Page 76 of Rising Tiger

“No one would agree to testify. Not members of his crew. Not even the informant’s wife or his mother. Everyone was afraid of retribution. Without an eyewitness willing to go against him in court, we had nothing.”

“So you decided to take care of things outside of court.”

“We couldn’t let the barbarity that he had committed go unanswered,” Vijay replied. “Even if we lost our jobs, my partner and I were determined to make him pay.”

Harvath understood the impulse. He had succumbed to it more than once himself. Good, capable men who did nothing in the face of evil were just as guilty of evil themselves.

“For the first time since we had begun our hunt,” the ex-cop continued, “we were in the right place at the right time. We had him in our sights. But when we went to make our move, he bolted.

“It was monsoon season. The storm that night was horrible. Youcould barely see a foot in front of your face. My partner raced after Sayed and I took another route in hopes of cutting him off.

“When I got to where I thought he would be, the only thing I found was my partner, his chest and belly slashed wide open with a straight razor.

“I called for medical assistance, helped push his guts back inside his body, and tied my jacket around his midsection to act as a pressure bandage. I didn’t want to leave him, but my partner was emphatic. Sayed needed to be stopped, once and for all. So, I resumed my chase.

“He had thought by forgoing the alleys and heading to the rooftops, that he could escape, but he was wrong. Like him, I had grown up in one of the city’s rougher neighborhoods and long before I ever entertained the idea of becoming a police officer, I had run from countless cops and had used the rooftops to slip their grasp.

“He had a head start on me, but it didn’t take long to catch up to him. Everything was soaked. Every surface was slippery and he was clumsy. Sayed had made just enough mistakes for me to reach out and grab him from behind.”

“You put hands on some psycho with a straight razor?” asked Harvath. “From behind? My God, Vijay, if ever there was a reason to use your sidearm, that was it. Practically textbook.”

“I know,” the man admitted. “You’re right. But I was young, dumb, and full of rage over not only what he had done to our informant and his family, but also what he had done to my partner. Putting a bullet in him would have solved one problem, but it would have created a mountain of others. Plus, it wouldn’t have given me the satisfaction I needed.”

Harvath appreciated that. “What happened?” he asked.

“He did just what you thought he did. He spun, I caught the glint of the razor—even in the storm—and he swung it at me. But I was expecting it.”

“Meaning hemissedyou.”

“Yes,” said the ex-cop, “but not by much. He sliced through my coat, just below my left armpit. Almost got me.”

“And you still didn’t shoot him.”

“No, I did not. But I did give him a little rooftop-to-rooftop counseling. I beat that piece of shit to within an inch of his life, tossed him to thenext building, gave him a chance to catch his breath, and began the whole process all over again.”

“When did he learn he couldn’t fly?”

“On the last rooftop. I misjudged the distance. Didn’t throw him hard enough. My bad.”

Harvath chuckled. There really, and truly, was nothing like a smart-ass cop. “I’m guessing your partner wasn’t afraid to testify against him.”

“He was not. Aga Sayed countered by alleging police brutality and police misconduct. Unfortunately for him, there were no eyewitnesses to back up any of his claims, only the injuries he sustained while running fromthisdetective.

“Sayed got lucky and pulled a judge who was soft on crime and hard on cops. His sentence was fifteen years. He served five.”

“What about your partner?”

“That was it for him. His wife wanted him out. His kids wanted him out. And on a certain level, he wanted out, too. So he retired.”

“What happened to you?”

Vijay smiled. “I got promoted.”

Harvath shook his head and smiled. “Of course you did. Any other ending just wouldn’t have suited that story.”

“Don’t the good guys always win?”

“Unfortunately,” Harvath replied, “the only place that the good guysalwayswin is in the movies.”

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