Page 11 of Lord Have Mercy Part Four: Big Son

“What we aren’t sure of is whether or not he bought the funeral. Does he think Felix is still alive? Or does he think he’s dead, and he’s taken Remy anyway?”

“Goddamn.” Dandridge shook his head, staring at the phone screen another long moment, then pushed it back toward Alex. He was furious and baffled when he lifted his head again. “What kinda sick fuck is he? What the hell does hewant?”

“That’s what we’ve been trying to figure out,” Alex said, with no small amount of bitterness.

“‘We,’” Dandridge repeated, and his gaze shifted to Tenny, still pacing the courtyard, hands no longer in his pockets, but propped on his hips, his posture tall and characteristic once more. Slow and calculating as a leopard’s, Dandridge’s eyes slid back to Alex. “Who’s we? You hook back up with the two who’ve been working the Grendel case?”

“Not exactly.”

“Oh, for Christ’s sake,” Tenny mumbled, in his true accent, to Alex’s surprise, and threw himself down onto the bench beside Alex. He pulled his sunglasses off – they were either real Dior, or knockoffs, going by the gold label on the side – and met Dandridge’s startled gaze. “Weare Mercy’s people. Alex is working with us – or attempting to, at any rate. He seems tothink you can help us find Remy. If you can, then you’re welcome to contribute.” He spread his hands in an inviting gesture at odds with his pinched-mouth expression. “If not, I’ll kindly remind you of the many illegal things you did back in February in the name of helping Mercy, we’ll call it even, and all walk away from this table no worse off than when we sat down.”

Dandridge gaped at him a moment, and then, slowly, his eyes sparked with amusement. Perhaps a little approval. “Mercy’s people, eh?”

Tenny let out a long, bothered sigh through his nostrils.

“That means you’re a Dog.”

“I’ll be your worst nightmare if you fuck us around, old man.”

Dandridge’s brows lifted, but one corner of his mouth hitched up in a grin when he looked back at Alex. “Well, I’ll be damned. You’re running with the devil now, huh, Bonfils?”

“Dale,” Alex said, pleading. “Can you please just be helpful? Otherwise, this one’s only going to get more annoying.” He hooked a thumb at Tenny, who muttered something doubtless profane and insulting under his breath.

Dandridge rubbed absently at his jaw and made a considering face.

“Dale–” Alex started again.

“Hush, it’s alright, I’m thinking.” Which he proceeded to do some more, brows twitching inward and out a few times, so that the lines on his forehead looked like the dots and dashes of morse code. One brow flicked up, finally, and stayed there, gaze landing on Alex. “You talked to Bob Boudreaux?”

“We’re going to. Someone – in our party – is familiar with him.”

Dandridge snorted, but nodded. “He’ll know more about where Felix used to hang out back when he lived here.” The browwent up again. “And that’s what Boyle’s trying to do, yeah? Draw Felix out in the open?”

“We guess so. He wantssomethingwith Felix. We just don’t know what.”

“We know he grew up here,” Tenny put in, and both of Dandridge’s brows flew up.

“Did he now?”

Alex nodded. “He was born in Baltimore, and lives there now, but his mom moved him down here when he was four or so, and he spent all his formative years in New Orleans.”

“Shit. And he’s…what? Forty?”

“Forty-three,” Alex said, grimly, “same age as Felix.”

Dandridge let out a low whistle. “Well. That changes things. Did they go to school together?”

“Mercy was home-schooled.”

“Shit, that’s right. What about Colin? That’s Mercy’s – well, yours, too, I suppose – half-brother.”

“Yeah,” Alex said, drily, “we’ve met.”

Tenny snorted.

“And that’s the sort of thing I’d need access to a school database to confirm,” Alex said, lifting his own brows.

“Shit. Right.” Dandridge rapped his knuckles on the table. “I’ll look into it.”

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