Read Online Unseen (Will Trent / Atlanta Series) by Karin Slaughter - Free Book Online Page B

with the Palmetto Street Rollers. They were a Miami-based group, mostly Cuban, some Caucasian. The FBI put membership around twenty thousand running up and down the East Coast.” Branson nodded, so Will continued, “The gang broke up into sets after some turf wars. Florida believes but isn’t certain that Big Whitey took over from Sarasota down to the Keys. We’reguessing two years ago, he moved up the coast into Savannah and Hilton Head.”
    “Guessing based on what?”
    “Both Savannah and Hilton Head kept hearing his name come up. Snitches, mostly, but nothing concrete. At first, the locals thought he was an urban legend, a kind of go-to bogeyman. ‘Play it straight or Big Whitey will get you.’ ‘Wasn’t me, Officer, Big Whitey did it.’ ” Will added, “Savannah’s convinced he’s real, but Carolina disbanded the Hilton Head task force six months ago. Put the money on coastal trafficking instead, figured it was a wider net.”
    “What persuaded Savannah that this Big Whitey’s not some kind of urban legend?” Branson obviously couldn’t resist adding, “Other than the excellent counter-myopic services of the great GBI?”
    Will ignored the sarcasm. “They started to see a pattern. The junkies and cons were suddenly more sophisticated. Crime went up but prosecutions went down. The bad guys had more money for lawyers—usually the same lawyers from the same firms. Better cars, better clothes, bigger guns. Somebody took a bunch of low-level thugs and turned them into businessmen.”
    “Ergo, Big Whitey is real,” Branson summed up. “All the bad guys in town played along?”
    “Unless they wanted to end up face-down in the sand.” Will didn’t tell her that in their own way, many of the cops had played along, too. The detectives who didn’t request transfers asked for early retirement. “Most of the criminals complied. They didn’t become drug dealers to lose money.”
    “And now you think Big Whitey’s trying to set up the same type of organization in Macon because you got a tip,” Branson concluded. “I’m assuming Whitey specializes in pills, which Tony Dell was swiping from the hospital pharmacy?”
    Will said, “That’s a chunk of his business, but heroin is his end game. Whitey moves into the suburbs, branches out into the richwhite neighborhoods. They start with pills, he moves them into heroin.”
    Branson asked, “How’d you target Dell in the first place?”
    Amanda quipped, “Confidential source.”
    Branson didn’t look at Amanda. “Same source who turned you on to Big Whitey?”
    Amanda said, “That’s how it usually works.”
    Branson kept ignoring her, asking Will, “And that’s why you agreed to play lookout on the so-called robbery last night, to build your bad-boy cred with Dell?”
    Will nodded.
    “Well, that all makes sense. Thank you for your time.” Branson picked up her briefcase from the floor and held it in her lap again. “You know how to get in touch with me, Deputy Director.”
    Amanda was seldom thrown, but Denise Branson had managed to surprise her. “That’s it?”
    “You’re obviously not going to tell me anything else and I’m sure as shit not going to share anything with you.” Branson stood. “If I’d wanted to get fucked around with this morning, I would’ve stayed in bed with my vibrator.”
    The woman knew how to make an exit. She kept her head held high as she left the office, her briefcase gripped close to her side.
    Will looked at Amanda, who silently stared at the empty doorway.
    “Wow.” Faith broke the silence. “That was quite a show.”
    Amanda played with the stem of her reading glasses again. “She knew Lawrence fired the shotgun that took down Long. I expect we’ll find she ordered some tests.”
    Will had picked up on that, too. “She was in the house at some point before it got locked down. She knew Lawrence had meth sores on his face, but he doesn’t have them in the booking photo. She called Dell Tony, not