Read Online Dark City Blue: A Tom Bishop Rampage by Luke Preston - Free Book Online Page A

room.
    ‘What have you got?’ Mackler asked.
    ‘Huh?’
    ‘On Justice? What have you been doing?’
    ‘I’ve just spent the past hour waiting to see you,’ Bishop said.
    Mackler’s eyebrow rose. She stared Bishop out. He wouldn’t budge.
    ‘Look,’ Wilson said. ‘Everybody’s blood is high. What we need to do is work out where we go from here.’
    Mackler sat, swung her feet onto the desk. The room relaxed. ‘Well,’ she said with her palms raised toward the roof. ‘Where are we at?’
    ‘The human intel we received yesterday from Roach Blacker checked out,’ Bishop said. ‘There’s a network of corrupt cops in this department. Their leader goes by the name, Justice.’
    ‘Like Oak Park?’
    Bishop nodded. ‘There’s a strong possibility that they’re behind this robbery as well.’
    ‘A robbery you knew about?’ one of Mackler’s staffers said without looking up from their phone.
    ‘A robbery we all knew about,’ Bishop said.
    Mackler swung her feet off the desk. ‘But which you failed to stop.’
    Bishop threw a glance at Wilson. He shook his head slightly.
    ‘You need to let Rayburn in on this. He’s down there right now force-feeding a confession into a couple of nobodies.’
    ‘For now,’ Mackler said, ‘we need to play our cards close to our chest. I don’t want to run the risk of letting Justice slip through our fingers.’
    ‘Then, I’m going to need more manpower,’ Bishop said.
    ‘I agree.’
    Bishop relaxed his shoulders and smiled. ‘Good.’
    ‘So, you’re being reassigned to traffic and operations,’ Mackler said. ‘I’m putting Simons and Behan on Justice.’
    ‘Who are they?’
    She motioned to the two young kids on her senior staff in tailored suits and manicured hair.
    ‘They look like a couple of accountants.’
    ‘They’re extremely well educated.’
    ‘Their mothers must be very proud.’
    Mackler stood up and was about to unleash hell when Wilson interjected with, ‘I think what Commissioner Mackler is trying to say is that we’re widening the scope of the investigation.’
    Bishop took a breath and let the air out of his nostrils. ‘This is bullshit,’ he said.
    Commissioner Mackler sat back in her chair. ‘You’re dismissed.’ She turned the television on; the continuing news story now had her attention.
    Bishop looked at everybody like they were crazy and left. He pressed the button to the elevator in the hall as Wilson caught up.
    ‘Hell, I’m sorry, kid. She thinks education is more important than balls.’
    He pressed the button to the elevator a couple of more times but it didn’t speed it up. ‘I was there, Wilson. Just around the corner. I could have stopped it.’
    Wilson put his big hand around Bishop’s neck, just like he used to when he was a kid. ‘More than likely, I think you would have been another body bag lining the street.’
    *
    The office was half empty. Not a badge of rank in sight. Down the hall, Bishop heard a ruckus and headed in that direction. The observation room was a shitbox with no windows, no air, a couch and a tiny black-and-white television connected to the interview room. It was rarely used, except by the odd badge who wanted to sleep off a shift. Today it was packed. Detectives huddled around the screen, watching Rayburn interrogate one of the stooges. Bishop stopped in the doorframe and watched.
    The grainy image was poor, but clear enough to expose Rayburn’s people skills. He leant over the table and shoved a finger in the stooge’s face.
    ‘Who else was in your crew?’
    ‘Lawyer.’
    ‘Was the plan all along to kill the guards?’
    ‘Lawyer.’
    ‘What about your cut? Do you think they’ll keep it in a savings account for you while you’re inside? Come on: give me a name.’
    ‘Mo Everingham.’
    ‘Who’s that?’
    ‘My lawyer.’
    The room and the bullshit were too much. Bishop had to get out. The air wasn’t so fresh out in the hall either, but it was better than the smell of body