A Time For Justice

Chapter Seven

Joe Kovaks found the faxes from England wedged halfway down the pile in his pigeon hole. Drinking bitter black coffee from a plastic cup and grimacing with each mouthful, he looked at the photos. They were not brilliant reproductions but were clear enough to make an I.D. The prospect of sifting through thousands of photographs of Corelli and his cronies wasn’t remotely appealing.

He was about to fetch Corelli’s file when another fax was slapped down on his desk. It was the set of dabs lifted from the Posthouse Hotel room in Lancaster.

Kovaks scribbled a note marked Urgent and pinned it to the fax. He hurried down to the Fingerprint Bureau.

The atmosphere here was quiet and scholarly. Rows of computers, all logged into Printrak, filled the room. At each desk sat a fingerprint expert, dressed in shirt, tie, slacks and spectacles, the uniform of every fingerprint expert the world over, including the women. No one was smoking, so Kovaks took a final drag of his Marlboro and stamped it out on the corridor floor before crossing the threshold.

As he entered the room he wondered why anyone in their right mind would want to do this for a living.

He made his way over to a man peering at a magnified fingerprint on his computer screen. Blown up, it looked like the relief map of a mountain.

‘ Hi, Damian.’

The man spun round and squinted myopically at Kovaks. ‘Joe, for heaven’s sake, don’t do that.’

‘ Oh, did I disturb you?’

‘ I was lost in a dreamworld of loops and whorls.’

‘ Sounds like a computer game.’

‘ But much more exciting,’ Damian said. ‘What can I do for you, Agent Kovaks?’

‘ Need a favour. It’s urgent.’

‘ Always is with you. I suppose you want me to drop everything else and do your bidding. ‘

‘ Absolutely.’

He sighed good-naturedly. ‘What the heck.’

‘ Thanks, Damian.’ Kovaks gave him the fax.

Back in the office, Kovaks was surprised to see his partner from the previous night. Today she smelled quite sweet, but Kovaks noted the damp patches already beginning to form in her armpits.

‘ Hi, Sue,’ he said amicably.

‘ I phoned Chrissy. She said you’d come in early, so here I am too.’

Kovaks groaned inwardly. This would mean trouble at home. Although he’d described his temporary partner to Chrissy, she’d had a look in her eyes which said, ‘I don’t believe you.’ She was convinced Kovaks was working with a curvy blonde bombshell who was a weapons expert, karate black belt and had the sexual appetite of Pussy Galore. And now she’d heard her on the phone for the first time, which would only confirm her suspicions — on the phone Sue Mather sounded like a bimbo.

‘ I’m just doing something for Karl,’ he explained. ‘He phoned me from England.’

‘ Can I help?’

A flash of inspiration.

‘ Yeah, you can actually. I need to check Corelli’s file but I’ve got to go and see the SAC. Do you mind?’ He handed her the faxes and explained the task. ‘Long-winded, I know. But very important.’

‘ Sure, Joe, anything.’ She blinked clumsily at him in an attempt to flutter her eyelashes, but thank Christ she didn’t pass wind.

He left her to it.

Two hours later Kovaks found Sue sitting at his desk drinking coffee and eating a doughnut. Eight cigarette stubs were in the ashtray, and another smouldered on the edge of the desk, threatening the woodwork.

She looked up, and waved. Kovaks stormed across the office.

‘ I asked you to do a job for me,’ he hissed. ‘Not sit there filling your fat face.’ The words tumbled out spontaneously and he regretted them almost immediately.

Her good humour visibly evaporated. She had the look of a puppy kicked by its master for no reason other than bad temper.

Kovaks took a deep breath. ‘Look, I’m sorry,’ he said quickly.

Totally inadequate. ‘I didn’t mean what I said.’

‘ Yes, you did,’ she said petulantly. ‘I may be fat but I don’t need reminding of it.’

This was ground Kovaks didn’t wish to cover.

‘ Forget it, huh? I’m sorry, honest.’ He shrugged his shoulders and wore a suitably regretful look. ‘Can we get back to square one? Pretty please?’

She sighed through her nose, her large shoulders rising and falling.

A glimmer of a smile played on her lips. She nodded. ‘OK.’

‘ Good. I take it you made some progress.’

‘ Sure have,’ she said brightly. ‘Here.’ She rooted through some papers on the desk and pulled out the faxes. Attached to them was a black-and-white photograph. It was blurred, obviously taken from a moving vehicle, but clearly showed Corelli sitting at a table in a pavement cafe with another man — the same one as in the faxes. It was dated four years previously. Around the border was written: Corelli dining with unidentified male. Carmel, Calif. No I.D. ever made.’

‘ Well done.’ Kovaks patted her fleshy shoulder.

‘ Found it within five minutes,’ she admitted. ‘Then I got bored waiting for you, so I pigged out.’

‘ Of course, it doesn’t really get us anywhere,’ Kovaks brooded out loud. ‘All it does is show us that Corelli once sat at a table with this guy. Not proof of very much, is it?’

‘ What exactly are you trying to prove?’

‘ Something big.’ Kovaks picked up the photo and faxes and said, ‘Come on, let’s go and see a man about a don.’

As they walked away from the desk the phone began to ring.

Kovaks groaned, but snatched up the receiver. It was Damian.

‘ Joe — got something for you. Haul your ass in here.’

Kovaks chuckled at Damian’s dramatic turn of phrase as he hurried to the Fingerprint Bureau. He’d never heard the other guy say a bad word like ‘ass’ before.

As ever, Damian was sat at his station. His computer screen showed a set of prints.

His tie, however, was discarded over the back of his chair.

Heyyy, this had to be big, Kovaks thought. The guy had taken his tie off!

‘ What have you got for me?’ he said.

Damian looked round. His short-sighted eyes lingered for more than a moment on Sue before returning to Kovaks.

‘ A match is what I’ve got. Several matches in fact,’ he announced.

His voice quivered with an undercurrent of delight.

Kovaks pulled up a chair and indicated for Sue to do likewise.

‘ You asked me to compare the fingerprints from England with the partial prints we have from the mob killings you and Karl are investigating. ‘

Kovaks nodded.

‘ I can confirm they match.’

‘ You certain?’

‘ Yes.’

‘ Wow. I take it we still don’t know the guy’s identity?’

‘ Whoever he is, he’s not on record.’

‘ Oh well, can’t have everything. Pity. Thanks, Damian. I owe you.’ Kovaks shrugged and began to rise.

‘ There is something else, actually.’ Kovaks re-seated himself. ‘Go on.’

‘ Just out of professional interest I did a further search with the prints from England and found some intriguing matches with partial prints from other crime scenes. This guy’s been pretty busy.’

‘ Damian, don’t keep me in suspense.’

‘ Well, I looked at the bombings, which as you know have happened all over the States. Here, Memphis, LA…’

‘ Yes, yes, I know,’ said Kovaks testily.

‘ So I wondered if there’s been any other crimes committed in the same places, on or around the same dates, that could’ve been perpetrated by the same man but weren’t linked because we only had partial prints.’

‘ And I take it there were,’ said Kovaks.

‘ Yep.’ Damian smiled cheekily and raised his eyebrows at Kovaks and Sue. The smile for Sue lasted a fraction longer than it should. She giggled girlishly.

‘ Damian, just fucking tell me, OK?’

‘ Joe!’ Sue rebuked him. ‘There’s no need to talk like that! He’s only trying to help. And you really must stop swearing.’ She beamed at Damian, who beamed back.

‘ Sorry,’ Kovaks said contritely. ‘Damian, do go on.’

‘ Thank you. You might be pleased to know that I’ve linked this man to seven other murders. The victims are prostitutes. All left with broken necks and killed at more or less the same time as the bombings. As well as being a professional hit man, your guy kills for fun too.’

‘ A serial killer,’ breathed Kovaks. ‘That’s all we need.’

‘ The cops in England are on this guy’s tail, but unless I can find out something more for them — and fast — they’ll lose him and we’ll all be back to first base,’ Kovaks explained to Sue as they ran down the steps to the ground floor.

‘ What’s the English angle?’ she enquired.

‘ Long story — no time to tell it now, but amongst other things they think he killed all those people with that motorway bomb.’

‘ Jeez,’ wheezed Sue, glad to reach the foot of the stairs. ‘So what’re you going to do?’

This was asked as Kovaks pushed open the security door leading to the public entrance foyer of the building. ‘Well, the time for the subtle approach is long gone… oh shit!’ He stopped in his tracks.

He’d spotted Lisa Want, pacing the foyer like a tigress. Fortunately, she hadn’t seen him yet.

Kovaks began to reverse through the door. In his haste, he backed right into Sue, and trod heavily on her foot, crushing her big toe under his shoe like stepping on a walnut. She yelled in agony and pushed Kovaks away with such force that he lost his balance and belly-flopped onto the shiny marble floor.

Winded, bruised, he looked helplessly from his prone position all the way up the long, stunning, mini-skirted legs of Lisa Want.

‘ Joe, I’m sorry,’ babbled Sue as she hobbled over to help him up.

Kovaks shrugged himself ungratefully out of Sue’s meaty grasp and glared into the smirking face of Lisa Want, chief crime reporter on the Miami Herald.

‘ Joe,’ she said, suppressing a giggle, ‘what a spectacular entrance. You should be a stuntman.’

She was holding a voice-activated tape-recorder in one hand.

‘ Whatever it is, Lisa, I’ve nothing to say to you. No comment.’

She raised a finely plucked eyebrow. ‘I’ve not asked anything yet.’

‘ Well, don’t, then you won’t be disappointed. Bye, Lisa.’ He walked painfully away towards the exit, Sue limping behind.

Lisa followed. ‘Do you have any comment to make about the motorway bombing in England?’ she asked.

Stunned for a moment, he said, ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about. ‘

‘ I have it on good authority there’s a stateside connection. Can you confirm this?’ She thrust the tape-recorder under his nose.

Kovaks shook his head, pushed on towards the door.

‘ What about the Mafia connection?’ she probed deeper.

Kovaks still had nothing to say.

‘ Where does Corelli come into it? And Danny Carver? I hear Danny was killed in the bombing. Is it all connected with a drugs deal they were pulling? Is this the beginning of a gang war?’

They had reached the revolving door. Kovaks stopped. ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about, Lisa. I’ve no comment to make to you about anything. And I never will have — OK?’

‘ C’mon Joe, give me a break. This is big stuff,’ she pleaded. ‘For old time’s sake, huh?’

‘ It’s because of old time’s sake that I’ve nothing to say. Bye.’

In the car park the two agents walked towards Kovaks’ Trans-am. ‘Can I ask you a question?’ Sue said.

‘ Sure.’

‘ You been sleeping with Lisa Want?’

‘ It was a mistake,’ Kovaks openly admitted to Sue. They were being escorted through the corridors of Dade County Correctional Institute. ‘I nearly lost my job over her. We were into a relationship but all she was doing was pumping me for information. Like a fool, I gave her some… pillow talk, and she used it as the bottom line for a scoop. It was pretty obvious where her information had come from. I got hauled before the Deputy Director and disciplined, while Lisa got the chief reporter’s job. I learned a lesson.’ He shrugged philosophically. ‘We split up, and now I’ll never trust another journalist as long as I live, even if they tell me they love me. They’ll do anything just for that big story. Particularly Lisa Want. She’d sleep with her own mother if she thought there was a by-line in it.’

The prison guard in front of them unlocked the door to a visiting room. He allowed the two FBI agents to enter then locked it behind them.

A table, screwed to the floor, stood in the middle of the room. There were three chairs. A window of toughened glass overlooked a bare exercise yard.

The heavy metal door on the opposite side of the room led through to the innards of the prison. It was locked.

High in one corner of the room, out of reach but protected by a wire-mesh cage, was a security camera.

Kovaks and Sue sat down. They said nothing, looked expectantly at the door, waited.

It was a short wait. A key turned in the lock. Bolts were drawn back. The door, well-oiled, opened silently.

A prison warder appeared, followed by an inmate and another warder. The warders withdrew to the back of the room where they leaned against the wall, chatting quietly to each other. The inmate took the third chair.

Kovaks considered the man carefully. He was white, in his early thirties, and big — six feet four. But he wasn’t fat. Through the ill-fitting prison garb Kovaks could see he was keeping himself in shape. The bulges were all muscle. His biceps were enormous and the veins stood out on them like strands of steel rope.

Kovaks said, ‘Remember me, Whisper?’

The big man nodded. ‘Never forget a face,’ he said. The sound of his voice, as his name suggested, was a hoarse, rasping whisper, like a knife-blade scraping stone. Kovaks knew it was the result of receiving a blow to the throat in a street fight as a teenager. The damage to his voice box made him seem all the more sinister.

Kovaks also knew that the boy who’d hit him all those years ago had taken a knife through the heart.

Kovaks pulled out a pack of cigarettes and a lighter. Whisper took them without a word of thanks. He lit one — a Marlboro — inhaled deeply, exhaled slowly.

Kovaks retrieved the lighter.

‘ You can keep the cigarettes.’

Whisper nodded slight acknowledgement. ‘So what the fuck d’you want, Agent Kovaks?’

‘ I’d like your help.’ Kovaks knew there was no point in being coy.

‘ I’ve been to see the Special Agent in charge of the Miami field office and spoken to the Deputy Director about you this morning.’

‘ Lucky you,’ rasped Whisper.

‘ If you cooperate with us today to my satisfaction he’ll make representations at your parole board to get the maximum reduction in your sentence.’

‘ Which means that, whatever happens, I’ll still be in here for another five years.’

‘ That’s true,’ Kovaks said. ‘But on the other hand, you could be in here for another twelve.’

Whisper blinked. ‘I won’t help you.’

‘ You don’t know what we want.’

‘ I won’t help you,’ he reaffirmed. ‘I don’t help the law, particularly Feds.’

‘ Just like Corelli ain’t helpin’ you?’

‘ I don’t know what you mean, bud.’

‘ Look, Whisper, we know you were working for him, taking all the risks for him, running the gauntlet with us and the DEA every time you came in with a plane-load of dope. And when you got caught he dropped you like a hot potato. Don’t try to deny it now. We know you worked for him, Whisper, we know.’

‘ You don’t know nothing.’ Whisper’s voice grated with a sneer.

‘ We know…’ Kovaks’ voice trailed off into thin air, leaving the words hanging there. ‘And what’s he done to help you, Whisper?’

‘ I don’t know what or who you’re talking about, asshole.’ Whisper took a deep drag of his cigarette, tossed it onto the floor and ground it out. ‘End of discussion.’

He placed two hands on the table, pushed himself up. He towered briefly over the seated Kovaks. ‘Bye bye, Agent Asshole,’ he hissed. He turned and walked to the door.

Kovaks hadn’t expected such an abrupt end to the proceedings. Something had to be done.

‘ Maybe he can’t do much to help you in here,’ he said to Whisper’s retreating back, ‘but he could at least help Laura out there, couldn’t he? Laura and your daughter Cassie.’ Kovaks was desperate. He was losing here and something had to be done to save the situation.

Whisper stopped in his tracks. He revolved slowly. His expression struck fear into Kovaks’ heart.

‘ Yeah, that’s right,’ Kovaks pushed on, seeing he’d struck a chord. ‘He’s done nothing for her — other than exploit her. She was a real good-looker, your Laura. And she was clean, even though you were pushin’ those drugs. Not now, baby, not fuckin’ now!’

‘ What are you saying?’

‘ She’s one of Corelli’s hookers. Working downtown Miami in a sleazy club where the customer can get a five-minute blow job for fifty dollars. I’ve heard she does a hundred a night. Washes her mouth out between each one with antiseptic.’

‘ Liar,’ Whisper said.

‘ Now she’s a smack-head. A crack addict. With no money. Living in a shitty one-bedroom apartment over a grocery store with no amenities and your precious daughter on the at-risk register. The state is seriously considering taking her off Laura. That’s how much Corelli’s looked after your interests. He used you, now he’s using her. Why do you think she never visits you? He won’t fuckin’ let her, Whisper, ‘cos then you’ll know.’

Kovaks had pushed hard and far and he knew it. Too far, too quickly. He had heard how deadly Whisper could be; now he found out at first hand.

Whisper moved so fast he took everyone by surprise. Kovaks had walked round the table as he’d talked and there was perhaps five feet of open space and nothing else between the two men. A mistake.

Whisper covered the gap in a movement so flowing and precise that the next thing Kovaks knew he was on his back. Whisper’s huge paw-like hands were around his throat, squeezing, and Kovaks’ eyes were bulging in their sockets.

‘ Fuckin’ liar,’ Whisper said. ‘Fuckin’ liar, fuckin’ liar…’

His breath washed into Kovaks’ nostrils. He began to smash the back of Kovaks’ head repeatedly on the hard tiled floor.

Kovaks hit Whisper as hard as he could with a fist. It connected with the left side of his head by his ear and had no effect on the big man other than to encourage him to tighten his grip.

The prison warders moved in to assist. They tried to prise Whisper off, but he shrugged them away as easily as a man removing his coat.

Kovaks’ vision began to distort. He felt faint. He knew he was going to die here. Strangled, head smashed to pieces in a fuckin’ prison. His ears throbbed. Vaguely he heard an alarm sounding somewhere — a whoop-whoop noise. There were shouts. Screams. Footsteps running. He began to lose consciousness.

Then Whisper’s head was yanked violently back.

He gave a yelp of surprise.

Kovaks’ swimming vision took in the huge form of Sue hovering above him.

A big fist slammed down like a sledgehammer into Whisper’s upturned face. His nose squelched and burst like a tomato. The fist smashed down again. Whisper released his grip on Kovaks’ throat. His hands went up to protect his face.

The door flew open and two more warders ran into the room, batons drawn.

Now, four against one, even Whisper was defeated. He was bundled off his victim in a shower of blows, punches and kicks.

‘ You pack a good punch,’ Kovaks croaked with admiration to Sue.

‘ I had to do something,’ she said modestly, ‘otherwise he’d’ve killed you. Those guards were useless.’

‘ I owe you one.’

‘ My pleasure,’ she said meekly. She looked at the swollen knuckles of her right hand. ‘I broke his nose, y’know.’

‘ You did good,’ Kovaks agreed.

They were sitting in a cubicle at the Institute’s hospital, a curtain drawn across for the sake of privacy. Kovaks had been treated and his throat had a bandage wrapped around it. No permanent damage had been done, according to the doctor. His voice was almost gone but in a few days, he was assured, everything would be fine again. Meanwhile he’d been advised not to speak too much and eat only soup and scrambled eggs.

The doctor drew the curtain back.

‘ Whisper wants to talk to you,’ he announced.

Kovaks and Sue exchanged a surprised glance.

‘ Where is he?’ she asked.

‘ We’ve just admitted him. He’s down on the ward, first bed on the left.’ The doctor pointed.

‘ How is he?’ Sue enquired.

‘ He’ll live.’

Curtains had also been drawn around Whisper’s bed, denying the other occupants of the ward a view of the prison hard man beaten to a pulp. Kovaks and Sue ducked in and stood next to the bed.

Whisper looked bad. A real mess.

Other than the facial injuries inflicted by Sue, the warders had really gone to town on him. Obviously a lot of grudges had been exorcised. His left arm, wrist and all five fingers were broken; he had several broken ribs, as well as a smashed collarbone and a shattered kneecap. His face and upper body were a mass of welts, cuts, bruises and swellings. Several of the deeper cuts had been stitched and blood dribbled out of them onto the pillow and sheets.

His eyes were closed. His left had swollen up like a boxer’s, round and big as a tennis ball, the colour purple. The other was merely bruised. He opened this one and peered sideways at his visitors.

‘ You wanted to see us,’ Kovaks managed to whisper hoarsely.

‘ Can’t hear you,’ the big man said.

Kovaks leaned forwards, his mouth close to Whisper’s ear.

‘ You wanted to see us.’

‘ Yeah… why you whisperin’?’

‘ Some bastard did my throat in.’

Whisper chuckled and winced with the pain which arced through his chest like an electric shock. When he’d reached equilibrium he said, ‘Is it true — what you said?’

‘ It’s true.’

‘ Fuck!’

‘ Help us,’ Kovaks’ voice grated painfully, ‘and we can help her, Whisper. We’ll get her in a re-hab scheme, set her up somewhere else and give her some cash to start a new life with Cassie — away from Corelli. ‘

‘ Nobody gets away from Corelli,’ said Whisper, dismissing the idea. Then, ‘But she’s a good girl. She deserves a break. Will you do what you say?’

‘ I will,’ said Kovaks, nodding.

‘ If you don’t, I’ll kill you when I get out of here… after I’ve killed Corelli. ‘

‘ I said I will,’ said Kovaks, believing him.

‘ So what d’you want?’

Kovaks held out his hand. Sue gave him the photos.

‘ Who is this guy?’ Kovaks held the prints so Whisper could see them without having to move. ‘We need to know — urgently.’

Whisper looked hard at the photographs with his good eye. His breathing was painful and laboured. The analgesics were only just beginning to take effect.

‘ Why?’ he asked.

‘ We think he killed a lotta people — including a busload of kids — on Corelli’s orders.’

Whisper winced. ‘I don’t know him.’

Kovaks stood up, disappointed. ‘Shit.’

‘ I mean I don’t know him personally, but I know he’s Corelli’s top hired killer. Jimmy Hinksman, that’s his name. Corelli keeps him pretty much tucked away. Talk is he used to be Special Forces but got kicked out for some girl trouble. That’s all I know about him. Real mystery figure. Ahhh…’ He gasped as he adjusted his position slightly. He waited a moment for the pain to settle.

Someone walked down the ward and stopped near to Whisper’s bed. Kovaks heard the sounds of the doctor’s voice murmuring in muted conversation. A female voice replied — a nurse. Footsteps walked past the bed. Kovaks returned his attention to Whisper.

‘ I only seen him once and I got the evil eye when I asked who he was. Real arrogant bastard. Did he do Danny Carver?’ asked Whisper.

‘ How the hell did you know that?’ said Kovaks, taken aback.

‘ News travels fast — even in here.’

‘ Where do we find him?’

Whisper shook his head slightly. ‘In America he could be anywhere. But if he’s in England, I know somewhere you could try.’