The Investigators (Badge of Honor 7)

“How could Savarese know that?” Coughlin asked.

“How could he know she was raped?” Peter countered.

“Maybe he found this guy before Jason did.”

“If that’s the case . . .” Peter said.

“Yeah,” Coughlin said. “Savarese is now looking for the cop.”

“I’m tempted to say let him have him,” Peter said.

“You don’t even want to start thinking things like that, Peter,” Coughlin said almost paternally.

“The other thought I have been having, if this went down the way I think it did, was that—”

“It sounds like something an already dirty Five Squad cop would do?”

Wohl nodded.

“Knowing that another dirty cop would not turn him in,” Coughlin agreed.

Both of them fell silent for nearly a full minute.

“You open to suggestion, Peter?” Coughlin finally asked.

“Wide open,” Wohl said.

“Okay. Tell Jason to find out what else he can about Mr. Ketcham. I’ll put out a Locate, Do Not Detain on him. And I will think about what to do about our friend Vincenzo.”

“For example?”

“I know that you think it would probably be a good thing, but we really can’t permit Savarese to cut the limbs off this scumbag one at a time with a dull knife,” Coughlin said.

“My mouth ran away with me,” Peter said.

“So long as it wasn’t your heart,” Coughlin said.

“I wish we had more than ‘seems likely’ to tie somebody on Five Squad to the oral rape—”

“We don’t even have ‘seems likely,’ all we have is ‘could be,’ ” Coughlin interrupted. “What are you thinking?”

“We go into Calhoun’s safe-deposit box in Harrisburg. And then Jason explains to him that not only do we now have him with money he can’t explain, but that we are about to find out who raped this girl, and in his own best interests, he should tell us about everything.”

“Too many ‘ifs.’ There may be nothing in that box to incriminate him about anything. And if we go into the box, then they know we’re looking at them. And they shut down. And what if Calhoun is the scumbag who did that to the girl?”

“Then Jason tells him who the girl is, and that unless he goes along, we tell Grandpa.”

Coughlin looked at him.

“Maybe you will get to be police commissioner,” he said. “I am seeing in you a certain amoral ruthlessness I never noticed before.”

He met Peter’s eyes, then stood up.

“For the time being, only you, me, and Jason. Agreed?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Thank you for lunch, Peter.”