The Whispering Room

“And just what do you hope to prove by going out there and rattling Betts’s cage again?”

“This time, it’s not Betts’s cage I’m trying to rattle,” she said. “It’s Declan Nash’s.”

Evangeline was five minutes from her rendezvous point with Mitchell when she realized she was being followed. Earlier she’d spotted a red Mustang behind her when she left the federal building, and she’d thought at first it might be Nathan’s stolen car.

But the driver made a right at the first traffic light, and Evangeline hadn’t caught sight of the car again.

The vehicle behind her now was a black Lincoln with heavily tinted windows.

Keeping an eye in the rearview mirror, Evangeline made a quick left on a red light, hoping to lose the tail, but the Lincoln shot up behind her, tapping her bumper just as a car approaching from the other direction swerved in front of her.

Evangeline had no choice but to hit the brakes as the two cars wedged her between them. Heavily armed men spilled out of the vehicles and surrounded her car with enough artillery to start a small war. Guns were suddenly pointed at her from every direction.

“Get out of the car now!”

A dozen different actions raced through Evangeline’s head, none of them viable at the moment. She had no choice but to do as she was told.

Pushing open the door, she slowly climbed out.

“Throw your weapon on the ground. Do it now!”

Rough hands seized her then and her arms were pulled behind her back and cuffed. Dragging her over to one of the cars, they shoved her into the backseat and slammed the door.

By the time Evangeline could struggle to a sitting position, the car was already moving. The whole confrontation had taken less than thirty seconds. So fast any onlookers probably wouldn’t have even realized what was going on until it was too late.

“Who are you people?” Her heart thudded against her chest and she tried to ignore the pain that streaked across her shoulders.

“You have no idea what you’ve been meddling in,” the man on the passenger side said.

“What are you talking about? Who are you?” she asked again.

But he merely gave her a withering look and turned back to face the front.

She glanced out the window at the passing scenery. She thought at first they were going to Sonny Betts’s place, but instead they cut back and traveled a maze of side streets and alleys until they reached a warehouse. The overhead door was activated by a remote and the big car slid inside. A moment later, the door rumbled closed behind them.

Evangeline glanced around, trying to get some sense of her surroundings, but they were in total darkness. She was taken out of the car and led to the back of the building, where her cuffs were removed and a gruff voice instructed her to sit. When she failed to comply, she was pushed down on a wooden, straight-back chair, and her wrists were once again fastened behind her.

“What do you want?” she asked.

No response.

“Who are you?”

Only silence.

“If you people think you can snatch a New Orleans homicide detective without consequences, I suggest you think again.”

Someone laughed this time.

“You should be worrying about the consequences of your own actions, Detective Theroux. You just don’t know when to quit, do you?”

She tried to get up, but a hand on her shoulder pressed her back down.

“You may as well get comfortable,” a second voice said behind her. “You’ve got a wait ahead of you.”

“What am I waiting for?”

“If I told you that, it’d take all the fun out of it, now wouldn’t it?”

The room fell silent. No one spoke again until a side door opened and a third man stepped into the warehouse. Evangeline could hear the low murmur of voices in the dark, but she couldn’t make out what any of them were saying.

The door opened again and for a moment, Evangeline thought they had left her. Then an overhead light came on and she squinted, momentarily blinded by the brilliance.

When her vision cleared, she saw Declan Nash standing in front her.

“I figured it would come to this,” he said. “But I didn’t think it would be this soon.”

“Come to what?” she asked angrily. “Kidnapping?”

“A lot of people went to a great deal of trouble to keep this day from happening,” he said. “You have no idea.”

“Why don’t you stop speaking in riddles and tell me what the hell is going on.” Evangeline tugged at the handcuffs. “And while you’re at it, how about taking these things off me?”

He reached behind him and plucked a key off a small wooden desk. Then he walked around the chair and unfastened the cuffs.

Evangeline jumped up and whirled to face him as she massaged her wrists. “Was that really necessary?”

“With you, yes.” His glance traveled over her and she thought for a moment he looked anxious.

“You’re not hurt, are you?”

She was still rubbing her wrists. “I’ll live.”

He moved around to the front of the table.

“What’s going on?” she demanded. “Why did you bring me here?”

“This seemed as good a place as any to give you what you want.”

“And that is?”

“The truth,” he said, “About Johnny.”