Linda Kay Silva - Delta Stevens 3 - Weathering the Storm (9 page)

“You’re making a big mistake, sir. That kid is an accident waiting to happen.”

A slight grin twitched Captain Henry’s moustache. “Well, it’s now your job to see to it that it doesn’t.” Whirling out the door, Captain Henry vanished, leaving Delta to nurse her anger alone.

Watching her new partner strut over and flirt with the data entry clerk, Delta grit her teeth. He was all the things she hated most about some men, rolled into one big chauvinistic, egotistical pig.

“Accident waiting to happen?” Delta uttered to herself. “I’m afraid it already has.” Trying not to slam the door behind her, Delta walked over to Connie and plopped down in the chair.

“I’m afraid to ask,” Connie said, glancing over at Tony.

“Can you believe it? Of all the rookies, of all the people in the world, I have to be partnered with that jerk.”

“It’s bad karma, Del. Even before you became partners, you had to save him from himself. This doesn’t bode well at all. What are you going to do?”

Watching Tony maneuver around the clerk, Delta sneered in contempt. She should have let those guys pummel some sense into him. Instead, she saved him just in time to be a headache for her. What luck. What joy. What a drag. “There’s not much I can do. The captain was adamant about it.”

Connie turned from Eddie. “So, you’re stuck with him?”

Delta sighed loudly. “Appears so. It’s that, or sitting behind a damned desk all night long.”

Connie faked a wince. “Oh, now wouldn’t that just be awful?”

“I’m sorry, Con, but I just don’t know how you do it. It would drive me crazy to sit here all night.”

“That’s because you are a doer and I am a thinker. They pay you to do and they pay me to think. It’s what we were born into. Knowing this, you’re going to have to go out there and do the best you can with what you have.”

Delta nodded and rose. “I hate it when you’re so damned logical.”

“That’s what I get paid for.” Connie reached out and squeezed Delta’s hand. “That, and making sure you stay out of trouble.”

“Oh really? And just how successful have you been in that venture?”

Connie’s eyes glistened. “I’ve had better successes.”

“I’ll bet.” Releasing Connie’s hand, Delta patted her on the top of the head. “And how successful have you been with yourself on those Elson nightmares?”

“Much better. Gina has been a big help. Once we established that they weren’t guilt-induced, they disappeared. He only appears after late night Mexican food or David Lettermen reruns.”

“Good for you.”

“And yours?”

Delta shrugged. “Every night. It hasn’t stopped. Even after two weeks off, I’m exhausted. I haven’t had a good night’s sleep in a long time.” Seeing Tony approach them, Delta inhaled slowly and felt the muscles in her shoulders tighten. Everything about him made her cringe.

“Hey, pard, you ready to roll?”

Delta and Connie exchanged pitiful glances. No cops they knew called their partners, “pard.”

Turning to him, Delta smelled the powerful scent of Brut aftershave hovering about him like an invisible cloud. “We’ll roll, Carducci, when I tell you we’ll roll. I don’t know what they’re teaching in the academy these days, but here, we muster before we hit the streets. You do know what muster is, don’t you?”

Bowing his head, Tony pulled his hands out of his pockets and ran them over his slick black hair. He was as Italian as his name: dark brown eyes set against olive skin and black wavy hair that swirled down the back of his neck. His shoulders were broad and tapered down to a flat stomach and small waist. Delta would never admit it, but he was a handsome young man who had turned many heads in Harry’s Bar the other night. Still...

“Cut me some slack here, okay? I’m just a little excited about my first night, that’s all.” Tony smiled one of his patented grins.

“Well, hose yourself down, because if we’re going to do this, we’re going to do it right.”

“Fine by me. I’ll see you at muster then.” Turning on his heels,

Tony Carducci disappeared into the adjoining room.

“Think you were a little hard on him?”

“You heard him. You saw how he operates. You tell me.”

Connie turned back to the monitor and shrugged. “I think you have your work cut out for you. He’s definitely going to be a challenge.”

Delta looked at the invisible trail left by her new partner. She imagined the trail to be the fumes of his potent cologne. “Thanks. I don’t like the idea of going out to the streets with such a loose cannon. The challenge won’t be how to train him.”

“It won’t?”

Delta shook her head and started for the muster room. “Nope. The challenge will be how to keep us both alive.”

“Then it’s up to us to keep your hunk of manly man on the up-andup.”

Delta turned her head and grinned. “Us?”

Connie nodded. “But of course. You do what you need to do on the streets and I’ll dig and see what I can come up with. Trust me on this, Del.”

“Why? Another aura?”

Connie laughed. “Something like that.”

Before Delta could reply, the door to the muster room opened and Tony stuck his head out. “Muster’s about to start. You coming?”

Delta sighed loudly and nodded before turning back to Connie. “The Boy Blunder awaits. Any last minute advice?”

“Yep. Keep him in front of you whenever he has his gun drawn. I hate the thought of finding out he inadvertently blew the back of your head off.”

“Nice thought.”

Reaching out to Delta, Connie lightly touched her shoulder. “Be careful out there, Storm. He makes me nervous.”

“Affirmative.” Wheeling around, Delta was surprised to find Tony’s head still sticking out the door.

“Did she call you Storm?”

Delta only nodded as she brushed by him through the door.

“Cool. What a great handle. I thought my nickname was bad, but yours is really cool. Well, Storm, let’s r—”

Turning on him and finding his height equal to hers, Delta went nose-to-nose with him. “If I ever hear you call me that again, I’ll kick you ass. You understand?”

Nodding rapidly, Tony backed away. “Geez, don’t get so uptight. I only thou—”

“You thought wrong. Let’s get one thing straight, Carducci. We’re partners. Not friends, not buddies, not pals. My job is to teach you the streets and your job is to shut your mouth and listen. You got that?”

For a moment, the air was thick with cold anticipation as all eyes focused on the two of them locked in a powerful glare.

“I said, do you understand?”

“I get it,” Tony said through a clenched jaw.

“Good. Keep it that way.” Turning from him, Delta pushed two desks out of the way and headed to the far corner of the muster room. If familiarity breeds contempt, Delta wondered, then what does contempt breed?

She hoped she didn’t have to find out.

When they entered muster, the room was abuzz with cops telling jokes, tall tales, and sexual escapades. This was the time when people bonded and shared portions of their private lives. Some officers rarely opened up and stuck only to talking about the details from the previous shifts. It was a time when information was exchanged, personalities were revealed, and humor was applied to a variety of circumstances. It was also the time when they discovered what events transpired on the shifts prior to the one they would be working.

To Delta, muster was a mixture of personal sharing and professional caring. She’d always enjoyed muster because it reminded her of her college days when the locker room was alive and crazy.

Taking a seat next to Carducci, Delta pulled out a notepad to take notes.

“What’s that for?” Tony asked, pointing to her clipboard.

Delta sighed. Why anyone would choose to be a teacher was beyond her, and whoever said there was no such thing as a stupid question obviously never taught anyone stupid. “For notes. I like to take notes in case I forget something.”

Tony nodded, moving his whole body while doing so. He reminded Delta of a puppy whose body was too big for it. “Cool. Then I guess if you’re going to take notes, I don’t have to.”

Delta wrote the date on the top of the paper before looking up at him. “I suggest you get used to taking your own notes.”

Still nodding, like he was listening to a song on a walkman, Tony grinned. “Sure. Can I borrow a piece of paper?”

Sighing even more loudly, Delta pulled a piece out and handed it to him.

“Thanks. Got a pe—”

“Get one yourself,” Delta growled as the duty sergeant strolled up to the podium.

“Evening ladies and gents in blue. I hope your day was peaceful because your nights are about to get hairy.”

“What else is new?” Steve “Downtown” Brown heckled.

The sergeant glared a warning before continuing. “Two rapes reported this morning on the east side. No ID on either perp. Both women were pretty badly beaten up, so be sure to read Schumann’s report.”

Several heads nodded and uttered epithets under their breaths. For the next several minutes, the sergeant went over all the burglaries, robberies, and various misdemeanors from the previous shifts. Then, he cleared his throat and leaned forward on the podium. Everyone stopped writing and waited for him to continue.

“As I’m sure you’re all aware, C.I.C’s are on the rise here in California.”

Tony looked over at Delta, but before he could ask, she answered his question in a whisper. “Crimes Involving Children.”

“Word has it,” the Sergeant continued, “that the sale of pornographic and snuff films have quadrupled in recent weeks. This memo from the Department of Justice was sent to every police department with a fax machine. This, ladies and gentlemen, is some serious business.”

Some of the officers whistled. The DOJ wasn’t one to hit the panic button and send out memos to every police department in the country. For them to do so, meant that there were some perpetrators out there worthy of very special attention.

“Apparently, kiddie porn isn’t enough for the bastards anymore. Now, there’s a group of sickos producing snuff films with children and the fellas at DOJ believe the ring is heading our way.”

A female officer raised her hand. “Ring, Sarge? Isn’t that a bit archaic?”

The sergeant smiled. “The boys in the big house say it isn’t mob connected, gang related, or group identified, Lucy, and that’s why catching them has been difficult. They suspect a small group of these whackos are headed by a particular individual who has money and connections. Connections, I might add, in Hollywood.”

The picture suddenly became clearer.

“This individual has a monopoly on the market because he’s producing high-quality snuff films that aren’t phony like some of the other ones from the underground.”

“And they’re headed our way, sir?”

The sergeant nodded. “The feds think our perps are coming to Hollywood looking for investors. Apparently, the feds got close to yanking their chains in New York, but they got away. Their info leads them to believe that L.A. is their next stop. And to get to L.A. from there, they’re most likely going to have to go through River Valley first.”

“Are the feds actively pursuing them?”

The sarge nodded again. “You bet. And they’ve made it clear they don’t want any intervention. What they do want is prevention, and that’s what we’re gonna give them. You’re all to triple and quadruple your drive-bys of parks, pools, playgrounds, preschools, and anywhere else kids under the age of ten might be.”

Delta raised her hand. “Sarge, I understand the need for prevention, but not intervention? What’s up with that?”

Several officers nodded in agreement.

The sarge shrugged and then winked. “You know how the feds are. They work in mysterious ways of which I am not privy to. They may have bigger fish to fry and don’t want us getting in the way of that. But I will tell you, now that you’ve asked, that the perps travel with their equipment in a camper or van and should be considered armed and dangerous.”

“Not as dangerous as I’ll be if I catch them,” someone said from the back row.

The sergeant closed his folder. “That’s just what the feds don’t want. If you suspect anyone might be among the men they’re looking for, notify command immediately. Any more questions?”

There were none.

“Okay then, this last item concerns all of you. Have any of you seen the science experiment we used to call a refrigerator?” Everyone chuckled. “The captain says to clear out your Tupperware or lose it for good. Someone has three week old gefilte fish in a Ziploc bag that is about to burst at the seams. So, please, take your lunches home.” Delta capped her pen and made a beeline for the sergeant before he could get out the door. “Sarge, is it possible for us to see the memo?”

Sergeant Kincaid paused and ran a thick hand over his balding head. “Delta, somehow, I’m not surprised that this case would interest you. Don’t you think it would be wise if you stayed out of trouble for a little while?”

Delta bowed her head. Sergeant Kincaid had been one of her training instructors in the academy. “I can’t help it, Sarge. I lost one kid already and it’s tearing me up.”