FOLLOW THE LEADER Chapter 16


Chapter 16



My brother called me about the beheaded girl.
         “Have you been to the crime scene?” I asked.
         “Out of our jurisdiction. Everybody else will be there, count on it. Highway Patrol, Petaluma Sheriff… Maybe the Santa Rosa Sheriff, as well. Oh, and the F.B.I.”
         “Really? I thought the feds only dealt with crimes that crossed state lines. You know, like kidnapping.”
         “You’ll have to ask them. How are you getting along with Rollins?”
         “I could do without him, if you want to know the truth. But there is something we cannot do without. The Murder Book.”
         “Oh that.”
         I said nothing.
         “Wait a minute,” he said. “You said we. Are you talking about Rollins?”
         “I’ve got an assistant.”
         “Since when?” he asked.
         “Since the day of your barbecue, if you must know.”
         “Huh.”
         “I need to see the book. I can’t do shit without the crime scene details and all the rest of it.”
         “It has to stay in house.”
         “Can’t you make copies?”
         He hesitated. I imagined him glancing over at an unsuspecting desk sergeant.
         Colin sighed.
         “I could,” he said, “but the photos won’t look right. You’ll lose some detail.”
         “I’ll just come down and look at it there, then.”
         Colin said nothing.
         “Come on, man. You dropped this in my lap. I need some help here!”
         “I’ll have to be careful. I don’t want to see you butt heads with Shorty.”
         So that’s what all the hesitation is about. Shorty was still angry at me for killing Smitty, an Undercover. He had never believed my story, that it was self-defense. Even though Smitty was about to draw his “service weapon,” as the lawyer termed it.
         “Does he eat lunch in the office?” I asked.
         “Bingo. There you go. He almost never does. He and Slim go out somewhere. So that’s it, then. Come by just after we break for lunch at twelve.”
         “Tomorrow okay?”
         “Let me think.”
         I waited.
         “Tomorrow’s good,” he said.
         “Can I bring my assistant?”
         “As long as he doesn’t get in our way.”
         “What do you mean?” I asked.
         “Slow us down. Ask stupid questions.”
         “I got a hunch that he’s smarter than both of us.”
         “Speak for yourself.”
        

        




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