Gin Palace 01 - The Poisoned Rose

very…deceitful. I wouldn’t take it personally. In fact, you’re lucky she didn’t get her hooks into you. She uses men, Mac. Badly. I think you can understand that our family troubles are really nobody’s business but our own. I mean, you and Marie go way back, right? My father and I have never forgotten what you did for her. What that dog did to the both of you.”
    You had saved her once before, the Chief had said.
    My mind was suddenly racing.
    “We’d like to do you a favor, Mac,” Jean-Marc said. “In exchange for you doing us the courtesy of respecting our family’s privacy.”
    I didn’t say anything to that. I was searching my memory of the face I’d seen at the dark beach for any hint of the girl I’d known those long ago summers.
    When I came back to the present, I felt as if I had missed something. Jean-Marc nodded toward the leather bag on the glass table top. Long reached for it, then placed it in his lap and opened it. He reached inside and pulled out a clear plastic Zip-lock bag.
    Inside it was a small semiautomatic handgun with a long barrel. He held up the bag for me to see, then placed it on the table between us. I could tell just by glancing at the size of the barrel that it was a .32 caliber.
    “Long here tells me that you’re in trouble with the Chief,” Jean-Marc said. “Something to do with his son. I don’t care about any of that. Family matters are family matters, as far as I’m concerned. But I’d like to help you if I can. The Chief has been a friend of my family for almost as long as you have. We told him we needed a man to do some work for us and he sent us someone named Searls. A real animal, as it turns out, but I guess I don’t need to tell you that, do I?”
    You’ve crossed paths with him before, the Chief had said.
    The man who had shot Carter—who had been stumbling around in the woods behind his cottage—was the same man who had nearly beat Augie to death.
    The ugly ex-boxer who had tried to blow my head off with a sawed-off shotgun, and who had been stalking Tina last night.
    I said to Long, “He was in county jail, awaiting trial. How did he get out?”
    “Does it matter?”
    “Yes.”
    “Apparently, the arresting officer hadn’t read Searls his rights. His public defender found out and got him released.”
    “When?”
    “A week ago.”
    “How come I didn’t hear anything about it?”
    “It was done quietly.” He paused. “More like kept quiet, actually.”
    I thought about that, then said, “How did Searls’ public defender find out he wasn’t Mirandized properly.”
    “How do you think.”
    “The Chief.”
    Long nodded.
    “We don’t know why he would do a thing like that,” Jean-Marc said. “Send us a man like that, I mean. He has sent us men when we needed them before, and they’ve all been highly professional. But this Searls, he’s nothing more than a butcher.”
    I glanced at Long. He held my stare. I knew then that he was here with Bishop and me behind the Chief’s back.
    “You see,” Jean-Marc continued, “it’s time to clean up. This whole mess with this Searls man gets put away tonight, once and for all. I think you’d agree that we’re all better off with this animal back in jail. And it won’t be long before we find my sister. We’re negotiating with someone right now who can bring us to her. So all that leaves is you. I can’t allow any harm to come to my sister. She’s not a well woman these days, and it’s my responsibility to protect her—from others as well as from herself. We understand that this Searls man may be following you because of some old grudge, and if he is, you might inadvertently lead him to her. So we obviously want to be as careful as we can until Marie is back home safe.”
    Jean-Marc looked at Long then, as if to cue him.
    Long leaned forward, “The Chief is playing every one against each other. Or trying to. I don’t know why, or what he’s up to, but he’s clearly hedging his bets.”
    “What do you mean by that?”
    “Maybe he came to you last night because he sincerely believed you could help him. He has to realize that setting Searls loose was a mistake. Or maybe he came to you because he wants payback for what you did to Tommy and he knows Searls wants to kill you for what you did to him. Another possibility is the Chief is looking for someone to pin Carter’s murder on. To be honest, knowing him the way I do, knowing the way his mind works, I wouldn’t be surprised if