Abandoned Heart by Richard Parrish

Author:Richard Parrish
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Penguin Books
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

• PART •

TWO

Let justice well up like a river and righteousness like a torrential stream.

—AMOS 5:24

Chapter 1

Mike telephoned Harvey Stidham the next day. Harvey told him that John Steigman was coming to his office at five o’clock to see if there was some other angle they could use to get Wilkott. Mike was free to come if he wished.

He wished. He got there at five on the dot. Steigman arrived five minutes later, and they walked into Harvey’s office. They were all still bruised from the day before.

“We can’t go directly after Wilkott,” Harvey said. “No matter what we do, it all goes straight back to the visit Ms. O’Dwyer made to Donna Alvarez.”

“How about going after him on a murder charge if Big Gun Pete dies?” Mike said. “If the bullet matches his gun, we’ve got a case.”

“I wish we could, but Peter Supremas died yesterday morning. The pathologist did an autopsy this morning and retrieved the bullet. He sent it over to the forensics lab, and this is the report.” He picked up a sheet of paper from the desk and handed it to Mike.

Item numbers S-2897-0495 and S-2898-0495 are two fragments of lead which upon microscopic examination demonstrate an almost perfect joint when placed together as depicted below. Fragments together weigh 23 grains and are a .25-caliber bullet. Bullet struck rear interior of victim’s cranium and is too distorted to present identifiable rifling for any ballistics comparison.

“Damn,” Mike mumbled, handing the sheet back to Harvey.

“That blows everything we have on Wilkott,” Steigman said.

Mike nodded. “How about targeting Grant Felsen? He’s sure to get popped one of these days.”

“What good would it do? Even if he raped Donna, we can’t charge him. No jury will convict. He’ll just say he paid her. With her record, we lose.”

“No, I was thinking of something a little different,” Mike said. “What if he gets arrested for lewd and lascivious or ‘the infamous crime against nature’?”

“They’re only class-three misdemeanors,” Steigman said. “All he gets is thirty days in jail.”

“Yes, but he gets one year probation, and if he gets arrested again he gets four months in jail. And even thirty days for a punk like him is probably a death sentence. Those guys will pass him around a few times, and he’ll end up choking to death. And I’m sure he knows that.”

“Okay,” Harvey said, “so we get Felsen killed. What’s that have to do with Wilkott?”

“I don’t want Felsen killed,” Mike said. “I want to twist him.”

Harvey looked at him for a moment and his face brightened. He looked at Steigman. “Not bad.”

“Not bad at all,” John said. “Give him a deal if he agrees to testify against Wilkott. Then we can legally arrest Wilkott, send a blood sample to UCLA, and take him down.”

“Not bad at all,” Harvey said. “It may take awhile, though. The guy’s only been arrested once. L and L a year ago. Got probation. He’s learned how to stay out of the limelight since then.”

“No matter how long it takes,” John said.

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