Delta Ghost by Tim Stevens

Author:Tim Stevens [Stevens, Tim]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Detective, Police Procedural, action thriller, hard boiled, action adventure, Crime
Published: 2014-07-08T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 23

“Name?”

Clune stared up at Venn. “You know my -”

“Tell me your damn name.”

“Daniel Clune. Danny,” he whispered.

“Louder.”

Clune repeated himself.

Venn glanced at Walter, who was staring into the kid’s eyes. Walter nodded.

“Okay.” Venn rose from his squatting position, took a turn round the room, came back. “That’s a start. You’ve told us your real name. Now, was that so hard? Was it so difficult to tell the truth?”

“No,” said Clune.

“Good. Just keep on doing that, and we’ll be fine.”

In his pocket, Venn’s phone rang. He looked at it. The number displayed was the one for headquarters. One Police Plaza.

Oh God, thought Venn. The post-shooting interview. He still hadn’t made an appointment.

He considered ignoring it. But there was a real risk he’d be visited by a bunch of goons, maybe from Internal Affairs, who’d strong-arm him across town. He couldn’t afford it.

“Just a minute,” he said to Harmony and Walter, and he went into his own office and shut the door and took the call.

It was headquarters, but it wasn’t about the interview.

“Lieutenant Venn?” said a woman’s voice nervously. “Sorry to bother you, but a lawyer called, asking after you. Said he needed to speak with you urgently, and he didn’t have your number. I didn’t make him any promises but said I’d try you.”

“Who’s the lawyer?” said Venn.

“His name’s, uh, Peter Franciscus.”

Franciscus. O’Dell’s attorney from yesterday.

“He say what it was about?” asked Venn.

“No sir. Just that it was urgent, and had to do with his client’s apparent suicide, and that it concerned something that might be useful to you. He also told me to mention the name Kruger.”

Venn’s ears pricked up. The timing wasn’t great, but... “Okay. Give me his number,” he said.

He dialed the cell phone number. It rang twice before he heard Franciscus’ voice: “Hello?”

“Venn here.”

“Lieutenant.” The man’s tone was measured, serious, with no trace of either the hostility or the fake heartiness he was used to in his dealings with the legal profession. “Thanks for calling back. Can we meet?”

“It’s kind of difficult at this time, Mr Franciscus. How about we talk now?”

“I’d really rather we spoke face to face, Lieutenant. It’ll take fifteen minutes, tops. I’m downtown, near Wall Street. If you’re nearby, I could meet you.”

After a pause, Venn said, “All right.” He gave the address of the Division of Special Projects office. His watch said it was a quarter of eleven. “Can you make it here for 11.30?”

“Surely.”

Venn went back into the outer office. Walter and Harmony were staring at Clune so intently the guy seemed to have wilted like a plant under merciless heat.

“O’Dell’s lawyer’s coming by. Says he’s got something to discuss.” Venn pulled up a chair opposite Clune. “So let’s continue.”

*

They took the kid through his story yet again, from the beginning. Venn reckoned he was pretty good at sniffing out a lie, but he deferred to Walter every time. Walter had been an interrogator with the homicide squad up in Harlem when Venn had recruited him, and although his career

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