"If the window was used at all," Sloan said.
"Yeah. If."
"How about the husband of the woman who was with Alie'e and Corbeau on the bed, this Catherine Kinsley. Did he know about the relationship?" Lucas asked.
"They're not in yet," Rose Marie said.
Lester said, "I did just sit in on an interview with Alie'e's boyfriend"
"I saw him," Lucas said.
"Noxious little penis," Lester said. "His real name used to be Jim Shue. He didn't think he looked like a shoe, so he tried to change it to JX. J for James, X for nothing. The court told him he had to have a vowel, so he winds up Jax. Anyway, he knew all about the relationship with Corbeau. He says it didn't bother him. He called it Alie'e's 'alternate modality.' He said that they were both multisexual. He said pretty soon everybody will be."
"Too late for me," Rose Marie said.
"Yeah. I'm barely unisexual," Lester said. "Anyway, he's a dipshit. He said he had nothing to do with her death, but we're putting him on the shortlist."
"What about the media thing?" Rose Marie asked Lucas. "The human sacrifice?"
"I'll ask Del," Lucas said. "He's setting it up."
Chapter 6
Del was waiting outside Lucas's office, leaning patiently against the wall. When he saw Lucas coming, he walked down the hall to meet him and said, "I'm clear with IA."
"What about finding somebody we can throw to the media?"
"I can't find a connection. These aren't street people. But the dope guys are set up to raid George Shaw's operation"
"Shaw is street. He's not Alie'e's dealer," Lucas said.
"I know, but it's what we got," Del said. "We got confirmation last night that he's got a lot of cocaine on hand and maybe some heroin. So they're gonna hit him, and I thought we could ride along. We don't say anything, but we get your picture taken."
"Where?"
"A place down on Thirty-fifth. Shaw has been sleeping there, usually until three o'clock or so. He's there now. We're gonna hit him a little after noon. If we work it right, the TV people are gonna jump to a conclusion. We can deny our ass off and they won't believe us for a minute."
"That's not exactly what we wanted."
"No, but that's as good as we're gonna get it," Del said.
Lucas thought about it for a second. The movie people weren't stupid; if they thought they were being manipulated, there'd be trouble. But if they weren't thrown some kind of meat, they'd be running around like a pack of wolves, and pretty soon the politicians would start to panic, and then the attorney generalyou never wanted to stand between the attorney general and a TV camerawould get into it, on some theme like police negligence. In a fairly short time, a world-class pissing match would be going on and
"All right. If that's what we got."
"I've already tipped TV3 to be ready to roll between noon and one o'clock," Del said. "Rose Marie and the mayor already said at the press conference that you'd be monitoring the investigation. So if you're monitoring the raid, and if they want to put two and two together that's their problem."
"But the raid isn't a put-up job, is it? I mean, it's legit?"
"It's fine. Shaw got a ton of shit a week ago, but he's been moving, wholesaling it to all the little assholes. Couldn't find him. Now he's holed up at his sister-in-law's and he's still got some left."
Lucas nodded. "Because if it was a put-up job, andsomebody gets hurt, the word would get out and we'd all be in shit city."
Del nodded. "We're okay The drug guys were talking about it last night, before Alie'e, as soon as they spotted Shaw walking home."
The twelve-man emergency response team met at a south side precinct house and was briefed by a guy named Lapstrake from Intelligence. Lapstrake was a bland, twenty-something guy with a home haircut who wore blue Sears work pants and a blue shirt that said "Cairns Glass" on the back. He used a flip pad to illustrate the approaches to George Shaw's house. Lucas and Del sat on folding chairs in the back of the room, listening in.
"We're gonna have to move fast," Lapstrake said, pointing with a laser. "George's got relatives all over the neighborhood, and every one of them's got him on speed-dial. Four guys go in the back, coming in from Thirty-fourth. You'll split up and go around this house" He put a red laser-dot on the house behind Shaw's. " and go right over the fence and cover the back door and side windows. It's a hurricane fence, no problem."
"A dog?" somebody asked.
"Used to be, but it died," the Intelligence cop said.
"Aw, shit," somebody said. "They got pit bulls down there."
"He's gone, really," Lapstrake said, grinning. "I promise."
He put another red dot on the front of the house. "We got Group Two coming in from the front, blocking, watching down the sides. Group Three hits the front door. We think George sleeps in what used to be the dining room. When you go in, you'll be in the living room. There'll be a hall straight ahead, and an arch over to the right. The dining room is behind the arch, and that's where George should be, but there's also a connection between the dining room and the kitchen."
Lapstrake sketched it quickly, and made sure the entry group had it. "From the time we hit the sidewalk, we need to be on top of him in one minute, no more. There's a possibility that he'll be upstairs. There's no bathroom upstairs and no way out, and we don't think it's likely he'll be up there. The stairs come down into the front roomyou'll see them on your left when you go through the door."
"Who else is in the house?" somebody asked. "And what're we looking for, specifically?"
"We think he's probably got anything from a quarter kilo to a kilo of cocaine on him, and some amount of heroin, but we don't know how much. He usually carries it in plastic squeeze bottles, like the kind you get at camping stores, REI, like that. We heard last week that he'd gotten a delivery the week before, and was putting it on the street, but we couldn't find him, so who knows what he's got left? Maybe he's got a ton, maybe he's sold it all. The coke is definite, one of our guys saw it last night," Lapstrake said. "As for who else in the house, the house is owned by his sister-in-law, Mary Lou Carter. The thing is, you gotta watch Mary Lou. Get her on the floor. She tends to go off."
"She got a gun?" somebody else asked.
"Not her style, but there's probably a few in the house. She basically has a really explosive temper, and she's big and strong. If she comes after you, don't mess around. Take her down. Dick Hardesty ran into her a couple of years ago, and she almost beat his brains out."
"What about Shaw? Is he gonna fight? He's a tough guy."
"Yeah, but he's a pro, and he's getting older and slower. I don't think he'll fight," Lapstrake said. He looked around and asked, "Any more questions? No? Then Chief Davenport wants to say a word. He and Del are gonna ride along."
Lucas stood up and said, "Number one, nobody get hurt. Number two, there's gonna be some media around. The Homicide guys think Shaw's heroin may have been getting to Alie'e Maison, and you've all heard about that situation. Homicide thinks maybe her killing was drug-related. So take it easy, but we want to look sharp."
Lucas looked around, got a few nods. Lapstrake picked up a jacket and said, "So let's go."
Out the door, Del wandered down the sidewalk, pulled out a cell phone, punched in a number, said a few words, and punched off.
"We're set," he said. On the way to the target house, lagging a bit behind the entry team, Del asked, "Do you remember George Shaw?"
"Yeah. I didn't know him real well."
"It's just that Lapstrake said he was getting older and slower and probably wouldn't fight."