*** Session 02 - Scene 10 (of 17) ***

The next morning, Le Doux and Nibbons are sitting around the office discussing the case when an attractive young woman comes into the office. She appears to be well dressed, wearing a pearl necklace.

The woman gives her name as Leigh and says her "Uncle John" was murdered last night and she wants to hire Le Doux to investigate. He tells her he'd be happy to help, quoting her a rate of twenty dollars a day plus expenses.

She agrees to the sum right away then explains she wants to hear any developments on the case ahead of the police. She is particularly interested in recovering any property that might have been taken off of her uncle in the robbery (her assumption of why he was killed), as it may have sentimental value for her and the family and she doesn't want the police to lose it in their evidence room.

Leigh gives her uncle's full name as John Taubert and writes down her phone number. When asked, she agrees with Le Doux her last name is Taubert as well. Le Doux can tell she is lying about something.

Le Doux tries asking her more about her uncle, but she suddenly becomes too upset to answer much. She does mention he had some troubles lately and gives the address of the flophouse her uncle was staying at. She deftly avoids giving her own address, saying he just needs to call her and she'll be right over.

*** Session 02 - Scene 11 (of 17) ***

Shortly after she leaves, Eberhardt shows up as Nibbons as heading out to the library.  He gives the lead about the Maple Leaf Room to Le Doux, though notes he still thinks it was a voodoo killing tied to revenge for activities in the Haitian Campaign.

Eberhardt also gives the victim's name to the others. Le Doux says the plot thickens, explaining how Taubert's "niece" showed up earlier to hire them to investigate. He wants Eberhardt to run down the phone number to see where it is assigned. Eberhardt wonders why Le Doux didn't just follow her when she left.

Meanwhile, at the library, Nibbons looks through the archives and eventually finds a reference to John Taubert in a story in the Times-Picayune from March 14, 1920:

Local Soldiers Return Home

Today marks the return of three local U.S. Navy marines fresh from fighting the caco rebels at the Battle of Port-au-Prince.

The docks of Crescent City were filled with family and well-wishers today along with Mayor McShane and a full brass band.

Veteran of the Great War, Sergeant William H. DeHaven of Columbus Street, expressed his gratitude to the mayor and said he was glad to be home.

Corporal John Taubert discussed his satisfaction at the death of rebel leader Benoit Batraville and expressed a desire to find work along the wharf.

The youngest of the three, Private William D. Giradin, expressed his desire for a nice home-cooked meal back at his mother's house in Kenner.

All three men served aboard the U.S.S. Connecticut, in the 15th Company of the 2nd Advanced Base Regiment under the command of two-time Medal of Honor winner, Major Smedley Butler.

Chester, not wanting to pay for an expensive Photostat copy of the article, tears it out and brings it back to show Le Doux. Le Doux notes they have several leads to follow now.

*** Session 02 - Scene 12 (of 17) ***

At the precinct, Eberhardt tries looking through the books for phone assignments but is having troubles. Miss Kringle comes over, noting he seems to be having trouble with the filing system again. Eberhardt agrees, saying he has trouble with the American alphabet and how the system isn't as efficient as a German one.

Kringle runs the phone number for him. She identifies it as a business number, assigned to Bart Maurice & Associates, a well-known local law firm. Eberhardt is familiar with the flamboyant Maurice, who has many ads in papers, radio, and trolley stations.

Eberhardt decides to head over to the courthouse next to see what he can find on the lawyer. But before he can leave, McElroy spots him and starts talking him up.

McElroy asks Eberhardt if he heard how the coroner's office screwed up their case. When Eberhardt asks what he means, McElroy explains they lost the body; apparently they discovered it missing this morning. McElroy can't believe they manage to lose the body before the autopsy on an open and shut junkie case.

With the new development, Eberhardt heads back to Le Doux's office. He explains the body was stolen from the morgue and that the girl is from the law firm. Eberhardt suggests they investigate more into the firm.

Le Doux suggests they split up to spread out the investigation. He assigns Nibbons and Walker to check out the Maple Leaf Room to follow up on Taubert's activity there, while suggesting he and Eberhardt check out the morgue then look for the soldiers.

*** Session 02 - Scene 13 (of 17) ***

In the slums, Hawk tracks down a couple more of the guys who took books but none have the rare book. The only name he is unable to eliminate is Clayton Bigsby, who no one has seen for a few days.

Unable to find any friends or family who have seen Clayton recently, Hawk tries a different track and heads over to the Blue Acadian. He is surprised to find it is a book store and not a pawn shop as he assumed.

When he walks in, the owner, Arthur Gage, behind the counter looks up suspiciously. Calling Hawk "boy", he asks what he wants.

Hawk tries to play it cool, saying he's looking for a special kind of book; something one of his people might have sold there. Gage explains he might have such a book, but says he doesn't sell to Hawk's kind there. He tells Hawk if he's looking to sell something to show it to him, otherwise he should leave.

Sizing up the man, Hawk figures he has a gun behind the counter. He presses a little about seeing any recently-acquired material. When Gage says he'll scare off the regular customers, Hawk notes there isn't anyone else around at the moment.

Hawk makes a vague threat about having a gang of people hang around outside if he won't cooperate. Gage tells him to watch his step, noting the place has friends.

When he starts carrying on about getting the police involved, Gage tells him to meet him in the alley and out of sight, calling him a racial slur in the process.

Hawk heads around to the alley, but keeps an eye out for any trouble. After a couple of minutes, Gage opens the alley door. He shows him the two new books that came in recently, and tells Hawk he'll have to pay double if he wants them.

Glancing at the "books", Hawk sees they are nothing more than loosely-bound collections of pornographic photos.

Hawk tells Gage these aren't the books he's looking for. When he describes what he's looking for, Gage gets annoyed and tells him he wants a different type of book store. He dismisses the whole idea by making another nasty racial remark about the illiteracy rate of Hawk's people, and closes the door on him telling him not to return.

*** Session 02 - Scene 14 (of 17) ***

Later, in Marigny, Chester and Patricia come upon the Maple Leaf Room in the middle of a particularly nasty neighborhood. The dance hall is in very dilapidated condition, though they can still read the sign above the door declaring, "Where Ragtime Never Dies".

The two walk inside. Near the back is a half-Black, half-Cajun man sitting at a booth with a couple of large men standing to either side. He spots Nibbons and Walker, and asks them if they are there for the "Texas Tommy Contest".

Nibbons helpfully says he is not, at which time the man tells him he needs to leave. The man says the only people they allow there are for the Texas Tommy contest. Chester looks around and sees no one, but happily agrees to leave anyway.

As they walk out, Chester muses he'll need to have someone else, like Hawk, do the leg work on the club. But as luck would have it, as soon as he gets to the sidewalk he is called out to by a rather disheveled-looking young bum in the nearby alley.

Chester examines the area, but doesn't spot any danger. He decides to head over. Patricia follows.

The indigent man gives his name as Brian Jacques. He knows Nibbons is looking for something or someone, and offers to help but explains he needs a meal. Chester says he might be able to help.

Once Nibbons pays him a few dollars, he asks Jacques about John Taubert. Jacques recognizes the name as a regular at the club, saying he is often at the nightly dice games that happen at the club. According to Brian, Taubert usually left with the "bag full of tips."

Nibbons doesn't really follow him. Jacques goes on to explain they are the "tips from the game for the boss." Chester realizes Taubert was acting as someone's bag man.

According to Jacques, Taubert never came with anyone and did partake in some of the gambling and smoking the white powder.

Without learning much else of interest, Nibbons is ready to leave but Patricia wants to know more about the boss. After Chester gives more money, he gives the name as Paul Jenks.

Nibbons thinks for a moment then asks if Taubert had any conflicts with anyone recently. Jacques says he was beefing with one of the Haitian gangsters, Little Zo. Nibbons assumes he must be a member of the mysterious Haitian Zobop gang. Jacques says to stay away from those crazy Haitians, as they come after their enemies with machetes.

*** Session 02 - Scene 15 (of 17) ***

Over at the Crescent City Morgue office, Eberhardt and Le Doux speak with Dr. Rafael Alvaro, the parish Coroner.

Dr. Alvaro is rather defensive about the loss, particularly when Eberhardt accuses him of screwing up his case. He tells Eberhardt he can't talk to him like that, as he's been an elected official in the parish for thirty years. Eberhardt suggests it might be time to retire.

The two go at it for a minute or two, with Eberhardt pressing hard on what happened to the body. Alvaro describes it as being "misplaced", saying there must have been a mistake with the paperwork. He says the body should turn up any time now.

The doctor wants Eberhardt to keep the matter quiet, saying if the information got out it wouldn't be good for anyone. Eberhardt signals he's willing to play ball if Alvaro gets more cooperative.

Eberhardt asks if he saw anything, but Alvaro explains he wasn't at the morgue that night as he just works the day shift. He goes on to say he spoke to the staff, but no one knows what happened.

Dr. Alvaro can confirm the body did show up there. He shows Eberhardt the location where the body was supposed to be located. Eberhardt looks it over, but finds nothing of interest. Alvaro says it must have gotten moved, noting many bodies pass through their office in a day.

Le Doux looks around the area for clues, but finds nothing. Eberhardt checks on who filled out the intake form, finding it was Officer Goodhope along with an orderly, Raymond Alexander. Alvaro notes Alexander works the night shift, so they'll have to come back later.

Eberhardt presses the doctor until he agrees to have his secretary, Glenda, give him Alexander's address. The German lech tries to get her to give him her phone number as well, but she slaps him for getting fresh.

One of the younger doctors spots the two of them and comes over. He offers to help, giving his name as Dr. Donnenwirth.

Donnenwirth asks which case they are there for. Eberhardt gives the name of the Taubert case, but he isn't familiar.

The doctor says he overheard they were looking for an orderly's address and asks if there was a problem. Eberhardt says he should talk to his boss, saying Alvaro wanted the matter kept quiet. Donnenwirth says he understands, whispering something about "another body disappearing." Eberhardt makes plans to meet up with him later.

*** Session 02 - Scene 16 (of 17) ***

Le Doux wants to find the other marines next. Since Kenner is far outside the city, he decides they should head for DeHaven first. The two head over to Columbus Street in the Seventh Ward.

Unfortunately, they don't know his actual address. Le Doux thinks they should look around for someone in the neighborhood they can ask.

Eberhardt realizes the obvious – the post office will know where he lives. They decide to look around for a mail man they can ask.

They happen across one fairly quickly. Le Doux is able to get the address of DeHaven's rented room from him without trouble by posing as an "old army friend."

Eberhardt starts the car over to the address. Le Doux tells him to hurry, but things go awry when a boy chases a small ball out into the road. Eberhardt swerves to avoid the boy, but smashes right into a milk truck and crashes his head into the windshield. Le Doux chides him for driving recklessly.

The car is pretty smashed up and won't run any time soon. Luckily, they are only twelve blocks away from DeHaven's place.

As Le Doux looks for some rags to cover up Eberhardt's injury, a large, burly, angry milkman heads over. His nametag identifies him as "Pat Mustard".

Le Doux and Eberhardt try to make a run for it, but Mustard grabs Eberhardt from behind. He yells at Eberhardt, asking him what he did to his milk truck. The detective tries to claim the truck was parked illegally.

Mustard smacks Eberhardt and knocks him down. Eberhardt tells him, "That's it, monkey boy!" Le Doux tries to grab the man, but he effortlessly shakes him off.

The milkman grabs a baseball bat from the cab of his truck. Eberhardt gets up with his gun drawn. Mustard puts up his hands, saying there is no need for that. The two agree to go their separate ways.

*** Session 02 - Scene 17 (of 17) ***

Eberhardt and Le Doux hobble their way along the twelve blocks until they reach DeHaven's apartment. As they get near the door, a figure bursts out the door wielding a machete.

Le Doux draws his gun and fires a shot into the man. Eberhardt tries the same, but the blood gets in his eyes and his shot goes wide.

The machete swings out slowly, allowing Le Doux to move out of the way. He responds by firing a couple of shots into the man's kneecap.

Eberhardt fires shots of his own into the center mass of the target. He goes down.

Le Doux notices there is no blood coming out from the body, which he finds strange. He takes the machete and tosses it in the nearby hydrangea bushes while they take the body inside.

Once inside, they turn the body over. Eberhardt recognizes it as the corpse of John Taubert. The realization is shocking, but both manage to suppress their natural sense of terror at the idea of a dead man attacking them.

It doesn't get much better when they realize there is another body inside the apartment. They determine it is the hacked up remains of William DeHaven.

Eberhardt looks over the suit on Taubert's body, and notes these are not the clothes the body was in when he was found the first time. Le Doux checks it over, finding laundry marks for Lee's Laundry, a nearby Chinese laundromat.

They know it won't be long before cops start showing up. Le Doux says they can't leave anyway, since they've been seen around. They do a quick search around the apartment, but find no more clues. Le Doux notes they still have quite a lot to check up on when they get done here.

*** Session 02 - Session Notes ***

This session was a return to more normalcy, a lot closer to the prologue session. We made a couple of adjustments - the players had a conversation about how the Hawk and Eberhardt players need to be more helpful in the investigations, so that made a difference. I also made sure the next plot was a bit less chaotic in nature (though it still has a fair amount of complexity).

Patricia Walker turned into a PC this time, played by the daughter of the Hawk player. I would call that the biggest downside of the session - she clearly isn't interested in the game and it really dragged things down. We tried to engage her in the game several times, I'm guessing its just not her cup of tea - if I had a teenage daughter I wouldn't drag her to my RPG night so I completely understand.

Misc notes about the session:
* The voodoo-based murder is an early idea I had, and more than a little inspired by the Lincoln and Child novel, Cemetery Dance.

* The idea of a voodoo-based revenge from a Haitian man who felt wronged by the U.S. occupation of Haiti is something I developed nearly 20 years ago and played out in a different adventure during my college days.

* Eberhardt getting promoted to detective is all about getting him a little more independent. I figured I could only have a patrol officer stumble into a crime so many times.

* Once again, I used the opening newspaper article thing to kick off the session to get them wondering what might be relevant later. This time, the Le Doux player insisted the others read the stories as well (though that got a little awkward, as the Hawk player turned out to be not as literate as we had assumed; as the rest of us are well-educated professionals, we're not used to people who have a hard time reading aloud).

* The first story is clearly about Mt. Rushmore. As usual, I like including historical stuff to establish the times as well as provide interesting historical tidbits.

* The second story will likely come into play later. It is heavily based on the setup for a plot from a four-issue storyline in the Avengers West Coast comic (circa the early 90s).

* The Broncati story (with its intentionally over-the-top headline) hints at some of the plot the PCs missed by arresting him. Careful readers may spot one of the names in the story as being significant; more on that later.

* The last story is about Hitler publishing Mein Kampf. For some reason the story - a bombastic man who was considered a political laughing stock by the establishment and yet shortly after manipulated his way to a position of high power on a wave of the white working class whipped into xenophobia - seems oddly relevant these days...

* I brought Patricia Walker back as a PC because I thought it would be the easiest character to integrate and she had valuable skills. Not to mention a bunch of spells the character had access to but the player never bothered to use in the investigation.

* I also wanted to keep the PCs on notice that the Cult of Allatou story is far from over.

* The Committee is another comic book thing, though I'm just using the name.

* The loose occult text is most definitely a consequence from Hawk's actions last time.

* Detectives McElroy and La Fleur are named after the joke in How I Met Your Mother (where they are given as the Canadian equivalent to the Lethal Weapon movies).

* Kerns' story actually had more details if the PCs would have followed up more on him, but they didn't.

* Kern's comment about the body is taken from the famous dialog in Night of the Living Dead. It's meant to be foreshadowing the fact Taubert will return as a zombie (though none of the players caught that).

* I liked the Eberhardt player injecting his own pop culture reference with the drunken sailor song line.

* All of the details about the Haitian Campaign are taken from history. I think not too many people realize just how much trouble the U.S. Banana Wars caused in Central America.

* The voodoo stuff is meant to set a tone. I'm not sure I'm using any of it accurately (not that it matters, as the bad guy is clearly perverting the religion anyway).

* Miss Cleo is taken straight from the phony actress who did all those Psychic Friends Network commercials on TV in the 90s. The PCs didn't investigate her further, but if they did they would have discovered she was really an actress / scam artist from Detroit.

* The "candle ceremony" part is taken from the episode of The Shield where Dutch confronts the fake medium.

* Marie Laveau was, of course, a real person. Lucien Celine is not, but is based on Paul Winfield's character of the same name in the film, The Serpent and the Rainbow.

* Nibbons tries to pick the lock at the library because the players edged him on to see if anything funny would happen.

* Bear Brown is a play on the Huggy Bear character from Starsky and Hutch. Mainly I'm using it to poke fun at the fact the player based his character on Hawk from Spencer for Hire.

* The Maple Leaf Room is named after the Maple Leaf Rag, a famous ragtime.

* The mysterious Leigh is someone I thought the PCs would follow up more on but they are taking that one slow. It was obvious she wasn't who she said she was.

* Bart Maurice is an homage to popular lawyer Morris Bart from New Orleans.

* Clayton Bigsby is named after the character from the Chapelle Show. Careful readers may have caught some of the foreshadowing with where that story may lead.

* Since Hawk wasn't paying much attention, he completely missed the Blue Acadian was the mob's porn store. He nearly got himself killed.

* "Where Ragtime Never Dies" is a play on the joke about "Where Disco Never Dies" (from Airplane! and others); since by this time, Jazz has replaced Ragtime.

* The Texas Tommy is indeed a real dance, though clearly it is being used as a codeword. Again, I'm not sure how much of that the Nibbons player caught.

* Brian Jacques is not, as my players assumed, named after the Redwall author; I'd never heard of him or Redwall. Instead, I was using it as a play on the name of musician Brian Jack from the band, Child's Play.

* Once again, I'm not sure Nibbons fully understood the whole "Taubert was a bag man for some crime syndicate" thing, even after I have Jacques pretty much say it.

* Paul Jenks is based on the character from the TV show, NCIS New Orleans.

* Little Zo is based on a real Haitian gang member.

* The disappearing bodies from the morgue will certainly come up again later (in the way you might expect).

* The Le Doux and Eberhardt players originally didn't know how they were going to find DeHaven's house; the rest of us had to keep hinting to them for ideas.

* The car crash occurred because the Le Doux player egged on the Eberhardt player to drive there fast so he'd have to make a Drive check. He figured something funny was bound to happen (and it did).

* The angry milkman is inspired by the character of the same name from the TV show, Father Ted.

* Lee's Laundry is based on a real New Orleans family laundry.

*** Session 03 - Cast of Characters ***

Bruno Eberhardt: A 1st generation German immigrant and seasoned police officer. He does some work on the side for Le Doux and others to supplement his income.

Boudreaux "Boo" Le Doux: A Cajun and former swamp guide turned private eye who styles himself after hardboiled pulp detective novels.

Chester Lee Nibbons: A younger, bookish White guy who works as Le Doux's "partner" in order to pay off a gambling debt to him.

*** Session 03 - Scene 1 (of ***

Le Doux and Eberhardt work to get their stories straight before the cops show up. Le Doux suggests they stay as close to the truth as possible – they were hired by someone to look into Taubert and who might have his possessions, which led them to De Haven's row house where they were attacked by an armed man and forced to defend themselves.

They just finish putting their story together when a car shows up. The officers outside tell them to come out with their hands up. They comply.

As they exit, Eberhardt sees that the officers are Jim Reed and Pete Malloy from his precinct. Malloy recognizes Bruno and greets him, saying there was a report of gunfire. Eberhardt confirms firing his weapon and says he was attacked.

Bruno shows the two uniformed cops into the house where they can see the bodies. Reed heads over to the phone to call back into the precinct while Malloy asks Eberhardt about what happened. He takes down the notes as Eberhardt explains how Taubert attacked him with his machete.

Malloy also takes down Le Doux's statement as he explains who he is and how he was hired to find the personal possessions of a man that led them to De Haven's house. He says when they got there, they heard yelling from inside and then the "maniac" came out and attacked them. Le Doux and Eberhardt play dumb as to the ID of the attacker.

Reed suggests that since Eberhardt is a homicide detective, it must be his case. He tells him not to worry though, as McElroy and Le Fleur are headed over and they can help figure out this mess. Eberhardt (falsely) expresses his pleasure at the help while convincing the two they are free to leave.

There isn't much time between the time Malloy and Reed leave to the time McElroy and Le Fleur show up. McElroy congratulates Eberhardt on picking up another case already, but stops short as he realizes the body on the floor is Taubert. Eberhardt tries to play dumb, but Le Fleur confirms the body is definitely Taubert's.

Eberhardt acts very confused as McElroy argues with him about whether he shot a corpse or if the man was actually alive and attacked them. He bends down to check the body, saying he's definitely dead now.

Le Fleur investigates the body of De Haven as he asks what they are doing there. Le Doux repeats his story. When Le Fleur presses him on who hired them, he explains it was a relative of Taubert's. Le Fleur digs into the story a little, wanting to know how the investigation brought them to De Haven's. Le Doux explains it away as them being old marine buddies.

McElroy spots a framed photo sitting up on the nearby credenza, saying this must be them. He tosses it over to Eberhardt. The picture shows a group of Haitian cacos being captured by a squad of marines. Eberhardt takes it out of the frame and examines the back of it. The writing says, "Capturing the last of Batroville's bastards outside Port-o-Prince" and is dated January 16, 1920. He gives it over to Le Doux to check as well.

As Le Doux looks over the photo, finding little of interest except De Haven's bad spelling of Port-au-Prince, McElroy gives his theory of what happened. According to the detective, Taubert must have been knocked out by the head wound he received the other day, combined with overdosing on the China White. He then probably woke up in the morgue and wandered off back to De Haven's, where the two hopheads got in a fight over money or dope and Taubert ended up killing De Haven.

Le Fleur seems more circumspect about what may have happened but McElroy is convinced he is right. He's overjoyed at the idea their case is even more cleanly closed now, as Taubert clearly killed De Haven and Eberhardt killed Taubert, so there's no other killer on the loose.

Eberhardt offers to handle the paperwork on the killing and wait around for the morgue truck. McElroy gladly passes off the duty to him then heads out with Le Fleur.

*** Session 03 - Scene 2 (of ***

While waiting around for the morgue wagon to show up, Le Doux calls over to his office and has Madge put Nibbons on the phone. Boo tells his fellow detective to come pick them up at the address of De Haven's apartment, as they are currently stuck without a car.

Nibbons doesn't take long to get there. Walking inside, he immediately sees the carnage and has to sit down in one of the chairs in the parlor for a minute to collect his thoughts.

Le Doux explains about how he and Eberhardt came to arrive there and what happened with Taubert's body. Eberhardt makes sure to include the part about his wrecked car and the "crazy milkman" that tried to assault him.

Nibbons tries his hand at examining the body, noting he sees a fine white powder mixed in with Taubert's hair. Eberhardt takes a sample into an envelope for later analysis.

Chester then goes on to explain what he and Patricia uncovered at the Maple Leaf Room, noting both Little Zo (a Haitian gang member with a beef against Taubert) and Paul Jenks (an organized crime figure who Taubert was apparently the bag man for) are possible leads. He also explains how Walker decided not to accompany him and instead resume her search on The Committee.

The three spend some time discussing what to do next. Le Doux counts out the immediate leads as he sees them that moment – there's the Haitian Zobop gang and Little Zo, the apparent crime boss Paul Jenks, the suit marks that lead back to Lee's Laundry, and the mysterious "Leigh" who hired him to investigate Taubert in the first place.

Eventually, the group settles on focusing on Leigh for the moment. Since Taubert apparently returned from the dead, Le Doux wants to know what's going on and how she is involved. He calls her from the house phone, saying he has her uncle's possessions. She tries to say she will send a "courier", but Le Doux insists on meeting her, personally, at the house and asks her to bring the money. She eventually agrees, saying she will be there in an hour.

Once he is off the phone, Le Doux, Nibbons, and Eberhardt scheme together on a plan while the morgue truck arrives and hauls off the remains. After some discussion, they decide Le Doux will stay in the house while Eberhardt keeps an eye out from Nibbons' car and Nibbons watches from across the street. Given the conversation on the phone, Boo is anticipating Leigh may bring some muscle.

*** Session 03 - Scene 3 (of ***

Around the scheduled time, Chester watches as a car comes down the street. It appears to be driven by Leigh, which he finds odd. He looks around for any other cars coming with her, but fails to notice the other car that goes into the alley.

From Nibbons' car, Eberhardt keeps an eye out in the rear view mirror. He sees Leigh get out of the car and approach the house. She knocks then heads inside.

Once she is out of sight, Eberhardt exits the car and heads over to Leigh's car. He first glances to make sure no one is hiding inside, then checks the lock. Finding the door unlocked, he opens it and begins searching. Inside the glove box, he finds the vehicle registration papers for the car; they are in the name of a Mr. Shaun Sullivan.

Meanwhile, inside the house, Le Doux greets Leigh from a chair he positioned to face the door. She asks him about her uncle's property but Boo tells her he needs some questions answered first. While the two talk, Le Doux never hears the back door in the kitchen open, nor the two goons advance into the parlor behind him. What he does hear is the hammer of a revolver being pulled back from right behind his head.

A rough-sounding voice behind Le Doux instructs him to hand over the money. Le Doux says he doesn't know what they are talking about, while looking at Leigh. The man behind him tells Le Doux, "you said you had Taubert's money", clearly growing more agitated.

Leigh is clearly concerned by the turn of events. Looking very scared, she says something about how this is not what she agreed to and runs out the front door.

The two gunmen stay behind Le Doux, not allowing him to see them. He tries talking his way out of the situation, stalling for time until Eberhardt and Nibbons come in to help. But he manages to upset the men, and everything goes black as he is struck in the back of the head with the butt of the revolver.

Back outside, Eberhardt intercepts Leigh before she can get to her car. Whipping out his identification, he tells her she is wanted downtown for questioning. She begins to get frantic and Nibbons comes over to assist getting her into the back of his car. As they do so, Nibbons notices a car pull out of the nearby alley very fast and speed off, but thinks nothing of it.

After getting Leigh into the car and thinking for a minute, Nibbons wonders what is taking his boss so long to come out of the house. He tells Eberhardt he'll go check on Boo.

When he opens the door, Nibbons notices the overturned chair in the parlor. Looking around, he also spots some marks on the kitchen floor as if from shoes being dragged along it and the back door isn't fully closed. Outside, fresh tire tracks show where a vehicle quickly left. Putting two and two together, Chester realizes someone has kidnapped his boss.

*** Session 03 - Scene 4 (of ***

With the car from the alley long gone and no real leads on who might have taken Le Doux or where they might have gone, Eberhardt and Nibbons proceed to take Leigh back to the precinct so he can book her and file a missing person report on Le Doux.

The duty sergeant, Finny Lahti, is a bit skeptical that Eberhardt has any real crime to charge Leigh with and notes Le Doux can't be declared missing until he is gone for 24 hours. He agrees to hold the woman temporarily, but warns Bruno he is unlikely to sway the magistrate to actually get her charged with anything.

While being processed by the duty sergeant, Leigh gives her full legal name as Gail Leigh Roberts. She demands a call to her lawyer.

In one of the holding rooms, Eberhardt tries interrogating Leigh but she refuses to answer any questions until her lawyer gets there. It doesn't take long before a man shows up. He shows his identification and bar credentials, identifying him as Shaun Sullivan, an attorney for Bart Maurice & Associates.

Sullivan shuts down any questioning Eberhardt has and knows he has the upper hand legally. He agrees to answer a couple of questions personally, saying Leigh borrow his car for official business for the firm.

Eberhardt agrees, having little choice since he doesn't have enough to charge Leigh or Shaun, and attempting to do so would bring a costly legal battle with Bart Maurice himself.

Shaun goes on to explain Leigh hired Le Doux while acting as the agent of a client of his who wished to remain anonymous. Sullivan refuses to identify his client, citing attorney-client privilege. He assures Eberhardt he has no idea what happened to Le Doux or how Taubert "came back from the dead", and his only interest is in trying to find any personal belongings Taubert had when he was killed in the robbery.

With no other option, Eberhardt releases Leigh and she and Sullivan leave. He and Nibbons decide in the absence of any other leads, he'll head over to the morgue and talk with Dr. Donnenwirth.

*** Session 03 - Scene 5 (of ***

Le Doux wakes to find himself with a splitting headache while tied down to a chair someone in an empty warehouse. Three men stand in front of him, two larger muscle types along with a slighter third man who appears to be Cajun.

The Cajun man tells Le Doux he is happy he is awake now. Le Doux voices his guess the man is Paul Jenks. Jenks congratulates him on his detective work.

Jenks then tells Le Doux he wants "my money". Le Doux doesn't know what he's talking about at first, although he eventually surmises Jenks is referring to the bag of money Taubert would have had on him from the Maple Leaf Room the night he was killed.

Le Doux is able to convince Jenks he doesn't actually have the money. He mentions the possible lead about Little Zo and the Zobop gang, suggesting they might have it. Jenks agrees it is a possibility.

Jenks is also concerned about any connections Le Doux has to the Italians. Le Doux isn't sure what he is referring to, but Jenks explains the Black man Le Doux employs (using a racial slur to refer to Hawk) caused some trouble at the Blue Acadian. Jenks notes Le Doux's partner also recently went to the Blue Acadian, so he wants to make sure Le Doux isn't planning to start up any trouble with the Martranga family. Le Doux tells him he doesn't know anything about Hawk's recent activities and has no intention of messing with the Italians. This seems to mollify Jenks for the moment.

The gangster then makes Le Doux an offer – he will spare Le Doux's life as a favor. In return for that favor, he wants Le Doux to investigate the Zobop gang and determine if Little Zo did indeed take his money. As an added incentive, Jenks notes he is willing to give Le Doux 5% of the money as a finder's fee should he be able to recover the funds. Given it is an offer he can't really refuse, Le Doux agrees to the deal.

Jenks tells Le Doux he has a start for his investigation. According to Jenks, a garage in Treme called "Djauto's Garage" is owned by a man who has a cousin in the Zobop gang. He suggests Le Doux start there.

As he is being untied from the chair, Le Doux makes some remarks against Jenks' goons indicating he wants a chance to square things with them for smacking him in the head. Jenks tells him such actions would be counterproductive to their new partnership. He also mentions they will need to blindfold Le Doux on his way out.