Read Final Victim (1995) for Free Online Page B

from his shot glass at her. "Where'd you hear about him?" he said, his guard coming up swiftly.
    "Didn't you arrest him?"
    "What's going on here, Karen? You trying to work me?"
    "The FBI was calling him the Mac Attack when he was only seventeen. He'd been out on the electronic highway since he was twelve , driving his Macintosh war wagon, cracking into everything, buying BMWs, sending the bills out to some black hole in cyberspace. I heard you finally got him 'cause an angry girlfriend blew him in. But if it hadn't been for that, you never would've caught him."
    "Actually, I try to never get out of bed when I work a case. I like to wear my silk jammies with the little pink-and-blue clowns and do it all by phone." He was choking back anger. He'd worked for six months to catch Malavida, who had been on the Customs "Ten Most Wanted" list for computer crimes that crossed the border. Lockwood had slept in his car outside Malavida's mother's apartment in Pico Rivera for four nights. He'd co-opted Malavida's girlfriend. The phone call from Tia had finally burned Chacone, but Lockwood had planted the seed.
    "Don't get pissed off. I'm just saying Malavida could do it."
    "He's doing a five-spot at the Federal pen at Lompoc. He'll probably do good time and be out in a year or so, but till then, he's out of service. So forget it." He didn't get any further because Vic Kulack threw his shadow across their table and conversation.
    "You get the paper I sent you?" Kulack said, grinning. They both looked up at him.
    "Which one? You've been papering me so much, I can't shit fast enough to use it all."
    Kulack sat down uninvited, in a free chair at the end of the booth. Besides being doughy, he had hair that looked like it had been cut by a lawn mower and a big, square raptoresque jawline.
    "Understand the DOAO's put you up on blocks and Girlfriend is my case after all."
    "Back up, Vic. You're crowding the plate," Lockwood warned softly.
    Kulack leaned over and grabbed a handful of peanuts out of the dish, then smiled at Karen. "You wanna little advice, honey? Give this Loony Tunes the gate, 'cause when I get through with him, there won't be enough left to scrape up an' flush."
    "This was a private conversation. Do you mind?" she said.
    "You're Karen Dawson, I heard about you. I'm Vic Kulack. My friends call me Brute, because I take guys like Lockwood here an' give 'em attitude adjustments. Since Lockwood's gonna be tied up giving IA depositions till the year 2000, why don't we get together and give lust a chance?"
    Karen turned to Lockwood. "What a specimen. Somebody should examine his relationship to the gene pool."
    "Already did. He's in the maggot family."
    "Don't maggots breed in garbage?" she asked drolly.
    "That explains the funky smell," Lockwood answered.
    Kulack was looking from Lockwood to Karen and back. His face flushed red. "I'm not through with you. . . . I'm gonna knock your hard-on down with a hammer, Johnny." He got up and lumbered off. Karen and Lockwood looked at each other in silence.
    "Poetic," Karen finally said.
    "Yeah." Lockwood was looking at the IA investigator, who rejoined his two buddies. Suddenly the Cellar seemed stuffy. He finished his drink and picked up his wallet.
    "Wanna go?" she said, reading his mood change again and realizing she had blown her chance to enlist him. She decided to try again later.
    He nodded and they stood up. After a minute they were back ou t o n Constitution Avenue. The gathering darkness was turning the cit y i nto a fairyland full of uplit buildings and statues. A bus lumbered past.
    "For whatever it's worth, despite the mess you're in with IA, I heard you're the best," Karen said softly. "Since we're assigned together, is there any way you can think of to help us get into Pennet?"
    "What's with you and that Norwegian computer? It's more than just a hunch you're working, isn't it?"
    "I did a field interview with a pedophile last June when I was still working on my last doctorate.