“You did your homework,” Halladay said, “But not well enough. Two of the previous Dayfall killings were in buildings protected by GS.”
“Oh,” Jon conceded after an embarrassed pause, but then moved on persistently. “How about the chaos crimes? Do I talk to Amira about those?”
“No,” Halladay said with an annoyed sigh. “That investigation’s run by Airhead and Dickless…. I’ll take you to them.”
“More nicknames,” the younger man observed to the older one as they said goodbye to Amira and walked away from her. “I’d rather you just call me Jon.”
“Just be glad I didn’t call you Piss-Pants,” Halladay said with a smirk, confirming Jon’s worst fears. “Yeah, I did some checking on you, too.”
6
“I need to go home for a while after we talk to these guys,” Halladay said as they headed toward the Chaos Crimes offices. “I’ve been on for twenty hours and I need some rest.”
Jon didn’t respond, but studied the two plainclothes officers who were talking in an enclosed office with a lot of glass on the front, until they noticed Halladay and him heading their way. One was an Indian man and the other a blond woman.
“You can ask them whatever you want,” Halladay told Jon. “But don’t give them anything. I wouldn’t be surprised if they’re on the take with GS.”
“Is this the new blood?” the Indian man said as they approached.
“This is… Jon Phillips,” Halladay said with a slight hesitation. “Jon, this is Airhead.”
“Ari Hegde,” the man said while shaking Jon’s hand, not even bristling at Halladay’s nickname for him.
“And this is Dickless,” the older cop said about the blonde.
“Compliment,” she responded, and then offered her hand to Jon: “Brenda Dixon.”
“I’m surprised he doesn’t have an insulting name for you yet,” Hegde said to Jon. “He even called Amira ‘Towelhead.’”
“That was before I got to know her,” the big man replied. “Notice how I still call you Airhead…. That should tell you something.”
“So… the chaos crimes,” Jon interrupted. “What can you tell me about them?”
“Not much to tell, unfortunately,” Hegde answered. “Random violence when the sun’s been out, mass psychology of some kind, probably. Fights, arson, theft, some deaths… happened at random places around the city, heightened during the daylight.”
“Random,” Dixon added, and nothing more.
“No common themes or repeated perps? Have you made arrests?”
“Some, though it’s really hard to respond to widespread panic like that. A few we brought in said they felt something affecting them, one or more said they weren’t in their right minds, that sort of thing. They seemed pretty normal after being inside for a while.”
“Halladay’s theory,” Dixon offered.
“Yeah, has Halladay infected you with any of his paranoid ideas?” Hegde said with a smile. “Like right wing radicals are behind the Dayfall chaos because they want Render to gain power in the city?”
Jon looked at Halladay, hiding his surprise, then asked Hegde and Dixon why they didn’t find Halladay’s theories credible.
“Because they’ve always turned out to be wrong,” Hegde answered. “And besides, the government has too many other problems to be nosing into our business here.”
“Ridiculous.” This from Dixon.
“I suspect everyone and everything,” Halladay explained. “That’s what makes me a good cop.”
“That’s what makes you wrong so often,” Hegde said.
“How many deaths?” Jon asked.
“Twenty-four to date, and a lot more injuries.”
“Ballistics?”
“Only one gun death, and that was one of our arrests. Store owner who got scared of the people crowding into her store because they were scared of what was going on in the street. Told them to leave, one man came at her, to take the gun, she thought…. She shot him.”
“The rest?”
“Blades, blunt instruments. People carry these things, they’re gonna use them when threatened.”
“Descriptions of the attackers from the ones who survived?”
“Uh… actually, the injured people were just from the fires and explosions caused by the fires. Shrapnel, burns, etc.”
“No survivors of the manual attacks?”
“No, not that we know of yet.”
“And not a single homicide suspect in custody?”
“Nope,” said Hegde. “Boring job, actually.”
After a pause, he added, “Are we done here?”
“Why, are you busy?” Halladay chimed in, seemingly more interested in Hegde’s rudeness than anything he had to say about the crimes. “How can you be, if your job’s so damn boring?”
“Have you checked for any civil lawsuits resulting from the mob crimes?” Jon continued, “to see if anyone brought forth evidence or testimony that might be pertinent?” He’d read that many Manhattanites made a living, or at least supplemented their income, by filing lawsuits when anything went wrong—and even when it hadn’t. They needed the money, he guessed, so they could party all the time.
“That’s an idea,” Hegde said, “but what’s the point? Even if we do tap someone, they were under the influence of whatever’s happening out there, and probably protecting themselves from everybody else.”
“So you buy the Dayfall idea, that something’s coming over these people, something they can’t control?”
“We wouldn’t need this department if it wasn’t true, though I can’t say I understand it myself. You’ll have to talk to the experts at NYU about that.”
“Can I see what you have in your lab?” Jon asked.
“I guess we can’t stop you, if you fill out all the forms and manage to get them signed. But last I checked, you were Serial Homicide and we’re Chaos Crimes. Why don’t you do your job, and we’ll do ours.”
Jon looked at Dixon, waiting for a word from her, but she just nodded.
“Nice meeting you,” Jon said after studying them a little more, and turned to go.
Halladay flipped them the bird as he did the same.
When they were clear of the other cops, Jon asked his partner, “Did you ever do any investigation into the right-wing government conspiracy angle?”
“No.”
“You don’t believe your own theories enough to follow up on them?”
“No, because they’ve always turned out to be wrong,” he said with a smile.
“Well, I want Amira to follow up on mine. Have her check into any civil lawsuits that have been filed as a result of the chaos crimes. I also want her to question some of the injured survivors.”
“Really?” Halladay groaned. “She’s already too busy with what you just gave her.”
“And tell her to look for anything that even smacks of intentionality.”
“I don’t see the point,” the big cop persisted, and Jon noticed the similarity to what Hegde had just said. “These crimes are different in every way from the ones we’re investigating.”
“Not in every way,” Jon said. “They’re both making people afraid of Dayfall.”
Halladay grunted and fumbled with his phone as Jon followed exit signs, looking around at the police staff and wondering how many of them sympathized with Render. Did a lot of them agree that the Gotham boss would make the city safer if he was in charge?
They were back out in the long night, in front of the Flatiron Building, by the time Halladay was done talking to Amira on the phone.