Free A Scourge of Vipers by Bruce DeSilva Page A

enough,” Freitas said. “We can’t find a record of him ever getting dental x-rays, but we collected a comb and toothbrush from his bathroom, and the crime lab is running the DNA as we speak.”
    â€œBullshit,” I said. “There’s a huge backlog for DNA tests. If that’s what you’re waiting on, it’ll be a year before you know dick.”
    With that, the homicide twins pushed back from the table and clambered to their feet. Wargart loomed over me, trying to intimidate with his bulk. I rose and crowded him, a subtle reminder that I had him by two inches.
    â€œWe’ve got our eye on you, Mulligan,” Wargart said. “Don’t leave town.”
    *   *   *
    After they left, I called Ferguson at the M.E.’s office and Lebowski at the Pawtucket PD and asked if there was anything new on the floater. There wasn’t. Then I rang the receptionist at The Dispatch to call in sick.
    It was eight on the dot when I climbed into Secretariat, tuned the radio to WTOP, and rumbled down Broadway toward downtown Providence under a slate-colored sky.
    â€œGood morning, Row Dyelin!”
    The mellifluous voice of Iggy Rock, the state’s most popular morning drive-time radio host, oozed from my tinny speakers. Iggy’s shtick was a toxic mix of Laura Ingraham–style moralizing, Rush Limbaugh–style liberal bashing, and Glenn Beck–style lunacy.
    â€œOur topic this morning is Governor McNerney’s shameful plan to legalize sports betting. It’s bad enough that the state squanders the millions of dollars it rakes in from the sale of lottery tickets. Now Attila the Nun wants to be your bookmaker so she can get her claws on millions more. Make no mistake, my fellow patriots. Her scheme is nothing more than a disguised tax increase to fuel our bloated state government.
    â€œOur guest this morning is the Reverend Lucas Crenson, pastor of the Sword of God Church in Foster and announced Republican candidate for governor. Welcome to the show, Reverend.”
    â€œThank you, Iggy. And you are so right. State-sponsored gambling isn’t just a tax. It’s a regressive one that steals money from the pockets of people who can least afford it. The answer to our budget crisis isn’t more taxes. It’s cutting waste and eliminating the endemic corruption that is bleeding our state dry. I pledge to you that when I am elected, I will do everything in my power to set Rhode Island on an honest and godly path.”
    I backed Secretariat into a metered space next to Burnside Park and let the engine idle.
    â€œBut this isn’t just about taxes,” Iggy said. “Gambling is also a moral issue. Isn’t that right, Reverend?”
    â€œIt certainly is. Gambling is a sin. One that ruins lives and destroys families. Government-sponsored gambling is even worse. It poisons our democracy, making all of us complicit in this unholy vice. And the money it generates fills the coffers of a nanny state that squanders our hard-earned dollars on free abortions and handouts to people who refuse to work for a living and are not deserving of our largess.”
    â€œThe phone is lit up,” Iggy said, “so let’s take some calls. June from Barrington, you are on the air.”
    â€œGood morning, Iggy.”
    â€œGood morning, June. What’s on your mind?”
    â€œI can’t believe the governor wants to allow the Lottery Commission take sports bets,” she said. “If we’re going to go down this road, we should turn it over to private enterprise.”
    â€œRight you are, June. That’s the only sensible way to go about this,” Iggy said, blissfully oblivious that he was contradicting everything he and his guest had just said.
    â€œGovernor McNerney will never do that because she’s a socialist,” Reverend Crenson chimed in. “When she renounced her role in the church of Rome, she chose to