First Avenue (40 page)
Sam found Markowitz pacing back and forth in front of his desk with the telephone to his ear, but he was not talking to anyone. It was after five, and except for
“Damn it,
“Getting the girl stashed away. Why? What’s up?”
“Read this.”
Sam scanned the statement and looked back at
“How did you get him to talk?”
“When I got him alone and told him he’s looking at second-degree assault and a long vacation at taxpayer expense, he decided to sing. Read.”
Sam began reading standing up, then sat down next to
“Who else knows about this?”
“Do you think I’m crazy?”
“Do you believe this kid?”
“Don’t you?”
“I guess I do.”
“Damn right you do. Look, the kid says this deal is supposed to go down tonight, and he’ll tell us where it is if we give him his walking papers.”
“Come on,
Before
“Hi ya, Captain,”
“I thought I might find
“I appreciate that, Captain,”
“Sure. Sometimes the old adrenaline kicks in, and we don’t stop and think the whole thing through. So how’s it going here?” the captain asked.
“We’re going nowhere,”
Alaska
. Her family is getting her a ticket, and she’ll be gone tomorrow.
The captain stood benevolently over them with his arms clasped behind his back. He rocked back and forth on his heels and toes and reminded
“Well, that’s a shame. Although I disagreed with your procedures, it was still a good effort.”
“Can of worms,”
“Well, you let me know if I can help,” the captain said, continuing his agreeable tone.
“Thanks,”
“Oh, just drop it in the box. It’ll get to me eventually.”
The captain smiled and walked away. For some moments neither
“What the hell was that all about?”
“That was about your worst nightmare. ‘Big guy, slicked-back hair’ mean anything to you?”
“
After
Markowitz reached into the wastebasket and pulled out the crumpled statement.
“You know, Wright, I think the captain might just have answered your question.”
“What question?”
“Whoever these people are, the captain included, might just be stupid enough to do that deal tonight. If he thinks we’re going to drop this, and I think that’s what he thinks, they might just have this little party after all. We have to find a way to crash it.”
“How?”
“Don’t know yet. I need to talk to the kid again.”
“If this kid knows so much, why doesn’t he know what happened to
Alberta
?”
“I don’t know.”
“What about
“I did, but he won’t talk. That kid is bad news.”
“So what do you think,
“You’ve been watching too many movies, Wright. We don’t need them to screw this up. We’re quite able to do that ourselves. Besides, it is now
“I guess you’re right.”
“I guess I am. Hey, what is this? You don’t sound too enthusiastic all of a sudden.”
“I’m so excited I can’t see straight,”
“Well, it isn’t over, and it’s not going to be over for a long time. You’d better get used to that. Even when it’s finished, it’s not going to be finished. You know what I mean?”
“I’m beginning to understand.”
“I hope so. You’re the one who got me into this mess. Now you write the report and give the captain some hocus-pocus about uncooperative witnesses and victims. I’ll go see how badly our
“More than enough. Want me to meet you back here?”
“I don’t think so. How about A deck? I’ll check out a car and wait for you down there.”
“Where are we going?”
“I don’t know yet.”
“I already checked out a car,”
“Turn it in,”
Sam sat at the typewriter in the patrol write-up room and banged out the report. The uncooperative victim did not wish to prosecute and declined to provide information about the conduct of the suspects. The suspects, who also wished not to be prosecuted, declined the invitation to confess. The suspects were booked into jail for “suspicion of assault.” The crime scene and the follow-up investigation were turned over to Detective Markowitz.
He was certain that within a few hours, sooner perhaps, the report would work its way up through the ranks and would find what everyone who read it would believe to be its final resting place. That was what he wanted. About that time
He took the report into the office and dropped it in front of the sergeant who had desk duty.
“Is this the assault at the Donut Shop?” he asked. He quickly scanned the report to see if he needed to pay attention.
“Yes,”
The sergeant nodded his head and decided to read the report entirely.
“It was good work anyway. Got an overtime slip for me to sign?”
“I’m going to let this one go. The captain chewed me out already for busting into the basement without waiting for backup. I don’t think he wants to see an overtime slip.”
“Judgment call. No right way. You make out an overtime slip, I’ll sign it.”
“I appreciate that. Next time.”
Sam gathered the paperwork and tapped it into a neat bundle. When he got up to leave, the sergeant resumed his tilted position.
“You still writing those poems?”
“Sort of,”
“I read some once. Seemed pretty good to me. Only time I ever had a poet work for me.”
Sam took the stairs down to A deck and opened the metal door into the garage. There was no activity on this level. The gray concrete walls absorbed most of the light from the sparsely placed light bulbs anchored over the center of the aisle. He couldn’t see
The headlights of a beige Dodge Dart flashed on and off at the far end of the floor, and
“Going hunting?”
“Fishing. I thought these might come in handy.”
“They usually do. So what’s the plan?” he asked.
“That’s what we need to talk about. Young Jack may have earned himself his walking papers. He said five kilos of heroin are on board a ship here.”
“Five kilos. How much is that worth?”
“I don’t know. More than we’d ever make.”
“Which ship is it on?”
“Well, you see, he doesn’t know. Now don’t panic.” His raised hand held down
Southeast Asia
. The
De la Cruz
—Panamanian flag. It got here last night. Last stop was
Thailand
. It’s anchored off
Harbor
Island
right now. That’s got to be it.”
“And if it isn’t? What about a Japanese ship? There have to be a bunch of them.”
“Do you want to listen to the rest of this?”
“I’m listening.”
“The kid says they have to do this deal tonight. He’s not sure why, but there has to be a reason. So I checked into it. The
De la Cruz
is scheduled to dock at Pier 43 in the morning. It has one day to unload, and then it’s out of here. I don’t think they want to bring the stuff onshore. The kid says that these deals always happen out in the Sound. Buyer and seller each have a boat and they meet out there. The kid says they do it in open water so they can spot anybody coming.”
“How does he know this?”
“He’s been in on three deals. This is supposed to be the biggest by far. They used
“Here’s the tricky part. The kid says they never come back to
Bremerton
. But they might go to
Everett
or
Tacoma
. We don’t know. We can’t take a chance on losing them. We’ve got to get close without spooking them. If they dump the stuff over the side, we’re dead in the water.”
“So how do we do that?”
“I figured we could use Harbor. They have a couple boats. We won’t tell them what’s going on until we get everybody together. Then nobody leaves. We follow the sellers’ boat out from the
De la Cruz
and sneak up on them when they meet.”
“You’re kidding, aren’t you?”
“No. If they take off, we’re out of luck. But the weather is so lousy we might have a chance.”
“How many bad guys do you think will be there?”
“I’d guess five or six,”
“What happens if there are twenty?”
“There won’t be. Too many eyes. Too many mouths.”
“But if there are?”
“We call the Navy. Look, if you have a better idea, sing out.”
Sam thought and thought, but he didn’t sing.
“By the way, here’s an interesting bit of information. When the boat lands, guess who’s waiting for them with a car?
“What about us?”
“We’ll have enough with the Harbor guys. We could call Murphy, too,”
“That’s the only good idea you’ve had so far. Stop at a phone when we get out of here. I’ll give her a call. She can meet us at Harbor.”
“Do you know her home number?”
“Yes.”
“I thought you might,”
Sam let
Cherry Street
. His tires spun on the slick pavement until he eased off the gas pedal. It would take more than a day to wash away the dirt and oil accumulated since the last rain.
“No need to hurry yet,” Markowitz told himself aloud as though he might forget if he didn’t hear the words.
