Read Blackstone and the New World for Free Online Page A

I’m led to believe by Mr Todd, you yourself are something of an expert.’
    ‘I’m not sure—’ Blackstone began.
    ‘Nor is it any ordinary murder investigation,’ Comstock interrupted him. ‘The victim, in this case, was Inspector O’Brien, a very bright young man whose promising future was sadly curtailed by an assassin’s bullet.’
    Now, finally, a few of the pieces of the puzzle were starting to click into place, Blackstone thought.
    The murder of one of its own was a traumatic event for any police force to have to deal with, and that would certainly explain Comstock’s nervousness and hesitation – though it didn’t quite yet explain why he himself had been drawn into the process.
    ‘I’ll be glad to help you in any way I can, sir,’ he said, ‘but I’m sure that the team you already have investigating the case won’t need – and probably wouldn’t appreciate – any guidance from a—’
    ‘The investigation will be headed by Detective Sergeant Meade, who I believe you have already met,’ Comstock said, interrupting for a second time, ‘and you will serve as his assistant, though, strictly speaking, you outrank him.’
    ‘A detective sergeant?’ Blackstone repeated incredulously. ‘You’re going to put a mere detective sergeant in charge of an investigation into the murder of an inspector?’
    ‘That is correct.’
    ‘In London, we would never even consider—’
    ‘This isn’t London,’ Commissioner Comstock said. ‘This is New York – and we do things differently here.’
    He had overstepped the mark, Blackstone realized.
    ‘Of course, sir,’ he said apologetically. ‘It was not my intention to criticize your procedures.’
    ‘I’m sure it wasn’t,’ Comstock said generously.
    ‘How many men are you planning to assign to Sergeant Meade’s team, sir?’ Blackstone asked.
    Commissioner Comstock sniffed uneasily. ‘As I thought I’d already made clear to you, Inspector Blackstone, there will be Detective Sergeant Meade, and there will be yourself.’
    ‘Just the two of us?’ Blackstone exclaimed, convinced that he must have somehow misheard.
    ‘Yes, just the two of you,’ Commissioner Comstock confirmed.
    ‘Nobody else at all?’
    ‘Nobody else at all.’
    Insane, Blackstone thought. Completely bloody insane!
    Sergeant Meade took the astounding news that he was to be placed in charge of a serious investigation – and that Blackstone was to be his one and only assistant – in his stride.
    ‘The moment I heard that Commissioner Comstock wanted to see you, I knew it had to be connected with the investigation, though I rather thought that you would be in charge and I would be your assistant,’ he said.
    Blackstone took a close look at the other man.
    A few hours earlier, when Meade had met him off the boat, the sergeant had seemed as fresh-faced and unsure as a youth at his first dance, as overenthusiastic as a playful puppy let loose in the wool basket. Now the lines on his face had hardened considerably, and there was a crispness to both his words and his bearing which had been entirely missing before.
    So what had brought about the sudden change – the virtual metamorphosis – in him, Blackstone wondered.
    ‘The last time we were together, I still hadn’t heard about Inspector O’Brien’s murder,’ Meade said, reading his mind again.
    ‘He was your friend, was he?’ Blackstone asked, sympathetically.
    ‘He was more than my friend – he was my hero!’
    ‘And you’re really not in the least surprised to have been put in charge of investigating the murder?’ Blackstone asked.
    ‘No, I’m not.’
    ‘You don’t think, perhaps, that someone with more experience in that kind of work would have a better chance of bringing your friend’s killer to justice?’ Blackstone asked tactfully.
    ‘I do not. And if you knew this city like I do, neither would you,’ Meade said, with bitterness in his voice.
    ‘In that case, I think it’s perhaps time that I