Beach Wedding(32)

I thought about that. The Suffolk County PD was no joke. It had over two thousand officers.

“Especially the chief, Dennis Tapley. Son of a bitch is bad news. And he and Wheaton are like Bert and Ernie, buddies from way back.”

“Screw ’em, Marvin,” I said, shrugging. “I don’t care. I’m reopening the case.”

Marvin looked at me with concern.

“All right. I’m telling you this because we’re like family. But this doesn’t get spoken of to anyone, wife, brother, mother, nobody. Agreed? My wife doesn’t even know what I’m about to drop on you.”

I stared at him.

“My lips are sealed, Marvin. What’s up?” I said.

“The Feds are working a case against the Suffolk County DA’s office and the department right now,” Marvin said. “They brought me in on it about three months ago. About two years ago, there was a bunch of murders along the Nassau County border, prostitutes strangled and dumped on the beach.”

“Yeah, I remember hearing about that.”

“Well, the FBI hears about it and wants to bring in the profilers to help. Sounds okay, right? Get some help. Let the Feds drain some of their budget for a change. Wrong. Chief Tapley puts the kibosh on it. ‘We’re good. We got this,’ he tells them.”

“That’s nuts,” I said.

“The Feds thought so, too. They look into it. Turns out Tapley himself knew three of the victims socially. Seems that this married man, father of three girls, likes to get his freak on with the Nassau County ladies of the evening. Off the job and even on. That’s off the record, by the way.”

“Wow,” I said.

“Not just that. They start watching him, watching the shifts. It looks like he’s got some of his boys on the night shift weekends safeguarding certain cars coming in and out of these big summer shindigs. Driving them in and out like a damn police escort up and down the Montauk Highway.”

“That’s insane. Drugs?” I said.

“Sure seems like it. Drugs. Prostitutes. VIPs who don’t want to get pulled over for whatever they got in their possession. Use your imagination. Whatever somebody with no scruples and a disposable endless wad of hundreds wants or needs come a sultry Hamptons summer’s night.

“And they’ve been to Hailey Sutton’s place, kid. One of the main stops on the party circuit.”

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. Since my father died, it seemed like all hell had broken loose.

“Who’s running the case against them? Why haven’t they arrested people yet?”

“Still climbing up the food chain. They want Tapley himself. And the DA, Wheaton, too, if they can bag him.”

As if this wasn’t going to be hard enough? I thought.

The DA’s bad? And the county cops?

“This is unbelievable,” I said.

“It is what it is, Terry. By the way, you actually might know one of the FBI agents on the corruption case. She’s a townie. About your age. Went to Our Lady.”

“Yeah? What’s her name?”

“Frazier.”

“Courtney Frazier?” I said, surprised.

“That’s the one.” Marvin smiled. “Not surprised you know her. She’s a looker.”

I nodded. I remembered her all right.

“She was a couple of years ahead of me, in Mickey’s class,” I said. “I worked with her over at Beach Point Country Club. We were lifeguards together. She still lives around here?”

“Oh, yeah. Never left. Her husband just opened up a popular restaurant in Amagansett last year,” Marvin said. “But she works out of the FBI office in Nassau, so if you really need to do this, then get reacquainted pronto. You should definitely talk to her.

“She’s got people in the DA’s office feeding her info. Good people. Maybe they can help you with reopening Hailey Sutton’s case from back channels. Or who knows how. You’re going to need some kind of alternative way of getting this done. Because you go into the DA’s office right now, he’s going to shoot you down.”

I followed Marvin as he walked around to the cab, took out his phone, and gave me Courtney’s number.

“Remember now, Terry. If you start poking into the business of the powers that be, the Meadow Laners, you make sure your six is being watched. These people play for keeps. And stay the hell off the phone. You know those dirt box things you can use to snatch up a cell on the job? They got ’em, too.”

“Wow,” I said.

“Wow’s the word. They’ve all got illegal wiretaps going. Everybody in the DA’s office and the department. Even on each other it’s getting hot. To see if people are ratting each other out. I know one detective who’s under his car with the grease monkey every time he gets his oil changed, checking for bugs.”

“I appreciate the heads-up, Marvin,” I said as I took out my notebook. “Now, about the case. If you could start from the beginning.”

Marvin laughed.

“Stubborn one, huh?” he said, sighing. “Just like your old man.”



43

“Alert, alert! This just in!” I said upstairs in our room in the beach house that night an hour after Angelina had fallen asleep. “I think I finally got this nailed down now. Or at least most of it.”