Rimanoa

Details for latecomers

6:23 p.m. Aug. 18.

"Where are we going?" — while I was in the backseat with Pierce, Longe cranked up the first speed and set off (you never know what's going to happen in the next second).

"To the Long Island Bridge," — Brosman replied, turning on his cell phone and dialing the damn number.

"Who are you calling?"

"To your dispatcher… Hello. This is Brosman. Get me the location of the Zippy— Zippy. What are you listening to… All right… Uh-huh… Bye…"

Bond disconnected the receiver.

"Well, what?" — I asked the special effects buff. "Yeah, nothing… We'll find out soon enough…"

"Yeah, by the way, are you sure your guys cleaned up the bodies?" "Of course, they're professionals…"

"How many of them came?" "Usually three…"

"What do you mean 'usually', did you wait for them or didn't you!" "Actually, no…"

"What the devil did you do that for?!" "What's the big deal?"

"A room without a door, two corpses inside. Really, a completely banal domestic situation. One probably had a seizure and the other drowned from it. Who cares?" "Of course, no one…"

"You put up a sign too…" "Of course you did, hung…" "Well, where to?"

"At the door."

"There's no door there anymore…" "So I hung onto the broken…" "What's the sign?"

"Quiet, please."

"I blurted out to two cops that there was a hag inside listening to the TV loudly…" "I didn't make you say anything like that…"

"Oh, what, I should have just stood there?!"

"Well, you could, that's actually what I gave you the captain's badge for…" "Kappitanskaya?"

"Well, yeah."

I quickly pulled out and examined the badge, "No, are you, what, are you crazy?" "What's the big deal?"

A subtle glimpse flashed in my mind of the cop coming up to me in that fuss and especially scrutinizing my badge. I could see why he called me captain. "Captains don't deal with petty matters!"

"Yeah, okay…"

"And I also said I had a partner." "Why?"

"And with all that frantic yelling, how would I keep them out of there?" "Well, you're the captain…"

"Yeah, with a partner… Yaaaaaahhhh… You sure helped me out good. I'll say…" "Do you want me to fix anything you don't like?"

"What?"

"Well, I'll find out exactly which cops were coming there and kill them…" "Ooooohhhhhhhhhhhhhh… Don't be crazy. Let's finish this business with Zipper and get out of here. There's no need for an unnecessary funeral."

"Well, it's up to you."

The cell phone (mine) rang. "Hello."

"This is Richard. You can find the buttoned-up one at the following address…"

I listened to the rest of the speech, turned off my cell phone, thanking the contact, and smiled happily. Masters. One killer asks a question, and the answer comes to another. Now I don't even know how to tell Brosman about it — he'd be upset.