The Investigators (Badge of Honor 7)

“Not yet. Or at least we don’t think so. You’re getting the idea, Mickey, why this is sensitive?”

“I’m getting the idea,” O’Hara said. “So where does that guy fit in?” he asked, gesturing toward Ketcham.

“He’s the girl’s boyfriend,” Wohl explained. “Sava rese—this is the theory we’re working under—suspected he might know something about what had happened to his granddaughter, scooped him up from his apartment, and took him to a deserted NIKE site for a little talk. We think the story came out.”

“And that guy’s still alive?”

“We think Savarese left him there to starve to death,” Coughlin said.

O’Hara considered that a moment, then said: “Yeah, that fits.” He nodded, then went on: “But that guy didn’t identify the cop to Savarese?”

“I don’t think Mr. Ketcham knew Officer Prasko’s name,” Washington said. “When I go back in there, I will delve into that further.”

“If Officer Prasko is still alive, Vincenzo Savarese doesn’t have his name,” O’Hara said flatly.

“I don’t need that, for God’s sake!” Amy exclaimed in horror.

“Need what?” Wohl said.

“Mickey means this gangster will take the law into his own hands, right?”

“Well, maybe not the law, Amy,” O’Hara said. “An ax possibly, or maybe a chain saw, something to cut Officer Prasko slowly into small pieces. . . .”

“I have a sick girl—a very nice sick girl—who has been subjected to an unspeakably brutal rape. She is on the edge of schizophrenia right now. If she hears now, or at some later time, that her grandfather brutally—”

“I get the picture,” Wohl said. “And believe me, we’re going to try very hard to keep Savarese from getting at Officer Prasko.”

“Answer Amy’s question, Peter,” O’Hara said. “Why don’t you arrest Prasko? If nothing else, that would make it harder for Savarese to get at him when he gets his name. And he will get his name.”

“We have reason to believe the whole Narcotics Five Squad is dirty,” Coughlin answered for Wohl.

“That’s interesting,” O’Hara replied. “You are going to tell me about that, right?”

“Jesus!” Danny the Judge said. It was the first time he’d heard anything about that.

“I shouldn’t have to tell you, Danny,” Coughlin said “that that doesn’t go any further than this room. And that includes your brother-in-law, the deputy commissioner.”

“Yes, sir,” Danny the Judge said.

“Afterward, I’ll tell him I ordered you to keep him in the dark,” Coughlin said. “He won’t like it, but we’re too close to getting these scum to take any chance of having it go down the drain because too many people know what we’re doing.”

“Thank you,” Danny the Judge said.

“Now that Five Squad is on the table,” Wohl said, “we theorize that the rape of Miss—the girl was raped during a Five Squad drug bust. And that the bust itself was dirty.”

“How?” O’Hara asked.

“This is all speculation, Mickey,” Wohl said. “But I think what we’re going to find is that when Five Squad makes a bust, and there are seized drugs—and/or cash—not all of it makes it to the evidence room.”

O’Hara picked up on that immediately.

“And what drug dealer is going to complain to anybody that he had three kilos of shit when he was arrested, and only two was turned in as evidence?”

“That is the theory,” Washington said. “Buttressed a few minutes ago when Mr. Ketcham indignantly announced that not only had Officer Prasko raped the girl, but that he had also stolen twenty thousand dollars from him.”

“What’s the girl’s name?” O’Hara asked.

“You don’t need to know that, Mickey!” Amy said.