Dust To Dust by Tami Hoag Page A

grapevine says otherwise," Liska said. "Tippen told me it was the hot gossip at Patrick's last night.That they came up with all kinds of sex toys and gay pornography. Now, where do you think a rumor like that might have started?"
    Kovac scowled. "With the Three Stooges in uniform. Where'd you see Tippen this early?"
    "Caribou Coffee. He has a really ugly double espresso habit." "Real cops are supposed to drink the sludge in the break room pot. It's tradition."
    "Christmas is a tradition," Liska corrected him. "Bad coffee is avoidable.
    "The thing that bothers me with the whole sex angle is this," she went on. "What if Andy Fallon was into S and M? Let's say he and a pal are playing around with erotic rope tricks and something goes wrong. Fallon dies. The partner panics and.leaves the scene. That's a crime in my book. Man two: depraved indifference. At least."
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    "I've been thinking about that too," Kovac said. "I went to see Steve Pierce last night. He seems like a man with something heavy on his chest."
    "What'd he have to say?"
    "Nothing much.We were interrupted by his fianc6e: the lovely Ms. Jocelyn Daring, attorney-at-law."
    Liska's brows went up under her bangs. "Daring as in DaringLandis?"
    "I made that assumption. No one corrected me."
    Liska gave a low whistle. "There's an interesting twist. Anything back yet from latent prints?"
    "No, but we can expect to find Pierce's prints. They were friends." Liska's phone rang and she turned to answer it.
    Kovac turned back to his computer and hit the power switch. He figured he'd get a jump on the prelinuinary report on Andy Fallon's death.A week or so after the autopsy they would get the N4-E's reports. He would call the morgue sooner than that to hear about the tox screens and to try to speed the report process along.
    Lieutenant Leonard appeared suddenly at the cubicle. "Kovac. My office. Now."
    Liska kept her head down as she spoke on the phone, avoiding eye contact. Kovac bit back a ble sieh and followed Leonard.
    One wall of the lieutenant's office was dorminated by a huge calendar dotted with round colored stickers. Red for open homicides, black for when the case cleared. Orange for open assaults, blue for when they closed. Color-coordinated crime fighting. Neat and tidy. The shit they taught these guys in management class.
    Leonard went behind his desk and stood with his hands on his hips and a frown on his mug face. He was wearing a tweedy brown sweater over a shirt and tie. The sleeves of the sweater were too long. The overall picture made Kovac think of a sock monkey he'd had as a kid.
    "You'll have a prelinuinary report from the ME on the Fallon kid later today."
    Kovac gave his head a little shake, as if he had water in his ear. "What? I was told it could be four or five days before they even got to him."
    "Someone called in a favor. On account of Mike FaRon:'Leonard added. "He's a department hero. No one wants him suffering more
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    than he has to because of this. What with the circumstances surrounding the suicide..."
    His lipless mouth squirmed Eke a worm. Distasteful business: naked suicide with kinky sexual overtones.
    "Yeah:' Kovac said. "Damned inconsiderate of the kid to off himself that way. If that's what happened. It's an embarrassment to the department."
    "That's a secondary consideration, but it's a valid one," Leonard said defensively. "The media is all too happy to make us look bad."
    "Well, this would do the trick. First it's downtown beat cops spending their shifts in strip clubs. Now this.We got us a regular Sodom and Gomorrah down here."
    "You can keep that comment to yourself, Sergeant. I don't want anyone talking to the media with regards to this case. I'll give the official statement later today.'Sergeant Fallon's untimely death was a tragic accident. We mourn his loss and our thoughts are with his family! " He recited the lines he'd memorized, trying them out for size and impact.
    "Dry, brief, to the point," Kovac critiqued.