“Ah.” She bobbed her head. “So, it’s a question of ethics. You don’t know how strong mine are.”
“I don’t know if I would call it ethics,” he argued. Wait. Was he about to argue the meaning of the word ethics with this woman? That was rather unexpected. “We’re talking about standards here, but I don’t know that I would call it an issue of ethics.”
“Why not?” She gazed at him with enough steadiness that Ash actually felt the urge to squirm. “Ethics are moral principles. Wouldn’t you say the decision to sell drugs is a moral one? It can be a financial one, but only once someone has overcome the moral barrier of whether or not to sell a substance that is known, without a doubt, to cause harm to people. So, it sounds to me like you are worried my desire for financial aid is greater than my sense of morality that it is wrong to sell drugs.”
Ash felt his mind engaging, enjoying the banter and the discussion. It was as unexpected as it was enjoyable. “Ah, but if you were to pick and choose who you sold to, perhaps you only sell to adults or people of a certain age who can and should know better but are knowingly making the decision to hurt themselves because they want the high, you could say they are responsible for their own choices. You’re just offering them an option.”
“But that’s a justification for a behavior that goes against my personal moral code,” Mindy argued. “All of those reasonings that you just mentioned are valid only if you don’t believe that selling drugs is morally wrong. Because at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter what everyone else does—I’m the one who has to answer for my own behavior. And if I have done something that violates my moral code, it’s still a crime in my mind no matter what choice someone else makes.”
She had laid her spoon down and was staring at him over what little remained of her potatoes. Her eyes were clear and still. Her face was animated and intent. She looked as though she could have been a lawyer if things had gone differently in her past.
Whatever hand the fates dealt this woman, she has been wasted in this life she leads.
It was a strange thought, but it was certainly a valid one.
Chapter Ten
Come eleven o’clock, Mindy was practically skipping home from Moe’s Diner to her apartment. She and Ash had parted ways near the spot where he had left his car. It was only another quarter mile to Mindy’s apartment and she had eagerly told him she would walk home to avoid being seen too much in his company. She was on cloud nine anyway. After all of their discussions and the debating and even his singing—actually Ash was a really good singer—she felt more alert than she had this morning when she had first gone to work.
Nobody ever talked to Mindy that way. They didn’t discuss ethics or the puzzle of a crime or anything of the sort. Of course, Mindy hadn’t realized how interesting this sort of thing could be. She preferred her interrelational drama shows and other fun television. She was into people watching and eavesdropping and probably all sorts of things that could get her into trouble. She’d just never realized how much of that was basically law enforcement at work.
They had even settled on a plan. Mindy had to contact her brother and ask him to tell his boss—or whoever was in charge—that she wanted in. At least that she was considering it. Mindy figured she would just sell her brother on the idea that they needed money. No doubt that wouldn’t be a hard thing to convince Darren of since it was pretty much true.
Mindy turned the last corner to skip up the front walk to the apartment she shared with Darren when she felt someone grab her arms. She put on the brakes and used her body weight to lever herself around. Grabbing the person who had grabbed her, Mindy spun as hard as she could and slammed that person up against the wall of the ramshackle old building. There was enough force behind it that she was rather surprised the building didn’t collapse.
“Mindy!”
Her fingers seemed to let go of their own accord when she recognized Darren’s voice. His voice was hoarse and his grip was feeble. She pushed him up against the wall again and stared into his face. He didn’t look as though he’d been doing drugs. He looked as though he genuinely needed to just feel better. Great. How long had this been going on and just how addicted was he?
“Mindy, stop.” He batted at her with his hands. The kid was only seventeen and male. He should have been able to shove her into next week and it felt as though she was tangling with a toddler. “Stop it.”
“I did stop, Darren,” she said impatiently. “Why are you home? Did they send you home early? It can’t be before half past eleven.”
His eyes were so bloodshot that she could see how red streaked they were even out in the dim light of the pitiful bulb hanging over the front porch. He looked as though he might just melt into a pathetic little puddle right there on the doorstep. “I need you to do me a favor.”
“Oh? And what’s that?”
Darren pulled the bag she’d seen earlier out of his pants. “I’m on a break from work. I need you to buy this stuff.”
“What?” It was tempting to shove him to the ground just to make a point. Even though she wasn’t sure what that point would be. “No! I’m not going to buy your product. You’re supposed to be selling it. So, go sell it.”
“I need it.”
The words stopped her cold. The little shit! How long had this been going on? She’d known he was acting weird, but she had been so consumed with all of this nonsense between her and Kevin and work and everything else that she hadn’t done anything about it. Now, she was afraid she was seeing just how bad things had gotten while she’d been focused elsewhere.
“You need it?” Mindy repeated slowly. She pressed her lips into a line and tried to decide how to proceed. “And so you want me to buy all of this so you can just take pills and be happy and do what?”
“If you buy this whole bag,” he said, his voice filled with desperation. “Then I’ll have enough to get by. I’ll get a new bag and be able to sell it like I promised.”
“And you’ll pay me back, right?” Mindy already knew Darren hadn’t even considered paying her back, but it still burned to see that blank look on his face when he realized what she was asking him to do.
This was like one of those alien movies where the green martians came down and looked at a human and said, “Take me to your leader.” It was not exactly the way Mindy and Ash had discussed her getting involved with the drug operation, but it was a way in. Maybe. It was all going to depend on what sort of angle Mindy could come up with for her need to get involved with this operation. She had a feeling that helping her brother was probably going to be a whole lot more believable to someone like Sergeant Caprico or one of his cronies than a straight up desire for cash.
“I don’t have enough money to pay for that bag,” Mindy said quietly. Just that and nothing else.
She waited for Darren’s expression to go from disbelief to panic. His eyes got big and he looked as though he might fall over right then. What kind of prescriptions was he taking anyhow? The kid looked as though he was about to fall over. A lot of those pain meds inhibited your body’s ability to cope with regular pain. Was that it? Or was he doing something else too?
“Mindy, you got to!” Darren pleaded. He was whining the way he had when he was about ten and their mother had been too sick to help him with something in the house. “You can’t leave me like this, Mindy.”
“What am I supposed to do, Darren?” Mindy asked drily. “Go and offer to have sex with the whole crew so they’ll give you the drugs?”
The fact that his face suggested he was actually considering that was absolutely disgusting to her. Mindy kept telling herself it was the drugs making her brother into this asshole of a human being. Her real brother would not treat her this way. The real Darren had loved her.
Mindy heaved a big sigh. “Take me back up there and let me talk to whoever is in charge. All right? I need to see if I can get this straightened out for you.”
He was already nodding and turning around as though he didn’t c
are what she had to do. He just wanted her to fix this for him. The way he caressed the stupid bag of drugs all the way back up the hill was enough to make her sick to her stomach. Darren was so desperate right now, that there was no doubt in her mind he needed to go to rehab. Immediately.
Mindy was still contemplating what rehab services were available to people in their financial situation when Darren led her to a gate in the back fence surrounding Dino Golf. She nearly told him that it was locked, because she’d already looked, but Darren was already unhooking the chain. Evidently, it was a dummy lock. Mindy made a mental note to stop being law abiding when she was trying to break into a place and remember that things might not be as they seem.
“You again?” The sarcastic voice rolled out of the darkness around the maintenance shed and Mindy felt her heart speed up in response. Caprico. She knew it was him. “What do you want? I told you not to come back until you’d sold the whole bag and had the damned money you owe me.”
“My sister is going to pay you,” Darren stammered.
Caprico’s profile emerged from the shadows and Mindy felt a certain revulsion at the idea her brother wanted her to service this man in order to pay his drug debts. Mindy and Ash had been talking about the morality around drugs and selling drugs. Right now, Mindy could not think of anything that destroyed more lives than drugs, whether they be illegal entirely or just misused prescriptions.
“And how is she going to pay?” Caprico’s silky voice was filled with egotistical derision, if that was even a thing. The man sounded too arrogant by half and so sure of himself that it was tempting to take him down a few pegs.
But that wasn’t why Mindy was there. She tried to play the demure and uncertain older sister. “My brother says I can sell for you too. He says I can make enough money to keep some for myself and pay his debts. Is that true?”
Mindy tried to make it seem like she was uncertain, but also like she was doubting his awesomeness. Ash had mentioned that Caprico was an abusive SOB and more than a little narcissistic in the bargain. Men who hurt women always wanted a woman to think he was the biggest, badass on the playground.
“Of course you can make some money,” Caprico said silkily. “But I don’t trust women who hang out with cops.”
“You’re a cop,” she reminded him coolly. Her mind was spinning quickly. The scenario that came to mind was preposterous, but she didn’t have another idea. “I went to the cops because I thought they would cut me a deal.”
“And?”
“And they don’t care about your little operation. They wouldn’t give me shit. So, here I am.” She pretended to be exactly what she had sworn to Ash she was not. It was a bit daunting really. Mindy felt dirty even though this wasn’t genuine behavior on her part.
Caprico started to laugh. “You poor kids are all alike. Promise you a few bucks and you’ll do anything.” His lips twisted in a smirk. “Of course, the word on the street is that you’ll put out for favors too, honey. But we can talk about that later.”
A hot wave of humiliation nearly caused Mindy to drop her façade. She struggled to maintain her equilibrium but could not resist making at least one comment in her own defense. “You really shouldn’t believe all you hear, especially not in this town.”
Caprico only smirked. Then he reached into the dark opening of the maintenance shed door. It was impossible to see anything back there. Did he literally just sit out here at night and hand out bags of drugs? That seemed absolutely ridiculous.
Once Caprico had pulled out a bag identical to the one Darren was carrying, he handed it to Mindy. “We’ll see whether or not the gossip was right or not. Don’t you worry, honey.”
That was vomit worthy. Sergeant Caprico calling her honey? Ew. She settled for curling her lip in disgust instead of giving him a piece of her mind. Mindy turned then and headed back out the gate. It took her a moment to realize Darren wasn’t with her.
“Darren, come on,” Mindy ordered. “Get your skinny butt out here.”
“Your big sis is calling you, little boy,” Caprico taunted. “You’d better go before she beats your ass.”
Darren was shuffling back and forth from foot to foot. He still had the bag of unsold product in his hands. “I want another bag.”
“No,” Caprico said flatly. He glanced at Mindy and then looked back at Darren. “You already took too many of those pills and got yourself hooked. You’re responsible for yourself now. You hear me? And I’m not giving you a damned thing to sell until your sister has paid for the shit you stole.”
“But I need it!” Darren whined.
Caprico sneered and pushed Darren back so hard that the kid nearly toppled over. “Then you buy it just like the rest of the losers who come here to buy.”
“For pity’s sake, Darren,” Mindy muttered. She marched back over and grabbed her brother’s arm. It took a bit of doing to drag him out through the gate. “Have some pride, will you?”
“Oh honey, his pride is long gone,” Caprico called after them. “That boy never had much to begin with, but he sold it up the river for the first high he ever got.”
Mindy suddenly spun around. There was now a fence between her and Caprico and maybe that’s where she got the courage to confront him. “And how long ago was that, Caprico? How long has my brother been addicted and you guys have just been feeding him more of the stuff getting him worse and worse in your debt?”
But Caprico only laughed. Then he turned and disappeared into the darkness leaving Mindy with nothing but a softly crying little brother to drag home and two bags of drugs that needed selling.
Chapter Eleven
Ash felt restless the following morning. He went through the motions of starting his day with a less than happy attitude. Everything went wrong. He burned himself on his toast to say nothing of the toast itself, which came out blackened on one side and nearly white on the other. That was one of life’s great mysteries really. How was that even possible? Plus, his coffee maker died. It just quit right in the middle of brewing his coffee. He was out of jam for his burned toast and by the time he scraped the mess into the garbage can and poured the half brewed coffee down the sink, Ash was in such a mood that he was probably in danger of road rage.
He got into his truck anyway. But instead of heading to the office, he went straight to his favorite coffee shop down on the Landing. He liked it down there, even before Younger had taken the case involving skateboarders and organized vandalism. It was one of Ash’s favorite places to go to just sit for a while and watch people. He liked getting out of his vehicle and walking the scant one to two hundred yards to the shop. He liked the fact he wasn’t sitting in a drive-thru somewhere in town with two dozen other morning commuters all vying for a spot at the window where you got less than thirty seconds to pay and move on.
The Landing was crowded with exercisers this early in the morning. They were any variety of ages and most of them speed walking enthusiastically through the sticky early morning air. It was overcast today. The best sort of morning for exercise. Still hot, but not broiling. Ash meandered past the store windows and the kiosks on his way to the shop just around the corner from the center courtyard of the Landing where all of the hoopla had taken place only a scant few days ago.
“Mr. Forbes! Long time, no see.” Hetty was the manager and a sprightly woman in her sixties with boundless energy and a bright smile. “Leslie, get Mr. Forbes his usual café mocha, will you? And one of those chocolate chip banana walnut muffins. And make sure you tell him that we’ve missed him!”
Ash laughed at Hetty’s enthusiasm and felt the tension in his body start to dissipate. It was good to be recognized and welcomed. It was something Ash missed about living in a small town. Not that he ever wanted to go back to his original small town, but still, the sentiment was the same.
“Here you go, Mr. Ash,” Leslie told him with a smile. “And I put an extra shot in your mocha. You know, because sometimes we all need an extra shot.”
Ash chuckled.
“Leslie, you have no idea. I will enjoy that extra shot. Thank you.”
He took the enormous, moist, and fluffy muffin and his coffee to a window seat and lowered himself into a chair with a sigh. This was a beautiful morning. As he carefully attacked his muffin with a fork and enjoyed the hum of the air conditioner and the sight of people wandering by outside, he tried to stop thinking about all of the things his mind had been so stuck on the previous night.
As in, he refused to think about Mindy Hall. It wasn’t getting him anywhere. It wasn’t doing him any good. There was just no reason to keep hammering away at it. Yet, for some reason, his brain had spent nearly the entire night remembering just how eager and intelligent Mindy had been to debate the ethics of drug dealing with him. She was smart as a whip. There was no doubt in Ash’s mind about that. Her vocabulary, the way she spoke—she might not be likely to have a dozen college degrees hanging on the wall of that shitty apartment she called home, but she certainly could have if the opportunity had presented itself.
Wait. He wasn’t going to think about this again. Ash grunted to himself and sucked down about half the twenty-ounce mocha. He always had his straight up. No fat-free, sugar-free nonsense for him. He was too busy reminding himself that calories were meant to be burned.
The chair across from Ash scraped against the tile and someone sat down. Ash blinked and then realized it was Younger Adair. Of course. Younger was now romantically involved with the manager of the Landing. Or at least Laurie Talcott managed the security portion of it and probably a good deal more of the daily operations.
“Is this where you come to hide for coffee and muffins?” Younger started to reach across the table to pinch off a piece of Ash’s chocolate chip and banana walnut masterpiece.
Rock Wolf Investigations: Boxset Page 79