The Devil's Daughter by Gordon Greisman

Author:Gordon Greisman [Greisman, Gordon]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Blackstone Publishing

CHAPTER 27

Bernie Rothstein isn’t happy. Dead bodies keep piling up around me, and that not only makes him suspicious, it offends him. Bernie likes things to be neat and tidy, and he became a cop hoping to bring order to the chaos of the city. Now, he and I are sitting at V’s kitchen table while a forensic team scours the grisly scene. I hand over my snub-nose, and he takes a whiff of the barrel. Satisfied that it hasn’t been fired, he unloads it, pockets the bullets, and hands the gun back to me.

“Jimmy taking the night off?” I ask. I can’t help being a wise guy around Bernie mostly because it’s fun to get a rise out of him, but my heart isn’t really in it. Lucy Garrett might be anywhere, and unless she decides to go back to the Beresford on her own, which is wildly unlikely, Garrett is liable to hurt V.

The thought scares the hell out of me, and I guess it must show because Bernie asks, “Something eating you?”

“Yeah. Sort of. It’s too complicated to explain.”

“Everything always gets complicated around you, doesn’t it, Coffey?” I’m sure Bernie expects a smart-ass remark in return for the crack, but I don’t have it in me.

“I take it you know these guys,” he says, meaning the Dugans.

“Yeah,” I say, “I had the Dugans come over here as a favor. The truth is, Bernie, they were looking after Louis Garrett’s daughter for me, but now they’re dead and she’s gone, and I don’t know how any of it happened.”

Rothstein doesn’t like me very much and the feeling’s mutual, but he’s an honest cop and I trust him. Unlike Jimmy, he wouldn’t take a dime from Garrett or anybody else. He takes a moment to consider what I’ve just told him, then says, “I don’t get it. What does Garrett’s daughter have to do with you?”

Maybe it’s because of the mood I’m in, but I decide to be straight with Bernie, mostly straight anyway. With the Dugans dead, Lucy missing, and V in real danger, this is no time to play it cute, so I tell him about being hired by Garrett. I tell him about Lucy and Garrett and his girls. I tell him that Garrett has been sleeping with his own daughter and now she’s pregnant with his kid—at least, I think the kid is his. The irony, I tell Bernie, is that Garrett couldn’t have been behind killing the Dugans because I was with him not much more than an hour ago and Garrett didn’t know where I had Lucy stashed. And because I’m interested in his reaction, I also let Bernie know that Jimmy Mullen is on Garrett’s payroll and that despite being Rothstein’s partner, he’s crooked. But being told that Mullen is bent doesn’t surprise Rothstein in the slightest.

“Assuming you didn’t do this, Jack, and neither did Garrett, who do you think did?” It’s a good question, one I wish I could answer.

“You’re not going to like this, Bernie, but I have no idea.

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