Trigger

by David Swinson

  I have a key, so I lock the door when we exit.

  Walking back to the car, Calvin says, “I’m afraid to know what was in the bag you gave her.”

  “Does look suspicious, huh?” I leave it at that.

  Fifty-One

  I called Rattan. She agreed to meet me in front of 300, police headquarters, because she has court and can’t break away.

  It’ll take too long to find parking, so I don’t bother. I pull the car to the curb in front of 300.

  “Man, this place make me naus…nausea…makes me wanna puke.”

  “Yeah, makes me nauseous, too,” I say. He gives me an odd look.

  Rattan is on the steps, talking to a uniform cop. She’s wearing black tight-fit suit pants and a teal in color overcoat. The beanie cap is what gets me. Makes her look cuter. I shake away the thought and tap the horn a couple of times to get her attention. She takes notice, slaps the uniform on the back, and walks over to my side of the car.

  “Parking’s a bitch,” I say.

  “Tell me about it.”

  “Like I said when I called, we might have some good information on the shooter in that photo.”

  I hand her the bodycam photo.

  “A source said it’s pretty confident that this is a guy known as Rule.”

  “Rule?”

  I spell the name for her. She notebooks it.

  “He’s known to hang at the fourteen hundred block of Fairmont NW, and lives in one of the buildings located at the north and south corners of Fairmont and Fourteenth. Not sure which one. Also known to deal drugs.”

  “Not a real common nickname or name, so I’ll get with 3D and Narcotics Branch, see if they know of him. This is good. Thanks.”

  “Anytime. And can you let me know if you get him and it turns out to be good information? I had to pay the source.”

  “Yes. If it is, I’ll personally reimburse you.”

  “You can buy me a couple of drinks.”

  “Deal.”

  She hands me back the photo. “Hold on to this.”

  “All right, then. Stay safe.”

  “Thanks again, Marr.”

  She offers her hand, and we shake. Soft, cold hands.

  When she steps onto the sidewalk, I pull out.

  “Why you didn’t give up Ty and Marlon, that they might be runnin’ together?”

  “Remember when I said some things we keep to ourselves?”

  “Oh. Yeah. Why them?”

  “Because we want to get to those mopes first.”

  “Mopes.” He chuckles. “That what you all called me?”

  “Fuck yes. You were the worst kind of mope.”

  “Fuck you.”

  “What, you can’t take someone bustin’ your balls?”

  “Yeah, with the best of them.”

  That’s good.

  “You also lied to the detective woman—”

  “Rattan. Her name is Rattan.”

  “Rattan. You lied to her about payin’ a snitch.”

  “No I didn’t. I got to pay you, don’t I?”

  “You playin’ that shit again?”

  “No. You’re saying it. And we call them a source of information.”

  He rolls down the window and spits, rolls it up again and says, “Just call them what they are.”

  “Listen, you did good, possibly identifying the shooter. And you’re not a source of information. You’re a coworker. If they get him, then we’re owed a favor down the road. And trust me when I say in this business we need all the favors we can get.”

  “Makes sense. And you hot on that Detective Rattan, ain’t ya? That the kind of favor you talkin’ about down the road?”

  “She’s cute, but business first.”

  “Yeah, I learned that, too, when I worked for Cordell.”

  “No comparison.”

  “Haven’t known you long enough to know if that’s true,” he says.

  I drive to the Salvadoran restaurant we went to before and find parking.

  “Early for lunch, ain’t it?”

  “This is work.”

  I roll down the window and light up a smoke. Calvin pulls out a pack of Swisher Sweets Tip Cigarillos.

  “Mind if I light one of these up?”

  “No. Unless you got something more than tobacco in there.”

  Huffs a laugh. “Naw.”

  He takes one out of the pack, unwraps it from the plastic. I hand him my lighter. Funny, Luna used to smoke those before he was spoiled with good cigars. Bought them at 7-Eleven. Must’ve had a death wish, ’cause he inhaled.

  They have a sweet smell. Sort of upsets my stomach.

  “Roll your window down a bit,” I tell him.

  He does, then hands back my lighter. Inhales.

  “So, here’s what I got. You know what an okeydoke is?”

  “Yeah, some sort of con.”

  “Yes, except the kind I’m talking about is legal. Well, sometimes legal. Depends on if it’s something that’s going to go to court or not.”

  “We talkin’ something that’s goin’ to court here?”

  “No.”

  I grab a burner phone out of a side pocket of my backpack, hand it to him. It’s an old-style flip phone. He looks at it as if it’s some sort of oddity.

  I want to be careful how I handle this with Calvin, because I don’t want to give up Tamie Darling as someone who was/is a CI for me but who is now playing for the other side.

  “I have a contact number for this girl who might be working with Ty and Marlon. I want to try to set it up so I can get to her. So I have this idea.”

  “How you get the number?”

  “One step at a time, rookie. Some things you’re not ready to learn.” Or, rather, there are some things I don’t want to tell you.

  I grab a roll of money out of my pants pocket, peel off two twenties, and hand them to Calvin.

  “This is your expense money.”

  “Meaning it don’t come off my pay?”

  “Yeah, meaning that. What I want you to do is take the burner and go into the restaurant, sit at a table, order food if you want or just coffee or beer.”

  “Don’t like coffee and it’s a bit early for beer. Just make me tired. Maybe a screwdriver, something like that?”

  “Yeah, whatever. Just sit in there and wait for me, and with any luck I’ll have additional info when I come in. Got it?”

  “A’right.”

  He opens the door, but before he steps out, I say, “Don’t go flirting with that waitress. Her brothers might not like that. Get your ass kicked.”

  “Yeah, right.” And he exits, shutting the door behind him.

  I wait for a couple of minutes after he enters, to make sure he doesn’t step back out. Then I grab my phone and call Darling.

  Fifty-Two

  I walk into the restaurant, see Calvin sitting at a small table, drinking what looks like a screwdriver and eating chips with salsa. It’s before the lunch rush, so there’s hardly anyone here. I sit across from him.

  “That didn’t take long,” he tells me.

  The waitress approaches, offers a menu.

  “You order something?” I ask Calvin.

  “Yeah, one of them pupusas.”

  “I’ll have what he’s having, and a Baileys and coffee. Thanks.”

  She smiles and takes the menu back.

  “Gracias,” she says.

  I notice Calvin watching her as she walks away.

  “Careful there, hombre.”

  “Wouldn’t be normal if I didn’t take notice.”

  “Is your uncle at work today?”

  “Yeah. Why?”

  “I set something up and will be meeting a source—”

  “Snitch,” he says, then sips his drink from the little red straw.

  “With a source. I’ll drop you off at home, but you’ll still be on the clock. If it works out through this source, you’ll be getting a call on that burner.”

  “Why I can’t go with yo
u?”

  “Source will only meet with me.”

  I have to lead Calvin to believe that the source I’m meeting, Tamie Darling, and the person who will be calling him on the burner, also Darling, are two different people. I don’t fully trust Calvin yet. If it doesn’t pan out, I don’t want to burn Tamie.

  I am playing them both, but Darling’s the target. If she takes the bait, then Calvin will know they are the same person and it won’t matter. With any luck, Calvin won’t recognize her voice from about three years ago, when I had her play him. Shit, I’m pushing the line. This is a fishing expedition, and I’m testing the waters of Darling, who may have been playing me and Al for a long time.

  “Here’s how you have to play it. I want this person who might be calling you to believe you’re a big player, slinging ounces of crack.”

  “What? No the fuck way. You tryin’ to get me jammed up?”

  “I do this kinda stuff all the time. The person who will be calling you won’t know who the hell you are. Like I said, it’s an okeydoke and you’re one of the players in the con. But it’s also a part of the investigation, so it’s important to stay the part.”

  “Sound like I’m just gonna get caught up in something that might get me arrested.”

  “Calvin, for shit’s sake, an okeydoke can’t get you arrested, unless you’re really going to be dealing an ounce of crack. And you’re not.”

  “Hell no.”

  “This kind of thing is going to be a regular part of what we do.”

  Takes him a moment to think about it. “So what I got to do, then?”

  “I’m hoping it’ll be a girl that will call you,” I say, knowing it will be. “When she does, don’t play into it right away. Ask how she got the number. To play the part well, you need to be suspicious of her. I’ll feed the source a code word that she’ll give you, that only you and your other fake buyers know for the product you sell.”

  “Yeah, we used to do that shit. Like ‘jellybeans.’ ”

  Fuck, that was the code word Darling used on Calvin back then. I almost want to laugh.

  “Yeah, that’s good, but let’s think of something a little more common, like ‘blizzard,’ or something like that.”

  “Blizzard?”

  “Heavy snow.”

  “Ain’t that a bit obvious?”

  “ ‘Rock’ would be a bit obvious. This is simple shit here. We’re going with ‘blizzard.’ Once the caller tells you she got your number from Arthur—”

  “The kid who got shot?”

  “Yeah, that’s a part of the okeydoke. So she gives you that name and calls it ‘blizzard,’ which is what you call the product you sell. You will call the meeting spot. Make it the little circle park at Sixteenth and Columbia, the one you hit before Mount Pleasant.”

  “A’right.”

  “Of course, you won’t show, but both of us will be there to see if she shows.”

  “So then you’ll know who it is?”

  “Yeah, I hope.”

  She won’t show, though, because Tamie will think I’ll be there on surveillance. It’s what happens after that I’m looking for.

  “But then what?”

  “We let her walk with the idea that she’ll call you again.”

  The call after is what I want. Something she does on her own. That’ll be what gives her up. If that happens, who the fuck knows what I’m gonna do.

  “She ain’t gonna have my real name?”

  “No. Make one up. Who you want to be?”

  He thinks hard, does everything but rub his chin with two fingers.

  “Idris,” he says.

  “Idris? What kind of name is that?”

  “He an actor I like. Tough as shit.”

  “Idris, then.”

  We eat our brunch, have another drink, and I take Calvin home.

  On the way, I feed him questions, some of which I’ll feed Darling to ask him, until I feel comfortable he’s playing the part well.

  I pull up in front of his house.

  “Don’t go using that burner for your own calls.”

  “C’mon, now.”

  “Keep it on you at all times and just play the part.”

  “I can play the part. Don’t worry ’bout that.”

  “I should be back within a couple hours.”

  He grabs his pack and exits. Hops up the stairs to the front door. I don’t have to meet her for about an hour, so I go home to have a couple of drinks and fill my flask.

  Fifty-Three

  Same spot as the last meet. Eleven hundred block of Kenyon, by the mural. And there she is, wearing tight jeans and her puffy white coat. I scan the area a few times and then roll up. She hops in the back seat.

  “Two times in the same week. I feel special,” she says.

  “Lot going on, and who else am I gonna call?”

  I feel uncomfortable with her in the back seat now. Not like before, when I didn’t doubt her. Like having an unaccompanied prisoner in the back for a drive-around. Doesn’t matter if they’re in shackles. It’s just not something you do. Tamie’s not a prisoner, but it sure feels the same.

  “How’d you get here?” I say.

  “Same as last time. I walked. I like walking the city.”

  I pull the car out. “Let’s go around the corner where we were last time, try to find parking.”

  She cracks the window open, lights up a smoke.

  I find a place to park on the school side, closer to 11th.

  I look at her through the rearview as she flicks the cigarette out the window and pushes the button to slide it up. She dabs the right side of her upper lip with her middle finger, tightening the skin where there’s a little wrinkle smile.

  “Here’s the deal. You know I’m working the shooting that Al was involved in?”

  “Yes.”

  “Well, I started by looking into the background of the kid he shot, and it’s not a good background.”

  I keep my eyes on her through the rearview. I know she knows I’m looking, but I still want to see if I get a reaction out of her.

  “What’s the kid’s name again?”

  Again? I don’t recall ever giving her the kid’s name.

  I play stupid and say, “Arthur,” because it doesn’t matter if she knows. It’s been on the news.

  “I was able to get the name of a drug-dealing associate of his. This guy who goes by the name Idris.”

  Again. Nothing.

  “Like that handsome actor?”

  “Actor?”

  “Ain’t nothin’. Just playing.”

  “Idris is all I have on him.”

  “Why he so important in all this?”

  “I need to find as much dirt on this kid, Arthur, as I can. I’m hoping, in some way, it’ll help Al out, maybe even lead to something that can clear him.”

  “I see.”

  “The information I got is Idris is dealing large amounts of crack. He was getting supplied by Arthur. I’m talking ounces.”

  Still no reaction. Stone-cold. She does reach into her purse and take another cigarette. Lights it but doesn’t roll the window down.

  “Window,” I remind her.

  She does.

  “Like I said, Arthur was supplying him ounces at a time, at least once a week.”

  “How you get this information?”

  “What does that fucking matter, Darling?”

  “Thought maybe it can help me when I talk to him.”

  “It won’t. I don’t even know what area he’s working, but I’m thinking the fourteen hundred block of Fairmont, because that’s where Arthur was known to hang. I do have a cell for Idris, and I want you to give him a call, say you got his number from a friend of Arthur’s ’cause Arthur used to be your supplier, but now he’s dead so you got nowhere else to go. Got that so far?”

  “Easy.”

  “The word from my source is the shit he sells is called blizzard.”

  “Like the Dairy Queen drink?”


  “I don’t fucking know. Just blizzard. Just play him like you always do, and see if he’ll sell you a quarter of an ounce or something. Nothing big, but you’re a regular buyer. I want to get a meeting spot, where I’ll be set up, and get him snatched up.”

  “By the police?”

  “By me, baby.”

  I give her one of my burner phones.

  “So, what’s his name?” I ask, testing her.

  “Idris, and don’t bother asking the other shit. It’s called blizzard, and you want me to get a quarter ounce of crack.”

  “That’s what I love about working with you, Darling. You got a sharp memory. Also, make up your description and an outfit you’ll be wearing so that he’ll recognize you. And get one from him, too.”

  I gotta play the story as much as I can. Has to feel real.

  “Okay.”

  “Here’s the number.”

  Fifty-Four

  Sounded like Calvin played it well. Maybe got a little hard at first, but that’s expected with drug boys getting cold calls. According to Darling, he agreed to meet her tomorrow at noon at the circle park area near 16th and Columbia. Again, I know she won’t show because she thinks I’ll be there, which I will, because I have to play Calvin, too. I’m hoping that sharp memory of hers memorized his cell.

  It’s a good sign when Darling looks at the cell screen briefly before handing it back to me.

  I don’t want to keep her, fill her head with anything else, so I say, “Might need to get with you later.”

  “Anytime, baby.”

  I hand her forty bucks. She folds it up, drops it in her purse, and steps out of the car, walks away. I swear she’s working on that walking sway. Hate to admit it, but that ass ain’t looking bad. I shake the thought away, like something perverted that managed to creep in.

  Now it’s Calvin’s turn. I call him to let him know I’m on my way.

  When I make the right to go south on 11th, I notice what looks like a black Explorer driving north. The tint is heavy, but what else is new. There are lots of Explorers in DC with heavy tint. But I can’t help thinking about the one I saw drop Tamie Darling off at 17th and Euclid.

  I get to Calvin’s and stay double-parked with him in the car.

  “You got my cell?”

  “Yeah.”

  He pulls it out of his pack and hands it to me.