Page 68 of Nightshade

“He’s already jumped the case four moves ahead of you,” Corum said. “This is a perfect setup. You’ll have him on the island. He knows the people out there. He’s inside the wire.”

“We can handle it,” Ahearn insisted.

“Are you forgetting who’s in command of this unit?” Corum asked.

“No, sir,” Ahearn replied meekly.

“This is not a suggestion,” Corum said. “It’s an order.”

“Yes, sir,” Ahearn said, his voice almost inaudible over the speaker.

Stilwell wished he could see Ahearn’s face.

“We’re talking about a murder here, gentlemen,” Corum continued. “Put aside your petty differences, get your heads out of your asses, and get the job done. If you can’t do it, I will find people who can. Am I clear?”

“Clear,” Stilwell said.

“As glass,” Ahearn said.

“Stil, how soon can you get over here?” Corum asked.

“I’ll jump on the next Express,” Stilwell said.

“Good,” Corum said. “I’ll have Ahearn and Sampedro meet you at the dock to drive you in.”

“I’ve got a car in a lot over there.”

“Let me send them. By the time you’re back here, I expect you three to be working like a well-oiled machine. I hear anything suggesting otherwise, there will be consequences. That’s it.”

The call was disconnected. Stilwell sat at the desk unmoving for nearly a minute. He was apprehensive about the setup. He didn’t expect Ahearn to change his attitude toward him, but he was pleased to be officially on the case. He thought of the woman with the purple streak in her hair and how someone had taken away her hopes and dreams of a better life. Stilwell knew he could put up with Ahearn and Sampedro as long as together they brought her killer to justice.

23

FRANK SAMPEDRO WASwaiting for Stilwell at the Express dock in Long Beach. He was leaning against a gray plain-wrap, his arms folded across his barrel chest. He was over six feet and stocky. His suits were always ill-fitting—baggy in the shoulders, too wide at the waist. He dyed his hair and mustache jet-black. As soon as he saw Stilwell approaching, he pushed himself off the car and went around to the driver’s door without a greeting.

Ahearn hadn’t made the trip, which pleased Stilwell because no cop likes to sit in the back seat of a car that has transported all manner of miscreants, but he wondered what that meant in regard to Corum’s well-oiled machine. Even so, it was a relief to Stilwell that he would not have to spend the next hour driving up to the homicide unit in downtown Los Angeles listening to Ahearn’s insults and threats.

Starting out, Sampedro kept quiet. But once they got up on the 110 and were heading downtown, he unexpectedly opened up.

“Look, just so you know, I got partnered with Rex after you left,” he said. “So all I’ve ever heard was his side of things, you know what I mean?”

A crack in the partnership; Stilwell hadn’t seen that before.

“I do,” he said. “And I know just what he said about me and that case.”

“Yeah, well, there you go,” Sampedro replied. “But like the captain said, we gotthiscase to solve, so I’m putting all of that other stuff to the side. Seems like you’ve done some good work on this so far. Let’s keep it going.”

“Does that mean you were also in Corum’s office during the call today?”

“I was. He wanted us both in there.”

It annoyed Stilwell that Corum had not told him anyone else was on the call until he had asked, but it worked out. Stilwell was on the case, which was where he wanted to be. He took Sampedro’s olive branch as sincere and a good sign. It made him think that he could work on an equal level with him at least, if not with Ahearn.

After a few more minutes of silence, Sampedro brought up the case about which he knew only one side of the story.

“Just to clear the air, what I heard was that you thought there was a murder case against a guy, and Rex, who was lead on it, said there wasn’t. Said it was self-defense. He took it to the DA’s office and they signed off on it as self-defense. Then you tried to make an end run around them, and the shit hit the fan.”

“That’s putting it mildly. But to clear the air, as you say, I’ll tell you exactly what happened. I flat out accused him of taking a dive on the case.”