The Craving by Jason Starr

Author:Jason Starr
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Fantasy, General, Contemporary, Fiction
ISBN: 9781101580936
Publisher: Penguin Group US
Published: 2012-06-04T12:00:00+00:00

ELEVEN

“I got some bad news for you.”

Geri heard this from Shawn moments after she’d arrived at the Manhattan North precinct. Her first thought was that it had to do with Diane Coles. Detective Mangel had found out she’d been killed in Michigan and was reopening the investigation. Maybe the bad news was Dan wasn’t going to let Geri take over the case.

“About Diane Coles, right?” Geri asked.

“Who?” Shawn said.

Then Geri figured it had to do with the Orlando Rojas murder case. Maybe Dan had added more detectives to the case, or taken Geri and Shawn off.

“Oh, not more drama,” Geri said. “Am I gonna have to sit down before I hear this?”

“Yeah, you probably will.”

Shawn seemed very serious, which got Geri concerned.

“So what is it?” she asked.

“It’s about Carlita Morales.”

“What about her?”

“She’s dead.”

At first, the words had no effect. They just seemed like part of mindless conversation. Instead of She’s dead, Shawn could have said It’s a beautiful day today or I like your shoes.

Then the meaning suddenly hit. Geri was breathless, her legs weak.

“What do you mean she’s dead? The hell’re you talking about?”

“She was shot in her apartment.”

“Shot? What does shot mean?” She understood, but she didn’t want to believe it.

“It happened early this morning. Somebody came in, they think through the fire escape, and shot her.”

“What? The apartment faces the street. There were cops right outside the building. How’s this possible?”

“Maybe you wanna go sit down before you hear the rest,” Shawn said.

“Tell me what the hell’s going on!” Geri shouted.

A few other cops nearby, and the receptionist, looked over.

“The protection order was removed last night,” Shawn said.

“What?” Geri said.

“I couldn’t believe it myself,” Shawn said. “It was ’cause of the marathon. They needed more cops downtown, so—”

“There was supposed to be twenty-four-hour protection till there was an arrest in the case. Who the hell removed that order?”

Shawn was looking beyond Geri, toward the entrance to the main part of the precinct. Geri looked back and saw Dan McCarthy standing there.

“Let’s take it easy, okay?” Dan said.

“You did this?” Geri was walking toward Dan.

“I said let’s—”

“You had no right to do that. I promised that woman protection.”

“Okay, let’s take this inside.”

“I want to know what the hell’s going on here.”

“Inside, I said.”

Geri was so furious—her brain swirling, thinking about so many things at once—that she didn’t remember going down the corridor with Dan to his office. She just seemed to wind up in there, screaming at him, “How could you do this? How could you?”

“Hey, just shut up, just shut the hell up and listen to me,” Dan said. “I’ve had it with you causing scenes here, all right? This is a police station, not a goddamn playground.”

“Tell me why,” Geri said, trying her best to stay calm. “Just tell me why.”

“We were undermanned for the marathon.”

“Come on, they couldn’t get some cops from Brooklyn and Queens who wanted triple pay?”

“She wasn’t a credible witness,” Dan said.

“Whoever shot her thought she was credible, and now she’s dead and the killer’s still out there.

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