Wit ness

XIX of Der rick Olin

Stellen Qxz

3rd Man Pub li ca tions (2019)

Rat ing: *****

ac tion, body guard, in trigue, thriller,

Tags: sex, vi o lence, crime, wit ness pro tec-

tion, mole hunt, mys tery

Wit nesses and po lice in for mants are be ing mur dered in the Magic City,

no one knows where the leak is com ing from but the con se quences are

dev as tat ing for the crim i nal jus tice sys tem in Birm ing ham, not to men-

tion for those who are be ing killed. With nowhere to turn to on the in-

side, a top po lice ex ec u tive goes out side for help in stop ping the threat

be fore more peo ple die. And there is no one more out side than Der rick

Olin and his Triple-Ds!

WIT NESS

A Der rick Olin Novel

Stellen Qxz

Copy right © 2019 by Stellen Qxz

3rd Man Pub li ca tions

All rights re served. No part of this work may be re-

pro duced in any form or by any means with out the

prior writ ten con sent of the Pub lisher. This is a work

of fic tion. Names, char ac ters, places, and in ci dents

are ei ther the prod uct of the au thor’s imag i na tion, or

are used fic ti tiously. Any re sem blance to ac tual per-

sons, liv ing or dead, or in sti tu tions or events, is en-

tirely co in ci den tal. (And you just try to prove oth er-

wise!)

This is an authorised free edition from www.obooko.com

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Also by Stellen

Qx

z on Ob ooko:

Robert Chan dler & Alex Wells Se ries:

Prin ci pal Tar get Cloak & Stag ger

Ex treme Prej u dice Chan Well

Hired Guns

Der rick Olin Se ries:

Com pul sive

Crim i nal

In ac tive?

Vi cious

Dead line

Ex trac tion

Pu rity

Rec i proc ity

Black ball

Ret ro grade

Fear less

Rogue

The Un der cover Grooms man

Glock Smoke: A Der rick Olin An thol ogy

Traf fic(k)

Faith ful

Dan ger ous Li ai son Mer ce nary

Wit ness

The As set

Other Works:

[a]

Lethal

[b]

Crit i cal Ac tion

Blood Debts

[c]

ABI Monk

[d]

Push back

[e]

The Blown Whis tle

About the au thor: Since the age of 13 Stellen has writ ten

hun dreds of short sto ries, nov el ettes, novel las, and nov els.

He is an avid reader of fic tion and a lover of movies from

the 1970s. When not writ ing, he works as a pri vate se cu‐

rity con sul tant.

For The Woman; daugh ter, mother, grand mother,

friend. If medals were awarded, you’d have a chest

full by now.

and:

Pa resseux Gar ion, win ner of hearts, changer of

minds, in serter of foot into asses when nec es sary.

WIT NESS

Chap ter 1

Frankie Bur rage may only be five and a half feet tall, and prob a bly a

buck forty soak ing wet, but one should never un der es ti mate a per-

son based on size. An un for tu nate and com mon mis take, and for

some, it was of ten their last.

While it is true that Frankie is much bet ter with a gun than with

his bare hands—years as a shooter for Birm ing ham’s for mer top bad

guy had seen to that—he has learned a thing or two about the un-

armed arts since com ing to work for me a few years ago. I watched

him put those skills to good use this evening, much the same as a

proud papa watch ing his kid par al lel park the fam ily sedan on her

own for the first time af ter many hours of care ful in struc tion and a

fair amount of frus trated tears on both their parts.

Only Frankie wasn’t park ing the fam ily car, he was chop ping the

blade of his right hand across the side of the neck of the man who

had tried to push past him into the ball room, quickly fol low ing up

with a kick to the shin, a raised knee to the so lar plexus, and fi nally

a kick to the groin, all de liv ered in rapid suc ces sion us ing the same

leg. About as per fect a set of com bi na tion kicks as I have ever seen

in op er a tional ex e cu tion against a much larger op po nent.

Said op po nent was now on the ground, at tempt ing to clutch mul-

ti ple points of painful im pact, and there were, I be lieve, some tears

in his eyes. That’s what hap pens when you’re an ass hole and you en-

counter Triple-D.

THE TEAM HAD BEEN CON TRACTED by Magic City Dreams

Founder and CEO Nadya Shaba to pro vide se cu rity for a fundraiser

at the Birm ing ham Cross plex in Five Points West this evening that

was sure to draw some pro tes tors. It was a fundraiser for Planned

Par ent hood of Al abama, which was in the process of build ing a new

clinic on the west side of town to bet ter serve mi nor ity com mu ni ties

in the area, and in light of re cent dra co nian ac tions on the part of

the state leg is la ture in Mont gomery, re pro duc tive rights and free-

doms were once again at the fore front of ev ery one’s con scious ness,

those pro, those con, and even those who prob a bly didn’t care one

way or the other.

There were a lot of lawyers get ting rich right now fight ing it out in

court for both sides, and re cently there had been some po lit i cally

mo ti vated groups fight ing it out in per son. Two Planned Par ent hood

ral lies in down town parks had re cently been shut down early due to

threats on one oc ca sion and ac tual vi o lence on an other. The Birm-

ing ham City Coun cil had pub licly come out in sup port of Planned

Par ent hood and re buked the state leg is la ture for their to tal abor tion

ban, but many cit i zens were be gin ning to com plain that the city was

spend ing too much money pro vid ing po lice se cu rity at these events

and that the risk to the pub lic might not be worth the cost.

“Horse shit,” was Nadya Shaba’s elo quent re sponse when some one

said some thing sim i lar re gard ing her planned fundraiser at the

Cross plex. “There is no price too high in de fense of lib erty and per-

sonal free dom. Any way, West Precinct is just around the cor ner

from the place, and as far as event se cu rity is con cerned, I’ll be foot-

ing that bill per son ally.”

It’s good to be the Queen, I thought. And it’s good to be a rich

queen, with a bit of a bleed ing heart. And I’ve al ways per son ally

liked the woman.

Of course the se cu rity she would be foot ing the bill for was my

team and me, D D D Coun ter mea sures; De ter, Dis rupt, De feat. The

last D use to stand for De stroy but I have been ad vised that this

sounds too bel li cose, blood thirsty even. And what’s wrong with that,

I asked with a grin, but still agreed to the change any way, af ter all, I

was a busi ness man now, not a bar bar ian. More’s the pity.

The Cross plex hosts a lot of sport ing events but the gym na sium

can be con verted into quite the ball room/ban quet hall with the right

amount of no tice and fi nance. Fi nance was never an is sue for

Nadya, her last di vorce took care of that. So by the time the in vi tees

started ar riv ing for drinks as seven-thirty, the place was as well laid

out as any fancy ball room I had ever been in.

Ac tual phys i cal se cu rity of the venue was han dled by of fi cers from

Mas ter-Plan Se cu rity, the best large-scale con trac tor in the state,

and one with which I have a long-stand ing pro fes sional re la tion-

ship. The cur rent CEO is also a close per sonal friend. All it ever

takes is a quick phone call to KeeAnn LaForge-Parker and I get

what ever I need. There were twelve of fi cers as signed, plus a

sergeant to su per vise. I’ve worked with most of them be fore, in clud-

ing the sergeant, so co or di na tion with my team was easy enough.

And speak ing of my team, George Oliver ( Ol lie), Frankie Bur rage,

Sheila, and Bert Cortez. An odd con glom er a tion of in di vid u als as

ever you would find, all with uniquely dis tinct back grounds, and a

group that in the be gin ning I was not sure would mesh well, es pe-

cially with me lead ing them. Nev er the less, I was pleas antly proven

in cor rect as over the past cou ple of years they have demon strated

again and again that they are the best team of op er a tors I’ve ever

worked with; which is say ing a lot, con sid er ing that just re cently I

cel e brated my thir ti eth year in the pro fes sional pro tec tion busi ness,

in clud ing ten years as an Air Force se cu rity and an titer ror ism of fi-

cer.

Nadya was in a sleeve less black evening gown, low-cut up top, of

course, long on the bot tom, but with a slit up the left leg stop ping

about three inches above her knee and show cas ing her mag nif i-

cently shapely thigh. At age sixty-seven the woman was still a head-

turner and knew it well. She had started to let her gray grow out re-

cently and her once long black mane was now equally mixed with

sil ver. Her jew elry was mod est in pre sen ta tion but worth a for tune

be cause I knew the woman never went for cheap. I es pe cially liked

the pearl choker at her throat, it went well with her milky com plex-

ion, and drew the eyes up to ward her face, but that plung ing cleav-

age would even tu ally draw most eyes back down, mine in cluded.

I was near the south en trance talk ing to Ol lie. Mas ter-Plan of fi-

cers in blazer uni forms were cov er ing all the en trances and ex its, as

well as the back-of-house ar eas, but I had my peo ple sta tioned close

by the ma jor points, with me rov ing around, and when Ol lie felt he

could move, he would do so as well af ter let ting me know he was go-

ing mo bile. We were both wear ing dark suits and not lik ing it much,

but if I do say so my self, we were two very dash ing mid dle-aged

black men in the prime of our lives. And I dare any one to say dif fer-

ent!

Nadya was talk ing to a group nearby, all but one of them fe male.

She glanced over and caught my eye, smiled, hur riedly fin ished her

con ver sa tion, then took one of the women by the arm and led her

over.

“Uh-oh,” Ol lie said un der his breath. “Looks like Miz Nadya

comin’ to see you. Think it be time for me to take an other stroll,

check on the rest of the troops, maybe hit the head while I’m at it.”

“Chicken,” I said un der my breath as he quickly walked away. Al-

though I could not see his face, I knew by the set of his shoul ders

that Ol lie was grin ning.

The woman with Nadya was quite at trac tive her self. Very light

brown skin, thick black hair hang ing just be low her shoul ders, dark

brown eyes, large nose, full plum col ored lips, and a full body, too.

An inch or so taller than, Nadya, maybe, or it could sim ply be the

dif fer ence in the heels both were wear ing. Mid to late for ties, I’d say.

Not quite fifty, but get ting there quick. She had on a blue evening

gown, not quite as long as Nadya’s, but show ing off nearly as much

of her lovely brown cleav age as the host ess.

“Der rick,” said Nadya ex pan sively, com ing up and tak ing my

hand, still hold ing on to the woman be hind her. “Or should I say Su-

per man?” She low ered her voice and added, “Maybe the Man of

Steel?”

The woman be hind her laughed and I liked her laugh. I cast a

smirk at Nadya.

“Be have, Ms. Shaba,” I warned. “Or I might have to file a com-

plaint with the EEOC about you cre at ing a hos tile work en vi ron-

ment.”

Nadya snorted and squeezed my hand again.

“Then maybe I should do some thing re ally naughty so you’ll have

some thing good to re port,” she re torted, then laughed.

I laughed as well, leaned over and kissed her cheek. Though we

had seen each other across the room most of the evening, this was

the first time we had ac tu ally got ten a chance to speak. As usual,

Nadya was the host ess with the mostest and took it as her per sonal

mis sion to make sure that ev ery one was en joy ing them selves, es pe-

cially those with the fat test check books, but she made time for ev-

ery one, even lit tle ole me.

“Oh, Der rick, I have some one I want you to meet,” she said, turn-

ing and in di cat ing the woman be hind her, still hold ing onto her

right arm. “This is Mrs. Monique Otis, but she goes by Niqe. And

you two have some thing in com mon.”

I stared at Mrs. Otis cu ri ously for a few mo ments, then ex tended

my hand. She dis en tan gled her self from Nadya with a wry look, then

did the same.

“Der rick Olin,” I said. “Good to meet you, Mrs. Otis.”

Her hand shake was firm but fem i nine, and she looked right into

my eyes the whole time.

“Good to meet you as well,” she said in a voice deeper than I ex-

pected, and ev ery bit as south ern as a nat u ral born Bama gal. “And

if you don’t mind, I’m go ing to call you Der rick and you can call me

Niqe.”

I told her I did not mind and she smiled, fi nally re leas ing my

hand. I was a lit tle dis ap pointed about that.

“So, Der rick,” Nadya said, grin ning at me. “You went to Jack son-

West High School back in the 80s, right?”

I nod ded. “Yep. Eighty-one to eighty-five. Ol lie, too. That’s where

we met. Earl Ash ley Dex ter as well.”

“Guess what Niqe does for a liv ing?” she said.

I glanced at the other woman, smiled.

“Let me see,” I mused thought fully. “Lion tamer?”

Nadya laughed, Niqe smiled.

“Close in a way,” the lat ter said.

“She’s vice prin ci pal at Jack son-West,” Nadya said.

“Oh my,” I said, look ing at Monique Otis. “That must be al most as

ex cit ing as tam ing li ons.”

“And some days more,” the vice prin ci pal con firmed.

“How long have you been there?” I asked.

“Two years,” she told me. “Came over from Carver where I was an

as sis tant vice prin ci pal and an Eng lish teacher for grades eleven and

twelve, that’s my pri mary train ing, Eng lish teacher. Started out

teach ing pri mary school kids over twenty years ago, mostly lov ing it,

or at least most parts of it.”

I could de tect some thing un said there, glanced at Nadya and

found her look ing a lit tle un easy her self, def i nitely not nor mal for

Ms. Shaba. How ever, be fore I could in quire, she spot ted some one

she needed to talk too and hastily ex cused her self, leav ing J-W’s VP

and me alone near the south en trance. We were still there talk ing

about my old high school a few min utes later when Frankie had to

put a party crasher on his ass and al most im me di ately af ter wards

Sheila called over the net about a large group of peo ple who had be-

gun to gather in the west park ing lot car ry ing protest signs and TIKI

torches.

Well, I thought iron i cally, this night just couldn’t get any bet ter.

Niqe was stand ing aghast, left hand on her bo soms (lucky hand),

and that’s when I saw her wed ding ring for the first time. Pretty

good size di a mond clus ter, no way was her hus band a fel low

teacher, he’d never be able to af ford that set of rocks on a teacher’s

salary. Not legally any way.

I ex cused my self from the lady, telling her to stay close to the wall

near the guard at the door and she would be all right, and with out

wait ing for a re sponse, made my way into the fray…

THE RE CENTLY PRO MOTED AND IN STALLED cap tain in com-

mand of the Birm ing ham Po lice De part ment’s West Precinct is a 44

year old twenty-two year vet eran of the force who had spent the ma-

jor ity of his ca reer work ing vi o lent crimes, mostly as a homi cide de-

tec tive. There fore, he knew the value of early proac tive ac tion when

it came to cur tail ing such crimes, which means West Precinct, hav-

ing been fully briefed on the fundraiser and un der stand ing both the

per sonal and po lit i cal con cerns at play, al ready had a pres ence in

the area of the Cross plex and a plan to mo bi lize ad di tional re sources

at a mo ment’s no tice if they were nec es sary. This pre pared ness and

quick ac tion on the part of the new cap tain prob a bly kept what oth-

er wise might have turned into quite a vi o lent protest with scores of

in juries and ar rests, down to a mi nor oc cur rence with no in juries to

speak of and just three ar rests, in clud ing the mo ron that Frankie

had to put down, an in di vid ual the protest or ga niz ers later strongly

de nied was a mem ber of their group.

The fundraiser ended at eleven and there was a heavy po lice pres-

ence still in the area as guests be gan to leave. Mas ter-Plan of fi cers

con tin ued to main tain watch of the ball room as things wrapped up

while my team slipped into the park ing lot to keep an eye out, just in

case.

Nadya and a few of the big wig donors were among the last to leave

and we es corted all of them to their ve hi cles. Nadya hugged and

kissed me and told me she would talk to me to mor row, and to send

my bill to her ac coun tant as soon as I was ready. I told her I would

and bid her good night.

And then I saw Vice Prin ci pal Otis walk ing out of the main doors

of the Cross plex build ing, glanc ing around, and still look ing rather

fetch ing. Ol lie was at my shoul der.

“That the vice prin ci pal at J-W you was tellin’ me about?”

“It is,” I con firmed. “And I think I’m gonna go walk her to her car.

You and the oth ers do one last sweep of the place and then we’re

done. I’m gonna have a word with the Mas ter-Plan su per vi sor be-

fore I go, too. I’ll get in touch to mor row for a wrap up run down be-

fore I write it up.”

I could hear the snicker in his voice when he replied, “Aye, Aye,

Com man der.”

Ig nor ing my sec ond-in-com mand’s puerile at ti tude, I walked to-

ward Mrs. Otis as she came down the steps.

“Looks like you’re clos ing the place down tonight,” I said with a

smile. “The last one to leave.”

She stopped and smiled.

“Well it was such a fun party,” she said. “Com plete with full-con-

tact com bat. You guys re ally know how to show a girl a good time.”

I smiled again, held out my left arm. “May I es cort you?”

Grin ning, Niqe Otis nod ded, took my arm.

“Yes, sir,” she said for mally. “You may.”

Co in ci den tally, her red Du rango was parked two spa ces from my

jeep. I stood aside as she took her keys from her purse, used the fob

to un lock the door, then turned to stare at me, that same ex pres sion

of want ing to say some thing back in her eyes. Af ter a few mo ments I

de cided to ask.

“What is it?” I said. “Back be fore the ruckus you ap peared to want

to ask me some thing. And Nadya was a bit odd ear lier, too, which

for Nadya is not all that un usual, but there was some thing in her

eyes, and the way she brought you over to meet me. Tell me.”

She stared for a few more mo ments, forced a smile.

“Nadya was right about you,” she said. “You don’t miss a thing.”

“Oc cu pa tional haz ard,” I told her.

She nod ded.

“Well, Der rick, as vice prin ci pal, one of my ar eas of re spon si bil ity

is se cu rity for the school,” she told me, and then I got it or so I be-

lieved.

I nod ded.

“Not an easy thing in to day’s en vi ron ment,” I said.

“You bet ter be lieve it,” she said. “Es pe cially with bud get cuts, not

only in the school sys tem, but also in the po lice de part ment. And the

ap par ent ready ac cess that ev ery one, even chil dren, seems to have

to guns these days. Look, it’s late and I know you prob a bly want to

get home, me, too ac tu ally. Got an early day to mor row. But Nadya

sug gested that I talk some things over with you and get your take. If

you have some time in the near fu ture, I’d love to buy you lunch.”

And I’d love to eat lunch with you, I thought.

I told her that would be fine and we ex changed num bers and

email ad dresses. She thanked me, held out her hand, and we shook.

I stood back and watched as she belted her self in, started the en-

gine, and backed out. She waved be fore driv ing off, smil ing, her eyes

fo cus ing on mine for maybe a few sec onds longer than was nec es-

sary.

Ol lie was at my left shoul der again.

“I saw you get her num ber,” his deep voice was filled with a sar-

cas tic tint.

I sighed but didn’t turn to look at him.

“I know she’s a high school ad min is tra tor, Ol lie, but we aren’t in

tenth grade any more. And I got her num ber for pro fes sional pur-

poses.”

“I’ll bet,” he snorted. “This wrapped up here, I was gonna cut the

troops loose.”

“Sounds good,” I told him. “Head out your self. I’m gonna say a

word to the Mas ter-Plan sergeant and I think the BPD pa trol

sergeant is still over there, too. Want to thank her and her cap tain

for be ing on the ball tonight.”

Ol lie nod ded.

“A good night, all con sid ered,” he said. “Kind of pissed at Frankie,

though. He the only one of us got to bust a head.”

I chuck led, glanced at him then.

“Well at least he didn’t shoot any body.”

Ol lie laughed and then we said good night.

Chap ter 2

Fa rina War ren has been with the lo cal NBC af fil i ate in Birm ing ham

for just over seven years, hav ing spent the pre vi ous twenty years of

her jour nal ism ca reer in a va ri ety of high-fly ing as sign ments, some

in far away and dan ger ous lo ca tions around the globe. She was an

in ves tiga tive re porter by train ing and de sire, and had bro ken many

ma jor sto ries in her time, sev eral while work ing in the Magic City,

and had re ceived just about ev ery ac co lade and award for jour nal-

ism that cur rently ex isted. I had no doubt that one day some in-

trepid young re porter would be re ceiv ing an honor called the Fa rina

War ren Award for Jour nal is tic Ex cel lence, or some thing sim i lar.

Get ting her to come to Birm ing ham had been a ma jor coup for the

lo cal mar ket, and of fered sta bil ity to her some times chaotic fam ily

life.

She was ini tially hired as the Spe cial As sign ments An chor and was

given her pick of sto ries to work on and present in both on-air and

dig i tal for mats. A year ago there was a shift in the news di vi sion at

Chan nel 13, a reshuf fling and con sol i da tion of some of the desks.

Spe cial As sign ments was merged with Spe cial In ves ti ga tions and

Fa rina took on the new role of Chief In ves tiga tive Cor re spon dent for

the net work, as well as as so ciate man ag ing ed i tor of the news di vi-

sion.

The work was chal leng ing, but she loved it, and de spite all that it

en tailed, the huge chunk of her life that it took up, she still found

the time to be a mom to three young and en er getic chil dren, two of

them twins (she didn’t be come a mom for the first time un til she

was forty), wife to an equally busy for mer pho to jour nal ist turned

free lance pho tog ra pher, and a very en thu si as tic sportswoman. Fa-

rina was the daugh ter of an Olympic gold medal win ner. Three gold

medals, ac tu ally, and she had in her ited the ath letic gene her self.

She was six feet tall, at least, maybe a lit tle more, slen der and stat-

uesque, with smooth, light brown skin and shoul der length hair that

was still amaz ingly dark de spite her hav ing re cently cel e brated her

fifty-fourth birth day. She did triathlon, she did 10-K fun runs, and

three times now she had com peted in marathons, Bos ton twice, New

York once. It was ex haust ing just know ing her. I was al most fifty-

two, in de cent shape, ran, worked out sev eral times a week, but she

would leave me in the dust af ter a cou ple of miles, no doubt about

that.

In fact, right now she was about to kill me. Still, if I had to go, this

was prob a bly the best way that I could imag ine it hap pen ing.

I was flat on my back in the mid dle of the queen sized bed in my

bed room, the cov ers thrown off some where on the floor, my naked

body cov ered in per spi ra tion from stem to stern, my breath ing

barely con trolled, my en ergy all but de pleted, all my re serves fo-

cused in one di rec tion: my cock!

Fa rina was sit ting on top of me, her tight, shapely rump against

my thighs, her long, sinewy legs across my chest, her an kles pin ning

my shoul ders to the bed, and just to prove how lim ber she is, she

bent at the waist, fold ing her long body in half so that she was look-

ing di rectly into my eyes as she squeezed me in her womb. It was the

odd est thing I have ever ex pe ri enced, and that’s no joke. It was also

one of the most un com fort able, but at the same time, damn was it

fuck ing hot!

I had ac tu ally cum about three min utes ago, and I’d lost count of

how many trips over the edge Fa rina had made in the last hour, but

she seemed de ter mined to keep go ing, to see just how far she could

push me be fore I cried un cle! Or died.

And then there was an other surge of en ergy from some where, and

I started mov ing my pelvis against her, grind ing as hard as I could.

Her deep brown eyes widened and her full red lips curled into a

wicked smile. Drops of sweat fell from her fore head onto my face,

and she ap peared about to say some thing, but then her eyes rolled

back in her head and she sat bolt up right as her whole body be gan to

shake and she howled like a wolf at mid night. Or maybe like a horny

black MILF whose G-spot had just got ten the right amount of stim u-

la tion to cause her to squirt like a foun tain. This prob a bly ex plained

why I was a lot wet ter down be low than I had been just sec onds be-

fore.

“YOU KNOW, IF YOU BREAK HIM, there are a lot of women in this

town who might come for your head.”

Fa rina grinned as she lay on her stom ach about ten min utes later,

fresh from the bath room, play ful. Her long legs were to gether, her

feet raised off the bed and crossed at the an kles. We were ly ing at

the foot of the bed, both still naked, me on my back, my hand on her

butt.

“Let the bitches come,” she said with de fi ance in her dark eyes.

“Or maybe not,” she laughed, re al iz ing the joke.

I laughed, too.

“You’re very bad to day, Mrs. War ren,” I said, smack ing her rump

once.

She in haled, lean ing her head down on her folded arms, her face

to ward me.

“And you like me this way, don’t you?”

“I do. Al though I’m not sure if I’ll ever be up for that one again. At

times there it felt as if you were go ing to pull my cock off. Like she

wanted to eat him up or some thing.”

Gig gling, Fa rina raised her head, glanced down at my groin.

I held up a warn ing fin ger.

“Don’t go get ting any ideas, missy,” I told her.

She laughed, glanced back over her shoul der at the bed side clock.

“Damn, I’m go ing to have to go in a bit,” she said, rolling onto her

back.

I turned on my side and stared at her. There is noth ing more ex-

quis ite than ly ing next to a naked woman af ter sex, any woman. Es-

pe cially when the sex is so sat is fy ing for both of you. I leaned over

and kissed her shoul der, placed my hand on her tummy. The

woman had very lit tle body fat, and con sid er ing how much she

worked out, in and out of bed, this was no won der.

“Re ally?” I said. “Be cause I was just about to get my fifth wind, see

if it was pos si ble for Lit tle Der rick to make one last ride.”

Fa rina snick ered, took my hand and in ter laced her fin gers

through it, both now rest ing on her belly but ton.

“Der rick ain’t that lit tle,” she said to me. “But I’m afraid that I

have to go, it’s a work thing. Need to meet a source about a story I’m

try ing to flesh out. Could turn into a ma jor thing if I can con firm

some more ru mors. If true, it’ll be a re ally big story in this town.”

“Well now that you’ve teased me,” I said, snug gling closer.

She shook her head, look ing into my eyes.

“Can’t say more right now, Der rick,” she said. “Not enough de-

tails, and if what I am get ting whis pers about is true, this story

might be very sen si tive.”

“You mean like my cock af ter all the bend ing and stretch ing

you’ve done to it to day?” I quipped.

She snick ered again, turned on her side, raised her right thigh

over my left.

“Even more sen si tive than that, lover-man,” she said, then pressed

her lips to mine. We lay to gether and kissed and played for a few

min utes more, then NBC-13’s chief in ves tiga tive cor re spon dent

rolled her lovely naked ass out of my bed and made her way into the

bath room, ad mon ish ing me from the door way not to fol low her.

If only she hadn’t been smil ing and naked when she said it.

Bound ing off the bed a minute later and head ing in that di rec tion,

I was pleased to see Lit tle Der rick ris ing for the oc ca sion.

Chap ter 3

Triple-D was mov ing up in the world, and that made me think of the

old TV sit com The Jef fer sons. Only in the case of Triple-D, we were

movin’ on up to the west side. En s ley to be pre cise, where it all be-

gan. Well, at least where I all be gan.

19th Street En s ley, the most mag i cal place in the world, or at least

it had been for lit tle Der rick Olin back in the 1970s when he was

grow ing up. When I was grow ing up. Start ing to sound like Bob

Dole there, re fer ring to my self in the third per son. So back to 19th

Street En s ley and the magic.

Well by the time I was in high school that magic was fad ing fast as

crime and poverty set in. When I grad u ated from col lege in 1989

and left for the Air Force, it was among the city’s worst neigh bor-

hoods with high rates of vi o lent crime lin ger ing un til this day,

thanks to fuck heads like the late Innes Red bone and the more re-

cently late Ma lik Old ham, gang sters who made their liv ings off of

hu man weak ness and mis ery. How ever, with the pass ing of both

those ass holes and the dis man tling of their crim i nal en ter prises by

the Birm ing ham Po lice De part ment and the U.S. Mar shals Task-

force, not to men tion a fair amount of in vest ment and de ter mi na-

tion by peo ple like my friends Earl Ash ley Dex ter and Reg gie

Killing worth, En s ley was mak ing a come back. Not fast, but steady,

first with busi nesses mov ing back to the area, and even tu ally with

new res i dents fol low ing suit as blight was re moved by the city and

neigh bor hoods were once again be com ing liv able and safe.

When I was a kid, there was an En s ley busi ness dis trict about

eight blocks up from my house on 19th street, and you could find ev-

ery thing there. This was in the days be fore all the big box stores

came to be and pretty much dec i mated com mu nity-based shops.

Back then what ever you wanted you never had to leave En s ley to

find it. I was sad dened to see what had be come of my old stomp ing

grounds af ter leav ing the Air Force and com ing back in mid-1999,

and sad der still be cause I knew there was noth ing I could do, which

is why I found a place to live in one of the sub ur ban neigh bor hoods

to the south of Birm ing ham; Home wood, which just hap pened to be

the city where my old uni ver sity was and is still lo cated.

So to wind down this whole me an der just a bit, the rea son for the

stroll down my mem ory lane is be cause re cently the newly formed

En s ley-Pratt Busi ness and Neigh bor hood Re vi tal iza tion Project had

pur chased one of the old est build ings in the city, which just hap-

pened to be in En s ley, at the cor ner of 19th Street and Av enue E.

And for the neigh bor hood, the Ram say-Mc Cor mack Build ing was

the tallest as well. Way back when, it was home to all kinds of pro-

fes sion als from doc tors to lawyers and ev ery thing in be tween. It had

fallen into re ceiver ship in the late 1980s and had been there ever

since, di lap i dated and fall ing apart, an eye sore to the com mu nity

and a con stant re minder of how far a once proud neigh bor hood had

fallen.

The En s ley-Pratt Busi ness and Neigh bor hood Re vi tal iza tion

Project—and they need to get a bloody shorter name—is the brain-

child of my old chums, Mr. Dex ter and Mr. Killing worth, and they

are the co-chairs. They also co-own the build ing now, per son ally

poured in a cou ple of mil lion bucks of their own money to com-

pletely ren o vate the ten-story of fice tower and rechris tened it the

Dex ter-Killing worth Build ing, or D-K for short. And in no time, with

their con nec tions to the busi ness com mu nity through out the city

and the state, even across the south east, the build ing was fill ing up

with tenets.

Around this time Ol lie and I had been hash ing out plans for the

fu ture of our busi ness ven ture and one of the things that had been

weigh ing on my mind for quite a while was set ting up an of fi cial of-

fice. For the most part since we be gan, my liv ing room had been

where we met and dis cussed busi ness, usu ally over pizza or Chi nese,

and it wasn’t that I didn’t like hav ing the guys and gal over at my

place for these busi ness ses sions, but some times clients did not

want to meet at their places of busi ness be cause the mat ter they

wanted to dis cuss was deemed too sen si tive. On those oc ca sions we

usu ally used Ol lie’s of fice at the Cross plex where EAD En ter prises

and the En s ley-Pratt Busi ness and Neigh bor hood Re vi tal iza tion

Project are head quar tered. Ol lie is still a se nior vice pres i dent (at-

large) with EAD.

The of fice was ad e quate to the task but over time I be gan to feel

like an in ter loper there, us ing some one else’s busi ness space in stead

of hav ing one of my own. I con sid ered rent ing an of fice there at one

time and was think ing about it again when Ol lie told me what Earl

and Reg gie were do ing with the old Ram say-Mc Cor mack Build ing in

En s ley. That’s when I had a wild idea of my own.

[vi]

Thanks to a re cent wind fall

, money was no ob ject, sort of, at

least for the time be ing. So I made a uni lat eral de ci sion and called

my good buddy Earl Ash ley Dex ter. The bas tard said that be cause of

my well- doc u mented rep u ta tion for chaos and may hem, he would

have to charge me triple rent plus an in sur ance bond. But once he

was re minded of all the shit I knew about him from nearly forty

years of friend ship, he told me we could set tle for half the rent they

were charg ing other ten ants, and since I had so nicely black mailed

him, he’d let us have one of the four of fice suites on the top floor. At

present no one else had taken one of them so I could have my pick

of any. That de ci sion I left up to the group, as sem bled them all one

last time in my liv ing room a month ago and told them what I was

go ing to do, had al ready done. They each told me that it was about

fuck ing time. The next day we went over to D-K and picked our new

of fice, the suite fac ing north, which just hap pened to be the di rec-

tion that Jack son-West High School lay in re la tion to the D-K Build-

ing.

There were two small of fices in back of the suite; I got the one

with the big gest win dow, by maybe a tenth of an inch. There was an

open space in the mid dle big enough for four small desks, but we

only needed three medium-sized ones, and a sep a rate re cep tion

area out front. That led to an other con ver sa tion and a lot of back

and forth be tween the five of us. At the end the con sen sus was

unan i mous, Triple-D needed a sixth wheel, some body to run the of-

fice and man age the day-to-day busi ness de tails since the other five

of us were al ways work ing in the field. I had been do ing most of that

my self, and even with ev ery thing on the com puter and al leged

Smart phones abound ing among us all, some times the ac tual work of

the work got in the way of busi ness de tails. Mean ing we needed

some one to take that task on full time. And co in ci den tally, around

this time an other good old buddy, Paige Palmer, men tioned some-

thing to me one day when we were hav ing lunch. She knew some-

body who was look ing for a job, a for mer de tec tive-in ves ti ga tor with

the Mor gan County Sher iff’s Of fice.

“And I’ll tell you right off, Der rick,” Paige said with out pre am ble.

“She’s for mer be cause she got fired. But that was pol i tics. She’s a

damned good cop, or was, and an even bet ter per son. She got a raw

deal from those pricks up there. I met her last year when I was

work ing with the DEA Task force up that way, she was as signed to it.

Smart as a whip, knows com put ers in and out, too. She’s do ing part-

time PI work now, all over North ern Al abama while she’s look ing

for some thing bet ter. I know she still wants to be a cop, but what

you have might be bet ter for her right now, let the dust set tle on the

Mor gan County thing. You should at least talk to her.”

Well with Paige rec om mend ing them, that was good enough for a

con ver sa tion. Glad I did, too. Three days af ter meet ing with Ms. Jor-

dana Kauff man, for merly of the Mor gan County Sher iff’s Of fice

(pricks all of them), she be came the first ever Of fice and Busi ness

Man ager for D D D Coun ter mea sures of Birm ing ham, Al abama, with

of fices lo cated on the top floor, Suite B, at 508 19th Street En s ley,

35218.

Chap ter 4

Jor dana is thirty-eight, red headed, tall, taller than me, not as tall as

Ol lie, with a rugged and healthy out doorsy com plex ion and a con fi-

dence that can only come from work ing as a cop for twelve years,

and be ing mar ried to a Ma rine Spe cial Op er a tions of fi cer for nine.

She opened the of fice ev ery week day morn ing at 08:30 and closed it

at 17:00, whether any of the rest of us was there or not. When not on

a de tail, I tried to drop by ev ery day at some point, usu ally in the

morn ing, some times hang ing around till close of busi ness just to

make it ap pear that I was the guy in charge. Ol lie popped in a few

times a week as well, but the oth ers only came by when re quired,

and usu ally they had work to do thanks to our still grow ing and in-

creas ing busi ness. A lot of small jobs, a quick pro tec tive es cort for

an out of town busi ness per son, se cu rity for an em ployee ter mi na-

tion, and even some se cu rity courier jobs for lo cal at tor neys who

wanted to make sure their hard-copy doc u ments got to where they

were sup posed to un mo lested. This bit was the re sult of work that

be gan for Ash ley Mil ner’s firm and she had spread the word far and

wide that we did a great job, and since she was prob a bly the most

re spected lawyer in the state, her en dorse ment car ried a lot of

weight (even though she is tiny).

Then there were the jobs like the fundraiser that re quired all of us

on deck. Even though it was a short gig, the pay day was al ways

good. I was in my of fice fin ish ing up the pa per work—al though I

haven’t writ ten a re port on pa per in more than a decade—on that

job, af ter ac tion re port, sched ul ing re port, billing re port, and when I

was done I’d pass it along to Jor dana to look it over one more time

be fore send ing ev ery thing to Nadya’s ac coun tant so we could get

paid.

Out side it was sunny, hot, and hu mid. In other words, a typ i cal

mid-June day in Al abama. Glad to be in doors with cen tral air. I fin-

ished read ing the billing re port for the third time, sat is fied that it

was cor rect, closed the file and added it to the zip folder I was go ing

to send to Jor dana’s email. My mo bile phone was on the desk to my

right and it buzzed. I glanced over, saw that it was a text, smiled

when I read the name.

The mes sage was brief: “It was so good to meet you, Der rick, and

I just wanted to say that I’m look ing for ward to talk ing with you

more in the fu ture.” Al though it wasn’t nec es sary be cause of caller

ID, the mes sage was signed Niqe.

Smil ing and lean ing back in my chair, I thought for a few mo-

ments be fore typ ing out a quick re ply, was about to put the phone

down when a text came in from Bert Cortez. Sta tus up date on the

job he was do ing to day. Just wanted to let me know that the em-

ployee ter mi na tion at Far ris Truck ing went off with out a hitch and

he was hang ing around for the rest of the day, as the con tract stip u-

lated, just in case the now for mer em ployee went home and de cided

to come back, per haps with a gun, maybe with a lot of them. Over

the next few weeks Bert would be mak ing pe ri odic checks at Far ris,

and keep ing loose tabs on the ter mi nated em ployee, mon i tor ing his

so cial me dia and such, just to see if he started mak ing threats on line

re gard ing his ex-em ployer. This ser vice was also in cluded in the

con tract, and well-worth the price be cause too many times in the

past, some one would be fired, stew about it for weeks, months,

maybe even years, then one day they’d snap and go back to their for-

mer of fice and start killing peo ple. Over the past decade, law en-

force ment has seen a sig nif i cant in crease in the num ber of these

peo ple who ac tu ally post about it on line ahead of time but no one is

pay ing at ten tion or takes it se ri ously un til it’s too late. Now the cops

do, and so does Triple-D.

I sent Bert a text in re turn, then sent the zip file to Jor dana’s

email. Not even a sec ond later she was buzzing me on the in ter com.

“Chief, you’ve got a vis i tor out here to see you.”

I shook my head, leaned back in my chair once more.

“Am I gonna have to start do ing my Perry White im per son ation?”

I said, try ing to sound ir ri tated. “How many times do I have to tell

you not to call me chief?”

“Sorry about that, Chief,” the smar tass out front replied, not

sound ing the least bit sorry. “I’ll work on it. In the mean time, I’m

not sure what you did, but the heat is out here, and it would be even

more ap pro pri ate to call her chief.”

I frowned, sat for ward.

“What?” I said.

“Your vis i tor is a cop,” she said. “Nice big gold badge with three

stars on it that says As sis tant Chief.”

Okay, I thought, still frown ing, but stand ing as well.

“I’ll be right out.”

ANITA EP STEIN WAS THE FIRST per son to hold the re cently cre-

ated po si tion of as sis tant chief in the Birm ing ham Po lice De part-

ment. She is a thirty-plus year vet eran of the force, hav ing started

out at the age of twenty-one, worked in ev ery di vi sion, hold ing ev ery

rank up through deputy chief, was the first Jew ish woman to do so

by the way.

She was smart, she was tough, and chances were good that she’d

get the top slot in a few more years when the cur rent chief re tired

from the job, or got canned like the last one. And I liked her. She

hadn’t ar rested me for any thing yet so per haps the feel ing was mu-

tual, al though that might be about to change to day as her stop ping

by was unan nounced.

In stead of a uni form, to day the as sis tant chief wore a black

pantsuit and gray but ton-down silk blouse. Her shoul der length

dark red hair was in the same style as al ways, neat and func tional,

far back from her eyes so that her pe riph eral vi sion was not af fected.

She smiled when I en tered the re cep tion area.

“Am I gonna need a lawyer?” I said with a smirk.

“Prob a bly,” she re turned, then smiled, hold ing out her hand. “I’m

sure you’re guilty of some thing. Maybe a priest-con fes sor, too, or a

rabbi.”

We shook hands, grin ning at one an other.

“Well I know I’m in trou ble,” I said, glanc ing over at Jor dana.

“Two red heads in the of fice at the same time. Both with a his tory of

ar rest ing peo ple.”

Anita glanced at Jor dana.

“She used to be with Mor gan County,” I said. “A de tec tive.”

Anita nod ded.

“Who’d you piss off to end up here?” said Birm ing ham’s num ber

two cop, jok ingly, of course.

Jor dana smiled, a bit rue fully, be fore re spond ing.

“The sher iff, the un der sh er iff, my cap tain, the DA, and the prick of

a city coun cil woman whose son I busted on drug charges,” she said

mat ter-of-factly. Then added, “And I don’t re gret it one bit.”

Anita Ep stein glanced at the other woman for a few mo ments,

then walked over and ex tended her hand. Jor dana stood up and the

two women looked into one an other’s eyes as they shook hands.

“Good to know you, De tec tive Kauff man.”

“You, too, Chief Ep stein.”

A few mo ments later, Anita turned to me, her ex pres sion solemn.

“Der rick, could I talk to you in pri vate? I know I prob a bly should

have called ahead of time to make an ap point ment, but then I heard

you had moved into a new of fice over here and thought I’d come by

and have a look for my self. If you aren’t too busy.”

Smirk ing again, I in di cated that she should pre cede me.

“Ms. Kauff man, if the gov er nor calls, tell her to take a num ber. If

the Sec re tary of De fense drops by, tell him we’ll have to resched ule

that lunch.”

Ahead of me, Anita Ep stein snick ered. Jor dana’s smirk was even

bet ter than mine.

I smiled and fol lowed the as sis tant chief into my tiny of fice. It’s a

good thing Ep stein is kind of on the tiny side her self, oth er wise I

might have had to leave the door open.

Chap ter 5

She got the tale out quickly, lay ing out the facts as she un der stood

them, and just as quickly I saw that Chief Ep stein had a very big

prob lem on her hands. I also un der stood why she had come over to

my of fice and wanted to talk about her prob lem in pri vate. She

wasn’t sure who she could trust in her own house, and when that

hap pened, it was best to go out side. I was about as out side as she

was likely to get and still be in the state.

“You over see In ter nal Af fairs, right?” I said.

“Yes,” she said. “A cou ple months ago the Chief de cided to cut

back from four bu reaus to three, and while tech ni cally I still hold

the ti tle of As sis tant Chief for Op er a tions, the Ad min is tra tive Ser-

vices Bu reau now falls di rectly un der my man age rial purview, and

In ter nal Af fairs, as part of Pro fes sional Stan dards, is un der Ad min-

is tra tive Ser vices. In re al ity IA is out side the nor mal chain any way,

tech ni cally re port ing di rectly to the Chief of Po lice. But es sen tially,

to an swer your ques tion, yes. I di rectly su per vise the C.O. for the

Chief.”

“And they’re get ting nowhere with their in ves ti ga tion?”

Ep stein shook her head.

“No,” she said. “And that’s trou bling, to say the least.”

“And you sus pect there may be a prob lem in IA?”

“Der rick, I sus pect there is a prob lem in the whole de part ment.

Which is the rea son I’m sit ting here talk ing to you right now while

my as sis tant thinks I’m hav ing my teeth cleaned. In the past four

months we’ve had four CIs and two trial wit nesses com pro mised.

Three of the CIs have been mur dered and both the wit nesses have

now re fused to tes tify at trial. We’re com pro mised, badly, and lives

are at stake.”

She paused, stared at me gravely.

“Do I need to give you the speech about the need to keep this con-

fi den tial?”

“If you want to waste your breath, Anita,” I told her. “I’m not

about to go run ning to the press with it. Have you con sid ered go ing

to the DA, or per haps the feds? I don’t know the new FBI Spe cial

Agent in Charge over there yet, but there are some good peo ple in

the lo cal field of fice.”

“I know,” she said testily, shift ing and cross ing her short legs in

the sin gle chair in front of my desk. “I’m not sure I want to bring the

feds into this just yet, Der rick, and as far as the DA’s Of fice goes, the

prob lem could just as eas ily be com ing from there. And I know how

para noid that makes me sound.”

“Not para noid, Anita, sen si ble. You’ve got a ma jor prob lem on

your hands, and in your shoes I might be sus pect ing ev ery body, too.

So tell me, what do you want from me? Triple-D is not a de tec tive

agency, and po lice in ter nal af fairs work is not up our al ley, nor

would I want it to be.”

She nod ded.

“Yeah, I know, and I’m not here be cause I want you to help me in-

ves ti gate the in ter nal prob lems at the PD, I’m work ing on that my-

self, us ing some folks I know I can trust, two of them. And I be lieve

you know them both.”

I raised a brow in quis i tively (Spock-like) but said noth ing.

“Kurt Bax ter, un til re cently a sergeant with the Neigh bor hood En-

force ment Team work ing this area, as you know. He used to work

for me back when I was cap tain out at East. Trans ferred to Crim i nal

In tel li gence a few months ago as a de tec tive-sergeant. One of the

high est felony ar rest rates in the city, a real hard-charger, a for mer

Army air borne ranger, and frankly, just too damned ar ro gant to be

cor rupted.”

I smiled.

“I’ll go along with that,” I said. “And Kurt is smart.”

“That he is,” said the as sis tant chief. “And so is Paige Palmer.”

An other eye brow arch.

“As in for mer Lieu tenant Paige Palmer?” I said. “And one-time

sec ond whip in CIU?”

“That would be her,” Ep stein con firmed. “You know that even

though she’s re tired from the de part ment she still con sults, mainly

with the feds, but I’ve known Paige a long time, trust her com-

pletely, and she owes me a cou ple of big fa vors.”

I smiled.

“Noth ing like hav ing a lit tle per sonal black mail to hold over your

friends, is it, Chief?”

She grinned, nod ded.

“So you’ve got some good help on the in ves tiga tive side,” I said,

lean ing for ward and fold ing my hands on the back of the desk.

“What do you need from me and my peo ple?”

“I need what all of you do best, Der rick,” she said, un cross ing her

legs and lean ing for ward as well, her small hands rest ing on the

front edge of my desk, her dark eyes on mine. “I need you to keep a

man alive.”

Chap ter 6

Benita Ben der is a thirty-two year old up-and-comer in the Jef fer-

son County Dis trict At tor ney’s Of fice, cur rently as signed to the

Felony Di vi sion. Re cently she made na tional head lines when she

came out in sup port of a woman who ac cused a for mer Jef fer son

County judge and prospec tive gu ber na to rial po lit i cal ap pointee of

sex ual ha rass ment years ear lier while she was in law school and he

[vii]

was her men tor.

Benita had once clerked for the judge in ques-

tion and had ex pe ri enced sim i lar ha rass ment, as had ap prox i mately

a dozen and a half other women, all of whom came for ward once

Benita told her story to the press.

On line trolls and some rightwing politi cians ini tially tried to sav-

age her and her rep u ta tion, but she rose above it with the sup port of

fam ily, friends, and co work ers, not to men tion her hus band, who

per son ally promised to beat any body’s ass who said an other bad

thing about his wife on tele vi sion or on line. A brief word about the

Mis ter, Aaron Ja cob son. He’s the strength coach for the UAB Blaz-

ers foot ball team, and he’s got arms the size of can nons. No body

thought he was jok ing ei ther.

Anita Ep stein wanted me to talk to Benita be fore agree ing to do

any thing be cause this would re quire sup port from the DA’s Of fice,

and Ms. Ben der was in the as sis tant chief’s small cir cle of trust. As

luck had it, the leggy brunette pros e cu tor was also in mine.

We met for break fast the next morn ing, and un for tu nately it

wasn’t in bed. I re ally need to stop hav ing im pure thoughts about a

woman young enough to be my daugh ter, but she isn’t my daugh ter.

How ever, she is too young, by more than a decade. Ah well, at least

we had break fast.

There’s a place called Tel lie’s Diner three blocks away from the

DA’s Of fice down town, Benita sug gested we meet there and I

agreed, at seven a.m. Luck ily I usu ally get up at five any way, had

time for three miles and a light work out be fore show er ing and

dress ing, and had man aged to work up a good ap petite by the time I

ar rived at the diner ten min utes early. Benita was three min utes late

and apol o gized pro fusely, but I in stantly for gave her once I saw her

smil ing face. Plus the light gray skirt suit and black blouse that per-

fectly fit her tall and lean frame. She was about the same height as

Fa rina War ren, and I should stop the com par i son right there, lest

my mind wan der into dan ger ous, al beit fa mil iar, ter ri tory.

I had a booth in the back and stood up when Benita came in

glanc ing around. Our greet ing was that of two good friends, a quick

hug and kiss on the cheek, and af ter her apol ogy and my ac cep tance,

we sat just as the wait ress came over. Benita or dered black cof fee

and I asked for or ange juice.

“You know I could strongly dis trust a man who doesn’t drink cof-

fee,” she said with a side ways smirk as she set her purse on the floor

next to the wall.

I smiled.

“At least I have an in tact stom ach lin ing,” I quipped and she

smiled.

“That’s what antacids are for, dear” she said, pick ing up a menu

and giv ing it a quick glance. I didn’t need to be cause I al ready knew

what I was hav ing. When the wait ress came back with the cof fee and

juice, we placed our break fast or ders and then she went away.

“And you don’t eat meat ei ther. I’m gonna have to keep my eye on

you, Mr. Olin.”

“Not like I’m go ing any where any time soon,” I told her.

She stared back for a few sec onds, then tested her cof fee, frown ing

slightly, adding sugar and cream, and then seemed happy with the

re sult.

“Not with the way you eat, you’ll out live us all. Even the bad guys

have prob a bly learned by now to give up when you’re around.”

“If only they were that smart,” I said. We were both silent then,

star ing at one an other, prob a bly the same thought on both our

minds.

Back dur ing that un pleas ant ness re gard ing the for mer Jef fer son

County judge/sex ual ha rasser, the sit u a tion be came even more un-

pleas ant by the end when the man’s un sta ble, pis tol-pack ing son

had come af ter Benita one af ter noon in the 22nd Street park ing

garage just a few days be fore Christ mas and I killed him. We hadn’t

talked much about it, al though I knew she was see ing a shrink to

help deal with past trau mas and maybe they talked about that in ci-

dent as well. I was cool with it, the kid, who was twenty-three at the

time of his death, was armed and about to kill Benita. I or dered him

to stop, to put his weapon down, but he didn’t. It was ei ther him or

Benita, no con test in my book.

The DA and BPD cleared me in less than a day, and be cause of the

state’s so-called Stand Your Ground law, if there is no crim i nal con-

vic tion, then there can not be a civil ac tion for wrong ful death.

Mean ing I couldn’t be sued by the judge and his fam ily. How ever, it

did not mean that I couldn’t be sav aged on lo cal con ser va tive talk

ra dio by the judge’s me dia al lies, but I was cool with that, too. I

don’t do so cial me dia.

Right now I was pretty sure Benita was re liv ing that fate ful De-

cem ber day and I reached across the ta ble and squeezed her hand

re as sur ingly. Sud denly she seemed to come back to her self and

forced a smile, pick ing up her cup with her free hand and tak ing a

sip.

“How’ve you been, Der rick?” she said, smil ing again, in ter lac ing

her long fin gers to gether be hind her cup and fo cus ing on me.

I told her I was do ing well, brought her up to date on the new of-

fice, too. She found that amus ing.

“Fi nally de cided to start act ing like a grown up and stop run ning

your busi ness out of your liv ing room, huh? I sup pose you can’t sit

around the of fice in your un der wear all day ei ther.”

I chuck led.

“We have a very re laxed dress code at Triple-D,” I told her, and

she laughed.

She took a few min utes to catch me up on her life, of fice in trigues,

a re cent va ca tion she and her hus band had taken to Mex ico, and

dur ing this time our food ar rived. We thanked the wait ress, Benita

or dered more cof fee as well.

The DDA moved the food around on her plate with her fork for a

minute, lifted some eggs to her mouth and chewed them down very

care fully. I was eat ing some grits when she looked over at me.

“So the as sis tant chief told you about our lit tle prob lem, did she?”

Benita said.

I nod ded, swal lowed, took a sip of juice.

“She did,” I said. “And I don’t envy the job she has right now. If I

may ask, what’s your in volve ment in all this, Anita was a lit tle vague

re gard ing that.”

The Deputy DA nod ded just as the wait ress re turned and re filled

her cof fee cup. When we were alone again she glanced around, then

leaned for ward. I did the same.

“You re mem ber that mur der out side the McWane Sci ence Cen ter

last year?” she said.

I thought a minute and then nod ded.

“I think so,” I said. “Sus pected to be drug re lated, I think.”

“Yes,” she con firmed. “And no one has been ar rested or brought to

trial ei ther, de spite there be ing a lot of peo ple out that night be cause

there was a show go ing on at McWane.”

“Okay,” I said. “So what has that got to do with Ep stein’s prob-

lem?”

“There is about to be an ar rest and cap i tal mur der charges filed in

dis trict court,” she told me. “Birm ing ham is go ing to make the ar rest

to day, their In tel li gence folks have lo cated the sus pect.”

“Well that’s good,” I said, eat ing some eggs. “Are you han dling the

case?”

“I am,” she told me, sip ping cof fee. “This is a re ally im por tant

case, Der rick, be cause the crime took place in the heart of down-

town, the Cen tral City Dis trict, where a lot of peo ple come, tourists

and other im por tant vis i tors from out of town. The mayor and the

city coun cil have been all over our asses to solve this mur der, and

the cops too. And now that we have fi nally got a sus pect, about to

bring him in, all the bosses want to make sure we get a con vic tion.”

“Okay,” I said. “Tell me the rest. The part that in volves me and my

team.”

Benita grinned, set ting her fork down and fold ing her hands to-

gether once more.

“Yeah, there is def i nitely a part that in volves you. The rea son we

can make this ar rest and hope fully suc cess fully pros e cute the per pe-

tra tor is be cause the po lice fi nally got a wit ness to come for ward and

tell what he saw, and was able to make a pos i tive ID from a photo

ar ray. Ap par ently he was very close to the scene and got a good look

at the guy’s face, luck ily that area is lit up like a Christ mas tree at

night. But be cause he saw this guy kill some one in cold blood, he

wasn’t all that anx ious to come for ward.”

“I can imag ine,” I said. “And I think I can see the prob lem. Once

the ar rest is made, ev ery body will soon know there is a wit ness, and

even though you and the PD will try to keep his iden tity a se cret,

even un der nor mal cir cum stances that would be hard, but with the

pos si bil ity of a leak, a mole, on the in side, it’ll be harder.”

“About the size of it,” she con firmed. “I know Chief Ep stein al-

ready told you about the CIs and the other wit nesses, so this is a

grave con cern to us, and not just re gard ing this case, but this case is

what’s in front of us right now. I’m go ing to push hard to get the guy

to plead and hope fully we can get this over with with out a trial. The

eye wit ness is re ally all we have right now, but once we have the sus-

pect in cus tody, who knows what else we’ll get. Maybe it’ll be

enough to make him see that a trial is not in his best in ter est, and I

can deal him down to life with out pa role and take the death penalty

out of the equa tion.”

“But if he doesn’t plead?” I prompted.

Benita sighed heav ily and glanced away for a few mo ments.

“If he doesn’t plead then we’re go ing to trial and I’ll do ev ery thing

[viii]

I can to get him strapped down on a gur ney in At more

, ” said

the DDA with out hes i ta tion. “And that also means that I’ll need the

wit ness to tes tify at trial. But in or der to do that, he has to be alive

and not in tim i dated into keep ing his mouth shut.”

I nod ded, fin ished my juice. The wait ress came by and asked if I

wanted more. I de clined, telling her that I’d like some wa ter, which

she re turned with promptly.

Benita sat star ing at me for sev eral mo ments be fore con tin u ing.

“With the leak in side the de part ment, pos si bly in side the DA’s Of-

fice, but less likely there, our wit ness might not be all that safe with

po lice pro tec tion, or pro tec tion from the DA’s Se cu rity Squad. Chief

Ep stein and I have talked a lot about this and we both agree that it

would be best if there were a third al ter na tive, and see ing as how

your com pany’s name is Triple-D…”

I grinned.

“It’s all in the mar ket ing,” I said non cha lantly. “Who else is go ing

to know about this?”

“As few peo ple as pos si ble,” she said. “Right now only the as sis-

tant chief, you and me. The rest of your team will have to know, of

course, but for now we’re go ing to try to keep it re ally close be cause

we don’t know where the leak is com ing from. BPD has a dis cre-

tionary fund for pay ing con sul tants and Chief Ep stein can tap it

with out much has sle. It’ll come out in ac count ing later, but hope-

fully by then this’ll all be over and she will doc u ment ev ery thing, in-

clud ing why she took such ex tra or di nary mea sures to con ceal what

she did in hir ing you. What we’ve de cided to do is to play both agen-

cies off one an other and lose the wit ness in the bu reau cracy of both.

As far as my of fice is con cerned, BPD will be han dling wit ness se cu-

rity, and as far as BPD is con cerned, the DA’s Of fice will be in charge

of it. Our hope is that no one finds out the truth any time soon, but

even if they do, you guys are out side the bu reau cracy and are not

sus pect, so at least the wit ness will be safe. Chief Ep stein and I

prob a bly won’t be if this blows up in our faces, but that’s just the

chance we have to take.”

I sat and stared across at the woman from the DA’s Of fice for

some time, mulling over what I had just heard. Even though the sit-

u a tion was far from sim ple, the part I was be ing asked to play was;

as the as sis tant chief had told me yes ter day, we just needed to keep

a man alive. What we did best.

I agreed to the as sign ment, which I was al ready go ing to do any-

way.

Chap ter 7

I sent emails to the en tire team yes ter day telling them all to be at

the of fice by 0900 to day be cause it was likely that we’d have a new

job to dis cuss. So when I got there at eight-thirty, I found what I was

ex pect ing, ev ery one al ready there, sit ting in the bullpen drink ing

cof fee and talk ing, mostly crack ing jokes.

“I don’t pay you peo ple to sit on your asses and drink cof fee and

gos sip all day,” I said gruffly as I came out of re cep tion and shut the

door be hind me. Of the five peo ple gath ered there, Jor dana Kauff-

man in cluded, four of them saluted me with the mid dle fin gers of

their free hands. Ms. Kauff man ab stained, I guess fig ur ing that she

hadn’t been on the job long enough to flip-off the boss. She’d learn

bet ter in time.

I grinned and walked through to my of fice where I put down my

lap top bag be fore re turn ing to lean on the door jamb.

“Morn ing, jack holes,” I said cheer ily.

“Morn ing, dick weed,” said Ol lie.

“Morn ing, tiny dick,” said Frankie.

“Morn ing, dick less,” said Bert.

“Morn ing, dick-for-brains,” said Sheila.

A def i nite theme. I glanced at Jor dana as she stood with a cup of

cof fee inches from her mouth.

“Morn ing, Chief,” she smiled sweetly, then drank.

“The only worth while em ployee out of the lot of you,” I said, and

re ceived four more mid dle fin gers by way of re join ders.

“You guys are go ing to have to ex pand your vo cab u lar ies,” I told

them, cross ing my arms over my chest.

“I think our mes sage is pretty clear, Chief,” Ol lie said with a

mirth ful glint in his eyes, sip ping his cof fee.

“In deed it is,” I said. “Jor dana, I want you to start a new file, a

tem po rary one for the time be ing be cause I’m not sure if the job will

come to fruition just yet. La bel it Q.B. ten ta tively, and if it goes, I’ll

give you the new des ig na tion.”

She nod ded, zip ping back to re cep tion to get her iPad, mak ing

notes.

“Client?” she said, typ ing.

“Leave that blank for now,” I said, then thought again. “No, put in

Spe cial Re search Project 0001. It’ll change if the job goes.”

She nod ded and con tin ued typ ing, ev ery one else turned to look at

me, cu ri ous. So I told them.

“I just came back from a break fast meet ing with Jef fer son County

DDA Benita Ben der. Yes ter day, Birm ing ham As sis tant Chief of Po-

lice Anita Ep stein dropped by here to see me.”

“Are in dict ments pend ing?” said Ol lie with a smirk.

“I keep telling you there is no statute of lim i ta tion on An i mal Hus-

bandry in this state, Mr. Oliver,” I quipped. “And ac tu ally, yes, in-

dict ments are pend ing, just not against any body in this room. Let

me ex plain.”

Which I did.

“Know they gotta be des per ate to go out side they house,” Ol lie

mused. He was sit ting on the front edge of the desk Sheila had cho-

sen for her self, the one right out side his of fice. Frankie’s desk was

across from it, in front of my of fice, and Bert had the desk in front of

Frankie’s. “So we be work ing for the city or the county?”

“Both, tech ni cally,” I said. “Al though we’ll be get ting paid by BPD,

from their dis cre tionary fund.”

“And you say there’s a pos si bil ity that the job won’t hap pen?”

Frankie in quired.

“That’s right. The DA’s case isn’t all that strong right now, but

once they get the sus pect in cus tody that’ll likely change. And then

Ben der is go ing to lean on him very hard to take a plea, thus spar ing

the need for a trial. That way the wit ness won’t have to tes tify and

there will be no risk of his iden tity be ing ex posed.”

“But if that doesn’t hap pen,” Bert said. “Then they gotta go to trial

and the wit ness gotta tes tify?”

“Cor rect, Mr. Cortez,” I said.

“And in that case,” said Sheila. “His ass be on the line for the

killin’.”

“That would be cor rect, Madam Sheila,” I said and she grinned. I

was prob a bly the only per son who had ever called her that. At least

and lived.

“So if it go to trial they fig ure his iden tity get out even tu ally and if

this leak is as bad as it seems, the bad dies out on the street might

find out where he be ing kept and make a move,” said Ol lie. “Mean-

ing it might be kind of dan ger ous to be around this cat.”

I nod ded, look ing at him.

“And dan ger is our mid dle name,” I said.

Ol lie snorted.

“Ac tu ally my mid dle name is De Wayne,” he said. “But I know

what you mean. Cover or shadow?”

“A ques tion I have as well,” I said. “If the threat is as se ri ous as it

seems to be, then I would highly rec om mend cover, and take him

out of cir cu la tion, keep him in a se cure lo ca tion that only we know

about. But we have to take his feel ings on the mat ter into con sid er a-

tion, too. This might go on a while be fore the trial comes up, which

I’m sure the de fense will try for, drag it out as long as they can. The

wit ness might not want to stay hid den that long, es pe cially if he has

a job and some kind of life. We’ll have to get more into that once we

meet with the guy, and do a thor ough threat as sess ment. Frankie,

Bert, you two will han dle that one.”

Both nod ded.

“Ol lie, pick a safe house, then two back ups, make sure all the nec-

es sary sup plies are in place, in clud ing trauma kits.”

“Roger, roger,” he said, fin ish ing his cof fee.

“Sheila, I want you to look into the sus pect, ev ery thing you can get

on him. Once we know his name, and that I’ll get once they have

him in cus tody. The cops have an ex ten sive record, but that only

cov ers what they know, you might be able to get more from your

sources, the real dirt.”

She smiled, nod ded.

“Will do, Chief.”

Ol lie snick ered.

“Sur rounded by smar tasses, ev ery one of you. Jor dana, set up two

billing tracts, one for round-the-clock safe house pro tec tion, the

other for pro tec tive sur veil lance. Both will be twelve hour shifts, two

agents per ei ther way. We’re gonna need to clear the decks of other

stuff over the next few days, this could kick off be fore next week, de-

pend ing. Ben der is call ing me af ter they have the sus pect in cus tody.

Prob a bly noth ing for the next cou ple of days, but that could change.

Jor dana, if some thing quick, like a courier job, comes up, we can

prob a bly man age that, but any thing more sig nif i cant will have to

wait a while, un less it’s uber ur gent for a reg u lar client, like Nadya

Shaba or Ash ley Mil ner.”

She nod ded and typed.

“Any ques tions?” I asked the room.

“Why does it al ways seem to rain when I’m sad?” Bert said.

I gave him a with er ing look as ev ery one else be gan to snicker.

“That’s it then,” I said, turn ing for my of fice. “Get to work. Mr.

Cortez, twenty de mer its and two hun dred pushups, if you please.”

“Tengo que, jefe,” I heard from be hind me as the door to the of fice

shut. I was grin ning too when I sat down at my desk and re trieved

my lap top bag.

Chap ter 8

Benita Ben der called me at four-thirty just as the dark clouds that

had de scended around noon be gan to un leash fierce thun der storms.

I was still in my of fice, play ing a sub ma rine sim u la tor war game on

my com puter. The busy life of a high-pow ered busi ness man.

“We got him in cus tody, Der rick,” she said with out pre am ble.

“He’s be ing booked at county jail right now. Kurt Bax ter from CIU

and of fi cers from the Fugi tive Ap pre hen sion Squad found him right

where he was sup posed to be, ac cord ing to a CI of Kurt’s. And now I

can tell you his name, Nicholas Ash worth, age 28, goes by Nicky,

crim i nal record go ing back to be fore he turned eigh teen, lot of vi o-

lent stuff, too, in clud ing at tempted mur der, but no con vic tions on

those. Has done some time though on some lesser of fenses, still

felonies. Ma jor drug op er a tor on north side. Guy he killed was a ri-

val, and word is Nicky Ash worth doesn’t play well with oth ers. I’m

gonna email you ev ery thing I have on him now.”

“Got it,” I told her. “I’ve briefed the team and have set them to

work, pre lim i nary stuff, in case we get the word that the job is on,

now I can give them more in for ma tion. Have you spo ken with the

wit ness since the ar rest?”

“No, Der rick,” she told me. “And I plan on do ing that to mor row,

let him know we have the sus pect in cus tody. Hope fully not too long

af ter that I’ll have some even bet ter news for him, like Ash worth is

go ing to take a plea and he won’t have to tes tify.”

“That would be good news for him,” I said. “But is he pre pared if it

doesn’t go that way?”

A long pause, then a sigh.

“Prob a bly not,” she ad mit ted. “And we could have done a bet ter

job with that. If it looks like we won’t get a deal quick, I’ll want to

meet with him in per son. He’s a bar tender at a place over in In ver-

ness Cor ner, Bruno’s Sports Café. Works evening shift un til close

Tues day through Sat ur day. If the mur der he wit nessed had hap-

pened one day later then he would’ve been at work and we prob a bly

wouldn’t have a case against Ash worth. Too bad for him but good

for us. Any way, if I go to meet him about this, I want you with me,

okay?”

“Sure thing,” I told her. “Just let me know. We’ll be ready to go

any time you need us, but as much lead time as you can give us will

be much ap pre ci ated.”

“I’ll do what I can,” she told me. “And while I know it would mean

you would be out of a job be fore it starts, I re ally hope we don’t need

you on this, you know?”

“I know,” I said.

She paused again, took a deep breath.

“Re ally ap pre ci ate your help on this, Der rick. And so does Chief

Ep stein. Maybe when this is all over we can con vince the mayor to

present you with a key to the city for civic ser vice.”

I snorted.

“I’ll pass on that,” I told her.

“Thought you would, be ing so hum ble and all. Well, Der rick, I

need to wrap up here and get home. Aaron is cook ing Ital ian tonight

and my baby is re ally good in the kitchen.”

I’m sure he is, I thought, and prob a bly a few other places, but I

kept those thoughts to my self and bid her good evening, telling her

to drive safely in the rain.

Jor dana was the only one still in the of fice and she came to my

door just be fore five.

“I was hop ing the rain would let up be fore quit ting time,” she said,

lean ing against the door jamb. “Seems to have got ten worse.”

I glanced out the win dow be hind me.

“Yep, and I don’t feel like driv ing down town when it’s like this, so

I sup pose I’ll be here for a while yet, at least un til evening rush is

over.”

Jor dana sighed, nod ded to her self.

“Well there’s no body wait ing for me at home right now, with

Frasier still de ployed to the Mid dle East for an other three months.

So I guess I’ll hang out, too. There’s a book on Kin dle that I can

prob a bly fin ish. You need any thing, Der rick?”

“Lots,” I told her. “But right now I can’t seem to re mem ber any-

thing.”

She smiled, told me she’d be at her desk if I needed her, and then

de parted af ter leav ing the of fice door open at my re quest.

I was now on level seven of the sub sim u la tor game and al ready

pro moted to the rank of com man der. With the way the rain was still

com ing down out side right now, be fore I left tonight I’d prob a bly be

ad mi ral of the fleet.

Chap ter 9

Over the next cou ple of days the DA’s Of fice had a lot of lawyer ing to

do, and so did Mr. Nicky Ash worth. He re jected the court-ap pointed

at tor ney he was as signed and said he would re tain his own coun sel,

which re quired a de lay in any talk of a plea deal with him. So this

meant Triple-D had time to pur sue other in ter ests. Luck ily for us,

there is al ways some un for tu nate busi ness that re quires our skill set,

and the right peo ple know how to find us.

Not so ran dom drug tests at an ar chi tec tural firm based at the Re-

gions-Har bert Plaza down town re sulted in the ter mi na tion of the

cre ative di rec tor and her se nior ar chi tect. When they were shown

the door by the CEO and the HR VP on Thurs day morn ing, Ol lie and

I were there to es cort them out just af ter nine a.m. This had been a

rush job, a fa vor called in by Nadya Shaba be cause just about ev ery

ten ant in the build ing had some con nec tion to her or Magic City

Dreams and when she learned of the sit u a tion, my mo bile phone,

not the of fice line, rang di rectly. And when I said fa vor, I meant a

pay ing job. Nadya is, af ter all, a busi ness woman her self, and lib eral

lean ings aside, she un der stands that peo ple need to be paid for their

ser vices.

Fri day morn ing Ol lie and the oth ers were over at Mas ter-Plan Se-

cu rity teach ing an ad vanced tac tics course that we had de vel oped to

the lat est crop of close-pro tec tion spe cial ists that were be ing read ied

for the field. It was a stand ing con tract with Mas ter-Plan, and the

course was ini tially taught by me go ing back to when the late Ma son

Mas ters still ran the com pany. How ever, re cently I have de cided to

del e gate more re spon si bil ity to the team, and since Ol lie is of fi cially

des ig nated a team leader, I had him do ing more things like this

with out me around. In time he would do the same for the oth ers and

maybe one day, if we grew more, each of them would lead their own

team.

Jor dana Kauff man and I were the only ones in the of fice and she

was out front work ing on billing re ports while I was in my of fice

read ing up on Nicky Ash worth, the file the DA and PD had com-

piled, and the stuff that Sheila had turned up so far, and I have to

say, not sur pris ingly, Sheila’s bit was a lot more in ter est ing.

I was con sid er ing the breadth of crimes Mr. Ash worth was ac-

cused of, in some cases con victed of, in his short twenty-eight years

of life, im pressed in a mor bid way, when my An droid al leged Smart-

phone buzzed. It was a text from Monique Otis, and I smiled. She

wanted to know if I could talk. My re ply text was since the day I was

born. Ten sec onds af ter I sent that, an other buzz, this time an in-

com ing call.

“Your fam ily must have been im pressed,” she said by way of greet-

ing.

“And quickly in vested in duck tape,” I said, then chuck led, she did

the same from her end.

“You’re so bad, Mr. Olin, re ally.”

“Funny,” I told her. “I think I re mem ber hear ing that from a lot of

teach ers back when I was at Jack son-West two hun dred twelve

years ago. How are you to day, Madam Vice Prin ci pal? Do I call you

that even though school is out for the sum mer?”

“Yes you do,” she re joined. “Un til the board makes me a prin ci pal,

that is. Also, reg u lar school is out, but sum mer school be gins next

week. Which ex plains why I’m in my of fice right now por ing over

op er at ing re ports and les son plans. The prin ci pal is tak ing this sum-

mer off, so I’m run ning the show.”

“So Act ing Prin ci pal Otis then,” I said. “Con grat u la tions.”

“Thank you,” she said dryly. “My hus band is go ing to be away

most of the sum mer any way, he’s a truck driver and right now

there’s a lot of in ter state haul ing work for him and he needs to take

it when he can get it. And the sum mer gig for me will help out, too.

We don’t have any kids, but thanks to mis ad ven tures in our re spec-

tive youths, we do have a lot of bills.”

“Don’t we all,” I said, just to be say ing some thing, be cause in

truth, I re ally didn’t. “So, Madam Act ing Prin ci pal, to what do I owe

the plea sure of your call to day?”

“Are you busy right now?” she said.

“Just tak ing a nap at my desk,” I said.

She snick ered.

“I’m sure,” she said. “Would to day be a good time to have lunch

and talk? I’m ac tu ally free af ter about one to day, and thought maybe

we could meet up some place, my treat, of course.”

“You know, my of fice is just up the street from J-W,” I told her.

“What used to be the Ram say-Mc Cor mack Build ing, now Dex ter-

Killing worth. Why don’t you drive up when you’re done, that way

you can leave your car here and we can take mine. I know the per-

fect place for a re ally good lunch, and the peo ple know and love me

there. Kind of.”

She laughed.

“Kind of, huh? Well I’m in trigued now. Sounds good. I’ll call you

be fore I’m done here. By the way, this is a very ca sual day as school

hasn’t started yet. I’m wear ing jeans, is that okay?”

There was some thing that I very much wanted to say at that mo-

ment, but be ing an adult I have learned to let my brain con trol my

mouth. Most of the time.

“That’ll be fine,” I told her. “Al though they do have for mal func-

tions from time to time, Dex’s Place is ca sual friendly.”

“Oh wait, that’s the place in Five-Points West across from Cross-

plex?”

“It is,” I told her. “Owned by the same guy who co-owns the build-

ing I’m in at the mo ment, and is in volved in half the re de vel op ment

projects on the west side of town right now, along with an other old

J-W grad friend.”

“Well color me im pressed, Mr. Olin, and I’ll call you as soon as

I’m on the way.”

“I await your fur ther com mu ni ca tion with breath and heart beat

paused, my lady,” I re sponded for some dorky rea son.

“Let me guess, you read a lot of Shake speare in col lege?” she said.

“Ac tu ally it was af ter col lege,” I told her. “Which ex plains why I

still re mem ber it. Talk to you later, Niqe.”

“Bye, Der rick,” she said in a hu mor ous tone, and then hung up.

Sud denly I was quite the smil ing dude, and I won’t lie, a lit tle

horny. A few more hours of read ing up on the life and vi o lent times

of one Nicholas Ash worth should clear that right up.

Chap ter 10

Reese Tam blyn is the gen eral man ager of Dex’s Place, how ever this

Fri day was her day off, but she had an able as sis tant man ager who

knew me also, as well as my sta tus as a close friend of the owner,

Mr. Dex ter, who wasn’t there this Fri day af ter noon, ei ther. Be ing a

very busy high-pow ered en tre pre neur these days meant he had less

and less time to spend at one of the crown jew els in his emerg ing

eco nomic em pire, but as sured that it was in very good hands when

he was away.

Niqe and I were shown to a booth in the south cor ner of the main

din ing room with a floor-to-ceil ing win dow that looked out on a

small ori en tal gar den be yond. I smiled, rec og niz ing the hand of

Neiko Dex ter, Earl’s wife of the past cou ple of decades and then

some. She was a na tive of Japan, and while she was very much the

Amer i can lady of means to day, and quite happy with that role, her

roots to her na tive land still ran deep within her.

The waiter asked if we would like to see the wine list, and my first

in stinct was to say no, but glanced at my din ing com pan ion first.

Then I said sure. Niqe did not ob ject.

She wore gray sneak ers, blue jeans that rather snugly fit her

shapely lower half, a green T-shirt that rather nicely fit her shapely

up per half, and a tweed blazer with el bow patches, which I had ear-

lier com mented made her look more like a col lege pro fes sor than a

high school act ing prin ci pal. She had quipped that she was ever

hope ful that one day she might suf fer that fate.

Re cently I had some ex pe ri ence with wine so I se lected what I

thought would be a suit able white to go with lunch. I don’t re ally

drink much my self, but know how to be so cia ble. We or dered lunch,

grilled salmon and two veg gies on the side for her, and a sautéed

tofu and veg gie salad with pita bread on the side for me. We each

had a glass of wine in front of us when the waiter de parted. We

raised our glasses and toasted one an other, then drank; only a sip

for me.

“This is ex cel lent,” she said. “The vine yard is in Cal i for nia, right?”

“Yes,” I told her. “Sil ver ado. I’ve ac tu ally been there a cou ple

times on busi ness. Re ally neat place.”

“The world trav eler you are,” she said, smil ing at me across the ta-

ble. “And you get to go to vine yards for work, how nice for you.”

“Not al ways,” I told her, and was not jok ing.

As we waited for our lunch, sip ping our wine, Niqe told me about

the go ings on at my old alma mater, in clud ing prob lems that the

school was hav ing with the lo cal and state boards. From the sound

of it there was a lot of bad pol i tick ing go ing on, which was not do ing

much for the main mis sion of the school: ed u cat ing chil dren. I lis-

tened in si lence, not re ally hav ing much to of fer, and then our food

ar rived. It was, as ex pected, de li cious.

When she was half way through her third glass of wine—me still on

my first—, Niqe be came more cir cum spect, and less talk a tive. I sim-

ply en joyed my food and waited. The com pany was good, the food

ex cel lent, and the am biance en chant ing. I could en joy all three for a

very long time and keep my mouth closed while do ing it.

“Der rick, I need some help with some thing,” she said fi nally, not

look ing up at first as she dabbed at her lips with a folded yel low

linen nap kin. “Some thing that I am not re ally au tho rized to do and

will prob a bly get me fired if my prin ci pal and the lo cal board find

out about it, but I think I have to do this.” She was look ing at me

now, her brown eyes sud denly blaz ing with de ter mi na tion and

strength. “And right now I’m in charge of the school and tech ni cally

do have the au thor ity to do it. Sort of.”

She had my full at ten tion now. Ac tu ally she’d had that the mo-

ment she walked into my of fice wear ing those jeans about thirty

min utes or so ago. I pushed my plate away, leaned my el bows on the

ta ble like a bar bar ian, fold ing my hands to gether, rested my chin on

top of them.

“Tell me,” I said sim ply, then she did.

Chap ter 11

It was al most five and we were back at my of fice build ing, in the

base ment park ing garage sit ting in my jeep still talk ing, but not

about the prob lem she wanted my help with. We’d dis cussed that

through the re main der of lunch and I had a pretty good han dle on

what she needed, was pretty sure I could take care of that on my

own. Now we were talk ing about our selves, ac tu ally she was do ing

most of the talk ing be cause I’m shy. Niqe was good com pany, and

ob vi ously lonely with her hus band on the road all the time, and not

hav ing kids. I’d learned dur ing lunch that the lat ter was not ac tu ally

by de sign but rather the re sult of a med i cal con di tion that had re-

sulted in two mis car riages be fore she was ad vised not to try again.

On a hap pier note, I did dis cover a hu mor ous ob ses sion of hers that

con cur rently we had shared many years ago. Ar cade video games.

“Yeah, I used to blow all my money on those damned things,” I

ad mit ted. “My fa vorites were Wiz ard of Wor and Za xxon. Those

things were like Crack to me.”

Niqe laughed and touched my knee.

“For me it was Ms. Pac Man and Don key Kong,” she ad mit ted.

“God could I play me some Don key Kong. Al ways had the high est

scores in my neigh bor hood, used to go to the ar cade down the block

from my house in Fair field ev ery damn day, and like you said, blew

all my money.”

“They used to have a bunch of them around En s ley back then, one

about three blocks down from where my old house used to be. This

be ing the days be fore ev ery body had video game con soles and or

com put ers in their houses. And I have seen those retro Atari ar cade

games you’re talk ing about. Three hun dred bucks at Wal-Mart,

right?”

“Yep,” she said. “And I got one. El don thought I was nuts, but he

shut up when I re minded him about that mo tor cy cle he bought a

cou ple years ago that’s still sit ting bro ken down in our garage. When

I’m stressed, I can get on that thing and play for hours. In my hands,

Ms. Pac Man has wiped out whole vil lages of funky col ored ghosts

and gob lins.”

She laughed, and I did, too. I had al ready de cided to make

a move to day. She’d let me know at the out set that her

hus band wouldn’t be back from his cur rent road trip till

late next week, and now she con firmed that all she

planned on do ing this week end was read more les son

plans to get ready for the kick off of sum mer school on

Tues day, and prob a bly play a lot of Atari. Too much sit‐

ting around for a woman her age, I thought. She could

prob a bly do with a lit tle phys i cal ac tiv ity this week end.

And maybe not so lit tle. I swear I’m only think ing of her

health. See, no light en ing strikes.

Un for tu nately, just as I was about to re turn her last knee

touch with a less than ca sual slid ing of my hand up her

shapely left thigh, my phone started buzzing. I con sid ered

not an swer ing it, but then my pro fes sion al ism re turned.

Good thing it did, too.

The caller was Benita Ben der.

The news was not good.

Mean ing that Monique Otis’ full, firm thighs were safe for the mo-

ment, as was the rest of her. I was about to spring into an other kind

of ac tion, and the rest of Triple-D was com ing with me.

Chap ter 12

Fri day nights are al ways busy at Bruno’s Sports Café and for this

rea son no em ployee ever gets that night off, un less they’re dead. So

Quin ton Beasley was at his usual spot man ning the back bar. Thirty-

two years old, tall, slen der, good look ing, with thick, curly black

hair, sil ver framed oc tag o nal glasses, and an easy smile at the cor-

ners of his thin lips. He wore the uni form, gray polo with the café

logo above the left breast pocket and dark slacks. And all the ladies

at the bar seemed to be crazy about him. Most of the het ero guys

prob a bly wanted him to fall down a lot of stairs. Sev eral times.

It was just af ter seven and the place was full when we ar rived,

barely stand ing room only. Ol lie and I went in side, Sheila, Frankie,

and Bert were in the park ing lot, along with Kurt Bax ter from Birm-

ing ham PD’s Crim i nal In tel li gence Unit. Ol lie and I sep a rated im-

me di ately once we were in side, ca su ally mak ing our way through the

throng of par ty ing pa trons un til we had eyes on the bar, and on

Quin ton Beasley. We had Blue tooth com mu ni ca tors in our ears,

con firmed vis ual ID with one an other, then with the team out side.

One minute later, Kurt Bax ter came in. He’s kind of on the small

side, just a lit tle big ger than Frankie, and when he was in uni form

he kept his dark blond hair high and tight. How ever, now that he

was in In tel li gence and did a lot of covert sur veil lance, he’d let his

hair grow longer and was sport ing a few days worth of beard

growth. Still looked like a cop to me, though, but maybe that’s be-

cause I know that he is one, de spite the blue jeans, black tee, and

well-worn black leather biker’s jacket he wore.

Kurt was not alone. A stun ning six-foot tall brunette wear ing

black boots, snug blue jeans, a blue pullover, and a heav ily zip pered

black leather jacket of her own was at his side, tow er ing over him,

ac tu ally. Made me think once again about the fact that ev ery body

seemed to have a leather jacket but moi.

Benita Ben der was killing it in that out fit. She def i nitely didn’t

look like a pros e cu tor in the Felony Di vi sion of the Jef fer son County

Dis trict At tor ney’s Of fice at the mo ment, and if you told the own ers

of all the eyes cur rently fol low ing her right now that that was her

day job, most would never be lieve it. And hon estly, most wouldn’t

care, even if they cur rently had ten ac tive felony war rants dog ging

them. A very lech er ous part of my brain was try ing to fig ure out a

way of sur rep ti tiously re mov ing my phone from my pocket and

snap ping a pic ture. Won der if I could get ac cess to the video sur veil-

lance in this place? Damn!

Benita and Kurt moved through the crowd as quickly as they

could, bump ing into some happy rev el ers and apol o giz ing, and

when it was Benita do ing the bump ing, man or woman, the re-

sponse was al ways a smile and an any time, honey. Kurt got some

eyes, too, and some of them were from women.

The bar where Beasley was work ing was stacked deep, but Benita

man aged to el bow her way in close to the end not too far from where

he was mix ing a cou ple of drinks and flirt ing with a cus tomer. He

worked fast, and there were two other bar tenders there with him,

but still it took more than five min utes be fore he moved down

Benita’s way, and when he looked at her at first he smiled just like

he would with any other hot babe sidling up to his workspace, but

then his eyes lost their play ful ness when recog ni tion set in, re placed

by ner vous ness.

Benita waved him over quickly and it took a few sec onds for his

brain to kick in. She leaned across the bar and whis pered in his ear.

I was glanc ing out to ward the crowd, scan ning faces, scan ning

hands, look ing for any thing, any sign that trou ble was about to

break out. That’s when I spot ted a fa mil iar face among a group of

women about ten ta bles away from where I was stand ing. Her back

had been turned to me be fore and I hadn’t paid that much at ten tion,

but now she was glanc ing around, prob a bly look ing for a waiter or

wait ress. Shit, I thought. Why the hell are you here?

The woman said some thing to the ta ble, stood up, then turned

and headed for the back bar where Benita Ben der was still whis per-

ing into Quin ton Beasley’s ear.

Shit!

I was about to move to in ter cept the woman, but then Bert

Cortez’s voice came through my Blue tooth with an ur gent warn ing.

About a sec ond and a half later, de spite the noise in the crowded

bar, the dis tinct sound of erupt ing gun fire shat tered the at mos-

phere.

Not to men tion a lot of win dows.

Chap ter 13

Kurt Bax ter is a man of ac tion, there is no deny ing that, and quite

ag ile. Guess all that Ranger train ing ear lier in his life never re ally

left him. And if I must say so my self, yours truly’s skills aren’t rusty

ei ther.

I was on the move as soon as I heard Bert’s voice in my left ear,

Ol lie, too, and he was closer to the side of the bar where Quin ton

Beasley, Benita Ben der, and Kurt Bax ter were stand ing. And un for-

tu nately, Leigh Dan ton was mov ing that way.

A quick aside re gard ing Leigh Dan ton, born Holly Leigh Dan ton

forty-six years ago, but has had three other last names in the past

thirty years, three mar riages that all ended in un happy di vorce. I’ve

known her since she was fif teen, her older brother was a friend

when I was in col lege, and it just so hap pens that her first hus band

was a friend back then, too, be fore he be came an ass hole. Any way,

over the past three decades Leigh and I have re mained friends, close

friends ac tu ally, and her old est daugh ter, Erin, now twenty-nine,

mar ried, mother of three girls her self, is my god daugh ter. Leigh

used to be a PI and we worked to gether from time to time when one

or the other of us needed backup, be fore she moved into foren sic ac-

count ing. We still worked to gether some then, usu ally when both

em ployed by Ash ley Mil ner’s law firm on a case that re quired our

com bined sets of skills. Then a few years back Leigh made an other

ca reer change, quite a dra matic de par ture from her pre vi ous ones.

She’d al ways had a fond ness for tat toos, had sev eral her self, and

three years ago an op por tu nity came her way that she just couldn’t

pass up, the chance to own her very own shop, de spite not know ing

the first thing about that type of busi ness, but she is smart, knew

she could learn, if she could just swing the fi nanc ing. I was able to

help with that, be came her very silent part ner, mean ing she ran the

busi ness and I kept my trap shut. Two months ago Leigh had in vited

me to din ner at a new ve gan restau rant in a down town bou tique ho-

tel not far from my place, and over tall glasses of chilled cham pagne,

she slid a check across the ta ble for the full amount of my in vest-

ment, plus ten per cent. In clas sic me fash ion, I re sponded, “Lady,

this won’t even buy my ser vices for twenty min utes.” To which

Leigh re sponded, “As if you could last twenty min utes with me. ”

We both had a good laugh, and the busi ness part ner ship was dis-

solved. I re ally should not have been all that sur prised to see Leigh

here tonight, now that I think about it, con sid er ing her shop is just

four doors down from Bruno’s, and this is a Fri day night. I know she

likes to take her em ploy ees out for a drink af ter work some times.

Just why the hell did it have to be here and tonight?!

At the bar, Kurt Bax ter shoved ev ery body in his way out of it and

leapt across, tack ling Quin ton Beasley, tak ing him down out of sight

as glass started break ing and peo ple started to re al ize some thing

bad was hap pen ing.

Ol lie moved in and grabbed Benita Ben der, pulling her around the

side of the bar and down, cov er ing her with his body.

I strong-armed ev ery body be tween me and my des ti na tion out of

the way, not car ing where they landed, or even if they ever did.

Leigh had frozen in mid-stride when ev ery thing started. She was a

lit tle rusty at the rough stuff be cause she had been out of the game

for a while. In fact, the last time some body shot at her she had been

[ix]

with me, too.

But then she was armed. I doubted that was the

case now, so when I got to her, I grabbed her around the waist and

kept go ing, lift ing her off her feet and shield ing her body with mine

un til we reached a cor ner, then it was down on the floor as ev ery one

else be gan to panic. I don’t think she re al ized it was me yet and she

was strug gling to get away, ma neu ver ing so that she could find some

lever age to break my grip. I had taught her grap pling com bat and

knew what she was do ing, and I knew how to stop her, but opted for

some thing sim pler.

I put my mouth to her ear and shouted: “MAR VEL COMICS

SUCK!”

Her head snapped back then, and de spite the fact that her glasses

were askew and the light ing wasn’t all that good, I knew Leigh rec-

og nized me. And I was prob a bly gonna get punched a lot for that

slam against her fa vorite comic book em pire. Still didn’t stop me

from go ing even fur ther.

“Stan Lee was a pinko com mie, too!”

“Der rick?! What the fuck??!

The glass shat ter ing had stopped, and I think the shoot ing had as

well, but peo ple were still scram bling all over the place. I ad justed

my Blue tooth, hold ing up a fin ger to fore stall Leigh’s ques tions.

“Tango Lima, re quest ing sta tus re port!” I de manded tensely.

“Any body, re port!”

A few sec onds later, Frankie’s calm voice came over the net.

“I’m out back with the trans port,” he said. “Tan gos Two and Four

are hold ing the front, think the hos tiles have fled.”

“Copy that, Tango Three,” I said, ris ing, Leigh still in my arms.

“Tango One, get them out the back, I’ll cover.”

Ol lie was al ready on his feet, his left hand hold ing onto a badly

shaken Benita Ben der’s right arm. Be hind the bar, Kurt Bax ter

stood, clutch ing the scared shit less Quin ton Beasley by the fore-

arms, drag ging him through the open ing at the side. They were all

mov ing fast.

I turned to Leigh.

“Sweetie, I don’t have time to talk right now. Get out of here, be

safe. And if you can, if you talk to the cops, for get you saw me or any

of the oth ers. I’ll ex plain later, prom ise.”

I was about to move away, but she caught me, hugged me briefly

but tightly.

“Okay, and take care of Quin ton, what ever this is I guess in volves

him, too.”

A lot of ques tions came to mind right then, but there was no time

for Q&A. Sheila was re port ing the fast ap proach of the law and I be-

lieve I can hear the sirens my self over ev ery thing else. We needed to

bug out.

So out we did bug.

Chap ter 14

ACME Fruit Sup pli ers.

That re ally is what’s pro fes sion ally sten ciled on the plac ards at-

tached to the sides of the gray full sized van in the back of which

we’re trav el ing along I-459 South with Frankie Bur rage at the wheel.

In cluded with the name is an ad dress, a phone num ber, and an

email ad dress. They’re all bull shit, of course, just like the name of

the nonex is tent fruit sup plier.

I thought I was the only one who liked movies from the 70s (and

Road run ner car toons), but Frankie re cently re vealed his de light in

movies and TV shows from that era as well, par tic u larly those that

fea tured cops and gang sters, and in al most ev ery one he said you’d

see some truck or van with ACME some thing or other printed on the

side. So he fig ured it would be a great cover for our trans port ve hi-

cle. I was skep ti cal, but de cided to let him do it any way. He had sev-

eral other plac ards for dif fer ent com pa nies, all of them ACME some-

thing or other. So far no one, not even the cops, seemed to think

any thing was amiss. Hope fully that would re main the case tonight,

al though there was a cop in back of the van at the mo ment, and a

DDA, but right now she was look ing a lit tle paler than usual. There

was also a very ter ri fied Quin ton Beasley and he couldn’t stop shak-

ing. Benita sat next to him on a two-seat bench on the left wall in

back.

The van had been mod i fied, was more like a rolling com mand

post, com plete with a com puter work sta tion on the right wall and

three bolted down swivel chairs with seat belts just in case the ride

be came rough. Kurt and I were in two of them, Ol lie was up front

rid ing shot gun next to Frankie, lit er ally. Some where out there

Sheila and Bert were cov er ing in their own ve hi cles. Ac tu ally, Bert

was in mine and Sheila was in Ol lie’s, but same dif fer ence, and that

re minded me of the re cent re new ing of my auto in sur ance pol icy

ear lier in the month. Per fect tim ing.

“What the he-hell’s go ing on?!” Beasley sud denly stam mered,

push ing Benita Ben der’s hand off of his arm. “Was some body shoot-

ing at the café? Did some body get shot? What’s go ing on?”

“Calm down, Quin ton,” Benita said firmly. “Please. You’re safe

now.”

“Safe? Peo ple were shoot ing up my place of work! And you peo ple

come in and drag me out! I want to go home right now. Right now!”

“Not gonna hap pen, pal,” Kurt Bax ter told him, lean ing for ward,

his el bows on his knees. “Peo ple who shot up your work know who

you are and prob a bly where you live. Go back there and they come

af ter you again, maybe get you next time.”

Beasley looked hor ri fied, glanc ing from Kurt to Benita as the van

con tin ued to roll, switch ing lanes pe ri od i cally, in creas ing and de-

creas ing speed at ir reg u lar in ter vals.

“Who knows who I am? Why do they… This is be cause I came for-

ward and iden ti fied that man, isn’t it? They want to kill me be cause

I told what I saw? You promised that no one would have to know

about me, that I would be safe if I helped you!”

Benita reached out and touched his leg.

“Quin ton, I promised we’d pro tect you,” she said pa tiently, as if

talk ing to a child. “And we will. Also, if you re call, I told you that if

we had to go to trial, the de fense would find out who you were and

you would have to tes tify in open court, the ac cused has a con sti tu-

tional right to face his ac cuser, but again, we would and will pro tect

you.”

She paused, glanc ing over at me.

“Un for tu nately, your iden tity leaked much ear lier than we had

hoped and we had to come and get you at your job be fore some thing

hap pened. Luck ily we were in time.”

Just barely, I thought, think ing back on the con ver sa tion we’d had

about ninety min utes ago as ev ery one was as sem bling two blocks

from the DA’s Of fice, Benita climb ing into the front seat of my jeep

al ready wear ing her af ter work clothes, Kurt in the back.

“There’s been a breach,” the DDA said with out pre am ble, vis i bly

ag i tated and an gry. “Sev eral names have leaked, three more CIs and

two wit nesses in up com ing cases. One of them is Quin ton

Beasley’s.”

Kurt took over, lean ing for ward be tween the seats.

“In CIU we’re all over so cial me dia these days, use it for ev ery-

thing from in for ma tion col lec tion and tech ni cal sur veil lance to seek-

ing the pub lic’s help in iden ti fy ing sus pects and per pe tra tors. We’ve

got some great techies in our sec tion now, the new C.O. is a real for-

ward thinker in that re gard, and gets a lot of sup port from the cur-

rent Chief. Any way, I had one of them write a pro gram to mon i tor

all the ma jor so cial me dia plat forms for Beasley’s name and flag

any thing that linked him to law en force ment. A lit tle while ago the

pro gram hit on a twit ter post la beled #Eye-Spy_Rats! Beasley’s

name, the other wit ness, and the CIs’ were all listed as law en force-

ment in for mants in the Birm ing ham metro, com plete with per sonal

data, in clud ing where Beasley worked. His home ad dress in Five

Points South is also there. We got other units re spond ing to try and

get to the oth ers be fore some body else gets to them, but Mr. Beasley

is our pri mary con cern right now.”

I looked at Benita Ben der, saw the fear be neath the sur face of her

skin, the worry, know ing that it might al ready be too late. So we lit

out like bats out of hell rac ing to ward In ver ness Cor ner, ar riv ing, as

the say ing goes, in a nick of time…

BENITA WAS EVEN TU ALLY ABLE TO calm Quin ton Beasley

down, and now he had gone silent. She looked at me.

“Was any body hurt back there that you know of?”

“I have no idea,” I told her truth fully, glanc ing over my shoul der

at Ol lie. “Sheila and Bert say the three shoot ers got away, the peo ple

out in the park ing lot got down when the shootin’ started, none ap-

peared to be in jured, but they couldn’t re ally be sure. As for in side

the bar, that’s any body’s guess. Bul lets did come through the win-

dows.”

She sighed, shak ing her head.

“What a Grade-A cockup,” Kurt Bax ter said in dis gust. “The press

is gonna be all over this, and we gotta fig ure some thing to tell the

cops. Tech ni cally Birm ing ham and Hoover share that ju ris dic tion,

and nei ther de part ment is gonna be happy that of fi cers of the law

left the scene with out mak ing an of fi cial state ment.”

Benita looked at him.

“Call Chief Ep stein and brief her. She’s gonna have to throw her

stars around a lit tle, do some tap danc ing with Hoover PD. My boss

finds out about me be ing in volved in this, I’ll be do ing night traf fic

court for the rest of my ca reer. If I’m lucky.”

Kurt nod ded, reached into his jacket pocket and took out his

phone.

Benita looked at me again.

“Where are we go ing?”

“Right now we’re driv ing around in cir cles,” I told her. “Mak ing

sure we aren’t be ing fol lowed. Once we’re sure, you and Kurt will be

dropped off and can make your way wher ever you need to by cab or

Uber. Then the rest of us will be tak ing Mr. Beasley to the safe house

we al ready set up for him.”

Both Ms. Ben der and Mr. Beasley were look ing at me sharply now,

both about to protest. I ad dressed the mis ter first.

“Quin ton, a lit tle while ago three armed men came to your job

with the in tent to mur der you, and they didn’t care who else they

killed in the process. They know who you are, they know where you

live, if you don’t go some place they can’t find you, then you will not

live to see thirty-three. Ac tu ally, you won’t live to see the sun rise to-

mor row, and that may sound harsh, but that is the re al ity of your

life at the mo ment.”

Now I turned to the miss.

“And while I know it is highly un likely that ei ther you or Kurt is

the leak on this thing, the best way to keep him safe is to limit the

num ber of peo ple who know where he is to the team pro tect ing him,

the five mem bers of Triple-D. Pe riod.”

“But, Der rick,” she protested. “I’ve got to be able to con sult with

Quin ton, in ter view, de pose and pre pare him for trial, and a dozen or

so other things. And that can’t be done on the phone, for le gal rea-

sons, ac tu ally.”

“Benita, right now the most im por tant thing is keep ing him safe.

There will be time for all that other stuff once the pri mary is taken

care of. We’ll fig ure some thing out, a neu tral lo ca tion where you can

meet and do what you need to, and then we’ll take him back to the

safe house. Trust me, this is the best way, and the only way I’m go ing

to do it. He’s al ready been com pro mised on your end, I won’t have

that hap pen on mine. And don’t for get, this is pre cisely the rea son

that you and Chief Ep stein came to me in the first place.”

Ev ery one was silent in side the van for a short while, then the DDA

sighed and leaned back in her seat, fold ing her arms across her

chest. She did not ap pear to be happy with me, not that I re ally

cared. If I’d wanted to be liked I’d have cho sen to be a Good Hu mor

Man in stead of a pro fes sional body guard.

“Fine, Der rick,” she said af ter two un blink ing min utes. “We’ll do it

your way.”

If only, I thought to my self, and kept that thought to my self.

I nod ded, then turned to Ol lie.

“You got a spot picked out?” I said.

“I do,” he said.”

“Good,” I said. “Let’s do it then.”

“Roger that, Com man der,” he said, then pressed the trans mit but-

ton on his com mu ni ca tor. “Tango-One to all Tan gos, here’s what we

gon’ do…”

Chap ter 15

Thanks to that re cent tax-free cash wind fall I al luded to ear lier,

cour tesy of my off-the-books work for Un cle Sam, I have be come a

prop erty owner, or at least one of my aliases has be come a prop erty

owner. And one of the prop er ties I own is a newly con structed town-

house in Home wood off Carr Av enue not far from the Edge mont

Shop ping Cen ter and Post Of fice Square on Green Springs High way.

Six units were built over the past eigh teen months, three and three.

Con struc tion was com plete on the sec ond three shortly af ter I re-

turned to Birm ing ham, and I de cided to go over and have a look one

night, when no body was around. Iso lated, in a de cent neigh bor-

hood, on a reg u larly pa trolled po lice route, Home wood Po lice, too,

and I knew a lot of them, es pe cially the evening and night shifts. I

talked it over with Ol lie, he had a look one night on his own, then

said he thought it would be a good idea. We both agreed that it

should not be in my name or the com pany’s name, or any body di-

rectly as so ci ated with the com pany or us. This was not a prob lem,

and ow ing to the work I used to do ear lier in my life, and still dab ble

in on oc ca sion, I have es tab lished a num ber of alias iden ti ties, fully

main tained, com plete with credit his to ries, some bet ter than my

own, by de sign. One of them, with the as sis tance of an At lanta-

based law firm that is re ally a front for a cer tain Amer i can spy

agency, pur chased the town house as an in vest ment about five

months ago. It is fully fur nished and reg u larly main tained, and with

the re cent pos si bil ity of ac ti va tion, ad di tional food stuffs had been

added to the nor mal can and dry goods that are al ways main tained

there. It even has its own backup gen er a tor and mod i fied safe room.

Af ter we dropped Kurt and Benita off where they would be picked

up in a lit tle while by Birm ing ham As sis tant Chief of Po lice Anita

Ep stein her self, our three ve hi cle con voy con tin ued eva sive ma neu-

vers for an other half hour be fore Bert broke off to head over to the

safe house to make sure it was ready. The van and my jeep con tin ued

a me an der ing trek in and around the Birm ing ham metro for an other

half hour be fore get ting an all-clear sig nal from Bert, at which time I

told Frankie to head that way, but not di rectly.

We stopped in the Ol lie’s Bar gain Store (not owned by our Ol lie)

park ing lot on Green Springs and Ol lie, Quin ton Beasley, and I

made a hasty trans fer to my jeep, Sheila stay ing at the wheel. The

town houses have small sin gle-car garages at tached to them but the

van is too big to fit. Ol lie’s Es calade was al ready there and that be-

he moth was al ready tak ing up most of the drive way, or would once

Bert pulled in be hind us af ter we en tered the garage. Frankie would

cover in the van, and once we were in the safe house, would con tinue

to pa trol the neigh bor hood.

There is, of course, a weapons locker in the van, two ac tu ally, and

while mak ing the trans fer to my jeep, Ol lie and I grabbed a cou ple of

good ies to go. Mine was a Bush mas ter XM-15 and Ol lie’s was an

Ara malite .233, in many ways the same weapon, with a few mi nor

dif fer ences, but both would kill you just as dead.

I led the way in from the garage, the door al ready open, cour tesy

of Bert, the house in dark ness, but I knew where ev ery thing was.

Once we were all in side the kitchen, Sheila se cured the door and

then I told ev ery one to mind their eyes while I flipped the switch

and the bright over heads came on.

Bert re ported from the drive way that there were no an gry hordes

on our tail and Frankie re ported the same from the ex tended

perime ter. I told them that was good to know and then turned to the

client, who had not said any thing re cently and ap peared to be in a

state of shock. I nod ded at Ol lie and he took Beasley by the arm and

led him out of the kitchen. Sheila and I went to check the rest of the

house, even though Bert had al ready done that, we still dou ble

checked. Bet ter safe than dead.

Ten min utes later, we re assem bled in the front room and I no ticed

that Sheila had been into one of the weapons lock ers that we keep in

the safe house be cause she was car ry ing an FN P-90 sub ma chine

gun slung across her chest, her Glock-19 now back in the hol ster be-

hind her right hip.

“Black and deadly like you, girl,” Ol lie said to her.

She smiled.

“Why I like it so,” she said. “House se cure, Der rick.”

“Yeah,” I said, sling ing my ri fle across my back, glanc ing around.

“Who on our team fired shots?”

“Me and Bert,” Sheila an swered. “Frankie got the van around back

quick as he could to get ya’ll. Me and Bert cov ered, like the plan

said. Didn’t hit ‘em, I don’t think, just forced ‘em back. They was

shootin’ wild and coulda hit any body. I fired four, think Bert did the

same, just a cou ple of high dou ble, dou ble-taps at the trees on the

far end of the lot. Not high enough to cross Val ley dale or 280,

though. I hope.”

I nod ded, walked over to the sofa against the front wall, un slung

my AR, sat down with it be tween my knees, butt on the floor.

“Me, too,” I said. “Well we’ll let the cops worry about the de tails of

that, the cops on our side I mean. They’ll come up with some thing.

I’m not wor ried about that end, we were do ing our jobs, pro tect ing

our client. Ei ther of you get a good look at the shoot ers?”

“Bert bet ter than me,” Sheila said, com ing over to the sofa and

plop ping on the end op po site from me. “All black guys, though.

Young punks. Bert spot ted ‘em first, got out of a green Honda, didn’t

see no plate. Soon as Bert got my at ten tion I knew what they was,

and what they was there for. We made sure they saw us be fore they

got half way to the front of the bar, that’s when they drew on us.”

I nod ded. “Tell me all of it, please.”

She did.

Ol lie went into the kitchen to get bot tles of wa ter from the fridge

and passed two to us. We all sat drink ing and think ing for a few

min utes, Frankie re port ing in from the perime ter once. It was now

eleven-thirty. I checked the news feeds on my phone and saw that

the story of the shoot ing at In ver ness Cor ner was the lo cal head liner

with all Birm ing ham sta tions scram bling to get the de tails from

their re porters and sources. I smiled when I saw a blurb from NBC-

13 re gard ing a piece filed by their Chief In ves tiga tive Cor re spon-

dent, Fa rina War ren. Ap par ently she was on top of the story, too.

And that’s why I had smiled, think ing how lucky the story was right

now be cause I was well aware of what it was like to have Ms. War ren

on top of me.

“This is why we all keep our go-bags,” I said af ter putting my

phone away. “Ol lie, you and Frankie take off, be back at 0700. You

two will have day shift for the time be ing, Sheila and Bert will do the

nights. Seven to seven. I’ll fall in some where and spot you guys from

time to time, de pend ing on how long this goes on and what else

comes up. For now, we’re in babysit ting mode. I’m gonna talk to

Beasley be fore I get out of here tonight. Might go over to his place

and pick up some things for him.”

“Don’t go alone,” Ol lie cau tioned. “Bax ter said his ad dress was on

that site, too, mean ing they know where he live, prob a bly watch ing

the place.”

I nod ded.

“Not my first rodeo, Mr. Oliver,” I said lightly. “Nor pro tec tion de-

tail. I’ll take care; maybe in vite De tec tive Sergeant Bax ter along. Or

hell, Jor dana can lock up the of fice and watch my back for a cou ple

hours if it comes to that. She nearly out-shot you dur ing her qual i fi-

ca tions.”

Ol lie snorted.

“She good,” he said. “But not quite that good.”

I smiled.

“I’ll make sure she knows you think that,” I said. “Okay, let’s

break. The van can stay in the drive way tonight, but to mor row we

need to get it out of here. I told Frankie to take the pan els off be fore

he comes back so it’ll be less con spic u ous, kind of. And from now

on, the shift comes in one car, that way it can be put in the garage.

Ol lie your Caddy might barely make it, but you prob a bly don’t want

to risk the paint job.”

“No,” he agreed. “We’ll use Frankie’s car. Meet up some place

ahead of time and drop my ride off. Fig ure it out, no prob lem.”

“Okay,” I said, stand ing.

And so it be gan.

Game on!

Chap ter 16

I don’t usu ally run on the week ends, but when I woke up at six this

morn ing I felt like I had some ex cess en ergy that needed burn ing

off, and there is no bet ter way of ac com plish ing that than run ning.

Well there is but at that mo ment I was alone, so…

I was back in my loft by seven, stretch ing in the small work out

space across from my liv ing room in front of the large pic ture win-

dows that over look the city’s 1st Av enue down town, co in ci den tally,

two blocks east of Birm ing ham Po lice Head quar ters, also known as

the Po lice Ad min is tra tion Build ing. I was think ing about call ing

Anita Ep stein when my phone buzzed, an in com ing text. I sighed

when I saw the sender’s name on the dis play. Or di nar ily any com-

mu ni ca tion from my old friend and erst while oc ca sional bed mate

would be most wel come and re ceived with joy. How ever, to day,

given the cir cum stances of our most re cent meet ing, I was not look-

ing for ward to talk ing to Leigh Dan ton right now.

That be ing said, I was grin ning when I read her text: “Stan Lee

may be gone, but as a duly self-ap pointed and right eous acolyte of

the Mar vel faith, I will de fend his mem ory and his honor with my

last ounce of strength, kick ing the ass of any who dares in sult the

sanc tity of Mar-Vell! Even if the ass in ques tion is one that I have

been pleased to see naked a time or two in years past! Also, I’d re-

ally like to know just what the heck was go ing on last night when

you Wy att Earped the bar I was in and then rode off into the

moon set with my fa vorite bar tender. Hope he’s okay, and you, too.

Call me when con ve nient. The sooner I kick your ass over that

Mar vel com ment and Stan Lee dig, the bet ter we’ll both feel. ” She

signed it with some sym bols that I have no clue what they mean, al-

ways have to look shit like that up, half the time I don’t bother. To-

day was one of those times. Words, peo ple, words!

I thought about it for a few min utes, sweat still bead ing on my

shaved head, de cided to go ahead and get it over with, and that’s

when Anita Ep stein called me.

Saved by the Chief.

In ret ro spect, not re ally. It’s been a long time since any one

chewed me out, and I let it hap pen this time. Strange, too, be cause I

wasn’t one of her cops and I was do ing her a fa vor. Must re ally like

this woman. Still might have to kick her ass later, though, just to re-

store bal ance to the Force, but for the mo ment, I took it.

Then she calmed down and said we had to meet, just not any-

where near po lice head quar ters. I told her to give me an hour and

then to come to my place. She said okay and hung up.

Enough time to shower and dress, then make break fast for me

and the Chief. Hoped she liked it veg gie style be cause around here

that’s the only way it’s served.

ONE THING THE CUR RENT CHIEF DID that ev ery one in com-

mand grade at BPD seemed to like was to get rid of the white shirt

for lieu tenants and above. He was from LAPD and out there from

the lowli est of fi cer on the beat all the way up to the Chief, they all

wore the same dark col ored shirt, which matched their pants. So

when he be came Chief of the Birm ing ham Po lice De part ment, the

white shirts went away, ex cept for for mal cer e monies when a uni-

form jacket was re quired. So when As sis tant Chief Ep stein ar rived

at my door around eight-twenty, she was wear ing the Class-B ver-

sion of the uni form, short sleeves, open col lar, three stars on ei ther

side of it, dark blue on dark blue, and shiny black patent leather

shoes. She car ried her peaked cap with gold braid un der her right

arm above her hol stered weapon, a SIG, and in her left hand was her

brief case. She looked tired and an gry. I could un der stand why,

stepped back and ad mit ted her, then di rected her into the din ing

area.

She stopped short when she saw that the ta ble had been set for

two, and sud denly her shoul ders sagged. She turned to look up at

me.

“I think I owe you an apol ogy, Der rick,” she said softly. “I didn’t

have a right to take your head off like that. You aren’t one of my of fi-

cers and you were do ing the job I asked you to, it’s just been a long

night and I don’t see an end in sight any time soon. Still, no ex cuse,

and I’m sorry about be fore on the phone.”

I stood star ing down at her in si lence for a full minute, pon der ing

that per haps I wouldn’t kick her ass later, still…

“I’ll let it slide this time, Anita,” I said, then stepped around her

and went into the kitchen. “I was rea son ably sure you hadn’t had

time for break fast this morn ing, and I was go ing to eat, so…”

She set her things down in the liv ing room on the glass cof fee ta-

ble, then walked over to the din ing ta ble.

“A lot of bad cof fee,” she ad mit ted. “I re ally haven’t thought about

food un til now, but as soon as I walked in and smelled what you

were cook ing, my stom ach lurched with hunger.”

“Then have a seat,” I told her. “It will be a meat less break fast, I’m

afraid. And no cof fee. Sev eral fla vors of juice, from tomato to cran-

berry. Milk and tea, too, of course.”

She sat and said tomato juice would be fine, and didn’t mind a

veg gie break fast ei ther. I brought over grits, scram bled eggs, wheat

toast, and wal nut and peach oat meal, along with juice, the tomato

she re quested, and cran berry for me.

I waited po litely while she said a brief prayer, knew her to be

rather de voted to her par tic u lar faith, and then we tucked in. The

as sis tant chief ate for sev eral min utes with out look ing up, oc ca sion-

ally tak ing a sip of juice. Then she wiped her mouth, glanced over at

me.

“Guess be ing a bach e lor you have to be a good cook,” she said. “Or

or der out a lot.”

“I’ve al ways en joyed cook ing,” I told her, fin ish ing my juice and

go ing into the kitchen for a re fill. Ep stein re quested more as well.

When I re took my seat, I looked over at her as she sat back and

glanced around my loft. This was the first time she had been there

and she gave it the once-over with the ex pe ri enced eye of a cop and

the ap prais ing eye of a woman, smil ing a lit tle.

“I know you didn’t clean the place up just be cause I was com ing

over, so you must be a neat freak.”

“I like or der,” I said. “Even be fore I went into the Air Force I liked

ev ery thing neat and in a place I could find it when I needed to. It

works for me.”

She nod ded, drank more juice, then set the glass down on the ta-

ble and got up, go ing into the liv ing room to re trieve her brief case,

paused and opened it, tak ing out an iPad and bring ing it back to the

ta ble in stead.

“First off, as far as what hap pened last night, the story is as fol-

lows: Af ter dis cov er ing that the iden ti ties of sev eral in for mants and

wit nesses im por tant to the Birm ing ham Po lice De part ment were

com pro mised, mem bers of the Crim i nal In tel li gence Unit started

scram bling to get to them and put them into pro tec tive cus tody be-

fore any thing bad hap pened. Sergeant Bax ter led the team to re-

trieve Mr. Beasley at his place of work in In ver ness Cor ner, he was

ac com pa nied by an uniden ti fied fe male mem ber of law en force-

ment. Dur ing this time, some type of al ter ca tion took place in the

park ing lot out side the bar where Mr. Beasley works, and this al ter-

ca tion re sulted in gun fire. It is un known if this had any thing to do

with Beasley but Sergeant Bax ter de cided not to take any chances

and quickly evac u ated him from the scene. There were a few mi nor

in juries in side the bar, but noth ing life-threat en ing. All the shoot ers,

be tween three and five, got away. De scrip tions are vague, video sur-

veil lance is not very help ful ei ther. Hoover is in ves ti gat ing, along

with de tec tives from South Precinct and Rob bery-Homi cide.”

“And Beasley is where now?” I said.

“De pends on who you ask,” she said, a faint hint of hu mor show-

ing at the left cor ner of her mouth. “He’s ei ther in a BPD safe house

with round-the-clock se cu rity, or he’s in a Jef fer son County safe-

house with round-the-clock se cu rity. Benita and I are spin ning that

as hard as we can. So far the Chief isn’t ask ing too many ques tions

and nei ther is any body else in my de part ment. Hoover isn’t happy

that Kurt left the scene, but I had a word with their Chief and he

knows the score, or thinks he does. Any way, for now we’re cov ered

on that end. How is Beasley do ing by the way?”

“Scared shit less but alive,” I an swered, lean ing back and fold ing

my hands in my lap. “Checked in a lit tle while ago, day team is on

duty. Night shift re ported he fi nally calmed down enough to go to

sleep around four, and he’s still out. He is not happy about not be ing

able to go home, but un der stands why. Benita is go ing to have to

talk to him be cause right now I’m pretty sure he doesn’t have any

plans to tes tify against any body, but that’s not a part of my job so I’ll

leave it to her. Has Kurt come up with any thing more on the leak of

the names?”

“Noth ing solid that leads to any one we can ar rest,” the as sis tant

chief told me, work ing on her iPad for a minute. “That twit ter ac-

count has been shut down and we’ve al ready served the com pany

with war rants to get what ever they have on the user. Prob a bly a

dead end be cause those things, like on so many other so cial me dia

plat forms, can be set up anony mously, even us ing some one else’s

per sonal in for ma tion. Prob a bly a blind al ley, but CIU will fol low it

up. I think it’s clear that Beasley was the tar get of the leak, the other

four names just tossed in for good mea sure and prob a bly to cre ate

more chaos.”

“I re ally shouldn’t ask this,” I said point edly, “be cause it isn’t my

re spon si bil ity, but I guess cu rios ity is get ting the bet ter of me. How

does BPD con trol their CIs and wit nesses? Is there a cen tral data-

base with all of that in for ma tion stored in side? And if there is, is it

that eas ily hacked? And if so, fire who ever de signed that sys tem.”

Ep stein ac tu ally man aged a grin.

“If it were only that sim ple, Der rick,” she said, and then be gan a

lengthy ex pla na tion of some thing I should have known bet ter than

to ask about. That’ll teach me.

“So es sen tially what you’re say ing is that there is not re ally a cen-

tral data base with all CIs and wit nesses, that they are main tained in

the var i ous di vi sions and precincts, at least on the CI end, and wit-

nesses are shared with the DA’s Of fice for ob vi ous rea sons. And un-

less a CI be comes a wit ness, in most cases the DA doesn’t get their

names.”

“Cor rect,” said Chief Ep stein.

“Which means you know what that means,” I said.

“I do,” she said wearily. “It means the leak is def i nitely in side the

Birm ing ham Po lice De part ment. My house.”

Yep, I thought, very glad I de cided not to be come a cop af ter I left

the Air Force. Who knows, right now I might be sit ting in this ex act

same room, only wear ing a dark blue on dark blue uni form with

three gold stars on ei ther side of my neck and up to those stars in

deep shit.

Chap ter 17

Paige Palmer called about ten min utes af ter Ep stein left my place. I

said she had good tim ing and asked her to meet me. She said okay,

Paige was al ways ac com mo dat ing, at least to me any way.

The South wood Gar den Apart ments in Five Points South is not a

long drive from my place, but since I was look ing for signs that

some body might be watch ing the com plex, I took my sweet time

driv ing around the neigh bor hood sev eral times. When Paige ar-

rived, she did the same thing, then we both drove a cou ple blocks

away and left our cars in the park ing lot of the neigh bor hood Chick-

fil-A.

I’ve known Paige a long time, first as a uni formed of fi cer work ing

in North Precinct, later as a de tec tive, and even tu ally as a lieu tenant

with Birm ing ham be fore she re tired a few years ago. Re tired but still

in the game as a law en force ment con sul tant to the feds, and ap par-

ently as a trou bleshooter for Anita Ep stein.

She’s in her late fifties now, but as she did when we first met,

Paige still looks good in blue jeans, some thing I com mented on as

she grinned and hugged me.

“You say that ev ery time we see each other,” she said.

“Be cause it’s true ev ery time I see you,” I said, my arms still

around her waist as we stood and looked into one an other’s eyes.

“Hubby treat ing you all right, be cause if he isn’t, I’d be more than

happy to help you get even with him.”

Paige snick ered, and poked me in the gut.

“I think you have more than evened things up over the years,” she

said. “Be fore and af ter I got mar ried the sec ond time. But I’ll keep it

in mind.”

We started walk ing back to ward the apart ment build ing. In ad di-

tion to the snug blue jeans, Paige wore white sneak ers and an or-

ange short sleeve T-shirt tucked in at the waist. She also car ried a

small brown back pack slung over her left shoul der that I was pretty

sure con tained at least one firearm.

I had on jeans as well, a dark blue T-shirt, black tac ti cal boots

with zip pers up the sides, and a dark blue short sleeve jacket of Is-

raeli de sign called a Shabak jacket, some times a Body guard jacket

be cause Shabak is the Is raeli se cu rity ser vice (Eng lish trans la tion:

Is rael Se cu rity Agency) with the pri mary re spon si bil ity for pro vid ing

close-pro tec tion to the prime min is ter and other high gov ern ment

of fi cials, and since it’s of ten hot as hell in Is rael, they need some-

thing light weight and cool to wear to con ceal their weapons and

other duty equip ment. And since in the sum mer time in Al abama it

gets hot as hell, too, I and my team mates have sev eral of these jack-

ets.

“So you let Ep stein talk you into com ing back for this mess, huh?”

I said, ca su ally glanc ing around as we walked.

“Yeah,” she sighed. “Anita and I go way back, and I kind of owe

her. Never would have got that tap for lieu tenant’s pay be fore I left if

not for her. But that aside, what’s go ing on now is more than a mess

and I re ally don’t like it. The in tegrity of a de part ment that I spent

half my life work ing for is se ri ously com pro mised and peo ple are be-

ing killed. She asked for my help and I re ally couldn’t say no. Be-

sides, I am get ting paid, too.”

I nod ded as we took the cross walk on the light.

“And you’re work ing with Kurt,” I said.

She chuck led.

“Dy namo Man,” she said. “Kurt’s a good cop, high-strung as hell,

but a good cop. Won’t need a lot of cof fee work ing with him, that’s

for sure. How is ev ery body from last night?”

“Good,” I told her. “The client is still shaky, but that’s to be ex-

pected. I’m hop ing that pick ing up some of his things for him will

help him ad just to the sit u a tion bet ter be cause it could be a good

while be fore he can come back home, if ever. I’m not sure how pre-

pared he is for that re al ity, but the DA will have to broach that sub-

ject with him later. I just have to keep him alive.”

“You were al ways a sim ple man, Mr. Olin,” Paige grinned as we

turned onto the street side lawn out side the main en trance to the

South wood Gar den Apart ments at 1103 Richard Ar ring ton, Jr.

Boule vard South.

“Man has to know his place in this world,” I said, glanc ing at her,

wait ing for her to grin again, which she did, leaned in a lit tle closer.

“You never had a prob lem find ing your place, Der rick. And you

know it.”

We were fac ing one an other now, in ti mate, like a mid dle aged

cou ple hav ing a quiet con ver sa tion be fore go ing in side the build ing

to their apart ment. I reached for ward and took Paige’s right hand

with my left.

“I make two,” I said.

She smiled, nod ded.

“Same,” she said. “What do you want to do?”

I smiled, leaned even closer, briefly pressed my lips to hers.

“Let’s go into our apart ment, my dear,” I said.

Paige smiled, turned and led the way in, still hold ing my hand.

THE BUILD ING IS THREE FLOORS, each apart ment with a

wooden deck out be yond the kitchen, in clud ing the ground units.

Quin ton Beasley’s apart ment is on the third floor in back. There is

no el e va tor but this is a build ing where young peo ple live, early thir-

ties and younger, in the trendy heart of Birm ing ham’s South side

known as Five-Points (South). Paige made a com ment about per-

haps need ing a big strap ping black fel low to carry her up the stairs.

My re ply was about what she ex pected it would be, and then she led

the way up. I was glad for this, the view was spec tac u lar.

When we reached the third floor I whis tled.

“That Scot tie is a hell of a lucky man, Madam Paige,” I said.

Paige paused at the top of the stairs, grinned back at me.

“He sure is,” she said.

There were two peo ple in the cor ri dor, one com ing out an apart-

ment two down from where we stood, a young black woman in what

ap peared to be work out clothes, and she had buds stuck in her ears,

a Smart phone in a clear pouch at tached to her left arm. Paige and I

stepped aside to let her by and she smiled at us. We smiled back.

I had the keys to Beasley’s apart ment in my left hand. Paige and I

started down the nar row hall way to ward apart ment 3G, hav ing a

con ver sa tion about ab so lutely noth ing as the young black man in

baggy black jeans and an over sized gray sweat shirt leaned against

the wall on the op po site end of the cor ri dor next to the fire exit. He

was eye ing us care fully, at tempt ing a com bi na tion of in dif fer ence

and men ace, I think, but not pulling ei ther off very well at all.

Maybe it was his youth or the fact that a lot of peo ple I’ve met over

the years were a lot scarier than he and most of them are dead;

many cour tesy of me.

Paige laughed and bumped her hip into me.

“Baby, I hope you took your Vi a gra on time this morn ing, be cause

I’m gonna ball your brains out once we get in side.”

I laughed ex ag ger at edly, slip ping my arm around her waist and

giv ing one plump cheek a de lib er ate squeeze.

“Honey, you know good and well all I gotta do is get this ass out of

these jeans and that’s all I need to get me go ing,” I said, then

stopped in front of 3G and slid the key into the lock.

Paige gig gled and kissed my neck just as the lock turned and the

door opened. We moved in side with our arms around one an other,

lightly push ing the door with our hips once we were in the small in-

te rior en try way. We con tin ued to talk as two horny fifty-some thing

year olds, ap par ently anx ious to prove we still had the vigor.

In re al ity, as we kept up the sexy talk, Paige and I had re moved

our weapons from our hol sters and had hastily taken up tac ti cal po-

si tions within the apart ment. There wasn’t much cover be cause Mr.

Beasley ap peared to lead a bit of a Spar tan ex is tence, at least on first

blush, and only af ter look ing at his front room. No time for a more

thor ough in spec tion and as sess ment, how ever, as the front door is

be ing pushed in and the young man from the end of the hall way is

rush ing in side, a nickel-plated semi au to matic pis tol in a clumsy

two-handed grip.

If pos si ble, the kid looked even more vul ner a ble now than he had

out in the hall way. Could have some thing to do with the two Glocks

cur rently point ing at him in steady, two-handed grips that be longed

to peo ple who had shot other peo ple be fore. In my case, a lot of

other peo ple.

“This ends with that gun on the floor or you down there in stead,

son,” Paige said in her vin tage cop voice, steady and sure. “Your

choice. For us, it’s only a lit tle ex tra pa per work.”

I could tell he re ally wanted to shoot, to show that he was a man,

but in truth—and he prob a bly al ways knew this—he was just a boy.

A scared lit tle boy. If he was smart, he’d get out of this life and still

have time to be come a man. Prob a bly wouldn’t hap pen, but to day

he might just live a bit longer be cause he had the good sense to

lower the pis tol to the floor.

He was flat on his stom ach and I cov ered while Paige knelt down,

knee on the kid’s hip, and cuffed him in two sec onds flat.

“Still got the touch, Lieu tenant,” I said, walk ing over and se cur ing

the front door.

Paige hauled her charge to his feet and walked him over to the

sofa, shov ing him down. I re trieved the weapon from the floor, a

Ruger 9mm, un loaded and left it on the small kitchen counter

across from the liv ing room.

“Did you call your friends out side be fore you de cided to come in

here af ter us?” I said to our would-be hard-ass.

He was re luc tant to an swer, not look ing up, so I re peated the

ques tion, and Paige punc tu ated by kick ing his left sneaker with

hers.

“Man asked you a ques tion, son, and he don’t like to be ig nored.

Best an swer him.”

The kid shook his head. About what I thought, a com plete am a-

teur thug, fig ured he’d come in here by him self and get all the credit

for find ing out where Quin ton Beasley was hid ing. I glanced at Paige

and she nod ded, pulling out her phone.

I walked over and sat down right next to our un in vited guest, pat-

ted his left thigh and smiled.

“So, in the mean time, why don’t you and I get ac quainted, sir? I

want to know all about you. Your life thus far, the whole sor did story

from birth to now.” I paused and the smile faded in stantly. “But first

we’ll start with your name, and then I want to know pre cisely why

you were out in the hall way when we came up and why you fol lowed

us in here.”

The pres sure on his thigh caused him to whence and glare at me.

My smile was back and I leaned in very close.

“By the way, I’m not a cop, and nei ther is the lady on the phone.”

Which was true, Paige was just as much a civil ian right now as I

was, de spite the gold lieu tenant’s badge with RE TIRED stamped on

it in her side pocket.

The kid had dif fi culty swal low ing, and when Paige was done she

came over and sat down on the other side and we were all three nice

and cozy pals.

It took Nathan Bish ops about an other minute to find his voice and

then he spilled ev ery thing. Un for tu nately, what he knew was next to

noth ing and of no real con se quence.

When of fi cers from South Precinct ar rived and scooped up the

other two wanna-be bad asses out side, not much more was learned,

ex cept their names. Those two had out stand ing war rants, one for

felonies in Jef fer son County, they could be held on those alone. And

since Mr. Bish ops had un law fully en tered Mr. Beasley’s apart ment

car ry ing a firearm that turned out to be stolen, he, too, would en joy

the fine hos pi tal ity of lo cal law en force ment for quite a while.

An hour af ter en ter ing Quin ton Beasley’s apart ment, Paige and I

fi nally got around to do ing what we had come there for, pack ing the

things Beasley had said he’d like to have brought to him, in clud ing

his iPad and charger.

“Think we’re done here,” I said, glanc ing around the liv ing room

one last time. I had a large blue roller suit case in my left hand and

Paige car ried a gray duf fel. She nod ded.

“Un less you want to go for a quickie on the sofa be fore we leave,”

she teased.

I shook my head and made for the door.

“Not re ally in the mood now, luv. Maybe if we’d got ten to shoot

some body this morn ing…”

We were both laugh ing as we left the apart ment and locked the

front door in the now bad guy-free hall way.

Chap ter 18

Deputy Dis trict At tor ney Benita Ben der was wear ing blue jeans on

Sun day af ter noon as well, only with sneak ers and a gray short sleeve

T-shirt, but her black leather jacket with all the zip pers was nowhere

in sight. Un der stand able re ally, con sid er ing that out doors it was a

swel ter ing ninety-four de grees right now.

We were meet ing in my of fice in En s ley. Even though it was Sun-

day and not many peo ple were around her of fice (mine ei ther for

that mat ter), we thought it best that I keep away from there as much

as pos si ble, lest some one be come un duly cu ri ous. Given my rep u ta-

tion for the un con ven tional and the un of fi cial, and the in ci dent that

tran spired in the 22nd Street North park ing deck last Christ mas that

in volved both Benita and me, the dots might con nect far too eas ily

for com fort.

Al though not a veg e tar ian, she was lov ing the veg gie burger I had

made with my own two hands and brought from home, along with

veg gie chips and Cran-Mango juice.

“Mmmm, this is re ally de li cious, Der rick,” she said af ter swal low-

ing a bite. “Juicy just like a ham burger, but not nearly as greasy or

bad for you. Why some one (woman or man) hasn’t snapped you up

by now, I just don’t un der stand.”

I was be hind my desk, she was in front, the same con fig u ra tion as

when Anita Ep stein had vis ited and started this whole thing rolling

last week. Wip ing my mouth on a nap kin, I fixed her with a hu mor-

less gaze.

“I’m far too high main te nance to be worth the trou ble,” I said.

She grinned, took a sip of juice from the bot tle I had given her ear-

lier, eyes alive with mis chief.

“That’s what Aaron says about me, but that boy has al ways loved a

chal lenge.”

I chuck led, think ing that I’ll bet he did, and a few other things that

were very in ap pro pri ate, specif i cally what it would take to main tain

those long legs of hers around my… Any way, lunch was the best part

of our get-to gether, the fo cal point, the dis cus sion, was any thing

but.

“My bu reau chief knows I was at Bruno’s Fri day night but is con-

tent to let it slide be cause the cops are tak ing the heat. Chief Ep stein

has had a word with her, too. But I’m on a tighter leash right now,

and am get ting a lot of pres sure to force a deal with Nicky Ash worth.

Un for tu nately, yes ter day af ter noon this be came a lot harder when I

was no ti fied that Mr. Ash worth has re tained new coun sel; not some

Pub lic De fender a cou ple years out of law school car ry ing more than

a hun dred cases, ei ther. No, he went out and hired Charles “Chuck”

Bagby, Prin ci pal at Bagby & As so ciates. You ever hear of him?”

“Of course,” I said, lean ing for ward on my desk. “Seen his TV

com mer cials, too. The felons best friend to have in Birm ing ham. Af-

ter Ash ley Mil ner, he’s prob a bly the best crim i nal de fense at tor ney

in the city.”

“But un like Ash ley, he’s a scum bag,” said the DDA with ob vi ous

dis taste. “Where as Ash ley will do her damnedest to serve her

client’s in ter ests within the law, keep ing us pros e cu tors on our toes

with ev ery le gal strat a gem in the book, she doesn’t play dirty, try to

smear cops and pros e cu tors or ex pert wit nesses who are just try ing

to do an hon est job. If she thinks there is good rea son to sus pect

bias, sure, she’ll pounce, and pro vide ac tual ev i dence to back up her

al le ga tions, but Bagby is the horse’s ass of a dif fer ent stripe.”

She wiped her mouth again, her steam start ing to rise.

“That ass hole will make un founded ac cu sa tions, brow beat judges

un til they agree to use less hear ings on friv o lous mo tions that only

de lay tri als and gum up the sys tem, threaten wit nesses with law suits

for defama tion of his clients, and go on TV spew ing such bile about

how his in no cent clients have been im prop erly treated by us and the

cops, that we have all con spired to ma nip u late ev i dence in or der to

frame them be cause we’re too lazy or cor rupt to go out and find the

real per pe tra tors. The guy just makes me fuck ing sick! And now a

scum bag like Nicky Ash worth has hired him.”

I gave it a few sec onds af ter she stopped talk ing, still fum ing.

“You know I re ally hate it when you young peo ple just don’t spit it

out and say what’s re ally on your mind.”

Benita glared at me for maybe three sec onds, then started grin-

ning, and the money she spent at the den tist ap peared to be well

worth it be cause that smile could launch a thou sand ships, or undo

a thou sand and one zip pers.

“Well, pops, my gen er a tion’s been told it’s bet ter for us kids to be

seen and not heard.”

Oddly, her call ing me pops sounded kind of nice, and that wor ried

me a lot. Still, I smiled again.

“So does this mean you’re less likely to be able to get a plea deal

with Bagby on board?”

“Maybe. Bagby does cut deals be cause most of his clients are

guilty, de spite his BS to the press and the pub lic, but usu ally af ter

he’s tried ev ery trick in the book to de lay the process and wear down

the pros e cu tion. He’s got a lot of dogged in ves ti ga tors who know

how to dig up dirt, al ways seem to find some thing on our wit nesses

that paint them in a bad light, some of the cops, too. Ash worth has a

lot of pri ors and we got him on some out stand ing war rants, too.

He’s not gonna skate on this, but his lawyer is go ing to make it as

hard as he can. And that’s why I re ally need Quin ton Beasley to be

fully co op er a tive.”

I sat back and sighed.

“He’s in a bad state right now, Nita,” I told her. “Yes ter day was re-

ally bad, es pe cially when he found out that Paige and I en coun tered

three armed thugs at his place. And there’s the fact that he can’t go

to work, he’s wor ried about his job, how he’s gonna pay his bills.”

Now she sighed, glanc ing down at her long, well man i cured fin-

gers.

“I’m gonna have to see him, talk to him, soothe him if I can. He’s

got to un der stand the stakes here, that he will not be safe un til we

put Ash worth away. Can you set it up for to mor row?”

“I can,” I told her. “But you aren’t com ing to the safe house and he

isn’t go ing to your of fice.”

She stared at me for a few min utes, her lips turned down in a

frown.

“You have to know I’m not a threat to his se cu rity,” she said.

“Hell, you could blind fold me or put a bag over my head if you

wanted so I wouldn’t know where we were go ing.”

I just had to laugh at that, and then couldn’t keep what I said next

from com ing out of my mouth.

“Nita, no sane guy is ever go ing to choose to put a bag over your

head.”

She looked at me and smiled, and mer ci fully moved on with out

com ment.

“Well since you won’t let me go to where you’re keep ing him and

he is prob a bly bet ter off not go ing to my of fice right now, least of all

with you and your peo ple sur round ing him, could we meet here?”

“Yes,” I told her. “I’ll ar range that. Would nine be ac cept able?”

She thought a minute, glanced at her watch. “Ten would be bet ter.

Mon day morn ings are for bu reau staff meet ings, usu ally kick ing off

around seven-thirty and last ing till nine. If I get out close to that,

rush back to my of fice to take care of some other things, I might be

able to make it here by ten. Sorry I can’t be more firm, but things get

kind of crazy at the DA’s Of fice some times.”

I told her I un der stood, then moved on to the gen tle men Paige

and I and South Precinct had ap pre hended on Sat ur day morn ing in

Five-Points South.

“Nolan Bish ops, twenty-three, Calvin Moss, nine teen, Ezra Gam-

ble, 20. De spite their youth, each has an ex ten sive crim i nal record,

mostly drug re lated, some vi o lence, hell, even some traf fic war rants.

All three have had their li censes re voked, which is kind of sad, given

they hadn’t had them all that long to be gin with. They’re all talk ing

now, by the way, but don’t have much of rel e vance to say. Bish ops

got a call from a guy he knows ask ing him to go to this ad dress on

South side and look for a guy named Quin ton Beasley. If he showed

up, Bish ops was to shoot him.”

“I know the name and ad dress of his home and job were on that

twit ter page, but how’d they know what he looked like?”

Benita Ben der smiled grimly.

“Be cause we’re in the sec ond decade of the Twenty-First Cen tury,

Mr. Olin, and ev ery body and their Aunt Fanny is on so cial me dia.

Ex cept maybe you. Beasley has pro files on Face book, Twit ter, and

In sta gram, all with pho tos posted. He even tweets from work, stuff

go ing on at the bar and like that.”

“Of course he does,” I said drea rily. “Why make it hard for the

stalk ers and mur der ers to know what you’re do ing and where you’re

do ing it ev ery minute of the day? Sur prised he wasn’t tweet ing when

we were hus tling him out of the bar the other night.”

“The mod ern world, Der rick,” Benita said.

“If you say so,” I said. “But he can’t do any of that now be cause I

had Sheila con fis cate his phone. He was re luc tant to give it up, and

isn’t happy that he can’t get on the in ter net on his iPad right now ei-

ther, but Sheila has a way with peo ple.”

Benita smirked.

“Yeah, I know. Even though she has never been ar rested and con-

victed of any thing that I can find, there are files in my of fice and at

the PD that do ref er ence her, and some of the things she is al leged

to have done. A very scary lit tle woman in deed. Glad she’s a white

hat now.”

“How much were they sup posed to get paid to shoot Beasley?” I

said.

“A grand each,” she told me.

“Life re ally is cheap,” I said.

“Tell me about it,” she said. “Bish ops gave up the name and num-

ber, but it was a burner, and the name was only a street han dle, he

doesn’t know the full name nor where we can find the guy.”

“Con ve nient,” I said. “Tell me the street name and I’ll have my

folks look into it, as you just pointed out, some of them have col or ful

pasts of their own.”

She thought a minute, nod ded and told me. I en tered the in for ma-

tion into my phone and sent a text to Ol lie, Frankie, and Sheila,

since they used to play on the darker side of the street.

“And the leak in ves ti ga tion, what do you know?”

“That Anita Ep stein is livid right now. She’s al most cer tain that

the leak is com ing from in side BPD and is do ing what ever she can to

find and plug it, but it’s not easy go ing. They’re look ing at the names

of those who were com pro mised along with Quin ton, try ing to see if

one par tic u lar di vi sion or even one per son had ac cess to all of them.

Too much to be hoped for, I’m sure, but they’re look ing hard any-

way. Also, Kurt and the techies are still look ing at Twit ter, try ing to

see what they can learn from that de ac ti vated ac count. You prob a bly

talked to Paige al ready but she’s set up as Anita’s one-woman IA Di-

vi sion right now, look ing at peo ple in side the de part ment who might

be com pro mised, liv ing above their means, that sort of thing. A lot

of drudge work, but I un der stand for mer Lieu tenant Palmer was a

very good de tec tive in her day.”

I nod ded.

“She was, and her day is far from done, whip per snap per.”

Benita grinned, fin ished the last of her chips and checked her

watch.

“I need to get go ing, Aaron and I are hav ing din ner with my par-

ents tonight and we were go ing to hang out by the pool for a few

hours this af ter noon be fore hand.”

I only thought about what she looked like in a bikini for less than

five sec onds be fore mov ing on. Well, okay, maybe ten. But no more

than thir teen.

“As you can no doubt tell from my milky com plex ion,” she said,

stand ing and grin ning, “the sun and I are not on a first name ba sis.

So when I ref er enced ly ing out by the pool, my lov ing hubby will be

bask ing in the sun while my pale ass hides un der a very large um-

brella.”

I stood as well.

“Well en joy your shade while Aaron en joys his sun. And I’ll see

you in the morn ing at ten, un less some thing changes.”

She nod ded, col lected her purse, and I walked her out.

In the ex te rior hall way out side re cep tion she turned and looked

down at me. All the tall women in my life these days.

“Thanks for all your help with this case, Der rick,” she said to me.

“I mean I know it’s a job and you’re be ing paid, but still, thanks. I

feel a lot bet ter about our prospects for keep ing the wit ness alive

know ing you’re in volved.”

I nod ded, put out my right hand.

She smirked, pushed it aside and leaned down to hug me.

“You’re not gonna catch any thing,” she teased.

“But you might,” I re joined and she laughed.

She walked to ward the el e va tor down the hall and I watched her

go. She prob a bly knew I was star ing at her tight lit tle ass in those

adorable blue jeans, and right now I didn’t care.

Benita waved be fore step ping onto the el e va tor and I waved back.

Damn, I thought, and that’s when Leigh Dan ton sent an other text.

I thought damn again, then went back into my of fice to do some-

thing I couldn’t put off any longer. On the plus side, Leigh looked

damn good in jeans, too, and in her case I didn’t have to fan ta size

about what she looked like with out them.

Chap ter 19

I was at home check ing my weapons at four that Sun day af ter noon.

At the Home wood safe house, Ol lie and Frankie were on duty. They

re ported noth ing had changed, the client was still rest less and an gry

but so far hadn’t tried to es cape. I told Ol lie about the meet ing to-

mor row and he said they’d be ready to move when I brought the van

over. I asked about team morale and he pointed out that we’d only

been on the job a cou ple of days and since ev ery body (save for me

right now) got paid more when work ing an ac tual de tail, it would be

a long time be fore any one com plained about the hours, more like

never. It was the work we all did now.

He was right about that.

The door bell sounded at two min utes af ter four and I went to an-

swer it, al ready know ing who was on the other side, but check ing

the peep hole just the same, and smil ing be cause the per son stand-

ing out in the cor ri dor is kind of on the short side, much like the As-

sis tant Chief of Po lice, but un like DDA Ben der or NBC-13’s Fa rina

War ren.

Leigh Dan ton stood in the en try way and stared at me harshly

when I opened the door. She wore jeans, a flow ery but ton-down

short sleeve shirt, and car ried a large black purse over her left shoul-

der. I rec og nized that purse, a birth day present from me about three

years ago. It had a spe cial com part ment for con ceal ing a Glock-26

semi au to matic pis tol. I’d bought that for her, too.

“Dame Leigh,” I said mag nan i mously, bow ing fully. “How good of

you to come see me this af ter noon.”

Af ter a few more sec onds, she shook her head and pushed past

me, em pha sis on pushed. More like a shove. She knew the place

well, al though it had been a while since she’d been over. By the time

I se cured the front door, she was al ready in the kitchen get ting a

beer out of the fridge. I don’t drink beer, or al co hol all that much for

that mat ter, but since I knew she was com ing over and fig ured I’d

play nice, picked up a six pack of Corona Light on the way home.

Leigh snapped the cap off on the edge of my counter and I winced.

“I have a bot tle opener, or is that what you plan on do ing to my

head?” I said, ap proach ing the counter from the liv ing room side.

She took a long swal low, eye ing me the whole time, then wiped

her mouth with the back of her left hand.

“I was think ing about some thing a lot lower,” she said, her lips

form ing a wicked lit tle grin. “Es pe cially since it took you so long to

get back in touch with me, and only af ter I kept pes ter ing you.”

“Sorry about that, luv,” I said. “Been a lit tle busy since Fri day

night. I was go ing to call you yes ter day, but then some thing else

hap pened.”

“Like what, an other gun fight?”

“Not quite, but close,” I told her hon estly.

She stared back for a few mo ments, not sure if I was jok ing, then

re al ized that I never joked about gun fights.

Leigh and I have known each other a lot of years, and I trust her,

more im por tantly, I ac tu ally like her. Some days I’m rea son ably sure

the sen ti ment is re cip ro cated, even when I in sult one of her top cul-

tural icons and his en tire life’s work.

We set tled on a punch in the arm for my heresy, then a quick peck

on the lips be cause I had got ten her out of the line of fire Fri day

night. I got a bot tle of juice from the fridge and then we went to the

loveseat in the liv ing room and sat down.

“How’s Emma?” I asked about the thirty-five year old folk singer

from At lanta that Leigh had been in volved with off and on for the

past cou ple of years. Last time we talked it was back on.

“Good,” she told me, hold ing her beer above her lap. “We got to-

gether at her place two weeks ago when she was home off the road.

When she gets back from her next set of gigs out west month af ter

next, she’s com ing over here for a week of les bian de bauch ery.”

I smiled, Leigh grinned.

“Is there any other kind?” I said, and she laughed harder, bump-

ing my knee with hers.

“Well I still like the fel las, too, big fella. As you well know. And

some body else we now have in com mon.”

I glanced at her and frowned, then it dawned on me.

“He’s prac ti cally a baby,” I mocked. “Still wet be hind the ears.”

She chuck led. “Funny, that’s not where he makes me wet.”

I grinned, shak ing my head.

“So you and the bar tender are more than just friends, huh? That

why you hang out at Bruno’s on Fri day nights?”

“I hang out there some times be cause it’s close to the shop and the

team and I like to let our hair down some on Fri day nights. The

added ben e fit is Quint. Started mak ing eyes at me as soon as he got

the job, slipped me his num ber a cou ple of times. I played hard to

get, nat u rally, strung him along for about eight months. Then back

dur ing that last break from Emma, I was wait ing for him when the

bar closed one Sat ur day night. Went back to his place and showed

him that a mid dle-aged, tat ted up Bama gal could still rock his

world. He showed me that a guy in his early thir ties ain’t all that bad

ei ther. But to an swer your ear lier ques tion, we’re not even friends,

more like oc ca sional fuck bud dies. And he’s a hell of a bar tender,

too. I wouldn’t want any thing to hap pen to him.”

“Well if I were the jeal ous type…”

Leigh snick ered and put a hand on my arm.

“You don’t have it in you to let some one you’re pro tect ing get

killed, least of all be cause he and you hap pen to have fucked the

same woman. And not that your ego needs it, but you ain’t so bad in

the rack ei ther, Mis ter. Or the shower.”

I smiled, re mem ber ing fondly that the shower was where we

first…

“What’s go ing on, Der rick, why does Quin ton need your pro tec-

tion? What’s he done?”

Strictly speak ing, there was no need to tell her. In fact, I shouldn’t

tell her any thing. How ever, as I said be fore, I trust Leigh com-

pletely, af ter all, she is my old est friend, and her old est daugh ter is

my god daugh ter.

So I told her ev ery thing, ex cept where she could find or how she

could talk to her fa vorite bar tender.

“But I will be sure to let him know you asked about him,” I said.

“And that you think his dick is funny look ing.”

Leigh laughed and punched me again.

“No, his cock looks just fine,” she said. “Tastes pretty good, too.

Not that it’s easy to get all of it in my mouth, but…”

I shook my head.

“Okay, Lady Dan ton,” I said, mak ing to stand. “That lit tle de tail

you can keep to your self.”

Leigh took my out stretched hand and I pulled her up. She stood

very close and looked up at me for about a minute, then put her left

hand in the cen ter of my chest.

“Se ri ously. Take care of him, Der rick. And look af ter your self, too.

Erin would prob a bly miss you if you died. Or she would un til I told

her how you in sulted Mr. Lee. Then she’d prob a bly want to dig you

up and kill you again.”

I smiled, took her in my arms and we em braced for a long time.

Then we walked to ward the front door and said good bye. I watched

un til she was on the el e va tor down the hall from my unit then closed

the door and went back in side, a lot of things cir cling through my

mind right now, and most of them were pro fes sional.

Chap ter 20

It was rain ing when I woke up at five on Mon day morn ing, but this

didn’t stop me from do ing a quick two miles through the wet down-

town streets. By seven-thirty I was at the safe house in Home wood

with the van and ev ery one was up and ready to move. Mr. Beasley

was ex pe ri enc ing a bit of cabin fever by now, even though it had

only been a few days, and was look ing for ward to a change of

scenery, even if he wasn’t go ing some place he ac tu ally wanted to go.

The safe house was se cure and could be mon i tored re motely from

any of our lap tops, iPads, or Smart phones, so I wasn’t wor ried about

leav ing the place empty for a few hours. Be fore we brought the

client back, I’d have Frankie get there first and give it a quick check,

just to be thor ough, but for now we were all on the move.

The rain did not let up as the morn ing rush be gan and this was ac-

tu ally help ful as it would make it harder for any one at tempt ing to

fol low us, al though I knew we were clean. Our coun ter surveil lance

tac tics on the way over re vealed noth ing, and we’re pretty good at

this kind of stuff. Still, we didn’t take any di rect routes, but man aged

to get to the of fice in En s ley just af ter nine.

We let Beasley cool his heels in Ol lie’s of fice and had a quick

meet ing in the bullpen. Though we were not ex pect ing trou ble, we

were still pre pared for it, and that’s the rea son that this morn ing

Jor dana Kauff man was wear ing her sidearm, a dou ble-ac tion SIG-

Sauer P-228 with mod i fied trig ger, sights, and grips. And as I had

men tioned ear lier, she is rather good with that weapon.

The meet ing didn’t last long, and I asked Jor dana to go in and

check on the client, hav ing promised that he would be al lowed to

check his email but not his so cial me dia ac counts, and he would

only be al lowed to re spond to emails if I ap proved, some thing he re-

ally wasn’t happy about, but agreed to none the less. She nod ded and

went into Ol lie’s of fice.

Ol lie said he was go ing to go down stairs and have a look around,

just to make sure noth ing was amiss. He didn’t ac tu ally use the

word amiss, funky was how he put it, but es sen tially the same dif fer-

ence.

Frankie sat on top of his desk and told me about the man re ferred

to as Pointer.

“Used to know him when I was with Innes, and he was mostly a

pre tender then. Half-assed. Like to talk tough, al ways car ry ing a

piece, but when it came to do ing the hard stuff, he al ways man aged

to find some body else to do it.”

“More like man age ment,” I of fered.

“More like a pussy,” Frankie cor rected. “And not the good kind.”

I chuck led and he con tin ued.

“Any way, af ter Innes got clipped, Pointer started run ning with

other gangs, stayed away from Ma lik Old ham though be cause Ma lik

didn’t tol er ate wannabes. If you was with his crew, you did ev ery-

thing he told you to do. Or he’d kill you, prob a bly your fam ily, too.

And your dog. His real name is Justin Lin coln, about my age, tall,

skinny black dude with re ally bad teeth. Haven’t seen him per son-

ally since Innes left the scene, but when you texted the name last

night I made some calls.”

He gave me ev ery thing he had and I typed it all into my phone. It

wasn’t a whole lot, but ap par ently more than the cops had, and

maybe they could do some thing with it.

“So he’s work ing as a mid dle man now,” I said. “Free lance?”

“The way I un der stand it,” Frankie said. “Got his hands in ev ery-

body’s pocket. No di rect ties to Nicky Ash worth, but I wouldn’t be

sur prised that he’d done some stuff for him at one time or an other,

Nicky be ing who and what he is, too.”

I nod ded and fin ished typ ing, and then looked over at him.

“What’s the story on Ash worth?” I said. “From the wrong side of

the street.”

Frankie grinned, leaned for ward on his desk.

“A real mean ass hole. You prob a bly know that guy he killed last

year down town wasn’t the first body he dropped, just the first one

that can be tied di rectly to him. Word is he was pissed with the guy

he killed, had a deal set up with him and the id iot broke it, twice,

was tak ing money out of Nicky’s pocket. Al ways a bad thing to do

when you deal ing with some body who’s crazy. He found the guy and

shot him on the spot, no plan nin’, nothin’, just got out of his car and

started shoot ing right there on the street. Too bad for him that thing

at the McWane Cen ter was just let tin’ out and Quin ton Beasley was

the first out the door. Any way, what the cops have is pretty straight

in terms of his op er a tion, north side boy, lot of peo ple over there

scared to death of him. His crew is tight, and al most as crazy as he

is. While Nicky is locked up, his num ber two is hold ing things to-

gether, but ev ery body know Nicky still call ing the shots.”

“And his num ber two is Nel son John son?” I said.

Frankie nod ded.

“Goes by Nel lie. He and Ash worth grew up to gether, dropped out

of school to gether, and wound up in ju vie the first time to gether.

Tight as blood.”

“Is he smart enough to fig ure out a way to breach the po lice’s CI

and wit ness net work?”

Frankie snorted.

“He nor Nicky that smart. They more ruth less than any thing else.

They know how to count, money and dope, and bod ies for that mat-

ter, but tech stuff, nah, that ain’t them.”

“About what I fig ured,” I said thought fully. “But they have money,

and with money, a lot of things are pos si ble. Like the fancy lawyer

that Ash worth has rep re sent ing him now in stead of a pub lic de-

fender.”

“Yeah,” Frankie said. “Enough money you can get pretty much

any thing.

My phone buzzed, a text from Ol lie.

“Looks like the DA just pulled into the garage,” I told Frankie,

send ing a quick re ply to Ol lie. “Would you cover the hall way, please,

and es cort her in. Once the meet ing starts, I want you and Ol lie both

on perime ter watch, in side and out side the build ing.

Frankie was al ready on his feet and mov ing to ward re cep tion be-

fore I fin ished speak ing.

I added a few more de tails to the email I was go ing to send to

Paige and Kurt, then sent it.

I knocked on Ol lie’s of fice door, stuck my head in, let Mr. Beasley

know that Benita Ben der was on her way up. This news did not ap-

pear to cheer him in the least and I did not envy Benita’s next few

hours in that of fice.

Jor dana came out with me, shak ing her head.

“He’s scared to death and an gry. Your DA friend is go ing to have

to go a long way to get any co op er a tion out of him right now.”

I nod ded.

“And I’m glad not to be her,” I said as we walked into re cep tion to

await the ar rival of the woman in ques tion her self.

Chap ter 21

Jor dana sat at her desk in re cep tion and took care of what she

needed to while keep ing a sharp eye on the en trance door, which, of

course, was locked. Ol lie and Frankie, check ing in via en crypted ra-

dios ev ery ten min utes, kept watch on the perime ter of the build ing

and the in te rior, switch ing as they felt like it, one spell ing the other

for bath room breaks and such. And speak ing of that, since we didn’t

have a bath room in our of fice, when our client had to go, I would re-

call one of them to come up and help me cover the floor while he did

his busi ness in the uni sex bath room down the op po site end of the

hall. Dur ing the four hours that he and Benita met, he came out

three times for that. He drank a lot of Jor dana’s strong black cof fee

that morn ing and ap par ently it was go ing right through him. Benita

only had to come out once for that, but three times to take phone

calls and the last one didn’t sound pleas ant. It was just be fore three

in the af ter noon and the rain had started to come down again.

The DDA came into my of fice and plopped her self down in my

client chair, lean ing back and star ing up at the ceil ing, or she had

been be fore clos ing her eyes. I book marked the in ter net page I was

read ing, closed the lid on my lap top, looked over at her.

“To quote J.P. Hansen,” I said. “‘ The fight does not go well, En ter-

prise. ’”

Benita opened her eyes and frowned at me.

“What?”

“Some times I for get how young you are,” I told her. “A Star Trek:

The Next Gen er a tion ref er ence from the fourth sea son opener, The

Best of Both Worlds, Part 2. When they re ceived a trans mis sion

from the scene of the bat tle at Wolf 359. Part of Ad mi ral Hansen’s

last words be fore the screen went blank. You look about like Hansen

did then.”

She sud denly grinned, sat up.

“I have seen that show,” she told me. “Only in re runs be cause I

was like one when it first started to air, and I re mem ber the episode

you’re talk ing about with Pi card as a Borg. You know I ac tu ally cried

when that hap pened.”

“I cried when Spock died,” I said.

She stared at me for a mo ment, not sure if I was putting her on.

“Well your se cret’s safe with me, tough guy. Wouldn’t want the

bad guys out there on the mean streets of the city to start think ing

that Der rick Olin wears ladies un der wear.”

I smirked.

“Hey, Joe Na math wore panty hose to keep him self warm when he

was play ing foot ball in freez ing tem per a tures,” I said. “Even dur ing

the Su per Bowl. So if I like to sport a lacy thong ev ery now and then,

so what?”

Benita stared at me, very un sure this time, and fi nally shook her

head and laughed.

“Can’t tell if you’re se ri ous or not on that one,” she ad mit ted. “And

hon estly it doesn’t mat ter. I sup port your life style as long as you’re

happy.”

We were both laugh ing in side ten sec onds.

“I needed that laugh,” she said even tu ally. “Quin ton is giv ing me a

headache. He’s pissed and I un der stand why, be lieve me, but right

now he’s be ing a big child, threat en ing not to tes tify, threat en ing to

sue me and the DA’s Of fice if we don’t leave him alone.”

“What about Triple-D?” I said. “He want to sue us, too, for keep-

ing him alive?”

“He hasn’t men tioned that yet, al though he is pissed that you

won’t let him have un re stricted in ter net and phone ac cess.”

“Of course he is,” I said. “Doesn’t he re al ize that his in ter net us age

is what made it so easy for these peo ple to find him in the first

place?”

“He says he’ll set up new ac counts, be more care ful.”

“And more than likely who ever found him the first time copied a

list of all his friends, so they would know who to mon i tor in or der to

get a line on him in the event they needed to later. No, he isn’t get-

ting ac cess to the in ter net with out one of us stand ing over him. Not

as long as he’s un der our pro tec tion be cause he would be putting the

team at risk, too, and if he does that, I’ll kill him my self.”

Benita nod ded, sighed.

“Guess it’s just gonna keep rain ing all day,” she said ab sently,

glanc ing be yond me out the win dow. “A good day to be at home on

the couch with a good book.”

“Or out play ing in traf fic,” I coun tered.

“You’re a weird dude, Der rick,” she said. I was just about to re-

spond when her phone rang again. She held up a fin ger and then an-

swered it af ter check ing the caller ID.

“Yeah, Kurt, what’s up?”

Not that there was much color in her face to be gin with, but what

lit tle there was quickly drained away as she leaned for ward and

grabbed the front edge of my desk with her free hand.

“Fuck!” she swore ve he mently. “GOD DAMN FUCK!”

I sat watch ing her, know ing that some thing was des per ately

wrong. She lis tened for an other two min utes, say ing very lit tle, and

then she told Kurt Bax ter that she’d be wher ever he was in about a

half hour.

Af ter she hung up she re mained sit ting for ward, more lean ing

now, her hand still grip ping the edge of the desk. I waited, watch ing,

say ing noth ing. Frankie and Ol lie checked in on the ra dio and I

heard Jor dana ac knowl edge them through the wire less re ceiver in

my left ear.

Benita fi nally looked up.

“Three of Birm ing ham’s CIs were just mur dered in sep a rate in ci-

dents around the city,” she said, her voice eerily still. “None of them

worked for of fi cers in the same di vi sion, or have con nec tions to any

of the other ex po sures. Kurt said the techs found their names on an-

other so cial me dia site, Face book this time. The page was anony-

mous, al ready taken down by the ad min is tra tors. PigSnitch ing-

Bitches, how orig i nal.”

“I’m sorry, Benita,” I said.

She in haled, nod ded, stood.

“I need to wrap up with Quin ton quickly,” she said. “Then get back

down town. Please keep do ing what you’re do ing and keep him safe,

Der rick.”

“Of course,” I said, then watched her walk out of my of fice and

over to Ol lie’s next door. I sat and thought for a few min utes,

opened my lap top and checked the time dif fer ence be tween here

and In dia. Or di nar ily when there was com puter stuff that I needed

done I’d con tact Nathan Pa tel, Mas ter-Plan Se cu rity’s mas ter tech

guru. Un for tu nately, right now Nathan was in his na tive land bury-

ing his ma ter nal grand fa ther and wouldn’t be back for a few more

weeks. I knew if I got in touch, de spite what he was deal ing with

back home, he do what he could to help. But I wasn’t go ing to call

him. His fam ily came first.

In stead I took out my phone and called Paige Palmer.

Chap ter 22

I was back in my of fice Tues day morn ing do ing more on line re-

search and try ing to ig nore the gloomy weather out side. The rain

was back again to day, with a lot of light en ing.

Jor dana was at her desk work ing on new busi ness pro pos als I had

ap proved as well as tweak ing the spread sheet we used for in voices

to clients. I didn’t know what was wrong with the one we al ready

used, but that’s why she was the of fice and busi ness man ager and I

was the fig ure head.

Fa rina War ren showed up at nine-thirty with out an ap point ment

or a warn ing phone call, which wasn’t re ally a bother, gen er ally she

was al ways wel come, clothed or not. To day it was go ing to be the

for mer, and that re ally was too bad.

Jor dana an nounced the ar rival via in ter com and I told her to send

her back, stood and came out into the bullpen to greet Chan nel 13’s

finest. Not sur pris ingly, the sight of this woman al ways brought a

smile to my face, for var i ous rea sons.

De spite the rain, Fa rina wore a sleeve less yel low sun dress that

stopped at her gor geous knees, tighter up top, loose at the bot tom,

so as she moved con fi dently to ward my of fice, it moved around her

while her low heeled green pumps clicked on the tiled floor.

She smiled at me, stopped, leaned for ward and down just a bit to

kiss my cheek.

“Hi, Der rick,” she said sweetly.

“Hello, Fa rina,” I said with a smile, glanc ing past her to make sure

Jor dana hadn’t got ten up from her desk and walked into the bullpen

at the other end. She hadn’t. “Did we have an ap point ment to day?

And by ap point ment I mean…”

She grinned and put a long in dex fin ger to my lips.

“I know what you meant, Mr. Olin, and no, we did not. Un for tu-

nately. And I’m ac tu ally here on busi ness, fol low ing up on some-

thing. If you aren’t too busy at the mo ment, I was hop ing you could

help me out.”

I smiled again, stepped aside and ush ered her into my of fice.

“My lady, I am al ways at your ser vice,” I said as I fol lowed her in

and shut the door. She took the client chair, sat and crossed her

lovely long legs left over right, smoothed out the bot tom of her

dress, care ful to leave a gen er ous por tion of knee and lower thigh

vis i ble. I went back around and sat be hind my desk, glanc ing at my

lap top screen briefly be fore shut ting the lid.

“So, Ms. War ren, what can I help you with to day?”

Fa rina folded her hands on her knees as she leaned for ward in the

chair, her daz zling brown eyes fo cused on mine.

“Well the first thing you can do is tell me what you were do ing at

Bruno’s Sports Café in In ver ness Cor ner last Fri day night when sev-

eral so far still uniden ti fied in di vid u als started a gun fight in the

park ing lot out side.” She was all re porter now.

Well shit, I thought, won der ing how much she knew all ready and

con sid er ing the like li hood that I could con vince her to keep it to

her self. Prob a bly a zero on that last part, al though it might be fun to

try. Not to men tion ex haust ing.

Shit!

“WHO SAYS I WAS AT SOME SPORTS BAR last Fri day night?”

Fa rina looked at me with amuse ment for sev eral mo ments, then

sat back and took her phone from her purse, set ting the purse on the

floor as she started work ing the phone. Af ter an other few min utes,

she stood up, came around the desk, and leaned down so that I

could see the screen.

“Cap ture shots from Bruno’s se cu rity cam eras,” she said. “Even in

the sub dued light ing and all the peo ple around, you make for quite a

strik ing pic ture hold ing up the wall there.” She ad vanced a few pic-

tures. “And like Su per man, you sprint across the room to res cue a

damsel in dis tress when the shoot ing starts.”

I glanced up and grinned at her.

“That what passes for ev i dence these days, Ms. War ren? That

could be any of a thou sand strik ingly hand some black men in this

city. For all I know, you could have photo shopped that. More fake

news from the lib eral me dia.”

That earned me a punch in the shoul der. Seemed to be hap pen ing

a lot these days.

“Watch it, buddy boy; you know that’s a sen si tive sub ject with me.

And you know damn well that’s you.”

“How’d you get ac cess to se cu rity footage any way?” I said.

She stood back up and smiled again.

“We re porters have our ways,” she said, re turn ing to the chair on

the other side of the desk.

I watched her ad mir ingly.

“Yeah, I know you do,” I said, glanc ing back and out the win dow

for a few mo ments, then turned again and stared at her.

“Fa rina, I know you have a job to do, and it is a job that I re spect,

how ever, you know I have a job to do as well, and the two are not al-

ways com pat i ble. Now is one of those times. I would ap pre ci ate it if

you didn’t pub li cize the fact that I was there the other night, kept

that footage to your self, but you have to do what you have to do, I

un der stand that.”

“You weren’t there alone, Der rick,” she said. “I also spot ted your

as so ciate, George Oliver, along with a sergeant from BPD’s Crim i nal

In tel li gence Unit, and Deputy DA Ben der. The same DDA I broke

that story on re gard ing the sex ual ha rass ment claims against for mer

Judge Wade last year, and then you saved last Christ mas when

Judge Wade’s kid tried to kill her in that park ing garage down town.

Also, sev eral of the peo ple I talked to, al though they didn’t know

who you or any of the oth ers were, did see you all hus tle a bar tender

named Beasley out the back. Mr. Quin ton Beasley, age 32, a res i dent

of Five-Points South. Oh, and also, there was a roll out from South

Precinct on Sat ur day morn ing to an apart ment build ing that just

hap pens to cor re spond to Mr. Beasley’s listed ad dress.”

When I didn’t re spond, she con tin ued.

“And I have it on good au thor ity that present on the scene when

the of fi cers ar rived was a for mer BPD lieu tenant by the name of

Paige Palmer, a friend of yours, I be lieve. Would you like to spec u-

late as to whom I was in formed was with her, in ad di tion to the

young black male she had al ready taken into cus tody?”

I sat think ing that BPD had a lot of leaky mouths in it; the only

dif fer ence with Fa rina War ren be ing the re cip i ent was that she

wasn’t likely to use the in for ma tion to get some body killed.

“Sources also tell me that Lieu tenant Palmer is now work ing as a

con sul tant for As sis tant Chief Ep stein, but they aren’t sure what

she’s do ing.”

“Well that’s a re lief,” I quipped sar don ically. “Nice to know your

spies in side the de part ment don’t have ac cess to ev ery thing.”

She smiled.

“Be ing a good re porter means hav ing good sources, Der rick,” Fa-

rina told me. “You know that. And you also know that I would never

use what I learn to hurt any body, but if a story needs to be told, then

I will tell it. I came to you first be cause I know you, very well, and

you aren’t of fi cial. I’ll be talk ing to po lice of fi cials on the record

next. Ep stein, the Chief him self, some in the DA’s Of fice, but right

now I was hop ing for a lit tle back ground, specif i cally about how you

came to be in volved.”

I sat silently star ing at her, my mind turn ing over sev eral things,

some quite pleas ant, like agree ing to be Ms. War ren’s will ing sex

slave for a year in ex change for drop ping her story. I pitched that to

her and she laughed. It was a hearty laugh, a sexy laugh, and oddly,

I was not of fended.

“I do like you, Der rick,” she fi nally said, still smil ing. “And a part

of me—maybe sev eral parts—would re ally like to take you up on

that of fer, but pro fes sion al ism must will out here, I’m afraid. And

be fore you turn me down com pletely, let me go ahead and tell you

what I’m ac tu ally work ing on be yond what hap pened in In ver ness

last Fri day night. You re mem ber when we were to gether last I men-

tioned be ing onto a new story, a big story?”

I nod ded.

“Well what I didn’t tell you is that it in volves the Birm ing ham Po-

lice De part ment, and the ru mor that there might be some kind of

leak in their pro tected wit ness and con fi den tial in for mant net work.”

Well shit! I thought, shak ing my head.

“And judg ing by the sour look on your face right now, my friend, I

sus pect you know some thing about this, per haps that is the rea son

you’re work ing with the po lice now, and Lieu tenant Palmer is back

work ing for Chief Ep stein.”

“Would two years work bet ter for you?” I said.

An other smile.

“Afraid not,” she re mon strated. “But I do hope that over the next

two years you and I have lots of op por tu ni ties to get to gether and

fuck. Right now, how ever, work is what I am fo cused on. I re ally do

hope you can help me.”

“With al most any thing, luv,” I said with a sad smile. “But not with

this. My pro fes sion al ism, you un der stand.”

She sat and stared at me for about a minute, try ing to out stare

me, los ing again, grin ning, nod ding, leaned down and dropped her

phone back in her purse. I won dered if that nice glance she gave me

down the front of her dress was pur pose ful, and even if it wasn’t I

en joyed it im mensely.

“Okay then,” she said, sit ting up once more, hands folded on her

lap. “I’ll have to pur sue other av enues for my story, and I can’t

prom ise that your name won’t be linked to it in the end.”

I nod ded.

“I un der stand, luv. Do what you have to. And never fear, you will

al ways be wel come in my of fice. My home. My bed. My floor. My

shower.”

Fa rina War ren grinned hugely and stood up, grab bing her purse

off the floor as she did so.

“And don’t for get about those lovely floor-to-ceil ing win dows at

the front of your loft,” she said in a husky voice as she turned to go.

“Never,” I said, then watched her leave, a re cent mem ory of her

naked brown body pressed up against one of those win dows flash ing

through my mind. As, no doubt, she had in tended.

Af ter a long ex hale, I picked up my phone and quickly di aled Anita

Ep stein’s num ber. I was re ally about to make her day.

Worse.

Chap ter 23

I went by the safe house on Wednes day morn ing to check on the

team and the client, and to talk some things over with Ol lie. He

agreed that Fa rina War ren’s knowl edge of our in volve ment was not

a good de vel op ment, didn’t see any use in wor ry ing about it though.

He did hint that in one of his other lives that a nosy re porter or two

had been known to meet with un for tu nate ac ci dents when in ves ti-

gat ing some of his busi ness as so ciates up in De troit, but as sured me

that those days were far in the past. Ol lie’s sense of hu mor is as un-

funny as mine some times, prob a bly the rea son we’ve been friends

close to forty years.

The rain had stopped yes ter day evening and to day was bright and

hot, and I was glad that I’d be in doors most of it. This af ter noon I

had an other lunch sched uled with the Vice Prin ci pal (cur rently act-

ing Prin ci pal) of Jack son-West High School. We met again in Five-

Points West, but in stead of go ing to Dex’s Place, this time we went

to the Ap ple bee’s at the cor ner of En s ley-Five-Points West Av enue

and War rior Road, a short dis tance from Dex’s and the Cross plex

com plex which in cluded the re cently built Com fort Inn and Suites

ho tel.

To day Monique Otis looked the part of a smart, no non sense ed u-

ca tional ad min is tra tor. She wore a green skirt suit with white

pullover blouse, flesh col ored hose, and black pumps with three inch

heels. Her makeup was lightly ap plied, pro fes sional, her hair was

put up in a bun be hind her head, and to day she was wear ing sil ver

horn-rimmed glasses. I liked that look. A lot.

We met in the park ing lot of the restau rant at one-thirty. Sum mer

school was in ses sion now and she wanted to be there un til af ter all

classes had had their lunch, then she told her sec re tary that she

would be away for sev eral hours this af ter noon at tend ing to busi-

ness, and might not be back be fore ev ery one left for the day, but she

would be reach able by phone.

I made a reser va tion, just in case, but the lunch rush was over

when we ar rived and we prob a bly wouldn’t have had any prob lem

find ing a ta ble any way. Our wait ress es corted us to a booth and set

down menus, tak ing our drink or ders.

We made small talk, with Niqe telling me about the first few days

of run ning sum mer ses sion at Jack son-West, how much she was ac-

tu ally en joy ing be ing the woman in charge for a change, and she

also men tioned that her hus band, El don, who was by now sup posed

to have been back from his lat est truck ing ad ven ture out in Texas,

had been de layed for an other few days on ac count of all the rain out

there over the past week. Ap par ently the storms we’d been ex pe ri-

enc ing here for the past cou ple of days had come from that di rec tion

and had been even stronger and more dev as tat ing for the Lone Star

State.

“Hope fully he’ll make it back by the week end,” she said, sip ping

from her glass of ice tea. “We have plans to go to the movies on Sat-

ur day night and I’m look ing for ward to that, and din ner.”

I nod ded. When I didn’t say any thing about the go ings on in my

life, Niqe smiled, leaned for ward un til I looked into her eyes.

“It is cus tom ary, Mr. Olin, when one shares in for ma tion about

their life with a lunch ac quain tance, that said ac quain tance re cip ro-

cates.”

“Re ally?” I said, rais ing my glass to my lips. “What does re cip ro-

cate mean any way?”

She smirked.

“Some body’s a smar tass,” she said.

“Fam ily tra di tion,” I said, then gave her a quick run down on my

life since last we had seen one an other, leav ing out the part about

the shoot ing on Fri day, the near shoot ing on Sat ur day, or any of the

de tails re gard ing the meet ings in my of fice be tween Benita Ben der

and Quin ton Beasley and Fa rina War ren and me.

Lunch ar rived and we tucked in, con tin u ing the con ver sa tion as

we ate, with me learn ing more about her life, as an ed u ca tor, as a

per son, the causes she was pas sion ate about, the things she liked to

do for fun.

“And, Mr. Olin, what do you like to do for fun?” she in quired, slid-

ing a fork ful of grilled salmon be tween her full lips, chew ing slowly

as she watched me.

A re ally loaded ques tion, and a part of me thought it was de lib er-

ately so. Right now I was re minded of ev ery teacher I had ever had a

crush on up through col lege.

“I read,” I told her, then went back to en joy ing my veg gie pasta

salad.

Niqe con tin ued look ing across at me and fi nally shook her head,

laugh ing.

“Nadya said you were in the Air Force, right?”

I nod ded.

“Yes.”

“Have you ever been wa ter boarded?” she said. “Be cause I’m se ri-

ously think ing about do ing that to you right now.”

She said it as a joke and I laughed as well, keep ing to my self the

fact that I had ex pe ri enced that lit tle plea sure some years ago, but as

a civil ian, down Flor ida way when I was in volved in dis man tling a

mili tia/do mes tic ter ror ist group called the Amer i can De fense

[x]

Brigade

.

I opened up a lit tle more, told her that at one time I had been a

great lover of Coun try mu sic, be fore the pop-cross over ruin be gan in

the late 1990s. And I told her about some of my other hob bies, when

I ac tu ally had time for that sort of thing as my work kept me pretty

busy.

When we were done the wait ress tried to tempt us with dessert,

and fi nally we re lented, agree ing to share a chunk of New York

cheese cake. I had brought my brief case in with me and when our

lunch dishes were cleared away I opened it and ex tracted an iPad,

pow er ing it up. Niqe moved around to my side of the ta ble, scoot ing

in close, and glanc ing down at the screen. I ex plained as I scrolled,

paused so she could read some high lighted por tions for her self.

The dessert ar rived and we paused to sam ple it.

“Go ing straight to my hips,” Niqe moaned as she closed her eyes

and sa vored the de li cious fla vor of the cheese cake. “But god is this

stuff good. Have to spend an ex tra hour on the tread mill tonight,

but it is so worth it.”

I smiled, shook my head, en joyed my half of the cheese cake.

Niqe saw me, frowned at first, then smirked.

“And what are you grin ning at?” she de manded. “You’re a guy, you

prob a bly don’t worry so much about stuff like that, but women have

to, es pe cially women my age.”

I prob a bly should have kept my mouth shut and eaten the rest of

my dessert, but I have al ways had a prob lem do ing that when it

comes to women, so why start now?

“First off, you look great, Niqe. Sec ond, I’m gonna let you in on a

lit tle guy se cret. De spite what you see on TV and other me dia out-

lets, most guys like women, pe riod, re gard less of size or shape. All

women are beau ti ful, and prac ti cally ev ery het ero sex ual male fan ta-

sizes about get ting them naked.”

I ate the last bit of my dessert and reached for the glass of milk I

had or dered with it.

Niqe sat back silently star ing at me, her ex pres sion search ing,

then she leaned her el bow on the ta ble, rested the side of her face in

the palm.

“I’m not sure if I agree with all of that,” she said thought fully af ter

some time. “But then I’m not a guy.”

“Def i nitely not,” I said, and she smiled, leaned over and touched

my arm. We looked into one an other’s eyes for some time af ter that,

un til she glanced away, re mov ing her hand from my arm a lit tle self-

con sciously. She fin ished the cheese cake and then asked me to con-

tinue the brief ing I had been giv ing her re gard ing a re cent pro posal

by the Birm ing ham Board of Ed u ca tion to pri va tize school safety

and se cu rity, and a few things I had found out about some of the

out side back ers of the pro posal.

She ex cused her self to go to the bath room and when she came

back I was just fin ish ing up some thing on my phone, putting it

away, the iPad al ready back in my brief case. She was back on the

other side of the ta ble across from me now.

“Well, Der rick, you have done far bet ter than I ever could have

hoped, and I thank you for that. Can’t say I’m one hun dred per cent

pleased with the re sults, though, or at all, but it is bet ter to know

than not. Now I just have to fig ure out what to do about it. Can you

email all of that to me so I can look it over later?”

“Al ready done,” I told her.

She nod ded.

“And your bill, please.”

I shook my head.

“No charge,” I said. “Re search wasn’t that dif fi cult and it was in-

for ma tion that was good for me to have any way.”

“But still…” she protested.

I held up a hand.

“No ar gu ments, Madam Act ing Prin ci pal,” I said sternly. “Un less

you want to stay af ter class.” Why in the hell did I have to say that?

Niqe looked at me and grinned, and it was a nice lit tle grin,

wicked even.

“Now that sounds like a lot of fun, Mr. Olin,” she said, fold ing her

arms on the ta ble, eyes still on mine. “What hap pens if I do?”

I’m not a re ally good flirter, but I can tell when a woman is in to

me, usu ally. And I do like to play. Some times, how ever, I find se ri-

ous and di rect is the best course.

“You know what I was do ing on my phone when you came out of

the bath room?” I said.

“What?” she said.

“I was mak ing a reser va tion for a king room at the Com fort Inn

just down the street, al ready pre paid, for to day.”

If I were ex pect ing in credulity or pi ous in dig na tion, I would have

been dis ap pointed. Af ter a few sec onds, Mrs. Monique Otis sat back

and glanced around the restau rant, then re fo cused her at ten tion on

me. She smiled again.

“Then why are we still sit ting here?” she said, mak ing to stand.

I stood, too. The bill had been taken care of while she was in the

bath room as well, and I left a cash tip as we de parted.

Out side, I held the door of her ve hi cle for her while she slid in be-

hind the wheel, her skirt hik ing up and of fer ing a won der ful view of

a smooth brown thigh en cased in a sheer stock ing. She caught me

look ing, leaned over and touched my belt.

“All good things come to those who wait,” she said. “Em pha sis on

the come.”

I grinned, squeezed her hand, then stepped back and closed the

door. She started her en gine, rolled down the win dow, leaned her

head out.

“Last one there has to lie on the wet spot af ter wards,” she whis-

pered.

I laughed, leaned close to her.

“Honey, when we’re done, the whole bed’s gonna be one gi gan tic

wet spot,” I told her, then turned and walked over to my jeep. She

was still sit ting and star ing at me when I cranked my en gine and

waved.

This should be fun.

Chap ter 24

There was awk ward ness at first, as is to be ex pected with ev ery first

time en counter of this na ture, and de spite her air of con fi dence in

ev ery other cir cum stance thus far, when we were alone in that top

floor king room about twenty min utes later, Niqe Otis seemed as

timid as if this was go ing to be her first time ever. I guess to some

ex tent it was, be cause ac cord ing to what she told me as we rode up

in the el e va tor to gether, she had never gone out side her mar riage

be fore, de spite years of un hap pi ness in the bed room with El don

Otis.

It was three p.m., she wasn’t go ing to make it back to school be-

fore classes let out for the day, which is why it’s good to be the boss,

even if only the act ing. I might go back by my of fice be fore head ing

home, or not. No need to re ally, if any thing im por tant had come up

or would come up, Jor dana would call, text, or email. Right now all I

wanted to con cen trate on was the still fully clothed forty-seven year

old caramel-skinned, full-bod ied black woman in my arms.

In no rush, I stared into her eyes for a few min utes as we em-

braced, just hold ing her close, our bod ies be com ing used to one an-

other, our arousal build ing. Her timid smile be came more re laxed as

our heat mixed to gether and she leaned her face close to mine.

The kiss took her by sur prise, and it showed in her widened eyes.

The sud den ness of it and the fact that I had kept my eyes open. I al-

ways do.

Niqe looked at me for a few mo ments, then smiled, lean ing in

again. We kissed again, and she didn’t close her eyes ei ther. This

was the ex plo ration and ex per i men ta tion phase, both of us try ing to

de ter mine what worked, what the other liked, and what we liked to-

gether. Ac tu ally, when it comes to kiss ing, I’m easy to please. De-

spite my out ward man ner most of the time, I’m ac tu ally quite fond

of phys i cal in ti macy.

She beat me to it and I laughed.

“You work out a lot I see,” she said, grin ning.

“Yes,” I said, feel ing her squeeze my ass with both hands.

“Great glutes,” she said.

“Yours ain’t bad ei ther, babe,” I said, ac quir ing my own grip.

We kissed again, and then I started mov ing her to ward the bed,

slowly, ca su ally, in no rush. When we reached it, she pulled back a

lit tle, swal lowed, glanced down for a mo ment. I re leased her butt,

put my right in dex fin ger un der her chin, lifted her head.

“If you want to stop…”

She sighed, shook her head.

“I don’t want to stop.”

I smiled.

“Good. Be cause I wasn’t gonna.”

Niqe laughed, raised both hands to ei ther side of my face and

pressed her lips against mine with a force and power that told me

she knew ex actly what she wanted, and what she wanted right now

was Der rick Olin.

Luck ily I be he.

THE NER VOUS NESS RE TURNED AS I be gan to un dress her, but

her ex cite ment grew as well, and I con tin ued to kiss and stroke her,

to tease and make her laugh, too. It seems that I’m quite the co me-

dian in the bed room, and soon she was lost in the plea sure of it all,

not wor ry ing about how she looked, how she thought she looked,

only en joy ing the things that I did to her. In time, as she re laxed

more, she be gan to do things to me, too, things which I re ally en-

joyed a lot, and at which Niqe was very good.

As my watch beeped and an nounced that the five p.m. hour had

ar rived (17:00 ac tu ally be cause my watch is set on the twenty-four

hour clock), Niqe lay flat on her stom ach quiv er ing and pant ing on

the bed, her eyes rolled back in her head. Twice she pounded the

mat tress with her tightly bawled left fist, screamed once, then con-

tin ued to shake un con trol lably.

I sat be side her on the bed, back propped against a pil low, a self-

sat is fied ex pres sion warm ing my face all the way down to the pit of

my stom ach, per haps lower. Maybe three min utes later Niqe started

laugh ing, tried to lift her head, and when that didn’t work, turned it

side ways so that she could look at me sit ting to her left.

“What the fuck was that?” she said in a still breath less and in cred-

u lous tone.

“What was what?” I said in no cently.

“What you just did to me,” she de manded. “Christ, ev ery nerve in

my body is still tin gling, I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to get out of

this bed, and speak ing of that, you were right.”

I smiled again.

“About what?” I said.

“About the whole bed be ing one big wet spot,” she grinned. “If you

do this to ev ery woman you sleep with, I’m amazed you haven’t been

kid napped and locked in one of their base ments by now, used as a

sex slave for the rest of your life. Or they haven’t vol un teered to be-

come yours.”

I chuck led, turned and dropped down be side her on my stom ach,

kissed her shoul der and then stared at her for a few mo ments.

“Did you like that?” I said.

“The hell do you think?” she laughed. “I mean, Je sus, I’m prob a-

bly still cum ming right now but am too spent to no tice. Yes, Der rick

Olin, I liked it. I fuck ing loved it!”

“Good,” I said, kiss ing her on the side of the mouth, my right hand

slid ing down to her thick butt and slowly rub bing across it.

This brought a smile to her face and she purred.

“So you like my big booty?” she teased.

“Oh yeah,” I told her. “Couldn’t you tell?”

She gig gled, then moaned as I slid a fin ger along its crease.

“I was pretty sure af ter the ten min utes you ded i cated to eat ing it

in the be gin ning. You know I’ve never had any one do that. My hus-

band and I have been mar ried for sev en teen years and he’s never

even hinted that he wanted to try, and be fore him, I had a good

num ber of boyfriends, but they were more in ter ested in what

pleased them, kind of like El don. All I can say is thank god for vi bra-

tors.”

I laughed, kissed her shoul der, con tin ued stroking her ass.

“You were pretty sure of your self to day, too,” she went on. “Mak-

ing that reser va tion, pay ing for the room in ad vance. What if I had

said no?”

“Which you had ev ery right to do,” I said. “But I knew you

wouldn’t. When you told me that your hus band was de layed out of

town for a few more days, that was pretty much the sig nal, whether

you re al ized it or not.”

She stared back at me thought fully for a few mo ments, then nod-

ded.

“You like sleep ing with mar ried women, don’t you?”

Af ter a brief pause, I nod ded.

“Yes. I do.”

She stared some more, then grinned and turned on her side, my

hand slid ing over to her thigh.

“So then I can well as sume that I am not your first? Or your

third?”

I didn’t say any thing, now stroking her thigh up to her hip.

Niqe leaned her face close to mine, slipped her arms around me.

“And I could not care less, Der rick,” she said, then we kissed.

She moved her hands down be tween us and started play ing with

my cock as the heat re turned. I slipped a hand be tween her lus cious

thighs and started to do the same to her, feel ing how wet she still

was as two fin gers en tered her. Niqe gasped, eyes widen ing, and just

a few short min utes later her eyes rolled back in her head again.

I turned to reach for an other con dom on the night stand be hind

me, and that’s the mo ment that my phone started buzzing. Shit!

As much as I wanted to ig nore it I knew I couldn’t, and af ter see-

ing the name on the caller ID this be came more ev i dent and shit

mor phed into fuck!

“Benita?” I an swered on the fourth ring, try ing to make my voice

sound as nor mal as pos si ble. Kind of hard to do with a horny high

school ad min is tra tor hold ing on to your cock, but I think I did all

right. “What’s up?”

Chap ter 25

Un like a lot of peo ple, I don’t hate lawyers as a gen eral rule, but

there are some mem bers of the pro fes sion that I could do with out.

Chuck Bagby, Esq. was quickly be com ing one of them.

Ini tially Benita Ben der had thought time was on her side be cause

past strat egy sug gested that Bagby would play the long game, stall,

force de lays, make end less mo tions to keep the pros e cu tion busy an-

swer ing them, fil ing counter mo tions and such un til he wore them

down. This is why Benita had wanted to get Beasley locked down

and on the record as soon as pos si ble so she could hit Ash worth

with a strong case and per haps force a deal, some thing that would

have been made much sim pler had he stuck with a pub lic de fender,

but he hadn’t. He’d gone out and hired a shark with huge, ra zor-

sharp teeth.

The call from the DDA was to tell me that she had to see Quin ton

Beasley to day, as soon as pos si ble, and if she couldn’t con vince him

to co op er ate be fore to mor row morn ing, then her mur der case

against Nicholas Ash worth was es sen tially fin ished. They’d prob a bly

get him on a few mi nor things, but at most he’d get one to two years

max, serve less than half that, then be out and run ning his drug em-

pire in North Birm ing ham again just like com ing back from an ex-

tended va ca tion on the state of Al abama.

I lis tened, told her I’d call her back, then called Ol lie, told him

what I needed to hap pen. He said he’d alert the team and take care

of it. Niqe Otis was sit ting up in bed be side me as I spoke on the

phone, and while I had been care ful not to men tion Beasley’s name,

she had over heard more than I would have liked. Still, I didn’t view

her as that much of a se cu rity risk, and I was sure I could en tice her

to keep her mouth shut about any thing she heard. My mouth would

likely fig ure promi nently into that en tice ment.

I leaned over and kissed her on the lips.

“Gonna need a rain check, dear,” I said, star ing deeply into her

dark eyes, then kiss ing the side of her neck.

She squirmed a lit tle, touched my chest, then let her hand drop to

my lap, specif i cally my erec tion.

“You gonna be able to walk with this thing?” she said, and we both

laughed.

I kissed her again, then rolled out of bed head ing for the bath-

room. I was dressed five min utes later, ready to go. Niqe was sit ting

on the side of the bed, her feet on the floor, still naked and beau ti ful,

and I was glad to see that she was now quite com fort able with her

nude ness. She glanced at me, just a hint of dis ap point ment in her

eyes, then stood and walked over to where I stood by the door.

“Call me when you can,” she said in a low, husky voice, then

kissed me.

I held onto her for a few mo ments longer, nod ded.

“I will,” I told her, then left with out a back wards glance.

No need to worry there, I thought as I dou ble-timed it for the

stairs. Al ready at the top of my to do list. Or should I say, my who to

do list?

EVEN THOUGH SET TING UP A MEET ING be tween the DDA and

my pro tectee seemed like a sim ple ac tion on the sur face, it was far

from that in prac tice, and in volved a lot of mov ing parts, and my en-

tire team, mean ing Bert and Sheila had to come on early this

evening and Ol lie and Frankie would be stay ing on past quit ting

time. It also meant that Jor dana Kauff man would be re main ing at

her post back in the of fice to co or di nate com mu ni ca tions and what-

ever else might be nec es sary for backup be fore the night was over.

The trans port van, now mi nus any side pan els, was in its re served

spot in the garage back at the of fice. When I left the ho tel in Five-

Points West, that’s where I headed, al ready had a set of keys in my

jeep—we all had a set. Once on the road I called Benita Ben der, this

was ac tu ally the sec ond time I had called her back. She was still in

her of fice, sit ting on pins and nee dles, anx ious be cause she wasn’t

ex actly sure how she was go ing to con vince Quin ton Beasley to co-

op er ate with what she needed him to do. But, as al ways, that was

her prob lem.

I told her to leave her of fice now and to drive over to Rail road

Park and leave her car. Then to get out and go into the park for a

while, walk around, do what ever, but stay ready to an swer her

phone when it rang next. And when it did, to fol low the in struc tions

of the per son who called her with out de vi a tion. I asked if she un der-

stood me, there was a brief pause, then she said she did. I hung up

with out fur ther com ment.

I drove over to Home wood to the town house/safe house. Not the

best time to do so be cause ev ery body was com ing home for the

evening and some folks were still out side, a few cu ri ous eyes fol low-

ing the van as it pro gressed to the last town house on the left. I

parked in the drive, climbed out, smiled and waved at my neigh bors.

They waved back, smiled, too, and be fore any of them got the bright

idea to come down and say hi, I took out my door key and hus tled

in side. It had seemed like a good idea in the be gin ning, but per haps

this much sub ur bia was too much for keep ing a safe house; at least

one that re quired ir reg u lar traf fic at odd times. The peo ple who

lived here were mid dle class and cu ri ous, and prob a bly would call

the cops in a heart beat if they sus pected some thing ne far i ous. It’s a

good thing I have ex cel lent li ai son with the Home wood cops, even

the ones who don’t like me. A prob lem to be ad dressed later,

though.

Ol lie greeted me at the front door, his Glock .357 held down by his

right leg.

“Beasley ready?” I said, mov ing past him into the liv ing room.

“He’s dressed but he be ing kind of pouty, don’t un der stand why

he has to keep go ing out to meet the DA lady, why she can’t come

here?”

“Did you ex plain it to him?” I said, smil ing.

Ol lie smirked.

“Only ex plain ing I do is with this,” he hefted the Glock, then put it

back in the hol ster on his right hip. “But Frankie did, him be ing the

diplo mat and all.”

“That must have gone over well,” I said, glanc ing out around the

closed front cur tains. “Any of the neigh bors try stop ping by in the

last few days?”

“Nah,” Ol lie said. “Thought they might ‘fore now, but so far they

been stayin’ away. Look like most of the peo ple here work dur ing

the day, and since school out, the kids, if they ain’t in a camp some-

where, go to day care. Pretty quiet dur ing the day. Get busy dur ing

shift change, but they been leav ing us alone.”

I nod ded, turned back.

“Good,” I said. “But in the fu ture we might not use this safe house

for a pro tectee who has to go out so much. Maybe use one of the

oth ers in the less fam ily-friendly neigh bor hoods.”

Ol lie grinned.

“You mean in the hood,” he said.

I didn’t re spond, and my phone buzzed. It was Bert Cortez.

“Go, Bert,” I said, ac ti vat ing the speaker func tion so Ol lie could

hear.

“I’m on site and ev ery thing is five-by-five, boss. Ready and able to

re ceive.”

“Copy that,” I said, glanc ing at my watch. I’ll let you know when

we’re on the way. Bye.”

He said bye and hung up.

“Now all we have to do is wait for Sheila’s call,” Ol lie said, and my

phone buzzed again.

Sheila.

THE MA SON CITY NEIGH BOR HOOD IS WEST of Home wood and

our des ti na tion is re ally only about four miles away, but, of course,

we would not be tak ing a di rect route, and be fore we were done it

would be triple that or more.

Frankie drove the van and Ol lie drove backup in Frankie’s car. It

had been funny lis ten ing to him swear over the ra dio as he was ad-

just ing the seat in Frankie’s car. There is a sig nif i cant height dif fer-

ence be tween the two men. Frankie grinned and shook his head.

While we were mov ing, Jor dana was at the of fice watch ing live

feeds from all the traf fic cam eras in the area where we were op er at-

ing, ad vis ing us of prob lems along the way, help ing us to avoid the

af ter math of two auto ac ci dents. She was also keep ing track of

Sheila’s progress as she made her way to the ren dezvous lo ca tion

with tonight’s spe cial guest from the DA’s Of fice. If tim ing held,

we’d get there a few min utes ahead of them. The sun was go ing

down fast now and that would help with coun ter surveil lance, make

it eas ier to spot ve hi cles that kept show ing up in the back ground, al-

though we thought it highly un likely that any body was fol low ing us.

Still, like I al ways say, bet ter cau tious than dead.

Safe house #2 is lo cated on May field Av enue South west just north

of 15th Av enue South west in Ma son City, a place that would not be

de scribed as sub ur bia, not quite the hood ei ther, but closer to the

lat ter.

The house was the sec ond from the north end of the street where

May field be came Arthur Shores Drive. Neat and well-main tained,

like most of the other houses on the block, save for a cou ple. There

was no garage but a long drive way that led to the back of the house

on the right side. Frankie pulled in and went all the way back while

Ol lie con tin ued on past and did a more thor ough perime ter check.

Bert’s car was in the back yard parked near the six-foot chain link

fence. As Frankie braked near the back door, it opened and Bert ap-

peared, hold ing an FN P90 across his stom ach, mostly con cealed by

his arms. I was al ready rolling out of the back and reach ing for

Beasley, mov ing him in side quickly as Bert cov ered. Frankie was al-

ready turn ing the van around so that it would point in the di rec tion

we needed it to if a fast exit was re quired.

In side, I took Beasley to the back bed room and told him to re lax

un til Benita ar rived, asked if he was hun gry, but he said no. He

seemed very un happy and I could un der stand why, but could do

very lit tle about it. For some strange rea son at that mo ment I

thought about Leigh Dan ton, mused that she could prob a bly do

some thing to lift his spir its, but that wasn’t hap pen ing right now ei-

ther, so I left him alone.

Sheila re ported she was one minute out. Ol lie was some where

down on 15th and re ported that he could see her com ing, told her to

go to the front of the house and drop off her pas sen ger, then cir cle

down to Arthur Shores and check the perime ter on that side. Sheila

ac knowl edged his or der but added that she had some thing she

needed to tell us both when there was time.

This did not alarm me, but I could tell by her tone that some thing

was up and it was im por tant. I told her to make a quick check of

Arthur Shores and then come back, along with Ol lie. Frankie and

Bert would cover the perime ter while they were in side the house

with me.

There were two ac knowl edge ments, and af ter two more min utes, I

was open ing the door and greet ing Deputy DA Ben der. She had on a

navy blue skirt suit and white blouse, her long black hair hang ing

freely around her shoul ders. She had a green purse slung across her

left shoul der and car ried two large black leather brief cases in both

hands. A lawyer loaded for com bat. She was not smil ing. I didn’t

blame her.

Af ter se cur ing the front door and leav ing Bert up front, I led her

back to the bed room where her wit ness awaited, knocked once, then

opened the door.

I left them to it, re turn ing to the liv ing room and check ing in with

Jor dana.

“No ma jor traf fic prob lems in your area,” she re ported. “And the

po lice scan ner isn’t show ing much ac tiv ity ei ther. I’ll keep mon i tor-

ing.”

“Thanks, Jord,” I said. “Don’t for get to add in your over time for

tonight.”

She snick ered.

“Are you kid ding?” she said. “I’ve al ready put my self in for a raise

tonight.”

I chuck led.

“Good luck with that,” I said, turn ing as I saw head lights re flect

be hind the cur tains, turn ing into the drive. I nod ded at Bert, then

called Frankie who was still sit ting out side in the van.

The switch off took sixty sec onds and then Ol lie and Sheila were

in the kitchen with me.

“Let’s make this quick,” I said. “I want to keep some body out in

the van just in case we have to book in a hurry. Okay, Sheila, what is

it?”

“Some body was fol low ing the DA when she got to the park,”

Sheila said in her quiet and sim ple way. “Two some bod ies, and one

of them I know.”

Okay, now I was a lit tle wor ried.

Af ter a quick pause and a glance at Ol lie, I asked Ms. Sheila to

con tinue, which she did.

Chap ter 26

“Name’s En dre Evans, both names start with an E. Black male, ap-

prox i mately twenty-five, dark skinned, maybe six feet tall, thick

black afro in des per ate need of a trim. Last seen this evening near

Rail road Park wear ing blue jeans, an over sized LA Laker’s jer sey,

white high-tops, a blue ball cap turned around back wards, and black

wrap around shades. And he was in the com pany of an other black

male, about the same age, but his iden tity is un known. Blue jeans, a

long white T-shirt hang ing out side his pants, gray high-tops, red

ball cap turned back wards. Maybe five-ten. I have it on good au thor-

ity that Mr. Evans is a shooter in Nicky Ash worth’s north side crew.”

“Good au thor ity?” Kurt Bax ter said with a hint of sar casm as he

spoke through the phone. “Well con sid er ing what some of the folks

who work for you used to do be fore, I sup pose that counts as au-

thor ity, but don’t know about good.”

I de cided to let that pass.

“Any way, when Benita was be ing picked up to be brought to the

meet ing she is in now with her wit ness, my op er a tor spot ted this

duo fol low ing her around the park. Don’t think Benita ever re al ized

it, not be ing trained for that sort of thing. Eva sive ac tion was taken

once they left the park and we’re sure they weren’t fol lowed to the

meet ing lo ca tion, but I fig ured you’d want to know as soon as pos si-

ble.”

“Yeah, Der rick, thanks, man. I’m at my desk now and look ing up

Evans. I’ll check known as so ciates, maybe email some pics over to

you so your guy can see if any match with the thug gie he saw.”

“That’ll be fine,” I told him. “But my guy is a gal.”

“Ah,” he said, fin gers click ing keys down the line. “I stand cor-

rected. Just a sec ond, got it now. Yeah, En dre Evans. Long wrap

sheet. He’ll be thirty in two months, if he lives that long. Been

busted a lot, sev eral con vic tions, done stretches in County and the

State. And our files have him cur rently work ing for Nicky Ash worth.

I got about fif teen, maybe twenty other pos si bles that I’m gonna

send over to you. Some of the pho tos aren’t great, but it’s the best

we got.”

“I’ll have Sheila take a look and let you know. But in the mean-

time, you know what this means, Kurt, and why I’m tak ing this so

se ri ously?”

“Yeah,” he said as the typ ing on the other end stopped. “It’s be gin-

ning to look more and more like this leak has a lot more to do with

Quin ton Beasley and Nicky Ash worth than any thing else. The leaks

started be fore Ash worth was ar rested but now it seems like he’s at

the cen ter, and so is Beasley. Who ever is be hind this is some where

at the heart of the PD or the DA’s Of fice, maybe both. Ex pos ing the

iden ti ties of wit nesses and CIs, and now hav ing the DDA on the

Ash worth case fol lowed, prob a bly hop ing she’d lead them to her

wit ness. Gonna have to ar range for pro tec tion for Benita. Can you

make sure she gets home safe tonight? I’ll call Chief Ep stein and see

what we can ar range, maybe ar range for a team from the DA’s Se cu-

rity Unit.”

“I’ll make sure she’s safe tonight,” I said. “When she’s done with

Beasley, I’ll tell her about this. Re ally brighten up her night.”

“How’s it go ing in there?” he asked.

“Well I haven’t heard any shout ing in the last half hour,” I said.

“Progress I sup pose. Benita is re ally push ing hard be cause as she

said, if she can’t count on Beasley as a wit ness, her mur der case is

sunk. Won’t re ally be a need for any body to kill him.”

“And that might be the point, Der rick,” Kurt said. “In tim i da tion

works al most as well as dead. A wit ness that won’t tes tify is just as

use ful to the de fense as one that can’t.”

Some thing oc curred to me for the sec ond time to day and I took a

few mo ments to rea son it out. Af ter a bit, Kurt in quired and I told

him to hold on while I thought some more. I was in the liv ing room.

Bert and Frankie were out driv ing the perime ter, Sheila was in the

van out in the back part of the long drive way, and Ol lie was just out-

side the bed room where Quin ton Beasley and Benita Ben der were

do ing ver bal bat tle, a Benelli shot gun cra dled across his chest.

“They were fol low ing Benita to day, Kurt,” I said sud denly. “And

how would they know to do that, to day of all days? How would they

know she was go ing to meet with Beasley? To day?”

“They could have been fol low ing her be fore,” he pointed out.

“Yeah,” I ad mit ted. “But I know they weren’t fol low ing her on

Mon day when she came to my of fice. My peo ple had the place cov-

ered, coun ter surveil lance was tight. There was no body on her. To-

day there was.”

“Means some body had to know she was go ing to see Beasley

tonight,” he said. “And the only way they could know that is if they

were privy to cur rent de vel op ments, know ing that she was go ing to

need him to come to the of fice in the morn ing and make a for mal ID

and start the de po si tion process on the record. And the only way

they could know that is if they knew what Ash worth’s new lawyer

had started.”

“Which might be why Ash worth’s lawyer started it,” I said.

Si lence, then a sigh.

“I think Chuck Bagby is a bot tom-feed ing ass hole my self, Der rick,

but it kind of goes with the ter ri tory for a de fense lawyer. He does

earn his money de fend ing scum bags, no doubt about that, but

think ing that he might have some in volve ment in our leak sit u a tion,

and that he’s ar rang ing to have a wit ness knocked off, that’s a lit tle

be yond it in my book.”

“Maybe,” I con sid ered. “And maybe not. Kurt, the in ves ti ga tion

be longs to you and Paige, not re ally any of my busi ness, but I would

highly rec om mend you con sider the pos si bil ity that At tor ney Bagby

is some how in volved, maybe only in a pe riph eral way, and if that is

the case, good luck to you on that one be cause get ting a judge to

sign off on any war rants for records, not to men tion phys i cal and

elec tronic sur veil lance, is not go ing to be re motely easy.”

Kurt ex haled loudly and was silent for a long time. Fi nally I heard

him ex hale again.

“I’ll email those pics in a minute, Der rick,” he said. “Then call

Chief Ep stein and Paige. Thanks for the info, and the sink ing feel ing

in my gut now.”

“Any time, pal,” I said with a dry chuckle, then hung up.

Just then I heard a door bang open at the back of the house. In te-

rior door, likely from the bed room where Beasley and Ben der were.

A few mo ments later Benita came steam ing into the front room

shak ing her head in frus tra tion and look ing as if she were ready to

kill. She stopped a few feet away from me, hands on her nar row but

nicely de fined hips, eyes de fi ant.

“Would you shoot me if I killed him right now?” she raged.

As in ap pro pri ate as it was at that mo ment, I ac tu ally smiled,

walked over and put a hand on her shoul der.

“Prob a bly just wing ya,” I told her.

And de spite not feel ing like it, and strug gling re ally hard not to,

Benita grinned, too. It was good to see her do that, and I knew it

wouldn’t last long, con sid er ing her cur rent frus tra tions and what I

was about to tell her.

“Come on,” I said, guid ing her to the kitchen in back. “I’ll make

you some tea and you can take a rest break.”

She sighed, nod ded, ex haus tion and frus tra tion in equal mea sures

col or ing her coun te nance. Silently she let me lead her to the kitchen.

Chap ter 27

The tea went un touched af ter I told her about the tail she had grown

to day, and though I didn’t be lieve it was pos si ble, Benita’s com plex-

ion went even paler as the re al iza tion of what could have hap pened

to her be gan to sink in. I reached over and squeezed her hands as we

sat at the kitchen ta ble, the cups steam ing in front of us. Af ter a cou-

ple of min utes, she looked at me, eyes still dis be liev ing.

“They might have killed me,” she said in a low whis per.

“Likely not,” I told her, not one hun dred per cent truth fully. “They

wanted to see if you would lead them to Beasley.”

“Then they would have killed us both!” she raged.

“No, they wouldn’t have,” I replied calmly, still hold ing her hands.

“Be cause my team was here. Beasley is safe and so are you.”

I don’t think she was lis ten ing to me any more, at least not com-

pletely. She glanced away, then back, some thing oc cur ring to her.

“If they know who I am, they might know where I live. What if

they go to my home, Aaron is there!”

“Then they’re likely to get their asses beaten by his In cred i ble

Hulk arms,” I said lightly. Benita was not amused, glanc ing around.

“I need to make a call,” she de manded. “Tell my hus band to get

out of the house, to go to a ho tel or some thing.”

“Benita, you can cer tainly do that,” I said. “But you might not

want to up set Aaron just yet. While we’ve been sit ting here talk ing

I’ve re ceived two text mes sages, one from Kurt Bax ter, the other

from Anita Ep stein. Even though you live in Hoover, Anita’s ar-

ranged to have an un der cover car from CIU watch your house

around the clock for the time be ing. They’re there now, in fact. Of fi-

cers se lected by Kurt. And be gin ning in the morn ing, you’ll have a

pro tec tive es cort, two deputies from the DA’s Se cu rity Unit, peo ple

you al ready know.”

“What about Aaron?” she de manded. “He’s my hus band, they

could go af ter him to get at me, Der rick! If any thing ever hap pened

to him be cause…” She broke off, nearly in tears, and there was a

tremor mov ing through her body. I squeezed her hands harder.

“Nita, look at me, please.”

She did, both her eyes be gin ning to fill.

“I’ll see to it that he’s looked af ter, too,” I promised, right now

hav ing no clue how I was go ing to pull that off, given my lim ited and

al ready com mit ted re sources. And it was un likely that Ep stein

would be able to pull off po lice pro tec tion for a civil ian, even if he

was the hus band of a lead pros e cu tor. Ah well, I’m sure I’d think of

some thing. On the other hand, if some thing did hap pen to hubby

Aaron… a sexy young widow in need of con so la tion… Best not to

pur sue that line of thought and get on with it.

KURT SENT THE PHO TOS IN AN EMAIL and I for warded them to

Sheila. A cou ple min utes later she hit me back, pos i tively iden ti fy ing

En dre Evans and an other fel low as his ac com pa ni ment from ear lier,

one Larry George Fra zier, Jr., age twenty-three, of the Col legeville

neigh bor hood. I took a few mo ments to down load his photo and the

one of Evans to my SD card, then sent the news to Kurt.

Benita had got ten up and gone to the bath room. She re turned just

as I hit SEND. The woman I was look ing at now was com pletely

com posed, strong, de ter mined, and highly pissed off. I stood and

stared at her.

“How you feel ing?” I said.

She ac tu ally man aged a cold smile.

“Like I’m go ing to ram my foot up some body’s ass in the very near

fu ture,” she said.

I smiled.

“Quite,” I said.

The pros e cu tor nod ded, turned, and headed back to the bed room

where Quin ton Beasley waited. Right now I was glad not to be him.

My phone buzzed and I took it off my belt, glanc ing at the caller

ID, then an swered.

I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT BENITA SAID to her wit ness dur ing the

next forty-five min utes that they were be hind closed doors, but

when next I saw him he was the one who looked as white as a sheet,

and had great dif fi culty meet ing any one’s eyes. Benita, on the other

hand, had a sat is fied, some what smug, ex pres sion on her face as she

walked out be hind him, right hand rest ing on his left shoul der. Ap-

par ently Mr. Beasley had con sented to go to the DA’s Of fice in the

morn ing and make ev ery thing of fi cial.

This, of course, would make things more dif fi cult for my team be-

cause we were sup posed to be keep ing the fact that we were pro tect-

ing him a se cret from prac ti cally ev ery body as so ci ated with law en-

force ment, es pe cially in that build ing. How ever, Benita had the so-

lu tion to that al ready in hand, and af ter hear ing her idea, I thought

it stood a good chance of work ing. And if it didn’t, at least the egg

(and prob a bly a lot of blood and brains) wouldn’t be all over the

team’s face.

The team de parted first, tak ing Beasley back to the Home wood

safe house.

“Aren’t you wor ried that I know about this place now?” she said to

me once we were alone, stand ing in the front room. “Or do you plan

to do away with me now that there are no wit nesses around?”

I turned and grinned.

“And blame it on the bad guys,” I quipped. “Neat so lu tion. But no.

I’m go ing to set the auto-de struct be fore we leave.”

Again, she wasn’t sure if I was jok ing, I have per fect dead pan de-

liv ery. Then I smiled.

“Gotcha,” I said, step ping past her. “No, just gonna trust you to

keep this place to your self.” Not en tirely true, be cause it was un-

likely that we would ever use it for any thing other than meet ings in

the fu ture, prob a bly only on this as sign ment. We had oth ers that

were still se cure. “Time to get you home.”

She glanced at her watch.

“Damn, al most ten o’clock. I had no idea it was this late. I should

prob a bly call Aaron. I sent him a text ear lier. He’s prob a bly tried to

call but I had my phone off while in with Quin ton.”

“You can call him on the road,” I told her, glanc ing at my phone.

“Our ride is here.”

She looked at me frown ing.

“I was won der ing how we were get ting out of here,” she said.

“Con sid er ing that all the ve hi cles left with your team. You or der Lyft

or some thing?”

“Wouldn’t even know how to do that,” I told her, mov ing to ward

the front door, peer ing around the front cur tains. My jeep had just

pulled into the drive way, driven by Jor dana Kauff man. Tonight she

would be do ing a bit more than of fice and busi ness man age ment,

and now more than ever I was glad I’d hired an ex pe ri enced ex-cop

for the job.

JOR DANA HAD BROUGHT AN ELEC TRONIC tracker de tec tion

de vice with her from the of fice and Benita and I sat in my jeep and

watched as she care fully and ex pertly ran it over the en tire ex te rior

of Benita’s car on the west side of Rail road Park just af ter ten-thirty.

She re ally hadn’t needed it to find the clum sily placed cheap Ra dio

Shack GPS tracker they had placed on the gray Hyundai SUV’s back

bumper, and now she was check ing fur ther to be thor ough, just in

case. I’d al ready smashed the tracker and had a look around to see if

any body was hid ing any where close by. There did not ap pear to be

any one, prob a bly fig ur ing they could let tech nol ogy do the work for

them.

When she was sat is fied, Jor dana stored the equip ment back in its

case in the trunk and once more climbed in be hind the wheel.

“It’s clean now, boss,” she said with a gleam in her eyes.”

“Miss the field much, Ms. Kauff man?” I said.

She grinned, but said noth ing.

I turned in the seat to face Benita in back.

“If you don’t mind, I’m go ing to drive your car and Jor dana is go-

ing to fol low us, just to be sure. As I said be fore, there’s an un der-

cover car at your place now and I have the num ber to the of fi cers on

duty. I’m go ing to call them be fore we ar rive, let them know we’re

com ing. In the morn ing, your de tail will ar rive to es cort you to

work.”

“And what about Aaron?” she hur riedly asked.

“I’m tak ing care of that my self,” I said with out hes i ta tion, the de-

tails still fuzzy in my mind. Fuzzy as in nonex is tent. At least so far.

She nod ded, smiled tightly, thanked me.

I glanced at Jor dana, she nod ded, and then I climbed out and let

Benita out of the back of the jeep, walk ing her to the pas sen ger’s

side of her ve hi cle.

Robert Frost came to my mind at that mo ment: “The woods are

lovely, dark and deep, but I have prom ises to keep, and miles to go

be fore I sleep…”

And I was also think ing about Charles Bron son and the movie

Tele fon as I climbed be hind the wheel and started the en gine. I was

maybe twelve the first time I saw that movie and heard the phrase a

man should do what he’s best at. In Bron son’s case, as KGB Ma jor

Grig ori Bor zov, what he did best was killing peo ple. In my case, the

op po site. Mostly.

I was tired and had a lot to do be tween now and in the morn ing,

and some of it I had no clue how I was go ing to pull off. Al most for-

got ten was the cou ple of hours I had spent naked with Niqe Otis ear-

lier this af ter noon. Al most, but not com pletely. Some thing else to

get back into later.

Benita no ticed I was smil ing as I pulled out onto the street, my

jeep right be hind us. She smiled as well.

“You laugh ing at my fuzzy dice?” she in di cated the pair hang ing

from the rearview mir ror.

I chuck led and nod ded, but said noth ing. Benita laughed, too, and

it was nice to hear.

Chap ter 28

Wednes day night was a two-hour night, mean ing I only got two

hours of sleep, and was lucky to get that. Over the years I have

learned to sur vive off a lot less, even if I didn’t like it. I skipped the

run Thurs day morn ing, opt ing in stead for ten min utes with my

Body Blade and ten min utes of towel danc ing, that ex er cise rou tine

I had ac ci den tally de vel oped a few years ago which in volved a bath

towel and me mov ing about the front room of my loft twist ing and

turn ing, swing ing the towel around, catch ing it, so on and so forth

as I worked up a good sweat. This morn ing I only dropped the towel

once.

So I was show ered and out the door by 05:30, pulling into the lot

of a diner off Lorna Road in Hoover by six, find ing the blue Bronco

that be longed to Jor dana Kauff man al ready there, along with sev-

eral oth ers. The woman her self climbed out when I parked next to

her, climbed in my front seat.

“Didn’t I just see you twenty min utes ago?” she quipped, set tling.

“Seems like it,” I said, sti fling a yawn. “And thanks for do ing this,

Jord. I know it’s not ex actly what you signed up for.”

“Please,” she said. “I wel come it, Der rick. I like the of fice thing I

do for you just fine, but to be hon est, when Paige told me about the

job at Triple-D, I have to ad mit that I was kinda hop ing you’d have a

slot open in the field. I know you needed some body for of fice sup-

port, and I’m cool with that, but I don’t mind this, too. Be sides, I’ve

got my phone and tablet with me. The of fice num ber is rolled to my

phone so I can stay on top of work if I need to while I’m shad ow ing

Mr. Ja cob son to day.”

I nod ded, glanc ing around.

“I re ally don’t think he’s in any dan ger, but Benita is wor ried and I

promised I’d have some body keep an eye on him. I don’t know how

much she told him last night, and I can imag ine he’ll be more wor-

ried about her, and pissed off, prob a bly won’t want some body look-

ing af ter him ei ther.”

“Least of all a woman, right?” Jor dana said.

I smiled.

“I don’t know about that,” I said. “Af ter all, he is mar ried to a re-

ally strong woman and I’m sure he wouldn’t want to piss her off.”

She smiled, glanced at her watch, and at that mo ment my phone

buzzed. It was Benita Ben der. She sounded a lot bet ter this morn ing

than last night, which was good. Then she told me about her con ver-

sa tion with her hus band Aaron.

Yeah, he hadn’t been pleased at all.

AT EIGHT, OL LIE AND I AR RIVED AT the south end of the Law-

son State Com mu nity Col lege build ing at the cor ner of 24th Street

and 7th Av enue North in the ACME Build ing Sup pli ers van, fol-

lowed by Frankie in his per sonal ve hi cle, park ing half a block away.

Kurt Bax ter was al ready parked at the curb in an un marked black

Sub ur ban that screamed cop. Quin ton Beasley was only on the

street for two-point three sec onds be fore he was in the back of the

Sub ur ban and Kurt took off the sec ond the side door closed.

We cov ered them for the few blocks it took un til they reached the

DA’s Of fice at the cor ner of Richard Ar ring ton Jr. Boule vard and

Rev erend Abra ham Woods Jr. Boule vard, a four deputy pro tec tive

team al ready wait ing on the street to es cort them in side. Al though

[xi]

we were ty ing up traf fic on RAJ

, I told Ol lie to hold for a few mo-

ments so that we could make sure they ac tu ally got in side the build-

ing un mo lested. Just as they did so, I no ticed an other fa mil iar fig ure

close to the en trance, a few feet away, lean ing against the brick wall

with her arms folded across her chest. Paige Palmer in a dark blue

pantsuit, eyes scan ning ev ery thing top to bot tom. I knew that if any-

one ap peared as if they were a threat to Beasley, Paige was ready to

deal with them. That made me smile a lit tle, and I nod ded.

“Okay, let’s go,” I said, just as some an gry horns started honk ing.

Ol lie nod ded, glanc ing into the rearview mir ror.

“Roger that,” he said, waited a few sec onds more, just be cause,

then pulled off, turn ing left on 9th Av enue. “So how long you fig ure

all this de po si tion stuff will take?”

“Benita says pretty much the en tire day,” I told him. “At least till

five o’clock. And while Beasley is there he should be pretty safe, and

the re spon si bil ity of the cops. Prob a bly a good bet no body will take

a run at him in there. Hope fully. I was think ing about giv ing you

and Frankie a bit of a break if you need it.”

“I’m good,” Ol lie said as he braked at a light. “Know Frankie is

too. You got Jor dana cov er ing the DA’s hubby right now, right?”

“Yeah,” I said. “Not happy about that, but she’s all I have left in

the quiver at the mo ment.”

“And she prob a bly lik ing be ing out from be hind the desk for a

while?”

“She is. And if we de cide to ex pand the num ber of field op er a tors

we use, she’s al ready let me know she wants to be con sid ered.”

Ol lie nod ded as the light changed.

“Fig ured that,” he said. “And we could do worse. But right now it

might be good if she go back to the of fice and let me or Frankie

cover the hus band. And one of us could hang around here, just in

case.”

I thought about that for a bit, then de cided against mak ing that

change right now.

“It would be the log i cal thing to do,” I ad mit ted. “But Jor dana

might mis in ter pret it as a sleight of her abil i ties. She can han dle the

job, and be sides, she prob a bly blends in bet ter at UAB than ei ther of

you.”

“Fair point,” Ol lie said. “Frankie would have been my choice,

though. Even in his thir ties with some pretty se ri ous eyes, he still

look young enough to pass as a stu dent. Me, prob a bly a phi los o phy

pro fes sor or some thing.”

I snorted.

“You mean pro fes sor of bull shit, right?” I said, and we both

laughed.

Chap ter 29

Paige met me for lunch at Mugshots in the Up town Dis trict of the

Birm ing ham-Jef fer son Con ven tion Com plex less than a half mile

from the DA’s Of fice. She was still wear ing the pantsuit and I smiled

when she came in car ry ing a brief case slung over her left shoul der

and wear ing her glasses, some thing she usu ally tried to avoid do ing

in pub lic. When she saw me grin ning as she ap proached the ta ble,

she smirked, slid ing into the booth op po site me, tak ing her eye wear

off and toss ing it on the ta ble.

“Smar tass.”

“I haven’t said a word,” I protested lamely.

“But you were think ing some thing naughty,” she replied, un strap-

ping her brief case and set ting it on the floor un der the ta ble.

I snick ered, leaned for ward.

“Well who would know that bet ter than you?”

“Do I need to kick you un der this ta ble, Mr. Olin?”

“Kind of kinky, but I can get into it,” I teased.

Paige grinned, shook her head.

“Didn’t say I was gonna kick you in the nuts,” she man aged. “But

maybe some body ought to.”

Our waiter came over and we made drink and food or ders, both

al ready know ing what we were get ting. Ac tu ally the only thing I ever

or der here is the veg gie burger with a side of sweet potato fries.

Paige or dered a chicken salad and reg u lar fries, and a beer.

When she saw me look ing at her she smirked again.

“I’m not a cop any more, so I can have a beer with my lunch.”

“Again, I didn’t say a thing,” I replied.

“And again, I could hear you think ing it,” she said.

I smiled, shook my head.

“Any news from the court house?” I said.

“Spoke to Kurt,” she said. “Beasley has made two for mal IDs,

photo ar ray in dealer fash ion, and an ac tual phys i cal line up with

Ash worth and oth ers who closely re sem ble him. His lawyer, Chuck

Bagby, was there for that one. Kept his mouth shut while the iden ti-

fi ca tion was tak ing place, but then went up to Beasley and in tro-

duced him self, told him that he was the ac cused’s lawyer and asked

if he would be will ing to speak to him. Ac cord ing to Kurt, Benita

didn’t like that one bit, got be tween them and told Bagby to back off

be fore she had him charged with wit ness in tim i da tion. Bagby just

smiled and walked out of the room to go tell his client that he got

picked out. He’ll prob a bly try for bail but is un likely to get it, con sid-

er ing the crime and Ash worth’s ex ten sive crim i nal record, but he

has to earn his fee, I sup pose. Af ter lunch they’re gonna be do ing the

for mal de po si tion. That’ll prob a bly run through the rest of the day.

Might even have to have him come back to mor row to fin ish.”

I nod ded and our food ar rived.

A few min utes later, Paige wiped her mouth and looked over at

me.

“Al most for got to tell you some thing. Pa trol picked up Pointer,

aka Justin Lin coln, the guy who sup pos edly dis patched the three to

Beasley’s place last Sat ur day.”

“Re ally?” I said. “Do tell.”

“Un for tu nately there isn’t much to tell, I’m afraid. Pointer claims

he has no idea who any of them are and that he never sent any body

to Quin ton Beasley’s place. And since ev ery body uses burn phones

and have enough sense to get rid of them these days…”

“Dead end,” I fin ished for her.

“Yeah,” she said. “But the good news is he had some coke and ec-

stasy on him when Pa trol got him, plus some war rants in other ju-

ris dic tions. They can prob a bly hold him for at least forty-eight hours

while they try to get some thing out of him, at the very least in con ve-

nience him a lit tle.”

“What about the two that Sheila iden ti fied who were fol low ing

Benita last night?” I said.

“Still noth ing there,” she told me, chew ing down some of her fries.

“BO LOs have been passed through ev ery roll call in Birm ing ham

and Jef fer son County. We don’t have the re sources to scour all their

known haunts right now, but sooner or later we’ll run them down.

Or some body will give them up. Ev ery body’s tap ping their snitch

fund.”

I was quiet for a few mo ments and Paige stared cu ri ously, con tin-

u ing to eat her food.

“That’s prob a bly more dif fi cult than be fore,” I said.

“What?” she said.

“Us ing snitches, CIs,” I said. “Given what peo ple know or at least

sus pect about what’s been hap pen ing there.”

“There have been some prob lems as I un der stand it,” Paige ad mit-

ted. “More re luc tance than usual, even when cops lean hard, threat-

en ing to use what ever they’re hold ing over their CI’s head to send

them back in side. Some have said they’d rather be back be hind bars

and alive than be a dead snitch. We need to get a han dle on this

thing be fore the dam age is per ma nent.”

“How’s it go ing on that front?” I in quired, tak ing an other bite of

my veg gie burger. I hated the black beans, but Mugshots seemed to

think this was the best meat less burger ever in vented. It wasn’t but

the Swiss cheese helped, and the BBQ sauce.

“Headache and a half,” Paige said, wip ing her mouth and hands

on an other nap kin, then push ing her plate away and reach ing un der

the ta ble for her brief case. “Mind if I show you some thing?”

I couldn’t re sist the smile.

“You fuck ing over sexed per vert!” she said in a low tone as she

fought not to smile, los ing that fight and shak ing her head. “I’m not

show ing you that this af ter noon. Maybe never again if you keep mis-

be hav ing.”

I chuck led.

“Right,” I said. “So what did you want to show me?”

She opened her brief case and with drew sev eral file fold ers, pil ing

them in front of her be fore re turn ing the case to the floor.

‘These,” she said, open ing the top folder and pass ing it across the

ta ble to me.

I WAS FIN ISH ING MY THIRD GLASS of ice tea when I fin ished go-

ing through the brief Paige had pre pared, shak ing my head and sud-

denly re al iz ing how much I needed to re lieve my blad der. Paige

laughed, said she had to do the same thing, now that I men tioned it.

I won roshambo but gen tle manly of fered to let her go first (we

didn’t want to leave our ta ble unat tended while we both went), but

Paige told me to go first be cause I’d likely be quicker. I was, back in

three min utes, hands washed and all, and then she went.

When she came out ten min utes later, I had gone through the

high lights once again, and or dered a fourth glass of tea. The waiter

was hov er ing close by and asked if Paige would like a re fill. She

shook her head defini tively. I told the waiter we were good and he

could bring the check when he was ready, we were just go ing to sit

and talk for a while longer. He nod ded and left.

Paige hunched for ward on her side of the ta ble and stared at me.

“Well?” she said ea gerly.

“Well the first thing I rec om mend is that Chief Ep stein re or ga nize

the de part ment’s CI and wit ness ac count ing struc ture. I know the

wit ness end has to be co-owned with the DA’s Of fice, but the

snitches all be long to BPD and if this sit u a tion demon strates one

thing above all oth ers, it’s that the cur rent way of do ing things is a

joke that has al ready cost lives. On the one hand, there is merit in

de cen tral iza tion, but with this much de cen tral iza tion, there is lit tle

to no ac count abil ity, and be cause of that those lives have been lost,

oth ers prob a bly will be, and it makes find ing out who is be hind this

that much harder, if not im pos si ble.”

I paused as Paige nod ded and re leased a breath.

“Preach ing to the choir there, Der rick,” she told me. “When I was

a sergeant in In tel I pitched the idea of cen tral iz ing all con fi den tial

in for mants through In tel li gence. Lo cal de tec tives and precinct of fi-

cers would still be the pri mary points of con tact with them, but CIU

would have com plete files on all of them, be able to thor oughly vet

them and their in for ma tion with other sources we al ready had in

place, and in the event some thing hap pened to their case con trol,

we’d still be able to get in touch with them. Also, it would help de-

con flict op er a tions where there are mul ti ple in for mants but var i ous

case cops don’t know about the oth ers. If CIU were the cen tral clear-

ing house for CIs and their prod uct, we would know about con flicts

much quicker and be able to ne go ti ate around them, with out re veal-

ing the iden ti ties of CIs to other case cops who don’t need to know

about them.”

“Let me guess,” I said. “You got a lot of push back from other di vi-

sions and the brass?”

“Ex actly,” she said. “Es pe cially out of the De tec tives Bu reau, and I

un der stand why, from a purely ter ri to rial stand point. No body likes

to give up their power and con trol, but from the stand point of us do-

ing the best and most ef fec tive job we can, it’s com plete bull shit.

Maybe with Anita Ep stein in the num ber two slot now some thing

dif fer ent can be done.”

“Maybe,” I said. “And maybe she’ll bring you back on board as her

ex ec u tive of fi cer. You haven’t been gone all that long; she could

prob a bly re in state you with lit tle trou ble, prob a bly pin cap tain’s

bars on your col lar to boot.”

Paige snorted and shook her head.

“Not on your life, bub,” she ad mon ished. “I took the uni form off

for good and I’m happy with that. Twenty-five years was enough. I’d

be happy to con sult, but that’s it. Any way, back to this.”

I nod ded, closed the folder I had been read ing from.

“Looks like you’re do ing the right things, the usual things, check-

ing for fi nan cial prob lems, per sonal prob lems, work con flicts, peo-

ple passed over for pro mo tions, or who think they de served one they

re ally didn’t. And it is time con sum ing, es pe cially when you’re do ing

it largely by your self. One thing I would sug gest is that you for get

the lower rungs for right now, none of them would have the ac cess

re quired to know about the cross-sec tion of CIs and wit nesses who

have been com pro mised. I’m think ing su per vi sor level, a sergeant at

least. Doesn’t have to be a se nior of fi cer but some body close to one,

an as sis tant, and ex ec u tive of fi cer, some body who is re lied upon and

trusted. But again, it could be a se nior of fi cer, too. The good news

there is that there aren’t too many of them in BPD. Not like NY or

LAPD where you have scores of cap tains and above. Did the com-

puter peo ple come up with any leads?”

Paige shook her head.

“Noth ing solid, I’m afraid. We also need to do some thing about

up dat ing our com puter sys tem to al low for bet ter track ing and ac-

count abil ity be cause cur rently that is sorely lack ing. But as you said,

this per son is prob a bly some body who is trusted by their boss, as-

sum ing it isn’t a boss. They prob a bly have his or her pass words,

maybe ac cess to a lot of other peo ple’s pass words. Maybe they’re us-

ing a lot of dif fer ent points of ac cess to get the in for ma tion. And

even though we don’t have as many sus pects as we would if this

were LA or New York, there are still a lot, and no strong way to nar-

row that list down, at least not so far.”

I nod ded, opened the file again, stared at the top page, then closed

the folder. Paige no ticed me grin ning and asked what was so funny.

“Noth ing re ally funny,” I told her as some thing turned over in my

mind. “But I was re mem ber ing my Air Force OSI days when I was

work ing Coun ter in tel li gence cases.”

“Okay,” she said. “And how does that tie in to what we’re dis-

cussing now?”

“Be cause in the won der ful worlds of In tel li gence and Coun ter in-

tel li gence, out side of po lice work, you think like a spy and not like a

cop who has to bring cases to court that can be of fi cially and legally

pros e cuted be fore a judge and jury. And there is a sub sec tion of

Coun ter in tel li gence that is some times con fused with CI but it’s a

com pletely dif fer ent thing, at least ac cord ing to the CIA.”

“Well then I can’t wait to hear all about it,” Paige said skep ti cally

as the waiter re turned and put the bill down close to my right arm. I

thanked him and he went away.

For the next fif teen min utes I ex plained the finer points of Coun-

teres pi onage, specif i cally ca nary traps and bar ium meals, to for-

mer Lieu tenant Palmer and how I thought they might be of some

use in her present ca pac ity as BPD’s res i dent mole hunter. She was

smil ing as we left Mugshots and headed back to where she parked

her car.

Chap ter 30

I pulled Jor dana off the Aaron Ja cob son’s pro tec tive sur veil lance

de tail af ter lunch and sent her back to the of fice. She was a lit tle dis-

ap pointed but un der stood the de ci sion be cause it wasn’t like she

could keep eyes on him all day in the Ath let ics De part ment at UAB,

and the threat to him was neg li gi ble any way, in my es ti ma tion.

Prob a bly in more dan ger when he was around his wife, but then

there would be po lice pro tec tion for both of them. I would still keep

my prom ise to Benita, though. Some body would fol low him to and

from work to make sure he ar rived in both places safely, but dur ing

the day it was a waste of per son nel. Or so I hoped. Be sides, Jor dana

had things to do at the of fice this af ter noon, and with our pri mary

con cern still at the DA’s Of fice, Ol lie and Frankie were largely un at-

tached. I fig ured Ol lie and I could get Beasley back to the safe house

on our own while Frankie went over in a lit tle while to keep an eye

on Ja cob son.

Ol lie was out tak ing a walk through down town, oc ca sion ally cir-

cling close to the court house, but not close enough to arouse un due

sus pi cions. I was in the van parked on the third level of the 22nd

Street park ing deck not far away, co in ci den tally, the ex act same

park ing deck where Hoyt Wade III died last Christ mas.

It did not bother me in the least to be back here, al though the

shoot ing took place on the first level. I was in here a lot con sid er ing

the close ness to the Up town Dis trict and the BJCC where Triple-D

did a lot of event se cu rity, and frankly, this wasn’t the only place I

had killed some body in this city. If I were go ing to start avoid ing

such places, af ter a while I prob a bly wouldn’t leave home much.

I was in back at the com puter work sta tion do ing some re search,

lost in it when my phone buzzed. I checked the caller ID and smiled,

marked my place on the web page, then an swered the call.

“Madam Act ing Prin ci pal,” I said for mally and Monique Otis

laughed in my ear.

“Mr. Olin,” she replied in kind. “So good of you to take my call to-

day.”

“Well it was so good of you to call. And how are you?”

“Still walk ing a lit tle un steadily,” she snick ered. “But I’m man ag-

ing.”

“Sorry to hear that,” I said. “Usu ally when I’m done most women

can’t walk for weeks af ter wards.”

An other snicker, then a full laugh.

“You know I’m in my of fice at work,” she said in a hushed tone.

“And my as sis tant is just on the other side of the door. She’s gonna

won der what’s got me laugh ing so.”

“Tell her,” I said. “She’d prob a bly be jeal ous.”

“No doubt,” Niqe said. “But I think I’ll pass. Have to main tain my

dig nity in front of the troops. It would not do for them to find out

how wan ton and wicked I can be when some body is eat ing my ass.”

“To say noth ing of spank ing it,” I re joined, lean ing back in the

work sta tion chair. “School day is al most done. Wrap ping up?”

“Not quite,” she said. “Staff meet ing will run till five, then home.

El don is back, at least un til next Mon day, then he’s away for an other

three weeks.”

“I see,” I said lazily. “Then you’ll be a woman un at tached for a

while, sounds aw fully lonely.”

“Well I do have work to keep me busy,” she teased.

“But work isn’t likely to be as good at eat ing that fine round booty

of yours as I am, my dear,” I said.

Niqe chuck led pleas antly, then low ered her voice even more be-

fore re spond ing.

“That’s for damn sure. Are you busy this week, we haven’t spo ken

since you had to rush out last week.”

“Yeah,” I said. “Sorry about that, but duty called, and is still call-

ing, I’m afraid. Not sure for how long, but dur ing the three weeks

you’ll be solo, I’m sure some thing can be worked out. There are still

a few fine points I’d like to go over with you.”

“Re ally?” she said. “Re gard ing that school se cu rity thing I asked

you to look into or re gard ing my ass?”

“Both,” I re sponded with out miss ing a beat. “And then there are

your breasts, to say noth ing of your thighs, and, of course, your…”

“I get the point, Der rick,” she ad mon ished. “God you drive me so

crazy.”

“Good,” I teased. “Say, you’re sit ting at your desk with the door

closed, right.”

“Yep,” she said. “All by my lone some.”

“Skirt or pants?” I said.

“What?” she said.

“Are you wear ing pants or a skirt to day?”

“And why should I tell you that, sir?”

“Be cause if you don’t how else am I go ing to get your phone sex

fan tasy right?”

She choked with laugh ter, once again telling me how bad I was. I

told her that I was likely to get a lot bad der in the near fu ture, and

she told me she was wear ing a green skirt to day.

I chuck led.

“Not for long,” I told her. “Imag ine this… I’m on my knees un der

your desk and your green skirt is hiked back over your mag nif i cent

brown thighs…”

Later I would be grin ning from ear to ear imag in ing her sit ting at

the head of a school staff meet ing try ing to con cen trate while re-

mem ber ing all the things I de scribed do ing to her that af ter noon as

she lay back in her chair and touched her self.

Yeah, Der rick, I mused to my self, you are a very bad man.

But you al ready knew that.

Chap ter 31

Kurt Bax ter called at a quar ter to five to say that they were wrap ping

up in Benita’s of fice and would be leav ing soon to re turn Mr.

Beasley to our cus tody, once again with Kurt pre tend ing to be a part

of the se cu rity de tail, es corted out by a squad of deputies. Ol lie and I

would meet them with the van at Mac a roni Park on 7th Av enue and

25th Street North. By this time Frankie was in place at UAB pre par-

ing to fol low Aaron Ja cob son home and Jor dana was back at the of-

fice mon i tor ing, af ter telling me that we had two more busi ness in-

quiries to day and she was plan ning on sched ul ing meet ings, even if

I couldn’t make it. I told her that was fine, but I would try to make

it, as sum ing all hell wasn’t break ing loose some where else.

As was to be ex pected for this time of year, even as the sun was on

the de cline, the hu mid ity ren dered that fact ir rel e vant in terms of

the heat and dis com fort fac tor. Luck ily the van has a re ally good AC.

“God how stupid are peo ple,” Ol lie said from the driver’s seat as

we watched peo ple walk ing and run ning around the park, some with

dogs for com pany, most of them with a towel or bot tle of wa ter in

hand. “Go home, folks! Work out in an air con di tioned gym! Or do it

in the morn ing be fore it gets this hot!”

I grinned.

“If peo ple were smart, Ol lie, we’d prob a bly have to do some thing

else for a liv ing.”

He grinned, about to re spond, but then there was gun fire to our

rear and we both re acted the same way, rolling out of the van with

weapons drawn. A block straight down 7th we could see the big Sub-

ur ban driven by Kurt Bax ter rac ing our way with an old beat up

white Ply mouth clos ing fast, some one lean ing out the pas sen ger’s

win dow fir ing a pis tol. How orig i nal.

We were both run ning in that di rec tion, Ol lie about to cross the

street, when a sec ond ve hi cle, a green Dodge, cut across the in ter-

sec tion at 24th, sideswip ing the bus that had pulled into a stop a few

mo ments ago, and then broad sided the Sub ur ban. Kind of stupid

con sid er ing the un marked po lice ve hi cle was built like a tank, al-

though it wasn’t ac tu ally ar mored, it was con structed to with stand a

lot of pun ish ment, and the hit from the Dodge barely slowed it

down. How ever, there was dam age. Kurt had to over steer to avoid

col li sion with other cars parked on 24th and this had him up on the

curb as he ap proached the park. He fought the wheel to the left,

avoid ing an on com ing car, rolled right, sideswiped a parked car as

the Ply mouth closed the dis tance and the shooter leaned out even

fur ther to get a bet ter line on the back of the Sub ur ban.

Ol lie got two shots off first and the shooter dropped his weapon as

both rounds hit some where in the up per body. Kurt roared past us

as Ol lie and I moved out into the street and opened up on the Ply-

mouth, mostly aim ing for the front wind shield. The car swerved to

the left as the wind shield cracked un der a steady stream of .45 and

.357 cal iber rounds, slam ming into two parked cars out side the

church across the street.

The Dodge’s front end was se verely messed up but it was still mo-

bile, and now it turned in our di rec tion, pis tols com ing out of both

front win dows and be gin ning to fire as Ol lie and I stood side by side

in the mid dle of 7th, fresh mag a zines in our weapons. A few mo-

ments later, the en gine steam ing, the wind shields front and back

shat tered, the two oc cu pants in the front seat suf fi ciently per fo rated

with hol low-points, the Dodge rolled to a stop in the mid dle of the

street.

Ol lie and I didn’t bother to see if any one in ei ther ve hi cle was still

alive. Hon estly, it didn’t re ally mat ter. Sirens were ap proach ing fast

and peo ple were start ing to stir from their hid ing places, no doubt

some al ready out with their phones record ing the scene, vi sions of

their fu ture tele vi sion ap pear ances al ready danc ing through their

heads.

Ol lie and I quickly con cealed our weapons and walked ca su ally

back to the van, climb ing in, pulling out and de part ing just as the

first of BPD’s new black & whites rolled into view.

I chuck led, tak ing out my phone.

Ol lie turned right at the in ter sec tion with 25th and glanced at me.

“You go ing space happy on me, Com man der?” he said.

I shook my head, still smil ing.

“Nah, it just oc curred to me that your name is Ol lie.”

“Re ally, af ter forty years of know ing each other, it just now

dawned on you?”

“I was think ing about Lau rel and Hardy,” I said, check ing the

rearview mir rors. “An other fine mess, Ol lie…”

Ol lie snorted.

“And screw you, too, Stan,” Mr. Oliver said, and then we were

both laugh ing. At least un til Kurt Bax ter an swered his phone.

Chap ter 32

Af ter driv ing past us at the park, Kurt got on High way 280 South

and took it to Uni ver sity Boule vard. It didn’t take long for him to re-

al ize he wasn’t be ing pur sued any more, and he quickly got off the

high way and dou bled back, find ing a place with a lot of other traf fic

where it wouldn’t be so easy to spot them, even though the Sub ur-

ban was big and kind of banged up.

That place was the Full Moon Bar beque restau rant on 25th Street

South. Ol lie and I found the Sub ur ban in the back of the park ing lot

a few min utes af ter I hung up with Kurt. Sergeant Bax ter was at the

wheel, a mod i fied M-4 held across his lap be neath the win dow just

out of sight un til you got close enough to look in side. We didn’t see

Quin ton Beasley and for a sec ond a cold lump set tled in my gut.

“He’s on the floor be hind the sec ond row of seats,” Kurt told me.

“Not hit, but scared shit less. And he ain’t the only one.”

“Tell me about it,” I said. “You call any body else?”

“No,” he said, eyes scan ning the park ing lot be hind his dark

shades. “Fig ured that could wait un til we prop erly se cured Beasley

back there. Man, I don’t even want to think about the pa per work on

this one, or what’s gonna hap pen when the Chief finds out, which he

no doubt will now that this has hap pened. I take it you and Ol lie had

to shoot peo ple?”

“Couldn’t be avoided,” I ad mit ted.

“Of course not,” he said. “Ass holes with guns were shoot ing at

you. You guys did what you had to.”

“Un for tu nately there were a lot of peo ple around who saw. No

doubt some of them recorded the event. You know Fa rina War ren

was al ready snoop ing around. Now…”

Kurt sighed, glanced at me for the first time.

“Got shot at a lot in the Army when I was a Ranger,” he said

thought fully. “Not so much as a cop, which is odd con sid er ing the

kind of cop I am. Now in the last week it’s hap pened twice. Don’t

know if it’s me or hang ing around you guys so much.”

I smiled, reached in and pat ted his shoul der.

“You’re wel come,” I said, and then his phone started ring ing. A

few sec onds later, mine started buzzing.

QUIN TON BEASLEY WAS PRAC TI CALLY MUTE by the time we

got him back to the safe house that night. Phys i cally he was fine; not

a mark on him, but the wild look in his eyes had me kind of wor ried.

He might need to be looked at by a med i cal pro fes sional in the near

fu ture, but that could wait a bit longer. At least I hoped so.

Sheila and Burt were al ready at the safe house when we ar rived,

hav ing come in a lit tle early af ter a quick call from Ol lie to ex plain

the sit u a tion. I let Frankie make sure Aaron Ja cob son made it back

to his and Benita’s place in Hoover, then had him come over as well.

Jor dana was still in the of fice mon i tor ing the news and linked with

us via Skype.

“Guess it’s true what they say, boss, the cam era does add ten

pounds. Or is that just your body ar mor? Were you wear ing body ar-

mor to day? Ol lie looks great, by the way. Fit and trim.”

I snorted at the open lap top screen in the safe house liv ing room.

“All that cos metic surgery is fi nally pay ing off,” I said. “Not to

men tion the hair plugs and lifts in his shoes.”

Jor dana grinned, Ol lie held up a mid dle fin ger.

“Plug this, boss,” he said.

“So we made the news, huh?” I said to the screen.

“Ab so lutely,” she said. “But if I didn’t know you guys, I might not

rec og nize you. Phone cam eras are not great for cap tur ing live ac tion

gun fights when ev ery body is duck ing for cover and all. Still, a lot of

peo ple do know you guys and will prob a bly rec og nize it was you.

Did Ol lie call Meeka and let her know?”

I glanced over at him and he nod ded.

“If I want to be able to come home again, I bet ter not try to keep

some thin’ like this from that woman. She won’t wait till I go to

sleep, she’ll greet me at the door with an ass-kick ing, right af ter she

make sure I’m okay.”

Ev ery one chuck led, know ing the truth in that state ment.

“The po lice aren’t giv ing out much in for ma tion about what hap-

[xii]

pened, their PIO

is get ting clob bered ev ery time he comes out

with a non-state ment, the press is go ing to de vour him soon. That

lady who was in the of fice the other day, the one from Chan nel 13,

she’s be ing re ally tough.”

I sighed. She would, and soon that tough ness would turn on me. I

had al ready sent three of her calls di rectly to voice mail and ig nored

two ad di tional texts. It would not be pos si ble to avoid her for long.

She knew where my of fice was, not to men tion where I lived, the

lay out of my liv ing space, and just how much pres sure she could ap-

ply to my lower ex trem i ties be fore I cried un cle!

“Has she called the of fice yet?” I said.

“Nope, should I ex pect her to?”

“Prob a bly,” I said.

“And what should I tell her?”

“That I’ve moved into a condo on Mars.”

Jor dana grinned.

“And when that doesn’t work?”

“Tell her that I’ll get back to her, but be vague on the tim ing,

please.”

“Will do, Chief. This thing is a big mess now, huh?”

“An un der state ment, Jord,” I said, glanc ing at the rest of the team,

all of whom sat as I stood. “Go home. Get some rest. I’m prob a bly

gonna have you tail Ja cob son to and from work to mor row, but you’ll

go back to the of fice af ter he gets there in the morn ing. No sense in

you hang ing out.”

“It’s no trou ble, re ally,” she said. “With my com puter and phone,

plus the wire less in my truck, I can run the of fice mo bile.”

“I know you can,” I told her. “But I don’t think you need to. Ja cob-

son prob a bly isn’t in any real dan ger, es pe cially while he’s at work.

Plus I’m gonna have a talk with some body I know in the UAB Po lice

De part ment, see if I can ar range for one of their cops to spend some

ex tra time around the Ath let ics De part ment for a while, till this is

re solved.”

Though I knew she was dis ap pointed, Jor dana nod ded.

“Al righty, I’ll be ready in the morn ing. Any thing else?”

“That’s it,” I told her. “Good work to day.”

“You, too,” she grinned. “Later, boss.”

The screen went blank and I shut the lid. Sheila had got ten up a

few min utes ago and went to check on Beasley.

“He look like he sleep,” she said, drop ping back onto the sofa be-

tween Frankie and Bert. “On his side, knees up, still got all his

clothes ‘cept his shoes on.”

I nod ded.

“Think he’ll still tes tify now?” Frankie said.

“Good ques tion,” I said.

“He was shit ting him self be fore to day,” Ol lie said. “This the sec-

ond time he been shot at in the past cou ple weeks. He got any sense

he be thinkin’ about keepin’ his mouth shut.”

“And if he does, that isn’t our prob lem, that’s the DA’s headache,

we just have to keep do ing our job.”

“But we haven’t re ally,” Bert spoke for the first time, and it was

clear from his tone that he was not happy. I stared at him for a few

mo ments, moved to the one free chair in the small liv ing room,

dropped into it.

“Say what you have to say, Bert,” I said.

“If we had been do ing our jobs to day like we usu ally do, there’s no

way those guys would have am bushed the client, not with us on him.

Der rick, I know this job is tricky and not how you usu ally op er ate,

and I know why it has to be that way, at least from the stand point of

out side fac tors. But if we keep on like this, some body on our side is

gonna get hurt, maybe killed, and maybe our client, too.” He

paused, glanced around, sighed. Then he re fo cused on me. “You

know me, man, I’m a sol dier, I fol low or ders and do what I’m told.

You and this team have been good to me and good for me and I

don’t mean to over step here…”

“Too late,” Ol lie said from the easy chair a few feet away from

mine across from where the three of them sat. His de liv ery was

dead pan, and all eyes went to him. Frankie and Sheila were im pas-

sive, Bert looked a lit tle ap pre hen sive, but then he sum moned his

re solve, about to re spond, but then Ol lie’s face broke out into a grin.

“Just fuckin’ with you, man. You good.”

Ev ery one else laughed and Bert glanced around, frown ing be fore

re lax ing.

“I hear you, Bert,” I told him. “And you’re right. And things are

go ing to have to change now. Prob a bly would any way with our pub-

lic ex po sure to day. We may be off the job by morn ing if Ep stein and

Ben der can’t tap dance fast enough. Hell, they might be out of jobs,

too. But un til we hear dif fer ent, Quin ton Beasley is still our re spon-

si bil ity and we will do all we can to pro tect him. And from now on,

we do it just the way we would with any other high-threat pro tectee,

no ex cep tions.”

My phone was buzzing and I reached into my pocket to re trieve it.

“And right on time, too,” I said, pre par ing to swipe the screen with

my thumb.

“Who, Ep stein or Ben der?” Ol lie in quired.

“Ep stein,” I said. “But what you wanna bet Ben der is some where

close? Prob a bly both in front of a fir ing squad and call ing to find out

if I’m free to join them.”

Ol lie chuck led.

I an swered my phone.

Chap ter 33

At ten p.m. Thurs day night I had two cops, a for mer cop, and a

deputy dis trict at tor ney in the liv ing room of my condo in down-

town Birm ing ham, which was con ve nient to both po lice head quar-

ters and the DA’s Of fice. Paige Palmer and Kurt Bax ter sat on the

large sofa across from the counter that de marked the liv ing room

from the kitchen. Benita Ben der oc cu pied the small sofa (loveseat)

to their left, and Anita Ep stein oc cu pied the other one di rectly

across from her and to the right of the sofa. I was sit ting in the solo

comfy re cliner fac ing the large sofa with Anita and Benita to my left

and right, re spec tively. I was also wear ing flip-flops, af ter all, I was

at home.

“You know the most an noy ing thing about Chief Reynolds?” Ep-

stein said as she shifted her po si tion on the sofa. “That laid back

Cal i for nia per sona is ac tu ally real, and even when he reams you, he

does it in such a calm fash ion, it’s worse than be ing yelled at. And

boy did he ream.”

“Well my boss is a yeller,” Benita put in. She was wear ing a navy

blue skirt suit, white blouse, black pumps. She’d taken the jacket off

ear lier and I hadn’t no ticed un til now when she turned my way and

tucked her left foot un der her op po site leg that she had re moved her

shoes as well. Her feet were kind of big, com pen sa tion for her

height, but they were cute, too. And I re ally shouldn’t be think ing

about that right now.

“The phrase tore me a new one has never been more sig nif i cant to

me than to day. At one point I thought he was go ing to ask his as sis-

tant to have tar and feath ers brought in.”

“But he didn’t,” said Cap tain Ob vi ous (me). “And nei ther did

Chief Reynolds. So you both still have your jobs.”

“For the mo ment,” Anita said, glanc ing over at the pros e cu tor be-

fore look ing at me. “Once this is re solved, even if it is done so in per-

fect fash ion with wins all around, the axe still might fall. At least in

my case. I’ve got over thirty years in al ready, though, so if I have to

go out now, it won’t be too much of a worry.”

She looked at Benita again, who seemed to be lost in thought.

When she re al ized all eyes were on her she glanced around quickly,

then forced a smile.

“Sorry,” she said. “Just day dream ing about the un em ploy ment

line,” she chuck led, but only half heart edly. “You know, if I get

canned for do ing my job, so be it. I have no re grets about what I’ve

done on this case. If the DA wants to fire me in the fu ture, it’s his

de ci sion. Un til then, I’m good.”

Af ter a few mo ments, Anita Ep stein nod ded.

“Me, too.”

I glanced over at Paige and Kurt.

“How you do ing, Kurt?” I in quired.

He glanced up, smiled a lit tle.

“Still kick ing, Der rick. Cap tain Rossellini reamed my ass, too, for

my par tic i pa tion in Chief Ep stein’s pri vate ad ven tur ism, but since I

was fol low ing the or ders of a su pe rior who out ranks him by sev eral

stars, I think that’s all I’ll get.”

“Un less I get the boot,” Ep stein pointed out cheer ily.

“Un less that,” Kurt agreed.

“Oh you both will be fine,” Paige chimed in. “Anita, you’ve got a

lot of sup port ers on the City Coun cil and in the Mayor’s of fice, not

[xiii]

to men tion the FOP

. And you’re a ca reer of fi cer, not a trans-

plant like Reynolds. He knows he needs you. And Kurt, as you said

be fore, you were fol low ing the law ful or ders of a su pe rior, an as sis-

tant chief no less. End of dis cus sion.”

“What about me?” Benita said, lean ing her el bow on the back of

the sofa, rest ing the back of her head in her open palm.

Paige turned to the woman from the DA’s Of fice and shrugged.

“DA’s Of fice is more about pol i tics,” Paige said thought fully. “And

your boss is a politi cian who has to win elec tions for his of fice.

You’re prob a bly screwed, my friend.”

Kurt was the first to laugh, but soon we all were, and the ten sion

was re leased. For the mo ment.

“All four of the peo ple in the two ve hi cles died at the scene,” Ep-

stein ex plained. “And they all died from gun shot wounds, in case

you were won der ing about your ac cu racy, Der rick. You and Mr.

Oliver. Rob bery-Homi cide has been made aware of your in volve-

ment in the in ci dent, and be lieve me, they aren’t happy you left the

scene, but I ex plained to the cap tain that you were work ing a spe cial

de tail for me and that you had to leave the scene be fore of fi cers ar-

rived. You’re still go ing to have to be in ter viewed of fi cially. Sergeant

Bax ter has al ready given a state ment. It can wait for a lit tle while

now be cause the shoot ers are no longer a threat. By the way, the two

in the Dodge were En dre Evans and Larry Gon za les, Jr., the ones

your as so ciate iden ti fied as fol low ing Benita the other night.”

Benita shifted and put both her stockinged feet on the floor, lean-

ing to ward the square glass cof fee ta ble in the cen ter of us.

“Are you sure, Anita?”

“Pos i tive. They ac tu ally had ID on them, but we ran their prints,

too. It’s them. They’re done.”

Benita ex haled slowly, then glanced at me.

“So they would have killed me if they had got ten their hands on

me the other night,” she said. “They were killers.”

I re ally didn’t know what to say, turned back to the as sis tant chief.

“And the other two?”

“Ben nett John son, twenty seven, of Col legeville, and Her man

Cooper, twenty-three, of Foun tain Heights. Both had long rap

sheets, lot of vi o lent stuff. No di rect af fil i a tion to Nicky Ash worth,

but they all run in the same cir cles.”

“Ques tion,” said the pros e cu tor as she sat back and crossed her

long legs, her knee-length skirt rid ing up a lit tle and she didn’t

bother to smooth it back down. “How did they get on to Kurt so

quickly? How did they know to fol low him, that Quin ton was with

him? You can’t sit and watch the court house all day be cause Se cu-

rity looks for stuff like that, and these guys would have stood out,

I’m sure. And Kurt used the se cured side en trance to take him out.

It’s fenced in and you can’t see through the fence from the out side

once the gate is closed. So how did who ever know that Quin ton was

with Kurt when he left the court house?”

“Be cause some body in the court house tipped them off,” Paige

Palmer said, gar ner ing long looks from the other three law en forcers

in the room. I was not sur prised by the state ment in the least, af ter

all, it was only log i cal.

“So the leak’s in the court house af ter all?” Benita said.

Paige shook her head.

“Not nec es sar ily,” she said mat ter-of-factly. “Safest bet is still the

PD. And there are a lot of cops from ev ery de part ment in Jef fer son

County who hang around the court house all day, some do ing pris-

oner trans fers, oth ers wait ing to tes tify, some do ing who knows

what. And be cause they’re cops, they have ac cess to most of the se-

cure ar eas, get to see and go al most any where and no body pays

much at ten tion. Broth ers and sis ters be hind the badge and all.”

“So some body saw me come in with Beasley this morn ing and

knew that at some point I’d take him out again, set up the am bush

for when we were leav ing this evening?”

“Likely,” Paige said. “Good news for us is that any body, re gard less

of rank, has to sign in to get into the se cure ar eas. Sign in and out.

The head of court house se cu rity is a friend and I’m go ing to pull

those logs in the morn ing, along with all the video sur veil lance

footage from the court house. Gonna be busy the next few days but I

think we might ac tu ally stand a de cent chance of catch ing our

leaker.”

“You mean our traitor, Lieu tenant,” Anita Ep stein said with fiery

de ter mi na tion. “And I hope you’re right. Kurt, I want you work ing

with Paige on this, just the two of you. I think you were telling me

that so far your tech peo ple weren’t get ting any where with the in ter-

net track ing stuff any way, right?”

“Yes, ma’am. Too many ways for some body re ally good to mask

them selves on the in ter net. Our techs are good and are work ing

hard, but so far…”

“Okay. They can stay on that, you help Paige.”

“Yes, ma’am,” the In tel li gence sergeant said.

“How’s Beasley?” Ep stein turned to me.

“Scared,” I replied. “He’s gone quiet now and I think we might

need to let a doc tor look him over in the next day or so, just to be

sure he’s all right. He wasn’t phys i cally in jured dur ing this at tack, or

the first one, but vi o lence does take a toll af ter a while, whether or

not you ac tu ally re ceive a phys i cal in jury.”

“We can ar range a doc tor,” the as sis tant chief as sured me. “The

de part ment has dis creet med i cal con sul tants, I can tap one with

psy chi atric train ing. I’ll get back to you to mor row. Do you think he’ll

still be will ing to tes tify against Ash worth?”

“I have no idea,” I said hon estly, glanc ing at Benita Ben der. “Most

nor mal peo ple wouldn’t. I haven’t tried to talk to him about that,

and maybe it could wait a few days, if you’ve got the time, Benita.”

“Well to day was the big thing,” she re sponded, lean ing for ward

and clasp ing her knees with her fin gers in ter laced, her di a mond

wed ding ring gleam ing in the sub dued over head light ing. “He made

two for mal IDs, one wit nessed by op pos ing coun sel, and he was de-

posed by me for sev eral hours. Bagby is de mand ing a pre lim i nary

hear ing be fore I present to the grand jury, and the judge will grant it

be cause the de fen dant has that right. Also to re duce the chances for

a re ver sal on ap peal should we get a guilty ver dict at trial. And in

that hear ing Quin ton might have to tes tify. I don’t think it would be

sched uled be fore the first of next month, which is only a cou ple

weeks away. Maybe by then he will be calmed down. I need to see

him, prob a bly this week end, maybe af ter he is ex am ined by a doc-

tor.”

I nod ded, turned to Ep stein.

“So what about us?” I said bluntly. “My team. What did the Chief

have to say?”

Anita Ep stein ac tu ally grinned, glanced over at Benita.

“Oddly, Der rick, both our bosses said pretty much the same thing.

“Yes,” Benita chimed in. “Al most as if they were read ing from the

same script. Af ter Har vey fin ished yelling at me for de ceiv ing him

and the Of fice, he ac tu ally winked and told me he was glad that I

had found a way to keep this off our books.”

Anita nod ded.

“And while Chief Reynolds wasn’t happy at all that I was tap ping

into the con sult ing fund with out dis clos ing to him the real rea son

for it, he told me that he could see wis dom in the de ci sion to use

out side re sources. He wished I had cho sen one who didn’t have

such a well-doc u mented pen chant for vi o lent con flict on the streets

of Birm ing ham, his words, but he would retroac tively ap prove the

de ci sion, and eat it with the press and the politi cians, at least for

now. But if this goes fur ther side ways…”

“Your stars will role,” I fin ished for her.

“Some thing like that,” she said.

I nod ded. “Mighty gen er ous of him. Okay, so we all know where

we stand. Any thing else we need to talk about?”

Paige was look ing at me and I could tell there was some thing she

wanted to say, but to me only, so when no one else had any thing to

add, I stood and told ev ery one to get out of my place so I could slip

into my jam mies and get some shut eye.

Ac tu ally I don’t wear jam mies, or any thing when I sleep for that

mat ter. Some thing that Paige Palmer knows only, too well. So I was

ly ing in bed naked ten min utes later when my phone buzzed. I

reached for it on the night stand.

“Since when did you start wear ing jam mies?” she said down the

line.

“Wouldn’t you like to know?” I re joined play fully.

“No I would not,” she replied. “If you are telling the truth then I

re ally am dis ap pointed, my fan tasy life is ru ined, too. All those

times I imag ined break ing into your place in the mid dle of the night,

sneak ing into your bed room as you slept, pulling the cov ers down

and find ing that sexy, naked brown body ly ing there… Oh the things

that I imag ined do ing to you…”

“I hope you didn’t go too far away,” I told her, then moaned as I

rolled onto my back. “Be cause now some body has to come in here

and sit on this hard-on you just cre ated. And since it was you who

did the cre at ing…”

Paige chuck led pleas antly, told me she’d take a rain check, then

told me what she had wanted to tell me be fore but not in front of the

oth ers.

Chap ter 34

I got up for my five a.m. run the next morn ing and was head ing out

onto the streets by ten af ter. Fa rina War ren was wait ing out side in

the back park ing lot wear ing pur ple thigh length run ning shorts, a

gray tank top, and white run ning shoes. She was bend ing and

stretch ing next to my jeep when I ar rived and that sight was an un-

ex pected de light, de spite her un wel come pres ence.

“Don’t you live in He lena?” I said, stop ping a few feet away and

glanc ing around. This time of year the sun was al ready start ing to

come up but the light ing down town was ex cel lent and there wasn’t

much dark ness to dis pel in the first place. “And won’t your hus band

and kids miss you?”

“Hubby un der stands what I do for a liv ing,” she said, stand ing to

her full height, feet a lit tle wider than shoul der width, hands now on

her hips. “And un der stands that some times I have to keep odd

hours.”

“How long have you been down here?”

“About an hour. I know you usu ally go run ning around five, or so

you’ve told me a time or two when we’ve been alone to gether. So I

fig ured I’d get here early and wait. Saw your jeep was here so it was

a good bet that you were home.”

“What if I wasn’t alone?”

“Ex plains why I didn’t go up and knock on your door,” she said

with a grin. “I’m not into three-ways.”

I chuck led.

“That’s dis ap point ing to hear. So why are you stalk ing me, Ms.

War ren?”

“Who says I’m stalk ing you?” she said in no cently, walk ing over to

where I stood. “Maybe I just want to keep you com pany on your run

to day.”

“Says the woman who runs marathons for fun,” I replied. “You

know, I was go ing to re turn your calls and texts.”

“Sure you were,” she smirked. “Some time around the next mil len-

nium. Let’s do it.”

“Do what?” I said.

“Not what we both prob a bly want to be do ing right now,” she

quipped, turn ing for the park ing lot exit.

I glanced af ter her, ad mired her shorts, and the ass they en cased,

then sighed and fol lowed her. Not how I wanted to spend this part

of my morn ing, but on the plus side, I was go ing to be spend ing it

with a smart, funny, beau ti ful, and damn sexy woman. Not to men-

tion one of the best in ter roga tors I have ever known this side of the

KGB.

IF I COULD HAVE MAN AGED IT I WOULD have run all the way to

At lanta this morn ing, but that re ally wouldn’t have done me any

good be cause by the time I ar rived Fa rina War ren would have al-

ready been there a good hour a head of me. I knew she had stamina,

drive, de ter mi na tion, and skills, plus in cred i ble breath con trol, but

this morn ing it was painfully ob vi ous to me that the lady was so far

out of my league in phys i cal terms, and I was no slouch in that de-

part ment my self. Even so, six miles was all that I was worth to day,

and felt a stitch in my side for the last mile as we ran back to my

place dodg ing morn ing traf fic at near break neck speed. To my right,

Fa rina’s long brown legs kept easy pace with me as she kept her long

arms close to her up per body, head straight, eyes fo cused, breath ing

in and out in short breaths. For a while there as we ran down 1st Av-

enue to ward the in ter sec tion with 22nd Street I was sure I was go ing

to pass out, and throw up, but some how I man aged to make it

across to my build ing and was barely able to stop be fore slam ming

into the side of it.

Af ter a minute I was able to turn around and found Fa rina smil ing

at me and jog ging in place. I think at that mo ment I hated her more

than I have ever hated any other per son in my life.

“That was a good warm up,” she said as she slowed and then

stopped al to gether. “An other set of stretches and then we can go

again. Let’s do twelve this time!”

“I’m gonna shoot you,” I man aged through ragged breaths. “Just

as soon as my hands are steady again.”

Fa rina snorted and walked very close to me, lean ing her mouth

next to my left ear.

“Some thing tells me that your hands are al ways steady for that,

Der rick,” she whis pered. “Es pe cially con sid er ing what I saw on

some eye wit ness video yes ter day.”

And there it was.

She told me she had to go to her car and get her gym bag and

change of clothes. I walked around to the back en trance, still catch-

ing my breath, and waited for her. This morn ing I re ally could have

taken the el e va tor up to my floor, but pride would not let that hap-

pen and later I was go ing to kick pride’s ass good. Fa rina of fered to

carry me up the last flight but I de clined, mak ing a men tal note to

pay her back for all the smar tassed com ments this morn ing, but

later, when I could both en joy it and do it right.

We en tered my unit, Fa rina ahead of me, and I shut the door be-

hind us.

I WAS A LIT TLE DIS AP POINTED BY the shower ar range ments this

morn ing, con sid er ing the num ber of times that Fa rina and I have

show ered to gether on other oc ca sions. But this morn ing she took

the guest bath room out front while I had the mas ter bath at tached

to my bed room in back. Some thing about want ing to main tain a

pro fes sional dis tance, con sid er ing cur rent cir cum stances. I told her

that I could main tain my pro fes sion al ism while wash ing her back,

and her other bits and pieces, too. She said she was sure that I

could, but didn’t trust her self to do the same.

When I came out and dried off I picked up my phone and called

the safe house. Ac tu ally I called Sheila’s phone and she an swered on

the sec ond ring, told me that the night went fairly well, but that our

client hadn’t slept much, was rest less, up most of the night mov ing

around the house and act ing anx ious. Al though I was no ex pert, I

was think ing PTSD. I was go ing to have to get him to an ex pert fairly

soon. I told Sheila to tell Ol lie to give me a call when he came on,

and that she and Bert should go right home and get some rest,

things could de velop quickly that might re quire me call ing them in

early again. She said she un der stood and then we said good bye. My

next call was to Jor dana and she was al ready in Hoover wait ing to

fol low Aaron Ja cob son to work this morn ing be fore head ing to the

of fice. I thanked her for her ser vice and she snick ered, said she was

glad to be of ser vice to her chief, then hung up.

I was in the kitchen mak ing grits, scram bled eggs with shred ded

pep per jack on top, and but tered whole wheat toast when Fa rina

came out of the guest bath room on the other side of the front room

sit ting group wear ing black trousers and a yel low long sleeve blouse

but toned to her throat with a sim ple long gold chain hang ing over it.

She car ried her gym bag in one hand and a black jacket that

matched the trousers in the other. She set those down on the largest

sofa as she passed it, com ing to the counter and lean ing over it from

the liv ing room side.

“That’s how I like to see my men,” she quipped. “In the kitchen

rustling up grub for me. Al though the pic ture would be even bet ter if

you were wear ing an apron. And noth ing else.”

I glanced over my shoul der and cast a smirk her way, then fin-

ished with the two plates I was pre par ing. “Why don’t you do some-

thing use ful like get the juice from the fridge, please?” She grinned

and did that. A few min utes later we were eat ing at the din ing ta ble

next to the floor to ceil ing win dows along the front wall.

“Sim ple but de li cious,” Fa rina said af ter a while, dab bing at her

per fect lips with a pa per towel.”

“Like me,” I replied, sip ping my juice, and she snick ered.

“I don’t know, some times you taste a bit salty.”

I nearly choked on my juice, and this made her laugh.

We sat and stared across at one an other for a long while, the re-

main der of our food un touched, not say ing a word. Fi nally I glanced

at my watch and leaned for ward. Ol lie called me at that mo ment

and I got up and went into my bed room to an swer and talk in pri-

vate. Fa rina did not ap pear of fended.

When I re turned she had fin ished her food and re filled both our

juice glasses and was back in her chair, lean ing back, legs crossed.

Would have been a bet ter sight if she was wear ing a skirt or dress,

but I’d take what I could get.

“How’s he do ing?” she asked, gen uine con cern in her voice.

“He’s fine,” I said, re tak ing my seat, glanc ing at my plate and

glass. “He’s Ol lie.”

“And your self?” she said. “Since you didn’t re spond to any of my

mes sages I never got an an swer to that ques tion ei ther.”

I looked at her for a few mo ments, then told her that I was me.

She nod ded, smiled a lit tle sadly.

“That you cer tainly are, Der rick,” she said in a low tone. “How’s

your client, Quin ton Beasley?”

“Who says I have a client named Quin ton Beasley?” I replied

smoothly.

“Sources,” she said.

“Un named sources,” I said.

“I know their names,” she said.

“Funny,” I said. “But I will nei ther con firm nor deny that I have

such a client.”

“Now that is funny,” she said. “What’s that called, I can’t re mem-

ber right now.”

“The Glo mar Re sponse,” I told her and she nod ded.

“That’s right, it’s a CIA thing, some op er a tion they had that in-

volved Howard Hughes and a sunken So viet sub ma rine, right?”

“Some thing like that,” I con firmed. “The ves sel that Hughes de vel-

oped for the mis sion was called the Glo mar Ex plorer. And when the

op er a tion leaked to the press some clever wit in the gov ern ment

came up with what was later coined The Glo mar Re sponse.”

“Were you ever in the CIA, Der rick?” she said out of left field.

“The Culi nary In sti tute of Amer ica? My crème brûlée was never

up to snuff.”

Fa rina un crossed her legs and leaned for ward on the ta ble, her

plate al ready in the sink in the kitchen.

“Fast on your ver bal feet, aren’t you?” she com pli mented. I picked

up my juice, held it up, then glanced at her.

“While I was in the other room you didn’t by any chance spike my

juice or food with scopo lamine, or worse, GHB?”

She smiled again.

“You’ll know shortly,” she said. “Drink up.”

I stared at her for a few sec onds longer, then did just that.

“And if I did ru fie you, don’t sweat it. I’ll make sure to give you a

cou ple of as pirin to help with the headache af ter you wake up tied to

your bed with a ball gag in your mouth and a dildo up your butt.”

My ex pres sion was in cred u lous, and I couldn’t help but laugh, and

be a lit tle aroused.

Then it was time to get se ri ous.

“Fa rina, I can’t talk about this, sorry, it’s work.”

“Back ground only,” she probed. “I won’t at tribute any thing to you,

I won’t men tion any thing about you pro tect ing Quin ton Beasley.

And if it will make it eas ier, I’ll tell you some things and you can

con firm them if you know the an swer, maybe point me in the right

di rec tion if you don’t or aren’t sure.”

“Or I could just keep my mouth shut all to gether,” I told her. “Or

lie to you.”

“You won’t lie to me,” she said con fi dently. “If that were the case

you’d have al ready done that by now in stead of let ting me keep pes-

ter ing you. De spite be ing a real bad ass, Der rick, I know you very

well. You are a hard man and a real bas tard, but you’re an hon est

one.”

“Man or bas tard?” I said.

She grinned.

“Both.”

I sighed, sat back and glanced at my watch again. I had a lot of

stuff to do to day, but Fa rina War ren was not go ing to go away, and

while I sat con sid er ing what she was ask ing, some thing else oc-

curred to me as I re mem bered what Paige and I dis cussed last night,

in be tween the sex talk.

Fa rina was right, I was hon est, up to a point, but she was right on

an other point, too. I was a bas tard.

I made my de ci sion, nod ded, mostly to my self. Stand ing, I col-

lected my dishes and her empty glass, took ev ery thing into the

kitchen and washed it. Fa rina was stand ing look ing down at 1st Av-

enue and morn ing traf fic when I fin ished and joined her.

“I’ll tell you what I can,” I said in a low tone. “But there is one

non nego tiable con di tion.”

She turned her head and glanced at me cu ri ously.

“And what might that con di tion be, Mr. Olin?” she in quired.

So I told her, and she shook her head and grinned, her mouth ful

of pearly whites on full gleam ing dis play.

We were sit ting on the largest sofa in the mid dle of the group a

minute later, or rather I was sit ting on it and Mrs. War ren was

strad dling my lap as I fon dled her breasts and an swered the ques-

tions that I thought I could, and along the way, en gaged in a lit tle

dis in for ma tion strat egy that would hope fully find the right ears in

time to do some good.

Fa rina shifted on my lap and I reached back and cupped her but-

tocks, squeez ing con tently as she leaned for ward and nes tled my

head against her breasts, the Q&A con tin u ing un abated.

All in all, it was the hottest in ter ro ga tion in which I had ever par-

tic i pated.

Chap ter 35

At nine p.m. Fri day night we brought our client to our of fice to meet

first with a doc tor ar ranged by Anita Ep stein and then with Benita

Ben der. The ex am i na tion took place in Ol lie’s of fice and he made a

few light hearted (mostly) rum bles about charg ing peo ple rent if this

kept up. When the doc tor came out just af ter ten-thirty he and I and

Benita went into my of fice to talk. The gist of the di ag no sis was this:

Quin ton Beasley was phys i cally healthy but the stress of his cur rent

sit u a tion was tak ing a se vere emo tional toll, and in turn this would

even tu ally af fect his health. He was very un happy, and de spite be ing

sur rounded by armed body guards twenty-four hours a day, he did

not feel that he was safe. If he thought he could get away with it, he

would start run ning and never look back.

This was not wel come news to the pros e cu tor, but it was about

what I had as sessed from my lay man’s per spec tive. Benita stood,

shook the doc tor’s hand, and then showed him out. When we were

alone in the of fice she leaned against the door and stared at me, her

ex pres sion grim.

“I need him, Der rick,” she said softly. “If I don’t have him, then I

don’t have a case, and Nicholas Ash worth walks for this mur der and

maybe for a lot of other bad things he de serves to do time for even

though he got away with it be fore. But do I have a right to push

Quin ton to his break ing point, to ruin his health, not to men tion his

life, just so I can win a case?”

“I don’t an swer ques tions like that any more, Nita,” I said to her.

“I’m just a sim ple coun try body guard; my job is to keep peo ple

alive, noth ing more, noth ing less.”

She shook her head, cast ing a not too play ful smirk my way.

Some thing tells me that had she been on the staff of Triple-D right

now I would be re ceiv ing a mid dle fin ger salute.

“Sim ple, my ass,” she said, push ing off the door and mov ing over

to drop said ass into the client chair re cently va cated by the doc tor.

Tact fully, I was able not to com ment on her com ment about her ass,

but be lieve me, it was not easy.

“As I said be fore, Bagby will likely get the pre lim i nary hear ing he

wants,” she said to me. “The judge wants to make sure there will be

no grounds for a re ver sal on ap peal if there is a con vic tion. Likely it

won’t amount to much; pro forma re ally, then we go to the grand

jury any way. As the say ing goes, a pros e cu tor can in dict a ham

sand wich in a grand jury pro ceed ing, but some times they get a no

true bill when the case is shaky. To make sure this isn’t one of those

times, I’m go ing to need Quin ton in court for both the pre lim and

the grand jury, Der rick, I al ready know that. And if he isn’t, Bagby

will raise a hell of a stink and the judge will in sist that I get him in

there.”

I nod ded slowly, think ing.

“How soon will the hear ing be, do you think?”

“Could be as early as Tues day. If I’m re ally lucky the judge will

kick it till the week af ter be cause things are kind of backed up in dis-

trict court right now, but I doubt that. Chuck Bagby is a pow er house

to be reck oned with and a lot of judges try to keep him happy.

Some where be tween Tues day and Thurs day, prob a bly. Maybe as

late as Fri day, all de pend ing on the court cal en dar, of course.”

I nod ded, still think ing.

“Okay. It’s get ting late, why don’t you go in and talk to him so

hope fully we can all get out of here be fore mid night. I know your se-

cu rity de tail has had a long day and so have all of my peo ple.”

Benita looked at me for a few mo ments be fore nod ding and mak-

ing to stand.

“I can al ready tell some thing is per co lat ing in that de vi ous brain

of yours, Der rick, and I’m not sure I want to know what. Just please

tell me it won’t in volve any more dead bod ies. The mayor is al ready

scream ing about the re cent uptick in vi o lence, and un for tu nately a

good bit of that has been di rectly re lated to this case.”

“I can make no prom ises, lady,” I said, then smiled. “But I will

try.”

She stood at the door star ing at me, look ing si mul ta ne ously ex-

hausted and al lur ing. She shook her head, smiled, walked be hind

the desk and leaned down and kissed me on the cheek.

“Thank you,” she smiled again, then walked out of my of fice, leav-

ing the door open as she turned and went next door to Ol lie’s of fice.

She was wear ing jeans again this evening, and I need not say any-

more than that.

With her scent still in my nos trils and the surge of blood to my

groin still largely cen tered there, I took out my phone and scrolled

through the con tact list, se lect ing the name I wanted and then typ-

ing in a quick text mes sage.

I was not sur prised that it was re turned within a minute, the per-

son I was tex ting was pretty much a night owl, and some one who

hadn’t slept more than a few hours at a time in years. My next mes-

sage was much longer and took about five min utes to com pose,

check, edit, and then send.

The re ply this time took fif teen min utes, but the re sponse was

what I ex pected. I sent my thanks and then stood up and went out

into the bullpen with the rest of the team, Jor dana Kauff man in-

cluded.

Chap ter 36

We changed safe houses.

Af ter leav ing the of fice just af ter mid night Fri day night/Sat ur day

morn ing, as per pre ar ranged plan, we took our client to an other

house that I had pur chased, through a dif fer ent alias, in MaCalla,

ap prox i mately twenty miles west of Home wood, in a less trendy and

more se cluded neigh bor hood on Crys tal Drive, with quick ac cess to

I-459 if need be. Bert and Sheila were al ready there, hav ing gone to

get the place ready and let ting the rest of us know be fore we left the

of fice that it was se cure. Quin ton Beasley said noth ing just fol lowed

in struc tions, and for my part I was good with that. I could tell that

Benita was even more ag i tated when she left the meet ing with him

in Ol lie’s of fice. As I walked her out to the hall way to where her two

deputy es cort waited to take her home, she was mo rose and quiet.

She did turn to me and try to smile be fore leav ing, but her mind was

else where, and I was pretty sure I knew where.

I gave Ol lie and Frankie the next morn ing off since they had put in

so much over time on Fri day. At six Sat ur day morn ing, I re lieved

Sheila and Bert and was in the small kitchen in back when my

phone buzzed with the first text of the day. I was pretty sure I al-

ready knew who the tex ter was, ver i fied this with a quick glance,

then fin ished the glass of cold pineap ple juice I had been en joy ing.

Slip ping my Blue tooth into my left ear, I walked into the liv ing

room and made a call. The line was an swered on the sec ond ring, a

sleepy fe male voice on the other end.

“Some how I knew you’d be awake al ready,” said Leigh Dan ton.

“And not drink ing cof fee!”

“Pineap ple juice,” I told her.

“God you fuck ing hea then, that’s prac ti cally blas phemy where I

come from. How ever did you be come my el dest daugh ter’s god fa-

ther?”

“As I re call, the de ci sion wasn’t yours. Hubby num ber one, I be-

lieve.”

“The Ass hole!” she re torted.

“I thought that’s what you called all of them,” I said.

“Yeah,” she con firmed. “But he’s the orig i nal, even if he is Erin’s

fa ther. How is Quint?”

“Very quiet,” I told her, sit ting down on the sofa and lean ing back.

“And not happy at all. We had a doc tor look him over last night right

be fore I texted you. Phys i cally he’s fine, but it’s his men tal state

we’re wor ried about. The DA re ally needs his tes ti mony to win her

case, hell, just to get her case be fore a jury. The de fen dant is a real

bad piece of work and he’s hired one of the best crim i nal de fense at-

tor ney’s in the city to rep re sent him. Benita—Benita Ben der, the

Deputy DA—is afraid that with out Beasley’s co op er a tion, the case

will fall apart and this guy, Nicky Ash worth, will walk, at least on the

mur der charge.”

There was a pause in con ver sa tion and I heard the dis tinct sounds

of a cof fee ma chine in op er a tion on the other end of the line. I

waited un til my friend of thirty-plus years loaded up her first fix of

the day and then sighed with ob vi ous de light as her drug of choice

took ef fect.”

“Tell me, is it as good as sex?” I said.

“Bet ter,” she said. “Es pe cially with some peo ple.”

“Should I be of fended?”

“No, you were bet ter than any of my hus bands, es pe cially The Ass-

hole! Just not as good as the strong black stuff I’ve got in my hands

right now and warm ing my tummy.”

“There are so many de li ciously naughty things I could say in re-

sponse to that com ment, Madam Dan ton,” I said with a chuckle.

“And I’m sure you know what most of them are.”

She laughed, paused to drink, then came back on the line.

“I do,” she said. “So, I’ve man aged to clear my af ter noon at the

shop, Betsy is go ing to take my ap point ments so I’ll be free af ter

twelve-thirty. Where do you want me?”

“A very loaded ques tion,” I said and she snick ered.

“Hey, have you for got ten I’m lick ing pussy this month?” she

quipped and we both laughed.

“You, too, huh,” I said, and we both laughed again.

“Okay,” I man aged a few min utes later. “Now that the witty ban ter

is con cluded, let me tell you where I want you, al though it won’t be

me pick ing you up. It’ll be Ol lie.”

“Oh, goody!” she said. “Tall Brown Sugar. I’ll be sure to wear

snug blue jeans.”

“I won’t even dig nify that with a re sponse, Ms. Dan ton,” I said

prig gishly. “But if Meeka ever finds out Ol lie was alone with you and

your snug blue jeans, he prob a bly won’t live much longer, or at the

very least have to visit his dick in a jar for the rest of his life.”

Leigh snick ered and I con tin ued, giv ing her the de tails of what I

had planned. When I was done she re peated ev ery thing and I con-

firmed she had it right.

“Okay then,” she said, sud denly yawn ing. “I need to hit the shower

and then get mov ing. I have one early ap point ment com ing in be-

fore hours and then a cou ple af ter we open, but I’ll be ready and

where you told me to be this af ter noon, Der rick, no wor ries. If any-

thing changes, text and let me know.”

“I will, luv, and I re ally ap pre ci ate this,” I told her. “And if you

have any prob lems, need to change any thing, let me know.”

“I will, but noth ing will change. And you don’t have to thank me,

like I said, Quint is a friend and if you think I can help him, then I’m

glad to do it. Your ob scene ref er ence to Mar vel God Stan ley Mar tin

[xiv]

Lieber

not with stand ing. I may have to punch you again for

that you know.”

“I might like that,” I said.

She chuck led again.

“God damn per vert! Must be why I love you so. Or per haps it’s our

mu tual affin ity for pussy lick ing, who knows?”

I laughed, a very in ap pro pri ate thought sud denly en ter ing my

mind that I would keep all to my self be cause as brave as I was sup-

posed to be, there were some things I was not will ing to risk. Putting

a cer tain idea into Leigh Dan ton’s head was close to the top of that

list.

In stead I thanked her again and said good bye.

I heard the door to the back bed room Beasley was us ing open and

feet shuf fling down the hall way, an other door open ing and clos ing.

Looks like my client was awake and headed for his first piss of the

day.

I stood and went into the kitchen, hop ing I was do ing the right

thing with Leigh. Only time would tell.

Chap ter 37

Sun day kicked off the first of Au gust and it was both a stormy and

ex tremely muggy start to the last full month of sum mer. I stayed at

the safe house all day Sat ur day, mainly be cause I wanted to see how

the visit from Leigh Dan ton went with Quin ton Beasley. She didn’t

leave un til just af ter eleven that night and by that time Beasley

seemed a dif fer ent man, was even smil ing and laugh ing, a lit tle. As

they were say ing good bye in the back hall way, Leigh whis pered

some thing in his ear and he ac tu ally gig gled. He was so much taller

than she that he had to lean down con sid er ably and she stood on

her toes, both hands on his shoul ders, kissed his cheek, then his

lips.

“Be safe, Quint. Do what these folks tell you, they’re the best at

what they do. And if you’re real good, I may come visit you again.

Might even sneak you in a burger from Five Guys.”

“And Ca jun fries!” he de manded and Leigh laughed, nod ding. An-

other kiss and the good byes were con cluded.

I drove her back to where she had left her car.

“You didn’t blind fold or drug me,” Leigh said when we were a few

blocks from the safe house.

“Well I know you like it kinky, my dear,” I told her as I stopped at

a light. “But I didn’t know you liked an au di ence.”

“Smar tass!” she re torted. “And when I was younger… Never mind.

You know what I’m talk ing about. Now I know where your safe-

house is.”

“And you’ll keep it to your self even if a Car das sian gul in ter ro gates

you to within an inch of your life,” I told her, pulling off as the light

changed.

“There are four lights!” she shouted and we chuck led at the Star

Trek: The Next Gen er a tion mem ory.

“Of course there are, Cap tain,” I said. “Would you fancy some

tea?”

She af fected a ter ri ble British ac cent: “Tea, Earl Grey, hot!”

When we reached the lot where her car was parked, we sat in my

jeep and talked for a few min utes, Leigh reach ing over with her left

hand and tak ing my right, in ter lac ing her fin gers with mine.

“He’s an gry, Der rick. Scared. And more than that, he’s pissed at

him self for be ing so afraid. He knows that tes ti fy ing is the right

thing to do, and he wants to do it, but his fear is very strong. That

sec ond at tack on Thurs day nearly pushed him over the edge. If he

could have run away from all of this, he would have. I meant what I

said to him, I want to visit again, and maybe that will help calm him.

But one thing I’d like to know is how who ever is be hind this seems

to know where to find him? He tells me that he was in the back of an

un marked po lice Sub ur ban driven by a cop when they were at tacked

and that you and Ol lie were wait ing to take him back to an other

safe house when the shoot ing started. And, of course, you took out

the shoot ers. Were they on to the cop, or was the cop in on it?”

I smiled, mostly to my self. Never thought the woman sit ting next

to me was an id iot.

“Or is this some thing that I shouldn’t know?” she con tin ued.

“You shouldn’t know a lot of this al ready,” I ad mit ted. “So in for a

penny…”

I told her ev ery thing, and not just be cause I’m a bucket mouth,

rather be cause at one time Leigh was in the in ves ti ga tions busi ness

and had one of the best an a lyt i cal minds I have ever come across.

When I fin ished she sat silent for a long time, still hold ing my hand

in the dark ness of the front seat, her head back, eyes closed be hind

her glasses. I sat and waited, en joyed the com pany, but I kept my

eyes open lest I fall into a deep and dream less sleep that I might not

ever want to wake up from. And do ing that around Leigh could be

dan ger ous for all sorts of rea sons, some pretty com i cal be cause she

was a real prac ti cal joker.

Fif teen min utes later, Leigh opened her eyes and turned to face

me.

“Well that’s fucked up,” she said iron i cally.

“It is,” I said. “That all you came up with?”

“I think that re ally sums it up,” she con tin ued, squeez ing my hand

be fore let ting it go and turn ing in her seat, rais ing her leg and tuck-

ing her left foot un der her right thigh. “I think you’re right about the

Ca nary Trap, though. Might be the best way to smoke out the leak

and maybe iden tify and stop the threat to Quin ton, al though you’re

prob a bly right, too, about that be ing this Ash worth fel low, or some-

body who works for him. And you could be right about the lawyer. I

re mem ber that name from my PI days. Rep re sented a lot of bad

guys back then, too. And as I re call from a past job with you, we

used some thing sim i lar—the Ca nary Trap again—to catch a cor po-

rate leaker who was de lib er ately try ing to un der mine a client of

mine.”

I nod ded, re mem ber ing that job, and for the unini ti ated:

A Ca nary Trap is a method for ex pos ing an in for ma-

tion leak by giv ing dif fer ent ver sions of a sen si tive

doc u ment or other re stricted in for ma tion to each of

sev eral sus pects and see ing which ver sion gets leaked.

It could be one sim ple false state ment. Spe cial at ten-

tion is paid to the qual ity of the prose of the unique

lan guage, in the hopes that the sus pect will re peat it

ver ba tim in the leak, thereby iden ti fy ing the ver sion of

the source doc u ment. Also re ferred to as a Bar ium

Meal in the spy world and may be a part of a larger

dis in for ma tion strat egy to ex ploit an op po nent’s re-

liance upon a com pro mised covert source.

“Do you know if these leaks be gan be fore Quin ton agreed to tes-

tify?” she asked.

I nod ded.

“They did,” I said.

“So this is not unique to his sit u a tion. Cu ri ous?”

“How so?”

“It means that there could be some thing larger at work here,

maybe?”

That made me pause be cause I hadn’t re ally thought much about

it, mainly be cause my job was pro tect ing Beasley, not think ing

about the source of the leak or why it was hap pen ing now. Leigh did

raise an in ter est ing point.

“So what’s go ing on with Beasley could be a dis trac tion or smoke

screen for some thing else?” I said.

“Pos si bly. And it might in volve this Ash worth char ac ter or it

might not. He could be be hind it or com pletely un aware of it, al-

though, as you stated, most of the shoot ers sent af ter Quint have

been af fil i ated, in some way, with him.”

“But that could be more smoke,” I said. “These guys aren’t ex actly

known for scru ples and loy alty, or brains for that mat ter. If some-

body of fered them enough money, they might take a side job. And

with Ash worth in jail, maybe some of his peo ple aren’t as afraid of

him as they would oth er wise be. You know, go ing back to Bagby, the

lawyer. It would be cu ri ous to know how he came to rep re sent Ash-

worth, if there was a pre vi ous con nec tion. As you say, he’s done a lot

of crim i nal de fense for real crim i nals, so his tak ing Ash worth’s case

is not a shock or stretch. But there are a lot of good crim i nal de fense

at tor neys in Birm ing ham.”

“But not too many with rep u ta tions like Bagby’s,” Leigh pointed

out. “He’s a shark and a lot of pros e cu tors are afraid of him. He gets

deals for his scum bag clients that other lawyers prob a bly can’t get.”

I nod ded, re mem ber ing what Benita Ben der had said about Mr.

Bagby’s rep u ta tion for dig ging up dirt on cops and pros e cu tors a

like.

“Yeah, I can be lieve that,” I told her neu trally. “I asked Paige to

have a closer look at him any way, just to see, if noth ing else, per-

haps a lit tle op po si tion re search. But in light of what you just said

about the pos si bil ity of some thing larger go ing on, what if you’re

right? And what if Bagby, or per haps an other of his clients, is be-

hind it, in volved in it some way?”

Leigh stared at me sharply, then smiled.

“Now who’s got the de vi ous mind, Der rick?” she said. “Yeah,

might be nice to find out how he came to rep re sent Ash worth. Who

called who, and if he ever rep re sented the ass hole be fore. Maybe

Quin ton be ing a wit ness against Ash worth and the two at tempts on

his life have noth ing to do with the Ash worth case. Maybe the leaks

are for an other pur pose.”

“Well one big one I can think of right now is ty ing up the PD and

the DA’s Of fice with sus pi cion and dis trust of their own, and with

the CI and wit ness pro gram clearly com pro mised, there are a lot of

fu ture cases and pros e cu tions in jeop ardy.”

“Which might be the point,” Leigh said.

“And you might just be right. What if Bagby had an other client

that he was ac tu ally try ing to save by dis rupt ing the po lice and the

pros e cu tion ahead of time? What if Ash worth were sim ply a tool he

was us ing, a low-level drug dealer who killed his com pe ti tion in

front of a wit ness? And by do ing it now, he makes it look like Ash-

worth and his gang of thugs are be hind it.”

“Kind of elab o rate,” I said. “And al most Hol ly wood-like, but

stranger things have hap pened in real life. Might be worth a look at

his clients and up com ing cases in Jef fer son County. He’s been a

lawyer in this city for three decades, he would have a lot of sources

in the po lice de part ment and the pros e cu tor’s of fice.”

“Or dirt that he could use to black mail some folks,” Leigh said.

“Mine is not the only de vi ous mind, Ms. Dan ton,” I said, grin ning,

check ing the time by push ing the but ton on my watch. “I need to

pass this along to Paige and Kurt. Prob lem is, they’re cops and have

pro ce dures they have to fol low, and if they don’t and they find

some thing, it won’t be ad mis si ble in court. Mean ing that Bagby or

whomever could walk on a tech ni cal ity.”

“Well I can tell you from my time as a PI and all the work I did for

lawyers, what a client tells an at tor ney is strictly pro tected by priv i-

lege, but the fact of who their clients are is not priv i leged. The cops

can get that with out a war rant. Prob a bly get it through the DA’s Of-

fice if there’s a de fen dant in an up com ing case. And it might help to

look at ar rest ing of fi cers as so ci ated with those cases.”

I nod ded, tak ing out my phone and mak ing notes.

“Sure you don’t miss the PI game, Leigh?” I said.

“Like VD,” she said.

I chuck led, she grinned.

“As some one who has had in ti mate knowl edge of your lady parts,”

I said, fin ish ing with the notes and sav ing the file. “I do hope you

are be ing sar cas tic.”

“Hey, not my fault you put your tongue in places god never in-

tended it to go!”

“And not just my tongue,” I re torted.

“Freak!” she re joined.

“Yeah, this from the woman who wanted me to call her Han Solo

and do her Wook iee style!”

We both laughed hard for a long time. I got out and walked her

over to her car and she got in, rolling down the win dow af ter start-

ing the en gine.

“Night, luv,” I said, lean ing down in the open win dow.

“Night, luv,” she said, kiss ing my lips. “And stay safe.”

“You do the same,” I told her, fin ish ing with an un in tel li gi ble

Wook iee farewell that had her snick er ing as she drove away.

“Never too old for Star Wars,” I said as I got back into my jeep.

“Even if they have man aged to fuck it up in re cent years with sub-

stan dard pre quels and se quels to the orig i nal tril ogy.”

Chap ter 38

Sun day morn ing I was at home catch ing up on my sleep when the

An droid be gan buzzing on the night stand on the right side of the

bed. I think the dis play on the screen read 08:31, right un der the

pic ture of Paige Palmer in her lieu tenant’s uni form from days past.

“Good morn ing, for mer lieu tenant,” I said with as much chip per

as I could muster, clos ing my eyes once more.

“Not so much,” she an nounced un pleas antly. “Your friend Fa rina

War ren has been rather busy of late, as you well know, and this

morn ing on the seven o’clock news on Chan nel 13 she did a pretty

dev as tat ing story on our leak prob lem at BPD.”

Shit! I thought, but said noth ing for a minute. I knew this was

com ing, and so did the cops and the DA, and in a free press so ci ety,

there was noth ing they could have done to pre vent it.

“How bad?” I said fi nally.

“We don’t look great, Der rick,” she said. “And by we, I mean BPD,

and since I’m tech ni cally back on the pay roll, that in cludes me, as

well. Chief Ep stein and I have al ready talked once this morn ing. I

sus pect that was the first of many con ver sa tions to come. She’s

pretty sure that she and the Chief will be in the mayor’s of fice first

thing to mor row. Prob a bly tes ti fy ing be fore the City Coun cil be fore

the week is out. This could se ri ously un der mine the peo ple’s con fi-

dence in the po lice, Der rick. Not that there was a whole lot to be gin

with, al though Chief Reynolds has made a lot of strides in the right

di rec tion of build ing up trust be tween the po lice and the com mu ni-

ties they serve. Still, this is go ing to hurt, es pe cially if we can’t re-

solve the leak sit u a tion quickly, which isn’t all that easy given the

fact that it could be any of a lot of peo ple. I’m still work ing on the

Bar ium Meal so lu tion you sug gested, but im ple ment ing it is go ing to

be re ally hard to track, given that I’m lim ited in re sources since we

don’t know who we can trust.”

I sat up in bed and propped a pil low be hind my back.

“You know, I’ve been giv ing that some thought,” I said, then be-

gan to tell her what Leigh and I had dis cussed last night, leav ing

Leigh’s name out of it be cause, strictly speak ing, I wasn’t au tho rized

to tell any body about the leak prob lem and I didn’t have time for

Paige to re mind me of that.

When I fin ished Paige was silent for a few min utes, her mind

work ing the an gles.

“Tell me again why you aren’t chief of de tec tives some where?”

Paige fi nally said.

“Be cause I’m too pretty to work that hard,” I quipped.

“Well you are pretty,” she said with a snicker. “And ap par ently a

lot smarter than you look. You know, this kind of makes sense, Der-

rick. I mean, I can see Nicky Ash worth do ing what ever he could to

save his own ass, but like I pointed out be fore, he just isn’t that con-

nected or that smart. Kind of ob vi ous given that he killed some body

on a well lit street down town where a lot of peo ple could po ten tially

see him. The leaks did start be fore he was ar rested, but when

Beasley’s name leaked and peo ple started com ing af ter him, we all

nat u rally fo cused on Ash worth be cause the shoot ers had a con nec-

tion to him. But what if you’re right and Bagby is in volved on be half

of an other client, and maybe that client is the one ac tu ally be hind

the leaks? And us ing the at tacks on Beasley as a front, not to men-

tion sewing us and the DA up pretty tight with in ter nal prob lems

and a mount ing PR night mare, thanks, in part, to Fa rina War ren,

ea gle eye re porter.”

“You need to look at his pend ing cases, Paige,” I told her. “Priv i-

lege shouldn’t pre vent you from get ting a list of his clients ei ther.”

“No,” she said. “But I still need to bring the DA in on this, get her

to sign off, and she might have to go higher for clear ance. Go ing af-

ter a lawyer is not an easy thing, es pe cially one like Chuck Bagby. If

he gets wind we’re look ing into him, even if he isn’t guilty of any-

thing, he could cook us. And if he is dirty, and he has ac cess to

sources in side PD and DA, they could tip him. I’m go ing to start

pulling pend ing cases, look ing at ar rest ing of fi cers as you men-

tioned. Might be a con nec tion to some thing. And I’m also go ing to

pull past cases and have a look, too. Maybe when I’m done I’ll have

a bet ter idea of who I can feed some of those Bar ium Meals to.”

I told her I thought that was a good idea and af ter a few more

min utes she hung up. I sat in bed think ing for a while longer, looked

at the clock on the night stand, then rolled out of bed be cause I re ally

needed to re lieve my blad der.

I was fed, show ered, and fully dressed just af ter ten. My mo bile

buzzed again and I smiled at the dis play, sit ting down on one of the

liv ing room so fas, the largest one in the mid dle, and turn ing to stare

out the win dows to my left.

“Well good morn ing, Madam Vice Prin ci pal,” I said in a cheery

voice. “Oh, cor rec tion, Madam Act ing Prin ci pal!”

Monique “Niqe” Otis chuck led throat ily down the line and this

sent a surge of warmth through me, and in one southerly di rec tion

in par tic u lar.

I was def i nitely tak ing the day off now, al though it was highly

likely that I would be putting in some stren u ous labors later on.

Or at least I hoped like hell that would be the case!

Chap ter 39

Mon day morn ing, de spite my ex haus tive Sun day af ter noon and

evening, and maybe be cause of it, I de cided I needed to do some

flex i bil ity ex er cises. Con sid er ing that made me smile and think

about my as so ciate from yes ter day and per haps what she might

have to say about my flex i bil ity. Of course, I could say a thing or two

(or ten) about hers, as well.

I’d be re ally sore later on, and not for nearly as pleas ant a rea son

as be fore, but when I was fin ished I did feel looser. If this were an

episode of the FXX an i mated se ries Archer some body would prob a-

bly be mak ing a com ment about phras ing right now.

I was dressed and in my front room con sid er ing break fast at

seven, gray clouds prom i nent out side my win dows, when my phone

buzzed. It was As sis tant Chief Anita Ep stein.

“Der rick,” she said with out pre am ble. “I need to speak with you.”

Twenty min utes later I was serv ing Birm ing ham’s num ber two

cop break fast in the din ing area. To day she was in uni form again,

Class-B, short sleeves, blue on blue, her auburn hair just off her col-

lar.

“I’ve got a meet ing with the Chief Deputy DA at ten,” she said by

way of ex pla na tion. “And since the meet ing is in his of fice, I fig ured

it couldn’t hurt if he knew I was armed when I showed up.”

She said it with hu mor but I could sense ten sion in her voice.

Once the food was on the ta ble, I took my seat, felt a buzz in my side

pocket, leaned back and ex tracted my phone. A text from Ol lie, just

a sta tus re port. I sent back a quick re ply and then looked over at Ep-

stein as she dug into her oat meal.

“Oat meal raisin?” she said. “And some thing else. Cin na mon?”

I nod ded.

“Yep. My fa vorite.”

She smiled and we ate in si lence for a few more min utes.

I was sip ping my cran berry juice when she wiped her mouth with

a nap kin and looked over at me.

“First let me tell you that the head of Rob bery-Homi cide is get ting

antsy about in ter view ing you and Mr. Oliver,” she said war ily. “Ac-

tu ally, I should say that he’s get ting antsy for his de tec tives to in ter-

view you be cause Cap tain Ar mando isn’t that hands-on. In the ory, I

could stall him longer be cause I out rank him, but I’m afraid pro to-

col must be fol lowed, Der rick.”

I sighed, set ting my glass down, nod ding.

“Yeah,” I said. “Kind of why I left of fi cial dom be hind, and rarely

work for the Man, or the Woman!”

Chief Ep stein grinned, sip ping her juice. Then she seemed to re-

mem ber some thing un pleas ant and set the glass back down. Ob vi-

ously some thing was both er ing her and she was re luc tant to spit it

out. So un like her. I sat and waited. Even tu ally she sighed and

looked di rectly at me.

“The rea son I’m headed over to the DA’s Of fice this morn ing is be-

cause the Dis trict At tor ney is un happy about my de ci sion, and that

of one of his pros e cu tors, to bring in an out side con trac tor to pro tect

a wit ness in one of their higher pro file cases. Al though, as I al ready

told you, Chief Reynolds, though not com pletely happy, has es sen-

tially ac qui esced, DA Shaw is a politi cian who has to run for of fice. I

sus pect some of his un ease is stem ming from the fact that his of fice

could look weak if it were ever known that they couldn’t pro tect

their own wit nesses and had to go out side to a pri vate team of body-

guards to do the job. Es pe cially some one as well known in lo cal cir-

cles as you.”

I smiled.

“And not nec es sar ily known for good things,” I said.

Anita smiled, too.

“But not all bad ei ther,” she said. “Benita’s been ripped a new new

one over the week end, got called to the of fice yes ter day and read the

riot act by Shaw and his chief deputy. This af ter an other story from

Fa rina War ren hit the air ways. For now she’s still in charge of the

Ash worth pros e cu tion, but af ter that, she’s prob a bly gonna be on

shit duty in the DA’s Of fice for quite a while. The good thing for her

is that she’s still very young and can prob a bly re cover in time to

have a pretty good ca reer.”

This news did not set well with me, in fact, it pissed me off, but I

kept it in check, con sid er ing that at some point in the near fu ture I

might need to have a quiet word with Jef fer son County DA Dar ren

Shaw.

“I’m go ing to make my po si tion very clear with the DA,” the as sis-

tant chief said firmly. “With tacit back ing from my Chief. Since BPD

is foot ing the bill for your ser vices, you will re main in charge of se-

cu rity for Quin ton Beasley un til I see fit for a change. I’m sure I’ll

catch a lot of flack over there, given that wit ness se cu rity is sup-

posed to be the purview of the DA’s Of fice once a pros e cu tion be-

gins, but this is a spe cial case, given the leak in side the de part ment.”

“Do they know about that?” I said.

She nod ded dis taste fully.

“Had to tell them,” she said. “But out side of Benita, only the DA

him self and his Chief Deputy, Her man Cortez, are sup posed to

know. Hope fully the leak isn’t in the DA’s Of fice and it’s one of

them.”

That last bit was said with a wry grin.

“Maybe that wouldn’t be such a bad thing,” I pointed out in like

tone. “Save a lot of em bar rass ment on your end and maybe Benita

gets ap pointed act ing DA once they’re in cus tody.”

Anita Ep stein laughed, about to reach for her juice glass once

more, when her phone started ring ing. She pulled it off the left front

side of her belt and an swered it. Al most im me di ately her face went

ashen. Af ter nearly a full minute of lis ten ing to what was be ing said

on the other side of the line, Chief Ep stein swore vi o lently, which

was un usual for her, or at least as far as I knew. She lis tened for a

few mo ments longer, said she was on her way, and ended the call.

“What?” I said, watch ing as she stood.

“An other fuck ing leak, Der rick!” she said harshly, al ready on her

feet and head ing for the door, re triev ing her gold braded ser vice cap

from the glass cof fee ta ble on the way. I stood and caught up with

her quickly be cause I’ve got longer legs, saw her to the door. “That

was Sergeant Bax ter on the phone. He’s with the techs now. The

good news is they think they might have some thing we can use this

time. I might have to miss my meet ing with Cortez, and that is a real

shame, but po lice work takes pri or ity.”

She stopped in the hall way out side my door, turned briefly, gave

me a half smile.

“Keep do ing what you’re do ing, Der rick,” she told me. “I’ll stall

Cap tain Ar mando a while longer. Don’t worry about that. It’s not

like there’s a case to build for pros e cu tion be cause there won’t be a

pros e cu tion, the four shoot ers are dead, and even though it isn’t of-

fi cial yet, given the eye wit ness ac counts and video, you and Oliver

are in the clear any way.”

I nod ded, she nod ded, and then started down the cor ri dor to the

el e va tor on the run. A few sec onds later she was gone.

I went back into my home and over to the break fast ta ble, sud-

denly feel ing a stiff ness in the mid dle of my back. I smiled a lit tle as

I be gan to clear the dishes from the din ing ta ble.

Even though I was suf fer ing a bit now, the mem ory of the heavy

weight of Niqe Otis’ sweat-soaked body on top of mine as she rode

me on the bed room floor yes ter day evening was well worth the sac-

ri fice.

Chap ter 40

Mon day evening and night I cov ered Sheila’s shift at the safe house

where Quin ton Beasley was cur rently re sid ing. Tues day morn ing,

Sheila saw to it that Aaron Ja cob son made it to work and back home

safely but es sen tially had most of the day free. Tues day night I did

the same for Bert and he did the same re gard ing Ja cob son on

Wednes day morn ing.

Wednes day af ter noon I was in my of fice talk ing to Jor dana Kauff-

man about some meet ing re quests from other clients and po ten tial

clients. I had gone home af ter Sheila and I were re lieved by Ol lie

and Frankie and got ten in a lit tle ex er cise, then slept for four hours

be fore com ing to the of fice. Jor dana was telling me about a pre lim i-

nary meet ing she had Tues day af ter noon with a sports pro moter

who was look ing to hire lo cal se cu rity when her client came to town

next month. Ap par ently the client was a well known bas ket ball

player, which ex plained why I had never heard of him. As a rule, I’m

not a fan of celebrity se cu rity, not that I think they don’t need or de-

serve it just as much as the next guy or gal, but some of the things

that go with it, like deal ing with fans, groupies, hang ers-on, and out-

right nutjobs tend to put me off. Still, when it came to run ning a

busi ness that oth ers de pended on for their liveli hoods, I couldn’t af-

ford to in dulge my per sonal dis likes too much. I told Jor dana I’d

take the next meet ing when she set it up.

My phone buzzed be fore she could move on and I took it off my

belt, sighed as I read the name. “Give me a minute, will you?” I said

to her, then an swered.

“Well if it isn’t my new pub lic re la tions man ager,” I said into the

phone.

“I never men tioned your name,” Fa rina War ren re turned mirth-

fully. “And think of all the busi ness you’re li able to rack up once

enough peo ple fig ure that was you and Ol lie last week. Hell, you

might need a press man ager in a lit tle while. And if you make it

worth my while, who knows, I might just take the job. And I can

think of some re ally in ter est ing side ben e fits that I would want in

my perks pack age.”

It was ob vi ous she was alone, but I was not, so my re tort could not

be as di rect as I would have liked it to be.

“I’m afraid I have all the staff I can af ford right now, Ms. War ren.

In fact, at the mo ment I’m speak ing with Ms. Kauff man at my of-

fice.”

“Ah,” she said know ingly as Jor dana glanced up from her iPad.

“Can’t be naughty on the phone right now be cause you’re not alone.

And here I was plan ning on a lit tle sexy talk this af ter noon. Of

course, I can still do if from my end. Make you so hard that the lady

will think you’re about to hoist a flag.”

I made a men tal note to put this tease over my knee at the very

ear li est op por tu nity, and mak ing that note was a big mis take as it

re sulted in the erec tion that she had been jok ing about a mo ment

ago. Un less the build ing was on fire, as long as Jor dana was in my

of fice, I wouldn’t be leav ing this chair be hind my desk any time

soon.

“So what can I do for you, Ms. War ren?” I said in a busi nesslike

tone. “We’re kind of busy at the mo ment.”

Jor dana ges tured at her self and then the door, but I shook my

head. If I was alone right now this call would prob a bly last a lot

longer than it should, and I re ally did have work to do.

“A lit tle birdy told me that some one in ei ther BPD or the DA’s Of-

fice is look ing into a lawyer named Charles Bagby and the firm

Bagby and As so ciates,” she said flatly, paused, and then con tin ued.

“The man who at present rep re sents a fel low by the name of

Nicholas Ash worth, the drug dealer who killed that other drug

dealer out side the McWane Sci ence Cen ter last year, the killing that

was wit nessed by the man you are cur rently pro tect ing, a man who

has now had two at tempts made on his life that I know of.”

I waited, my mind rac ing, con sid er ing sev eral things, none of

which I liked. Well, other than a bare-assed Fa rina War ren ly ing

across my lap as my right hand mer ci lessly smacked her tight,

round back side… but I di gress.

“Care to com ment on any thing I just said, Mr. Olin?”

“I’m afraid I have no com ment on any thing you just said, Ms.

War ren.”

“Even af ter I sat on your lap and let you grope me the other day?”

she said sweetly.

I glanced at Jor dana.

“I’m afraid you’re go ing to have to talk to some one in the PD or

the DA’s Of fice for any in for ma tion re gard ing your sup po si tions,

Ms. War ren. I as sure you that I am privy to no in side in for ma tion

from ei ther quar ter.”

She snorted.

“You lie well, Der rick,” she said. “But I know bet ter. And be fore

you of fer any more de nials, the real rea son I called is not be cause I

wanted you to give me any in for ma tion. Well that isn’t ex actly true,

I’d love an ex clu sive in ter view with you re gard ing Quin ton Beasley,

fol lowed up by one with As sis tant Chief Ep stein and DDA Ben der,

but I’m not likely to get any of that. At least not right now. No, I

called to tell you some thing.”

I waited in si lence, look ing over at Jor dana as she typed on her

iPad.

“But first I want you to know that I’m go ing to want some thing in

re turn for this in for ma tion in the fu ture. And I don’t mean some-

thing as in your tongue on my clit. Al though that will be part of the

over all deal.”

I sighed, turned to glance out the win dow be hind me. An other

warm but over cast day, sup posed to rain later this evening.

“Un der stood, Fa rina. So tell me what you want to tell me.”

“In for ma tion has been leak ing my way from some body on the in-

side of lo cal law en force ment for months now,” she said, her tone

more somber and re served. “Not that this is un usual, I mean, af ter

all, I am an in ves tiga tive re porter and peo ple tell me stuff all the

time, off the record. Whistle blow ers, dis grun tled in sid ers, or just

folks who like my smile. Or other parts of me.”

I had to smile at that.

“Any way, or di nar ily I wouldn’t be telling you or any body this,

least of all the cops, which is why I’m com ing to you with it. The in-

for ma tion about Bagby is the lat est tid bit from this source, and it

seems to sug gest that the in ves ti ga tion into him is be ing con ducted

off-the-books and be yond le gal means.”

I con tin ued to keep my mouth shut, just lis tened.

“Paige Palmer is named di rectly, with hints that she is act ing on

be half of Chief Ep stein as some kind of covert fixer. There are also

sug ges tions that Paige has been do ing this work for some time, even

back when she was as signed to Crim i nal In tel li gence, and that Ep-

stein has been spy ing on prom i nent cit i zens in Birm ing ham for

years, amass ing black mail lever age on some of the most pow er ful

peo ple in the Magic City.”

She paused again, I was think ing at a mile a minute, turned and

glanced at Jor dana, in di cated the door. She nod ded, stood and ex-

ited, clos ing the door be hind her.

“And you’re telling me all of this why, Fa rina?” I said in a low

tone. “I mean it sounds like a hell of a story for you, guar an teed to

make one hell of a splash.”

“Yeah, it would,” she said thought fully. “If it were true. And to be

hon est, even if it’s not.”

“You’re say ing you’re skep ti cal?”

“As hell, Der rick. First let me tell you that this source of mine is

com pletely anony mous to me, I have no clue if it’s a he or a she, I’ve

never spo ken with them di rectly, they only use one-time emails or

texts from burn phones that they only use once. I get doc u ments left

at dead drops, I get links to tem po rary in ter net stor age sites that

delete ten min utes af ter I ac cess them. I’ve got screen cap tures of a

lot of stuff, but I can’t down load any of it. Of fi cial po lice doc u ments,

stuff from the DA’s Of fice. You re mem ber back when I first men-

tioned be ing on to a big story that could have a lot of reper cus sions

for the city?”

“You mean that af ter noon in my loft when you folded your self in

half and damn near fucked me to death?”

She paused.

“Yeah, I’m alone now,” I told her.

“Oh. Well yeah, that day. And the day be fore that my source had

just sent me the first of what would be come sev eral pieces of data

that sug gested a com pro mise of the pro tected wit ness and con fi den-

tial in for mant pro gram.”

I thought about that, re mem ber ing that this had been right be fore

Anita Ep stein had come to see me about her prob lem.

“Okay, Fa rina, let me ask you again. Why are you telling me this,

and why now in par tic u lar?”

There was a long si lence down the line, and then a deep sigh.

“Would you be lieve it’s be cause I love the taste of your cock?” she

said, and we both laughed.

“Well of course I would be lieve that,” I said. “I’ve been told that it

tastes just like peaches and straw ber ries.”

She laughed again.

“Not quite, but it does taste sweet!”

I chuck led again, then waited.

“Be cause now I’m be gin ning to think I’ve been used, Der rick, and

not in a good way, not by some whistle blower or some body who

wants to see jus tice done. I’m a pretty good judge of char ac ter, Der-

rick, but I know I can be fooled by some peo ple, not eas ily, and usu-

ally not by too many peo ple I meet in per son. I do not be lieve Anita

Ep stein is a dis hon est per son. I know you know Paige Palmer well

and could prob a bly vouch for her char ac ter bet ter than I can. And

be cause of that, I’m forced to con clude that my se cret source has

been feed ing me a line of shit in an ef fort to dis credit the po lice and

the DA’s Of fice, and maybe some thing even more sin is ter. And if

that’s the case, I want to find out who they are and see to it that the

truth about them gets out.”

I smiled.

“And, of course, NBC-13’s Chief In ves tiga tive Cor re spon dent

would be the one to tell that story ex clu sively,” I said.

A snicker.

“Well who the hell else would do it?” she said.

I nod ded again, sat for ward against my desk.

“Fa rina, I need you to send me all those screen grabs and what-

ever else you’ve been re ceiv ing from your se cret source.”

“What are you go ing to do with it?” she asked, that re porter’s cu-

rios ity un de ni able.

I smiled.

“Among other things, my dear, I’m go ing to get you your story.”

“And what about that clit thing?” she teased, and I heard keys

click ing in the back ground.

“Baby steps,” I replied. “There’s a spank ing I owe you first.” “Me

over your knees?” she said.

“At first,” I said.

We laughed and she told me I should be re ceiv ing an email about

now. My com puter was up and it dinged a cou ple sec onds later. I

told her I had it and I’d be in touch. I ended that call and placed one

to Paige Palmer im me di ately af ter wards.

It went to voice mail and I left a quick mes sage, then opened the

email Fa rina had sent me and be gan to read the files at tached.

Chap ter 41

It was rain ing hard at five-twenty as Paige and I sat in the front seat

of my jeep parked on the east side of Pa triot Park in Home wood.

Pizze ria GM was right next to the park and we’d got ten a to-go or der

and ate as we talked.

“Noth ing like a messy cal zone to sat isfy a hun gry tummy,” Paige

said, wip ing her mouth on a nap kin, then tak ing a sip from the cup

of tea she’d or dered with her food.”

“With enough meat on it to guar an tee triple by pass surgery in the

near fu ture,” I quipped.

Paige glanced at me side ways and smirked.

“Well we can’t all be health nuts like you, Mr. Olin.”

“A nut maybe, but far from a health one. I just don’t eat meat any-

more.”

“And more power to you,” Paige said, fin ish ing her tea. “I could

never do it.”

I wiped my mouth and stuffed the nap kin and the rest of my trash

into the pa per bag it had come in, then col lected Paige’s trash and

did the same. I shared my hand san i tizer with her and when we

were all cleaned up, Paige spent a few min utes glanc ing out at the

rain be fore turn ing back to me and pick ing up our con ver sa tion.

“I never should have let Anita talk me into com ing back for this

gig,” she said at length. “Be cause I re ally do hate it now. Damn.”

I had sent her ev ery thing Fa rina War ren sent me and she pored

over it while still at po lice head quar ters with Kurt Bax ter. It didn’t

take her long to make some un pleas ant con nec tions, and af ter a lit-

tle re search on her own, plus ver i fy ing her Bar ium Meal dis tri bu-

tions, she was fairly cer tain that she had homed in on her leaker, or

per haps mole was the more cor rect term af ter all.

“First, with Benita’s help, I was able to get a look at Bagby’s client

list and a list of his up com ing tri als. It seems that Mr. Bagby’s firm

is in quite the de mand these days, al most as if ev ery crim i nal in a

three-state ra dius has him on re tainer. One in par tic u lar caught our

eye though, and we dug a lit tle fur ther. Does the name Clay ton

Hicks mean any thing to you?”

“Not a thing,” I said. “Should it?”

“Not re ally,” she said. “Es pe cially if you don’t fol low the news all

that closely, which I know you don’t. And I think you were gone for

that six month pe riod last year when his ar rest was big in the news.

Clay ton Hicks is the son of a very rich de vel oper out of Merid ian,

Mis sis sippi. He’s twenty-seven years old, prod uct of old south ern

money and an ex pen sive ed u ca tion, but is lazy as fuck and un in ter-

ested in any thing even re motely re sem bling work. But he is daddy’s

only son and daddy and mommy both have spoiled him rot ten. I’ll

cut to the chase be cause I know you bore eas ily. Last year, Clay ton

was here in Birm ing ham vis it ing some old class mates, other rich

pukes from Moun tain Brook. One of them was throw ing a party, lot

of al co hol and a lot of drugs. Yeah, ole Clay ton likes his co caine, too.

Any way, he and most ev ery body at the party get smashed out of

their minds and all kinds of shit hap pens. By the way, this all took

place in the fam ily home of one of the Moun tain Brook ass holes

while mommy and daddy were out of town.

“Any way, as is of ten the case, the party got out of hand to the

point where a neigh bor called the cops to com plain about the noise.

When the cops ar rive they have to bang on the door for a while be-

fore any one an swers be cause the mu sic is so loud. Soon as the door

opens, they can smell the weed. Prob a ble cause, so they go in side,

find a bunch of drunk, stoned kids all over the place, in clud ing in an

up stairs bed room where Clay ton Hicks hap pens to be, along with

two oth ers, a young man and a young woman. And the young man is

dead.”

Paige paused for a mo ment and I shifted my po si tion to try to get

com fort able again.

“Kid didn’t die from drugs,” she went on. “There was ev i dence of a

phys i cal al ter ca tion and even tu ally the ME ruled the death to be

sus pi cious. Moun tain Brook is a small de part ment so they asked for

help from the Sher iff’s Of fice and the DA. I sus pect this had more to

do with the fact that ev ery body in volved came from money and

Moun tain Brook wanted some cover. Any way, af ter a while the DA

and Sher iff’s de tec tives gath ered enough ev i dence to charge Hicks

with first de gree man slaugh ter. And Chuck Bagby was hired to de-

fend him. In the mean time some thing else de vel ops and Birm ing-

ham is brought into it be cause it’s within the city’s ju ris dic tion. A

Vice-Nar cotics CI pro vides in for ma tion that sug gests Mr. Hicks

might have had a mo tive for killing the other young man that no one

pre vi ously knew about.”

“Let me guess,” I said. “Hicks and the dead guy were the ones who

sup plied the drugs for the party?”

Paige nod ded.

“And ap par ently this wasn’t the first time. And maybe they were

deal ing across state lines.”

“Oh-ho,” I said. “That would make it fed eral.”

“If the feds had de cided to get in volved,” Paige said. “Ac cord ing to

Benita, they de clined, say ing that the state had a bet ter case for

man slaugh ter, per haps even mur der, than they did on the drugs,

given that the CI might not make the most re li able of wit nesses and

the other guy was dead. They didn’t want to waste the re sources.”

I glanced out my side win dow for a minute be fore turn ing back.

“So when is Hicks’ trial?”

“Next month. Ac tu ally in less than a month.”

“Let me guess, one of the CIs who was com pro mised was go ing to

tes tify against him?”

“No,” Paige said. “One of the wit nesses.”

“So this thing with Ash worth is a smoke screen, to get us look ing

in the wrong di rec tion?”

“Looks like it, al though he may be in volved be cause if this helps

Hicks it could also help him. They sure did a good job of spook ing

Beasley, and had it not been for your team, he would ei ther be dead

or def i nitely not in a mood to tes tify now.”

“I don’t know, Paige,” I said skep ti cally. “This seems like an aw ful

lot of trou ble to go through just to en sure a half-assed rich kid drug

dealer gets off a man slaugh ter charge. I mean, the fee might be a lot

for Bagby, but if this didn’t go right and the cops found out, his ass

would be hang ing pretty far out on a limb. And since wit nesses were

killed to pre vent them from tes ti fy ing, that would be a capi tol of-

fense. Would he risk death for a client like this?”

“I won dered that my self,” she said. “So I had a look into the life of

Daddy Hicks. That guy is so shady I about needed ten show ers

when I got through half the stuff I found on him. He’s been in ves ti-

gated by just about ev ery agency in the state of Mis sis sippi, plus half

the neigh bor ing states, in clud ing Al abama. The feds have looked

into him sev eral times. FBI, SEC, IRS. No crim i nal charges ever

filed, but a lot of civil set tle ments have been ne go ti ated. He’s got a

lot of money and a lot of con nec tions. Ru mor is he even talks to the

White House when he wants to.”

I shook my head de ri sively.

“That’s not as im pres sive as it once might have been,” I said, but

made no fur ther com ment in that re gard. “So the Ca nary Trap

worked.”

Paige nod ded grimly.

“Just as you said it would. And luck ily you’re a friend of Fa rina

War ren’s or we might have missed it un til later. The only place in-

side the de part ment that could have known about me look ing into

Bagby’s clients was the De tec tives Bu reau, specif i cally the lead er-

ship. Two peo ple. Deputy Chief Franklyn and his ex ec u tive of fi cer,

Cap tain Mon ica Rick over, who, co in ci den tally, used to be my boss in

CIU.”

The bit ter ness in her voice told me all I needed to know.

“I take it you cleared Chief Franklyn?”

“Yeah, and that re ally is too bad be cause he’s al ways been an ass-

hole, but in this he’s clean. Not so much for Mon ica, though. She’s

in the mid dle of this all the way up to her eye balls and I now have

enough to prove it, even if I don’t know why.”

“Money is al ways a good mo tive,” I said. “And you did say that the

Hicks fam ily is loaded. Have to be to af ford Chuck Bagby. How close

is Rick over to re tire ment?”

“She’s ac tu ally three years younger than me,” Paige said. “But has

thirty years in. She could have al ready re tired. And prob a bly should

have. Any way, I’ve got a war rant com ing so I can look at her fi nan-

cials, and maybe you’re right. Maybe it is the money. But Mon ica is

smart, prob a bly smart enough to know bet ter than to put dirty

money in an ac count that can be eas ily traced to her. We’ll see

though.”

“Have you told Ep stein yet?”

She shook her head.

“I’ve told no one ex cept you. Not even Kurt. I wanted to talk to

you first. Af ter all, it was your in for ma tion that helped me get to

her.”

I nod ded and we were quiet for a while. Even tu ally I re al ized there

was some thing more that she had to say. I turned in quir ingly.

“What?” I said.

She sighed heav ily and met my eyes.

“I can prove she had ac cess to all the names that got leaked, plus

the in for ma tion that’s been get ting to Fa rina War ren. And it might

be enough to cost her her job, but send ing her to jail, and get ting

lever age to im pli cate Bagby, I don’t think I have enough. Not for a

dec o rated cop like her. If we find a large amount of un ex plained

funds in a se cret ac count we can link to her, maybe we can use that

to get her to talk, but like I said, Mon ica is smart. Prob a bly won’t be

that easy.”

“So you need a smok ing gun?” I said.

“Or a dead body,” she said iron i cally.

I smiled with out warmth.

“I might have a spare one or two in cold stor age some where,” I

said.

Paige wasn’t sure if I was jok ing, but then de cided that it didn’t

mat ter. We dis cussed the next step for us, hatch ing a plan that was

sure to cause dis com fort for some body. The beauty for her was that

she was al ready re tired and couldn’t be fired.

For me, I just didn’t give a fuck.

Chap ter 42

Fri day af ter noon Chief My ron Reynolds, af ter con sul ta tion with Dis-

trict At tor ney Dar ren Shaw, sum moned As sis tant Chief Anita Ep-

stein to his top floor of fice at the Po lice Ad min is tra tion Build ing on

1st Av enue North and in formed her of his de ci sion to re move Quin-

ton Beasley from the pro tec tive cus tody of D D D Coun ter mea sures

and turn that duty over to a team of deputies from the DA’s Se cu rity

Squad. The as sis tant chief ob jected, re spect fully but ve he mently,

but in the end the Chief’s de ci sion was con crete, and the or der was

to be car ried out with due haste.

I was in formed of this de vel op ment by phone at 14:30 hours, and

if I must say so my self, I took the news rather well, only used a cou-

[xv]

ple of ex ple tives, and the last was zoo bie!

Next I in formed the

team, and within the fol low ing hour all five field per son nel, me in-

cluded, were in the safe house in Mc Calla, with Jor dana Kauff man

back at the of fice mon i tor ing com mu ni ca tions and one or two other

things. No one liked this de vel op ment, and not just be cause it meant

the end of a pay ing job. The threat that Quin ton Beasley faced, in

our es ti ma tion, was still grave, and while the DA’s Se cu rity Squad

no doubt had some fine peo ple as signed to it, they weren’t us and

could be sus cep ti ble to com pro mise. How ever, we all knew that the

de ci sion was not ours, and thus the re spon si bil ity for fu ture con se-

quences was not ei ther. Even so, as Sheila had so elo quently put it,

“This re ally blows! ” Don’t think I could have put it bet ter my self.

We were us ing three ve hi cles, our reg u lar trans port van, mi nus

any de cals this time, and two black Sub ur bans that Sheila and Bert

picked up on the way over, ar ranged by Ol lie, and, as usual, I didn’t

ask him where they came from.

Frankie drove the van with our client in back, belted in and sur-

pris ingly calm. Ol lie rode shot gun, with both a Benelli self-load ing

shot gun and a .223 cal iber car bine within easy reach.

Bert was on rear guard alone in one of the Sub ur bans, just un der a

car length from the back bumper of the van, close enough to move

up and cover should the need arise.

Sheila drove the other Sub ur ban in the ad vance-scout po si tion

about two car lengths ahead, with me in the shot gun po si tion ready

to take on any threat that con fronted us from a for ward po si tion. I

also had a Benelli shot gun, but in stead of a car bine, I opted for an

FN P-90 5.7x28 mm sub ma chine gun and it was strapped across my

chest, muz zle pointed down ward be tween my legs.

Our des ti na tion was Ely ton Vil lage in West Birm ing ham, and this

was not the nicest of neigh bor hoods in the Magic City, mak ing me

won der why Jef fer son County had picked it. There used to be a

thriv ing hous ing project com mu nity in the area but the city had

closed it down some years ago and most of the units were suf fer ing

from de cay and ne glect and the whole neigh bor hood was on the

mayor’s list of blight ar eas to be re vi tal ized, af ter, of course, the

more prof itable neigh bor hoods got theirs first. There used to be a

thrift store on Cot ton Av enue across from Ely ton El e men tary School

but that had shut down back in the early 2000s, and as the neigh-

bor hood went fur ther to pot, the then God fa ther of Crime, the late

an un la mented Innes Red bone, had taken over the build ing, ren o-

vated it, and turned it into his main power base. I had been in side it

once then, for a pow wow that I had hoped would re solve our dif fer-

[xvi]

ences con cern ing a for mer pros ti tute in his sta ble.

As could

have been pre dicted, Mr. Red bone was not in a con cil ia tory mood

and the meet ing did not go well. On the pos i tive side, I was able to

walk out un mo lested. Later Innes and I had an other con ver sa tion at

his home in Foun tain Heights and he was bet ter able to see my

point of view. No doubt the large pis tol I had pressed un der his mul-

ti ple chins had some thing to do with his change of per spec tive.

Now the for mer thrift store and crime lord lair was aban doned

and left to rot just like the rest of the neigh bor hood, and for that

rea son we were go ing to do the hand off there at 17:00 hours. Nat u-

rally we ar rived early, the van and Bert’s truck park ing near the side

street of the lot across from where what was left of the projects re-

mained, and they looked even more des o late than the last time I

passed through this area.

Sheila and I cir cled the neigh bor hood to have a look around, see if

we could spot any thing out of place, as if we would re ally know be-

cause this place re ally had fallen way past down in re cent years, as

so many once thriv ing com mu ni ties in Birm ing ham had. This was

be gin ning to turn around in some ar eas, slowly but surely, thanks to

peo ple like Earl Ash ley Dex ter and Reg gie Killing worth, not to men-

tion oth ers, but for some the progress was not mov ing fast enough,

and the poor were al ways the last to see any ben e fits from progress.

If I thought about things like this for too long I’d have a tremen dous

headache, which is why I rarely did. I learned a long time ago that I

could not save the world. This was right around the time that I dis-

cov ered that the world re ally didn’t de serve sav ing in the first place.

I just did what I could, what I was best at, and ev ery thing else ei ther

took care of it self or it didn’t. Cyn i cal, yes, but re al is tic.

Sheila took Tuscaloosa Av enue across Lomb Av enue and turned

right on 10th Street SW be hind Prince ton Hos pi tal, paus ing at the

in ter sec tion on the north end. I checked my watch, glanced at

Sheila, then called Bert over the se cured net work and told him to

leave the lot and head in the op po site di rec tion to scout that area,

we still had a lit tle time be fore the hand off. He ac knowl edged my

or der and left the lot less than thirty sec onds later.

I checked in with Ol lie and he said ev ery thing was fine in the van,

the client still quiet and calm. He also added, once again, how much

he was not a fan of this plan, and from his po si tion I com pletely un-

der stood why. Then I added in my best Starfleet cap tain’s voice of

au thor ity: “Num ber One, you have your or ders.”

The grim chuckle was just the re tort I ex pected, as well as what he

said next.

“Of course, Cap tain, you can’t see all the mid dle fin gers pointed in

your di rec tion right now, but I as sure you, sir, that they are plen ti-

ful.”

“I have no doubt,” I said, grin ning, see ing Sheila do the same out

of the cor ner of my left eye, and I was about to say more when Jor-

dana Kauff man’s voice cut across us, her tone no non sense.

“Cut the chat ter, gen tle men,” she said in a flat voice. “We got in-

com ing on the Cot ton Av enue po si tion, and they don’t look like

cops. Three cars, two on Tuscaloosa mov ing west and one on Cen ter

Street com ing from the north. Can’t tell how many oc cu pants in any

of them, but I would ex pect two or more in each. It’s show time,

folks.”

“Copy that, Char lie Papa,” I replied in like tone. “Okay, ev ery body,

this is it. Stay sharp and don’t get killed.”

Ev ery one ac knowl edged my or ders, even Sheila who was sit ting

next to me.

Chap ter 43

There were a to tal of nine shoot ers in the three ve hi cles, most armed

with pis tols, but three had long guns, and un for tu nately for them,

were not well-schooled in their use. Ev ery one on my team was bet-

ter than ex pert with the weapons they car ried, as was the thirty year

old de tec tive from Kurt Bax ter’s team who was play ing the part of

Quin ton Beasley to day.

The bad guys roared into the lot and closed on the van, sev eral

armed men fil ing out of the ve hi cles and open ing fire im me di ately,

and al most im me di ately af ter that, Ol lie, Frankie, and the de tec tive,

all ar mored and car ry ing a long gun of their own, came out of their

con cealed po si tions nearby and be gan to pick them off.

Bert Cortez had not re ally gone that far away and he came in be-

hind the ve hi cle that ap proached from the north on Cen ter Street,

used his Sub ur ban for cover as he climbed out with an M4, adding

his fire to that of the oth ers and catch ing the shoot ers com pletely off

guard and un pre pared.

Sheila and I were the last to get to the party, com ing up Cot ton

Av enue and stop ping in the side park ing lot of what had once been a

thriv ing com mu nity church, now also left aban doned. By this time

the shoot ers who re mained on their feet were us ing their ve hi cles

for cover and fir ing back wildly. Sheila and I joined the fight, mov-

ing across the street at a side an gle, fir ing quick and con trolled

bursts from our SMGs, she had her own P-90 strapped across her

chest now.

Bert be gan to close up from Cen ter Street cross ing Tuscaloosa Av-

enue and Ol lie and the oth ers did the same from the for mer hous ing

project’s side of the park ing lot. Soon we had them in a three-way

cross fire, pour ing un re lent ing but con trolled shots into their badly

com pro mised po si tion. The only place for them to re treat was to-

ward the aban doned thrift store/gang ster hang out, and to do so

would leave them even more ex posed. By the time they re al ized the

hope less ness of their po si tion, only three of the op po si tion were still

on their feet, or rather their knees be cause they were all down as low

as they could get try ing to keep from get ting shot while pre tend ing

they were still fight ing. But that pre tense soon ended with shouts of

des per ate sur ren der.

We or dered them to throw out their weapons and that was done in

quick fash ion. Still, we were cau tious, mov ing in care fully. Bert,

Frankie, and Sheila re mained in cover po si tions as Ol lie, De tec tive

Ul rich, and I all moved in, weapons held tight. We or dered the sur-

vivors down on their stom achs with their hands far away from their

bod ies, and they ea gerly com plied. The de tec tive had heavy zip-ties

and he passed some to us and we quickly set about se cur ing ev ery

wrist we found, in clud ing those of the wounded and the dead. As I

was about to flip one of them over and se cure his hands be hind him,

I rec og nized his face, glanced over at Ol lie.

“What?” he said.

“Looks like Nicky Ash worth is go ing to need a new num ber two,” I

said. “This is Nel son John son.”

“Well ain’t that a shame?” Ol lie said as he un cer e mo ni ously se-

cured the hands of an other wounded shooter, the man moan ing in

agony. “Maybe he can hold a re cruit ing drive when he get out.”

I didn’t re spond as I fin ished with John son, and in the back-

ground the sirens were clos ing fast. Glanc ing up, I looked at the

drone hov er ing close by, tipped my imag i nary hat in its di rec tion.

Via the wire less re ceiver in my left ear, Jor dana Kauff man sounded

re lieved when she spoke.

“Nice to see you’re alive, Chief,” she said. “Guess that means I

won’t in herit the busi ness to day af ter all.”

I chuck led as the first BPD cruis ers ar rived on the scene.

“Afraid not, Mrs. Kauff man,” I said, re mov ing the pro tec tive

earplug from my right ear. “How is Mr. Beasley?”

“Oh he’s fine,” she told me. “Sergeant Bax ter and I have been

keep ing him com pany, even let him use the in ter net, which re ally

made him happy.”

“Good,” I said. “You might be pulling some over time tonight.”

“I didn’t have any plans, Der rick,” she said. “Hubby won’t be back

for an other cou ple months and there’s only so much Hulu a gal can

binge on.”

I smiled, thanked her for her good work, then glanced around at

the scene as more cops and now deputies ar rived. The first

paramedics were on scene three min utes later. By this time I was

lean ing against the shot to pieces van, an other that was ar ranged by

Ol lie and not our ac tual trans port, tak ing out my phone and mak ing

a call.

Paige Palmer an swered on the first ring.

“It’s done, Paige,” I told her calmly, tak ing a deep breath and

slowly re leas ing it be fore con tin u ing. Even af ter so many years of

gun fights, the af ter ef fects were al ways the same as the adrenalin

lev els in my body be gan to re turn to nor mal. I’d be shak ing for

about the next hour, but could still func tion as needed un til then, as

long as I con cen trated.

“And there are sur vivors,” I told her. “Ev ery body on our side is

okay, too, in clud ing De tec tive Ul rich.”

“Good to hear,” Paige said in ob vi ous re lief. “And that’s the linch-

pin. I’m with Chief Ep stein and DDA Ben der now. We got a war rant

for Cap tain Rick over’s phone and in ter net. We now have proof she’s

the leak.”

Al though this should have been a cause for cel e bra tion, I com-

pletely un der stood the somber tone in my friend’s voice. We spoke

for a few min utes re gard ing the next steps and then said good bye.

Glanc ing around at the scene, I groaned in wardly. Not a chance of

get ting out of here with out talk ing to the cops this time. And know-

ing them, es pe cially the pricks from Rob bery-Homi cide, I was prob-

a bly go ing to be talk ing for the bet ter part of the next week.

Ol lie and the oth ers came over to me, their long guns and SMGs,

like mine, turned over to po lice. They looked at me and I looked at

them. There wasn’t a need to say any thing so we didn’t, all now

lean ing against the bul let rid dled van watch ing the cops and the

medics do their work.

Be cause Triple-D had al ready done theirs.

Chap ter 44

Mon ica Rick over was work ing late in her of fice that Fri day evening

when Paige Palmer dropped by unan nounced, and she was not

alone. When the cap tain saw the ex pres sion on the face of her long-

time friend and for mer sub or di nate, mim icked on the faces of the

As sis tant Chief of Po lice and De tec tive Sergeant Kurt Bax ter from

the Crim i nal In tel li gence Unit, Rick over knew the jig was fi nally up.

Oddly, this came as a re lief to the woman who had been liv ing un der

so much pres sure for the past cou ple of years ever since Chuck

Bagby started black mail ing her.

Ep stein in formed her that ef fec tive im me di ately she was stripped

of all po lice pow ers and asked for her badge and weapon. Once they

were se cure, Kurt Bax ter stepped for ward and be gan read ing the

soon-to-be ex-cap tain her Mi randa Rights, al though ev ery one in the

room knew this was un nec es sary, but pro to col had to be fol lowed,

par tic u larly in a case as se ri ous as this. When asked if she wanted to

sum mon le gal coun sel, Rick over said she did not need one.

“It re ally wouldn’t do any good at this point,” she said. “Con sid er-

ing that the three of you came to gether, I’d say I’m prob a bly in too

much trou ble for any body to get me out of it. And frankly, I’m kind

of tired of lawyers.”

So they all sat and talked for a long time, Kurt’s phone record ing

both au dio and video, in clud ing a sec ond read ing of her rights and

her de clin ing of le gal rep re sen ta tion. With the for mal i ties out of the

way, Mon ica Rick over ex haled, prob a bly for the first time in more

than two years, and then she told them ev ery thing she knew. Paige

was more in ter ested in the why (she had be trayed ev ery thing she

had stood for for thirty years) than the what (the in ter nal se crets she

had given away be sides the names of con fi den tial in for mants and

pro tected wit nesses) but she un der stood that at the mo ment the lat-

ter was the more im por tant con sid er a tion.

Later they would learn of a few cases from years ago where Rick-

over had helped the ev i dence along to get con vic tions against peo ple

she knew were guilty, and un for tu nately, Chuck Bagby found out

about af ter the fact. Then there was a hit and run car ac ci dent in At-

lanta two years ago, a teenager left par a lyzed. Bagby had rep re-

sented the driver, an other wealthy kid of priv i lege whose par ents

bought him out of trou ble with barely a sus pen sion of his driver’s li-

cense and a cushy ad dic tion treat ment pro gram. The con nec tion to

Rick over was her then twenty-two year old daugh ter, a pas sen ger in

the car, one of two that Bagby man aged to keep clear of in volve-

ment, with the right mon e tary in cen tive from the fam ily of the

driver. Re gard ing both pas sen gers in the car, Bagby re ceived lever-

age over loved ones. In the case of un known pas sen ger num ber two,

a life time guar an tee of le gal work for a ma jor South Car olina firm

with scores of cor po rate clients all over the world; in clud ing a hefty

an nual re tainer. In the case of Cyndi Rick over, the com plete co op er-

a tion of her Birm ing ham Po lice cap tain mother when ever and what-

ever he needed for as long as she was on the job. No money ever

changed hands, al though Bagby had of fered it on more than one oc-

ca sion. Bagby was very smart and very care ful when deal ing with

her, but Rick over did have proof of their il licit re la tion ship, and was

only too glad to share.

BENITA BEN DER PRE SENTED AN AF FI DAVIT to a friendly judge

at her home early Sat ur day morn ing, lay ing out the rea sons she

wanted to have a shadow coun sel ap pointed to Nicholas Ash worth,

os ten si bly to pro tect his rights and in ter ests be cause in the opin ion

of the DA’s Of fice, Charles Bagby was not do ing so. The judge care-

fully con sid ered the de tails in the doc u ment, then spent some time

con sid er ing the young pros e cu tor in her liv ing room. Fi nally she

sighed and is sued the writ ten or der from her home com puter,

telling Ben der that if this came back to bite her later on, hers

wouldn’t be the only ass hang ing out. Benita as sured the judge that

she was well aware of this.

A se nior crim i nal lit i ga tor from the Mil ner Law Firm agreed to be

shadow coun sel for Ash worth and ac com pa nied Benita to the

county lockup for a hastily ar ranged meet ing with Nicky Ash worth

at ten Sat ur day morn ing. He said he was not go ing to talk with out

his lawyer present, and then he wouldn’t talk any way. Benita in-

formed him that he did not have to talk, just lis ten, and also in-

formed him that the man seated to her left was now his lawyer be-

cause very soon Chuck Bagby would need le gal rep re sen ta tion of his

own. For the first time since she had met him in per son, Benita be-

lieved she saw worry in the young thug’s eyes.

She laid it all out for him, in clud ing the fact that his sec ond in

com mand had been shot to death on Fri day af ter noon while try ing

to kill the chief wit ness against him, a wit ness who was still alive

and healthy and un der the best pro tec tion in the city. She then ex-

plained what they knew about Chuck Bagby and his con nec tion to

the leak ing of con fi den tial po lice in for ma tion, in for ma tion that had

led to the deaths of sev eral in for mants and wit nesses. Next came the

ex pla na tion of the real rea son why Bagby had been will ing to use his

in flu ence to help Ash worth on the sly, and it had noth ing to do with

the drug dealer’s money. Benita might have led him to be lieve that

she had more ev i dence to tie him to the leak case than she re ally

did; hint ing that wit ness tam per ing and ad di tional mur der charges

might be forth com ing. The lawyer from the Mil ner firm asked for a

pri vate con fer ence with his new client and about twenty min utes

later he asked Benita to step back in. An hour af ter that they had

ham mered out a deal for a plea bar gain, one that might just let Ash-

worth out of jail be fore his six ti eth birth day, if he be haved while in

state prison, the death penalty taken off the ta ble in ex change for

com plete co op er a tion.

Chuck Bagby was ar rested at his Hoover home early Sun day

morn ing by de tec tives from the Jef fer son County Sher iff’s Of fice in

con junc tion with Hoover PD of fi cers. Benita had al ready been in

con tact with the As sis tant Spe cial Agent in Charge of the FBI’s

Birm ing ham Field Of fice as well as the head of the Crim i nal Di vi-

sion at the U.S. At tor ney’s Of fice. Mon day af ter noon, FBI agents

from Birm ing ham as well as the res i dent of fice in Merid ian, Mis sis-

sippi paid Don ald Mar vin Hicks a visit at his pala tial home just out-

side the city. In the com ing days, more in ves ti ga tors would be drop-

ping by to visit the Hicks home, most no tably from the SEC and IRS,

as well as a few state and lo cal agen cies.

By way of thanks for her as sis tance in wrap ping up the de part-

ment’s leak case, choos ing to put do ing the right thing ahead of

break ing a story, both Benita Ben der and Anita Ep stein agreed to sit

down for a joint ex clu sive in ter view with Chan nel 13’s Fa rina War-

ren to dis cuss those parts of the case that were now re solved and

could be made pub lic. I de clined to par tic i pate and re quested in the

most stren u ous terms that my name be kept as far out of the con ver-

sa tion as pos si ble. Fa rina agreed, but made it plain that this would

come at a price. “Em pha sis on cum!” she had chuck led.

I saw the in ter view and thought it went well, didn’t re ally learn

any thing I didn’t al ready know, that is un til the very end when Fa-

rina asked Benita about ru mors she had been hear ing about the

DDA’s pos si ble de par ture from the pros e cu tor’s of fice. Benita sim-

ply smiled told the re porter that she should know bet ter than to lis-

ten to ru mors.

A month later Benita did leave the DA’s Of fice for a ju nior part-

ner ship at the Mil ner Law Firm and took over the post of as sis tant

head crim i nal lit i ga tor. Not too bad for some one who wasn’t even

thirty-three yet, and her an nual salary would quadru ple by next

year, not to men tion part ner ship bonuses. They might not re al ize it

for a while, but the DA’s Of fice had just suf fered a ma jor blow.

Quin ton Beasley didn’t have to tes tify now that Nicky Ash worth

had taken a deal, so he went back to his old life and Leigh told me

that within a week or so he seemed to be his old self again, back at

work driv ing all the ladies to dis trac tion, oc ca sion ally a forty-six

year old grand mother, too.

New jobs came in to Triple-D and we were sud denly a lot busier.

We still had to fin ish in ter views with Birm ing ham de tec tives and in

or der to make sure we com plied, the head of Rob bery-Homi cide had

con fis cated our per sonal se cu rity li censes un til he was sat is fied with

our sto ries. This didn’t ac tu ally ham per us from work ing be cause

only the state has the power to sus pend se cu rity li censes. Be sides,

we all had dig i tal copies of our li censes on our phones any way, but it

made the cap tain feel bet ter.

One sur pris ingly mild day at the end of the month, a ju nior de tec-

tive showed up at the of fice, and as luck had it, we were all there just

fin ish ing with lunch and a thor ough BS ses sion. The de tec tive in-

formed us that she was re turn ing our li censes. She stood in the mid-

dle of the bullpen and read off the names and each of us raised our

hands as she did so. She only had one left and turned to Sheila two

desks away.

“Well since you’re the only gal, I guess that makes you Ms. Be tan-

court, then.”

Sheila did not com ment, sim ply took her li cense from the de tec-

tive and put it back in her wal let. I thanked the de tec tive, told her to

give my re gards to Cap tain Ar mando, and walked her out. Then it

was back to the BS ses sion…

SUM MER SCHOOL HAD ENDED AND REG U LAR school was al-

ready back in ses sion. Vice Prin ci pal Otis was very busy for the first

month as sum mer gave way to fall, and her hus band’s work had

slowed con sid er ably. How ever, at the end of Sep tem ber, the last

week end in fact, Niqe found her self with a bit of free time on her

hands, and I in vited her over for a meal. She chuck led wickedly

when I made the in vi ta tion.

“So are you go ing to feed me or eat me?” she said throat ily.

“Both,” I replied, and we both laughed.

I made pasta and fruit salad, both served cold. The pasta had been

in tended to be served while it was still hot, but Mrs. Otis was clearly

in the mood to play when she ar rived so I shut ev ery thing off and

we re tired to the bed room where I un hur riedly stripped the cloth ing

from her buxom body while re buff ing her at tempts to un dress me.

All her pre vi ous hes i ta tions about be ing naked in front of me were

now gone and when I re moved the last item, her blue silk undies,

Niqe did a quick spin around like Lynda Carter from the 70s and

then stood with hands on her hips, star ing at me de fi antly.

I smiled, feel ing my blood surge, reached out and pulled her to

me. We kissed for quite some time and her hands were mov ing all

over my still clothed body. She tried once again to un dress me but I

pushed her hands away, stepped back, grinned at her, then pushed

her down on the bed on her back.

My grin be came even more wicked at that point, and Niqe smiled

in an tic i pa tion of what was about to come.

Of course, that was her in five min utes. Then again in ten. Af ter

that I lost count, kept tak ing her with my mouth un til fi nally she

could en dure no more, pushed my face from be tween her legs and

closed her thighs as she con vulsed on the bed be fore me, her hands

cov er ing her vulva.

A look of ut ter self-sat is fac tion on my face, I stood and stared

down at her, un do ing the but tons on my shirt. Niqe’s light skin was

flush ing and she was still shiv er ing as she watched me, and I liked

that, let ting her know with my eyes just what I planned on do ing to

her next.

“You’re so bad,” she fi nally man aged to say, gig gling.

“Niqe, my dear,” I said with a raised brow, mov ing to ward the

bed, my left knee in sin u at ing it self be tween her feet. “You have ab-

so lutely no idea.”

Be fore she could re ply, I reached down and grabbed both her feet,

flip ping her onto her stom ach and strad dling the backs of her

thighs. Niqe in haled sharply, then laughed.

“God, you’re fast,” she teased. “At least with some things. When it

comes to lick ing my…”

She never got to fin ish that state ment be cause the next thing she

knew I had scooted back, spread her plump cheeks, and in serted my

tongue…

The shocked squeal that erupted from her lips was mu sic to my

ears, and sent a surge straight to my al ready en gorged cock. One day

I in tend to give some se ri ous thought to how this oral ob ses sion of

mine be gan, and how I got so good at it. I sup pose the sec ond is eas-

i est to an swer, prac tice! Lots and lots of prac tice. I think I was

twenty-seven the first time it oc curred to me that I might ac tu ally

en joy go ing down on a woman. Turned out I was right, and over the

years, with dif fer ent women, I’ve learned a lot, de vel oped some mad

skills, which ex plained why Vice Prin ci pal Otis was now face down in

the mid dle of my bed howl ing like a ban shee as my tongue probed

her tight lit tle ass hole….

TWO MIN UTES AF TER I EN TERED HER the first time she came,

bit ing her lip, her short nails (thank fully) dig ging into my skin. I

watched as her skin flushed, her eyes rolled back in her head, and

lit tle whim pers of plea sure es caped her thick lips, but I did not stop

mov ing in side her for one sec ond, pushed deeper and deeper, slid-

ing my hands un der her ass and lift ing her to wards me, feel ing her

thighs lock ing tighter around me as I slowly gy rated in side of her.

Af ter three more or gasms (hers) I with drew from her body and she

was stunned. Her eyes snapped open in con fu sion as she watched

me kneel ing be tween her legs smil ing down at her, rolling the con-

dom off.

“What are you do ing?” she said breath lessly as I bounded off the

bed.

“Kind of hun gry,” I told her with a grin, then turned to ward the

bath room. “You were a mouth wa ter ing ap pe tizer, but I think we

both need to re plen ish.

I shut the door be fore she could say any thing else, laugh ing to my-

self. I re ally was a hor ri ble tease.

WE ATE IN BED AND TALKED, LAUGHED, played around. Al-

though I am a fairly soli tary per son, en joy my time alone—which ex-

plains why I’ve never been mar ried—, I do en joy the in ti macy that

comes with get ting naked with a woman, and al though I wouldn’t

nec es sar ily want this to get out, I like it bet ter than the sex. Don’t

get me wrong, though, I re ally en joy the sex!

Ap par ently, so does Mrs. Otis.

“Oh Je sus, Der rick! Oh fuck! I don’t… Oh fuck!”

“You said that al ready,” I teased and she glared at me re proach-

fully.

I smiled, blew her a kiss, then con tin ued to in sert my As troglide

cov ered cock into that tight lit tle spot be tween her round, brown

but tocks that I’d been lick ing ear lier. Niqe groaned, closed her eyes,

her mouth drop ping open as she be gan to pant.

“Slow and easy breaths,” I said in a sooth ing, steady voice. “In

slowly, hold it for two counts, then re lease slowly.”

She opened her eyes.

“Easy for you to say,” she said, then grinned de spite her self. That

quickly went away as I slid in fur ther. “Oh god!”

She was ly ing on her back and I was kneel ing above her, her right

leg hooked around my left thigh, her left leg raised straight up and

braced against my bare chest. I stroked her thigh with my right

hand while guid ing my erec tion into her with my left.

“There,” I said. “That’s the head. Ready for the rest?”

For a mo ment she looked in cred u lous, then smirked.

“Yeah, right. Damn, Der rick, I can’t be lieve I let you talk me into

this. El don used to try all the time when we first started dat ing,

talkin’ about what a big bouncy booty I had and how much he’d

love to play in side it for a while. Then oc ca sion ally af ter we got

mar ried he would drop hints. Ah hhh! Damn! Any way, but I al ways

said no. Fi nally he got the mes sage.”

I leaned in a lit tle, her leg fold ing be tween us. She stared up at me,

moan ing deeply, eyes clos ing for a mo ment. I didn’t move, stayed

per fectly still as her body ad justed to this new sen sa tion. When she

opened her eyes again she was ac tu ally smil ing.

“But you, af ter just a few weeks, have me prac ti cally folded in half

and your cock all the way up my ass!”

I leaned down a lit tle fur ther, eyes un blink ing.

“And I’m gonna make you cum out of your ass, too!” I told her,

start ing to move my hips. “But first…”

Her eyes widened as I lifted her other leg up to my chest and

folded her com pletely in half, look ing down at her from the pushup

po si tion.

Niqe gasped, cried out, and then I felt her squirt all over me. Grin-

ning with supreme sat is fac tion, I stead ied my self and then started

mov ing in side her.

TWO DAYS LATER TRIPLE-D HAD TO FLY to Lou i si ana for a two-

week job filled with far more ex cite ment than was pre ferred for a

man of my ad vanc ing years, but on the plus side, we all made it out

alive. And, al most as im por tantly, so did our clients.

Triple-D = 462.

Bad guys = 0.

THE END

[a] From the Off Book Der rick Olin set .

[b] From the Off Book Der rick Olin set.

[c] Writ ten un der the pseu do nym Leo Croix.

[d] Writ ten un der the pseu do nym Leo Croix.

[e] Writ ten un der the pseu do nym Leo Croix.

[vi] See Mer ce nary by Stellen Qxz.

[vii] See Dan ger ous Li ai son by Stellen Qxz.

[viii] At more, Al abama is the lo ca tion of Hol man Prison, which houses the

ma jor ity of death row in mates in the state.

[ix] See Rogue by Stellen Qxz.

[x] See Dead line by Stellen Qxz.

[xi] Richard Ar ring ton Jr. (be cause I get tired of writ ing it out!).

[xii] Pub lic In for ma tion Of fi cer.

[xiii] Fra ter nal Or der of Po lice.

[xiv] Stan Lee’s birth name.

[xv] He brew for fuck it.

[xvi] See Ex trac tion by Stellen Qxz.

Document Outline

- Also By...

- Chapter 1

- Chapter 2

- Chapter 3

- Chapter 4

- Chapter 5

- Chapter 6

- Chapter 7

- Chapter 8

- Chapter 9

- Chapter 10

- Chapter 11

- Chapter 12

- Chapter 13

- Chapter 14

- Chapter 15

- Chapter 16

- Chapter 17

- Chapter 18

- Chapter 19

- Chapter 20

- Chapter 21

- Chapter 22

- Chapter 23

- Chapter 24

- Chapter 25

- Chapter 26

- Chapter 27

- Chapter 28

- Chapter 29

- Chapter 30

- Chapter 31

- Chapter 32

- Chapter 33

- Chapter 34

- Chapter 35

- Chapter 36

- Chapter 37

- Chapter 38

- Chapter 39

- Chapter 40

- Chapter 41

- Chapter 42

- Chapter 43

- Chapter 44

- Notes

Table of Contents

l

Unnamed

Unnamed

Unnamed

Unnamed

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Unnamed

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Unnamed

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Also By...

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Chapter 27

Chapter 28

Chapter 29

Chapter 30

Chapter 31

Chapter 32

Chapter 33

Chapter 34

Chapter 35

Chapter 36

Chapter 37

Chapter 38