The Darkness - Jason Pinter [61]
"Chester," I said. "She said he introduced himself as
Chester. And she said he might have lost a family
member, and it didn't sound as though it was as a result
of natural causes."
"Sounds to me like Paulina could be cooking up a
stew of major league bullshit to me."
"I don't think so," I said. "Paulina is a lot of things,
but she had to swallow some major pride to ask me to help
her. And she's not a woman who's too keen on losing
face. Especially to me. And this guy threatened her
daughter. Paulina's low, but not low enough to make up
something like that. She wants this guy caught. All
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between the physical description and the alias, it should
give you enough to at least do some digging."
"Plus if this is the same guy who turned Brett Kaiser
into burnt toast," Curt said, "it wouldn't surprise me if this
guy has some sort of explosives or military background."
"That's gotta narrow your ten thousand down a bit."
"Maybe so."
"Be careful," I said. "Paulina's pretty sure this Chester
has eyes in the NYPD. Can you do some digging without
anyone seeing your shovel?"
"That sounds sexy," Curt said.
"Come on, Curt."
"I'll grow eyes in the back of my head," Curt said.
"Digging, I can do. But if we find out who this guy is,
I'm going to need to bring Paulina in to ID him so we can
charge him."
"I hear you. But wait until you know who he is for
certain before we make a move. And make sure you only
tell people you can trust."
"Yeah, and if you need help typing or proofreading,
I'll give you a hand. Come on, I know how to do my job,
Henry," Curt said.
"Just looking out for you, buddy."
"Appreciate it."
"How are things, you know, with the job?"
"Strange times, Parker," Curt said.
"Care to elaborate?" I said, smiling. Curt did not return
the pleasantry.
"This city, you know, just a different vibe right now.
People see cops now, they look at us differently. Like they
really need us. Not that they ever didn't, but it's like the
city is waiting for another shoe to drop. You know that
dude who lost fifty billion dollars in a Ponzi scheme?"
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Jason Pinter
"Madoff," I said.
"You know the city spent more money protecting that
scumbag than it does Joe Six Pack? People just don't trust
anymore. You know the saying, but it's true. People
expect things are gonna get worse before they get better."
"The city needs cops like you," I said. "Protect and
serve, right?"
"Yeah, I appreciate that, man. Anyway," Curt said,
standing up, "break time is over. Gotta get back to protecting the rest of this overcrowded island." He breathed
into his hands, then held it up to his nose. "My breath
really that bad?"
"Makes my toes curl just talking to you," I said.
"That's the way I like it. This way I don't ever have to
pull my gun."
He held out his hand, and I shook it.
"Later, Henry."
Curt walked off. I stretched my legs, felt the cup of
coffee I'd inhaled half an hour ago take hold. Amanda was
probably still in bed, still asleep thanks to her friend the
snooze button.
Right as I was about to head toward the subway, my
cell phone rang. It was Jack. I knew the man's mind was
always working, but it was not normal for him to be
calling me before breakfast, especially when we had no
meetings planned.
I answered the phone. "Hey, Jack. Either you're up
early or you're up really late."
"Why the hell aren't you here yet?" Jack said.
"At the Gazette? It's barely seven, and I was meeting
Curt Sheffield to give him more details about the Kaiser
investigation."
"That's old news," Jack said. "Wallace and Harvey
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Hillerman are about to bite our nuts off, so get your ass
over here right away."
"Why? What happened?"
"Have you seen the cover of today's Dispatch? " Jack
said.
"No, figured I could wait until getting in before reading
about which celebrities were caught in the Dominican
Republic sunbathing in the nude with their boy toys."
"Laugh all you want, but Henry...we got scooped."
"Yeah, right. By who? We have every inch of this town
covered,