NYPD Red 2(91)

I was positive that someone on the other side of the looking glass was already doing just that.

“Dave,” Kylie said, “you were kids when you killed Salvi’s son. It was a personal vendetta. What about these other random killings?”

“They weren’t random. We were cleaning up a city that couldn’t or wouldn’t clean up after itself. Are you telling me you never felt like doing anything like that?”

“Feeling like it and going ahead with it are worlds apart,” Kylie said. “We’re cops, not vigilantes. We work within the system.”

He smiled. “You two—especially you, Kylie—only work within the system when it’s working for you. Then you blow right through to the other side and do whatever the hell you want. Don’t forget, you’re the ones who had me and Gideon running an illegal tail on a couple of innocent cops.”

Kylie looked over her shoulder at the mirror. I could pretty much guess what kind of a look she was getting from the other side.

“A lot of people supported the Hazmat Killer,” Casey said. “I know you don’t condone what we did, but don’t pretend that you don’t understand.”

“Help us understand it a little better,” I said. “Take us through it from the beginning.”

“It all started with a simple question,” Casey said. “Do you think Hitler was a nice guy when he was in high school?”

He talked nonstop for the next two hours. When he was finished, he looked directly into the camera and said, “Well, that’s my video confession. None of it was coerced. All of it was voluntary. I just want to add that my sister, Meredith, never had a clue that Gideon and I killed Enzo or anyone else. Yes, she did tell Gideon that Rachael O’Keefe would be holed up at her aunt’s house in Jersey, but that’s only because Gideon got her drunk and pried the information out of her. We were cops. She trusted us. A lot of people trusted us, and, in fact, Detectives Jordan and MacDonald also shared confidential information with us. Meredith was just one of the many people we duped. She played no part in any of our crimes and shouldn’t have to suffer any of the consequences.”

He folded his hands and rested them on the table. “I think I’m done, but I have two more questions.”

“Go ahead,” I said.

“What’s the status on Rachael O’Keefe?”

“She was taken to the trauma center at New York–Presbyterian,” Kylie said. “Her sister is with her, and there’s round-the-clock NYPD protection to keep away the press, the crazies, and the usual assortment of bottom-feeders who want to exploit her ordeal.”

“Tell her I’m...” He stopped. “No, there’s nothing I can say that she wants to hear.” He shook his head, trying to clear away regrets that no doubt would haunt him the rest of his life.

“What’s your second question?” Kylie said.

“What do you think will happen to the Salvis?”

“The DA’s office screened the videotape, and they’re one hundred percent positive they can convict Joe Salvi.”

“The tape is definitely admissible?” Dave asked. “The courts won’t throw it out? They like to do that, you know.”

“Not this time,” Kylie said. “The DA confirmed that Salvi knew the camera was there. He says something at the very top about being the director of the movie. And the lens was open wide enough to catch him gunning down a cop. That’s life without parole. And Jojo will get at least twenty-five years as an accessory.”

“You know, my father was a cop, and deep down inside, Gideon and I were always cops. And even though we went off the rails, we managed to take down an entire Mafia dynasty. Joe Salvi and his two sons. Gid would be pretty goddamn happy about that.”

“I imagine a lot of people in Howard Beach will be pretty goddamn happy about that,” I said.

“You don’t know the half of it,” Casey said. “Everybody lived in fear of them. It’s the end of a sixty-year reign of tyranny. Nobody in Howard Beach will miss the Salvis.”

He paused, and an eerie smile crept across his face. “Except maybe on Thanksgiving, Christmas, Fourth of July, and Halloween.”





Epilogue





Hazmat’s Final Victim





Chapter 83



It was the Wednesday morning after Election Day, and I bounded up the stairs of the precinct with a shopping bag in one hand and a newspaper in the other. I was surprised to see Kylie at her desk.

“I thought you were driving Spence to rehab,” I said, setting the shopping bag on the floor.

“He can’t check in till three p.m., so I figured I’d come in here and give him some alone time. I’m sure by the end of the day, he’ll have had more than enough of me.”