The Vigilantes boh-10

by W. E. B Griffin

  When Kenny went on the lam, he called his big brother for help and advice. Jack then turned to his old buddy, Rapp Badde. The city councilman had connections with the authorities-“Maybe he can get the whole case thrown out or something,” Jack told Kenny. And if for some reason Badde was not able to use those connections, he had other resources well beyond the Joneses’.

  Badde hadn’t hesitated. Beyond being old neighbors, the Jones family had campaigned hard for his election to office. He couldn’t do anything with Kenny’s case; that, he told Jack, was a matter involving the court system and the district attorney’s office, over which a city councilman such as himself had absolutely no sway, even in a place like Philadelphia.

  So he called the manager of his campaign office in West Philly, which was run from a rented row house, and told him to let Kareem live there in the basement bedroom, which had its own door to the street, and to pay him, in cash, to work as one of Badde’s “community voter canvassers.”

  Badde even helped Kenny pick out the cover name “Abdul-Qaadir,” which was Arabic for Servant of the Capable. Badde quietly enjoyed the implication of that.

  At first, Kareem Abdul-Qaadir’s job had been to go door to door pretending to be a volunteer with the City of Philadelphia working for the Forgotten Voters Initiative-a program that, had anyone actually bothered to investigate, would’ve been found not to exist. He asked the residents if they were registered voters. If they said no, he helped get them registered.

  But then came his real job: the compilation of the names and addresses of all these voters, especially noting the elderly, immigrants, and others who could easily be convinced that they needed to request absentee-voter ballot forms. More important, once those ballots arrived in the mail, Kenny would help those voters with filling out the forms-specifically, under “city councilman,” marking the box next to “H. Rapp Badde, Jr.”

  Kenny had then stumbled across an idea that had turned out to be borderline brilliant.

  As he was canvassing a far section of West Philly, knocking on door after door, he walked up to a retirement community, Fernwood Manor at Cobbs Creek. The ten-story-high building overlooked the greenbelt of the small tree-lined stream-and, curiously, on the opposite side of the creek, Fernwood Cemetery.

  Kenny, whose experience with retirement communities could be equated to his knowledge of quantum physics, had been excited to find the place was packed with really old people. In no time he had talked his way into its Community Activity Center, a large building that reminded him of a high school auditorium. There he found that the residents watched TV, played card games and bingo, and otherwise pleasantly passed time in their retirement before, ultimately, winding up across the creek.

  At Fernwood Manor’s Community Activity Center, he didn’t have to go door to door. The retirees came to him. They were happy to see a nice, clean-cut young man such as Kareem. Especially the old-timers who had failing memories, Alzheimer’s disease in particular, and never remembered previously meeting him-or filling out forms.

  And when Kareem had explained the purpose of his volunteer work, everyone thought that the nice young man was extremely considerate to think of forgotten old folks. That, and to understand how difficult it was for them on voting day. They said visiting polling stations that invariably had long lines was very painful for their aged bodies. At the community activity center, though, they could at their leisure fill out the requests for absentee-voter forms, then later, when the forms arrived, fill those out also at their leisure.

  Especially with the kind help of a nice young man like Kareem.

  Kenny started visiting as many retirement homes as would let him in the door.

  And then he went to nursing homes, where he found the residents were more or less unconscious-almost every one on medication that kept them in a mental fog, or worse-so all he had to do was forge their signatures on the forms. Even easier to sign up were those who in the last year or two had fallen into their own category: deceased.

  Slipping the kid or old man in the mailroom a little stash of cocaine or cash, with the promise of more, guaranteed that there’d be a telephone call alerting him when the absentee-voter ballots arrived in the mail.

  Over time, Kenny Jones did one hell of a job collecting names and helping the forgotten voters of Philadelphia support Badde for city councilman-and soon, for the office of mayor.

  And Rapp Badde had been impressed. Ignoring the unfortunate fact that Kenny was a fugitive charged with a felony, he’d thought that Kenny was still pretty much the good, if dim, kid he’d been when they were growing up. And in two years since his arrest-What the hell’s wrong with a little coke now and then? That probably was a bullshit bust, anyway-he’d never gotten into any other trouble.

  Until now.

  “What the hell do you mean something’s gone bad with you and Reggie?” he said into his Go To Hell cell as he looked out over the city to the right, toward West Philly and the rented campaign-office row house.

  Reggie was the baby Jones brother, but at age twenty and two hundred thirty pounds, not much of a baby anymore.

  Rapp knew that Reggie had never been really normal-his mother had had him late in life, in her forties, and there’d been complications at birth-and when Reggie got mixed up with drugs, he really went off the deep end.

  Worse, while Kenny had just sold dope, Reggie both sold and used the stuff. Unfortunately, a lot more of the latter than the former, and he was forever trying to pay off his dealer.

  Kenny said, “I got a call from Reggie. He was crazy. Crazy scared. Crying, man. Said, ‘If I don’t come up with thirty large to pay the man, I’m dead.’ He didn’t, and next day they grabbed him.”

  Thirty thousand dollars! Badde thought. Jesus!

  “How’d he get that deep in debt?” Badde asked.

  “Hell if I know. Snorting more than selling? A lot of IOUs over time? And some crazy interest on top of what he owed? Adds up fast.”

  “Who grabbed Reggie?” Badde asked.

  “The dude he bought his coke from. The man. His dealer.”

  Badde sighed audibly.

  “So, what would you have me do about it?”

  Kenny was quiet a moment, then with a tone that was incredulous said, “What else, man? You know.”

  “What?”

  “The money. I need the money bad to get him back.”

  Can I quickly put my hands on that much even if I wanted? Badde thought as he looked out at the city and mentally went over his cash reserves.

  There’s only ten, eleven grand in my office safe.

  He was silent for at least a minute.

  “You still there?” asked Kenny.

  Badde didn’t reply.

  Kenny said, “We go way back. My family’s done a lot for you, man.”

  And I’ve not helped you?

  And what the hell have you done that’s worth thirty grand?

  Kenny added, “It’d just be a loan. You name the interest, whatever.”

  Right. Where the hell will you get that to repay me?

  “Rapp? You there?”

  “Yeah, Kenny. I’m here. Isn’t there any way you can work out an arrangement with this dealer, just-”

  Kenny Jones interrupted him: “Are you listening, man? We passed that point. These people kill for less!”

  Rapp stared off into the night, silent.

  Kenny went on: “Listen, man, it, uh, it wouldn’t be good for folks to find out about those ballots, you know what I’m saying?”

  What? “Those ballots”?

  He’s threatening me!

  Sonofabitch! He thinks he can finger me for the voter fraud!

  He blurted: “Are you fucking threatening me? You fucking ingrate!”

  “I’m just saying…”

  Jesus! Him getting diarrhea of the mouth would start the whole house of cards crumbling, starting with the campaign for mayor. And I can kiss the housing project goodbye.

  Well, that is fucking worth thi
rty grand.

  But if I cough up the money, I can forget getting paid back, with or without interest.

  And what’s going to stop him from squeezing me for more?

  Shit!

  “Kenny, where am I going to put my hands on thirty grand?”

  “Important folks like you, you got connections.”

  Badde kicked the concrete four-foot-tall wall that served as the balcony’s railing.

  Goddamn it!

  “Where are you now?” he asked.

  “At the house in West Philly.”

  “How soon do you need the money?”

  “Like yesterday?”

  Shit.

  “Kenny, I hate to ask this, but do you know if he’s still alive? Have you talked to Reggie?”

  “Yeah, this morning. But he won’t be if I don’t do something.”

  Bullshit. Then they really wouldn’t get their money.

  Kenny, as if reading Badde’s mind, added, his voice cracking: “And if they kill him, they’re coming after me for it.”

  Well, then not paying would remove one problem immediately.

  But Kenny would still be mine, especially if he went into hiding and started blowing the damn whistle on the absentee ballots.

  The goddamn media would love that story. It’d become a bigger circus than the Bermuda photographs.

  And even if I gave him the money, I can’t keep having to wonder when dimwit Kenny or Reggie will fuck up again, or if Kenny will open his mouth about the ballots.

  “Okay, look, Kenny, it’s going to take a little time. Especially at this hour. But I’ll send someone first thing-”

  Kenny interrupted, “No, man. You need to bring it.”

  He waited a moment, then replied, “Why me? Personally?”

  “It’d be better. That’s all.”

  Badde lost his temper: “Well, you can fucking forget it, Kenny! Goddamn you! You want the money or not?”

  There was a long pause while Kenny thought about that.

  “Fine, then. I’ll be here waiting.”

  As Badde broke the connection, looking out at West Philly and shaking his head, he heard the glass door slide open, then Jan’s voice: “Everything okay, honey? I saw you kick the wall.”

  When he turned and looked at her, he saw that she glistened from having just taken a shower. Now she wore a tan silk robe. It hung open, and he could see that she was completely naked beneath it.

  Badde took a deep breath and composed himself.

  “Yeah, just give me one more second. I’ve got to make a quick call. You do look incredible, honey.”

  “I’ll be waiting,” she said softly, and slid the glass door shut.

  H. Rapp Badde, Jr., felt a stirring in his groin.

  Is that from seeing her gorgeous naked body-or because I’m about to have someone whacked?

  [THREE]

  The Roundhouse Eighth and Race Streets, Philadelphia Sunday, November 1, 7:30 A.M.

  Lieutenant Jason Washington looked up from reading the front page of the morning’s Philadelphia Bulletin in time to see his boss walking purposefully around a corner, making a beeline for Washington’s glass-walled office. Captain Henry C. Quaire, commanding officer of the Homicide Unit, was a stocky balding man in his late forties. Like Washington he wore khaki slacks, but instead of the white button-down-collar shirt Washington had on, Henry wore a red knit polo under a navy blazer.

  Jason glanced at the wall clock and saw that Quaire was fifteen minutes earlier than he had said he would arrive. They’d spoken on the telephone an hour earlier. Quaire had called Washington at home and announced that Frank Hollaran had just called him at home, asking if they could be at the Roundhouse as soon as possible.

  Quaire said that Captain Francis Xavier Hollaran, the forty-nine-year-old assistant to First Deputy Police Commissioner Dennis V. “Denny” Coughlin, had told him: “Denny wants us to be prepared before we meet with Mariana and before Mariana’s meeting with Carlucci. Mariana said Carlucci wants damage control, and he needs to know what we know about the pop-and-drops.”

  Police Commissioner Ralph J. Mariana, a natty Italian, was the top cop with four stars on his uniform. And the Honorable Jerome H. “Jerry” Carlucci, who had once been the top cop, was Mariana’s boss, the mayor of Philadelphia.

  Coughlin, whose three stars made him the number-two cop in the department, reported to Mariana. They were both appointed to their jobs by the managing director of the city, but served at the mayor’s pleasure. Every policeman below them in rank on the force-which, with some seven thousand in uniform, was the fourth largest in the country-was a civil servant.

  Washington saw that Quaire was sipping from a heavy china coffee mug that bore the logotype of the Emerald Society, the fraternal organization of police officers of Irish heritage. Washington wasn’t a member, but he knew Hollaran and Coughlin had belonged to “The Emerald” all their long careers.

  “Well, Jason, I see you’ve seen the good news,” Quaire said by way of greeting. He motioned at the desk and repeated the quote over the TV: “If it bleeds, it leads.”

  The newspaper’s front-page headline at the top of the fold screamed: THE HALLOWEEN HOMICIDES TRIPLE MURDERS TERRORIZE OLD CITY

  “Quite the colorful headline, if a bit sensational,” Washington replied. “I have put the arm out for Harris and Payne, Henry. They said they should be here any minute.”

  Quaire nodded as he sipped. “Good. We’re going to need everything Tony and Matt have to put out this fire. And no doubt more. They’re good, but this makes-what?-seven or eight unsolved pop-and-drops?”

  While Tony Harris had a years-long history in Homicide, Matt Payne’s tenure could be measured only in months. And if Quaire had had any say in it, Payne never would have gotten the job, certainly not ahead of three other sergeants who also wanted in and who Quaire felt were far more qualified.

  It was customary for the Homicide chief to pick, or at the very least have veto power over, who got assigned to the unit. But Commissioner Mariana, looking for ways to encourage the best and brightest, had announced that the five officers with the highest scores on the promotion exams got the assignment of their choice in the department. And Matt Payne grabbed the brass ring by being not only in the top five scores, but number one on the list of those who’d earned promotion to sergeant. And Payne picked Homicide.

  A less-than-excited Quaire had no say.

  One thing Quaire worried about was how Payne would be received. He was only a five-year veteran and newly minted sergeant, and he was getting a supervisor position over guys who had served longer than five years in Homicide alone.

  But when he brought that up to Lieutenant Jason Washington and Detective Tony Harris-among Homicide’s most respected-they’d said that their experience with Matt Payne had been without problem. Both liked him and thought he was smart-“Smart enough to keep his eyes and ears open and learn how Homicide works,” Washington said. And he had.

  It didn’t hurt, either, that he was well connected, starting with being the godson of Denny Coughlin, whom he was known to call “Uncle Denny.”

  Quaire did have absolute authority to choose which squad in the unit to assign Payne. And because Payne’s score on the sergeant exam proved he was, as the commissioner would have put it, among the best and brightest, and because Harris and Washington already had worked with Payne, and clearly liked him, Quaire naturally put Payne in the squad led by Lieutenant Jason Washington.

  “Here comes Coughlin now,” Washington said, looking past Quaire.

  Quaire turned and raised his china mug to acknowledge the first deputy police commissioner. Denny Coughlin, a ruddy-faced fifty-nine-year-old, had graduated from the Police Academy nearly forty years earlier. He was tall and heavyset, with a full mouth of teeth and full head of curly silver hair. He wore his usual well-tailored gray plaid double-breasted suit, but no tie.

  Washington made the educated guess that Coughlin kept at least two extra neckties-and probabl
y another suit-as backups in his big office on the third floor.

  “Good morning, gentlemen,” Coughlin said once he was in Washington’s doorway. “Thank you for coming in.”

  “Good morning, sir,” Washington and Quaire now said in unison.

  “And good timing, Commissioner,” Washington added as he nodded toward the far side of the office. “Here come Sergeant Payne and Detective Harris.”

  Both Matt and Tony wore the same clothing that they’d had on when they’d left Liberties Bar with Mickey O’Hara some six hours earlier. And with baggy eyes and five-o’clock beard shadows, both looked as if they’d just awakened from a very short sleep.

  “Jesus, you two look like the walking dead,” Coughlin said by way of greeting. “You especially look like hell, Matty.”

  “Just call me an overachiever, Uncle Denny,” Payne replied dryly. “I was catching a nap in the car when the long arm of Lieutenant Washington reached out for us. After Tony and I left the scene in Old City, we went to check out a hunch. The dead guy, Reggie Jones, had a sort of to-do list in his coat pocket, and we wound up staking out his house in South Philly. Thought it was a long shot, and boy was it.”

  “And I thought,” Coughlin said, his tone suddenly cold as his Irish temper flared, “that we all agreed you would stay the hell off the streets while all that Wyatt Earp of the Main Line business died, if you’ll pardon my choice of words.”

  There had been a flurry of new stories-from print to TV to the Internet-after the Bulletin had run the photograph of the tuxedo-clad Payne holding his Colt. 45 above the robber he’d shot in the parking lot of La Famiglia Ristorante. And then those were rehashed when the story broke about Payne’s foot chase and shoot-out with the assassin who fled Temple University Hospital. The mayor, who wasn’t displeased with Payne per se but was tired of constantly defending a good cop doing a good job, simply called Denny Coughlin and suggested Matt stay the hell out of sight-and stay out of the news.