Street Rules (28 page)

Gail shook her head, scolding, “You’re diet’s reprehensible.”

“Sound like Nancy,” Frank said swirling her ice cubes. “Only she wouldn’t have used such a big word.”

“When was the last time you had your cholesterol checked?”

“Me? Never.”

“Never?”
Gail repeated, aghast.

“Nope. Why should I? I’m only forty.”

“Hello? That’s my point.”

“You doctor’s worry too much,” Frank dismissed.

“That’s because we know what can happen.”

“All right then. How often do you get any cardio-vascular exercise?”

Gail pursed her lips and narrowed her eyes.

“Gotcha,” Frank answered. “Still haven’t told me how your week’s going.”

“Shitty,” Gail said propping herself on the table with her elbow. She stabbed a cucumber, asking, “You heard about the mayor’s daughter?”

Frank nodded. His twenty-two year old crashed head on into another vehicle at one in the morning on the 405. She was dead on scene and so were the three teenagers in the Jeep she’d flipped. None of them had been in seat belts and all three were scattered onto the highway.

Gail checked the room before confiding, “Between you and me? Hizonor is not going to be happy. His daughter had a
point three-six
blood-alcohol level.”

“Hizonor might ask for a favor,” Frank warned.

“No kidding,” Gail said. “Why do you think Rhondie is screening all my calls?”

“What are you going to do?”

“Worry about it when it happens. In fact I don’t even want to think about it right now. Tell me about your day. Why the circles under your eyes? And how many of those doubles have you had?”

“Very observant, doc. There’s hope for you yet.”

Gail waited for Frank to continue, and she finally conceded, “It’s bad. I talked to Placa’s brother. He dropped a name. A cop. I can’t say much else. Probably shouldn’t have said as much as I already have. Fubar found out I took Nook and Bobby off Placa. Came up to my office and wanted to know why. I had to tell him. He called the DC right away. Surprise, surprise, they don’t want to move on it.
Too inflammatory.
Might further tarnish our already dulled image. Told me he’d pass it on to IAD. Time for me to drop the case and move along like a good little girl. Let the big boys handle it.”

“That’s all?”
Gail squawked.

“That’s all,” Frank snapped her fingers. “Eight people and a dog. No big. We’ll pass it on to IAD and fuck you very much.”

Frank swallowed half her drink, not liking the bitter tone in her voice.

“Well you can’t just
drop
it. Not a thing like this.”

“Who said anything about dropping it?”

Frank rattled her ice cubes.

“This is just going to make it that much harder.”

Frank had flicked off her pager but turned it back on as she finished her coffee.

“Thanks for having dinner with me, doc. You were a welcome, if only temporary distraction.”

Gail flirted, “I could be more permanent, you know.”

“So you’ve said,” Frank nodded into her napkin. Gail chuckled at Frank’s subtle discomfort, and Frank smiled, warmed from the scotch, the burger, and that sound. She fingered the check as Gail’s hand closed over hers.

“You got the last one.”

“Shoot bullets through me,” Frank said, glancing at the number scrolling across her hip. “Shouldn’t have turned this back on so soon,” she muttered.

“Who is it?”

“The desk. Probably a body I so do not need right now. We going to fight over the bill all night?”

“I’m not fighting,” Gail said, her hand still on Frank’s.

“Hate to, doc, but I’ve got to get going. Let me get this one and you get the next, okay?”

“Deal.”

They settled the tab and walked outside together. Gail told Frank to call her and Frank agreed. She dialed the desk, watching Gail walk across the street. She liked watching Gail walk. Coming was better but leaving was pretty good too.

“Romanowski. Franco. What’s up?”

“There you are!” the old sergeant boomed. “Everybody’s been trying like fuck to find you.”

Frank didn’t like the sound of that, but waited patiently while he shuffled some papers.

“Somethin’ about some boy, yeah, here we go. You got calls from half the squad about a kid named Tonio Estrella.”

Frank’s heart fell onto the pavement and split open.

“Guess he’s at King/Drew and not doing so good. Looks like he got a pretty bad beat-on-sight.”

“Room number?”

“ICU.”

Frank swore and dialed Bobby’s cell number. He picked up immediately.

“What’s going on, Bobby?”

“Damn, Frank. Tonio’s all messed up. Somebody kicked the shit out of him. Gloria brought him in about six AM. He was bleeding inside pretty bad. They did a splenectomy and his liver’s pretty messed up.”

“Who did it?” Frank asked, feeling her dinner sliding around.

“We don’t know. Gloria and Claudia, neither of them are saying a word. The hospital called us in case …”

“In case what?”

“In case he doesn’t make it.”

“He’s that bad?”

“Yeah. I guess he had some sort of clot right after the surgery, and went into arrest. They had to take him back in.”

Frank ground her teeth together, squeezing out, “Who’s there with you?”

“The whole Estrella clan. At least what’s left of them. All the babies, a grandma.”

“And nobody’s saying how he got hurt.”

“Gloria just said she heard some fighting, came into the living room and found him like that with the front door open. Sounds bogus to me.”

“Is Nook with you?”

“Yeah.”

“Who else? Any uniforms?”

“Yeah, why?”

“Listen, Bobby. I don’t want anyone in Tonio’s room, except you, do you understand?”

“Sure, but why?”

“Not Nook, not Foubarelle, not God. Understand? Just you and the doctors.”

“Sure.”

“You stay until I get there, okay? I’m on my way.”

“Okay, Frank.”

“And don’t let Claudia or Gloria out of sight. I want Nook pasted to them. Is that clear?”

“Yeah, sure.

“Okay. Hang tight. I’ll be there in a little bit. I’ll explain everything then.”

Growling,
“Motherfucker,”
Frank laid rubber in the parking lot.

She could hear Gloria screaming and cursing before she was even out of the elevator. Jogging down the hall, Frank saw her struggling with Nook and two uniforms, the other Estrella’s crying around them, trying to hang onto Gloria.

“What the hell’s going on?” she barked, causing all three cops to jerk around and lose their grip on Gloria. Bobby had just come out of the ICU ward and Gloria ran to him. The big detective blocked Gloria easily and Frank repeated her question. Bobby shouted over her head, “She wants to go in.”

Jesus, Frank thought. She hadn’t meant for him to keep the family out. It was her fault. Bobby had taken her literally when she said everyone. He was thorough like that.

“Is it okay with the doctor?”

“I guess,” he shrugged vaguely. “They were in there earlier.”

Frank put herself between Bobby and Gloria, telling her she could see Tonio, but only if she calmed down.

“Fuck that shit!” she screamed, spit flying. “I’ll calm down when that
jodido maricon’s
in his fucking grave!”

Claudia half-heartedly tried to calm her daughter but Gloria repeated, “Fuck that! What we gonna do? Let him come after us one at a time? Fuck that! We goin’ after him. I’ll do it myself if I have to! Uh-uh. I ain’t playing no more.”

“Hey,” Frank soothed. “You stay away from him. Let me take care of this. That’s
my
job.”

“Yeah, like you been taking care of us so far?” she shouted. “We just gonna sit and wait for you useless
jodida
police to come and help us. This shit’s gone too far. That
maricon
ain’t comin’ near my babies. I’ma get him myself.”

Nook came up behind Gloria and asked, “Which
maricon?”

Gloria told him to fuck himself. He made a helpless gesture at Frank.

“I want to see Tonio,” she said, trying to push past Frank, who stopped her.

“You want to see your brother?” Frank asked.

“Yes! I want to see him.”

“Then you gotta calm down,” Frank soothed. “You can see him. You just gotta be calm. For his sake.”

Gloria shot her hands through her hair and moaned, “Just let me in.”

“He needs you to be calm. You gonna be calm for him?”

“I’m calm,” she whimpered, “I’m calm.”

Frank nodded her head and Gloria rushed past Bobby. Frank followed her through the ward, baring her ID as two nurses glared from the desk. Tonio was in a cubicle with barely enough room for his bed and the machines he was attached to. Gloria squeezed in beside him, smoothing his hair, cooing, “Ninito.”

Claudia stepped quietly around Frank, taking a place on the other side of the bed. She found a way around the tubes and held her son’s hand. Frank tried to shut the door but a nurse called out to keep it open. Frank cursed under her breath. She knew who the
maricon
was but wanted to hear one of the women say it. She let them have a moment with Tonio then stood next to Claudia.

“Did he do this?”

There was no response, as if Frank wasn’t even in the room. She put her hand on Claudia’s shoulder, asking again. She startled Frank by spinning around. She hit a tray with her elbow and sent it clattering to the floor.

“Leave us alone!”
she said savagely. “You hurt us enough! Now just leave us be!”

Bobby loomed in the doorway and a nurse scurried in, hissing, “That’s it! Everybody out!”

Gloria started crying but Claudia whirled past Frank. She followed her out to the noisy waiting room, motioning Nook over.

“Who have you talked to about this case?”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean who have you talked to about Placa’s case since I pulled you ?”

“I don’t know. I guess Johnnie, Ike, No. You know.”

“I don’t know. Think!”

“What’s the big-“

Bobby had joined his partner.

“Just who have you talked to about this?”

“Well, Hunt and Waddell. They responded to that stabbing the other night. We were talking for a while. Munoz and Lewis were there too,” he added.

“Did you talk about specifics?”

Bobby and Nook exchanged a glance that said they had. Frank wrestled with her composure, furious where this was going.

“You were bitching about being pulled,” Frank stated.

“Yeah,” Bobby squirmed. “The case isn’t even cold yet. There are still a lot of leads we can work.”

“And you mentioned those leads specifically?”

Bobby pawed his Florsheim at the ground. Now he saw where this was going too.

“Kind of.”

Frank nodded.

“To everyone?”

He looked up at the ceiling and Frank strangled the grip on her temper.

Nook said, “I don’t believe it. You’re
serious.
You really think one of
us
is involved?”

“Bartlett and some other deputy was there too,” Bobby added glumly.

Frank’s jaw muscles bounced and she couldn’t resist asking, “Why didn’t you just take out a full-page ad in the
Times?”

“You
do,”
Nook continued. “You really think it’s one of those guys. And that’s why you pulled us.”

“It doesn’t have to be one of them,” Bobby answered, gamely holding Frank’s angry stare. “They could have talked to anybody.”

“I’ll be damned,” Nook shook his head. “You’ve gone over to the other side.”

If looks could kill it would have been too late for Nook even though he was standing in the middle of the ICU. Frank walked away from her men, over to Claudia who sat as rigid as the plastic chair she was in. Kneeling in front of her, Frank beseeched, “Talk to me, Claudia. Help me.”

The retort was a stinging slap. Frank’s eyes watered, but she didn’t flinch.

“Help
you,”
Claudia hissed.

“I deserved that,” Frank said quietly. Locking onto the livid brown face, she begged, “Please, Claudia.
Te promete
I’ll end this right now. Just give me the last bullet.”

Frank stood and held her hand out. Claudia stared at it a long time but Frank wouldn’t retract it. Finally she stood, following Frank toward the elevator. Slumped in a corner, barely audible, Claudia told Frank what had happened. It was a simple, ugly story and it didn’t take long. Frank wanted to touch Claudia, to comfort her, but she didn’t. She said only, “Okay. We’ve got him now.”

Frank was almost in three fender-benders on the short ride between the hospital and the station. Having made sure the Estrella’s were relatively safe, her next goal was to kick Langley’s ass into gear. Frank had already decided to move on this bastard and his actions over the last twenty-four hours only fortified her resolve; with or without the department’s sanction, she was taking him down. But Frank wasn’t a hero. She had seventeen years toward her pension and didn’t fancy starting a new career at age forty. She was willing to take the risk but preferred Langley’s backing. She had to figure how to get it without threatening or alienating him, no easy task when going against a DC.

Almost rear-ending an old Nova, Frank remembered to call Noah and Johnnie. They were next in line to catch but she couldn’t get hold of either one. She left messages and paged them both. Noah returned her call just as she was pulling into the station lot.

“Dudess, word up?”

“Hey. You’re on call. I pulled —”

“— I can’t be! We’re on our way to La Jolla, Les’ playoff game.”

“Sorry. I need you available.”

“I’ll call Ike or —”

“No! Do you know where Johnnie is?”

“Probably passed out in an alley,” Noah whined, “I don’t know! What’s going on anyway? Why can’t Bobby or Nook handle it?”

“They’re out of rotation. Gloria Estrella got raped last night. Guy did it right in front of Tonio, in front of her kids, and Tonio went ape-shit on him. Then this bastard went even worse on Tonio. He’s just a scrawny little kid. He’s at King/Drew. They took his spleen out and his livers lacerated. Bobby and Nook are posted at the hospital until I find this cocksucker.”