Chapter 15
MAGGIE CHIN AND I huddled in Walter Jackson’s office again a while later, going over what little information we had on Jimmy Pinter before heading into the field.
I didn’t notice my boss, Lieutenant Harry Grissom, slipping into the office and taking a seat at his desk until Harry called me over.
I left Maggie working with Walter at his cluttered desk and went to Harry’s office.
Normally it wouldn’t be a big deal, but I hadn’t yet had a chance to brief him on the work we’d done on the bombing yesterday. Technically, I wasn’t even assigned to the case yet. The first words out of Harry’s mouth were not a good sign.
“Did you approve Trilling’s leave request?”
“I did.” I’d kept my answer short and professional.
“You are working as a detective, not as the backup supervisor for the squad, right? I mean, I’m still the boss.” He leveled a stare at me. “Aren’t I?”
“Yes, sir.”
Harry said, “We’re already shorthanded. And now command staff says they want you on this bombing case full-time.”
“I’ve been running with it since I got the call yesterday morning.”
“When you decided you didn’t need help and sent your partner God knows where.”
“Bozeman, Montana.”
“Unless it’s in the greater New York City area, it doesn’t do me one bit of good.”
I needed to throw Harry a bone, so he wouldn’t be a bear to deal with for the rest of the week. I said, “I have help on the case. An ATF agent named Maggie Chin might’ve linked our bombing to a burglary at an Army arsenal in New Jersey.”
“Is that who’s working in Walter’s office?”
“That’s her. She seems to be straight up.”
“So it should go smoother than some of our previous dealings with the FBI?”
“She was already here at the office for me when I came in just after seven. I’d say that’s a good sign.”
Harry rubbed his eyes. When he looked up, I could see how bloodshot they were. He stroked the long mustache that ran down the sides of his mouth, violating several NYPD grooming policies. Finally, he asked, “What’s your plan?”
I briefed Harry on everything we had. I finished up with “We need to find this Jimmy Pinter. We’re running out to do that right now.”
“If you linked the arsenal theft to the bombing, why is an ex-boyfriend even a suspect? Why waste time looking for him?”
“That’s exactly what Maggie asked.”
“Then she is definitely brighter than most of the feds I’ve met.”
“You know how the game’s played, Harry. If nothing else, we’ve got to eliminate the boyfriend as a suspect, show that we weren’t overly focused on a single theory or suspect from the beginning.
Honestly, I don’t think this guy Pinter is going to tell us much.
But one thing I’ve learned is you never know until you ask questions. ”
“Have you found anything that connects with the bombing over the summer that killed Sergeant Vega?”
I said, “I’ve already grabbed the file on the bombing in Queens. No one has developed any decent suspects in that case. We’re trying to take a fresh look at it.”
Harry paused a moment to digest that. Then he gazed up at me with those gray eyes. “I’m not gonna call Trilling back. But I was thinking about it. I’m not gonna give you any more shit either. Because I need you to run with this at full speed.”
I took a moment, then said, “We’ve got a few other ideas. They include searching for local nuts with the skill set to build sophisticated bombs. Turns out there’s a lot more of them around than I thought.”
“This is New York. There’s a lot more of everybody than we thought. Turns out there’s more domestic violence, more armed robbery, and more grifters than we could comprehend.”
I hadn’t heard Harry be so downbeat in a long time. I didn’t know if it was from the length of time he’d been on the job or if something specific was bothering him. Either way, I had plenty to keep me busy. But Harry’s attitude still left me a little uneasy.