Beneath Dark Waters

1

The Quarter, New Orleans, Louisiana

Tuesday, October 25, 9:00 a.m.

Morning, Joy," Val Sorensen singsonged.

Their office manager was at her desk in the lobby of Broussard Investigations, frowning at her computer monitor. "Welcome back, Val," she said without looking up. "How was your assignment?"

"Boring. Some CEO said that someone was threatening his wife, but he was just worried that she was getting some from the pool boy on the side and wanted a chaperone."

Joy glanced up. "Was she getting some from the pool boy?"

"Not my job to know," Val said, then laughed. "But yeah, she totally was." Waving the box she held, she was rewarded when Joy's normally stoic expression became rapturous. Val gestured to the box like it was a game show prize. "See something you like?"

Joy's lips twitched. "Depends. Does that box in your hands contain Marica's cupcakes?"

Val smirked. Her pals MaryBeth and Jessica owned one of the best bakeries in the Quarter. "They were Marica's, but then I paid for them, so now they're mine." She put the box on Joy's desk, centering it carefully on the blotter, because a crookedly placed anything was annoying as hell. "And now they're yours. Happy birthday, Joy."

Joy grinned. "You stood in that ridiculous line for me?"

"I did indeed." She propped her hip on the corner of Joy's desk. "I didn't have to, because MaryBeth already had these set aside for me and told me to just come to the front of the line to pick them up. But the crowd looked unruly, so I decided it would be safer to wait."

Besides, it was a beautiful fall morning and she'd wanted to breathe it in before getting stuck behind her desk all day. She loved her job at Broussard Investigations-except for the paperwork, and she had a ton of it waiting for her.

"Well, thank you," Joy said. "Although you could have hip-checked anyone who gave you any shit, Miss Roller Derby Queen."

Val rolled her eyes. "I don't hip-check random strangers. Plus, there were a few old ladies in front of me who must have come from morning mass. They were clutching rosaries and didn't look scared to use them."

"Such foolishness." Joy lifted the box's lid, sniffed deeply, then sighed. "Chocolate."

"Of course. I'm not stupid."

"No, you're not." Joy tilted her head in a speculative way that had Val sliding off the desk and taking a wary step back.

"What?"

Joy smiled up at her. "Nothing." She took two of the cupcakes from the box and handed them to Val. "One for you and one for the child."

Val frowned. "What child?"

The door to their boss's office opened and Burke Broussard appeared. A big and brawny retired Marine, Burke was somewhere in his midforties. A very handsome man, he turned heads everywhere.

Just not mine.

Burke was perfect as a friend, but she'd never even considered anything more. He was . . . too big. Way too big. Val had to swallow back the memories of the others who'd been too big, all while keeping a smile plastered on her face.

Burke knew her history, and he'd never been anything but kind and respectful of her boundaries. She trusted him implicitly, and that was a big deal for her. She'd been lucky the day he'd asked her to join his team. Broussard Investigations was a tightly knit group and everyone was protective of the others. They were as close to a family as one could get without blood ties, and Val found the love and comfort here that her own broken family could no longer provide.

"Morning, Val," Burke rumbled in that deep Cajun drawl of his. "You have a new client. Bring a cupcake for him."

Okaaaay. Holding the two cupcakes, Val walked to Burke's office door, hearing the whir of Joy's motorized wheelchair as the older woman followed her, unabashedly curious. A shiver of trepidation raced down Val's spine.

A moment later, she knew why. Assistant District Attorney Jean-Pierre Cardozo was coming to his feet, having been seated in one of the chairs in front of Burke's desk. She'd first met him at a party back in the summer. Burke and his staff had been celebrating with some clients after closing an all-hands-on-deck case when Cardozo had arrived, dressed in an expensive black suit that made him look like a Fortune 500 CEO.

He'd been charming as hell and impossible to ignore, despite her best efforts-that day and later. Unable to resist, she'd found herself googling him later that evening, learning surprisingly little personal information. Other than a few of the cases he'd tried up in the New York City courts, the man had no real internet presence, which took a lot of talent. Burke's IT guy, Antoine, would surely have been able to dig up a lot more, but she'd been unwilling to ask. Unwilling to voice aloud that the man had fascinated her.

She knew only that he'd recently moved from New York and that his first name was spelled K-a-j, but pronounced Kai, rhyming with pie. And she only knew those tidbits because she'd overheard Burke telling someone else in the firm.

After that day, she'd seen Cardozo twice. Once a couple weeks ago at another party at a friend's restaurant, Le Petit Choux. He hadn't stayed long, and she'd managed to avoid him. Their most recent crossing of paths had been in a courtroom the week before, a plea hearing for one of the criminals whose crimes Burke's group had exposed. No words had been exchanged between them either time, but Val had noticed the man's every movement.

He moved so very nicely. And he was a good guy, prosecuting bad guys, but that smile he'd worn . . . He could get her to trust that smile. Which meant he was dangerous.

He didn't look anything like that now. He was as handsome as before, his dark brown hair neatly combed, his face freshly shaven. His khakis were unwrinkled, the sleeves of his casual button-up shirt rolled up, exposing tanned forearms. He even wore a tie printed with whimsical dinosaurs. But his expression appeared haggard, as if he hadn't slept at all.

And his dark eyes were full of fear.

Val glanced to the corner of the room, revealing the source of his fear. A boy of about nine or ten sat at Burke's little meeting table. His hair was white-blond, unlike Cardozo's. But their faces were too much alike for them not to be related. Father and son, she thought.

She hadn't realized that Cardozo had a child, and she didn't want to think about why that disappointed her. It didn't matter that the child had a mother, that Cardozo had a significant other. It didn't matter because she was not interested in ADA Cardozo, first name Kaj that rhymed with pie.

The child, however, had captured her attention. He clutched a tablet in his hands, staring down at it with a vacant look that Val recognized all too well.

She'd seen it in the mirror plenty of times.

He'd been traumatized. He didn't look up, so Val turned back to his father.

"Hey," Val said quietly, because the mood in the room was brittle. "It's good to see you again, ADA Cardozo."

The man's throat worked as he swallowed. "Likewise. This is my son, Elijah. Elijah, this is Miss Sorensen."

My new client? Val wondered. She looked at Burke, who inclined his head toward the boy, gesturing her to engage.

"Hi, Elijah," she said, approaching the table. "I'm Val."

The boy didn't look up until Val put the cupcake in front of him. "Hi," he whispered.

It was one tiny word, but said with a determination that won her respect. She pointed at the cupcake. "That's yours."

"And that one, too?" Elijah asked, pointing at the cupcake still in her hand.

"Pfft. No," she said, using her best duh tone. "This one is mine. You're a greedy one, aren't you?" She smiled so that he would know she was teasing.

The boy's lips quirked up before returning to a grim line. "Was worth a try."

"It's always worth a try when cupcakes are on the line. Are you my new client?"

Elijah pushed Harry Potter-style glasses up on his nose. "I guess so."

"May I sit down?" She waited until Elijah nodded before taking the seat beside him. From this vantage point she could see the boy's face as well as that of his father.

Cardozo lowered himself back into his chair in front of Burke's desk, his face still frozen in a rictus of fear.

Whatever had happened, it had been bad.

She peeled the wrapper from the cupcake she'd kept, watching as Elijah did the same.

He hummed his pleasure when he took the first bite.

"Good, huh?" Val said. "My bestie makes them fresh every morning."

"Really good," Elijah said, setting the rest of his treat aside. He gave his father a quick, sharp look across the room. "I'm saving the rest for later." His tone was dry but not unkind. "You can get your own cupcake."

Cardozo's chuckle sounded forced. "I'll get right on that."

Elijah shrugged sassily, but then his shoulders sagged as he sighed, his playfulness clearly feigned. "Ask your questions, Miss Sorensen. I figure you have some."

"Okay. Why are you here?"

"My dad said I had to come. He didn't have anyone to leave me with, and it wasn't safe for me in school." There was a reluctance in his voice, and Val wasn't sure if it was because he was here or because he wasn't in school.

She wanted to ask where his mother was but held back. "Do you like school?"

Elijah's expression became abruptly defiant. "I do. Is that a problem?"

"Nope. I'm a teacher. I like kids who like school."

"I thought you were a bodyguard."

"Now, yeah. And an investigator sometimes, too, but I still do some teaching."

Elijah's defiance melted away. "What do you teach?"

"Music. I teach kids at the community center. Piano, violin, flute, some guitar, and a little tambourine for those who don't have success with the other instruments."

"That's really nice," Elijah said with a small smile, then dropped his gaze to the cupcake. Silence followed, and Val waited patiently, keeping her attention on Elijah.

She had experience with traumatized kids and knew that he'd speak when he was ready.

Finally, he looked up, swallowing audibly. "Someone tried to kidnap me yesterday."

Val drew a sharp breath, managing not to gasp. "That sucks."

Elijah snorted, then looked surprised that he had. "It really did."

"Can you tell me what happened?"

"It happened really fast. I was with my aunt, walking home after the math club competition at my school." He dropped his gaze again. "There were two men in a white minivan. Both had on ski masks. One got out and grabbed me, then started carrying me to the van."

He stopped and looked up, his eyes now as fearful as his father's.

"That had to have been terrifying," Val murmured. "How did you get away?"

His lips curved again, this time with pride. "My aunt Genie carries a Taser."

"Excellent," Val said with a nod. "She hit the guy with the ski mask?"

"Yep. And I have a noisemaker, one of those things that's as loud as a siren. I pressed it right after she tased him."

"Good job." Val held out her fist, and Elijah bumped it.

"The guy dropped to the ground after Aunt Genie tased him, and she yelled for me to run. But . . ." He dropped his gaze to his hands once again. "I froze."

The boy's shame was palpable. That would not do.

"It happens," she said quietly. "When you're dropped into a situation you aren't expecting or you haven't been trained for, sometimes the brain can't process." Elijah only huffed his disgust, presumably at himself. She decided to come back to the shame later. "You're sitting here enjoying a cupcake, so I'm guessing that you got away."

"Yeah."

"And because you're here with your dad, I'm guessing the masked guys got away and you're still in danger. What happened after your aunt tased the bad guy?"

"The driver got out of the van and started to come after me, but lots of people had started to gather around."

Then the boy went quiet, his expression becoming puzzled.

"Did the driver try to get you?" Val asked.

"No." And this seemed to be the source of his puzzlement. "He told me to run."

Val blinked. "That's . . . unexpected."

"I know, right?"

"Then what did he do?"

"He picked up the guy who got tased and threw him over his shoulder, put him in the van, and drove away."

Val had so many questions, but she figured she'd be following up with Cardozo and Burke once this interview was completed. And she had no doubt that this was an interview. Cardozo wanted to see how she interacted with his child, and she didn't blame him at all.

But first things first. She settled in her chair, giving Elijah an up-and-down visual exam. "Were you hurt?"

"No, but Aunt Genie . . ." He shuddered. "She's really pregnant and her doctor put her on bed rest. She was crying and kept asking him if she'd lose the baby." His throat worked as he swallowed hard again. His eyes had gone glassy with unshed tears. "I couldn't stand it if she lost the baby because of me," he finished in a whisper.

Val wouldn't tell him that his aunt would be fine because she didn't know that for sure, and she wouldn't lie to him. "Feeling guilty sucks, too. Even when it's not your fault. You know it's not your fault, right?"

Elijah nodded miserably. "I get that. I do. But . . ." He blinked and sent fat tears sliding down his cheeks. "She thought I was behind her and she ran. But I froze and she started to come back for me. Then she tripped and fell and . . ."

Oh, honey. She wanted to hug him, but she kept her hands folded on the table. "What did her doctor say?" she asked, keeping her tone soft but firm.

He wiped his cheeks angrily. "That the baby was okay. That bed rest was just a precaution. That it wasn't my fault."

"Then those are the facts. You're entitled to however you feel, but the facts are that the baby is okay, and your aunt is resting. So . . . what do you want from me, Elijah?"

He glanced at his father, their eyes holding for another long moment. "My dad wants me to have a bodyguard. Mr. Broussard says he thinks you'd be the best for the job."

Val smiled at the boy. "And what do you think?"