A/N: You all are so wonderful for sticking with me! I am really touched by the reviews for the last chapter. After taking a more than a little break, I thought you all would have forgotten about this one.
Chris handed Brody her sister's necklace. "Here, you can have it back."
"No, I gave it to you." she replied uneasily pushing it back in his direction.
They say blackouts are porous, that in time memories come back in time. At least that's Loretta had told her. But Merri Brody was beginning to doubt that. She felt so damn guilty for not remembering that she had given LaSalle her sister's necklace.
She understood not being able to remember the accident, but the memories leading up before it. Why were they suddenly gone? And why where they only the ones connected with her life here in New Orleans.
She sighed as she watched her partner slip the necklace back around his neck. "So, Savannah she was your…" Damn it. If she could just remember something else besides the woman's name.
"I don't like to talk about it."
"Talking helps."
Chris couldn't help but shake his head, "Look, we've already had this conversation once. I'm handling it in my own way."
Merri pursed her lips. "I didn't mean to pry. I was just trying to fill in some of the blanks."
"She was my girlfriend. We met in high school." He replied resigned. He had to admit, he felt a little selfish for keeping the details from her, but the truth was he hadn't told her much about Savannah the first time around, other than she had been Cade's counselor.
"She was his mermaid," Percy quipped appearing in the doorway. "What the hell's going on here? I go away for a coupla of days to find out the two of you are dead?"
"Car accident," LaSalle supplied as he tucked the medallion minus the choker into his pocket.
"So, I've been told." She also knew about the website and was a tad insulted that she wasn't on it. "Now, are you two ready to get out of here?" In her hands, Percy held a duffle bag packed with a clean set of clothes and toiletries for each. Pride was expecting them all back at the office to watch as his plan to catch a would-be-cop killer came to life.
Thirty minutes later they were all standing in front of the big screen watching a special report that Pride had set up with the local media.
In local news today, infamous, crime family member, Sasha Broussard has now been charged with the murders of two federal agents. NOLA PD discovered evidence linking Broussard to the murders through a website that had been established seeking murder for hire candidates. This marks at least the four murders that Broussard has been connected to this year.
When the report was over, LaSalle looked at Pride confused. "So, Sasha was behind this?"
Pride turned off the monitor. "No, she isn't. My hope is that whoever is behind the creation of the website will step up and want to take credit." His theory was that Sasha had been set up to take the fall, so he just played along with it.
"In other words, they won't want to see Sasha get all of the glory for killin' us," LaSalle concluded.
"What about the website?" Brody added.
"The website is now being heavily monitored by Patton and NOPD. Heavy traffic patterns have linked several users. It took some time, but Patton was finally able to connect all of the bouncing IP addresses to a local cafe here in the Garden District."
"So, all we have to do is sit and wait," Borin answered entering through the kitchen with a cup of what she deemed as nasty coffee in her hands.
"Borin and I'll head down to the café and see if our killer shows up," Pride said, "Percy, I want you to go check out the Broussard kids, make sure that Sasha was telling truth when she said they wouldn't have anything to do with this."
Pride flicked his gaze over to Brody and LaSalle. He could already see the question forming on LaSalle's lips. "What do you want us to do, King?"
"Stay here, hold down the fort, get to know one another again and learn things." Pride saw a blush start to creep up, Brody's cheeks but ignored it. Technically, neither one of them was ready to be put back into the field so for the moment, he needed to continue to keep them safe. He would use them later, to set the final blow if and when they caught the killer.
When everyone had gone, Brody moved over to LaSalle who saw fit to start going through the pile of paperwork on his desk. "Well, you heard Pride, we're supposed to get to know one another again."
"And how do you suppose we do that?" he replied flipping through a report that he had left unfinished on the day of the accident.
"How do you feel about crosswords?" she quipped wickedly.
LaSalle pondered for a moment recalling the first time he met Brody. She had asked him for a 3 letter word for the word mistake. "I suppose it makes sense being that's where we started."
"It could be anyone of these people, " Borin droned as she surveyed the number of WI-FI users sitting around them. There were at least a dozen or people using laptops and tablets. They ranged anywhere the very young to the elderly, none of which looked like killers.
"But at least the coffee's good."
Pride gave her a quick grin as he monitored the website on his Microsoft Surface Pro 3. There had been little activity since the announcement of the new charges against Sasha, a few comments here and there about the disappointment of his demise, but that was it.
Sick people, most of them rebellious teens he assumed. Pride was actually a bit saddened by the fact that there were people in his city who wanted see his reign as King end. Tearing his eyes away from the tablet for a moment, he looked at Borin.
"What you say when this over, I treat you to the best Cajun steak and shrimp you've ever had?"
Borin snorted softly, nearly spitting out her coffee. "Are you asking me out on date?"
"Let's call it a reward for a job well done." Pride felt a sprint of heat start to crawl up his neck. "I couldn't have gotten this far in the case without you."
"Look at you, you're blushing!" she teased as their moment was cut short by the presence of new activity on the website. Someone was making changes to the site."
Big red letters with dripping blood began to scroll across the page. Propaganda! Sasha Broussard is a fake!"
Pride sprang to his feet with Borin following suit, "Check everyone, and confiscate computers if you have to!"
"It's not here," Borin sighed in defeat as she returned the last of the laptops and tablets she had collected. The web history on the all of the computers, showed zero activity for the infamous website.
Pride looked around the café, one more time, in pensive thought. "What if it's coming from across the street?" Directly across the street was a Veteran's monument with benches that had been set up for quiet reflection. A woman in her mid to late twenties appeared to be busily posting something to her phone.
"Stay here." Pride made his way across the street, pulling out his badge. "Excuse me, Miss. May I see your phone?"
Wild eyed, the woman, hastily closed the screen she had been scrolling, and slid her hand into the backpack that was sitting beside her. "Pinterest, it's addicting," she smiled dropping the phone before pulling out a .22 and firing at Pride from close range, the bullet hitting him point blank in the stomach.
Titling her head the woman watched with a sadistic smile as he pressed his hand to the wound and drew away blood before crumpling to the ground in a heap, of bleeding and quivering defeat. Whirling around she was unprepared when Borin appeared from behind her, weapon trained.
Stilling smiling, the woman dropped the gun and put up her hands. "The King is dead."
"For your sake you'd better hope he isn't," Borin roughly cuffed the woman and shoved her aside before falling to her knees to help Pride.
"It's a good thing, I don't listen to you," she quipped as she stripped off her jacket and pressed it to his oozing wound. "And in case you're wondering, I definitely want that dinner you promised me, so don't you go anywhere. "
Somewhere in the pain of it all, Pride managed to slip his hand on top of hers, giving her a small smile before his eyes started to droop, dragging him down into the darkness.
"Pride!" Borin shouted out his name, unable to keep her voice from clouding with emotion. "Pride!"
A/N: I bet you all thought that I only did things like that to LaSalle. Mawhaha!