"I'll take you there," I said.

"Do I know you?" she said.

"I'm a friend of Johnny's," I said.

She was very old, quite feeble, and even with her hand on my arm she had to take small steps as we walked toward the front door.

"Where you going?" Jericho Johnny said from behind the bar.

I explained I was taking the elderly woman home.

His toothpick flexed in the corner of his mouth and his eyes looked at a neutral space between us. "Come back when you're done," he said.

A few minutes later I reentered the saloon and finished my coffee. The kids who had been shooting pool bought a bagful of cold long-neck beers to go and went out the door. The wind was blowing through the screen doors, and the inside of the saloon smelled like rain and sawdust.

Jericho Johnny leaned on his arms. "Here's the deal, Robicheaux. That guy Pitts wasn't trying to put a kite on just Purcel. He wanted a twofer — seventy-five hundred for the whole job."

"Who was the other hit?" I asked.

"Who you think?" he said.

"Pitts used my name specifically?"

"He said it was a friend of Purcel. An Iberia Parish plainclothes. He said the guy had been an NOPD Homicide roach, but got kicked off the force because he was a drunk. He said if this guy gets smoked, no cops around here are gonna be burning candles. Sound like anybody you know?"

"You willing to wear a wire?"

He laughed to himself and began stacking bottles of Bacardi and Beam and Jack Daniel's o

n a shelf.

"Why'd you tell me all this, Johnny?" I said.

"That was my mother you drove home. I don't like to owe people. You mixed up with politics?"

"No."

"I think the juice on this deal is coming from up high. Watch your ass. This city is full of dirtbags. It ain't like the old days," he said.

The next morning was Friday. As soon as I came into the office I told Helen of my visit to Jericho Johnny's saloon.

A deep line cut across her brow. "You want to have Wineburger picked up?" she said.

"Waste of time. Plus, I'd lose him as an informant," I replied.

"He said the juice was coming from up high? Who are you a threat to? I don't think this goes any higher than Billy Joe Pitts."

"Maybe not," I said.

"Raphael Chalons is not behind this, Dave, if that's what you're thinking."

"I'm just reporting what happened."

"I'm going to call Pitts's boss and tell him what we have."

"Mistake," I said.

"My life is full of them," she replied.

Tags: James Lee Burke Dave Robicheaux Mystery
Source: readsnovelonline.net