Gin Palace 01 - The Poisoned Rose

help finding you and that the Chief had sent over Searls. He made it sound like he’d never seen Searls before.”
    “He lies about everything, Mac. Sometimes he lies for the sake of lying.”
    I thought about that, then said softly, “Your enemy is my enemy.”
    “What?”
    “He’s playing me and the Chief against each other.”
    “I don’t understand.”
    “Searls didn’t just kill Vogler. He killed a cop, too.”
    “I thought they arrested some guy in Jersey for that. It was in the papers.”
    “They arrested a guy with a record and found the cop’s badge and gun in his possession.”
    “How would he have the badge and gun if he wasn’t the one who killed the cop?”
    I thought of the .32 under my floorboards, given to me, or so I’d been told, so it could not be planted in my apartment.
    Searls had set someone else up to take the fall.
    “Jesus,” I said.
    “What?”
    “The Chief got a fucking cop killer released and didn’t even know it.”
    “What do you mean?”
    “It’s been your brother’s show from day one. He’s playing everyone. He orchestrated Vogler’s murder. He leaned on the Chief and got his man Searls released from jail, then sent Searls to kill Carter and find out from Scully where you were hiding.”
    “You act like you don’t know who my brother is, Mac. Like this is news to you.”
    “But I don’t understand. How did Searls end up working for Scully?”
    “I’m not following.”
    “Searls and Scully ambushed a friend of mine last May, over some photos my friend had taken of Scully. They put him in the hospital for three months.”
    “Searls never worked for Scully.”
    “No. Searls was with Scully when they broke into my friend’s house.
    It’s how Searls ended up in jail.”
    “I don’t think so, Mac. I mean the part about Scully knowing this Searls guy. Scully had help, but I’ve met every one of his friends, and none of them looked like that man.”
    “If not Scully, then who was with Searls that night?” I said.
    My thoughts raced, in too many directions to follow. Images flew at me. I saw in my mind the man wearing the baseball cap and hooded sweatshirt, the man who almost caught that second shell from Searls’ shotgun, the man who bolted out of Augie’s house and was never seen again.
    If that man wasn’t the man we’d thought he was—if that man wasn’t Scully—then who was he?
    Who had been with Searls the night Augie was beaten nearly to death?
    I remembered the look of surprise in the smaller man’s eyes when I had gained leverage over the shotgun and aimed it at his face.
    It seemed to me now that I had seen those same eyes recently.
    And then I realized where. My own eyes went wide.
    “What?” Marie said.
    “Jesus.”
    “What?”
    “I need to make a call.”
    Back at the pay phone, I dropped two quarters into the slot and punched in Augie’s number. He answered on the second ring.
    “Yeah.”
    “It’s Mac.”
    “You okay?”
    “It was Jean-Marc Bishop who sacked you.”
    “What?”
    “The guy at your house last May wasn’t Scully, it was Jean-Marc Bishop. The woman Frank sent me to find, Marie Bishop, Searls works for her brother. Searls was the one who killed Vogler. On Bishop’s order. And the cop, too. We witnessed the hit, that’s why they came after you.”
    “No, Mac, no. That was months later, remember? Why on earth would they wait that long to come after me?”
    “Searls left town for a while, to lay low and set someone up for the cop’s murder. The minute he came back, he went after you. Listen, Scully is dead. I found his body last night. I’m pretty sure Searls killed him, too.”
    “Where are you?”
    “Montauk. Did Frank call you?”
    “Yes.”
    “What did he have to say?”
    “Searls was never picked up. He’s not sure what happened, if the cops tried and Searls never showed, or if they didn’t even try at all. Apparently, there’s some shit going down over at the Village Hall, something to do with the Chief. Frank says he’s suddenly out of the loop.”
    “It’s a coup,” I said. “A cop named Long is in Bishop’s pocket. They’re making a move against the Chief.”
    “Shit.”
    “You’re okay there, right?”
    “Frank put men outside my house. Two of them. They’re just up the street, watching over me like I’m some old lady or something. But there’s a bigger problem, Mac.”
    “What?”
    “Tina’s supposed to be with her girlfriend, Lizzie. But I just called a little