The Pallbearers

Chapter 38

I was in the shower, soaking under a hot spray, when Alexa tapped on the fogged door.

"You better wrap it up and come out here," she said through the glass.

"Whats up?"

"We've got visitors."

"Who?"

"FBI. Two of em." "Shit."

I toweled off, dressed, and put a fresh butterfly bandage on my forehead so I wouldn't have to try and BS our federal government with a leaking gash in my forehead.

When I walked out to my living room I was met by a Mutt and Jeff team of tired-looking feds wearing off-the-rack suits and comb-over hairstyles.

"Detective Scully?" the taller, thinner one said.

"Yes."

Tm Agent Kurt Westfall. This is my partner, Agent Leo Faskin."

Faskin was a sour, short, lunchbox-shaped guy who looked like he hadn't smiled since the Reagan administration.

"'Sup, guys?" I said, playing it loose and friendly. Of course, I already knew it was about Jack.

"We understand that you took custody of a wanted federal bank robber named Jack Straw two days ago."

"Yep."

"Where is he?

"Sorry, that's classified," I said as Alexa moved in beside me.

"Unclassify it right now, or I'm gonna start making some phone calls. You won't like how they end," Westfall threatened.

"Can't," I said.

Westfall continued. "According to Sergeant Acosta and Lieutenant Moon, you took custody of Straw on Wednesday at two fifteen A. M. in West L. A. We have an open warrant on that guy. He robbed the First National Bank in Soledad then hit the B of A in Temecula two hours later on the same day. The federal warrant is over two weeks old, and I'm under some heavy pressure to redeem it. A federal warrant definitely takes precedence over whatever it is you're investigating."

"For you, maybe. Not for me," I said.

Westfall took a step forward. "Do not fuck around with me, Detective."

"Excuse me," Alexa interjected.

Westfall shot her an angry look. "We're not talking to you, ma'am."

"No, but I'm talking to you," she replied. "I'm the commander of the Central Detective Division of the LAPD and the classified case he's talking about is an important murder investigation that has a high police department priority. Mr. Straw is acting as a confidential informant in that situation. Our homicide investigation cannot be compromised. You'll have to wait until the LAPD case is resolved."

"You're commander of what?" Agent Faskin said. He was having trouble accepting the fact that such a beautiful woman could be in charge of anything more complicated than a shopping cart.

Alexa grabbed her purse off the chair and pulled out one of her business cards. She handed it to Westfall, who, after he read it, held the card like he'd just fished it out of a public toilet.

"I'm afraid that's not good enough," he finally said.

"Then I would suggest that you take this up with Chief Anthony Filosiani at your earliest convenience," Alexa replied firmly. "Until I hear from him to the contrary, this matter is closed. Was there anything else?"

Both feds stood there for a long moment, not sure how to deal with this. They had been prepared to just take the case from me. Now they had a sixth-floor LAPD commander to deal with, which momentarily trumped everything.

"You'll be hearing from our ASAC," Kurt Westfall said testily. Then he looked at Leo Faskin, and the two of them turned. Alexa held open the front door as they passed, then closed it firmly behind them.

When they were gone, she turned to me and said, "Of course, you know that will never stick."

"Come on. Why not? You told the truth. Jack's working undercover even though we didn't exactly sanction it. This is a high-profile murder just like you said. What's not to stick?"

"Honey, we have a new Homeland Security rule book. There's something in there called the interagency operational guideline. They aren't gonna accept that we're using their wanted federal bank robber as a protected UC. Those guys have open-felony paper on Jack. I'm going to be hearing from Deputy Chief Bradshaw within an hour.

I know he's gonna demand we turn Straw over, but of course we haven't got a clue where he is. So we're sorta fucked."

"Finally, you see how easy it is to get in trouble with Internal Affairs." I grinned.