Fair and Just by Alex P. Berg

Author:Alex P. Berg [Berg, Alex P.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Batdog Press

Chapter Twenty-One

Detective Moss called the 5th Street precinct home, so that’s where we took Roncalli. The building was bigger than the Williams Street version, two stories taller and more of a cube than a rectangle. As I understood it, the city’s various police precincts had been acquired piecemeal over the centuries, converted from apartment complexes and jails and bakeries, or on rare occasion built from scratch when the building that had previously occupied the plot of land collapsed from dry rot or structural faults. It wasn’t surprising. New Welwic was so old every building was built on the bones of another, sometimes five or six others. Anyone willing to dig a hole deep enough could find whole abandoned civilizations beneath the dirt. No joke, either. When the subway was built forty years ago, the city turned up so many artifacts the museums refused to take them all.

Still, it meant each precinct was different than the others, and it seemed to me the 5th was nicer than the one I called home. Thanks to its oblong construction Williams Street had more natural light, but the 5th Street precinct had a more classic appeal. Past the welcome desk, the main floor was entirely open, with only the occasional stone column blocking the view from one end to another. Officers and detectives alike worked from their desks, some bunched into clusters for partners and teams. The morgue was built into the basement, as were the holding cells, evidence rooms, and records vaults, and assorted offices, laboratories, and conference rooms occupied the floors above. I wouldn’t bet money on the 5th not being a remodel, but it was as close as I’d seen any precinct come to looking like it was built for the job.

I sat on a bench outside one of the interrogation rooms on the main floor, where we’d delivered Roncalli for Moss to continue her questioning. Though I imagined some sound-proofing had been stuffed into the walls, if I strained my ears, I could just make out the flow of conversation inside—or at least I could when everyone around me stayed quiet.

Razi shifted on the bench and grunted. “I know you had something to do with this, by the way.”

I tore my focus from the paneled wood door across from me. “What?”

“You thought I wouldn’t suspect anything?” said Razi. “I already told you I’ve got you figured out. There’s no way we were the closest unit to that church. Dispatch requested us for a reason. I don’t know why. Maybe you’ve got one of your girlfriends working the radios and you sweet-talked her into sending the good calls our way. Whatever it is, I’m onto you.”

Razi was close to the truth, but I wasn’t about to admit it, not when he hadn’t forced me to beat up a homeless person or give a ticket to a toddler in at least two hours. “I didn’t sweet talk anyone. And are you honestly upset we got called to assist? You just admitted it was a good call.

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