Free 06 Fatal Mistake by Marie Force Page B

the name of, she called dispatch.
    “This is Lieutenant Holland. I need to speak to the officer in charge of patrol at the moment.”
    “Just a moment please, Lieutenant.”
    She waited on hold for a long time, listening to weird instrumental music that made her long for her earbuds. Finally, the call went through.
    “Stahl.”
    If she hadn’t been driving, she would’ve rolled her eyes to high heaven. “I asked for patrol, not the rat squad.”
    “What do you want, Holland?”
    “I want to speak to the officer in charge of patrol.”
    “You got him.”
    “What’re you doing there?”
    “Covering for the lieutenant who worked all night on crowd control, not that it’s any of your business.”
    “Oh that’s right, you Internal Affairs types don’t get the recall messages that the rest of us get. I hope you had a good night’s sleep while our city was being torn apart.”
    “Is there a purpose for this call? If not, I’ve got better—”
    “Be quiet and listen to me.” Was it possible to hear a person’s face turn purple? Sam smiled at the images that danced through her mind. “I need a thorough sweep of the entire Southwestern quadrant of the city, from Potomac Avenue to Independence. We’re looking for a large quantity of blood. It would be hard to miss.”
    “And you expect me to devote our currently limited resources to a witch hunt for you?”
    “We’re looking for a murder scene, you stupid ass. Get patrol on it, or I’ll get Farnsworth on you.”
    “That’s right, all you have to do is snap your fingers, and he jumps. Are you sleeping with him, Holland? Because that would explain a lot—”
    Before he could say anything else that would make her understand how someone could commit murder, Sam ended the call. “Fucking bastard.” For insurance purposes, she placed a call to her superior officer and mentor, Detective Captain Malone.
    “Holland? I heard you caught a homicide.”
    “What in the name of hell is Rat Face Stahl doing in charge of patrol?”
    “Good morning to you too. He’s filling in. We’re extremely short-handed today after everyone worked all night.”
    “Why can’t they work all day too? We are.”
    “Not everyone has your squad’s dedication to duty, Lieutenant.”
    “Are you patronizing me, Captain?”
    “Would I be foolish enough to patronize you? What can I do for you?”
    She told him what she knew so far about the Vasquez murder, which wasn’t much, and what she needed from patrol officers.
    “I’ll see to it. We’re going to need to put our heads together about how to go public with this.”
    “That’s the other thing I wanted to talk to you about. My next stop was going to be the ballpark, but if I go there we’ll tip our hand and the team is apt to take control of the story. I’d really like to see their reactions when they hear the news. So I was thinking, I’ll go over there and break the news to the team, while you all handle the media at the same time. And P.S., I’m going to take Agent Hill with me. He knows the owner, Jestings, and can smooth the way a bit.”
    “I like the plan, but I’d like the chief to sign off on it. Stand by, and I’ll call you back in twenty minutes.”
    “Standing by. Can you send me to Archelotta?”
    “Hang on.”
    The lieutenant of the IT division, also the only fellow officer Sam had dallied with romantically, picked up on the third ring. “Archelotta.”
    “Hey, it’s Holland.”
    “How’s it going? Heard you caught a homicide.”
    “Yeah, Willie Vasquez.”
    “No way. No fucking way.”
    “Can you see if you can get a signal from his phone? It wasn’t on him when we found him.”
    “Sure. Whatever I can do.”
    Sam gave him the number.
    “I’ll call you as soon as I have anything. Might take a while though. I heard cell service has been interrupted in some sectors because of the riots.”
    “We’ll take whatever we can get.”
    “Gotcha. I’ll be in touch.”
    As long as she had some