The in Death Collection Books 11-15 - J. D. Robb [411]
Hayes made a move to speak. Whitney silenced him by lifting a single finger.
“Don’t you tell me about duty.” Renfrew braced his hands on his thighs, leaned his body forward. “Everybody knows you’re out for other cops, Dallas. You’re in IAB’s pocket. The rat squad’s poster girl.”
“I don’t have to justify what I did about the One-two-eight to you. It seems you’ve forgotten cops were dying. Want their names, because I’ve got them in my head. I stood over them, Renfrew, you didn’t. You want a piece of me over that, you should’ve taken it outside the department, off a homicide investigation. You want a shot at me, you don’t take it over the dead we’re supposed to stand up for. I asked you to reach out, I asked you to share information vital to both our investigations so we could do the damn job.”
“My robbery-homicide hasn’t been connected to your sex whacks. And you’ve got no business on my scene without authority. You’ve got no right recording on that scene, and anything in such a recording is bogus.”
“You pompous, egotistical, ignorant fuckhead. You don’t have a robbery-homicide. I’ve got one half of your murder team in the tank. I’ve got a full confession, on record, that includes the murder of Theodore McNamara.”
Renfrew leaped out of his chair. “You go around me to bring my suspect into interview?”
“My suspect, brought in for questioning re my investigation, which as I told you, asshole, is connected with yours. If you hadn’t been so busy taking the easy way, so tight-assed about cooperating, you’d have been part of the op that brought him in. Get out of my face, and get out of it now, or I’ll take that badge you don’t deserve and make you eat it.”
“That’s enough, Lieutenant.”
“It’s not enough.” She whirled back to Whitney. “It’s not enough. I just listened to a twenty-two-year-old boy tell me how he and his sick friend were bored and made up a game. A dollar a point, a goddamn dollar a point for the one who bagged the most women in the most inventive ways. They drugged them, raped them, killed them, for the satisfaction of being the top stud. And when McNamara realized what his grandson and his playmate were doing, when he confronted them, they bashed his brains in, kept him alive with a stimulant, stripped him naked, bashed him again, and tossed him in the river where he had the bad luck to be assigned to this disgrace.
“Three people are dead, and one’s in the hospital fighting to come back. Because one cop decides to take a personal dislike to another, there might have been more. So it’s not enough. It’s never going to be enough.”
“You think you can hang your screwups on me,” Renfrew began.
“Stand down, Detective.” Hayes got slowly to his feet.
“Captain—”
“I said stand down. Now. There will be no complaint filed from my house. If Lieutenant Dallas wishes to file—”
“I have no wish to file.”
Hayes inclined his head. “Then you’re a better man than I. I’d like to request a copy of that disc, Commander.”
“Request granted.”
“I’ll consider the contents of the recording and take such actions as are deemed appropriate. Open your mouth, Renfrew, and I’ll be filing myself. I want you to step outside. That’s an order.”
The insult went deep enough to have him vibrating. “Yes, sir, but under protest.”
“So noted.” Hayes waited until the door slammed. “My apologies, Commander Whitney, for bringing this mess to your door, and for the unbecoming behavior of my officer.”
“Your officer needs discipline, Captain.”
“He needs a kick in the ass, sir, and I can promise you he’ll get one. My apologies to you as well, Lieutenant.”
“Unnecessary, Captain.”
“That’s the first thing you’ve said I disagree with since you walked in. Renfrew is a problem child, but he is, for the moment, my problem child. I run a clean house, Lieutenant, and take responsibility for any untidiness that works its way in. Thank you