The Death Box. J. Kerley A.

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      Not being a high-strung child I avoided banging my head against the wall. “So not only do I grab a plum case from your crew, I’ve pulled ten grand from their wallets.”

      Roy’s brow wrinkled in puzzlement. “I told you some of this, right? Before you got here?”

      “No, you didn’t.”

      “Sorry, things get tangled in my head at times. Probably because I’m still figuring it all out.”

      “The crew hates me,” I said, perilously close to a moan. “They won’t rest until I go down in flames.”

      Roy’s hand fell over my shoulder. “You’re a pro and they’re pros. Maybe it’ll be a teensy bit tough at first, but I know you, buddy. You’re gonna fly like an eagle.”

      I slumped in Roy’s footsteps as he led me to where my office would be when in Miami, right now just a fifteen-by-fifteen box with a cheap metal desk and chair and a phone on the floor. The why-am-I-here? thoughts started afresh.

      “You can work from wherever suits you, Carson. Here or at your place or from a ship at sea. If a police chief from Deltana says he’s got a perp killing hookers and chopping off their toes, you can advise what to look for. Or go to Deltana and handle the case directly. Your decision.”

      “You give your people a lot of autonomy.”

      “I’m a lazy bastard. When my crew handles stuff without me even knowing it, I’m thrilled. Basically, all I want to see are files stamped Case Closed.”

      “Speaking of crew, what’s the word on that other guy? The kid who looks like a skate punk?”

      Roy frowned, a rare event. “Ziggy Gershwin. Christ, did you ever hear a goofier name? Gershwin’s kind of a special case.”

      A trio of clerical types passed by the open door, two women and a guy. They shot micro-glances inside: Look at the new guy.

      “Special?” I said. “How is Gershwin so special?”

      “A couple months back a trio of Albanian psychopaths grabbed a ten-year-old kid from West Palm, wanted five mil in ransom. The family called the authorities. BOLOs went out on a green van noted at the scene, everything real hush-hush. Gershwin was a newbie county cop working in Glades County, rural, west of Okeechobee. Two days after the grab – by then the family had received a pinky finger—”

      “Jesus.”

      “Gershwin is roaming the backcountry and sees a green panel van parked outside a rental house …”

      “He gets curious.”

      Roy nodded. “He pulls down the road and sneaks back. Blinds are tight, nothing moving, just a single-story ranch with an outbuilding separated by a hundred feet of open grass. He creeps to a side window, peeks inside and sees the Albanians in the living room and the kid taped tight on the couch. Gershwin also sees a freakin’ armamentarium: Uzis and AKs, handguns, grenades and even a goddamn mounted RPG. It looked like an NRA convention in there.”

      “He calls it and sits tight?”

      “SWAT positions behind a canebrake on the far side of the house, everyone scared a full-on assault meant a dead kid.”

      I felt my heart thumping. Roy pulled a cigar and began twirling it.

      “In the meantime, one of the Albanians is getting progressively freakier. He’s suddenly got a knife out, grabbing the kid’s hair and pulling his face up. Gershwin realizes the guy is gonna slice the kid’s nose off.”

      Roy studied the cigar as if wondering whether he could get away with smoking in the building.

      “Christ, Roy, don’t leave me hanging. What’d Gershwin do?”

      “Radioed the commander that the Albanians were dragging the kid out the back door.”

      “Gershwin lied?”

      “Said he needed a fast distraction. Naturally, the SWAT team charges toward the rear. The Albanians hear the commotion, forget the kid and run for the artillery.”

      My palms had started sweating. “Damn. And?”

      “Gershwin smashes the window and tosses two grenades, a flash-bang and a stunner, comes in after them. He nails one in the chest and the others dive out a side door screaming, ‘No shoot, no shoot.’”

      I replayed Gershwin’s action in my head. Saw the looming knife. The need for a split-second decision. “You know the odds against that kid coming back alive, Roy? Gershwin did a helluva job.”

      Roy sighed. “What troubles folks is how he did it. If the Albanians had launched an RPG a dozen cops could have been massacred. Gershwin didn’t have the pay grade to make that decision, Carson.”

      “Maybe Gershwin didn’t have time to argue seniority.”

      Roy started to argue, paused. “Thing is, Gershwin is here and we gotta deal with him for a few days.”

      I gave him a puzzled frown.

      “History lesson, Carson: The abducted kid’s grandfather hit Miami with ten pesos in his skivvies and within a year owned a grocery store selling Latin specialties. Now they’re coast to coast. The kid’s family has power in Tallahassee and told some major politicos that Gershwin deserved his assignment of choice.”

      I nodded. “Gershwin picked the FCLE, obviously.”

      “I get a lot of favors from Tallahassee, Carson. Sometimes I have to do one.”

      “What’s gonna happen with Gershwin?”

      “I’ll let Degan seem to train the kid for a couple weeks, then get Gershwin a desk in Vehicle Theft.” Roy winked. “You can’t hotdog much there.”

       7

      I left Roy to his Machiavellian hijinks and headed out to the forensics dig, since I now owned the case. The site was as busy as a beehive in spring, chisels tapping, soil being sifted through mesh, photos flashing as bits of fabric or bone were removed from the grisly sculpture, new horrors revealed beneath the old. Morningstar was beside the column, arms folded as she watched a pair of techs extricate shards of clothing from a torso still half-buried in the matrix. I stood aside as they fastidiously bagged the evidence and passed me on the steps.

      Morningstar shot me a look when I hit bottom.

      “Rumor has it this monster is gonna be your first case, Ryder.”

      “Not my choice, Doctor.”

      “Roy’s concept of baptism would be to fling the kid into a pond. You still on board with Delmara’s serial-killer theory?”

      I circled the mass of concretized humanity, still unable to absorb the full horror. “If so, he’s as angry as a psycho can get. Incredible rage.”

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