The Witness (Badge of Honor 4)

“Having people knock on the door, and we ask who is it, and then go down and open the door.”

“Why not?” Charley asked.

“What we need is an intercom,” Jesus said. “They ring the bell, we ask the intercom who’s there. I saw one in the store where I bought the tapes.”

“Who would put it in?” Charley asked.

“I would.”

“Do you really think it’s necessary?” Matt said. “More to the point, do you think that anybody’s really going to try to come up here?”

“They threw the firebomb at Monahan,” Charley said.

“Jesus,” Matt said.

“Save your money, if you want to,” Jesus said. “They cost twenty-four ninety-five.”

“You can install it?” Matt asked.

“You got a screwdriver, a drill, and a staple machine, I can install it.”

“I think I’ve got a screwdriver, but I don’t have a drill or a staple machine.”

“You don’t have a drill?” McFadden asked, surprised.

“No.”

“How about a hammer? You’re going to need a hammer for the brick nails.”

“No hammer, either.”

“Hay-zus can get a hammer and the brick nails and the drill and the staple machine when he gets the intercom,” Charley said.

“Don’t forget the screwdriver,” Matt said, and shifted on the couch and took out his wallet.

“What the fuck, Payne, if they don’t kill you, it’ll come in handy later,” Jesus said

as he took three twenties. “If you’ve got some broad up here, and some other broad comes to see you, you could tell her you’re busy on the intercom.”

“I could also just not answer her knock,” Matt said.

“You want the intercom or not? You’re not doing me any favors.”

“I want the intercom, Hay-zus, thank you.”

Martinez returned in a little over half an hour, his arms full of kraft paper bags.

“Goddamn sidewalks are all ice,” he said. “I almost busted my ass, twice.”

“How would you like to be walking a foot beat in this weather?” McFadden asked.

“How about standing at Broad and Vine in a white cap, directing traffic?” Martinez said as he put the packages on the coffee table.

In one of the bags was a Philadelphia Daily News. He tossed it on Matt’s lap.

“In case you don’t know where you are,” he said. “This is an ‘undisclosed location.’”

“What?”