THE GAMEwasn’t so funny when Crosby got brought in beat to shit and mostly dead from a drug overdose slipped into his water.
He was brought to Garcia’s place, hooked up to an IV, mostly unconscious for nearly three days, and the entire unit decided they’d had enough.
Joey and Gideon had been interviewing a civil engineer who kept finding bodies in the Hudson over the course of his work day when Gideon had gotten the text that Crosby had been brought in and was in bad shape.Joey saw from his eyes that something was wrong, read his silent “Crosby,” and felt his blood run cold.So he’d been about to blow the poor engineer off, but that felt dishonest.The NYPD was supposed to interview him, buttheykept shuttling his problem down to SCTF.Where the fuck were all the bodies coming from?
Clint thought that was a very good question, but their dossier was incredibly spotty because nobody in the NYPD was taking him seriously, and the FBI had to be asked in on a case and hadn’t been.The SCTF was their fallback, but by the time somebody from Clint’s squad got there, the staties had already taken the body to be autopsied and locked the feds out of it.
So it wasn’t the engineer’s fault.He was just trying to do his job, and he’d been grilled by the SCTF three times, all about stuff theyshould have hadin the fucking dossier.Joey was going to tell him—a solid guy, mostly bald, with a degree in civil engineering and a New Jersey accent—that this was not his day, again, when the guy said something that made them both perk up.
“Yeah, I know I keep finding bodies, and you suits keep saying ‘So what,’ but you know, I got a theory about why they keep ending up here.”
Gideon cocked his head, and Joey kept his peace.Gideon liked things like this—the physics, the how, the where, the why.
“Hit us with it, Mr.Rau,” he said.
“Well, see, my job is to clear out the floor of the Hudson to either build the ferry docks or make sure the ferries can get through, right?”
They both nodded.
“So we get sand and silt buildup from the same places on account of the currents.I figure the bodies gotta come the same way.You look at where the currents of the river are coming from, you’ll see where the bodies are coming from, right?I mean,Igot maps and computer readouts and shit—but that’s so I know which parts of the river are building up so I know where to direct my guys.But you can use that same shit to figure out where an object’s gonna come from, and aren’t you guys the ones who get the forensics reports?I mean, there’s engineers at the transportation commission who could help you do the math, right?”
Gideon and Joey stared at him.
“Absolutely right, sir,” Gideon said, thinking about it.“You are absolutely right.I mean, I’m sorry.I feel like we should have thought of this before, but I’m thrilledyougot there, right?”
“You gonna do something about this?”the man asked.“’Cause I seen the same tattoo on some of these guys—and some of ’em are suits, but some of ’em are working guys.They all got their insides carved out and stuffed full of rocks so they stick to the bottom of the river, ’cause people don’t count on my outfit to scoop ’em out, you know?”
“What’s the tattoo say?”Joey asked.“Like, Special Forces or something?”
Their guy snorted.“Likewannabe,right?S-o-B.BigS, littleo, bigB.”
Joey and Gideon locked gazes.
“Shit,” Joey said.
“Motherfucker.”
No wonder the NYPD was mucking up the case and muddling up the federal involvement.
“You know who that is?”their guy asked.
“Sir,” Joey said, pulling out his card, “you have been the victim of a massive bureaucratic fuckup.We’re sorry this keeps happening to you, and you only get us when we’re run ragged from something else, but that is going to fucking change.Here’s my card.Next time you find a fucking body, you contactus.Not the NYPD.Not the FBI.You’ve done part of our job for us, but that’s not fair.You’re busy trying to build shit, and that’s a good thing.Keep doing that.In the meantime, sendeverythingyou got to this email.”He pulled out his pen and circled Gideon’s email on their business card.“That’s my partner here.He’s hella fuckin’ smart—he’s gonna take everything you just said and make the goddamned bodies stop.”
They could only hope.
Their guy went from beleaguered and frustrated to much, much happier.“That’s great,” he said.“I mean, I get it if you gotta see a couple more—there don’t seem to be much of a shortage, you know what I mean?”
“Sadly, yes,” Gideon said, nodding.“Just remember—you callus.Leave the NYPD out of it for now.”
“Will do,” Mr.Rau told them.“Thanks, guys.”
“Jesus,” Joey said as they walked away.“That guy should be on our team.”
“Shoulders like a linebacker,” Gideon said.“And speaking of….”His voice dropped, and he told Joey about Crosby then.
Joey’s vision went a little swimmy.Gideon’s hand on his elbow helped him get to the SUV, and he refused to shake it off, even though between the Crosby sitch and Joey’s father, the odds were pretty damned good they had a tail.
Fuck ’em, he thought, fighting off shivers in the SUV.Fuck ’em if they thought he and Gideon leaning on each other for strength meant they were weak.He’d show ’em weak.They’d rip their fucking throats out!
