The Murderers (Badge of Honor 6)

“So Carlucci told me. I asked you, do you have any problems with the new arrangement?”

“None at all.”

“Tell me what interesting things you have heard today, Peter.”

“How about yesterday, Chief?”

“Start with yesterday.”

“I had lunch with Armando C. Giacomo, Esquire, at the Rittenhouse Club. Weisbach and I did. Mr. Paulo Cassandro really doesn’t want to go to jail. As a public-spirited citizen, he is willing to testify against Cazerra in exchange for immunity from prosecution.”

Lowenstein snorted.

“Giacomo is pissing in the wind. He knows he has nothing to deal with. And if he did, he would have gone to the District Attorney with it. Why you?”

“I thought that was interesting. Weisbach

told him that, offhand, the only thing he could think of that we were interested in was the Inferno doer, or doers. And/or the Kellog doer.”

“And how did the dapper little dago react to that?”

“He didn’t say no.”

“You think either one was a mob hit, Peter?”

“I didn’t until Giacomo didn’t say no.”

“Interesting.”

“I thought so. And then Jason Washington called me this morning. One of his informants said that the Inferno was a mob hit, and gave him a name. Frank—Frankie—Foley.”

There was a just-perceptible pause as Lowenstein searched his memory.

“Never heard of him.”

“Neither has Washington. Or Harris. Or me. Or Intelligence or Organized Crime.”

“Who’s the informant?”

“Washington said that what this guy has given him in the past—which wasn’t much—was reliable. I think he would have said something if there was a mob connection.”

“Huh!” Lowenstein snorted.

“Going back even further than yesterday, the day Kellog was shot, that night, his widow showed up at Washington’s apartment. Did you hear about that?”

“Tell me about it,” Lowenstein said.

Which means either that you did hear about it or didn’t hear about it, but if you did, you want to hear my version of it anyway.

“She told Washington (a) her husband was dirty, (b) the entire Narcotics Five Squad is dirty, and (c) that they did her husband.”

“What did Washington think about it?”

“He said he believes she thinks she’s telling the truth.”

“So what are you going to do with this? All of this?”

“I told Washington to give the Frankie Foley name to Homicide. By now, they probably have it.”