“It’s Little,” I said, and hustled outside where I couldn’t be overheard by any of the restaurant patrons.
“Miss Morrow,” Little said, “I have some information for you. The previous owner of the SUV was First Rate Auto Sales in New Orleans. They acquired the car from the widow of a Preston Wilks, who passed at age eighty-two.”
“So probably not involved in anything nefarious.”
“Oh, I’ve met quite a few old boys who were still in the business, but I couldn’t find anything on Wilks that would indicate he had criminal ties.”
“So who put the key in the SUV?”
“There were no owners listed between the car lot and Hot Rod, but sometimes people buy cars from these small lots and the paperwork never gets processed.”
“Why not?”
“Many reasons. The car lot forgot. The buyer didn’t want the vehicle in his name. Some are trying to avoid taxes.”
I sighed. “So we still don’t know anything.”
“I’m afraid not in this regard. I did get another name for you to run down. Willie LeDoux. According to my source, he was a friend of the Seal brothers, but my source knew nothing about Mr. LeDoux beyond that. I’ve found no connection other than the club owner where they were dealing, and as far as my sources know, he’s still MIA.”
“Well, at least that’s one more name than we had before. I’ll see what we can find on this Willie LeDoux.”
“I am also still trying to locate the Seal brothers but haven’t had any luck. I will keep looking and let you know if I find anything else. Please let me know if I can help in any other way.”
I thanked him and headed back inside and filled Ida Belle and Gertie in on the conversation.
“So we should find this Willie LeDoux, right?” Gertie asked.
I had already entered his name into the Internet browser. “Doing it now,” I said, then groaned.
Over three hundred hits.
Gertie looked at the screen and shook her head. “Why can’t the bad guys ever be named something like Thadius Thistlebone? Where there’s only one of them in the country?”
“It would definitely make things easier,” I agreed. “Maybe I can narrow it down if I search by name and Louisiana.”
That got me down to forty hits, which was definitely better.
I scanned the hits for an obituary but didn’t come up with anything in the right century. Could be Willie was still kicking. Or could be that he died somewhere else or didn’t have friends or family who felt they needed to publicize his death. Too many variables.
Then a thought occurred to me—somewhat out of left field. I tried again, this time searching for Willie and the name Seal.
I got one hit.
An article about three men arrested for car theft—the Seal brothers and Willie LeDoux.
“Here we go,” I said.
Three men were arrested early Saturday morning during a theft in progress at a used car dealership in Belle Chasse. The three men were identified as brothers John and Bart Seal of New Orleans, Louisiana, and Willie LeDoux of Lafitte, Louisiana. Two black Escalades had already been removed from the lot by the time law enforcement arrived on the scene, and the whereabouts of the vehicles are still unknown.
The three men were wanted for questioning in connection with a heroin ring bust that involved several local nightclubs. The men were booked on charges of grand theft auto.
“Willie must have been working with the Seal brothers,” I said.
Ida Belle nodded. “And this is how they all got caught.”
“And ultimately sent to prison,” I said.
“Then Willie must have gone as well, right?” Gertie asked.
“Not necessarily,” Ida Belle said. “He might have flipped on the Seal brothers for a reduced sentence or even walked. Or he might not have been as deeply involved in the heroin dealing or perhaps not at all. He might just be a car thief.”
I frowned. “Which makes you wonder why the Seal brothers didn’t offer up information to get a reduced sentence. I mean, ten years for a first offense is pretty harsh.”
Ida Belle shook her head. “The brothers were bad news, but they weren’t smart. They might not have known anything.”
“They had to have a supplier,” I said. “Unless the guy wore a clown suit to exchange money for product, they should have known who he was.”
Ida Belle shrugged. “Maybe they were too scared to give up a name. Maybe the guy they dealt with was some middleman whose name wasn’t worth a deal.”
“True,” I said. “I wish we had a way to find out more about this case. The Internet is woefully underwhelming when it comes to details.”
“It wasn’t a big enough story to keep reporters on it,” Gertie said. “They’re looking for the big splash. Dirty politicians…that sort of thing.”
I shook my head. Things still didn’t fit. Why were three guys who were about to go down for dealing heroin taking the time to steal cars when they should have been hightailing it out of Louisiana?
Then something occurred to me.
“Black SUVs,” I said. “They were stealing black SUVs.”
Gertie’s eyes widened. “They were looking for the key then?”
“Maybe,” I said.
Ida Belle blew out a breath. “What the heck is hidden in that crypt?”
“Something big,” I said, “otherwise, they’d have been lying low or getting out of town.”
“It has to be money, right?” Gertie asked. “Enough money to skip the country.”
“That’s as good a guess as any,” Ida Belle said.
“But who did the money belong to?” I said. “If they were looking for the vehicle back then, who hid the key inside? Who hid something in a crypt? It couldn’t have been any of these three or they’d know what vehicle they were looking for. And if they’d known which crypt the key unlocked, they would have just taken a sledgehammer to it.”
“You’re right,” Ida Belle said. “This whole thing is a question without an answer.”
“It’s a mess,” I agreed. “So, we don’t know how, but someone knew Hot Rod had the SUV with the key.”
“But they didn’t know which vehicle it was,” Ida Belle said.
I nodded. “And all of this happens when the Seal brothers get out of prison. It’s not a coincidence.”
“I agree,” Ida Belle said. “Whatever they were looking for before, it’s valuable enough to look for it again. But if they didn’t know what SUV the key was in then, they’d have an even harder time now.”
“Except that if you hadn’t bought the Blazer, they would have had the key this time,” I said. “Which means they figured out some way to narrow down the search to Hot Rod.”
I blew out a breath. There were entirely too many tentacles on this octopus.
“We need to find Willie LeDoux,” I said. “Little hasn’t come up with a line on the Seal brothers, so he’s our only lead. If he was helping them steal vehicles before, then he has to know something.”
“But how do we find him?” Gertie asked. “The name’s too common. We can’t run down every Willie LeDoux mentioned online. We’d be at this forever. If we were cops we’d have access to arrest records and driver’s licenses and all kinds of other cool things, but we don’t know anything else about him.”