Read A Bad Night's Sleep for Free Online

for you—and for us.”
    “Tell me.”
    Again the long stare. “You remember a guy named Earl Johnson?”
    “Sure. He was in our academy class—a bit of a screwup. Barely made it through. He did all right afterward, though. Vice detective, last I heard.”
    “Still on vice, though he spent a few years on the gang unit before that.” Bill looked at me square. “He’s behind the Southshore thefts.”
    I shook my head. “He wasn’t there.”
    “Not there, but he was behind it. He leads a group of eight other cops—ten until our guys dropped one of them and you dropped the other. They’re into anything that makes money. Mostly industrial theft and prostitution. Industrial theft because one of them has a brother-in-law who owns a re-processing company. Prostitution because of Johnson’s vice connections. We’ve been aware of them for the last eight months, and we’ve gotten a good sense of who’s involved and what they’re doing. Right now, they’re getting greedier and trying to expand.”
    He pushed a stack of photos across the desk. They included nine men. Earl Johnson was one of them. I recognized another two as the guys who’d shot at me from the white Honda SUV. The four guys who’d driven into the Southshore construction site and loaded copper wire into their vans until I called 911 were there too. In the pictures they wore police uniforms.
    I pulled out the four photos and put them on the desk. “These guys were there.”
    Bill nodded. “We know.”
    “So arrest them and you’re done.”
    “Not that easy. If the size of this group goes public, the department is screwed. We’ll be busy for the next ten years explaining that we’re not Juarez, Mexico, with cops playing both sides of the law. The mayor doesn’t want that. The chief doesn’t want that. Fuck knows, I don’t want it.”
    “This is what you do for the Ethics Board?” I said.
    “If the Ethics Board found out, they wouldn’t want it either. Too big. Too messy. Everybody wants these guys to disappear.”
    “That’s where I come in?”
    Bill nodded, picked up the stack of photos, and pulled out a picture of a dark-skinned, balding man. “This guy here, his name’s Bob Monroe. Also on vice. Used to be on the gang unit, which is where he met Johnson. Last summer he went toe-to-toe with Johnson for control of the group. Lost out to him and he’s unhappy—doesn’t like being number two and he’s looking for an excuse to make a move. Most of the other guys don’t trust him, though. He comes across at first like a nice guy but he’s crazy. When he was on the gang unit he had a run-in with a kid named Victor Lopez. Victor started talking to the Ethics Board, but then he disappeared—with some unwanted help from Monroe. We couldn’t find even a bone fragment. The other guys know Monroe’s a hothead but he thinks they’ll line up behind him if he takes Johnson down.”
    “What do you see me doing?”
    He handed me the photo. “You give Monroe news about times, dates, and places that Johnson has been running operations outside the group and pocketing the money. You give him the specific amounts he’s ripped off. You tell Monroe you’ve come across the information in your private investigations into the group. I give you the list and the evidence. Johnson will have no alibi. We know where he was at the times and we’ve set up dummy bank accounts in his name. The money will be there when Monroe checks for it. Monroe will make a move on Johnson. Johnson will fight it. My guess is Johnson will end up dead on the street and the others will run and hide their heads instead of getting behind Monroe. If not, we’ll play man against man till they’re so busy dancing they won’t have time for stealing or pimping.”
    “Seems to me a lot riskier than arresting them.”
    “If you listen to the superintendent and mayor, nothing’s riskier than arresting them. For once, I agree with them. Way too much bad publicity. This is the