shoulder. Not everything we did got into the press.”
“This kid he choked, Dad, he was fourteen.”
“Why do you want to know about Coombs? He's in jail.”
“Not any longer. He's out.” I pulled my chair closer.
“I read that Coombs claimed he killed the kid in self-defense.”
“What cop wouldn't? He said the kid tried to cut him with a sharp object he took to be a knife.”
“You remember who he was partnered up with back then, Dad?”
“Jesus.” My father shrugged. “Stan Dragula, as I recall. Yeah, he testified at the trial. But I think he died a few years back. No one wanted to work with Coombs. You were scared to walk through the neighborhoods with him.”
“Was Stan Dragula white or black?” I asked.
“Stan was white,” my father answered. '“I think Italian, or maybe Jewish.”
That wasn't the answer I had been expecting. No one had backed Coombs up. But why was he killing blacks?
“Dad, if it is Coombs doing these things... if he is out for some kind of revenge, why against blacks?”
“Coombs was an animal, but he was also a cop. Things were different then. That famous blue wall of silence... Every cop is taught at the academy, Keep your yap shut. It'll be there for you. Well, it didn't hold up for Frank Coombs; it came tumbling down on him. Everyone was glad to give him up. We're talking, what, twenty years ago? The affirmative action thing on the force was strong. Blacks and Latinos were just starting to get placed in key positions. There was this black lobby group, the OFJ... ” “Officers for justice,” I said. “They're still around.”
My father nodded. Tensions were strong. The OFJ threatened to strike. Eventually, there was pressure from the city, too. Whatever it was, Coombs felt he was handed over, hung out to dry.'
It started coming clear to me. Coombs felt he had been railroaded by the black lobby of the department. He had chewed on his hatred in prison. Now twenty years later, he was back on the streets of San Francisco.
“Maybe, another time, this kind of thing might've been swept under the rug,” I said. “But not then. The OFJ nailed him.”
Suddenly, a sickening realization wormed into my brain.
“Earl Mercer was involved, wasn't he?”
My father nodded his head. “Mercer was Coombs's lieutenant.”
Part III THE BLUE WALL OF SILENCE
Womans Murder Club 2 - Second Chance
Chapter 75
THE NEXT MORNING, the case against Frank Coombs, which only a day ago had seemed flimsy, was bursting at the seams. I was pumped.
First thing, Jacobi rapped at my door. “One for your side, Lieutenant. Coombs is looking better and better.”
“How so? You make any progress with Coombs's PO?”
“You might say He's gone, Lindsay. According to the PO, Coombs split from this transient hotel down on Eddy. No forwarding address, hasn't checked in, hasn't contacted his ex-wife.”
I was disappointed that Coombs was missing, but it was also a good sign. I told Jacobi to keep looking.
A few minutes later, Madeline Akers called from San Quentin.
“I think I've got what you want,” she announced. I couldn't believe she was responding so soon.
“Over the past year, Coombs was paired with four different cell mates. Two of them have been paroled, but I spoke with the other two myself. One of them told me to stuff it, but the other, this guy Toracetti... I almost didn't even have to tell him what I was looking for. He said the minute he heard on the news about Davidson and Mercer, he knew it was Coombs. Coombs told him he was going to blow the whole thing wide open again.”
I thanked Maddie profusely. Tasha, Mercer, Davidson... It was starting to fit together.
But how did Estelle Chipman fit in?
A force took hold of me. I went outside and dug through the case files. It had been weeks since I'd looked at them.
I found it buried at the bottom. The personnel file I'd called up from Records: Edward C. Chipman.
In his thirty unremarkable years on the force, only one thing stood out.
He had been his district's representative to the OFJ... the Officers for justice.
It was time to put this on the record. I buzzed Chief Tracchio. His secretary, Helen, who had been Mercer's, said he was in a closed-door meeting. I told her I was coming up.
I grabbed the Coombs file and headed up the stairs to five.
