Kop (17 page)

I came back through the lobby. The water-stained ceiling flaked plaster to the floor. Musty flags hung like rags from poles by the door. I passed by Yuan Kim who was hanging with a young officer in uniform. “Hey, Juno. How’s that murder case going?”

I didn’t want to talk to this hump. “Slow,” I said.

He shoved his glasses up to the bridge of his nose. “Got any good leads?”

“Naw, you know how it is.”

“Yeah, tell me about it. Me and Josephs are hitting dead ends at every turn, too. It’s probably just as good that you took that Army case. We’ve got fucking MPs coming out our asses. Two new ones since the last time I saw you and that’s only been what—since yesterday.” MPs: missing persons.

I gave him the kind of uh-huh that said, “Stop talking to me because I don’t care.”

He rolled on, oblivious. “We just got back from Tenttown. There’s a fourteen-year-old girl that’s been missing for two weeks. It doesn’t take a genius to figure this one out. A fourteen-year-old girl from Tenttown, you know she’s a runaway. Only her mother is so grief stricken that she calls the police. When we ask her if her daughter was upset about anything before she disappeared, she said, ‘No, she’s a very happy child.’ I’m thinking, ‘Gimme a break. Nobody’s happy in Tenttown, especially a teenager;’ am I right? You know what kind of hole that place is.”

I almost picked a fight right there.
Did you know I’m from Tenttown, motherfucker?

Yuan Kim pushed his glasses up and rambled on. “Even her father thinks she ran away. Let me tell you, she’s no child, either. According to the neighbors, she’ll bang anything with a dick. For two weeks now, we’ve tried to talk the mother out of filing a report, but she won’t hear it. Now Josephs and I are stuck with the paperwork.”

He didn’t even realize how close he was to getting those glasses permanently tacked to his nose. I let out another uh-huh.

“Hey, how’s Maggie doing on her first case?”

“Good.”

The uniform standing with Kim snickered. “Maggie? Is that Magda Orzo?”

Kim said, “Yeah, her real name is Magda. What of it?”

The uniform pointed over his shoulder to the rookie wall. Photos of all the recent graduates grinned in their frames.
What—where?
Now I saw it…Maggie’s face with the caption “Officer Magda Orzo” underneath. There was a dripping penis doodled next to her smile and nippled breasts drawn over her uniform.

“Who did that?” I wanted to know.

“Josephs. Who else would find that funny?” Kim answered.

“You knew about this?”

“You know how he is, Juno. He doesn’t know when to stop. He screwed around with her picture, then came and got me and told me my girlfriend was in the lobby, waiting for me. I came down here wondering who he was talking about. I mean, I see a few girls, but none of them regular. He followed me down, bringing half the squad with him. I was wandering around looking for whoever she is, and he pointed the picture out and yelled, I mean yelled, ‘She’s right here, Kim!’ Then the dumbass started laughing like crazy.”

“Why didn’t you take the picture down?”

“Trust me, the best way to deal with Josephs is to ignore him. If he knows he’s getting under your skin, he won’t let up.”

“Hold these.” I handed Kim the soda bottles and reached up for the picture—too high. I told the uniform to get it down. He had to stand tiptoe to get it.

I went straight for the stairs, carrying the picture in my right. My hand was quivering—didn’t care. Kim trailed behind, asking me what I was doing. I didn’t answer. My vision narrowed down to a burning red tunnel.

I charged into homicide.
Where the fuck is he…?
There, sitting at a desk, his back turned to me. The people around him looked up at me and stopped mid-sentence. Josephs sensed something. He started to turn….

I slammed the picture glass side down over his head. Glass
shattered, and the frame broke apart. Only the photo itself held it together.

Josephs wheeled in his chair.
Shit he’s fast.
He swung.
Move!
My body couldn’t move fast enough. His fist connected with my jaw….

“…Juno! Juno! You in there?”

I opened my eyes.

Yuan Kim knelt over me. “He’s awake, guys.”

I tried to sit up—too dizzy.

A hazy Mark Josephs sat at his desk holding a bloodstained towel to the top of his head.
Don’t tell me…Shit! He knocked me out. Shit!

Two Kims pushed their blurred glasses up their blurred noses. “You okay, Juno? You been out for about a minute. He clocked you good. Do you need a doctor?”

“No.” Shit, my head hurt.

“Is your jaw broken?”

“I don’t think so. Help me up.”

“Maybe you should wait a few minutes…take it easy.”

I sat up. This time I was less dizzy. Kim pulled me wobbly-legged standing.

“Where’s my soda?”

“Here, right here.”

I grabbed the bottles and took short steps to keep upright. I walked down the hall, found the toilet, and rained vomit on floating cigarette butts. I made my way back to vice, got to my desk, and dug around for aspirin. I cracked open a soda and washed down the pills. I felt my teeth with my tongue—all there, one a little loose.
How the fuck did Josephs get so fast?

Maggie came in wielding a fresh loaf, a chunk of cheese, and a hell-bent attitude. “Who the hell do you think you are?”

“You heard?”

“I just ran into Kim. He told me what happened.” She launched into a string of rants. “I can take care of myself…I don’t need you to protect me…I can fight my own battles…You’re not my father.” That last one hurt.

I hung my knotting head and took it all. Why did I go after Josephs like that? It was the way that asshole treated Maggie. It just set me off. You don’t treat women like that.

I
WALKED
through the alley entrance to the Lotus. Perfume and incense-scented aircon tickled my nose. I turned down the houseboy’s offer of a clean shirt and sent him off to get Rose. I needed to ask permission to see if our peeper witness was back. I’d be surprised if he was back so soon, but it was worth a check.

Rose sauntered out with gaudy makeup and a dress slit on one side, exposing some thigh. “My word, Juno. What happened to you?”

The bruise on the side of my face had already developed—purple on my brown skin. I’d gone home after the fight. The aspirin wasn’t strong enough. Niki went through her stash, picking out the best painkillers for me. She gave me an ice pack and left me napping on the sofa after some appreciated babying. I slept the afternoon and early evening away in a drugged euphoria.

I told Rose I got into a little scuffle.

She said, “You have to take it easy, Juno. Would you like to lie down?”

“No thanks, Rose. I’m fine.” My face didn’t hurt. I was still looped. “It okay if I head on up?”

“Sure.” She checked her watch. “They should be done in room two any minute now. Do you mind waiting a bit for them to come out?”

“No problem. Is it okay if I wait upstairs?”

“You go right ahead.”

I climbed up the back stairs and waited at the end of the hall. I sat on a frilly bench and watched the door to room two. The sounds of somebody’s good time came through the walls at high decibels. I probed my jaw, finding the tender spots. What the hell was I thinking attacking Josephs like that? I knew he might kick my ass. And now that he had, the whole police force knew he could kick my ass. What the hell good was an enforcer nobody was afraid of?

The door opened. Out came an offworlder—genetically engineered perfection. Every one of them an Adonis. He buttoned his last button, and his hair self-straightened—never seen that before. Lagartans were starving to death while these narcissistic bastards thought up ways to obsolete combs. Attached to his elbow was one of Rose’s hookers, wearing yellow satin with lacy edges. They giggled their way to the opposite stairs.

I went into fuck-chamber two and surprised a couple on the floor, he on his knees, she on all fours getting her throat checked by his Doctor Johnson. The scene reflected off the mirrored walls with hundredfold intensity. She startled at my entrance, then grinned and went back to work with renewed relish. My face burned red. She pulled her mouth free and said, “It’s okay, honey. You can watch.” Both of them had offworld-white skin, not Lagartan brown. Holograms—used to get the johns in the mood. Rose forgot to shut down the system.

My embarrassment turned to anger at being fooled. The holograms adjusted to my frame of mind. Leather, spikes, and chains faded in. He had a hold of her hair now, yanking her head back and forth with rough jerks. These weren’t the cheap holos we got with the phone system. These auto-adjusted to your emotions. The Orbital must have been charging Rose a hefty fee to have these images beamed down.

They sensed my lack of arousal and shifted into two women. The system was searching for that perfect image, the one that sent my blood gushing south. I walked through the scene, my legs momentarily disappearing under their sweaty flesh. I approached the window, pulled my piece, and climbed out onto the roof.

I beelined across the roof, heading straight for the peeper’s hideout—couldn’t see shit. Somebody dashed out of the shadows and vaulted over the wall, landing on the fire escape with a loud clang. The peeper’s feet clomped down the metal stairs.

I jogged to the fire escape and looked over the wall. He clunked his way to the bottom and sputtered down the alley. He chanced a look back to see if I was in pursuit. He was going to run right into Maggie who had stationed herself at the end of the alley. She held her weapon firm and called “Freeze!” He tried to stop, skidded, and fell on his ass with his hands up. “I got him, Juno! Come on down.”

I put one hand on the rusted fire escape rail, thought better of it, crossed the roof, and crawled back through the window. Houseboys were giving the room a makeover—fresh sheets, replacement candles. By the time I made it into the alley, Maggie had him on his knees, hands cuffed behind his back. He was just a kid.

I stood over him. “How old are you?”

He had to crane his neck back to look at me. He had a smirk on his pudgy face. Clean clothes stretched over his chunky body—kid had a home. “Fifteen,” he mumbled.

“What did you say?”

“Fifteen.” He said it louder this time.

“What’s your name?”

“Pedro Vargas.”

“Did you say Pervo Vargas? Who do you live with, Pervo?”

“My mother.”

“Where’s your father?”

“I don’t have a father.”

“Why’s that?”

“I just don’t. Okay?”

“What does your mother do?”

“She’s a waitress.”

“Is she working tonight?”

“Yes.”

“Does she know you’re a pervert?”

No answer.

“What’s she gonna think when she finds out her little piggy boy has grown up into a sexual deviant?”

“Fuck you.”

I slapped him across the face.

“You can’t do that! I’ll—” I slapped him again. He was 100 percent smirkless now. My heart kicked into high gear.

“Do you have a girlfriend?”

“No.”

“That’s right, girls don’t go for pervs.” Another slap for good measure. “You have a boyfriend?”

“NO!” That struck a nerve.
Remember that.

“Pedro the Homo.”

“NO! I like girls.”

“How about Officer Orzo here? You want to spy on her?”

“No.”

“Do you think she’s pretty?”

“I don’t know.”

“Is your mother pretty?”

“I don’t know.”

“Does she have boyfriends? Do you like to spy on her when she’s with them?”

“NO!”

“How long have you been coming here?”

“This was my first time.”

“You’re lying, Pervo. You make a habit of peeping.”

No answer.

“Were you here two nights ago?”

No answer.

“Did you see something go down in the alley?”

No answer.

“What did you see? Tell me now.”

“I didn’t see anything. I wasn’t here.”

“You were here. We found your stash of skin mags. We know the kind of sick shit you’re into. We got your DNA from the mags. You jizzed all over them, Pervo. Don’t tell me you weren’t here. You saw something that scared you, and you pissed your pants.”

“No, I didn’t see anything.” He was shaking now.

“If you want us to let you go, fatboy, you’ll tell us what you saw.”

“I-I didn’t see anything.”

We rode back to the station in my car. The triple palm print I’d put on Pedro’s cheek had faded. His lips were zipped up tight. He was too scared to talk. The things he saw were enough to haunt him for life. I couldn’t blame him for being afraid, but it didn’t change the fact that I had to break him.

We hauled him up to the second-floor lockup. Eddie was working the desk. “Hey, Juno. How’s it going?”

“You know how it is, Eddie. You look like you could use a cup of coffee. Why don’t you guys take a break? I can watch the desk for you.”

Eddie beamed. We hadn’t played this game in years. He called out the interior guards, and they made like they were leaving. They weren’t really going anywhere. In a couple minutes they’d be gathered around the monitors to watch the show.