"Yeah, I remember the governor's press conference where he made it seem like we were some sort of third world country outpost."

"You wouldn't think it, you know? That a city where they can charge fifteen bucks for a martini would go broke?"

170.

"Tourists," I said. "The dollar is so weak that people from pretty much all over the world can come here and buy anything basically half off. They pay it because they can, and we get stuck with the inflated prices because we have no choice."

"The rich get richer and...you know how the rest goes," Curt said. "But right now there are parts of the city with less cops. And less cops means less supervision, means the bad guys get emboldened."

"But the NYPD?" I said, confused. "Isn't that one area they don't have a choice but to keep fully loaded?"

"They're trying," Curt said. "Louis Carruthers, the Chief of Department, said the bra.s.s is looking into more funding, but it might take a little while. At the state and city level right now, they have less money than Michael Jackson. A lack of money means the city is cutting back on pretty much everything that the government picks up the tab on. Overtime, patrol routes, even new recruits.

Starting pay for a first-year police officer is just below your average hot dog vendor."

"Which is just above that of a journalist," I said with a smile.

"Yeah, at least you get those fancy suit jackets with elbow pads."

"I've never heard anybody claim to be jealous over those."

"You can never guess where fashion trends go. If tomorrow Kanye shows up with one of those tweed jackets, five million kids will show up at Diesel begging for them. So what do you got for me on this guy besides hair color?" Curt said.

"First off, you need to know that anything you do could come back and bite you in the a.s.s."

171.

"Isn't that why we're friends?" Curt said. "I don't have enough problems at work or at home, so I come to you to satisfy my daily craving for emotional and physical trauma."

"Your breath is terrible," I said.

"Point proven," Curt said.

"Seriously. It smells like you ate a hot dog, then burped up that hot dog, then fried the burped-up hot dog, ate it, and burped it up again."

Curt stared at me. "I think my stomach just threw up inside of itself."

"Then my job here is done."

"You're a laugh riot. Go on. Tell me what you know about this dude."

"I was outside of Brett Kaiser's building right before it turned into something out of Dante's Inferno. Dante's Inferno. The The doorman told me a guy with blond hair came and went at freaky hours."

"You told me this. That's not a h.e.l.l of a lot to go on."

"I'm not done. You know Paulina Cole, right?"

"Of course. Hot piece of a.s.s who works at that dirt rag and has no love lost for you. Am I close?"

"Enough for a shave."

"I don't know her personally, but I've heard some of the guys talking about her. She doesn't have a lot of friends in the department. Ever since she wrote that article accusing NYPD recruits of being underqualified and unmotivated. Things like that tend to rub cops the wrong way. Rumor has it they won't give her scoops anymore because of the c.r.a.p she's written, so she has her lackeys covering the crime beat act as spies for her."

"Yeah, well, that's part of the problem. Turns out she was kidnapped a few days ago, and I'm ninety-nine percent sure the guy who did it is the same one who char-172 broiled Brett Kaiser. Her description of him matched the same one I was given by Kaiser's doorman to a T. Blond, late thirties or early forties, muscular."

"Does she know the same guy is a suspect in the Kaiser murder?" Curt said.

"No. You're the only person I've told."

"So I'm looking for a blond guy, about six-one or sixtwo, two hundred ten pounds or so if he's well built."

"Sounds like a ballpark to work in."

"Right. That ballpark narrows it down to about ten thousand men in New York."

"There's one more thing," I said. "Paulina said he's involved in drugs."

"Drugs."

"Yeah."

"Care to elaborate on that?"

"That's all I know. Let's just say she was a little secretive on that part."

"So we have a blond guy. Somewhere between six feet and six foot two, two hundred and ten pounds, who for all we know has smoked weed sometime in his life."

"Chester," I said. "She said he introduced himself as Chester. And she said he might have lost a family member, and it didn't sound as though it was as a result of natural causes."

"Sounds to me like Paulina could be cooking up a stew of major league bulls.h.i.t to me."

"I don't think so," I said. "Paulina is a lot of things, but she had to swallow some major pride to ask me to help her. And she's not a woman who's too keen on losing face. Especially to me. And this guy threatened her daughter. Paulina's low, but not low enough to make up something like that. She wants this guy caught. All 173.

between the physical description and the alias, it should give you enough to at least do some digging."

"Plus if this is the same guy who turned Brett Kaiser into burnt toast," Curt said, "it wouldn't surprise me if this guy has some sort of explosives or military background."

"That's gotta narrow your ten thousand down a bit."

"Maybe so."

"Be careful," I said. "Paulina's pretty sure this Chester has eyes in the NYPD. Can you do some digging without anyone seeing your shovel?"

"That sounds s.e.xy," Curt said.

"Come on, Curt."

"I'll grow eyes in the back of my head," Curt said.

"Digging, I can do. But if we find out who this guy is, I'm going to need to bring Paulina in to ID him so we can charge him."

"I hear you. But wait until you know who he is for certain before we make a move. And make sure you only tell people you can trust."

"Yeah, and if you need help typing or proofreading, I'll give you a hand. Come on, I know how to do my job, Henry," Curt said.

"Just looking out for you, buddy."

"Appreciate it."

"How are things, you know, with the job?"

"Strange times, Parker," Curt said.

"Care to elaborate?" I said, smiling. Curt did not return the pleasantry.

"This city, you know, just a different vibe right now.

People see cops now, they look at us differently. Like they really need us. Not that they ever didn't, but it's like the city is waiting for another shoe to drop. You know that dude who lost fifty billion dollars in a Ponzi scheme?"

174.

"Madoff," I said.

"You know the city spent more money protecting that sc.u.mbag than it does Joe Six Pack? People just don't trust anymore. You know the saying, but it's true. People expect things are gonna get worse before they get better."

"The city needs cops like you," I said. "Protect and serve, right?"

"Yeah, I appreciate that, man. Anyway," Curt said, standing up, "break time is over. Gotta get back to protecting the rest of this overcrowded island." He breathed into his hands, then held it up to his nose. "My breath really that bad?"

"Makes my toes curl just talking to you," I said.

"That's the way I like it. This way I don't ever have to pull my gun."

He held out his hand, and I shook it.

"Later, Henry."

Curt walked off. I stretched my legs, felt the cup of coffee I'd inhaled half an hour ago take hold. Amanda was probably still in bed, still asleep thanks to her friend the snooze b.u.t.ton.

Right as I was about to head toward the subway, my cell phone rang. It was Jack. I knew the man's mind was always working, but it was not normal for him to be calling me before breakfast, especially when we had no meetings planned.

I answered the phone. "Hey, Jack. Either you're up early or you're up really late."

"Why the h.e.l.l aren't you here yet?" Jack said.

"At the Gazette? Gazette? It's barely seven, and I was meeting It's barely seven, and I was meeting Curt Sheffield to give him more details about the Kaiser investigation."

"That's old news," Jack said. "Wallace and Harvey 175.

Hillerman are about to bite our nuts off, so get your a.s.s over here right away."

"Why? What happened?"

"Have you seen the cover of today's Dispatch? Dispatch? " Jack " Jack said.

"No, figured I could wait until getting in before reading about which celebrities were caught in the Dominican Republic sunbathing in the nude with their boy toys."

"Laugh all you want, but Henry...we got scooped."

"Yeah, right. By who? We have every inch of this town covered, so unless I've been working in a different city...

By the way, who scooped us?"

"Paulina Cole," Jack said. "She's got an exclusive that'll make your eyes pop out."

24.

I hailed a cab, which slowed to a crawl once we hit midtown. I got out at Fifty-first and Lexington, threw the driver a good tip and sprinted the few blocks over to Rockefeller Center. I was nearly disemboweled pushing through the security turnstile when my ID failed to work, and got off on the eleventh floor out of breath and with possible internal bleeding.

I entered the newsroom, and as I walked through the sea of desks my heart dropped when I saw Tony Valentine approaching.

"Henry," he said, huffing as he jogged over. "Do you have a minute?"

"Actually, I don't. Not right now," I said.

"Come on, Parker, you've been avoiding me since I got here. At some point you'll need to open that hard heart of yours for a get-to-know-you session."

"Listen, Tony, I appreciate that, and at some point we will. But right now I have a situation to deal with."

"A situation? That sounds juicy. Do tell."

"Like I said, Tony, not right now."

"Do you have a problem with me?" Tony asked, his eyes narrowing, offset by a strangely playful smile.

177.

"I'm just trying to be a good sport. Fit in with my new colleagues."

"Listen, Tony, I'd be lying if I didn't think our two types of...reporting didn't really overlap. But today there actually is something going on. No joke."

He looked me over, trying to determine if I was telling the truth or lying just to get out of a conversation. I certainly wasn't above doing that, at least not with Tony.