Tenderless Night

By O'Neil De Noux

A woman is murdered in her home shortly after her husband takes out a large insurance policy. Her husband is an assistant district attorney and the cops quickly catch the killer (a hobo); but the insurance company is suspicious and hires New Orleans Private-Eye Lucien Caye to look into the matter. It turns out even the police are suspicious of their easy solutions of the case, which puts Caye between the police, the DA’s office and the truth.

• Language: English
• Publisher: O'Neil De Noux
• Release date: Apr 25, 2011
• ISBN: 9781458009388

O'Neil De Noux

O’Neil De Noux writes in many genres, primarily realistic crime fiction, strong on setting, mostly New Orleans, featuring the accurate dialogue of the streets. He also writes scintillating erotica. His publishing credits include 20 novels, nine short story collections and over 300 short stories. From contemporary to historical, De Noux uses several recurring characters in his New Orleans stories and novels: NOPD Homicide Detective John Raven Beau (21st Century); NOPD Homicide Detective LaStanza (20th Century); Private-eye Lucien Caye (1940s) and NOPD Detective Jacques Dugas (1890s). A primary theme in De Noux’s fiction is the effect of violence on victims and their families as well as the sometimes debilitating effect of violence on law enforcement officers, private-eyes and their loved ones. As a former private-eye and currently a police investigator, De Noux knows his subject well. De Noux’s stories span from mystery to mainstream, literary, suspense, thriller, science-fiction, fantasy, horror, erotica, humor, westerns, children’s fiction as well as cross-genre stories – erotic-detective, science-fiction mysteries and the like. O’Neil De Noux’s “The Heart Has Reasons” (Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, September 2006) won the Private Eye Writers of America’s prestigious SHAMUS AWARD for BEST SHORT STORY 2007. The SHAMUS is given annually to recognize outstanding achievement in private eye fiction. In 2009, the Short Mystery Fiction Society awarded the Derringer Award for Best Novelette to another Lucien Caye story, “Too Wise” by O’Neil De Noux (which appeared in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine’s November 2008 Issue). The Derringer Award is given annually to recognize excellence in the mystery short form. In June 2012, De Noux’s novel JOHN RAVEN BEAU was named 2011 POLICE BOOK OF THE YEAR by Police-Writers.com, a group that boasts of 1153 state and local law enforcement officials from 485 state and local law enforcement agencies who have written 2504 police books. A hyper-realistic crime story, JOHN RAVEN BEAU provides an intimate look into the beleaguered NOPD Homicide Division, a story that begins in the French Quarter and ends in a swamp, all within the city limits of America’s eternal city, a city that cannot be destroyed – New Orleans. A second Beau novel was released in 2013 – CITY OF SECRETS. Books by O’Neil De Noux (all available as eBooks and trade paperbacks). Go to www.oneildenoux.net for links.

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Cover Photo Copyright 2010 O’Neil De Noux

Copyright 2010 O’Neil De Noux

Smashwords Edition

Tenderless Night

by O’Neil De Noux

The rain hits just as the priest starts splashing holy water on the casket. Fat raindrops bounce off the concrete and marble tombs, pummeling umbrellas, drowning out the prayer the priest utters in the dead language of Catholicism, good ole Latin. It’s one p.m., Saturday, February 14, 1948, that’s right, Valentine’s Day in the city that care forgot (someone’s idea of a nickname for New Orleans) and it’s cold. Breath from the mourners comes out as chilly fog and I shiver in my trench coat.

I’m Lucien Caye, a private-eye. I caught this case at nine a.m., when a representative of Delta Insurance Company called to hire me in time for the funeral of Dorothy O’Shea, a woman murdered by a hobo, if you believe the newspaper account and I rarely believe anything in the newspaper. According to Delta Insurance, Dorothy O’Shea’s husband took out a policy less than a month ago which included a ‘double indemnity’ clause if the insured was the victim of an accident, hurricane or foul play. That tidbit, plus the fact Dorothy’s husband called the day before her murder to confirm coverage – has already filed a claim and he seems to be in a big freaking hurry to have her buried – waved a red flag at the normally suspicious insurance executives who, in turn, called me.

My poor darling! wails Dorothy’s husband as he stands over the casket, two women holding umbrellas above his head. My poor darling!

I know Mr. Sean O’Shea, of course. He’s the chief assistant district attorney of Orleans Parish, but I don’t like him much. He always talks down to cops and PIs. Then again, most lawyers talk down to cops and private-eyes. It gives us an advantage actually, because few realize we’re fairly intelligent. Well, some of us, at least.

Sean O’Shea is my height, six feet, but is about forty pounds heavier, none of it appearing to be fat. The man has no neck and wears his red hair in a Marine Corp flat-top. Today he’s in a black suit with a