CHAPTER THREE
I've always thought of myself as someone who bad news finds easily. Bad news and bosses. Just as my boot hit the first rung of the ladder down, I heard a deep voice ring out. Chief Sullivan. "Running out when there's work needs doing, eh, Nux?"
The brute would have to wait. I climbed back into the office, but left the hatch open.
"What would you have me for, boss?"
"I know you're a man appreciates his place in life, Nux. Problem is, you just don't always seem to know where that place is sometimes." Sullivan let the smooth roll right off him.
"And what place would that be, then, boss?"
Sullivan walked over, looking down his pencil-thin mustache at me. "The word's come down, and it's come hard. The big man needs us to dog a possible contraband ring. Says he's got one of his feelings about that booger setting up shop down at the docks – Frank Fontaine. I'm putting together a rotation. Six hour shifts. Real official-like. I'm sure a Philly flatfoot such as yourself will be right at home in a detail like that."
"I'll get on it straight as I can, boss. Just have to finish up my thing with the brute and his unknown victim."
"The broad in the bag? Nux, I am not sure if I need my ears checked, but didn't you already catch the guy who bumped her? You put two slugs in him."
"That may be, boss, but I don't even know the girl's name yet. Plus, there's no way to say for sure just because he was carrying her head means he's the one who did her," I said.
Sullivan looked at me slant-eyed. "Nux, you're a good police, but fact is, I don't have that many good police. I don't have many police at all. We need to focus on the big picture. Prioritize. Its supply and demand, just like anything else. Ryan doesn't want Rapture turning into the kind of place we all swam down in the deep to get away from. We pinch the top offenders running around, the little ones will be pushovers."
"And does Ryan want murderers running around his little Shangri-la with no one stopping them in the meantime?" I was letting my anger show more than I wanted.
"Ryan tells us what Ryan wants. We don't tell him. He's big potato in the deep. Not me, and most certainly not you. I'm not going to say it again. Leave the dead for the dead. It's over. Ryan likes you for that business you pulled back in Philly, but I knew bringing you on was a risk, and I said as much. Ryan still wanted you. Now, if you want Ryan to keep you on the roll, your sole purpose for the immediate future is to report to the doghouse and get spun up on the Fontaine detail. Clear?"
I locked eyes with Chief Sullivan for a long moment. "It's clear, boss."
"See that? I knew you was the aces, Nux. Get you over there before the end of shift. They'll fill in the details. We bring home the goods on Fontaine, and Ryan'll be one in the hole for the force. Shouldn't take more than a few weeks. I'll have my eyes open for the daily summaries when they start churning out. Til then." Sullivan tipped his head, and walked out of the office.