Ridley Pearson - Middle Of Nowhere

"It's the wrong rifle," Boldt replied. "It's not even the right make!"

His words echoed in the space. His stomach knotted.

Ron Chapman looked at him and said, "Oh shit! We got problems!"

Boldt instructed Daphne and Bobbie Gaynes to meet him in the Garden Terrace of the Four Seasons Olym pic Hotel, where he had tea for three and a plate of currant scones waiting. Although not a regular, Boldt took afternoon tea at the Four Seasons whenever he felt he could afford it, about once a paycheck.

Neither Gaynes nor Matthews was fooled by his choice of location. They arrived together, having walked from the office. "So, L.T.," Gaynes said, sitting in a chair facing the man and leaving the other half of the love seat he occupied for Daphne, "what's so important that we can't talk about it at the house?"

"Am I so transparent?"

"Not wearing that vest you're not," Daphne said. Boldt was a big man. He carried the protective vest better than most. He'd bought a shirt two sizes bigger that what he typically wore to accommodate the vest. All this at Liz's insistence. His concession to their negotiation for his return to the job.

He explained, "I promised Liz I'd wear it."

Daphne Matthews looked pale. "I think you owe us an explanation."

He took them through his last eighteen hours-the attempt on his life, the visit to Lofgrin, the wrong rifle in storage.

Daphne reached out to grab his hand, but caught herself and dragged the butter to her plate. Daphne and butter did not go together, so Gaynes looked on in amazement.

"Someone threw shots at you?" Gaynes gasped.

"One shot," Boldt answered clinically. "And it wasn't a warning shot."

Gaynes stared down at the scone on the plate before her. "Well, there goes my appetite."

"I have a theory I'd like to share with you," he told them.

Gaynes interrupted. Daphne seemed frozen in the love seat. "Flek found your crib?"

Boldt addressed her and said, "Liz caught that too. Flek has no way of knowing where we live. I'd have to put him low on the list." He let them think a moment and said, "Someone switched out the rifle."

"You're giving me the weebies here, L.T."

"Someone switched out the rifle. It is not the weapon confiscated in the Williamson shooting. Sanchez paid four visits to Property, just before her assault. Schock and Phillipp paid two. What if that's the I.I. case no one will talk about?"

"Sweet Jesus!" Gaynes blurted out.

"The Flu," Daphne whispered, knowing him better than others did.

He found room to smile. He appreciated the connection the three of them had. "Let's say that word got out to a select few that the walkout was inevitable, that negotiations had broken down. Let's say that all this happened well ahead of the rest of us ever hearing even a rumor of cancelled overtime. The rank and file," he said. "Paychecks stop. People borrow. Then the borrowing stops, and families suffer. So what if a couple of our boys decided they needed underwriting? An insurance policy?"

"Heist some weapons from Property and sell them into the market," Gaynes suggested.

Daphne objected, "But a weapon was there. Just the wrong one. Property can't make a mistake? With that inventory?"

"Exactly," Boldt said. "Exactly what we're supposed to think: human error. And that's probably what I.I. was checking up on."

Gaynes disagreed. "Ron Chapman would not condone this. Not ever."

"Maybe not," Boldt agreed, "but he suspected something, or discovered something that put him on to it. I've got to tell you: He looked as surprised as I was to see the wrong weapon attached to the label."

"Then who?" Gaynes asked.

"Remember what Wong said?" he asked Gaynes. "Remember what he mumbled a couple of times? 'Cops and guns,' he said. Said it at least twice. It bothered me at the time, not for the words themselves-I mean the guy's a gun dealer-but for the way he said it: like he was disgusted or something. 'Cops and guns.' One day they're selling them to him. The next we come along, and we want them back."

Daphne followed his logic. She said ominously, "Someone tried to kill you with one of those guns. Are you saying Manny Wong sold Flek an assault rifle that had been black-marketed by one of us?"

"Might be Flek," Boldt said. "Might not. The sooner we catch him, the better."

Gaynes said, "You have other enemies?"

"Earlier in the day I'd been arguing in a closed meeting that maybe Flek had not done Sanchez, that maybe we had to look inside our own ranks."

Daphne said, "It's all circumstantial."

"Extremely," Boldt agreed, "but it starts to add up."

Gaynes said, "Wong sold one of the Property Room weapons back to Flek? Isn't that a bit of a coincidence?"

"Agreed," Boldt said. "When we find Flek, it won't be his rifle that threw the shot. We need him in custody. We need that rifle for comparison. Flek's a screw-up. He's a burglar with a temper. He hurt John, and we're bringing him in for that. But it's not the only reason he's our top priority. Flek can help fill in some of the answers, whether he knows it or not." He added, "My guess is that at this point-once my discovery in Property gets out-there are people or persons who won't want us to bring him in. Won't want certain questions answered." He added, "Bryce Abbott Flek has become their scapegoat."

Gaynes reminded them, "Whoever stole those weapons has to have someone from Property in their camp."

Boldt suggested, "Who in Property would have had inside information that a walkout was imminent?"

"Krishevski?" Gaynes asked timidly. "Sweet Jesus," she repeated, reaching for a scone to quell her nervous stomach.

When Boldt entered through the back door, he knew that something was amiss, not only from Liz's perplexed expression, but from the faint strains of Oscar Peterson coming from the study-his music room. Why would Liz play an LP but leave the livingroom speakers off?

She motioned toward that music, "Mac Krishevski's here."

Boldt's chest tightened as he stripped off his sport jacket, the new shirt, and tugged at the Velcro strips that secured the vest over his undershirt. "Too hot in this thing," he mumbled. As he slipped back into his shirt, he asked, "Did he call first?"

She shook her head. "Just showed up. We talked a few minutes, but he insisted I go about my regular stuff and that he'd enjoy himself with your collection."

"How long?" Boldt inquired.

"Nearly an hour ago. I figured you'd want to see him."

"Thanks."

The kids were in the living room, Sarah in front of a video, Miles building a Lego fort. They didn't seem to notice him at all.

Krishevski looked older than when they last had met. Tension filled his eyes, the skin surrounding them stained blue with fatigue. This was not a pleasure visit.

"Mac?" Boldt asked from the doorway of the small room. He rolled up his shirt sleeves.

His study, a ten-by-twelve-foot dead space partially beneath the stairs, was occupied by nearly two thousand vinyl LP jazz albums filed floor to ceiling, a twohundred-watt vacuum-tube stereo, a speaker system with hand-wrapped copper coils, and a single leather recliner within an arm's reach of the controls.

"We got business to discuss," Krishevski said. He climbed out of the recliner and offered it to Boldt. To be polite, Boldt declined and moved a ladder-back chair in from the living room. Boldt could see Liz trying to figure out what was going on. He told her, "No calls, please, sweetheart. I'm going to speak to Mac in private for a few minutes." She nodded back. He closed the door. Krishevski turned down the music and returned the recliner to a sitting position.

"Not the best news, I'm afraid," Krishevski said.

"We might have a beer," Boldt offered.

"Thanks anyway."