The End Of Desire: A Rowan Gant Investigation Read Online Free PDF Page A

Saint
Louis, so you guess correctly.”
    “Yeah, well like I said, brace yourself. It
looks like your evil sis-in-law is at it again.”
     
     
     
     

CHAPTER 2:
     
     
    I was suddenly feeling
very ill. Under different circumstances I would have blamed the
acidic churn in my gut on the healthy dose of aspirin I’d swallowed
only a few minutes before. However, the sour nausea was accompanied
by hollowness in the pit of my stomach that told me this was a
different kind of sick. It was the queasiness that bore its way
into your intestines at right about the moment you realized you had
seriously screwed up.
    Whether I wanted to admit it or not, my
impromptu trip here to New Orleans had been born only partly of
logic and reason. The majority of the impetus was pure emotion that
I had been all too willing to ascribe to gut instinct without
really giving it any serious thought. What I realized now was that
any of the calculating and planning I had done was probably nothing
more than the inner ramblings of someone on the verge of a nervous
breakdown. The truth is, I probably belonged in a hospital bed in
the psych ward right next to my wife’s.
    Of course, this was nothing new. I had always
acted on impulse, and even when I was wrong, fate somehow allowed
me to come out on top. But, my luck in that arena couldn’t last
forever. It was bound to change at some point, and I feared that
time had now arrived. I’d let haste guide my actions and doing so
led me here, almost 700 miles due south of where I apparently
needed to be, with no one to blame but myself—which is exactly what
I was doing at this very moment.
    “Okay…” I finally said as I let out a heavy
sigh and desperately tried to process everything that was bouncing
around inside my skull. “Let me get off here and see if I can find
a flight back right away. I’ll call you back as soon as I know when
I can be in Saint Louis.”
    I received no response. I waited a moment and
wondered if I’d lost connection due to problems with cell towers in
the area. I even pulled the phone from my ear and glanced at the
LCD to check the signal strength. Finding it well within limits, I
spoke again, “Ben? Are you still there?”
    “Ya’know,” he finally replied, “I could be a
total ass and just let ya’ do that.” He let out a heavy breath,
which told me he’d been at the other end all along. He’d just been
thinking, most likely rocked back in his chair with his free hand
massaging his neck as he had a tendency to do whenever pondering
something serious. After another brief pause he added, “Hell, I
should let ya’ do it ‘cause ya’ had no business goin’ down there
anyway.”
    “What the hell are you talking about, Ben?” I
asked.
    “Simple, White Man. Much as I’d prefer your
happy ass was in Saint Louis where I can keep an eye on ya’, the
murder didn’t happen here. It happened there.”
    “Here?”
    “Yeah, there. In New Orleans.”
    “Where here?” I demanded.
    “Ain’t important, Row. It’s bein’
investigated and they’re keepin’ us in the loop.”
    “Fine. That’s lovely. I’d expect nothing
less. Now, where did it happen?”
    “I’m not tellin’ ya’.”
    “Why not?”
    “‘ Cause if I do, you’ll try ta’ find a
way ta’ get into it.”
    “How do you know that?”
    He half chuckled. “How? ‘Cause I know you,
that’s how. Besides, if that ain’t your plan, whaddaya need to know
the particulars for?”
    I couldn’t dispute either point, so I asked,
“Yeah, so what if I do? Maybe if I check out the crime scene, I can
pick up on something they can’t see. You know how that tends to
happen with me.”
    “Yeah, I do. But, the scene’s a week
old.”
    “A week?!” I exclaimed. “Why in the hell are
we just now hearing about it?”
    “NCIC backlog, Row,” he explained. “Not to
mention a hurricane and a flood which I’m sure you noticed. NOLA PD
is swamped. Too much crime, not enough time or coppers for