just another noodle-brain with an eight-thousand-watt transmitter and nothing much to do all day except smoke cigarettes and rail into the microphone about how crummy things were, a voice alone in the dark, her signal spreading like silent ripples in a pond, unheard on the earth but traveling ever outward into space, past the moon and Mars, past the asteroids and Pluto, on into eternity. I hoped the people on Alpha Centauri were smart enough to turn her off, too.
Twenty minutes later we parked next to Lucy's Lexus outside the Eunice substation. The same woman was at the same desk, and the same pristine magnolia was in its little jar. She smiled when she saw me and said, "They're in with the sheriff. They're expecting you."
Lucy and Jo-el were sitting with a great, broad African-American man with white hair and a gut the size of a fifty-five-gallon oil drum. Merhlie Comeaux. Lucy made the introductions, then looked back at Joel. "Sheriff, before we begin this we need to establish the ground rules. Merhlie is a former EBR prosecutor, but he is now a partner in the firm of Sonnier, Melancon amp; Burke, for private hire. As such, anything said by you in this room is subject to the attorney-client privilege. Is that understood?"
Jo-el looked confused. "But I didn't hire you."
"We are under agreement with Jodi Taylor to work in your best interests. If you are so informed and agree to that arrangement, then we are, de facto, your attorneys."
Jo-el looked at me. "Do I need lawyers?"
I said, "Just listen to her, Jo-el."
He frowned and nodded and looked back at her. Lucy said, "We are about to discuss your awareness of and involvement in activities that may, in the future, result in criminal charges being filed against you. We don't want anything said by you today to prejudice your case at that time."
Jo-el looked embarrassed. "I'm not going to try to get out of anything."
Lucy spread her hands. "That is your choice, of course. You may feel differently at some later date. Also, we may discuss issues of a personal and potentially criminal nature as regards other members of your family. By accepting the attorney-client privilege with us, you also serve to protect them. Do you understand that?"
Jo-el nodded. "Protect them."
"Do you accept this arrangement?"
Jo-el said, "Yes."
Lucy nodded, then glanced at Merhlie Comeaux. "We have prior consent from Jodi Taylor to discuss her affairs openly with the Elvis Cole Detective Agency." She looked back at Jo-el. "As we discussed, Mr. Comeaux is here in an advisory capacity in the criminal apprehension of Milt Rossier. He can't speak for the state, but he can provide his opinion and guidance in the building of such a case. Do you understand that, too, Sheriff?"
"Yes. I need all the help I can get."
Merhlie Comeaux said, "Why don't you gentlemen give me what you have?"
Jo-el raised his eyebrows at me, and I told Comeaux everything that I knew. I started at the head of it with Jimmie Ray Rebenack and what happened at Rossier's crawfish farm, and I brought it up through the meeting between Rossier and Donaldo Prima at the Bayou Lounge and what I had seen at the pumping station. When I told him about the old man's murder and the bodies we recovered from the grave, Comeaux asked for the police report. Jo-el showed him the file and Comeaux stared at the pictures. He said, "Did you get an ID?"
"Not yet. We're running it through New Orleans."
Comeaux shook his head and sighed. "You got any coffee around here?"
Jo-el asked the receptionist to bring in coffee. After she had, I went through the rest of it, describing my meeting with del Reyo and what I had learned about Donaldo Prima and Frank Escobar and how Prima was using Rossier to move illegals up through the Gulf Coast waterways. When I was finished with it, Merhlie Comeaux nodded like he was thinking, then looked at the sheriff. "Do you have anything to add to that?"
Jo-el said, "Unh-unh. No, sir."
Merhlie looked back at me and laced his fingers across his ample belly. He had clear, hard eyes, and the eyes made me think he had been an aggressive prosecutor. "Let's go back to what happened at the pumping station. You saw this Prima pull the trigger?"
"Yes."
He looked at Joe Pike. "You saw it, too?"
Pike nodded.
"Where was Rossier?"
"He wasn't there."
"How about those two boys who work for him?"
"Bennett and LaBorde were inside with Prima."
"You get IDs on