The Traffickers (Badge of Honor 9)

“You’re up on the Wheel?”

“Yeah. Lucky me. I’m off the clock in under two hours, though. What cha got?”

“There’s a job coming in. I’m already on the scene-”

“That’s not exactly kosher, is it?” Bari interrupted.

“-I’m on the scene watching from a distance the guys from the Medical Examiner’s Office. This one’s really got my attention.”

“Really. What is it?”

“You know the Philly Inn on Frankford?”

“That old motel?”

“Right. A meth lab blew up in a room on the back side of the place about two o’clock this morning. The blast rocked my house, damn near blowing me out of bed.”

“An alleged meth lab? No fooling?”

“Alleged” my ass, Harris thought. Go ask the HazMat guys what toxic soup of caustic chemicals they had to clear out of there, Bari.

But Harris ignored him and went on: “When I looked out the window, I saw the glow of flames. So, I drove over to see what’d happened.”

“And?”

“And cutting a long story short, a white female got nailed outside the room that went ‘boom.’ She’d been waiting in one of those really fancy Mercedes SUVs. Apparently she’s hurt pretty badly.”

“Damn drugs.”

“Yeah. Then, as the fire department was battling the blaze, a white male, surprising hell out of everyone, came staggering out of the burning motel room. He and the girl were taken to the Temple ER.”

“That’s it?”

“No. When they got the motel room fire put out, inside they found two bodies, white Hispanic males, charred to a crisp.”

“Nice.”

“One of the critters had his throat slit.”

“Ah. Very nice. But wait. The white guy was the doer? Then he torched the place?”

“I don’t know, Al. If he did, it sure as hell backfired on him.”

Bari chuckled. “ ‘ Backfired.’ ”

Harris ignored him again. “Anyway, Al, there’s a lot of very interesting questions, all unanswered. Which is why I want the job.”

There was a perceptible pause as Bari considered what he’d just heard.

Tony Harris imagined Aldo Bari checking the black Casio watch on his fat wrist, looking at its oversize digital readout to see how close it now was to quitting time and wondering if he could dodge this bullet of a complicated case.

Bari’s probably breaking into a sweat trying to decide which desire to go with-play by the rules, or avoid a new job.

After a moment, Bari said, “Gee, I don’t know, Harris.”

Harris could hear real ambivalence in Bari’s tone.

Bari went on hesitantly: “I’d have to get it cleared first. And the Black Buddha won’t be here for another hour. Or more.”