Precinct 11 - 01 - The Brotherhood (22 page)

“You did not.”

“Oh, I’m sure I did.”

“What was it?”

Ed rummaged in his briefcase, looking stricken. He showed it to Freddy.

“You kiddin’ me? I woulda settled for this in a blink. It’s way more than my bills.”

Ed whispered, “Yes, but it’s nothing like what a real settlement could have been. And you know you signed an agreement, so I still get my third of this.”

Freddy glared. “I wonder.”

“We have a contract.”

“But you never showed me this offer.”

“Stand firm, Freddy,” Boone said. “If he didn’t show you everything, your agreement may be null and void.”

“You stay out of this!” the lawyer said.

“Just do the right thing, Eddie,” Boone said. He pulled Freddy aside. “Offer him 10 percent and don’t budge. Then get yourself into rehab.”

Freddy appeared overcome. Lip quivering, he said, “I’m glad I didn’t get you in trouble.”

“Me too.”

“On to my office to celebrate,” Keller said, finally dragging Boone out of the hearing room, past a glaring Garrett Fox.

“Can Pastor Sosa come?” Boone said.

“Sure! I won’t even break out the booze.”

A few minutes later Boone got his first look at Haeley Lamonica as they came to her desk. She was tall and dark-haired with high cheekbones, and her business suit showed a flair for fashion. She looked at Jack Keller expectantly.

He gave her a thumbs-up and said, “We win.”

She offered a closed-mouth smile and said, “How nice,” and Boone didn’t know what to make of it. Maybe she had assumed him guilty all along.

“This’s him, my former partner and maybe new colleague soon, Boone Drake.”

Haeley nodded but was slow to shake his hand after he had extended his. “Congratulations,” she said flatly.

He introduced Francisco, and Haeley seemed to come to life. “
Pastor
Sosa? What church?”

When he told her, she said she was well aware of it and that she attended a small storefront church in a depressed area. “We call ourselves North Beach Fellowship, and there’s only about fifty of us, mostly street people.”

“I’ve heard of that work,” Sosa said. “I’d love to visit sometime, but you can imagine how weekends are for me. Oh! Who’s this?” Sosa turned a framed photo to face him. “He sure looks like you.”

“He should. My son, Max. He’s three.”

“He’s beautiful.”

Boone was glad she wasn’t looking when he grimaced at the photo. The boy was about the age Josh would have been. Pastor Sosa handed him the photo, and when Boone put it back on the desk, he turned it a little farther than it had been originally so it wasn’t facing him dead-on.

“I’ll look forward to working with you if things turn out,” he said. Haeley turned back to her work.

Boone knew he should have said something nice about her son’s picture, but he just couldn’t.
Beautiful
was right. But so was Josh. He was glad when Keller pulled him and Sosa into his office. “You ought to see that kid,” Jack said. “He’s in day care nearby, and sometimes she goes and gets him and brings him back in here before going home. A real charmer.”

Boone sat heavily.

“What happened to the smile, Boones?” Jack said. “You won, man! You won!”

“I feel lucky, but it was only right, you know.”

“Lucky?” Pastor Sosa said. “How about you give the Lord a little credit, Boone? You know as well as I do that that was a direct answer to prayer.”

“I do.”

“And when you get home, be sure and check out that Scripture I gave you.”

Boone nodded.

“Hey,” Sosa added, “I’ve got to go, and you guys have a lot to talk about.” Boone stood and the pastor embraced him. As Sosa left, Boone noticed he stopped at Haeley Lamonica’s station and chatted.

“Can you concentrate, Boones,” Jack said, “or are you totally wiped out?”

“Concentrate on what?”

“The future. Your coming here.”

“You think it’s going to happen?”

“What’s standing in the way? You’ve been exonerated, and now I push through the paperwork. I want to get it done before they team you with a new partner.”

“You think Fox is history?”

“’Course. I’d vote that way. Backing up a partner is one thing. Perjury is another.”

“Imagine how it makes me feel. Freddy as much as said Garrett was right, but Fox can’t deny he was only guessing. He stood up for me, but he lied. Got to admit, I never liked him much, but I don’t wish this on him.”

“It’s his own fault.” Jack switched gears. “Sorry to change the subject so fast, but the timing couldn’t have been better. We need you bad over here. If we don’t get a handle on what’s happening with the gangs—including the old-timers in organized crime—I could be back on the street as quick as I got here.”

“You’re talking my language, boss. I haven’t been able to concentrate much the last few weeks, but I couldn’t ignore the papers and the TV news. This is the reason I became a cop. Get me over here and turn me loose.”

Keller beckoned him with a nod and Boone followed him to a thrice-locked room full of file cabinets. “Everything in here is ultraconfidential,” Jack said. “I shouldn’t even bring you in here until you’re officially transferred, but you need to get started.”

He pulled from the files several folders containing the rap sheets on the most notorious gangbangers and members of the Outfit. While Boone had looked forward to just getting home and celebrating alone what had happened at the hearing, now he couldn’t wait to dig into these records. Nothing in his life had satisfied him more than standing up to playground bullies. The chance to do that to the nth degree was more than he could ask for.

Jack led him back to Haeley Lamonica’s desk and had him sign for the files. It was not lost on Boone that the woman seemed very hesitant about that and kept staring at her boss. Finally she whispered, “Sir, there are only two divisions who are supposed to be privy to these, and he’s not employed by either one.”

“That’s my girl,” Jack said. “Always lookin’ out for me. Let me sign right alongside Boone’s name so I take the heat, okay? You’re off the hook.”

“I wasn’t worried about being on the hook, just protocol.”

“I ’preciate it, Haeley. We okay now?”

“Of course.”

Boone couldn’t help but feel responsible for the woman’s discomfort and tried to smile an apology. But she wouldn’t catch his eye.

As he followed Keller back into his office, Jack said, “I’ve been talking with Galloway and Pete Wade, and if you can get up to speed and we get this done as quick as I hope, we have an office I think you’ll like.”

“Seriously?”

Jack nodded. “Want to see it?”

Jack took him just a few feet down the hall past Haeley, still not smiling, to a small office with one window.

“Hang on a second, Jack. You didn’t know before I did that I was going to survive this investigation, and yet you’ve got this office for me already?”

Jack pressed his lips together and shrugged. “All right, you caught me. We had a backup candidate, and I swear, I wasn’t giving you a nickel’s chance before Freddy gave it up. But as soon as he did, I called Haeley and had her arrange an appointment with the losing candidate. I’ll be breaking that news later this afternoon. I’m not looking forward to that, but I’m glad it turned out this way.”

Keller walked Boone out, files under his arm. They were waiting by the elevator when Haeley told Jack there was a call he would want to take. “Be right there,” Jack said as the elevator arrived. “You got to celebrate, Boones, even if it means whooping and hollering in the car by yourself, kicking up your heels, eatin’ some dessert without working out, something.”

“I’ll try.”

“And I don’t need to tell you, those records are for your eyes only.”

“I should leave them on the table at Starbucks, is that what you’re telling me?”

“Hilarious.”

As he descended to the lobby, Boone realized that his victory was hollow without Nikki to share it. He was glad, sure, and as an old justice freak, he simply felt this was right. It was what should have happened. But he couldn’t deny that God had intervened.

Boone hesitated by the exit, knowing he had left things awkward between himself and Haeley Lamonica. Garrett Fox had told him everybody was always hitting on her. Maybe her defenses were up. Or maybe she was disappointed he had done the opposite—he had not acted impressed by her at all. And there was no hiding that he had neglected even a polite comment about her son.

He headed back up, only to find her on the phone. When she noticed him, Haeley seemed to idly turn Max’s photo toward her and away from Boone. When she hung up, she said, “Forget something, Officer?”

“Uh, no, I just wanted to say again that I would look forward to working with you, if this whole thing works out and I get transferred here.”

She cocked her head, looking dubious. “That so? You don’t even know me.”

“Yeah, but I’ve heard good things about you. If Jack Keller likes you, I know I will. And your son is cute. You didn’t need to turn the picture away.”

She blushed. “Sorry. Your pastor reminded me who you were, so I understand. A lot of us on the job were praying for you back then when . . . you know.”

“Thanks. I still need it.”

“Well, there must be a lot of people praying for you at Community Life.”

“I don’t go there anymore.”

“Oh? Well, I thought . . . Pastor Sosa—”

“Still a friend.”

“Where
do
you go? I’d think it would be hard to find a better church than—”

“Let’s just say I’m between churches.”

“You’re looking? Because—”

“Not really. Not yet.”

“Oh, that’s not good. Sorry. Listen to me. I’m just saying, when you’re ready, you know where we are.”

“No, I don’t.”

Haeley fished in her purse and pulled out a business card with her church’s information. Boone put it in his pocket and thanked her. “No promises, but you never know.”

“Hey, some weeks if you showed up, you would double the attendance.”

Boone snorted and she grinned, and he had to admit it was a nice smile. “I hope my transfer comes through.”

“I wouldn’t worry about that. You wouldn’t have gotten out of here with those files otherwise.”

When he got home, Boone looked up the passage Sosa had jotted down for him. It was from Isaiah 43.

Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by your name; you are Mine.

When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow you. When you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned, nor shall the flame scorch you. For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior.

“God,” Boone said quietly, “thanks for what you did today. I know it could have easily gone the other way, and then I don’t know what I would have done with myself. I’m so tired of all this. Pastor Sosa says that one prayer you will never ignore is a request to reveal yourself to someone. Well, I need that. I want that. Please.”

Boone sat there feeling foolish, realizing that God had shown himself that very day in the hearing.
Guess I just need a little more of that.

14

Deep Night Shades

Over the next
SEVERAL MONTHS
and into the late fall, Boone found himself mired in a cycle of encouragement and depression, and he couldn’t get a handle on it. He studied for the detective exam while also immersing himself in all the stuff Jack Keller had given him about Chicago street gangs and the Chicago Outfit, the local version of the Mob, the Mafia, or what was known elsewhere variously as “the families” or
La Cosa Nostra
(“this thing of ours”).

Much of the street gang stuff he already knew from his time on patrol in the infamous 11th district. Only the latest Outfit material was new to him, as he had already brought himself up to speed on its history. Most intriguing was what appeared to be a relatively new connection between the street gangs and the old Mob. Where it might lead, no one knew, but Boone found himself restless, eager to play a role in finding out and maybe even putting a stop to it.

Call me an idealist,
he thought,
but I want the bad guys to be as afraid of the Chicago PD as the bullies were of me in junior high.

Meanwhile, Boone was lonely. He breezed through the detective exam and enjoyed a nice going-away fete and the congratulations of his colleagues at the 11th. But after switching to plainclothes and being awarded his simple but dramatic five-point star with
Detective
across the top,
Chicago Police
in a semicircle, and his service number across the bottom, Boone found himself living for the workday.

In his new office he was getting to know his colleagues, spending a lot of time with his new boss, Pete Wade, and learning more than he thought there was to know about Chicago’s underbelly. Wade, like Keller, was no-nonsense and old-school, a born teacher. In his midfifties, black, and already white-haired, he was articulate and rapid-fire in his delivery, and Boone found himself drinking in everything.