Page 163 - Labelle Gramercy, Detective

Slow Burn

“After their individual schemes to make money failed, they
returned here, one at a time, and established themselves as struggling
but barely-legitimate entrepreneurs. They had learned enough to let
the suckers trap themselves. We can’t haul them in on any lesser
charges without it looking like a fishing expedition. Too bad.”
She chafed under the restrictions of departmental policy,
obviously. But I agreed: it was much easier to get confessions out of
people at police headquarters than in the comfort of their own living
rooms. But we could still go out and play ‘good cop-bad cop’ in the
field. It just had to be a bit more subtle. But why did I always have to
be the good cop?
“Let’s check them out, anyway.” She stood up, ready to go. I
patted my shoulder holster. Labelle doesn’t carry a gun, but I’ve seen
her in the basement, blazing away at targets with unerring accuracy.
“We can get a bite to eat on the road. They already know Al Carbone
is dead, thanks to Captain Nimeau. He isn’t convinced this wasn’t a
freak accident. But I have a feeling that one of the quints is going to
have a little trouble explaining his movements yesterday afternoon, or
why he was seen in an orange wig at his uncle’s place.”

<< 3 >>

I was surprised when Labelle gave me the wheel; she usually
became impatient when I drove. But she wanted to study a city map
as we headed for the closest quint, Quantrill.
“Go straight down 30th,” she said. “That’s the most direct route.
The address is 9152 West 30th Street.”
I knew the city as well as she did, or as well as any child, because
the center was laid out on a tidy grid of numbered streets and
avenues. Boring for the Chamber of Commerce, but a boon to
firemen, police, paramedics and letter carriers.
The map held some other sort of interest for her, however. “It
would be advantageous to question all five suspects this afternoon,”
she said, to herself as much as to me. “So we need to plan the most
direct route, minimizing backtracking, from one quint to the next.
You recognize the dilemma, of course.”
“Uh, looks like we have a full tank of gas.”

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