Hennessy. Here we go.

Elle’s eyes snapped open as I answered.

“This is Lord.”

Hennessy didn’t even bother with a greeting. “Got some bad news for you, man.”

I froze, bracing myself for whatever else could possibly be coming next. It didn’t just rain—it fucking hurricaned in NOLA. Guess I shouldn’t have been surprised.

“What?”

“Found a Charger registered to Chains smashed into a telephone pole down by Loyola. It was totaled.”

What the hell?

“The Charger? My Charger?”

“Yeah, if I were you, I’d head down to your place and see if anything else is missing. I can meet you there.”

My mind immediately went to Mathieu. “You find anyone with the car?” I held my breath waiting for the answer. As fucked up as what he’d done was, and despite the fact that I was going to share everything I’d learned with Hennessy, I didn’t want anything to happen to the kid.

“No. Abandoned. The accident reconstruction guys were just finishing up when I heard about it, and they’re saying the tracks look like the driver swerved to miss something and lost control.”

My mind kicked into high gear to process all the shit he was throwing at me.

“Thanks for calling. I’m on my way. And yeah, I got some shit I need to tell you in person … so if you could meet me there, I’d appreciate it.”

“What the fuck does that mean?” Hennessy demanded.

“I’ll fill you in when I see you.”

“Fine. Be there in ten.”

I hung up, and Elle was watching me. “What happened?”

“Someone stole the Charger. I gotta get to Chains and check out the warehouse to see if anything else is gone.”

“Do you think it was Mathieu?”

I shrugged. “I didn’t get any calls from the alarm company, which makes me think it must have been. Anyone else would’ve tripped the alarm. He had keys and the code.”

“But why would he steal the car?”

“He must’ve expected me to go to the cops and give a description of his car. He knew I wouldn’t realize the Charger was gone until today. That would’ve bought him enough time to get out of town.”

Elle nodded and frowned. “I can’t go with you. I have to check on my mother and make sure she’s okay. And then I have to figure out how to break this all to her, plan a funeral, and get her to agree to rehab.”

Shit. Talk about the morning from hell for both of us. “What if you just make sure she’s situated and work on the funeral stuff. I say you let Hennessy deal with telling her about any motive for the murder. That’s not going to do either of you any good right now. And then rehab … Maybe wait until I’m back so I can be there if you need me?”

Elle leaned in and pressed a kiss to my lips. “Thank you. I’ll wait.”

I pulled her in closer and stole another taste before releasing her. “Call me if you need me. I’ll be back as soon as I can. We just have to get through today. That’s all you need to focus on.”

I didn’t want to leave Elle to deal with that mountain of shit by herself, but when I pulled up to Chains an hour before we were scheduled to open and saw Hennessy’s car parked in the alley, I knew this was preferable to telling him over the phone.

I shut the door of the ’Cuda and turned to the warehouse. The overhead door was down, the service door was closed, and the locks were intact. It reinforced what Elle and I had discussed. Mathieu stealing the Charger made the most sense.

Hennessy climbed out of his car and barked some orders into his phone before ending the call and walking toward me. He surveyed the exterior of the building.

“Doesn’t look like the scene of a break in.”

I worked through the locks and opened the door before heading for the alarm panel to punch in the code. Hennessy followed me inside.

All of the other cars sat in their spots and so did the bikes. Nothing else was missing.

“Anything else gone?” he asked.

I shook my head. “Not a damn thing.”

“Inside job?”

“Looks that way.”

“Assuming it wasn’t your girl.”

My eyes cut to him, and I huffed out a laugh. “No. It wasn’t Elle.”

“Then your other employee—the kid?”

“Had to be.”

“You don’t sound too fucking surprised here, Lord.”

“Because I’m not,” I replied, meeting his narrowed eyes.

“Are you gonna fill me in here, or are you gonna make me pretend I’m a detective or some shit like that?”

His comment might’ve been funny on any other morning.

I considered how to tell him what I knew, and I decided the direct route was the only one worth taking.

“I think I found your murder weapon. For Bree and Jiminy and Denton Fredericks.”

Hennessy’s posture changed instantly. He was no longer relaxed; he was all cop.

“Tell me you took it in on pawn, man. Otherwise I got a really bad feeling about this.”

“Found your killer too.”

Hennessy’s eyes pinned me. “You better lay that shit out right now, or we’re gonna have a problem.”

“Let’s just say grand theft auto is a hell of a lot less prison time for him than murder.”

“The kid?”

“Yeah.”

“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.”

I filled him in on everything I knew. Telling him about the gun—how Elle had no idea Mathieu must have been lifting it from her purse and replacing it—and about his motive. By the end, Hennessy’s face was set in stone.

“Just when I think I’ve heard it all. Nothing should shock me anymore. Not a goddamn thing. But fuck.”

“I know. Trust me—I know.”

“I need to get back to the station. I got a shit ton of work to do now. Where’s the gun?”

“He grabbed it when he ran. We need to report it missing, and I want you to be really fucking clear on the fact that when it’s recovered, even though it’s registered to Elle, she didn’t have a goddamn thing to do with this.”

Hennessy waved off my concern. “Of course. But she’s still going to need to come in and give a statement about where she left it and how she didn’t notice it was missing.”