Unseen (Will Trent / Atlanta Series)

him personally. This photo was taken off CCTV at a chicken joint on Tamiami Trail.”
    Branson asked, “Florida’s sure this is Big Whitey?”
    “One of the fry cooks gave him up. Said he recognized him from his local pill shop.”
    “Gave him up for what?”
    Will pointed to the photo. “About half a minute after that image was captured, Whitey stepped back from the camera, shot a cop in the head, and escaped through the back exit, where a car was waiting.”
    Branson sounded dubious. “And Sarasota didn’t go balls to the wall looking for a cop killer?”
    “The fry cook didn’t know much more than his street name. They were gonna go back at him the next day, but he was shot dead outside his house later that night.”
    “Sarasota let their only material witness go home?”
    “They didn’t know Whitey had made him, and they couldn’t legally hold the guy without cause.”
    Amanda chimed in, “And Sarasota didn’t put the pieces together on Big Whitey until the FDLE came in and did it for them.” Her tone dripped with sarcasm as she needlessly explained, “The Florida Department of Law Enforcement works much like the GBI. They coordinate cases across county lines. They’re very good at providing the whole picture, the kind of details the local force is too myopic to register.”
    Again, Branson took a moment before asking, “Do you have any more details on this Big Whitey?”
    Will said, “Nothing recent. FDLE thinks he was originally ganged up with the Palmetto Street Rollers. They were a Miami-based group, mostly Cuban, some Caucasian. The FBI put membership around twenty thousand running up and down the East Coast.” Branson nodded, so Will continued, “The gang broke up into sets after some turf wars. Florida believes but isn’t certain that Big Whitey took over from Sarasota down to the Keys. We’reguessing two years ago, he moved up the coast into Savannah and Hilton Head.”
    “Guessing based on what?”
    “Both Savannah and Hilton Head kept hearing his name come up. Snitches, mostly, but nothing concrete. At first, the locals thought he was an urban legend, a kind of go-to bogeyman. ‘Play it straight or Big Whitey will get you.’ ‘Wasn’t me, Officer, Big Whitey did it.’ ” Will added, “Savannah’s convinced he’s real, but Carolina disbanded the Hilton Head task force six months ago. Put the money on coastal trafficking instead, figured it was a wider net.”
    “What persuaded Savannah that this Big Whitey’s not some kind of urban legend?” Branson obviously couldn’t resist adding, “Other than the excellent counter-myopic services of the great GBI?”
    Will ignored the sarcasm. “They started to see a pattern. The junkies and cons were suddenly more sophisticated. Crime went up but prosecutions went down. The bad guys had more money for lawyers—usually the same lawyers from the same firms. Better cars, better clothes, bigger guns. Somebody took a bunch of low-level thugs and turned them into businessmen.”
    “Ergo, Big Whitey is real,” Branson summed up. “All the bad guys in town played along?”
    “Unless they wanted to end up face-down in the sand.” Will didn’t tell her that in their own way, many of the cops had played along, too. The detectives who didn’t request transfers asked for early retirement. “Most of the criminals complied. They didn’t become drug dealers to lose money.”
    “And now you think Big Whitey’s trying to set up the same type of organization in Macon because you got a tip,” Branson concluded. “I’m assuming Whitey specializes in pills, which Tony Dell was swiping from the hospital pharmacy?”
    Will said, “That’s a chunk of his business, but heroin is his end game. Whitey moves into the suburbs, branches out into the richwhite neighborhoods. They start with pills, he moves them into heroin.”
    Branson asked, “How’d you target Dell in the first place?”
    Amanda quipped, “Confidential source.”
    Branson didn’t look at Amanda. “Same source who turned you on to Big Whitey?”
    Amanda said, “That’s how it usually works.”
    Branson kept ignoring her, asking Will, “And that’s why you agreed to play lookout on the so-called robbery last night, to build your bad-boy cred with Dell?”
    Will nodded.
    “Well, that all makes sense. Thank you for your time.” Branson picked up her briefcase from the floor and held it in her lap again. “You know how to get in touch with me, Deputy