Break and Enter by Colin Harrison

Author:Colin Harrison [Colin Harrison]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-312-42760-3
Publisher: Picador
Published: 1990-03-21T16:00:00+00:00

AN HOUR LATER came the information, relayed in unmistakably bored tones by a police ballistics technician, that the unfired bullets in Carothers’s gun used in the supermarket holdup were the same caliber and brand as the bullet retrieved by the medical examiner from Whitlock’s shoulder and brain. Furthermore—conclusively, the bore marks on the retrieved bullet matched a bullet that had been test-fired with the gun. Peter hung up and charged into the hallway.

“Who ordered the Carothers gun be test-fired?” he asked Melissa. “How was it done so quickly?”

She looked at him fearfully and it occurred to him that in the context of always-shifting information, it was the secretary who sometimes was in the privileged position, for she knew who called and when, who came and went.

“I think—you should ask Mr. Hoskins,” she protested.

“Well, of course I can and will do that, Melissa,” Peter snapped, “but since you are right here, I am wondering—”

“I ordered it done,” Hoskins said behind him, slipping a firm hand under Peter’s arm, guiding him into a private office.

“Why the hell didn’t you inform me, Bill? I’m running this investigation, on your orders! You tell me to go ahead, move with autonomy, and then you pull shit like this, dealing me out of the information loop.”

“Peter,” Hoskins said in a placating tone, “the word came in while you were out this morning. The gun was a caliber match and I told them to go ahead and get it checked out right away. They know how important this is and so the paperwork wasn’t a problem. I was going to tell you. You’ve been tied up a hell of a lot today, and frankly, I didn’t expect the report till tomorrow anyway. Can you fault any of that?” Hoskins stared at him, perhaps coldly, perhaps being reasonable. “You got a problem with that?”

“What do you think? Of course I do.”

“We’re a team here, Peter. Don’t forget it.”

He was torn between telling Hoskins to shove it up his wide-ride butt, or apologizing.

“All right.” Peter backed down.

Hoskins smiled and opened the door, throwing an arm around Peter’s shoulder. It felt good.

But not so good that right before five, after Hoskins had slipped away early, Peter asked Melissa if the Mayor’s office happened to have called during the day.

“Somebody named Gerald Turner, an aide to the Mayor,” she said as she clipped some papers together. “Twice.”

“Who took the calls?” Peter asked.

She looked up at him, and caught within the blue eye shadow and black mascara around her eyes was fear. “Mr. Hoskins took the calls.”

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