LITMIR.BIZ

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her. I’m sorry, but I can’t spare you for protection detail. Besides, you’re the one who told me she wouldn’t want a cop camping out in her living room.”

      She wouldn’t want to stop living her life, either, and that, Tal reflected, was where the real problem resided.

      “She a good doctor?” Drake asked.

      Tal half smiled. “Top of her class.”

      “Florida State?”

      “With a premed at Yale.”

      “Impressive.” Drake leaned back in his chair. “Is she as pretty as I’ve heard?”

      “Depends what you’ve heard.”

      “The word stunning has come up. Knockout. Killer body.” At Tal’s slanted look, he let out a heavy breath. “I know, we’ve got an unholy mess on our hands with the deputy chief, with Tyler, with Perine.”

      “We’ve also got two victims we didn’t know about until last night.”

      “Those homicides occurred outside our jurisdiction. Outside fraud’s as well, but we’ll assume they had some kind of deal going there.”

      Tal drained the coffee he’d poured earlier. For the moment, he had no choice. He had to trust the men Drake had put on Maya. She lived in a secure condominium complex. Good alarm, decent neighbors, solid cops. She’d be safe. He hoped.

      His cell phone beeped as he was going through the report for a third time. He regarded the screen, smiled faintly at the name.

      “Hey, Nate. What’s up?”

      The older cop’s voice sounded more gravelly than usual. “Heard you boys have a problem.”

      “You could say that.”

      “You back in Miami for good?”

      “Until the investigation’s done.”

      In the background, Drake made a rough sound. “Tell Hammond to haul his ass down to central and see what he can shake loose from his old comrades. My gut says they’re still withholding.”

      “Heard that,” Nate remarked. “My advice would be to lean on McGraw. Let him think he’s got a shot at moving up to homicide.”

      “Way ahead of you there.” Tal started for the door. “McGraw’s on his way over. Means I’m out of here. Anything useful for us in terms of Perine?”

      “For the moment, only a keen ear and a full thermos. Come on over when you get a chance. We’ll compare notes. Off the record, of course.”

      Another beep on Tal’s cell phone indicated a second incoming call. This one from Maya.

      “Hang on, Nate.” He switched lines. “Thought you’d be sleeping, Doc.”

      “I was. It came to me at the end of a dream.”

      “What did?”

      “The guy’s face.”

      Tal angled away from the surrounding noise. “The one who jumped you?”

      “No. He was wearing a balaclava. The man I’m talking about was with Adam. I think. He disappeared so fast, I almost didn’t notice him. Look, can you come over? I’d come to you, except I seem to have left my car in the hospital parking lot.”

      The wall clock read 6:30 p.m. “Give me twenty minutes,” he said. “I’ll use the siren.”

      “Boys with toys. I’ll do a sketch while I wait. Uh, Tal, should I feed the dynamic duo in the bushes outside?”

      “They’re fine. Keep your doors locked, Maya.”

      “Yes, Mommy.”

      He switched back to Nate as he shouldered the fire door open. “Gotta go, Nate. We’ll unload that thermos another time when I’m off duty.”

      “You’re too pure, Lieutenant.”

      “Only when it counts.”

      “Hang on, Tal. I didn’t call to find myself a drinking partner. I was around that department for a lot of years. I saw stuff that’d make Drake’s fringe of hair knot up. Perine’s got people inside. That’s how he does it. Forget the deputy chief connection for now. I’m talking long-term, longtime snitches, on Perine’s payroll as well as the city’s.”

      The suggestion didn’t surprise Tal so much as the whip of contempt in Nate’s voice.

      “I take it you never found any specific evidence.”

      “Got within an inch some days, but no, I never could pin the greaseball turncoats down. Like Perine, they always managed to ooze through the cracks at the last second. Look for those cracks, Tal. Get to them before the ooze does. Do that, and you’ll have your blue line to Perine. Won’t be a straight one, but crooked’s no problem for you.”

      Tal shoved through the outer door and put on his sunglasses to cut the low glare. He tossed his jacket inside his truck. “How many do you figure and what divisions?”

      “No idea. Fraud for sure, probably homicide. Vice? Hard to say. Internal affairs? Unlikely, but you never know. I’d count on a handful of uniforms, maybe more.”

      Tal revved the engine, switched on the flashing lights. “I’m using the siren, Nate. It’s gonna get loud. Have you talked to Drake about this?”

      “Talked to Tyler a couple times, and his captain once, but Drake, no.”

      “Why?”

      Nate made a rusty sound. “Don’t get me wrong. I like the guy. We squared off a time or two as captains, but that’s how it is. I trusted him when it mattered, and he came through.”

      With a look in both directions and the siren blaring, Tal maneuvered through an intersection. “You might want to get to the point here.”

      “Captains make decent money, but yours has five kids, and one of ’em’s autistic.”

      “Nate…”

      “Sneak a peek in his garage, Tal. Drive out to his place and take a good long look at Don Drake’s brand-new, fully loaded flatbed truck.”

      Chapter Four

      The sky over the ocean was on fire. Maya wanted to soak up the last of the summer rays, but there was little chance of that, with Jamie badgering her at full volume.

      After five nonstop minutes, she simply reached out and set a hand across her friend’s mouth. “Enough, okay? I appreciate the gesture, Jamie, but Tal’s on his way over. That’ll make three cops in the immediate area.”

      Jamie yanked Maya’s hand away. “We’re sitting on your balcony, facing a courtyard so much like the one in that movie about the photographer with the broken leg that it gives me the heebie-jeebies. How can you be flip?”

      “I’m not being flip. And it was Rear Window.”

      “Do I care about titles?” Jamie spread her fingers. “I see a flock of weirdos down there and a window directly across from yours, with the shades drawn.”

      “That’s Mr. Ruiz’s place. He’s—”

      “Busy hacking up his wife’s body? Phoning his female coconspirator? Polishing up his escape plan?”

      Maya shot her an exasperated look. “Have you been stealing medication from the hospital? Mr. Ruiz is a night watchman at a large office complex. He sleeps during the day. See that big orange ball over there?” She pointed with her pencil. “That’s the sun. Work all night, sleep all day.”

      “Maya, you were attacked early this morning in a public parking lot.”

      “I know. I was there. Do you want a glass of lemonade?”

      “I’d

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