Bronx Requiem(43)

Edward Pierce, the borough commander, let the two precinct commanders argue for jurisdiction, but Pierce ended up giving both cases to the Four-Two, saying Palmer’s eyewitness tipped the scale against Deputy Inspector Walker and the Four-Three. Although it was unsaid, everybody at the table knew Edward Pierce’s decision was influenced by his wanting to stay in the good graces of Palmer’s father.

And, as if on cue, just before Pierce rendered his opinion, Raymond Ippolito entered the kitchen. Pierce knew Ippolito and considered him a reliable veteran investigator.

He asked Ippolito, “Ray, are you up to speed on all this?”

“Pretty much.”

Pierce pointed to Palmer. “If I give this youngster his head on these cases, can I trust you to ride herd on him?”

Ippolito answered the borough commander without hesitation. “Absolutely, sir.”

Pierce looked around the table once, made sure he sounded decisive, and pointed his index finger at John Palmer. “Okay, I’m going to let you see this through with your bosses keeping tabs on you. You’ve got a lot of i’s to dot and t’s to cross. You need hard evidence for all your allegations.”

“Understood.”

“You know where to find Beck?”

“Already working on it. He’s based in Red Hook.”

“What’s that, the Seven-Six?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Which means another jurisdiction we have to deal with.” He turned to Levitt and Jennie. “You two run interference and coordinate.” He turned back to Palmer. “You get this witness of yours processed and squared away. I want a signed statement tonight. And you make damn sure you don’t lose track of him, or he becomes a problem for us. Then you and Detective Ippolito follow through on every loose end. You have a long way to go before you convince the DA’s office they can win these cases, much less issue warrants.”

Pierce turned his attention back to Levitt and Jennie. “I’m letting the Four-Two run with this, but if you haven’t nailed everything down in a few days, I’m putting together a task force to take over. And let me know immediately if you run into problems. I don’t want to be the last one to find out about problems. Understood?”

Everybody at the kitchen table indicated they got it loud and clear. The borough commander walked out of the kitchen trailed by the Four-Three’s Kenneth Walker and his homicide detective Richard Albright, who smiled at Ippolito and whispered as he passed him, “Good luck, butt hole.”

Once the others were gone, Levitt told Palmer and Ippolito, “Get it done, guys. No screwups. Let me know if you need assistance. See you back at the house.”

Palmer waited for Levitt, Jennie, and Clovehill to leave and quickly filled in Ippolito about what had gone down and how he’d set up Tyrell Williams, who could be heard snoring through his broken nose in the bedroom down the hall.

“Ray, I’d say we’re close to nailing this whole thing down tight.”

Ippolito raised his eyebrows in response and said, “Jeezus f*ck, John, you got any idea how far out on a limb you are? With me right next to you?”

“Don’t worry. It’ll work out. Hey, I’m about to lay down on this table I’m so f*ckin’ tired. Let’s get this mutt Tyrell back to the precinct. You take his statement while I grab some sleep. Go easy on him. Help him out, you know what I mean?”

“Yo, John, the brass is gone. It’s me you’re talking to. Does this scumbag understand the deal? You explained the facts of life to him?”

“He understands.”

Ippolito didn’t believe Palmer fully realized what he was trying to pull off, but he made a quick decision. In less than two weeks, he would be officially retired. It was time to play the smart move and go with Palmer.

“All right, f*ck it, I’m not going to ask you if he really saw anything. Just tell me you got it into his head what he has to do.”

“It’s pretty simple, Ray. He testifies Beck shot Derrick Watkins, or I’ll put the murder on him.”

“Yeah, it sounds simple but, I’m telling you, the first thing that can bite us in the ass is some cock-sucking double-dealing mulignan of a witness. Fucking shines, you know you can’t trust them, John.”

“Hey, rely on him doing what’s good for him. He was here. He saw it. What the hell else do we need?”

Ippolito stared up at the ceiling.

“What?”

“Those words, rely on. All right, the hell with it. First thing we have to do is run down his record. I guarantee you he’s dirty.”

“If he wasn’t, he wouldn’t be in a room where a guy got shot three times.”

“Obviously, let’s just hope he’s not a complete piece of shit. After we find out his record, we have to work on getting corroborating witnesses.”

“I’ll get witnesses if I have to arrest every * in that crew and break every one of them.”

“All right, all right, let’s not get ahead of ourselves. One step at a time.”

“Hey, c’mon, Ray, give me some credit. I told you that * Beck was important, didn’t I?”

Ippolito lowered his voice. “How do you even know it was Beck who was here? I mean seriously.”

“First of all, I got an eyewitness who says he was here. Second, I can identify Beck leaving the scene.”