Baxter Clare [Detective L A F Cry Havoc (epub)

[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
.”Pulling her detectives back on track, Frank commented, “Glad to see somebody actually working around here.What else you got?”Still unaccustomed to her role as primary detective, Lewis shifted a little nervously, if not proudly.“Well, this guy Carrillo? He’s got a rap sheet from here to Orange County.Mostly all drug charges.Most of them dismissed or settled.His homey, Hernandez, was busted with him twice, in January, and last June.Both on felony possession charges.”Waving another rap sheet, Lewis continued, “I checked on the other homes Duncan’s sister told me about.Alejandro Echevarria.Known associates.” Lewis paused dramatically, then said, “Carrillo and Hernandez.They’ve all three of ‘em got a bucket of aliases, they’ve all been busted for felony drug possession or narcotics trafficking, and all three of ‘em Nicaraguan.”“Ollie North in there?” Noah cracked.Lewis ignored him.Her eyes sparkled as she leaned toward Frank.“I’m thinking maybe little Danny Duncan was trying to get out from under his auntie’s skirt and get some action going on his own, know what I mean? Maybe auntie”—Lewis said “aunt” like “haunt”—“didn’t like junior straying so far and decided to show her boy what was up.”“If that’s true, then we’re fucked,” Noah said.“There’s no way we can touch her.”Frank silently agreed.Maybe this was the big thing she’d felt in her living room last night.If it was, that wasn’t so bad.She could handle a crack lord.Narco had gone after Mother Love half a dozen times but the worst they’d done was make her lay low for a couple of weeks.Crackheads had hopped around the streets like fleas jumping off a dead dog, but within a month they’d crawled back under their rocks, back to sucking on pipes and bent antenna rods.“You talked to her yet?”Lewis shook her head, asking her partner, “We gonna do that today?”“I’d hate to see all your hard work go to waste.Let’s go talk to the upstanding citizens on your list before we hit the Mother.Maybe they’ll drop something we can work her with.”Lewis nodded disappointedly, but seemed to understand Noah’s logic.They broke up after another ten minutes and Frank snagged Noah.“How’s paperwork coming for the Colonel?”“Unless Sister Shaft did it after typing her 40-page suspect list, it isn’t.”“That’s what I thought.You get it started.I’ma roll with your partner this morning.”“That’s not much of a deal,” Noah complained.“You’re right,” Frank grinned, “but I want to see your girl in action.”“How’d she get to be my girl?” Noah grumbled.“You’re the one that’s a god to her.”“How’s that?”“Christ, she thinks you can walk on water.” Noah’s eye somersaulted when he said, “She says you’re an inspiration and that she appreciates how you’ve kept your eye on her.That you picked her when you could have had any of a dozen vets.You’re her angel for sure.She’ll be flyin’ backwards out there tryin’ to please you.”Frank smiled, remembering her mentor.She’d have rather cut off and pickled her toes than disappoint Joe Girardi.Frank started prioritizing her day as Darcy stepped into her office.“You wanted to see me?”“Yeah.Sit down.”He settled easily into her old vinyl couch.She thought it curious he hadn’t taken the chair on the other side of the desk.“How’d you know about that.44 in the refrigerator?”“Just a hunch.” He shrugged.“Helluva hunch.”When he didn’t offer anything more, Frank said, “Explain it to me.”“There’s nothing to explain.I just kept thinking about a.44 in a refrigerator.A stainless steel one like you’d find in a commercial kitchen.I knew Jill had a vie shot with a.44 and that they couldn’t find the weapon.It was just a SWAG,” he concluded, some wild-assed guess.“That’s all?” Frank drilled him with her blue beams on high.“That’s it.”Frank studied her cop a beat longer.“Nice heads up,” she finally said.“Leave the door open.”She watched Darcy leave.Her new cop came with a clean record.He hadn’t given Frank any cause for suspicion, but then again, neither had Ike Zabbo, and she thought she’d known him a hell of a lot better than Darcy James.Lewis interrupted Frank’s rumination.“Noah says I’m riding with you this morning.”Frank grunted, “In an hour or so,” and followed Lewis into the squad room.Frank wanted the time to get some background on Mother Love Jones.If Lewis was right, she was riding a pretty fast horse.Frank considered reassigning the case to Noah, but only for a second.She had confidence in Lewis.There were nuances she couldn’t be expected to know yet, but under Noah’s tutelage and Frank’s watchful eye she felt Lewis could handle the case.Frank pawed through the shelves of cold files.When she was brand new in the nine-three, Girardi had been sweating blood trying to build a case against the Mother.She found the murder book she was looking for and blew the dust off it.The binder was thin but probably had a good bio on Mother Love.Someone had thoughtfully left a quarter inch of coffee to thicken and burn [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

Pokrewne