Read Online Dead Irish by John Lescroart - Free Book Online Page A

place and I work for him. That’s the connection.”
    “Good, we got a connection. What are you representing them for?”
    Hardy sat back, crossing one leg over the other, pulling a cuff down. “They’d just like to make some official request that this be investigated as a possible homicide.”
    “It is being investigated as a homicide. This is the homicide department. I’m a homicide inspector.”
    “I realize that,” Hardy said, “but I know it looks like a suicide, like it was a suicide—”
    “Initially,” Griffin said.
    “But maybe it wasn’t.”
    Griffin moved a few more papers, trying to cover his impatience. “Maybe it wasn’t. You’re right. That’s my job, finding out if it was or wasn’t. You got anything to make me think it wasn’t?”
    “Nothing specific.”
    “Specific’s what we like,” Griffin said. “How about general?”
    “You had to know the guy, I guess.” That called for no response, and Griffin waited it out. “His wife . . . I mean, he wasn’t the kind of person who kills himself.”
    “He wasn’t?” It was hard to keep the sarcasm out. Griffin had seen suicides from derelicts to socialites, from healthy beautiful teenage girls to terminally ill wheelchair patients. “I’ll note that in the file,” he said.
    Hardy uncrossed his legs. “It’s not as ridiculous as it sounds,” he said, not defensive, as though he at least understood how it sounded. “Some people get depressed, you know. Life gets ’em down. There’s some warning. I thought it might help to know that Ed—on the outside—was a positive guy.”
    “Look, Mr. . . .”
    “Hardy.”
    “Mr. Hardy. We go on the assumption—”
    “I know the routine, Inspector. I used to be a cop. I was hoping you might go a little beyond the routine in this case.”
    Griffin felt his face getting red. Go beyond the routine for a friend of Abe Glitsky’s who’s implying I’m not doing my job well enough? Go beyond the routine when no matter how good I am I won’t get promoted over any black or Latino or woman or fucking police dog if they had any constituency in the city? And was Glitsky somehow tied in to this, siccing a cop on him?
    “I don’t really like the implication there,” Griffin said.
    “I’m not implying anything, or don’t mean to be.”
    “Seems to me you’re saying my routine won’t get the job done right.”
    “I’m saying that knowing what kind of guy Ed was might put things in a different light, that’s all.”
    “Yeah, it might. I’ll keep it in mind.” Griffin stood up. So did Hardy. “So how’s Glitsky involved?”
    Hardy shrugged it off. “I just know him. I started with him.”
    “Yeah, well, this is my case. So you can tell Abe if he wants it he can go through channels.”
    Hardy held his hands out. “Look. Abe’s got nothing to do with this. I’m a citizen. I’m here with a reasonable request. That’s it.”
    Griffin studied the guy’s face. No sign he was lying, which might mean he was a great liar. “Okay, but you got no evidence.”
    “I know.”
    “So unless we get something more that points to murder, it’s gonna go down as suicide.”
    “That’s why I was hoping maybe we could go over what you’ve got.”
    “Just go fishing, huh? Afraid I’ll miss something?” Griffin couldn’t stop himself. The anger just kept resurfacing.
    Surprisingly, the guy didn’t rise to it. Instead, he took it in for a beat, then offered a smile and stuck out his hand. “Nope. I’m sure if something’s there, you’ll find it. Thanks for your time.”
    Griffin leaned his butt back against his desk, watching Hardy walk across the office. Fucking watchdog, he thought. He didn’t know what Glitsky wanted out of this, but if he wanted to find something so bad, let him find it himself. And on his own time.
     
    So official cooperation wasn’t likely to be forthcoming, Hardy thought as he drove out to the Mission District. And also, which he didn’t understand at all, it