Choke Point by Ridley Pearson

Author:Ridley Pearson
Language: eng
Format: mobi, azw3, epub
Tags: (¯`'•.¸//(*_*)\\¸.•'´¯)
ISBN: 9780399158841
Publisher: Putnam Adult
Published: 2013-01-01T06:00:00+00:00

Knox occupies the seat of the motorcycle across the canal from Kreiger’s latest hangout: a coffee shop/pot bar in the red-light district. A cold drizzle falls causing him to wipe the visor of his helmet. It’s not wet enough to want to get out of it, but he’s hardly dry. It’s nearing the lunch hour; Kreiger isn’t in there to get high. It’s business.

Three days of following the man and it’s apparent to Knox that Kreiger has his hand in everything the city has to offer: a company offering walking tours; a private brothel where Kreiger keeps an office. This is the man’s third visit to a “coffee shop” in as many days. The previous two he entered alone and left with a young woman. The city is working to eliminate the coffee shops and clean up the red-light district, a plan that can’t sit well.

Knox switches out SIM cards and texts Sonia if she wants to meet for lunch. She’s been writing around the clock and could use the break. She texts back that she needs to keep working, showing her true colors. He envies her that kind of singular focus. He’s more of a Ping-Pong ball in a cardboard box. The stakeout on Kreiger has tested him. It’s getting time to bust some heads and take shortcuts. He understands why police detectives are such assholes.

—

“YOU’RE SCREWING HER, AREN’T YOU?” His only meeting with Dulwich in the past seventy-two hours. “That’s a mistake.” They’re customers in a brown café near the Van Gogh Museum. Tourists go in every direction. Cabs are queued up. There are more people in the bar from the UK than the Netherlands.

“That’s indelicate,” Knox says.

“Find yourself another hole.”

“And again.” Knox fights the urge to jump across the table and shut him up.

“She’s a source. The most important source we have. What happens when it goes south?” he asked rhetorically.

“Such confidence.”

“We can’t lose her, Knox. She’s at the center of this storm.”

“I won’t lose her.” He adds, “You’ve had that phone number for three days. What the hell?”

“We’re using our Paris office. They’re on it. The chip is a pay-as-you-go just like yours and mine.”

“So map it.”

“I said they’re on it. When they have something, we’ll have it.”

“That’s actionable intelligence,” Knox says. “Three days.”

“End it, nice and gentle, or you’ll find yourself on a plane to Detroit.”

“If I end it, we have problems. It wasn’t planned, and we aren’t . . . we aren’t sleeping together. Not in the way you’re thinking.”

“Don’t go all Bill Clinton on me.”

Dulwich relates Grace’s theory about Kreiger’s using the money trail to hide behind.

“Where does she get this stuff?” Knox asks.

“Don’t ask me.”

“It’s a blind?”

“It’s a possibility he’s using it as one. Yes.”

“So we treat Kreiger as hostile. That’s where he was anyway. No change.”

“Agreed.”

“I sit on him until something better comes along.”

“And you stop her from sitting on you,” Dulwich says.

“You’re not going to enjoy where this goes if you keep that up.”

A table of women laugh from the corner.

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