Good Dog, Bad Cop, page 20
Baron takes a few moments to digest all of this and finally says, “If I were you, I would block out at least a month on my schedule for a debriefing.”
“I don’t think so, but I will tell you everything I know. Why don’t we meet in Andy’s office … the one above the fruit stand.”
“You realize this could have blown up in your face, and if it did, you’d be in handcuffs now.”
He’s right, but I don’t want to concede it. “Not really. If I got killed, Laurie would still have told you where Solis was, which was information you would not have had before. You could have then gone after him in whatever way you wanted.”
“You took a stupid risk.”
“I’ve got to tell you, Agent Baron, I’m not feeling a lot of gratitude. Very disappointing.”
Baron pauses. “You did good. Thanks.” For him that qualifies as effusive, gushing praise.
He has more questions for me, and not surprisingly he is far more interested in all things Solis-related than the original conspiracy. That will gradually change when he realizes that quite a few people that have gone through the new-identification program might be on the FBI’s most wanted list.
Laurie speaks for the first time. “You should know that this entire, very successful operation was done under the supervision of Captain Pete Stanton of the Paterson Police Department.”
“Thanks for sharing that,” Baron says with some disdain.
“No problem. And that needs to make its way into the media, or we will schedule our own press conference.”
Baron just nods; I think he gets the message.
Two more helicopters land with still more people, after which two cars and two vans pull up as well. The Demarest has not had this many visitors in a long time.
I explain Dozier’s role in the situation, so that he can be taken into custody along with Curtis, who has finally regained semiconsciousness. I also tell Baron to find and arrest Dr. Powers; without him none of this would have been possible.
Since there is no reason to detain Rucker, he makes some phone calls and apparently arranges his exit from the scene.
I’d love to get a ride back in one of the helicopters, but I want to get out of here as well. I suspect Baron and the agents will be dealing with this scene for a long time. Besides, we have two cars, mine and the one Laurie and Marcus came in.
So we’re out of here.
Since Pete supervised the entire operation, Laurie and I thought we should stop by and tell him what he supervised.
Marcus didn’t want to be here, but we brought Simon along in case we need protection.
Pete starts the meeting by telling us that he just got word from the commissioner that he is to appear at a Homeland Security press conference at 3:00 P.M. “You guys want to tell me what this is about?”
We start by telling him all that happened at the Demarest Hotel yesterday, since we’re sure that will be the main subject of the press conference. Homeland Security is going to want to send a message to people who would like to be the next Ian Solis that things will not work out so well for them if they try it.
Not surprisingly, Pete has a truckload of questions for us, but he starts with the key one: “So can we close the cases you were hired to investigate?”
“Mostly,” I say. “We know for sure that Vince Petri killed Danny Avery, and that it was ordered by Dozier. I suspect you’re going to have to fight the Feds for custody of Dozier and Curtis, and I doubt you’ll win. I can’t imagine them giving them up; their crimes are interstate.”
Pete nods. “What about Susan Avery and Jimmy Dietrich?”
“Definitely ordered by Dozier. Probably carried out by Joey Wingate, or maybe Curtis, but no way to know for sure. Maybe Dozier or Curtis will talk to avoid the death penalty, but absent that we’ll never know.”
“Good enough to close the cases; nice job,” Pete says. “Where did Rucker fit into all of this?”
“He didn’t,” I say. “They were setting him up in case things went wrong. They staged Dozier’s death on the water; because he was ‘shark food,’ his body was never found. That made Rucker look suspect. Then they killed Jimmy and Susan on a boat, to make the crimes seem similar. And then they brought Danny Avery’s phone to Rucker’s house, in case the GPS was checked. They didn’t miss a trick. Dozier even talked Rucker into buying an apartment at the Demarest, so if things blew up there, everyone and everything would point to him.”
Laurie adds, “They used Wingate to come after Corey at his house that night because Wingate was tied to Rucker. Wingate was in the program and got a new identity and a new face. We think he didn’t pay money to get in, but promised to do jobs for them as they needed it.”
“How did they find candidates that were going on the run?”
Laurie says, “Baron thinks it’s done on the dark web. I’m sure the Feds will dig into that.”
“So Frank Gilmore, the guy Avery killed in the domestic violence thing … he was not really Frank Gilmore?”
“No,” I say. “We don’t know who he was. And Jacob Richardson was not Jacob Richardson; he was either Roger Linder or someone we don’t know about yet. DNA will determine that. But their previous identities ceased to exist; in almost every sense of the word they were new people. They were on the run, but had no reason to have to hide.”
Laurie adds, “Danny Avery must have been out to prove that Gilmore was not what he seemed, this benevolent philanthropist. In the process, he must have stumbled onto this. He kept pulling on the thread, which led him to George Hafner and Marcella’s that night.”
I nod. “And Hafner told a friend he would disappear one day. He didn’t mean he’d get killed; he was expecting to be part of the new identity program. They used him and then killed him.”
“So now you expect me to go to this press conference and claim credit for all this?” Pete asks.
“If you don’t, the Feds will, and all they did was go on a helicopter ride,” I say. “We’re part of your department; you’re our leader. You pay us to do your bidding. We worship the ground you walk on.”
“Speaking of paying you, I saw your expense report. Six hundred goddamn dollars a night for a hotel room?”
“It’s his fault.” I point at Simon. “He heard they had great biscuits.”
“So how did you figure it out?” Dani asks. She’s just back from Vegas, and we haven’t yet talked in depth about the resolution of the case.
“I’m never really sure about that. When I’m lucky, something happens or is said and all the pieces just click into place. In this case I should have known it earlier.”
“What is it that happened?”
“Joey Wingate. The DNA could not have been wrong, so when his appearance was so different, there had to be a reason why. Changing appearance, along with Richardson changing his identity, was the ideal situation for people on the run hoping not to be found. And everybody seemed to have the money to make it happen.”
“And then there was the surgeon.”
“Right. All of a sudden his role became clear. And once I had this theory, then Solis’s place in it was obvious. He was able to create fake people in cyberspace. And the fact that Dozier’s body was never found, that he was ‘shark food,’ was another piece that suddenly made sense.
“And then you helped as well.”
“How?”
“You said you were going to check in to the hotel in Vegas under a fake name to protect yourself. I know you were kidding, but that is a way to escape detection. These people used fake names, but they faked everything. They became different people.”
“So this is another triumph for me?”
“Definitely.”
She smiles. “So what’s our next case?”
ALSO BY DAVID ROSENFELT
K TEAM NOVELS
Citizen K-9
Animal Instinct
The K Team
ANDY CARPENTER NOVELS
Santa’s Little Yelpers
Holy Chow
Best in Snow
Dog Eat Dog
Silent Bite
Muzzled
Dachshund Through the Snow
Bark of Night
Deck the Hounds
Rescued
Collared
The Twelve Dogs of Christmas
Outfoxed
Who Let the Dog Out?
Hounded
Unleashed
Leader of the Pack
One Dog Night
Dog Tags
New Tricks
Play Dead
Dead Center
Sudden Death
Bury the Lead
First Degree
Open and Shut
THRILLERS
Black and Blue
Fade to Black
Blackout
Without Warning
Airtight
Heart of a Killer
On Borrowed Time
Down to the Wire
Don’t Tell a Soul
NONFICTION
Lessons from Tara: Life Advice from the World’s Most Brilliant Dog
Dogtripping: 25 Rescues, 11 Volunteers, and 3 RVs on Our Canine Cross-Country Adventure
About the Author
David Rosenfelt is the Edgar Award–nominated and Shamus Award–winning author of more than twenty Andy Carpenter novels, most recently Santa’s Little Yelpers; nine stand-alone thrillers; two nonfiction titles; and the K Team novels, a new series featuring some of the characters from the Andy Carpenter series. After years of living in California, he and his wife moved to Maine with twenty-five of the four thousand dogs they have rescued. You can sign up for email updates here.
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Contents
Title Page
Copyright Notice
Begin Reading
Also by David Rosenfelt
About the Author
Copyright
This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
First published in the United States by Minotaur Books, an imprint of St. Martin’s Publishing Group.
GOOD DOG, BAD COP. Copyright © 2023 by Tara Productions, Inc. All rights reserved. For information, address St. Martin’s Publishing Group, 120 Broadway, New York, NY 10271.
www.minotaurbooks.com
Cover design by Rowen Davis and David Baldeosingh Rotstein
Cover photographs: German shepherd © TrapezaStudio / Shutterstock.com; badge © Richard Peterson / shutterstock.com; golden retriever © Eric Isselee / Shutterstock.com; man © Dean Drobot / Shutterstock.com; building © f11photo/Shutterstock.com; police car © Konstantinos Moraitis/Alamy; lights © JUN3/Shutterstock.com
The Library of Congress has cataloged the print edition as follows:
Names: Rosenfelt, David, author.
Title: Good dog, bad cop / David Rosenfelt.
Description: First edition. | New York: Minotaur Books, 2023. | Series: K Team Novels; 4
Identifiers: LCCN 2022051657 | ISBN 9781250828965 (hardcover) | ISBN 9781250828972 (ebook)
Classification: LCC PS3618.O838 G66 2023 | DDC 813/.6—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022051657
eISBN 9781250828972
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First Edition: 2023
David Rosenfelt, Good Dog, Bad Cop
