Read Online The Barbed-Wire Kiss by Wallace Stroby - Free Book Online Page B

company, all the same shit you’ve heard a thousand times. He’s got a house in Florham Park, another down in Brick. Until they let the brothers out, which is not ever gonna happen, he’s the man.”
    “When exactly were these photos taken?”
    “Thursday morning.”
    “Had Fallon ever shown up there before?”
    “He was a new face, that’s why he caught their eye at MCU. They figured out who he was quickly enough, but I don’t think they’d placed him with Andelli before. Now, of course, they’ve taken an interest. Does all this mean anything to you?”
    “Not really. Not yet, at least.”
    “Would you tell me if it did?”
    “Yes. I’m not jerking your chain here, Ray. Where Andelli fits into this, if at all, I don’t know.”
    “Well, let me just say this, then. These are serious people, Harry. They have their hands in a lot of things. If your friend is mixed up with them in any way, it may be time to get someone else involved.”
    “A little early for that. There might not be any connection at all.”
    “No connection? Out of nowhere you ask me about somebody, and two days later I get photos of him up close and personal with a top LCN guy. You call that coincidence?”
    “Might be.”
    Ray frowned.
    “Well, there’s something else interesting about these photos, anyway,” he said. “The last one, at least.”
    Harry looked at it. Only the front half of the Lexus was in the frame, but the driver’s face was partially visible, his tinted window halfway down. Something about the profile jogged his memory.
    Ray tapped the photo with the eraser end of a pencil. “Recognize him? You should.”
    He looked at the face again. The feeling was stronger now, but the connection still eluded him. He shook his head.
    “That’s Mickey Dunleavy,” Ray said.
    Harry looked at the hard features, the short dark hair.
    “Yeah,” he said. “It could be, I guess. I didn’t know him well.”
    “It is. One of the MCU guys on the surveillance team had been with him in Troop D. That’s Dunleavy, all right. Landed on his feet as usual. They should have put him away when they had the chance.”
    “I followed the trial in the papers. Hard to believe he got off.”
    “No one wants to send a state trooper to prison, no matter how bad a guy he is. Far as the jury was concerned, he was a brave soldier in the War on Drugs. Hard to tell what side he was on, though.”
    “What’s he doing with Fallon?”
    “Good question. Last anyone heard, he headed down to Florida after the trial was over. A lot of people were hoping he’d stay there.”
    Harry looked through the sheets again.
    “I have to tell you that as far as our mutual benefactor at MCU is concerned, this is a quid pro quo arrangement,” Ray said. “For giving me these photos, he’ll be expecting something in return. Any information I get on Fallon or his friends that might pertain to an ongoing investigation, I’ll have to pass on to him. So don’t put me in the middle. You can tell these guys to go polish their knobs, but I’m a black man in a white man’s business. I’ve got to live with them. And keeping good relations with them makes my job a hell of a lot easier.”
    “I’m not holding anything out on you. It’s just that it’s hard to see where this is going so far. If I find out anything that’s relevant …”
    “… you’ll let me know.”
    “Yes.”
    Ray sat back. “Don’t forget me, Harry. And don’t forget my offer. You still have a taste for the Life. If you didn’t, you wouldn’t be involved in this. You’re a natural to it. Why piss those skills away?”
    “That a compliment or an insult?”
    “Both, I guess. You’ve got to go back to work eventually, you know, some kind of job, whether you need the money or not. It’s not healthy, living out there by yourself, sitting on your ass all day, not doing a goddamn thing.”
    “I’ve worked on the house, the car.”
    “That’s not the same. You know what I mean. You’ve