Antithetical Jack V. behavior.
Smut brushed shoulders with the Nite Owl.
Ed thought back.
The Englekling brothers, Duke Cathcart, Mickey Cohen. Smut dismissed as a viable Nite Owl lead–three dead Negroes, case closed.
Ed read the file again. Years of padded reports, one assignment bereft of paper. Vincennes returned to Narco in July ’53–he went back to his old ways, continued them straight through to the end of his duty with Surveillance.
Big-time anomaly.
Coinciding with the Nite Owl.
Spring ’53, another connection: Sid Hudgens was murdered then–unsolved. Ed hit the intercom.
“Yes, Captain?”
“Susan, find out who besides Sergeant John Vincennes was assigned to the Fourth Squad at Administrative Vice in April of 1953. Do that, then locate them.”
o o o
A half hour for results. Sergeant George Henderson, Officer Thomas Kifka retired; Sergeant Lewis Stathis working Bunco. Ed called his C.O.; Stathis walked in ten minutes later.
A burly man–tall, stooped. Nervous–an I.A. bracing out of nowhere was a spooker. Ed pointed him to a chair. Stathis said, “Sir, this is about . . .”
“Sergeant, this has nothing to do with you. This has to do with an officer you worked Ad Vice with.”
“Captain, my Ad Vice tour was years ago.”
“I know, late ’51 through the summer of ’53. You transferred out just as I rotated in on my floater assignment. Sergeant, how closely did you work with Jack Vincennes?”
Stathis smiled. Ed said, “Why are you grinning?”
“Well, I read in the paper that Vincennes juked these two heist guys, and talk around the Bureau has it that he bugged out on the scene unannounced. That’s a big infraction, so I was smiling ’cause it figured he’d be the Ad Vice guy you’d be interested in.”
“I see. And did you work closely with him?”
Stathis shook his head. “Jack was strictly the single-o type. You know, the beat of a different drummer. Sometimes we worked the same general assignments, but that was it.”
“Your squad worked a pornography investigation in the spring of’53, do you recall that?”
“Yeah, it was a colossal waste of time. Dirty skin books, a waste of time.”
“You yourself reported no leads.”
“Yeah, and neither did Trashcan or the other guys. Russ Millard got co-opted to that Nite Owl thing, and the skin book caper fell through.”
“Do you recall Vincennes acting strangely during that time?”
“Not really. I remember he only showed up at the squadroom at odd times and that him and Russ Millard didn’t like each other. Like I said, Vincennes was a loner. He didn’t pal around with the guys on the squad.”
“Do you recall Millard making specific queries of the squad when two printshop operators came forward with smut information?”
Stathis nodded. “Yeah, something to do with the Nite Owl that didn’t pan out. We all told old Russ that those skin books could not be traced hell or high water.”
One hunch going dry. “Sergeant, the Department was running a fever with the Nite Owl back then. Can you recall how Vincennes reacted to it? Any little thing out of the ordinary?”
Stathis said, “Sir, can I be blunt?”
“Of course.”
“Well, then I’ll tell you that I always figured Vincennes was a cheap-shot cop on the take somehow. Put that aside, I remember he was sort of nervous around the time of the skin book job. On the Nite Owl, I’d say he was bored with it. He was in on the arrest of those colored guys, he was there when our guys found the car and the shotguns, and he still seemed bored by it.”
Coming on again–no facts, just instincts. “Sergeant, think. Vincennes’ behavior around the time of the Nite Owl and the pornography investigation. Anything out of the ordinary with him. _Think_.”
Stathis shrugged. “Maybe one thing, but I don’t think it amounts to–”
“Tell me anyway.”
“Well, back then Vincennes had the cubicle next to mine, and sometimes I could hear him pretty good. I was at my desk and heard part of a conversation, him and Dudley Smith.”
“And?”
“And Smith asked Vincennes to put a tail on Bud White. He said White’d gotten personally involved in a hooker homicide and he didn’t want him doing nothing rash.”