The Witness (Badge of Honor 4)

“What if we had caught the guy with the firebomb.”

“Huh?”

“What would it be? Not more than assault. Maybe even creating a public nuisance.”

“Hold that one.”

“Defining ‘they’ again. Are those clowns in the bathrobes smart

enough to stage what happened this morning?”

“Not getting their hands on an unmarked car.”

“Back to someone with access.”

“That means someone here.”

“Someone here would be too smart to rob Goldblatt’s: no money.”

“Back to the burglar. What happened at Goldblatt’s was potentially murder caused in connection with another felony. What the hell?”

“Where did the money come from for Giacomo?”

“What the hell are they after?”

“I thought about that. More robberies, banks, maybe, with witnesses scared off by what happened at Goldblatt’s.”

“Back to the goddamn Liberation Army.”

“Back to defining ‘they.’ Are the Goldblatt doers smart enough for the press releases?”

“The organized telephone calls to Payne?”

“There are now two kinds of ‘they.’ The ones who are calling the shots—”

“Including setting up the clowns to rob Goldblatt’s.”

“I can’t see anybody here doing that.”

“We have somebody here. That’s a given.”

“‘They’ is now three. The sleaze-balls at Goldblatt’s; somebody here; and somebody calling the shots for the first two. Somebody with enough money to hire Giacomo.”

“That would be the ILA.”

“The ILA is bullshit. There is no ILA.”

“Hold that too.”

“They knew the firebomb wasn’t good for murder; they knew the stun gun—”

“They thought the stun gun—”

“—would be nonlethal. Somebody here would think that.”

“And cover his ass.”

“They would have convinced Monahan that police protection or not they could get to him whenever they wanted to.”