concluded that they were from the same batch. We also found four other guns that we determined were stolen from Bullet’s gun safe. I sent that information to the prosecutor. He’s drawing up the papers now to have your son released. He should be home no later than tomorrow morning.”

“Oh thank God,” said Cassandra, falling back into her chair. “I can’t begin to tell you what this past week has been like. I thought I was going to lose my mind.”

“I know,” said Lewis, shaking his head. “You looked like hell when you showed up at my place.”

“I felt like hell,” said Cassandra, exhaling. “This is such a relief, James. You have no idea.”

“We found a few other items in the house that aren’t related to the murders,” said Lewis, placing a small evidence bag on his desk, “but they were with the drugs, cash, and guns. I think they may have belonged to Bullet.”

It took all of her willpower not to grab the bag and run. As she calculated the risk in her head, he picked up the bag and handed it to her. In slow motion, she reached out and took it.

“They’re some kind of media cards,” said Lewis. “We took two of those out of digital recorders. The others were lying beside them. We have no idea what’s on them.”

“What do you mean?”

“One of Kate’s guys is some kind of computer whiz,” said Lewis. “My techs think he put a password on them. I was wondering if you could take them to your forensic techs in New Orleans. They’re better equipped to break the encryption. That’s the favor I needed.”

“Are these the only cards you found?” asked Cassandra.

“Yep,” said Lewis. “There was nothing on their computers and we tore that place apart inch by inch. If we find any more, I’ll pass them on to you.”

“Okay.”

“So you’ll help me out with those?” asked Lewis.

“It’s the least I can do,” said Cassandra, putting them in her purse. “Kate didn’t tell you what was on them?”

“She lawyered up as soon as we put the cuffs on her. They all did. They haven’t said a word since.”

“Now I have a favor to ask of you,” said Cassandra.

“Shoot.”

“Can I see her?”

“Kate?”

“Yes.”

“I don’t see why not,” said Lewis. “I’m just a little surprised you want to get that close to her. She shot you with a Taser and then threatened to kill you.”

“I know,” said Cassandra. “But I need closure on this. I need to look her in the eyes and tell her that she didn’t beat me. She needs to know that I’m stronger than she is. That lunatic tried to rip my family apart, blackmail me, and use me for her own sick agenda. She needs to know she didn’t win.”

“I completely understand,” said Lewis. “She used me as well. I’ll go get her and put her in our interview room.”

“No,” said Cassandra, knowing the interview room would be monitored. “I need to see her behind bars. I need to see her in a cage where she belongs.”

“They’re all in the same cage,” said Lewis. “We only have one holding cell here. They’re being transferred to county tomorrow. Are you sure you can handle that?”

“Oh, I’m sure.”

Sheriff Lewis escorted Judge Hall to the room which held the large cell. The space hadn’t been upgraded since it was built fifty years earlier. It reminded her of a jail in the old west. A steel door with a small window separated the room with the cell from the duty officer’s desk. She requested to go inside alone.

“Looks like a few things have changed since the last time we were all together,” said Cassandra, sitting on a bench outside of arm’s reach. “I like this set up better.”

“Nothing has changed,” said Kate, stepping up to the bars. “We’ll be out by the end of the week. I have the best lawyers money can buy. When they get us out, you’ll be going in.”

“Humor me,” said Cassandra, leaning back and crossing her legs. “How exactly are you going to do that?”

“You’re an arrogant little witch,” said Chief, glaring at her from his seat.

“You already know,” said Kate. “Once the media gets ahold of those recordings, it’ll wipe that smug look off of your face.”

“Oh,” said Cassandra, reaching into her purse and pulling out the evidence bag. “You mean these recordings?”

A smile crept across Cassandra’s face as the sound of Kate slamming her hands against the bars echoed in the room. She returned the bag to her purse and then folded her arms. She could see the white knuckles as Kate squeezed.

“Evan,” said Kate, turning to face him. “We told you to get them out of the house.”

“I was going to take them and make copies today,” said Evan, lowering his head. “I didn’t think they’d be kicking in our door last night. I’m sorry, Kate. I know I screwed up.”

“Yes, you did,” said Cassandra. “And for that, I thank you.”

“Good luck getting through those passwords,” said Chief. “The kid has the codes in his head. As soon as we’re out, he’ll give them up to whoever needs them.”

“To think I was actually afraid of you,” said Cassandra, laughing. “He’s not the only idiot in your little group. I’ll be replacing these with blank cards as soon as I leave.”

“You’re not going to get away with this,” said Grey. “We’ll find a way. We always do.”

“I doubt that,” said Cassandra. “I witnessed you murder two men after you kidnapped me. You were busted with half a pound of heroin and cocaine. You’re never getting out. I’ll make sure of that. Just to remind you, I’m a federal judge for the district where you committed all of your crimes.”

“What about Emily?” asked Kate.

“What? What are you talking about?”

“You promised me that you would turn yourself in,” said Kate. “You said that you’d tell the police what you and Mark did to Emily.”

“Are you really that stupid?” asked Cassandra.

“You said that you were sorry about what you did to her,” said Kate. “Are you, Cassandra? Are you truly sorry, or did you just tell me that because you thought it would save your neck?”

“Are you kidding me right now?”

“I’m being dead serious,” said Kate. “You won. You outsmarted me. I’m looking at the death penalty for the things I did. You were right about Miami. I killed a man there too. He murdered my son and took my husband from me, and I killed him. They’ll find out about that as well. My life is over, Cassandra.”

“It is.”

“I can’t hurt you anymore,” said Kate. “Mother to mother, tell me the truth. Are you sorry for what you did to Emily?”

“No,” said Cassandra, standing and taking a step closer to Kate. “I’m not sorry for anything that I did to her. All of that crying and begging you heard was me making you soft. I couldn’t care less about that little bitch or her mother. She wanted to ruin me, just like you did. I beat her and I beat you. You’re the one that’s sorry.”

“Thank you for being honest with me,” said Kate. “With that being said, I’ll give you one last chance.”

“You are truly delusional,” said Cassandra, laughing. “You’re going to die in prison and you’re giving
me
one last chance? Okay, I’ve got to hear this.”

“Walk back into the sheriff’s office and tell him everything,” said Kate. “Tell him about how your son raped Emily and that you covered it up to avoid embarrassment. Tell him that you paid Bullet to destroy her life and then kill her. If you do that, then I won’t kill you. I’ll leave you alone, and all of this will finally be over for everyone.”

“That’s it?” said Cassandra, grinning. “That’s all I have to do?”

“That’s it,” said Kate.

“Well, let me think about it. In the meantime, hold your breath.”

“It’s all about choices,” said Chief. “Remember that you made it, not us.”

“I’m not sure what rock you people crawled out from under, but it’s already over for everyone except you,” said Cassandra. “It’s just the beginning and it’s going to be one long, painful, miserable road for the rest of your short lives. You fucked with the wrong woman.”

“Not from where I’m sitting,” said Chief.

“This has been great and I’d like to thank you for the stimulating conversation, but I’m going home now,” said Cassandra. “I’m going to walk out of here, drive home, pour a glass of wine, and take a hot bath. All things none of you will ever do again.”

Judge Hall knocked on the door. Sheriff Lewis escorted her to her car and then returned to the holding cell. He sat down and rubbed his face with his hands.

“Well, she didn’t confess anything to me,” said Lewis.

“We figured it was a long shot,” said Chief, stretching his back, “but we had to try.”

“She wasn’t sorry,” said Kate, sitting beside Chief. “Even knowing that she would never have to answer to anyone about what she did, she wasn’t sorry.”

“Sweetheart,” said Chief, “people like that are never sorry about anything until they get caught. Then they’re just sorry they got caught. Don’t dwell on it too much. Just be glad we’re not built like them.”

“I won’t be sorry either, Chief,” said Kate, looking down at the floor. “For what happens next, I won’t be sorry at all. Doesn’t that make me one of them?”

“It doesn’t,” said Chief, patting her leg. “It just makes you one of us.”

Kate put her hand on top of Chief’s. She shook her head in silence and thought about Emily. She thought about the innocent kiss that set into motion a series of events that put her in front of Judge Hall and them in a jail cell.

“You really should think about sprucing up this place, sheriff.” said Chief, looking around. “Maybe a fresh coat of paint or a mini bar.”

“I’ll see what I can do,” said Lewis, chuckling.

“How’s the food in this joint?” asked Evan. “I’m starving.”

“It’s about as good as the cushions on that seat,” said Lewis.

“Sounds delicious,” said Chief. “I’m buying.”