Free Taking the Highway by M.H. Mead Page B

didn’t like owing Talic for it. Bernstein was obviously struggling with his urge to have the final word, but the way Talic’s eyes never left him seemed to discourage him. He trundled to the door and was gone, leaving an awkward but welcome silence.
    Madison rested her forearms on the table in a circle, as if physically gathering her team. “Now, if you’ll turn to page six, you’ll see that all the murder victims listed ‘fourth’ as their primary occupation.”
    Andre returned to the table and scooted his chair in next to Sofia. He lifted her copy of the report and flipped to the relevant page. Sofia had already scrawled a WTF? in the corner.
    “Not many fourths do that,” Andre said. “Put fourthing first. The one group of fourths who make a point of it, even if they also have more lucrative careers, are those trying to unionize.”
    Sofia drew another question mark and underlined the W.
    “Ah.” The noise escaped Kosmatka and his frown leveled out into a crooked smile of understanding. “You think certain people might be trying to help ‘organize’ this union?”
    Andre shrugged. “Don’t they always?”
    Sofia had written the word mob in the margin and followed it with you could have told me.
    Discussion of the theory was ranging around the table on its own, so Andre took a stylus and wrote You’d have figured it out, of course. He did not tell her that he had just now figured it out himself.
    She fumed for a moment, then seized the pen and drew a round face sticking out a tongue at him.
    “The most convincing fact is the cash,” Kosmatka said. “Most criminal enterprises are run on a very cashy basis.”
    Cashy?
    Kosmatka raised a hand. “I’m thinking money laundering.”
    Talic spoke up. “Who would be interested in a fourth union doing their laundry?”
    “Who wouldn’t?” Kosmatka pulled out his datapad, got a warning look and a head-shake from Madison, then reached for a stylus. “Tocco. The Koscheis. Clan Monaghan. Whoever gets there first gets to do everyone’s wash for them. Real laundromats run on quarters, but the guy collecting those quarters makes a pile.”
    “So why kill fourths?” Talic asked Kosmatka.
    “If the mob is trying to run them and they won’t play ball . . .” Kosmatka flipped through the report again. “If they whacked five guys just to send a message, someone must have really pushed the wrong buttons.”
    “Fourths are pretty independent,” Sofia said. “It’s easy to imagine them pissing off the wrong people at the wrong time.”
    Ouch, he wrote. “We need to find out who’s been doing the pissing. And who is pressuring the organizers.”
    Kosmatka shook his head. “If these guys are afraid for their lives, they’re not just going to name names in an interview. Do you know who they are, the union organizers?”
    “Not yet,” Andre admitted. “I haven’t paid much attention.” He turned to Madison. “But I can find out, quietly and quickly.”
    Sofia’s stylus tore at her side of the paper, but he didn’t look.
    “You’re thinking undercover.” Madison looked thoughtful.
    “Technically, yes. Practically, I’d just be doing my regular jobs anyway.” He saw the skepticism on the faces around the table. “You’ll never find someone else in time. Just training someone to be a convincing fourth could take weeks.”
    “Approved. We don’t have weeks. We don’t have days .” Madison tapped her stack of papers. “Lieutenants Talic and Kosmatka are too visible in their divisions.”
    Sofia pointed with her pen. “But—”
    “Sergeant Gao, you will be the head of this task force.” Madison held the room with her suddenly non-maternal gaze. “Each of you will take your cues from Gao, report only to her, and she will communicate your progress to me. I expect regular updates. Put together your support team. Make sure we have the tightest security—networked but private.”
    Sofia was drawing smiley faces for the Os in the hasty SOBs