Land of Careful Shadows Read Online Free

daughter as well. The landlord hasn’t seen any of them in several weeks. Plus, Ortiz missed his court date two weeks ago on the harassment charge.”
    Vega and Greco exchanged looks.
    â€œWho was the officer on the call?” asked Greco.
    â€œBale. He’s on vacation in Florida right now. But I pulled a copy of his report.”
    Fitzgerald handed Greco a copy. Greco scanned it and cursed. Then he handed it to Vega. According to Bale’s notes, the complainant, a woman who gave her name as Vilma Ortiz, had bruising and swelling on the left side of her face. A man in the apartment, who said his name was José and that he was her husband, admitted to punching her in the face because he believed she had a boyfriend. On paper, it was a textbook case of domestic violence assault.
    Except it wasn’t—because the officer never made the arrest.
    â€œLet me get this straight,” said Vega. “Your patrol officer sees obvious evidence of physical assault, the perpetrator admits the assault, and your officer slaps him with the equivalent of a parking ticket—which he skips out on anyway? What do you have to do to get arrested for assault in Lake Holly? Put someone in intensive care?” He turned to Fitzgerald. “Or maybe it’s just traffic stops that get you guys fired up.”
    Fitzgerald studied his feet. Greco spread his palms, all reason and beneficence. “These domestic situations usually work themselves out.”
    â€œ Work—themselves—out. ” Vega repeated the words slowly. “Far as I can see, the only workout going on here was a man using his wife as a punching bag. If Bale had arrested him like he should have, we’d have fingerprints and a positive ID. Now, we’ve got zip.”
    â€œWho’s the landlord?” Greco asked Fitzgerald.
    The officer checked his notes. “Salvatore Bustamente.”
    Greco groaned. “Guy’s got four broken-down buildings in town and enough tenants packed into them to populate a small banana republic. If this county had any balls, we’d enforce the housing codes and put that asshole out of business.”
    â€œI gather you know this upstanding citizen,” said Vega.
    â€œI’ve been in his buildings on complaints numerous times. Even the roaches try to find other accommodations.”
    â€œSounds like you two have a history,” said Vega. “Want me to talk to him?”
    â€œNah. He’ll respond better to a fellow paisan, trust me. In the meantime, you should probably visit La Casa, the Latino community center, and see if anybody there can identify the photograph or tell us where Ortiz has disappeared to.”
    Vega grabbed his jacket to leave. Still, something about that police report bothered him. On his way out, he cornered Fitzgerald away from the detectives’ bullpen. Fitzgerald tried to duck into a conference room but Vega blocked the door.
    â€œAbout this morning,” Fitzgerald stammered. “I didn’t know—”
    â€œâ€”Save it for the family of the guy you put in the morgue one day.” He could see he was scaring the kid a little. Good. He needed scaring. “Look, you want to square things between us?”
    â€œYeah. Sure.”
    â€œThen tell me what happens when Lake Holly gets a domestic violence complaint.”
    â€œNothing.” Fitzgerald looked around nervously. “I mean, nothing out of the ordinary, Detective—”
    â€œâ€”Vega’s fine. Just call me Vega. How ’bout you walk me to my car?”
    The kid got a panicked look in his eyes.
    â€œYou think I’d be stupid enough to assault a fellow cop in uniform?” asked Vega. “What you did to me this morning was a huge overreaction. But I’m willing to chalk it up to inexperience if you level with me now.”
    Outside, the rain had stopped, leaving serrated puddles that collected along the uneven blacktop. An American flag