Requiem for a Thief

- What -

The most powerful law enforcement agencies in the country know something has happened. The power brokers and dealers of lives in high society know something has happened. The underbelly of crime and the seedy cities know something has happened.

And in that sprawling city of New Orleans...

The ladies in their glittering parties know something has happened. The bankers and financiers know something has happened. The wealthy, the influential, the political know something has happened. The cops on their quiet beats know something has happened. The whores with their pimps know something has happened. The street gangs, the street thieves know something has happened.

- Is -

In the silent weeks that follow, the quiet spell without a pinch, all the underworld holds its breath.

It is the recoil after a gun has been shot. The Thieves draw back a step, a moment of silence in mourning for their departed prince.

Then they strike.

- It -

And what is it if Marius Boudreaux, that King of Assassins, has misplaced items of great importance? What is it if his daughter spurns him, absent from his functions and dinners? What is it if a fresh grave lies unvisited by friend or by foe?

What is it if the Thieves retaliate at anyone, anything that falls within their power to take? What is it if there is no officer with enough clout or enough skill to stop them?

What is it if a worn playing card, the Queen of Hearts, taped to a battered mirror speaks more eloquently to a woman's loss than her brother's fallen sword?

- If -