Campanelli: Sentinel Read Free Page B

failed to realize, as it simply had not come up before, was the low priority of juveniles in the city’s care.
                  “We’ve got to get her out of there!” Frank exuded with suddenness as he sat forward.
                  “Frank,” Vanek insisted, “she’s not your problem.”
                  “Then how come I feel it is?”
                  “It’s a natural reaction, believe me, I understand, Campanelli.”
                  “Please, Chief,” Frank pressed with an effort to suppress further emotional outbursts, “we have to put her in a home, quickly. She’s only seven years old.”
                  Vanek sighed again and sat forward. The chair sounded relieved. “It isn’t like she’s being sent to Statesville,” he said lowly. The name had great impact. One of two maximum security prisons left in the state, Statesville had a mortality rate so high that to send a convict there was, in effect, a death sentence. Vanek was aware that his mention of the facility had quieted his Captain of Detectives, but not appeased him. Dmitri smiled and acquiesced. “I’ll make a few calls and see if I can’t speed things up for her.”
                  “Thank you, sir,” Campanelli breathed.
                  “On one condition.”
                  “Name it.”
                  “Take the rest of the day off. As a matter of fact, take tomorrow, too.”
                  Frank sighed and sat back. The many cases that he had his eight homicide detectives assigned to were well under way. There had not been any request of him for several days, but Officer Albert Kelly’s murder was now a priority. The report on his shooting revealed that none of the guns found on the traffickers matched the one that had killed him. “Let me check on my people, make sure there’s nothing they need. We have to find out which one of Ignatola’s goons killed Kelly.”
                  “No, Frank,” Vanek replied. “Let Williams do that.”
                  “Hey, where’s my day off?” Williams protested jestingly.
                  Dmitri smirked. “Check up on Frank’s people, do what you can to get the Kelly investigation going, then report to him…at his home, at a bar, at the beach…whatever. Then take tomorrow.”
                  “Okay, Chief,” Marcus agreed, “thanks.”
                  To Frank, he said: “I’ll let you know what I find out about the Whethers girl by this evening.”
                  “Thank you, sir,” Campanelli answered sincerely.
                  “Now, get outta here,” Vanek ordered, shooing his two underlings out of his office.
    ***
                  It was not until the two of them were back in the rickety cruiser that Campanelli admitted his desperate need of nourishment and invited Marcus to breakfast. The car took them to “ Tam’s Place ” the diner on the corner of Eighteenth and Michigan. Frank had dined there religiously for almost two years, well before he had ever thought about dating Tamara, the owner. He had introduced Williams to the place a year prior and the ex-Navy Seal had finally gotten used to the fact that the place did not specialize in health food, though there were a few salads to choose from. As it was breakfast time, Marcus actually looked forward to his usual eggs and bacon, so much so that he beat Campanelli to the door, which he held for Frank.
                  “Hi Frank! Hi Marcus!” Tam called from behind the counter.
                  Both men returned the greeting and sat across from her. Frank loved the way Tam’s smile lit the place up; it had a habit of making him smile in response without even thinking about it. Her dancing blue eyes met with his full-service artificial lenses and right away, she