Heaven's Prisoners

I want a drink.

I want a drink all the time.

Sometimes I wake up in the morning,

my eyes pop open,

and I think, I got to have a drink--

beer, bloody Mary, whatever.

Even now, and I don't know why.

I haven't had a drink in three years.

Three years, huh?

Yeah.

Sometimes I'll be talking with my wife,

and the whole time we're talking,

I'm thinking about this bar I used to go to.

The whole conversation, I'm thinking,

I'd rather be in that bar than anywhere.

The glasses all lined up...

My seat right on the corner...

All those colored bottles...

The ice in my glass,

that burn.

Man, it felt real good going down.

That'll never happen again.

I can't drink. I know that.

Drinking fucked up my whole life.

Excuse me, father. I'm sorry.

That's alright, Dave.

How is your wife?

How's Annie?

You love your wife, don't you?

You have a good life now since you left the police department.

Yes, I do.

And if you begin drinking again,

what will happen?

I would lose everything.

But knowing this,

knowing that you would lose everything--

you would lose your wife,

your business, and your self-respect,

still you want a drink?

Yes, I do.

You're absolved of your sins.

Go in peace.

What you got there?

Lunch.

What's for lunch?

What do you want?

Let's get the air mattress out of the locker.

What if one of the reels goes out?

You'll never notice.

There's a plane.

So, wave.

No, no, no, no, no.

Look.

It's in trouble.

Jesus.oh, god.

Alright, you take the wheel right now.

Coast guard New Orleans,

this is whiskey, Alpha, bravo 4-7-2-7.

Come in. Over.

Coast guard, New Orleans. Come in.

We've got a small twin-engine plane crash,

1 mile due north of the southwest pass. Over.

What's its status?It's sinking.

In need of immediate assistance. Over.

On our way.

Dave, we didn't refill the air tanks last time.

There's still some in there.

Not more than 25 feet here,

if they haven't settled into the silt.

I can get the door open.

It's deeper than 25 feet. You know it is.

There's a trench running right through the pass.

Dave.

Hang outside in case one of them

comes up underneath the boat.

Come on.

Dave.

Grab her.

Hand her to me.

Uhh, god.

Uh, come on.

Come on. Oh, baby.

Alright, now.

What's the little girl's name?

I'm sorry.

Her name.

Alafair.

Is she your daughter?

That's right.

I'll go look in on her for you.

In the meantime, why don't you look over that information

and make sure that I wrote it down accurately.

Alafair?

That was your mother's name.

She's probably an illegal anyway.

We wouldn't wanna make problems

for the nuns, now, would we?

What if she is an illegal?

Immigration is going to send her right back.

My...

What an interesting family you have.

Did you know your daughter speaks nothing but Spanish?

Huh.

She told me her father and uncle

were killed by soldiers in El Salvador.

She said a priest was bringing

her and her mother to america

when the plane caught fire

and crashed into the water.

Is she going to be alright, sister?

She's fine.

What she needs now is someone to care for her.

I'll get her.

It's alright. It's alright.

Shh.

Shh.

Shh.

You're just having a dream. It's okay.

Shh.

That's where your mother is.

Cielo?

Up in the sky.

In El cielo.

In heaven.

En El cielo.

You come with me, little guy.

I want you to light a candle.

Por su mama.

Yeah.

Can I help you?

Minos dautrieve.

Drug enforcement administration.

Who did you expect?

Immigration maybe?

I'd invite you in, Mr. Dautrieve,

but I gotta go to work.

That's alright, I just wanted to ask you

one or two things about the plane crash.

Like what?

Like, uh, why didn't you all

wait for the coast guard

after you called in on the emergency channel?

My wife gave them the position.

They could see the oil and gas on the water.

No need for us to stick around now, was there?

Hey, do I know you?I don't think so.

Huh.

See, I got this problem.

A diver found a suitcase

with a bunch of child's clothes in it.

Little girl's, in fact,

but, uh, there wasn't a kid on that plane.

Now, what does that suggest to you?

Since when does the DEA care about some little kid?

Actually, it's the other three I'm worried about.

Three? What do you mean three?

Two women and the priest.

What about the guy in the pink shirt, the one with the tattoo?

What guy? And what pink shirt?

Well, there were four adults on that plane.

From what I hear, it's kind of murky down there.

Maybe you only thought you saw four people.

I read your file, robicheaux.

Tell me, did you really do all that shit?

I don't know what you're talking about.

You smoked three guys

when you were on the New Orleans pd.

One of them was a government witness.

He was a pimp and a drug dealer,

and he dealt to play when he drew down on me and my partner.

Yeah?

Is that when they asked you

to retire from the force?

Hey, wait a minute. I do know you.

You were that point guard at lsu

about 15 years ago.