Among Thieves

“Good reputation for courtroom work. He handles mainly criminal defense cases; he’ll take on a civil matter here and there if the payout is good enough. Lives in Charlestown, where he’s got his office-grew up there too. When he was younger he got into some trouble. Managed to pull himself out, though.”

“So how is it that he came to show up at both Murphy’s place and Ballick’s shack right around the time they got dead?” Stone couldn’t tell whether the captain’s question was rhetorical; he let Sanchez deal with it.

“We don’t know. When he showed up at the auto body shop, he told Stone that he was there for a client-Devon Malley. Malley’s a thief. There’s a chance that he was involved in the Gardner job, too. He was busted Monday morning looting Gilberacci’s on Newbury. Someone called in a tip it was go

“So Malley may be tied in to all this?” the captain asked.

“It’s possible,” Sanchez said.

“When’s the lawyer coming in?”

“He was supposed to be in today, but he called and said he had an emergency. He said tomorrow, maybe.”

“Maybe?” Skykes said. “We’re the police; since when do we accept ‘maybe’ in a murder investigation?”

“Fi

Skykes grunted. “Probably right. Anyone else we can work on?”

“Fi

“Tom Kozlowski? Former cop?”

“That’s him. You know him?”

Skykes shook his head. “Not personally. I know of him. He was a good cop, but a pain in the ass. You won’t get anything out of him. He’s too smart to make a mistake, and anything he found out from Fi

“Can we lean on him?” Sanchez suggested.

Skykes laughed. “Sure, but it’d be like leaning on Mount Washington. He’ll hold you up, but he won’t move. That’s not who he is.”

“What, then?” Stone asked.

Skykes looked at Sanchez for an answer. “We put a tail on the lawyer,” she said. “See where he goes; who he talks to. He’s gotta know something.”

“That could take weeks,” Stone lamented.

“Maybe, but unless they’re willing to talk to us voluntarily, it’s the best we’ve got,” Sanchez said.

Skykes nodded to them. “However you want to work it is fine with me. Just make sure we get something useful. I don’t care that the dead guys were scumbags when they were alive; seven dead bodies is seven dead bodies. I don’t like it in my city.”

Chapter Twenty-Two

Lissa left the Green Dragon ahead of the others and headed to Southie to pick Sally up from school. Fi

Fi

Kozlowski stood outside the car, looking angrily from Fi

“Wipe it down,” Fi

Kozlowski reached into the back and grabbed the towel. “Wiping it down doesn’t do a goddamn thing,” he said. “The seat’s cracked. The water soaks into the cushion so it’s like sitting on a wet sponge. Why do you think the car smells like mildew all the time?”

“I thought that was you.”

“Asshole.”

“You wa

“No, I don’t want to call a goddamned cab. I want to work with someone who drives a real goddamned car. Not some piece of crap clowns should be jumping out of.”

“So sit on the towel then. That’ll keep you dry.”

“I would, but then my head scrapes against the roof of the car.”

Fi

Kozlowski’s look was sharp. “I’m not going soft, I just don’t want to sit in pants with a wet ass for the rest of the goddamned day.” He frowned again, then spread the towel over the seat and slid in gingerly, trying to hold some of his weight off the seat. Fi

It was after four o’clock when they arrived. Lissa and Sally were already there when Fi

“What happened to you?” Lissa asked Kozlowski, noting his wet head.

“Don’t ask,” Kozlowski replied. He nodded to the girl and padded down the hall toward the bathroom to dry himself off.

Fi

“Yeah,” she said. “I told her.”

“I’m in the room,” Sally said. They looked at her. “You were talking about me, right?”

Fi

“She told me,” Sally said. “My dad’s not getting out today.”

“Not yet,” Fi

“Yeah, sounds like Devon pitched a fit,” Sally replied. “He’s a fuckup; I already know that.”

“I might have used different terms,” he said. “But yeah, he had a little outburst. I’ll get another bail hearing set, though.” He glanced at Lissa, wondering how much she had told the girl. She frowned and gave a slight shake of her head that Fi

She shrugged. “I don’t have any choice, I guess,” she said.

“That’s all you have to say?” Lissa asked.

Sally looked up at her. “What else do you want me to say?”

“It’s okay,” Fi

“No, it’s not okay,” she said. “You wa

Sally stood up. She was wearing her coat, and her bag dangled from her hand. Fi

“I know,” Lissa said. “That’s why Fi

Fi