Special Operations (Badge of Honor 2)

“That sums it up very neatly,” Wohl said. “I’m already in trouble, and I just got there.”

“I heard about the little boy,” Quaire said. “That’s a bitch.”

“The civilian ran the red light, not our guy,” Peter said.

“I hope you can prove that,” Quaire said.

“That’s what Mickey O’Hara said,” Wohl said. “I’ve got people looking for witnesses. I really hope they can turn some up. But that’s not why I’m here, Henry.”

“Why do I thin

k I’m not going to like what’s coming next?” Quaire asked, dryly.

“Because you won’t,” Wohl said. “I want two of your people, Henry.”

“Which two?”

“Washington and Harris,” Wohl said.

“Can I say no, politely or otherwise?”

“I don’t think so,” Wohl said. “Chief Coughlin said I can have anybody I want. I’m going to hold him to it.”

“Can I ask why, then?” Quaire said, after a moment.

Wohl laid the file he had borrowed from Lieutenant Teddy Spanner of Northwest Detectives on Captain Quaire’s desk.

“That’s what Northwest Detectives has on the Northwest Philly rapist,” he said.

“They found the woman he forced into the van?”

“No. Not yet.”

“I’ll say the obvious, Inspector,” Quaire said, tapping the folder with his fingertips but not opening it. “Rape, sexual assault, is none of Homicide’s business. What are you showing this to me for?”

“The Northwest Philadelphia rapist is now my business, Henry,” Wohl said.

“Okay. But still, why are you showing this to me?”

“I don’t think we’re going to find that woman alive,” Wohl said.

“Then it will be my business,” Quaire said. “But not until.”

“No. It will still be my business,” Wohl said.

Quaire’s eyebrows rose.

“Not that it’s any of my business, but how did that sit with Chief Lowenstein when he heard that? Or has he?”

Chief Inspector Matt Lowenstein, under whom Homicide operated, was notoriously unsympathetic to what he considered invasions of his territory.

“I devoutly hope he knows it wasn’t my idea,” Wohl said. “But he’s been told.”

“What are you asking for, Inspector?” Quaire asked. “That if this abduction turns into homicide, that I assign Washington and Harris? Frankly, I don’t like being told how to run my shop.”

“No, I want them transferred to Special Operations, now,” Peter said.

Quaire considered that for a moment.