Free Strange Robby by Selina Rosen

precious serial killer."
     
    "Our guy hasn't whacked anybody yet who didn't deserve it, why would he start now? Besides, he's our serial killer. I don't remember you bitching about him yesterday when he whacked Barney Jones."
     
    "Barney Jones was the scum of the earth. This guy was a cop. Maybe Lambosto figured out who he was, and . . . "
     
    "Lame, Tommy. Five will get you ten that if we start checking on this guy he's a low life just like all the others . . . "
     
    "Spider, for God's sake! He's a cop."
     
    "There is no reason for the Fry Guy to break his pattern, so either this stiff was a creep, or we've got another wacko with the same weapon."
     
    "Detective Webb," one of the uniformed officers called. Spider walked to where he was. "Look at this, Sir." He pointed at something behind the workbench. "Looks like you were right."
     
    "Five will get you ten that's the missing coke from last week's bust," Spider said.
     
    "How the hell . . . " Tommy started.
     
    "Elementary, my dear Chan. He was one of five people who went into the evidence locker on the day that the coke came up missing." She pulled up the information on her comlink. "This same locker came up short six months ago, but there was so little missing that they couldn't be sure it wasn't just a counting error. He's probably been doing it for awhile, just taking a little here and a little there."
     
    "But he only signed into the evidence locker once, the computer . . . " Tommy noted.
     
    "Is easier to get around than an attendant in a lot of ways. He could have gotten in without being logged in. It's not all that hard to do." Spider turned her attention back to the officer. "Good work. Take it down to the station and have it tested. See if it really is the stuff out of the evidence locker."
     
    She turned to Tommy. "Let's go talk to his old lady."
     
    "God please don't let her ask the widow if he dealt smack to first graders," Tommy mumbled as he followed her to the house.
     
    The woman who opened the door had obviously been crying, and she'd also obviously just taken one hell of a beating. Spider looked at Tommy and smiled.
     
    "You're a sick bitch," Tommy whispered in Spider's ear as they walked in.
     
    The woman motioned for them to sit down on the couch and they did.
     
    "We're very sorry to hear about your husband," Tommy said.
     
    "Yeah," she cried.
     
    Spider, never one to beat around the bush, looked right at the woman, smiled warmly, and asked, "So, did your old man beat the dog shit out of you, or was it the perp?"
     
    "Christ on a crutch!" Tommy swore.
     
    The woman looked at Spider and snarled. For a second she was silent, and then she started to cry. "That bastard!" She was shaking now. "When I saw him lying there . . . like that. You know, all burned up, I figured God had finally heard my prayers and struck the fucker dead."
     
    Tommy sat there for ten minutes with his jaw in his lap while the woman poured her guts out to Spider. Spider had that effect on people. For some reason complete strangers would tell her things they wouldn't normally tell another soul. It was like she could break through their politeness zone; get them to say exactly what they thought instead of a stream of niceties. The widow explained that a few months ago, Elvis—yep that was the guy's first name—had started coming up with extra cash. She didn't know where he got it, but when she asked he got mad, and when he was mad he liked to slap her around, so she didn't pursue it.
     
    Along with the coke they found a key to a safety deposit box. In the deposit box they found a sixty-kilo bag of smack and twenty thousand dollars in cash.
     
    But this time there was no way anyone could have known. Hell, the police department had dismissed him as a suspect when the coke came up missing, stating that he couldn't be suspect because of his flawless record. Even the guy's partner passed a polygraph test when asked if he knew his partner was stealing