Read Online In Death 28 - Promises in Death by authors_sort - Free Book Online

other, it was part of the code. She’d taken down wrong cops before, and it was a hard and ugly process.
    She hoped she wouldn’t have to take one down for this.
    “Clifton’s had a lot of disciplinary slaps, and a few marks for using undue force. He’s got a temper. This murder doesn’t feel like heat. But we need to dig into him, and his alibi, a little deeper.”
    “I hate that. I hate looking at us for this.”
    “Then we hope it’s a straight bad guy, one without a badge. But we look. We’ll take the weasel next, then I want to go back to the scene, go through it again.” She walked around to get in the car, leaving Peabody no choice but to hop in.
     
    T hey found the pawnshop and its proprietor easily enough. The guy looked a little like a weasel, Eve thought—or what she figured a weasel looked like. He sat in back of his security glass, making a deal with a guy sweating for his next fix.
    Bollimer’s long, sharp nose twitched in the center of his long, thin face. Scenting cop, Eve decided, as the man’s bright, black eyes darted over toward her and Peabody.
    “You got fifty.”
    “Come on, man.” The junkie’s body twitched, his voice piped with desperation. “I need the hundred. It’s worth more’n that. Worth two-fifty easy. Have a heart, man. I need the one.”
    Bollimer sniffed through his nose, pretended to examine the wrist unit more carefully. “Seventy-five. That’s the best I can do.”
    “How about ninety, maybe? How about ninety? It’s a nice piece.”
    “Seventy-five’s the limit.”
    “Okay, okay. I’ll take it.”
    Bollimer tapped some keys on his minicomp, and it spat out a form. He slid it through the chute. “You know the drill.”
    The junkie scrawled his name on both parts, tore off his tab, slid the other end back to Bollimer. After keying in another code, Bollimer sent the seventy-five jingling down a tube. “You got thirty days to reclaim,” he said, and only shook his head as the man rushed out of the shop.
    “He’ll be back, but not to claim this.” Bollimer tagged the wrist unit, set it aside. Then he ran a hand over the near-mirror gloss of his slicked-back hair. “What can I do for you officers today?”
    “Regular customer?” Eve asked.
    “Binks? Sure. This is his property.” Bollinger tapped the wrist unit. “I’ve seen him wearing it before.”
    “Sooner or later, he’s going to get a jones on without anything to hock. Then he’s going to start stealing, end up mugging somebody.”
    Bollimer nodded sagely. “It’s the way of this sad, sad world. I run a straight place. Licensed. I check the hot sheet for stolen merchandise every day, and cooperate with the authorities. You looking for something hot maybe hasn’t hit the sheets, you can take a look around.”
    “We’re Homicide.” Eve pulled out her badge, held it up to the security screen. “We’re investigating the murder of Detective Coltraine.”
    His mouth dropped open while his black weasely eyes popped wide. “What did you say? Ammy? You’re telling me Ammy got killed?”
    “The media’s reported it. Her name was released to them a couple hours ago. Don’t you listen to the screen, Stu?”
    “What the fuck I want to hear that shit for? Hold on. Just hold on.”
    He pushed a button, had the screen coming down on his front door. Eve heard the lock click. Though his shock and distress rang true, she set a hand on her hip closer to her weapon when he pushed back on his rolling stool, got up, and hurried to unlock his cage door.
    When he came out, she saw the gleam of tears in his eyes. “What happened? What happened to that girl?”
    “Somebody killed her last night. Her body was discovered in the basement of her apartment building this morning.” That much the media had.
    “That’s not right. That’s just not right.” He pressed his fingers to his eyes for a moment. “You got she used me as a confidential informant?”
    “Yeah. Did you feed her anything recently that