Twenty-seven
Deputy Jim Langton caught up with Ben Langton before
he left the substation at the end of their shift. He took his partner by
the arm and drew him off to a quiet corner of the office. "I heard about
the ghost story you told Gene. What the hell's with you, Ben?"
"I do my job," Ben said.
"You should have filled me in first. It's the kind
of stuff Kahl pays to hear about."
Ben shook his head in grim rejection of the idea.
"No more, Jim. We're in deep enough as it is."
"Kahl's not the biggest risk we've ever taken," Jim
reminded him. "He sure as hell pays the best. Do you wanna try living
without it?"
Kahl's bribes and spying for the man added several
hundred dollars a month to their otherwise less than modest income. Ben
had come to depend upon it. "No, but that's got nothing to do with the
stuff that's going on around here."
"What the hell, Ben, his kid is missing!"
"I just don't want to get in any deeper. Going
behind Gene's back is making it harder to do our job."
Jim stared at him with displeasure. "Like with
Jake? We made life difficult taking out that bastard?"
Even mention of Jake's name sent panic stabbing
through him. "I'm especially not proud of how we handled Jake."
"Gene would have had to let Jake walk. His old lady
wasn't going to press charges."
"It's the way things work sometimes," Ben said.
"He would have killed that little woman of his next
time around. It was bad enough he way he crippled her. We can't always
play by the book, Ben."
Ben had let it go on too long. He didn't know how to
make it stop. Jim saw the pain in his expression and threw an arm over
his shoulder. "We've been partners too long to change the rules, buddy.
We're in too deep already, but have I ever let you down?"
Ben had to concede the point. Jim had never let him
down.
"Partners?"
Ben stared at the floor. "Yeah, sure."
"So tell me first when things happen. Let me be the
judge of what stuff we might be able to sell. Okay?"
Ben had no choice. Maybe Jim was right.
"Okay, so what's this shit I hear about you talking
with the new dispatcher? What the hell was she after?"
Ben looked up in alarm, shocked that Jim knew about
it. "I didn't tell her nothing."
"Look all you want, but keep your mouth shut around
her," Jim warned. "She's like a ferret. She's got her nose into
everything, and she's got an eye for Gene. She'd sell us out in a heart
beat.”
Ben was in full agreement with Jim's observation on
all counts.
Jim's frown intensified. "There's something funny
going on with that Davies chick. I heard from Susie through an old buddy
in Portland. According to him, Susie thinks she's on vacation. She's
telling people she's scheduled to go back to work next month."
"Susie didn't quit?"
"Which would make little Miss Davies a temp of some
sort, one we didn't need if Susie is coming back. Someone's jerking our
strings, Ben. Keep that in mind the next time she pumps you for
information."
"I thought Gene hired her."
"On someone's recommendation from the state,
supposedly as a favor so that she could get some experience around here."
Ben backtracked in his memory. Had he said anything
that would cause trouble later on? "Sheila thinks it might be a
kidnapping. She said maybe the Kahl's girl is alive."
"We've all been thinking the same thing ourselves.
If Hartman is yanking our strings, I want to be the one to take him out.
And I want to get paid for it. Any objections?"
Ben had all the objections in the world. Jim was
always reaching too far. One of these days, it was all going to get away
from him. Some of what they had done could send them to jail. Or worse.
