Lousiana Hotshot

at all about the case we’re working on?”
    Angie looked shocked. “He never talks about cases.”
    “Well, I’m talking about it. I think there’s a very dangerous person involved. And there’s been another hit-and-run.”
    “Oh. So much for the Texas theory.” The words were brittle, but Angie’s voice wasn’t. It was tired, and her face was drained. Her usual slash of red lipstick was long gone.
    “Did the cops say anything at all about the car?”
    “There weren’t any cops here when I got here.”
    “The paramedics then.”
    “All that was over by the time they called us. He was already in some cubicle being felt up for fractures.”
    “Listen, I’m going to the police. Eddie and I should probably have already done it. I guess I’m kind of in the way here, anyway.”
    Shyly, Angela put a hand on her arm. “No. Thanks. Thanks for being here.”
    Talba only nodded, a little embarrassed.
    “Could you do us a really, really big favor? I mean really big. If you don’t want to, you can say no.”
    “Sure.”
    “Anthony’s coming in in a couple of hours. I can’t leave Mom. Could you possibly…”
    To save her embarrassment, Talba interrupted. “Could I meet him at the airport? It would be a pleasure. It would sure beat sitting around the hospital.”
    She was looking for a pay phone when she remembered she had a phone in her purse. Unselfconsciously she pulled it out and dialed, walking down the corridor with it pressed to her ear. If it had been anyone else, she would have thought them terribly self-important.
    Skip Langdon, her friend at the Third District, was just about to leave. Talba begged; she had to talk this out. “Listen, just stay till I get there. Please.”
    “You’re not confessing to anything, are you?”
    “Are you kidding? This is informational. That’s it. Except that I’m worried to death about my new boss.”
    “Eddie? You don’t have to worry about him— he’s honest as the day is long.”
    “Skip, it’s not what you think. Eddie’s in surgery at Charity— hit-and-run.”
    “Oh. That kind of worried.” She sighed. “How is he?”
    “Nobody knows yet.”
    “Come on over.”
    Langdon was a tall white woman, and Talba was no giant, but there was something about the cop that reminded her of herself. Or maybe that was wishful thinking— Talba admired Langdon for her quickness, her authority.
Maybe when I’m seasoned,
she thought. That was what it was— Langdon was seasoned. She’d seen enough strange things that they were familiar to her. She knew what was coming next most of the time. It was a stage of life Talba’d be happy to reach.
    She said, “You’re looking good, Baroness.”
    “I’m a wreck, but thanks. Look, you know that stuff I told you about Baron Tujague? It’s escalated. Remember that other hit-and-run— Rhonda Bergeron? Well, now Eddie.”
    “Could be coincidence.”
    “Skip, I know I’m supposed to observe confidentiality, but I’m too green to handle it. The client’s Aziza Scott— the woman who disappeared over the weekend.”
    “Whoa. Mind if I tape this? That way I can just ship the tape out to the relevant officers.”
    “No, of course not.” Talba filled her in a little more. When she’d stopped talking, Langdon turned off the tape and thought a moment. Finally, she said, “There’s something I don’t get. How’d Toes know Eddie was working for Aziza?”
    Talba mulled it over, rocking slightly in her chair. She was a good deal more taken aback than she wanted to let on. “I don’t know. Maybe somebody saw something.” But she knew as soon as she spoke that it wasn’t Eddie they’d have seen.
    Skip said, “Or somebody ratted.”
    “Maybe Aziza.”
    “Could have been. Certainly could have been. But you do realize, don’t you, that if Toes knows about Eddie, he knows about you?”
    “Yeah. I think I do.” The possibility hadn’t occurred to her until thirty seconds ago, a circumstance that amazed her.
    “You watch your back, Baroness.”
    “Yeah, thanks.”
    “And call me in the morning— if you’re still alive.”
    Cop humor,
Talba thought as she left. She didn’t find it funny. Her hands slid on the wheel, slick with sweat.

Chapter 23
    She called Darryl from the car. “Bad, bad, bad news. Somebody tried to kill Eddie— he’s in surgery now.”
    Silence filled the line.
    “Darryl? You there?”
    “Yeah. Bad news thing threw me— I thought it was Miz Clara.”
    “Listen, I don’t think