Horns of the Devil - Jeff Trask [02] Read Free Page A

true.”
    “Thanks, but I suspect you have a very biased opinion.”
    “I admit the bias, but the opinion’s still accurate. Where’d they put you?”
    “Your friend Bear has me working for him in the gang squad.”
    “Good. He can keep all the young bucks in the Bureau from hitting on you.”
    “Fat chance,” she said. She nodded to her left. “I think you’re the one who needs watching.”
    Trask turned to see a little girl in a booster seat grinning at him from the adjacent table. She was only about sixteen months old, but she was smiling widely, showing off the few teeth she had managed to sprout. “What is it with you and babies?” Lynn asked. “You’re a baby magnet . Mostly little girls. They’re always smiling at you like that. I think they see some kind of halo around you and know that you’re here to protect them.”
    Trask smiled back at the infant, who was beaming at him again.
    “How old do they have to be before that stops?” Lynn asked.
    “I’ve noticed that it drops off considerably after they hit twenty-five.”
    “You’d be wearing this salad if we weren’t in public.”
    Trask laughed. “After dinner, we can go home and I’ll show you how attractive I think you still are.”
    She smiled again, but it faded quickly.
    “I might have to leave Barry’s squad already.”
    “Why is that? I thought he’d be a great boss to work for.”
    “That’s not the problem.” She stabbed the fork into her salad before looking up again. “ You are.”
    “What?”
    “Barry got a call from your boss just before I left work to meet you.”
    “And what did smilin’ Bill Patrick say to stir this up?”
    “Tim Wisniewski took a call yesterday and Dixon Carter picked it up at Homicide. The vic was an ambassador’s kid. Decapitated. Somebody threw his body out in front of his father’s embassy.”
    “Which embassy?”
    “El Salvador. Willie Sivella called Barry. Willie said he’d already talked to Patrick and that the case was going to be assigned to you.”
    El Salvador, Trask mused. Decapitation. The signature of a political retaliation by the MS-13. I’d read that they were moving into the area. Doesn’t make a lot of sense, though. The new government was supposed to be more favorable to the gangs…
    He looked back up at Lynn.
    Focus, dummy. Don’t ever tune HER out.
    “Great,” he said. “The case of the headless diplomatic dependent. What does that have to do with your squad assignment?”
    “The murder’s probably gang-related; at least that’s the initial theory.”
    Trask nodded as if the information were new to him.
    “Barry had wanted me to work on gang intelligence stuff,” she continued. “He was worried that with you taking the case, it might conflict me out of the squad.”
    “There’s no conflict of interest as long as you’re not a potential witness. I’d have to call the witnesses who wrote whatever you’re reading, not you. As long as you’re an analyst and not a witness to an event, no conflict.”
    “You’re sure?”
    “Yep. Just make sure there’s a second set of eyes on everything you do. As long as I don’t have to call you to the stand, I don’t have to kick you off Bear’s squad.”
    “Great!” She dug into her salad. “We can work together again, I can stay on the desk, and I don’t even have to talk to dumb-ass lawyers in court!”
    “Thanks, I guess.”
    “I didn’t mean you . Besides, I never thought of you as a lawyer.”
    “Thanks again.”
    “You know what I mean. You’re as much of a cop as I am. All the guys who’ve done cases with you say that. Plus, you’re a hell of a prosecutor, and you’re not bad at some other things.”
    “Like what?” He prodded, arching his left eyebrow.
    “Like showing me how attractive you think I still am. I plan to take you up on that offer when we get home.”
    “I think this salad will be enough, then, don’t you?”
    “Not so fast, Romeo,” she laughed. “You promised me a dinner,