Prostitution ranked the highest number of bookings which we do daily in the Precinct but we ranked the highest that evening for number of alleged prostitutes killed in one incident but no one was cheering. It was a ten apartment building of which all the victims were found in them.
"Seventeen victims burnt to crisp in their vice den. Do you know if your man was among them?" It was leaked out that the building was a vice den by some reliable informants and that stroked the headlines with those creative liners. Vice squad got it bad that night from the Captain who was awakened by the Commissioner, who was also alerted by the Mayor who was having a sleepover at the adjacent block after doing a fund raising event. Why was he there when his house was four blocks away remained unanswered but the s*** have hit the fan. We were not spared as Homicide counted in as there were dead bodies. Vice denied the building was a vice den or they would had crashed it, so they pushed it to Gangs for a possible gang meet house. The accusations and wild guesses still went around until the Captain intervened.
"I don't care if its Fort Knox. We have seventeen dead and I want answers to the people of this city." That ended the discussion and we were the main section running the investigation.
"Did you read about the fire?" Di Angelo never misses an event that happened in the city. He can tell you more than any cops on the scene. "I heard they were not your typical walkers; these are well paid ones. The kind the big boys with big a****s can afford."
"I thought they liked them a****s big." That was Dan who just sat down next to me. "Me? I liked them round and soft to hold."
"Morning Dan. You are early?" I wished my Coroner and good friend as he counted the coins to pay for his breakfast. Di Angelo have left us alone to served the customers.
"Morning. I am here early as I got seventeen crisped to check for causes of death." Dan chuckled to himself. "Maybe I might get one John Doe with death by cardiac arrest due to over exertion to complete before the flames spread."
"F****d you, Dante." I was kidding on Dan' statement with sarcasm of mine. "If there was an inferno like that, I doubt even Dante would be still stoking his fire with his mistress."
"Who said they are mistresses? There was no mentioned of in in the papers." Di Angelo leaned over while serving Dan' green and raw meat breakfast. If Di Angelo heard that, then the whole district would be soon. I could had just tipped off the biggest news tip in ages. True enough, it was on the Noon Edition.
"Vice den: naught for you, Its a mistresses hideaway. Inside sources leaked info,"
Damned! I am f****d and was called into the briefing room; all of us who wore badges and given a 'cap-o-nine' verbal whipping by the Captain on principles and conducts at work. We were also told to avoid Di Angelo. I can just visualize then Di Angelo putting up a banner that says; "It wasn't me." It was Dusty who kicked the dust up when he spoke up for us; 'we ain't even started on the case since morning. We are still clearing out current ones.'. I could had sworn, Dante Inferno would not had rivaled that of the Captain wrath then.
"Then WTF are you going to start on the case? When I come serving you coffee because Di Angelo was barred perhaps."
That took us all off on our pedals to looked at the case files. There was a lot to read; possible victims' details from recovered personal effects, Fire Brigade initial findings ( all exits were locked or barricaded from outside ), and the newly partial Coroner' reports. There were ten guys and seven ladies. In rough maths equation, we may have some threesomes or some playful men playing 'poker' that evening. The last was Frank's fact of life.
My partner then was Harry Mecham, good guy with always a beaming smile. He should had been a dentist, but I guessed he won't qualify for mine; I liked mine with the overflowing bust line. I took split the victims files with the others and got two to handle on my own. The victims I got were Joseph Conrad, and Micheal Fritz; both sounded corny to me but that was recovered at the scene. Their ID names rang up my spine like fakes but there was work to be done. I checked it at the State Police Database with cross reference to the National Database of names and came up with nothing. I called up Dan for some prints and ran it through DNA Databases and came up with nothing.
"Jim, the two names are not the only ones which we have no records. There was another." So we got three John Doe. Probably left their ID at home when they went play 'pokey'. Like high schools student carrying fake IDs to get into the bar. The others were confirmed and identified by their next of kins or friends as having stayed there or were pairs.
Harry and myself went to visit the unit which the three John Doe were found. According to the Coroner reports, they were all huddled in the bathroom and probably died by smoke inhalation. We checked the place and found no poker cards or chips, or even packets of nuts; I told Harry it may be a miracle if we do find anything but sometimes miracles do happened. We found the passports wrapped in plastic inside the cistern. We got names to matched the John Doe but they are not nice names. They smelled of Feds and soon after I reported in, the Feds came in and took our files. We were also told to backed off from the case. I protested hard but the Captain had to agreed with them.
But unknown to them, Harry had taken out the name for his own records.
Both Harry and myself hit out for the migrant blocks and did some digging of our own. A name came up; Vlad Gorda. He was a man you meet if you need the works on how to migrate here. We found the man but he was a tough one to break until Harry asked for some personal time with Vlad. I told him no rough stuffs or we would be given the legal section yelling harassment. It took Harry fifteen minutes to 'torched' it out of Vlad. I asked Harry what did he do the man. Vlad was very obliging after that.
"Did you used the rubber hose or was it the phone book?" I used them before during my hey days. "Don't tell me you tried that tooth up his scrotum threat?"
"No, I told him who my dad knows in his grocery business. The old man supplies some clients and they are influential. Nobody wants to cross the grocer; you never know what he do to your delivery before it reached you." Harry was beaming his smile again. Damned, I am not going near a grocer again.
We got a name of the purported arsonist and now was the 'catch me time'.
Adrian Frisk was a repeated offender; works for whoever pays him. He does everything; knife, gun, rope, or even piano wire for a new neck line. I never seen him do the fire stuff but people may changed. Adam for his profession stayed in a posh place in Brighton. I went in with the usual backups,and surprised him in his heated pool with the girlfriend.
"I don't do fire. I am maybe a fierce dragon at times, but I am not into blazing glories." I can read that Adrian was lying there as he sits on the chair in the Discipline Room, but I have hardly the evidence. "Even if I did, I would had learned from the best."
I would had sent for Harry but his grocer tales turned out to be partly true; his father does supply to some big names but they hardly knew his father. Only Vlad believed it.
But we got our new break then. Adrian pool mate was a high class hooker with some violations. She works the top of the pack with her girls. Her name was Marcia. Okay, I forgot to advised; Adrian was in his late forties and his taste ran along with his age, so you can understand why he was in the pool with Marcia. She may be past her prime but she still had the handle bars needed; perhaps they were perked up with silicone.
"Yeah, I remember that place. They took some of my girls and paid me peanuts. I guessed some of my friends paid them back with hot numbers." Marcia was not mincing her words but she won't leaked out her friends. I won't have gone far with her anyway if I tried, but soon the Feds took over. It was their case when they took my files. They also took Marcia and Adrian. I heard they were charged with tax evasion and racketing charges. Hey, those out of my league but soon the news dwindled and the Captain mellowed.
So that was it, we closed the file with the remarks; no supporting evidence to convict.
I thought it was all over until I saw the papers three days later while the TV was playing Superman cartoons re-runs. I still like the way he said; up, up and away; "Mayor Leak; tip off that Mayor having an affair. Reliable sources confirmed."
My portable rang at the same time when I was reading the headlines.
"No, Captain. I have no confirmation on the leak. If I do find out, I would assured you that person would not be leaking again." At that moment I was imagining how Di Angelo liked his sausages.
Up, up and up there, I guess; from the hot pan.
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