The Night Detectives (David Mapstone Mystery 7)

He liked the sound of his own voice. I said, “So you knew who Scarlett was.”

“I checked her out. She didn’t check me out well enough, I guess.”

“You had to kill her.”

“It didn’t start out that way. Look, she was a sweet little lay and I was happy to pay for it. It took me awhile to realize this magnificent piece of ass must have a very affluent group of men she was screwing, and this was going to be our funding source. By that time, she was gone. It took me a long time to find her again.”

“But you did find her.”

“We had a hero who tried to save her,” he said. “It didn’t take long to put him down. After that, we drove her around for a long time. I didn’t want to hurt her, tried to reason with her just like I did with you. I wanted the list.”

“You raped and tortured her,” I said. “You waterboarded her in the toilet, right? That’s why there was water on the bathroom floor.”

“Very good. My thumb is getting tired.”

I needed more time. I said, “Then you pushed her off the balcony.”

“Young Zisman fucked up,” he said. “That’s who you shot in the living room. Andrew was supposed to hang her over the edge until she gave it up, but he lost his grip. Every unit has its FUBARs.”

I almost pulled the trigger right then.

“Why that condo?”

“It belongs to Andrew’s dad. Andrew had the fob to the front entry and the keys to the door. We didn’t know his dad would be there, but it didn’t take much persuading to get us some privacy. Old man Zisman knew what would happen if he didn’t play along.” He laughed as if we had shared an arch joke.

“But you eventually killed him, too.”

“Not me. Andrew killed his father. Call it a test of loyalty. The unit always comes first. I couldn’t take the chance his father would keep silent. Enough of your curiosity, professor. Give me your gun.”

“No.”

“Just so you know,” he said, “whatever happens next, you won’t make it out alive. I’ve got a sniper with a night scope positioned outside. He saw you come onto the property and told me. I let you get this far. Otherwise, you’d be dead. My man was trained as a Marine scout-sniper.” He smiled. “I didn’t realize you’d shoot Andrew straight off, but he was careless. So you can kill me, and I frag your friend, but you’ll be dead, too. Just like Grace’s daddy, who thought he could get away. If you do succeed in killing me, another commander will take my place. You can’t stop us.”

“We can make a start. After I kill you, I’ll just call the cops.”

His face flushed with anger. “Then you’re gonna have a bunch of dead cops from my sniper. He’s willing to die to take back his country and he’ll take as many enemy with him as he can…”

>

“So far, all you’ve killed are white people.”

He forced himself to speak in a reasonable tone. “You can give me your gun, I’ll put the detonator on safe. We can do it at the exact same time. Then we’ll take a ride to get that flash drive. The real goddamned flash drive. If it has the information I want, then I’ll let you live…”

Dowd’s cheek ticked in surprise. Ed Cartwright spoke behind me and then he was standing beside me.

“Your sniper is incapacitated,” he said, cradling a pump shotgun on one arm.

“You killed him?” Dowd’s voice shook.

“I just used the Apache Persuasion Hold and handcuffed him. He’ll live. Probably.”

Cartwright held up a black object that looked like a video-game joystick. He said, “I just made your detonator go limp, asshole. So why don’t you slowly get on your knees.”

Dowd stared at each of us, mouthed a profanity, lifted his thumb from the detonator in his hand.

Nothing happened.

He threw it at me and in those quick ticks of confusion, I allowed the distance between us to close. Rookie mistake—I had worried he would make a move for the AK on the bed—but it was too late. He dove at me and ferociously grabbed for my revolver. It quickly cost me my balance. We fell together onto the hard tile of the floor and I struggled to keep my panic from overwhelming my training. There was also the danger that Cartwright would use his shotgun on both of us.