Because the Night Read Online Free Page B

receiving Class A fitness reports, earning praise from all superior officers save one vice squad lieutenant, who shunted him back into uniform for refusing to serve in a public restroom deployment to catch persons engaged in homosexual acts. That same lieutenant had then recanted his criticism—later requesting that Herzog train his men in operating bookmaking and prostitution surveillances, heavily emphasizing the use of disguise. Herzog’s “seminars” had been so successful that he gained consultant status, training plainclothes officers city wide, staying in demand while doing four and three year tours of duty at West L.A. and Venice Divisions.
    Jungle Jack became known as the “Alchemist,” a reference to his ability to tranform himself and render himself virtually invisible on the street. He was also spectacularly brave—twice resolving hostage situations, the first time by offering himself to the gunman who had taken over a bar he was staking out for liquor violations.
    The gunman had grabbed a young prostitute and was holding a knife to her throat while his accomplice tapped the cash register and grabbed the purses and billfolds of the bar’s patrons. Herzog, in the guise of a crippled drunk, taunted the knife wielder to release the girl and take him in her stead, screaming obscenities at him, inching closer as the blade drew a trickle of blood at the girl’s throat. When he was two feet away, the gunman shoved the prostitute aside and grabbed Herzog, screaming when Jungle Jack’s elbow crashed into his windpipe. Herzog disabled the man with a flat-handed karate chop and took off after his accomplice, catching him after a five-block foot pursuit.
    The second hostage situation was resolved even more boldly. A man known to local officers as a heavy angel dust user had snatched a little girl and was holding her at gunpoint while a crowd gathered around him. Jack Herzog, in uniform, walked though the crowd and up to the man, who dropped the little girl and fired at him three times. The shots missed, and Herzog blew the man’s brains out at point-blank range.
    Herzog’s reputation grew within the Department; requests from vice squad and plainclothes commanders multiplied. Then Sergeant Martin Bergen, Herzog’s best friend, committed an act of cowardice as noteworthy as Herzog’s acts of bravery. A trial board followed, and Herzog went to the wall for his friend, calling in favors in hope of saving Bergen’s career, testifying as a character witness at his trial, decrying the L.A.P.D.’s hero mentality from his standpoint as one of its greatest heroes. Martin Bergen was banished from the Department in disgrace and Jungle Jack Herzog was banished to a file clerk job—a defeat as ignominious as Bergen’s. Even a hero shouldn’t fuck with the bosses.
    Lloyd put the folder down when he realized that a shadow had fallen across the pages. He looked up to find Officer Artie Cranfield from S.I.D. staring at him.
    â€œHello, Lloyd. How’s tricks?”
    â€œTricky.”
    â€œYou need a shave.”
    â€œI know.”
    â€œAny leads on the liquor store job?”
    â€œNo. I’m waiting on queries. Ever hear of a cop named Jungle Jack Herzog?”
    â€œYeah, who hasn’t? A real gunslinger.”
    â€œEver hear of an ex-cop named Marty Bergen?”
    â€œWhat is this, a guessing game? Everyone knows Old Yellowstreak and that toilet paper tabloid he writes for. Why?”
    â€œHerzog and Bergen were best buddies. Mr. Guts and Mr. Chickenshit. You like it?”
    â€œNot particularly. You look sardonic, Lloyd.”
    â€œWaiting makes me feel sardonic. Not sleeping makes me look sardonic.”
    â€œAre you going home to sleep?”
    â€œNo, I’m going to look for Mr. Guts.”
    Artie shook his head. “Before you go, say something macho about the liquor store asshole.”
    Lloyd smiled. “How about