“I’d bet that was her husband’s requirement,” Ida Belle said. “Given the rumors that were floating around at the time and the fact that Carol reconnected with Ralph but not his father, I figure Carol belonged to the guy her mother left with.”
“Ah, that would make sense,” I said. “In a daytime talk show kind of way. So Carol and Ralph reconnected as young adults. I assume Carol’s husband died at some point prior to her car wreck, since the brothers went to live with Ralph after she passed?”
“Yes,” Gertie said. “Some sort of accident. I think he worked in the oil field, but I’m not certain. Anyway, I want to think the brothers were much younger when that happened. I remember Ralph commenting one time about how Carol could have remarried a long time ago if the boys hadn’t been such trouble, but instead she’d spent so many years stressing over them without any help.”
“So the father doesn’t sound like the connection between the brothers and crime,” I said. “Especially if he passed when they were young. I don’t suppose we have any reason to suspect Carol?”
“None that I’m aware of,” Gertie said. “I believe she worked for the tax assessor’s office or something to that affect.”
“And the car wreck?” I asked. “Anything suspicious there?”
Gertie shook her head. “She ran off the highway and into a bayou one night. Blood alcohol content was sky high. She was probably unconscious before she went into the water.”
“Her way of dealing with the brothers, I guess,” I said. “What about Lucinda?”
“Born and raised in New Orleans. She and Ralph attended college at the same university, but Lucinda said they were never very close. She also worked for the government in some capacity, technical writer maybe. Did twenty-plus years for them, retired, and moved to Sinful.”
“Why?” I asked. “It couldn’t possibly be for Ralph’s charming company.”
“Her husband died and she wanted to get out of the city,” Ida Belle said. “And Ralph is tiresome, but there’s something to be said for having family around.”
Something in the way Ida Belle delivered that first sentence made it sound as though she wasn’t quite certain of what she’d said.
“You don’t sound convinced,” I said.
Ida Belle frowned. “There was some talk, that Lucinda’s husband hadn’t died but had run off with another woman. I never could trace it back to the source.”
“If he died in New Orleans, wouldn’t there be an obituary?” I asked.
“Not unless immediate family requested one, and in this case, that would mean Lucinda,” Gertie said. “He was a native of Great Britain, so the gossip goes, and it was a late marriage for both of them. They were both in their forties. I believe Ralph said he was cremated and his ashes shipped back to the UK for burial in the family cemetery.”
“But maybe he ran off and that was the story they told so that she could save face,” I said. “Then she retired and moved away so no one would find out the truth. If that’s the way it really went down, it sucks, but I can see why she wouldn’t want that albatross of a past hanging over her head.”
Gertie nodded. “Especially here. When a woman is widowed, she’s treated completely differently by the local women than if her husband left her.”
“Why?” I asked.
“Because a widowed woman is grieving,” Ida Belle said, “and isn’t as likely to go after someone else’s husband.”
“Good God,” I said. “Like the men in this town are some big catch.”
“Look at the wives,” Gertie said. “It’s all relative.”
“Okay, so regardless of what really happened with Lucinda’s husband,” Ida Belle said, “she moved here shortly after Ralph got custody of the brothers. I guess she figured he could probably use some help.”
Gertie nodded. “And now, she and Ralph have dinner together once a month at the café like clockwork. He probably sees it as doing his duty.”
“Lucinda probably wishes he’d forget that part of his raising,” Ida Belle said.
I nodded. What little I’d seen and heard of Ralph didn’t give me any indication that spending time with him would be anything but miserable. But it also didn’t give me any indication that he was involved in some big mob plot, even though he clearly had a problem with Hot Rod’s creations.
“Okay,” I said. “So what were the brothers up to after they left Sinful that landed them in prison?”
“Drugs,” Ida Belle said. “The New Orleans police claimed they were moving twenty grand a night in heroin.”
I stared. “That’s a serious amount of product to move standing on the corner.”
“They had an in with a club,” Ida Belle said. “One of those trendy places that the kids with some disposable income frequent. The brothers went up for ten years. No time off for good behavior allowed, according to Ralph.”
“Ten years?” I looked at Gertie. “You said the brothers were twenty-nine. They were busted a year after they left Sinful?”
Ida Belle nodded. “I remember seeing Ralph in the General Store shortly after the conviction. I told him I was sorry, and he looked so angry. Said they were an embarrassment to the family.”
“Can’t blame him on that one,” I said. “What about the club owner? How much did he get? He might be out as well.”
“I believe he disappeared,” Ida Belle said.
“People don’t just disappear,” I said.
“No,” Ida Belle said, “but Ralph said the police couldn’t find him when the arrest order came down.”
“Did they ever find him?” I asked.
Ida Belle shrugged. “I never followed up.”
“Okay,” I said, and opened my laptop. “What we can’t find on the Internet, we can ask about tonight when we take the SUV to the storage facility. No way the brothers were moving heroin through the French Quarter without the Hebert family knowing about it.”
“You don’t think they’ll be there tonight, do you?” Gertie asked.
I absolutely thought they’d be there. In fact, I was counting on it. If anyone could ferret out what might be hidden in that vehicle, it would be the Heberts. I was certain they were pushing their contacts for information. I didn’t believe for a minute that they were sitting quietly in their office, waiting for information to fall into their lap. Men like Big and Little didn’t wait for anything.
I nodded. “I don’t think they’d miss it for the world.”
It was just after midnight when we hit the highway to the storage unit. Ida Belle was driving her SUV, and Gertie and I were following her in my Jeep. I’d done a quick surveillance sweep on Carter’s house before we’d headed out. His truck was in his driveway and all the lights were off. I had a moment of regret that I wasn’t cuddled up inside with him, but I hoped he was getting some of that sleep he desperately needed. There would be plenty of time for cuddling once I was sure Ida Belle was safe.