“Once David complained about it, he didn’t see why I shouldn’t be trusted to do that. Putting me as the bookkeeper assured him that his percentage would be correct. He was the head of the family, so there was no way they could disagree.” Linda removed a ledger from the box at her side and placed her hands on it. “There are ten clubs and plans to expand to about thirty within the next year. Their agreement with David was no more than fifty to keep the heat off them.”

“Is it a franchise, or are they all different?” Cain asked. If it was her, there was no way she’d go the same route throughout. Once the authorities were able to infiltrate one club, the others would be on the chopping block.

“Every one of them is different, but all run on the same principle as the Hell Fire Clubs. The one in New Orleans is Madame Laveau’s in the Warehouse District.” Linda handed over a smaller file with the names of all ten places.

“That’s two blocks from Emma’s,” Emma said. “It’s never as crowded as our place, but it does a steady business.”

“The bar downstairs is a diversion for what’s happening on the next four floors,” Linda said, taking out two more ledgers. “I kept a ledger for each of them, and David kept a master with him. What happened to that one, I don’t know.”

“Are any of these set up under a different name?” Cain asked as she skimmed the list, with Finley reading over her shoulder.

“None of them have the names Eaton or Antakov associated with any of the paperwork. That, too, is different for each club. They’re using different aliases for each one.” Linda handed over another thicker file with all the red tape associated with opening a bar. If the whole thing was set up under corporate shells, it would take time to trace back to an individual person. “This is all I have left to bargain for the lives of my brothers. I’d gladly sacrifice myself if it means they are free of all this shit.”

“That’s noble but totally unnecessary.” Cain put the file down for now. “Martyrdom isn’t my thing, and I’d never ask it of anyone. All I want is to borrow these to find out who Nicola is now.”

“What about Fredrick?” Abigail asked. “Did he really die in that accident?”

“That’s a good question, but we need to figure out some other things before we can follow the money. As far as I know, Madame Laveau’s is still open and making money. Where that’s going is the question of the day.”