What She Found (Tracy Crosswhite #9)(87)

“You mean the raid that the harbormaster told Del about? The one in my report that I still have? Why didn’t you report that raid, Del?” Del looked like he was chewing glass. Moss smiled. Then he looked to Tracy. “Suppose I did know about this raid. Suppose I knew about it, and I went to Rick Tombs and told him I knew about it.

Suppose I even told Tombs that unless he cut me in on the action, I would investigate that raid, and what would I find? I’d find a boat with an estimated fifteen million dollars in cocaine that was taken but never impounded. I’d check the evidence room and note that no evidence had been entered. I’d find no hard evidence that boat was ever raided or impounded. So what possibly could have happened to all that cocaine? And what happened to all the money that cocaine generated? Suppose I decided I was tired of taking it in the shorts, that I was going to get what was due to me, that I was going to join a country club myself, drive a nice car, and buy me a house on the water. Suppose I did that, and got a hot, young wife to boot, Detective? The statute of limitations would have long since expired, and there wouldn’t be anything you or anybody else could do about it.”

“No statute of limitations exists for the murder of the two crewmen, Moss, or the harbormaster,” Del said.

Moss looked Del in the eyes. “You have some evidence I was involved in that?”

“What we’re hoping to do is put together a case against the people who were involved,” Tracy said.

“You worked homicide, Moss. You know what that does to a person’s family,” Del said. “Tracy’s just trying to bring some justice to those families.”

“Justice? Shit, Del, you weren’t paying attention when class was in session, were you? If you had been, you would have known justice is what we make it.” Moss shook his head. “We go to work every day and get beat up in the press for trying to keep people safe.

And what do we get for it? A shitty salary. A shitty pension our ex-wives take half of. Look around, Del. This is justice.”

“We’re looking to make a deal, Moss,” Tracy said. “We can keep your name out of it and protect your reputation.”

“I ain’t no rat,” Moss said. He looked across the desk at Del. “So unless you have something more . . . something that could conceivably imperil my luxurious lifestyle here in my castle on the lake, I got nothing to say.”

“When I do get that information, Moss, and if you know anything about me, you know I will, we won’t come back offering a deal,”

Tracy said. “This is it. This is your chance to do the right thing. Once I walk out that door, the deal walks with me. You want to roll those dice?”

Moss grinned. “You’re bluffing, Detective. You just rolled a three and crapped out. Game over.”

“You’re wrong about something, Moss,” Del said.

“Yeah? What’s that?”

“You can’t buy happiness. You’re still the same bitter, petty piece of shit who couldn’t get past the fact that his wife chose a young, rich guy who could buy her all the things you couldn’t. Yeah, you’re living here in your castle, but you ain’t happy, Moss. That’s why you wear all those goofy clothes. What was that song? ‘Tears of a Clown’? You’re just a clown, Moss.”

Tracy couldn’t have said it any better. She followed Del to the door.

“Detective Crosswhite,” Moss said. Tracy turned back. “Just one more thing. How is it that a suspended detective is here making a police call?” He looked to Del. “And what are you doing aiding her?”

Moss smiled. “Now this is what you call leverage. You all have a good night.”





C H A P T E R 3 4

Back in the car, Del seethed. Tracy didn’t blame him. She would have liked nothing better than to have had something to slap the smile from Moss’s smug face, but she didn’t see any ability to do that.

“How the hell did he know you were suspended?” Del said.

“I don’t know,” Tracy said. “But Cerrabone knew it also.”

“Cerrabone lives at the courthouse, Tracy. Hell, that place is a cesspool of gossip and rumors, and word travels fast. How did Moss hear about it way out here?”

“I hope you don’t get hurt by this, Del. If anything happens, you just blame me. Tell them I didn’t tell you I’d been suspended. They can’t suspend me twice.”

“I’m a big boy, Tracy. I’m here because I didn’t do the right thing the first time. I’m not about to throw you under the bus to save my ass. If they want to come after me, let ’em. I’ve been doing this job long enough. My point is, there’s a leak, and that leak is feeding Moss information. We need to be careful going forward about who we tell and what we say.”

“You’re not going forward any further, Del. This was the end of the line.”

“Didn’t you learn anything from hanging around with Faz?

Italians are experts at queue jumping. We don’t know what the end of the line is.”

Tracy pulled into the Overlake Park and Ride on the east side of Lake Washington where Del had left his car. Tracy knew it had hurt Del’s pride to go back to Moss with his hat in hand and leave without anything to show for the effort. Moss had used Del, taken advantage of his raw earnestness. When Del persisted, Moss had set him up.