King of Swords

Frino calmly told him there'd been complications mid-sea transit, that they'd almost got busted and had had to divert the load to a safehouse in North Miami. Frino said he suspected a leak in the organization and needed to meet Casares in person to tell him about it. Casares said he'd meet him at the house the next day, Tuesday 11 February at 11 a.m.

He was punctual. MTF was waiting for him. They arrested him, his three bodyguards and driver.

Casares was taken to a basement in Jackson Avenue, Coconut Grove, where Eldon was waiting. He said he'd take it from here and sent them home for the rest of the day.

'You know,' Joe tapped his foot on the list, 'we could both make our lives easier by just forgettin' all about this shit and goin' on home.'

'True,' Max nodded, sparking up his Zippo to light a cigarette, 'but then we wouldn't be police at all.'

'True.'Joe nodded and yawned.

'This shit pisses me off. Here we are, doin' real police work on the sly and fake police work out in the open. This is not what I signed up for.'

'I hear that.'

'I'm fucken' sick of this shit, Joe. It ain't right, you know?'

'So whatchu sayin', man?'

328

I 'I'm sayin' I've had enough.'

'You wanna quit?'

'Right now, yeah.' Max sipped his coffee and pulled deep on his Marlboro, holding the smoke in his lungs for a few seconds and then exhaling slowly. “We could put a stop to Eldon's way of doin' things, you and me.'

'How?' Joe sat up.

'Crack this case — the real case — and go public with it.

Expose this Moyez bullshit for the sham it is.'

'You wanna take Eldon down?' Joe asked.

'It ain't only 'bout him. It's about the way he does things.

Would you back me?'

'Hell, yeah!' Joe's big voice rilled the confined space and echoed back at them metallically, like a gunshot.

'The only thing that'd stop me - that mil stop me, I guess — is that if he goes down, we go down. And I wouldn't wanna be an ex-cop in prison. Would you?'

cWe could cut a deal,' Joe suggested.

'You could, maybe; you got nothin' to hide,' Max said bitterly. 'The only deal they'd give me is life without. That's if we lived long enough to make any fucken' deal. Eldon's got his hooks in everyone everywhere.'

'Maybe we could go to the press?'

'We'd still go down. Hell, we'd go down harder if we went that route. Police hate being' the last to know when it concerns their own. You know that.'

Joe didn't say anything, just stared straight ahead of him at the list then at nothing. False dawn. He was still on his own on this. Max wouldn't go along with him. He was right.

He had too much to lose. His sense of self-preservation outweighed his principles.

Max extinguished his cigarette in his coffee. The whole time he'd been thinking of Sandra, and the life they could have together, and what she'd said about sharing and openness. He didn't want to lie to her about what it was he

did. He thought about requesting a transfer, maybe to Miami Beach PD, if there was an opening.

'Let's make a start on that list,' Max said finally.

They split the list evenly. Joe had the beginning to middle of the alphabet, Max the remainder.

The list was broken down into name, felony details and a capital letter, either C — conviction, W — wanted, A — accomplice, AS — accomplice suspect and SI — informant placing suspect at a crime scene. This was followed by a basic physical description and last-known location.

They worked through them in near silence, starring things of importance. Max chain smoked. When it got too much for Joe he opened up the garage to let the tobacco fog out.

Max was finding no trace of a master criminal in his section. All the names so far were mostly petty criminals home invaders, muggers, cheque forgers, non-fatal stick-up kids, car thieves — plus a few manslaughters and one-off murderers.

When he reached the first name at 'O', he did a double- _ take and burst out laughing.Ś 'Solomon O'Boogie,' he read out.Ś 'What's he in for?' Joe looked up.I 'SI. Murder in a club on Washington. Informant named him as a major-league drug supplier.'

'Yeah?'

'White male, six foot, grey hair.'

'Solomon O'Boogie, huh?' Joe said, then flipped back a couple of pages. 'I got a Solomon Boogie here. Named as an AS for the shooting of a drug dealer in Little Havana.

This one's described as Hispanic, nineteen to twenty-five — female.'

'Female?” Max frowned. 'What's the date?'

'2.13.77.'

33°Ś 'Yeah?' Max showed Joe. 'I got the same date.'

Remembering how Charles de Villeneuve was said to have had the power to change his appearance, Max looked across at the picture of the King of Swords.

'Joe, why d'you keep turnin' it around?'

'Shit was creepin' me out,' he said.

'Pussy!' Max chuckled. 'You sleep with the light on too?'

They carried on looking through their lists.