“We could use a dog, Sarge,” Piekarski pressed. “How do we get one?”
“Paperwork,” Logan said with a wicked gleam in his eye.
Firelli and Janovich groaned.
“Maybe it’s just as well,” Firelli said. “If we got another Irish on the squad, it’d mess up Mickstat.”
“But seriously,” Logan said. “We owe you one, O’Reilly. It worked out to twelve kilos of heroin, ninety-six percent pure. That’s over a million wholesale. If they step on it and cut it down, we’re talking ten to fourteen mil, street price. Those two guys are going away for a good, long time. And a lot of junkies will be going cold turkey.”
“Does it do any good?” Erin asked.
“We still got job security, if that’s what you’re wondering,” Piekarski said.
“I need to bounce,” Erin said, standing up. “Thanks for the drink, fellas.”
“Keep the streets safe,” Firelli said.
“If you insist,” she said. “Turn around and put your hands on the bar. You have the right to remain silent…”
The rest of her Miranda warning to Firelli was drowned out by the laughter of the rest of the squad.
* * *
Erin didn’t have time for her usual morning run, so she took Rolf for a quick walk, grabbed a shower, and swung by the bakery on her way into work. Stereotypes aside, a police officer couldn’t go far wrong bringing a box of donuts with her to the office.
Vic and Webb were already there. Vic was finishing boxing up the last of the case files. Webb was at his computer, twirling an unlit cigarette in his hand while he worked on one of their reports.
“Morning,” Webb said. “Nice to have an early night for a change?”
Erin thought he was being sarcastic until she remembered he didn’t know about her excursion with SNEU. She briefly weighed telling him, and for complicated reasons decided not to.
“I had a good night,” she said instead. “I brought munchies.”
“You got the jelly-filled kind?” Vic asked, hurrying over and reaching for the box.
“I dunno. I just grabbed the usual box set.”
Vic popped the lid and examined the merchandise. “If I get one that’s filled with lemon, I swear, I’m gonna shoot the baker,” he said.
“Please don’t boost the murder stat,” Webb said.
“Not in the head,” Vic said. “I was thinking maybe the leg or something.”
“We all set with the Bianchi case?” Erin asked, picking out a donut for herself and going to the break room to get a cup of coffee.
“In your dreams, O’Reilly,” Webb said. “I sent you your part of the reports. There’s the arrest report on Nina, the rest of the paperwork on Paulie, all the DD-5s, of course…”
Erin thought about what the SNEU team had said about joining up with them. It was actually a tempting thought for a moment.
“Okay,” she said. “I guess it beats being shot at. So we’re closed, other than the paperwork?”
“Yeah,” Vic said. “They kept Paulie overnight, but they released him this morning, when the DA finalized the deal. He goes home free.”
“He didn’t kill anyone,” Erin reminded him, not liking his sulky tone. “All he did was small-time, incompetent drug deals.”
“He accidentally got Ridgeway killed,” Webb said.
“A lot of other people helped make that happen,” Erin said. “So Lorenzo finally got sick of his wife and decided to kill her. He poisoned a box of chocolate and left it out, knowing she had a sweet tooth. But by sheer bad luck, it was the same brand of candy Paulie and his Mafia buddies were using to hide their drugs. So Paulie gave the wrong box to his buddy Rocky, who actually did open it up later on, and found out it was exactly what the label said.”
“Can we arrest Rocky?” Vic interjected.
“For what?” Webb asked. “All he did was eat some candy and give the rest to his girlfriend.”
Vic shrugged. “He was supposed to get a box of drugs. I kinda feel like we should arrest him.”
“Later,” Webb said. “Guys like him always step in shit again. I’d bet a month’s alimony he’s behind bars before the end of the year.”
“Anyway,” Erin went on, “after Rocky snacked on some of the candy, he got the idea to give the rest of it to his girl. Unfortunately for Norman Ridgeway, he was screwing around with Rocky’s girl, and she decided to share Rocky’s candy with her other boyfriend.”
“Not cool,” Vic said.
“Of course, Ridgeway was also cheating on Hayward,” Erin added. “Not that that makes it okay. But the poisoned almond nougats finally found a home, and that was it for Ridgeway.”
“At least he died happy,” Vic said.
“I’m gonna put that on your tombstone,” Erin said.
“I said it before, I’ll say it again,” Vic said. “I love your optimism. You actually think you’re gonna outlive me.”
“I’ve seen your diet,” she said. “You’ll have diabetes before you’re forty.”
“But at least I’ll die happy,” he repeated, grinning.
“And that’s it for the case,” Webb said. “I expect the Narcs will want to keep an eye on Paulie and Rocky, hoping they’ll lead them to bigger fish, but that’s out of our court.”
“Too bad,” Vic said. “I was hoping we could bust that greasy Italian asshole.”
“Better officers than you have tried,” Webb said. “I’ve been reading up on our friend Vinnie. He’s a slick son of a bitch. They’ll collar him on RICO eventually, I expect, but that’ll be up to the Feds.”
“The Feebies couldn’t collar their own ass with both hands,” Vic muttered, giving the usual NYPD opinion of the FBI.
“But regardless…” Webb began. He was interrupted by the phone on his desk ringing. He pivoted his chair and picked up the receiver. “Webb here.”
Erin and Vic saw his face change. He looked disbelieving, then shocked, then tired, in rapid succession. “Copy that,” Webb said. “Yeah, I understand. Who called it in? Who? Okay. Yeah, I’ll
