Robert Charrette - Arthur 01 - A Prince Among Men Read Online Free Page B

Manny's badge wallet was tucked into his parka's chest pocket. The parka was civilian but the badge vouched for Manny's right to be here, even if you didn't notice the uniform under the coat. Charley didn't have either badge or uniform, since he wasn't here officially, at least not in the usual way. He was here as a witness, the finder of the corpse. He was supposed to be on vacation; he was supposed to have left all of this kind of shit in the Sprawl.
    He took a pull from the steaming cup. The coffee wasn't as hot as it looked; most of the steam was air-temp differential. It'd be too cold to drink soon. Which might not be so bad; this swill was near as bad as Sergeant Kowalski's squad-room acid.
    "Ranger says no bears this time of year," Manny said.
    "Wasn't a bear."
    "Forensics say so?"
    "No."
    "Then how do you know?"
    Poor Manny. Nothing was real till some authority confirmed it for him. "Ranger's right about the time of year. Besides, that's not a bear kill."
    "Come on, Charley. The poor bastard's been knocked to shit, slit up, and bloody half eaten."
    True as far as it went. "Bears don't ride motorcycles away from crime scenes."
    Manny was unimpressed. "Any tramp could have done that. He comes along, sees the thing. A free bike. Nobody around here to complain. Or see him. Especially the corpse. Tramp just takes it and rides."
    "Body was still oozing when the bike left."
    "How you know that? You been talking to Forensics without telling me?"
    Charley took a sip of the cooling, coffee-colored swill. "I looked."
    Manny grumbled into his cup. As usual when he wanted to vent, in Spanish. As usual, Charley pretended he didn't understand the language. Charley waited until Manny ran down.
    "Glad you came up."
    "Hey, we're partners. Couldn't leave you to the mercy of the locals. These country boys ain't got no respect for real cops."
    "They're doing okay." Once Lieutenant Cullen, the local in charge of the investigation, had gone through the "you're off duty and we're not and it's not your jurisdiction anyway" speech, they'd been pretty decent. He even believed Cullen when the guy had said that making Charley wait around wasn't his idea, even though the lieutenant wouldn't spill on who Charley was supposed to be waiting around for. Charley understood that kind of jam; he'd had to do the same thing to a witness in the Gossamer case last year. "Lucky this wasn't on corp turf."
    Manny nodded knowingly. Dealing with private cops and all their bullshit about company confidentiality made any investigation a pain. Murders like Gossamer's were the worst. The local boys were lucky they weren't going to have to deal with that kind of shit.
    Sipping his coffee, Manny helped Charley watch the forensics team. Slowly his face screwed up into the grimace that meant he was thinking hard about something. Charley waited. Manny would talk when he was ready.
    "So what's so important about this Churdy guy?"
    "Don't know."
    "You ain't figured an angle on it yet?"
    "No."
    "Maybe it was a bear, then."
    Manny was persistent; you had to give him that. Captain Milton called it boneheaded, but then Captain Milton didn't think much of Manny. Charley didn't think much of Captain Milton. "Like I said, no bear."
    "Maybe it's a hit by the Barrington creepo? That bastard tears 'em up pretty good."
    "That slasher's got a pattern. Timing's not right."
    Manny grunted. He didn't like that answer either. "Copycat?"
    "Out here? Get real."
    "Yeah." He looked disappointed. "Still. It's gotta be something, if they want you to hang out here and talk to whoever it is they want you to talk to."
    "So they won't tell you either?"
    "Lieutenant Cullen says I gotta wait if I wanna see. 'Jurisdiction,' he says. Jurisdiction, my ass. Bugger likes being one up."
    Charley nodded. He had assumed the lack of info was just due to his being a witness. "Never tell the civs anything" was usually the safest rule, and in this case Charley counted as a civ. But if the locals weren't telling