Darkest Before the Dawn

And there it is, four names.

After all of this, four men have now been charged with Roxanne's rape and murder.

Four men known to Roxanne.

Four men, some of whom have been mentioned in this podcast.

Names you would hear when people talked about the old days in Covington.

These were men who would have spent time around Roxanne.

And before this story goes forward from here, I got to back up just a bit.

Friday morning, 9.30, the meeting before the press conference.

A conference room in the courthouse.

The DA is at the head of the table.

To his right is the superintendent of Louisiana State Police.

They are talking about Roxanne's case and what each will say to the press.

Just getting organized on how the press conference will go.

To the DA's left is one of his assistant DAs, maybe the woman who will lead the prosecution or maybe not.

I have no clue.

I've interviewed her before though, and she's impressive as hell.

Well, all of them are impressive as hell.

There's 15 or so police officers crammed in there, including Investigator Stephan Montgomery.

He will hate that I say this, but we would not be in this room but for him.

Stephan's in a suit.

Hadn't seen that before.

He's a plain clothes guy, and no offense, but he does the plain clothes thing well.

Now he looks sharp, polished.

Most of the cops are in uniform.

I'm abruptly wondering if I'm the only person in this room who isn't armed.