Free Saints Of New York by R.J. Ellory Page A

are supposed to investigate police corruption, are part of
the police department themselves, it is highly unlikely that any congressman
or senator would ever sanction the prosecution of anyone higher than a
sergeant. Why? Because you can't have the people losing faith in the police.
You understand this, right? I don't need to tell you why. You start to point
the finger at the people in charge, and society gets very nervous.'
    'And
when you were younger, when your father was still alive, you knew he was doing
this, taking money off organized crime people, turning a blind eye to thefts at
the airport?'
    'Turning
a blind eye? Taking some bribes? Hell, they were doing a hell of a lot more
than that.'
    'Such
as?'
    'Well,
let's say this. My father spent ten years in the Organized Crime Control
Bureau, and then a further ten years in the Brooklyn Organized Crime Task
Force. That's twenty years in the guts of this thing. Twenty years investigating
these people, talking to them, arresting them. Twenty years up against the
worst kind of temptation you could find. The money, the women, the booze, the
drugs, the opportunities were limitless, and he and his friends, no more than
ten or twelve of them, ran the most successful unit within the NYPD for all
that time. They busted more people than anyone else. They secured the greatest
number of convictions, the greatest numbers of years of imprisonment, but if
you look closely, if you start to look beneath the surface, you'll find that
the people they took down were just the foot soldiers, never the under-bosses
or the bosses. This was the way it worked. Hell, these assholes even had a
roster for who was gonna get busted next. It was part of the game. Three years
out working the business, six months in prison. Five years living the life, a
year or two in prison. These guys, these Mafia soldiers, even paid each other
off to take the fall. So-and-so's wife was pregnant, someone'll take your turn
on the roster, do your twelve months for you, but when it comes to his turn you
have to take his charge and do his time.'
    'And your father
did some serious things?'
    'He didn't just
do them, he organized them. He was instrumental in some of the scams they
pulled at the airport.'
    'Such as?'
    'You like this
shit, don't you? You like hearing about this stuff, right? The war stories?'
    'It's
fascinating. Worrying, to say the least, but fascinating as well.'
    'Well, I have to
love you and leave you now, but tomorrow we'll talk about Lufthansa, and the
better part of six million dollars they took from an airline hangar. Up to then
it was the largest heist ever in the history of the United States.'
    'And your
father—'
    'That was a
Saints job right from the get-go. And that explains why they only ever
recovered a hundred thousand dollars out of the six million, and why the vast
majority of the people involved in it wound up dead, and no-one - not one
single person - has ever been arrested or charged with those murders.'
    'Okay, so you
tell me tomorrow. And what is happening with your current cases Frank? The dead
girl and her brother?'
    'We have to go
to work on that today. I have to find her friends, the people she spent her
time with.'
    'Here in
Brooklyn?'
    'Williamsburg.'
    'She's important
to you, isn't she? The girl that was strangled?'
    'I don't know.
Maybe. I'm not sure what to think about it. Yesterday I saw the woman who took
care of her after her parents died. A good woman. She's gonna get some shit for
not coloring inside the lines, but that's always the way with these situations.
    Someone gets hurt, and they can't just
leave it at that. The people on the edges have to get hurt as well.'
    'You sound like you're taking it
personally.'
    'No, not really. I'm just a little
bitter when it comes to such things.'
    'So she has become important to you.
Finding out what happened, I mean. More than would be the case usually.'
    'Maybe it has. Hell, she's turning up in
my dreams, isn't she?

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