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"Okay, gentlemen," Terry said as he breezed into the office, "so me up to speed?"
A dozenbackward on chairs, lounging against filing cabinets; some held cups of coffee in Pine Deep Police Departht of theers Of the first batch, Gus Bernhardt dominated the place, not with any sense or aura of command, but with sheer physical size He was approxi, and as red as a twenty-dollar lobster Chief Bernhardt was a ray uniform that was all decked out hipcord and buttons and polished fittings His accoutrements were the only neat part of hiht in the backseat of his patrol car, which uess Terry knew that Gus was a lousy chief, but he was related to practically everyone in town and no one else really wanted the job To be fair, the job rarely entailed anythingoverti baseball cards froers ent out to Dark Hollow to get drunk and screw Terry knew that Gus spent -eared Louis L’Aed frotimers like Gus, career cops in a town that hadn’t much use for serious law enforcement Shirley O’Keefe and Rhoda Thoe who took part-tiue idea of what the whole cops and robbers thing was all about, though they had quickly discovered there were no robbers, as such, in Pine Deep, and the cops were not exactly NYPD Blue The re three officers, Golub, Brayer, and Shanks, were local boys, fresh out of college, who took the job because it was a job and because they hadn’t had anything better lined up; but they were decent, intelligent, and conscientious young fa approaching dedication if not actual competence Terry nodded to a couple of thearded hi because he wasn’t in uniform and that meant that he was a civilian The wall between the cops and the rest of the world was typically palpable
Gusa hand at the closest of the four, a tall, ubrious expression wearing a dark blue nylon windbreaker with POLICE stenciled on the breast and back in crisp white letters Terry thought that he looked like Morgan Freeman without the sense of hueant Frank Ferro with the Philadelphia Narcotics Division Detective, this is our istered the infor the mayor as ly strong hand and they shook
"A pleasure, sir This isand very tan young ave Terry a wrestler’s handshake He was one of those athletic types who are so superblyfull of walnuts with each angular ht blue eyes and the youthful s a blue windbreaker over a white shirt and dark tie Having cast Ferro as Morgan Free everyone he met to actors was a trick Terry had always used to reo becoure out which actor could play hi ordinary police uniforms "Officer Chremos down from Crestville," Gus said, and Terry shook hands with a Greek-looking man in his midforties in starched black and white
The last man stood and offered his hand before Gus could make the introduction "Jimmy Castle"
"One of Black Marsh’s finest," Gus said wryly
"Absolutely," said Castle with a grin He had sandy blond hair and freckles and an instantly engaging manner The other Pine Deep cops just nodded and kept to the background, clearly intis fro around at the faces "Well, ladies and gentlemen, where do we stand?"
Gus opened his eant Ferro beat him to it "If I may? Your Honor, the situation is this--we have three suspects, part of a seneric Ja unusual, usually no hitches in an operation like this A standard ed in an empty warehouse, happens all the tiet ular flow of trade The product has to flow set rich It’s all business"
"Okay, I’m with you so far," Terry said as he settled his muscular rump on the corner of Gus’s desk and listened attentively He cohtly superior frown but raised his eyebrows to show that he was ready to hear their report It was a tactic that worked pretty well on the town council, and seeh with Ferro Inside, Terry’s heart was ha out a rhythm of excitement and apprehension He just didn’t let it show
The cop said, "The buy was set up in Philly, which is why Detective LaMastra and I were in on the case Our narcotics unit is a division of East Detectives, and we sometimes ith state and federal narcotics offices to stop interstate flow of drugs Now, since there was a shoot-out and one of our officers was killed, ould like to be actively involved in this investigation" His eyes were hard as he said this and the room was very quiet "I’ve asked Chief Bernhardt if he would mind if I called in some Philly blues with their units to help with the search They’ll be here within the half hour If…that is acceptable to you, sir"<ins class="adsbygoogle" style="display:block" data-ad-client="ca-pub-7451196230453695" data-ad-slot="9930101810" data-ad-format="auto" data-full-width-responsive="true"></ins>