Read Horns of the Devil - Jeff Trask [02] for Free Online Page B

members of the MS-13. You know the case.”
    “The ambassador’s kid?”
    “Yeah, the one you called in. Here’s the really tough part. I’m assigning you as Dixon Carter’s partner.”
    “Wow.” Wisniewski sank into one of the chairs, even though the others in the office remained on their feet. “I don’t know that I can fill Juan’s shoes…not in Dix’s eyes.”
    “Don’t even try to.” Sivella sat down on the front of the desk again. “Just do your job and give him time. You’ll need a thick hide. Think you’re up to it?”
    “I guess we’ll see. If not, I’ll be translating and playing the community-relations game in the liaison unit, huh?”
    “That’s about the size of it. What do you know about MS-13?”
    “A good bit, actually. We used to run into them fairly often in Santa Fe. They spread west from LA and started taking over any turf they moved into. At first they were fighting everybody else: the others gangs, locals. Just before I left New Mexico, they’d started a truce with the Mexican Mafia and were helping to bring dope across from Juarez through El Paso. The guys down in Las Cruces had fits with them. Tough bunch.”
    “They’re here now in force,” Doroz added. He patted Wisniewski on the shoulder. “I think the commander here has the right man for this assignment. You’ll need some more civvies. Nothing flashy. Mine is not a formal squad. We’ll see you in the morning across the street from the Triple-nickel. Prepare to be federally deputized.”
    “And to meet your new partner,” Sivella said. “I haven’t told him yet.”
    “I think I have some body armor in the car,” Wisniewski said.
    “Good,” Sivella laughed. “Keep the sense of humor. You’ll need it. Take the rest of the day off. I’ll tell Dix, and you may not want to be here for that.”

.
    Chapter Five
    August 12, 8:15 a.m.
    I t was one of the most surreal days Trask could ever remember.
    He got to the gang squad early. His original excuse to himself was that he wanted a copy of Crawford’s PowerPoint so he could show Bill Patrick, his immediate supervisor, exactly what he was going to be dealing with. The truth was that he wanted to see how Dixon Carter was going to react to the designation of Tim Wisniewski as his new partner.
    As he entered the squad room, Lynn saw him and smiled. He walked to her desk.
    “What’s up?” she asked.
    “I came here to find out. You guys are supposed to tell me.”
    Trask saw that Wisniewski was pulling some personal stuff out of boxes and setting up his cubicle. He nodded toward Trask. Trask heard the exit bell from the elevator. Carter emerged, walked briskly into the squad room, and tossed a file into the chair in front of his desk.
    “Tim?”
    “Yeah, Dix?”
    “Let’s go.”
    “Where to?” Wisniewski asked.
    “Baltimore. Some MS-13 bangers got whacked in Langley Park a couple of nights ago. They’re doing the autopsy today in the chief medical examiner’s office. I want to see what they have.”
    “Mind if I ride along?” Trask immediately regretted asking the question. He was intruding on the new partners’ first job together. The withering look he got from Lynn made him regret his gaffe even more, but he couldn’t un-ring the bell.
    “Sure. Come on,” Carter said flatly.
    They took the elevator down to the garage and piled into Carter’s green Buick. Trask remembered it as the supposed undercover vehicle that Carter had shared with Juan Ramirez. Everyone in Anacostia had known it was a police car, and they had known the cops in it. “The Twins,” the rest of the force had called them. The very large black guy and the small, wiry Hispanic. Jawing at each other constantly, keeping everyone around them in stitches with their comedy road show, and all the while never missing a thing. Solving cases. Working twenty-hour days. Loving their work.
    Poor Dix. Can’t even bring himself to get new wheels. Probably still feels Juan in the other