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and some commotion on Muro's end. Joe Swisher came on. "Thorpe, sweety, how's D.C. this time of year?"
    Donna knew now that Swisher knew about her de-motion. She chose to ignore the barb. 'Your partner fill you in on the situation? Will you meet with me tonight?"
    "Why're you asking, Thorpe? Why didn't you just bust in and cuff me? Drag me in before your holier- than-thou presence and just explain things to me? Like you did when you got Camera and those three women killed so you could get your man. Oh, by the way, tough luck about your partner... ahh, Sykes? But what's a few bodies along the way to a gal like Donna Thorpe, huh?"
    Donna recalled having said the exact same words to Swisher once. She almost told him to fuck off. In-stead, she swallowed it and calmly replied, "Hey, mister, I'm the one saw that your unsavory file and your unsavory ass came out of that one intact and alive, or did you forget that? As for your file, you got it back, remember?"
    Swisher hesitated on the other end. "My problem is you, Thorpe. I just don't like you or your methods."
    "Then we agree to disagree, because I don't like your methods either."
    "You call me out of the blue, sic me onto some poor slob like you've got me on a leash. Then maybe I blow your problem away, and then I'm carted off for it, shut away tight; end of Donna Thorpe's backside itch. Great."
    "No, no... Lieutenant, it's not like that."
    "Then why aren't you going through my captain?"
    "It's not officially my case. I can't go through channels, and I can't order anyone on or off it, you under-stand?"
    "Until it becomes your case, I'll say no thanks and hasta luego."
    "Suppose I told you I know who did Stavros?"
    "Bullshit," he replied and promptly hung up on her. In Nebraska, she said, "Damn that man." She then called for the helicopter to be readied, and she made a few preparatory calls for her visit. She'd go to the Windy City with what she had on Ovierto, lay it all out for Swisher, and take her chances. She knew just where to locate Swisher. He'd be at a watering hole, a bar and grill called Transfusions, on Kedzie near Damon Avenue.
    Swisher had his own agenda: people he wanted to put away forever. There wasn't a murder in the country reported that Donna Thorpe didn't know about; she'd read with great interest the news of a man named Stavros who'd ostensibly bled to death from a wound in a nasty place, a wound a man needn't die from, unless the killer had also grotesquely arranged for the victim not to get medical attention. The case smacked of Dr. Ovierto's handiwork, and she believed it could be a decoy killing —one of Dr. O's endless red herrings, to lead police in one direction while he sought out another.
    One phone call and the Stavros thing would be turned over to Lieutenant Joseph Swisher. The ties that bind, thought Thorpe.
    She got Swisher's captain on the line, a man that she had made use of before many times. Brian Noone was physically one of the biggest men she had ever en-countered, but his bull shoulders and huge middle be-lied his intellect. He was shrewd. Even more than shrewd, he was ambitious. He was what was fast be-coming a rare breed: an inner city police captain who welcomed FBI involvement on a case. Not that he actually believed that the FBI knew what they were doing.
    After the initial amenities, including a few remarks about how sorry Noone was to hear about Tom Sykes, Thorpe told him, "I'd like you to put Joe Swisher on the Stavros case."
    "Is that a request?"
    "It is."
    Noone was assessing her tone. "Brian, it's important. Can't give you all the details, but—"
    "That's all right. I love being in the dark," he replied with what amounted to a lot of sarcasm for Noone.
    She cleared her throat. Brian. I've got reason to believe Stavros may be connected to one of our most wanted."
    "Ovierto, huh?"
    "This stays between us. Okay, Brian?"
    "Swisher's got a full docket."
    "You can loosen that up, a little juggling."
    "Just snatch it from the dicks