Men In Blue (Badge of Honor 1)

“Your daughter called the cops. They came, including the Homicide lieutenant on duty, a real horse’s ass named DelRaye. They had words.”

“About what?”

“He told her she had to go to the Roundhouse—the police headquarters, downtown—and she said she had told him everything she knew, and wasn’t going anywhere. Then she went upstairs to her apartment. DelRaye told her unless she came out, he was going to knock the door down, and have her taken to the Roundhouse in a paddy wagon.”

“Why do I have the feeling you’re tactfully leaving something out, Dick? I want all of it.”

“Okay,” Dye said, meeting his eyes. “She’d had a couple of drinks. Maybe a couple too many. And she used a couple of choice words on DelRaye.”

“You have a quote?”

“‘Go fuck yourself,’“ Dye quoted.

“Did she really?” Wells said. “How to win friends and influence people.”

“So she must have called Inspector Wohl, and he showed up, and got her away from the apartment through the basement,” Dye said. “In the morning, he brought her to the Roundhouse. There was a lawyer, Colonel Mawson, waiting for her there.”

“She must have called me while she was in the apartment waiting for the good cop to show up,” Wells said. “Either my wife couldn’t tell Louise was drinking, or didn’t want to say anything. She said she was afraid.”

“I saw pictures of the murdered guy, Mr. Wells. Enough to make you throw up. She had every reason to be frightened.”

“Where was she from the time—what was the time?— the good cop took her away from the apartment, and the time he brought her to the police station?”

“After one in the morning,” Dye said. “He probably took her to a girl friend’s house, or something.”

“Or boyfriend’s house?” Wells said. “You are a good leg man, Dick. What did you turn up about a boyfriend?”

“No one in particular,” Dye said. “Couple of guys, none of whom seem to have been involved.”

“Mr. Wells,” Ward V. Fengler said, “if I may interject, Colonel Mawson asked Miss Dutton where she had been all night, and she declined to tell him.”

“That spells boyfriend,” Wells said. “And, maybe guessing I would show up here, she didn’t want me to know she’d spent the night with him. Now my curiosity’s aroused. Can you get me some more on that subject, Dick?”

“I’ll give it a shot, sir,” Dye said.

“Has she gone back to work?” Wells asked, and then, looking at his watch, answered his own question. “The best way to find that out is to look at the tube, isn’t it?”

It was six-fifteen. As Stanford Fortner Wells III finished dressing, he watched his daughter do her telecast

.

“She’s tough,” he said, admiringly.

“I’d forgotten how pretty she was,” Kurt Kruger said.

“That, too.” Wells chuckled. “Okay. I’m going to see her. Mr. Fengler, there’s no point that I can see in taking any more of your time. I’d like to keep the car, if I may, and I would be grateful if you would get in touch with Colonel Mawson and tell him I’ll be in touch in the morning.”

“I’m at your disposal, Mr. Wells, if you think I could be of any assistance,” Fengler said.

“I can handle it, I think, from here on in. If I need some help, I’ve got Mawson’s number, office and home. Thank you for all your courtesy.”

Fengler knew that he had been dismissed.

“I’d like to have dinner with you, Kurt, but that’s not going to be possible. Thank you. Again.”

“Aw, hell, Stan.”

“You, Dick, I would like you to stick around. I may need a leg man to do more than find out who my daughter has been seeing. You came, I hope, prepared to stay a couple of days?”