Free Polly Iyer - Diana Racine 03 - Backlash by Polly Iyer Page B

Diana as a girlfriend, but he wouldn’t argue the point. “Thanks for your help.”
    “Did Denny do something? He must’ve, or you wouldn’t be asking these questions.”
    “Tell you what. You forget I was here, and I’ll forget everything you told me. How’s that?”
    “Sounds good to me.” She took his arm. “So you’re hooked up, huh?”
    “I really am.”
    “Pity.”
    Lucier left Jaycee Diamond’s house and headed to the district. She wouldn’t be his type even if he were looking for a woman, and he wasn’t.
    The possibility that Chenault was gay or even bisexual had never occurred to Lucier before Miss Kitty mentioned his friendship with Moran. If that was the case, and Chenault ruined marriages as a cover to keep him in the closet, he was sleazier than Lucier ever imagined.
    Was Moran’s death the result of a lover’s quarrel or something more?
    Lucier wondered why he was so fixated on Chenault. True, he didn’t like the guy, didn’t care about his sexuality other than his method of concealing the truth, and ten out of ten people probably would agree that justice wasn’t always equal or right. Even Chenault’s kinky sexual habits didn’t prove anything. Lucier had nothing concrete to implicate Chenault in what he now thought of as two revenge murders. Still, he couldn’t erase the gut feeling that Chenault was somehow involved.
    Beecher and Halloran were writing up their reports when he got back to his office. Cash hadn’t returned from interviewing Alba.
    The two men followed Lucier into his office. “Are you ready for this? Rudy Hodge and Marty Feldman said they went barhopping the night of Moran’s murder and closed the place down. They weren’t playing cards.”
    “I sure didn’t expect that.” Lucier looked over the papers on his desk, but he wasn’t reading them. His mind scattered in ten different directions.
    “Why would Chenault name them as alibis?” Beecher said.
    “Because I put him on the spot and asked him to name names. He came up with the best alibi he could on the spur of the moment, figuring his buddies would cover his ass.
    “Split up the time frames and go back over the court judgments for the last couple of years. Pull out any you consider similar to the Soulé and Winstead verdicts. Then cross check everyone involved, including jurors and judges. See if anyone met with an accident or was a victim of an unsolved case. Make note of the day and time.”
    “You still think there’s an avenger?” Beecher asked.
    “Feels like a pattern. Right now, I’m curious how Chenault will react when he finds out his friends didn’t cover his back.”
    “If you can find him,” Halloran said. “I haven’t been able to.”
    “Did you check with his captain?”
    “Yup. He hasn’t heard from him either.”
    “This is looking suspiciouser and suspiciouser,” Beecher said.
    Lucier rubbed his chin. “Our vigilante could have started with one case that was personal, then taken it upon himself to recruit others to right a series of what he considered wrongs. Maybe they all had something to avenge. A case they worked on, something in their families. Cover all the bases.”
    “Couldn’t find Alba anywhere,” Willy Cash said, joining the rest of the team.
    “What do you mean?” Lucier asked.
    “What I said. He didn’t call out, and he didn’t show up at his district either.”
    “What the hell.” Lucier was still trying to assimilate the information when his cell rang. Diana.
    “Ernie, you need to come here right now.”
    “What is it?” When she didn’t answer, he said, “Diana, talk to me. What?”
    “Remember what I saw when I touched Keys?”
    “Yeah.”
    “The actual picture is on my computer, in my email. And Keys Moran sent it to me. You’ll never guess who forwarded the email to him and who sent it originally.”

Chapter Sixteen
A Break in the Case
     
    “ W hoa , boy,” Lucier said. He quickly relayed Diana’s message to his team. “Keep