The Hornet’s Nest. Patricia Cornwell

reached in and gripped her arm.

“Don’t leave anybody behind,” he said.

“I turned in my badge today,” Johnson told him.

They made you do that? ” he protested. There’s no evidence you …”

“No one made me. I did it,” she cut him off. They think I’m a monster! ” She broke down more.

Brazil was determined.

“We can change that,” he said.

“Let me help.”

She unlocked her car and he got in.

Chapter Ten.

Chief Hammer was watering her plants when West walked in the next morning. West

carried coffee and another healthy breakfast from Bojangles, this time a sausage-egg

biscuit and Bo-Rounds, for a little variety. The chief’s phone was going crazy, but

Hammer was busy atomizing orchids. She glanced up without a greeting. Hammer was

well known for one-two punch announcements in her faint Arkansas accent.

“So.” She sprayed.

“He gets in a pursuit, resulting in two arrests.

Single-handedly cracking a string of Radio Shack burglaries that has plagued the city for

eight months. ”

She examined an exotic white blossom, and sprayed again. Hammer was striking in a

black silk suit with subtle pinstripes, and a black silk blouse with a high collar, and black

onyx beads. West loved the way her boss dressed. West was proud to work for a woman

who looked so sharp and had good legs, and was decent to people and plants, and could

still kick butt with the best of them.

“And he somehow managed to get the truth from Johnson.” Hammer nodded at the

morning paper on her desk.

“Clearing up this notion that she’s responsible for those poor people’s deaths. Johnson’s

not going to quit.”

Hammer moved over to a calamondin tree near a window and plucked dead leaves from

bushy branches that always bore fruit.

“I talked to her this morning,” she went on.

“All this, and Brazil wasn’t even riding with us.” She stopped what she was doing, and looked up at her deputy chief.

“You’re right. He can’t be out by himself. God knows what he’d do if he had a uniform

on. I wish I could transfer him to another city about three thousand miles from here.”

West smiled as her boss worried about spider mites and quenched a corn plant with a

small plastic watering can.

“What you wish,” West said to her, ‘is that he worked for you. ” Paper crackled as she dug into her Bojangles bag.

“You eat too much junk,” Hammer told her.

“If I ate all the crap you do, I’d be a medicine ball.”

“Brazil called me,” West finally got around to this as she folded back a greasy wrapper.

“You know why he was behind that Radio Shack?”

“No.” Hammer started on African violets, glancing curiously at West.

Five minutes later. Hammer was walking with purpose down a long hallway on the first

floor. She did not look friendly. Police she passed stared and nodded. She reached a

door and opened it. Uniformed officers inside the roll call room were startled to see their

well-dressed leader walk in. Deputy Chief Jeannie Goode was in the midst of briefing

dozens of the troops about her latest concerns.

“All, I mean all inquiries get routed to the duty captain …” Goode was saying before the vision of Hammer walking toward her cut the meeting short. Goode knew trouble when

she saw it.

“Deputy Chief Goode,” Hammer said for all to hear.

“Do you know what harassment is?”

The color drained from Goode’s face. She thought she might faint, and leaned against the blackboard while cops stared, paralyzed. Goode could not believe the chief was about to

dress her down in front of thirty-three lowly David One street cops, two sergeants, and

one captain.

“Let’s go upstairs to my office,” Goode suggested with a weak smile.

Hammer stood in front of her troops and crossed her arms. She was very calm when she

replied, “I think every one could benefit from this. It has been reported to me that

officers tailed an Observer reporter all over the city.”

“Says who?” Goode challenged.

“Him? And you believe him?”

“I never said it was a him,” Hammer informed her.

The chief paused for a long time and the silence in the room gave Goode chills. Goode

Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175

Leave a Reply 0

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *