“Nobody said you need to ignore it.”
“There was gunfire. There are bodies.”
“I’m sure that’s all very inconvenient.”
“You wantnobodyto go down for it? How do you think I can sell that to city hall?”
“Creatively.”
His jaw ticks. He’s an inch away from exploding. “You’re putting me in an impossible position here.”
I puff away on my cigar. I wonder how long before the smoke alarms go off. I decide to stub it out right on top of his closed laptop lid. The aluminum hisses and I leave a little burned mark in the corner.
He slams his hands down. “Damn it, that’s government property. What are you doing?”
“Now you’ll think about me every time you log in for work. I want to make sure you have that little reminder.” I tap near the burn and brush away the ashes. “Whenever I visit you, I better see this. Don’t even dream of getting a replacement.”
I stare into his eyes. He stares right back. Jeffers didn’t get to this position by being weak, but he also knows how the game’s played. At these levels, the leaders of the PPD are essentially politicians.
And they tend to do all the same nasty stuff.
“I’m going to give you ten seconds to make me refrain from slapping handcuffs on you, starting right now.”
All I need is a single name. “Marley Williams.” His body stiffens. I glance casually at my phone. “Or as you affectionately call her, Mar-Bar. Do you call her that before or after she stomps on your genitals and urinates on your chest?”
“I don’t—how dare?—”
“Come on, Jeffers. I don’t kink shame. Get your rocks off however you want. In my opinion, good for you for finding something that really makes you happy. But I suspect if the general public knew their police chief was paying huge sums of money to a dominatrix, they might be unhappy.”
His face pales. He reaches for a water bottle and takes a swig. I let him stew and think. I bet he’s trying to find a way out of this.
The thing is, Jeffers is in deeper than he even realizes. He thought we had bribe payments on him. But I have my boys collect as much information as they can about all our marks. Jeffers happens to be one of the most interesting.
“I hear you.” He takes a breath and steadies himself. “I’d appreciate discretion.”
“Gladly given, so long as you understand what I need.”
“It won’t be easy, but I’ll make it happen.”
“Wonderful.” I drop a fat envelope on his desk. “Always a pleasure.”
Jeffers doesn’t even hesitate. He knows he needs Corsetti money. How else is he going to afford his high-end prostitute and all his piss sessions? He makes good money, but not that good.
I walk out of the main precinct, whistling softly to myself. More than a few cops shoot me looks. I bet half of them know who I am. Those are the ones on my payroll. The other half are probably in my book.
My Black Book.
Prime’s waiting for me downstairs. He was busy shooting looks at the cops in the lobby and almost daring them to give him shit. I bet they’d love to throw him in cuffs. Prime probably has a file two inches thick.
“How’d the chief take it?” he asks, strolling alongside me.
“Like we figured.”
“Rolled over and thanked me.”
“Pretty much.”
“Must be nice, having that book back.”
