Chasers

by Lorenzo Carcaterra

  “I didn’t have a family for the longest time,” Ash said. “I got so used to being alone, I didn’t even think twice about it. But I found a family again, standing right here, right now. And I’ll do what it takes and what it needs not to lose it.”

  “I’m guessing one of you ran this past Buttercup’s desk,” Dead-Eye said, winning a laugh from the others.

  “Well, our team’s still in place,” Quincy said. “Now all we need is to find us a job.”

  “We got a job,” Boomer said. “One that’s going to pay us a boatload of money, assuming we do it right.”

  “We signed off on it before we came aboard,” Dead-Eye said. “And we signed you two on along with us—Buttercup, too. So we’re more than thrilled to hear you express how you’re so Boy Scout eager to keep working together. Because if you had said otherwise, me and Boomer would have been big-time screwed.”

  “But you swore off going gun-to-gun back on those streets,” Quincy said. “At least that’s what I thought I heard.”

  “You heard right,” Boomer said. “We’re not hunting bangers or shooters and not drug dealers, nothing like that.”

  “What, then?” Ash asked.

  “You remember all that art was lifted out of Jonas Talbot’s brownstone?” Boomer asked.

  “How could we forget?” Quincy said. “Just one of those paintings was worth more than what each of us can probably hope to earn in a lifetime.”

  “Those are them,” Dead-Eye said. “And Natalie and her crew moved them fast as she could, and as many as she could, out into the black market. Now, anybody brings those paintings back and returns them to their proper owner, be they an individual or a museum, they’re in store for a pretty hefty reward.”

  “That’s our job?” Ash asked. “Finding stolen art?”

  “That’s exactly our job,” Boomer said. “And we’re working legit this time. We’re being funded by the NYPD Art Squad. They want all the paintings back, but they lack the manpower to go after them. That’s where we step into the frame.”

  “They could be anywhere in the world by now,” Ash said.

  “You mean like Europe, the Far East, Latin America?” Dead-Eye asked. “All those places we could never afford to go on our own?”

  “I won’t always be able to travel with you,” Quincy said.

  “We took that into consideration,” Dead-Eye said. “We still have our main base, and when you can’t get yourself on a plane, then you work out of there. Otherwise, you’re on the road with us. Square with you?”

  “Very,” Quincy said.

  “What about Buttercup?” Ash asked.

  “What about her?” Dead-Eye said.

  “She can’t just hop on a plane with us and waltz into any country,” Ash said. “There are quarantine laws we need to look into.”

  “Let’s worry about the art, educate ourselves on that,” Boomer said. “I wouldn’t waste much time on any quarantine problems.”

  “She’ll get in when she wants, where she wants,” Dead-Eye said. “She’s a cop. She’s an Apache.”

  “And so are we,” Boomer said. “So just go ahead and try to stop us.”

  The sun was burning-hot now, the day warming, the cruise liner easing past the Statue of Liberty and making its way back to port. To their left, the city of New York gleamed like polished silver. The Apaches stood in a line, taking in the full view.

  “Try and stop any one of us,” Boomer said.

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  LORENZO CARCATERRA is the author of Paradise City, Street Boys, Gangster, A Safe Place, and the New York Times bestsellers Sleepers and Apaches. He has written scripts for movies and television, and has worked as a writer and producer for Law & Order. Learn more about his work at www.LorenzoCarcaterra.com.

  BY LORENZO CARCATERRA

  A SAFE PLACE

  The True Story of a Father, a Son, a Murder

  SLEEPERS

  APACHES

  GANGSTER

  STREET BOYS

  PARADISE CITY

  CHASERS

  Chasers is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  Copyright © 2007 by Lorenzo Carcaterra

  All rights reserved.

  Published in the United States by Ballantine Books, an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.

  BALLANTINE and colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.

  LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA

  Carcaterra, Lorenzo.

  Chasers: a novel / Lorenzo Carcaterra

  p. cm.

  1. Ex-police officers—New York (State)—New York—Fiction. 2. Drug traffic—Fiction. 3. New York (N.Y.)—Fiction. I. Title.

  PS3553.A653C48 2007

  813'.54—dc22 2007000579

  www.ballantinebooks.com

  eISBN: 978-0-345-48599-1

  v3.0