by Mike Ryan
Malloy tapped Haley on the back of the shoulder. “Good luck with him, man.”
“Thanks. I think I’ll need it.”
19
Haley got back in the car and quickly dumped the two guns into his partner’s lap. “I believe these are yours.”
Phillips detected a tone in his voice. “Why so hostile?”
“That was a pretty stupid thing you did in there.”
“What?”
Haley started the car and drove through the gate. “You didn’t have to be that way.”
Phillips shrugged, not caring. “Hey, I thought it was better off if he knew my position right away. That way there’s no false expectations, and he doesn’t think there’s something there that there’s not.”
Haley shook his head. “It was just incredibly stupid. You have no idea what kind of lifeline you’re cutting off.”
“I don’t need a lifeline. Maybe that’s the problem with you guys. You’ve become too dependent on him. Maybe you guys have lost your way a little bit and forgot about the big picture.”
Haley just continued shaking his head. He wanted to respond. Probably should have responded. But he thought it would probably just fall on deaf ears, anyway. What would he know about them being dependent on Vincent, anyway? He hadn’t been there over the years, hadn’t encountered the same issues, had no idea what had gone on. As for the big picture, Recker and Jones created the picture, they knew it as well as anyone.
The rest of the drive back to the office was a quiet one. Haley was so annoyed that he didn’t even tell Recker or Jones that they were on the way. As Jones worked on his computer, he looked at the surveillance camera and noticed Haley’s car pulling into the lot.
“Looks like they are back,” Jones said.
Recker came over and looked at the camera. He noticed both of them getting out of the car. Haley was ahead of his partner by quite a bit.
“Uh oh,” Recker said.
“What?”
“There’s trouble.”
“Where?”
Recker pointed at the screen. “There.”
“How do you know?”
“Look at how they’re walking. Chris is so far ahead of him that’s a telltale sign.”
“It is?”
“He’s annoyed. I can tell.”
“Not necessarily.”
“Zoom in on their faces.” Jones did as he was asked and zoomed in. As soon as Recker saw their faces, it was confirmation for him. “Oh, they’re annoyed. Chris is definitely annoyed.”
“I wonder what happened?”
“I’m sure they’ll tell us. But I’ll give you twenty bucks if you can get it on the first guess.”
Jones rolled his eyes. He also already knew what the reason was. “I wouldn’t want to take your money on such an easy question.”
Recker smiled. They both turned toward the door as they waited for it to open. A few seconds later, it finally did. Haley walked in, immediately going toward the refrigerator for a drink and walking past his friends, with not even so much as a wave. Recker raised an eyebrow and looked at Jones, then nodded. No doubt about it now. There was trouble in paradise.
After a few more seconds, Phillips came in. Closing the door behind him, he stood there for a second, looking uneasy. He also didn’t say anything and just went over to the couch and sat down. Recker and Jones looked at each other again, wondering who was going to be the first person to talk.
Several minutes went by, with still not a word from anybody. Recker couldn’t take it anymore and decided he’d be the one who’d break the silence.
“OK, I’ll bite. Which one of you wants to tell us what the problem is?”
Haley and Phillips looked at each other, both of whom still had miserable looks on their faces.
Finally, Phillips threw his arms up at Haley. “Go ahead. You might as well tell it.”
Haley sighed, not really wanting to discuss it, but started to anyway. It only took a few minutes to tell the entire story. It was the condensed version, but it was all anyone needed to hear. After hearing it, Recker threw his head back and looked up.
“I thought I told you to make sure he didn’t say anything stupid.”
“I didn’t even have a chance to stop him,” Haley replied. “As soon as the introductions were made, he went right into how he’s not helping him and he should be behind bars, and that we’ve lost our way and all that. I didn’t even have a chance to shut him up.”
Recker looked at Phillips. “Would it have killed you to just shut up and listen without pissing people off for a minute?”
Phillips shrugged. “Listen, I don’t think I was brought in here for that. I told you guys before, I’m a straight shooter. I’ll call it like I see it. I’m sorry if anyone’s got a problem with that, but that’s how it is. I’m not gonna pretend to be all nice and fancy with him when he’s a criminal and I told him as much. It’s better just to get everything out in the open, so there’s no misconceptions on anyone’s part. Especially his.”
Recker rubbed his chin and shook his head. He was trying to resist the urge to say more. There was certainly plenty that was going through his mind, and none of it much good, but he thought it was better if they tried to be united instead of tearing each other apart. That wouldn’t do any of them any good. If they were constantly sniping at each other, that could lead to animosity out in the field, and that’s when things could take a dark turn and lives could be lost.
“OK, listen, it seems like we have an extreme difference of opinion here.”
“That’s an understatement,” Haley replied.
Recker looked at Phillips. “I usually don’t like to do this, but I’m gonna pull rank on you, OK? We’ve got a relationship with Vincent, whether you like it or not. And that’s not changing whether you’re here or not. So, you can do two things. You can get in line and do what the rest of us are doing, or you can just butt out entirely when there’s something that concerns Vincent. But the one thing you’re not going to do is burn a bridge that took us years to get to the point of where it is now, where we both kind of help each other and look after each other’s interests. Up to a point.”
Phillips stared at Recker for a few moments. “But you’re leaving.”
“Temporarily.”
Phillips shrugged. “Either way, doesn’t seem like someone who’s not gonna be here should be making the decisions.”
Haley stood up. “Well I’ll be here. And what he said goes for me. How’s that grab you?”
Phillips’s eyes went past them and looked at Jones. “What do you say?”
Jones rocked his body back and forth slightly. “I think it would be beneficial for all of us, yourself included, if you fell in line with the rest of the company here.”
Phillips looked at each of them for a second or two as he thought about it. “Looks like I’ve been outvoted.”
“Like Mike said, if you don’t wanna involve yourself with Vincent, you can stay out of it,” Haley said. “But you’re not gonna ruin what we built, ’cause it works for us.”
Phillips nodded. “OK. Fair enough.”
“And this doesn’t need to be an adversarial position on anyone’s part,” Jones said. “There will be plenty of work to go around that doesn’t involve Vincent.”
“Most of the stuff we do doesn’t even involve him anyway,” Recker said. “Probably less than five percent goes through him.”
Phillips kept nodding his head and shrugging. “OK. I’m on board. I’ll be a team player. I won’t rock the boat. I mean, I said it before, I try to be a straight shooter. I’ll say my peace, I’ll mean what I say, but I also try to be a team player. If that’s what you guys want, I’ll play along. You won’t have to worry about me.”
Recker believed he meant what he said. But time would tell. Satisfied with the answer, he started walking away. Then his phone rang.
“Tyrell, what’s up?”
“I got a scoop for you. Don’t know if it’s legit or
not. Haven’t had enough time to check it out.”
“What is it?”
“Got word that Jerrick is having a high-level meeting in about two hours.”
“Really? Who’s your source?”
“Guy I’ve used before. He’s usually pretty reliable, but he’s had a few misses here and there like we all do.”
“Trustworthy?”
“Yeah. I mean, he wouldn’t steer me wrong on purpose. He did say he wasn’t a hundred percent sure it was legit either. He was just passing something on to me that he heard. So he wasn’t sure it was even going down either.”
“What would they be meeting for?”
“I dunno. Word is that maybe it’s something about regrouping, something like that. Something happen earlier today somewhere?”
“Yeah, they lost a few more men earlier down by the river.”
“Yeah, the rumor was they were hurting a little bit. This was something in regards to that. I dunno. That’s what I heard.”
“When’d you get the word about it?”
“About twenty minutes ago. I put a few calls out to some guys I know who got their ear to the ground, but, they haven’t heard anything either.”
“So what’s your gut say?”
“My gut says I have no idea. Could be legit, could be nothing, could be a setup. And I wouldn’t necessarily put any of them over the other.”
“I don’t know. I got some red flags going off right now.”
“Yeah, I hear ya. I don’t know, man, I just heard it and thought I’d pass it along. What you do with it now is up to you.”
“When’s this thing going down?”
“About two hours?”
“Where?”
“Fifth floor in a vacant building on the west side of town. Think it’s 2510 Westmire Street.”
“Love those vacant buildings.”
Tyrell laughed. “What, you thought Jerrick would do his business like Vincent in a high-end restaurant or something?”
“It’d be nice.”
“Yeah. And it’d be nice if I had a money tree planted in my front yard too, but neither one is happening anytime soon.”
“How many people are supposed to be at this meeting?” Recker asked.
“Can’t say for sure. I heard Jerrick’s name, maybe three or four others, but, like I said, can’t say for sure whether it’s legit or not. Just passing it down the lane.”
“Hmm. All right, thanks, man. We’ll check it out.”
“How’s the vacation coming along?”
“It’s still coming.”
Tyrell laughed. “Yeah, we’ll see. You know you’re gonna have a hard time tearing yourself away from this place.”
“It’s happening, my man. It’s happening.”
“All right. Be safe until then. Don’t do anything stupid or else I’ll have to take your girl to Hawaii for you.” Tyrell laughed again.
Even Recker let out a laugh. “Yeah. That’s not happening either.”
After Recker hung up, he turned around and looked at the group. “Well, looks like we might have something. What exactly, I don’t know. But, it’s something.”
“Whatcha got?” Haley asked.
Recker then repeated the conversation he just had with Tyrell.
“What do you think?” Jones asked.
Recker looked at the wall for a moment as he collected his thoughts. He still wasn’t sure. “I don’t know. Seems convenient.”
“Too convenient if you ask me,” Phillips said. “I mean, they take another hit a few hours ago, then all of a sudden there’s word about another meeting going down? I don’t like it.”
“On the other hand, it could be legit,” Haley said. “Could be that they’re so rocked and on their heels that Jerrick’s getting sloppy. He might be desperate right now and trying to keep things together as best he can. It’d make sense he’d call a meeting right away.”
Recker kept thinking about it. “My concern isn’t that he’s calling a meeting. It’s that we just happen to be hearing about it. I mean, we haven’t heard a single thing about any other meeting, and now, we suddenly get word of one? The day he lost a bunch of guys?”
“Like I said, he might be desperate and getting sloppy.”
“I’m not sure I buy it.”
Phillips chimed in again. “Or it could be that he figures this is a good time to strike back. Everyone will assume he’s rocked and on the ropes. He lets it slip out about this meeting, draws in a bunch of his enemies, then when they get there… boom… the whole place goes up and he takes out a dozen of Vincent’s men, or even us. Then the momentum slides back in his favor. Smart play, if you ask me. My money’s on a setup.”
Recker started nodding. “I think I might agree with that.”
“There is only one problem though,” Jones said. “How do we just let it slide without checking it out? If this meeting is actually happening, and we don’t investigate, then we could have just lost our best chance at taking out Jerrick and the rest of his gang permanently.”
“Who says we have to do it now, though?” Phillips asked. “I mean, it’s happening quick, it doesn’t seem like it’s on our terms, why not wait it out until we get a better chance? One that we know we’ll have the upper hand.”
“The problem with that is that we might not ever have it on our terms. And getting the upper hand is a matter of opinion. It doesn’t always happen in reality.”
“Well at some point soon here, we’ll have to make a decision,” Recker said.
“Why do we have to make it?” Phillips asked. “Why not pass the info along to our friends?”
“Which friends are they?”
“Vincent.” A grin formed on Phillips’ face. “You said it yourself things weren’t gonna change with him. Here’s a chance to spread out the risk. Let him know what’s going on, let him take the chance on whether he wants to roll on it.”
“We’re on Jerrick’s hit list just as much as Vincent is,” Haley said. “It’s as much our problem as it is his.”
Phillips shrugged. “Doesn’t change my opinion. It’s still Vincent’s problem, too. I say let him know about it and let him take the chances. If it’s legit, Vincent gets to take the credit. If it’s not, then we’re not the ones possibly getting our heads blown off. And if he doesn’t like how it sounds either, then maybe it’s better no one rolls on it.”
Recker looked at the others to gauge how they were reading their new partner. He hated to admit it, but Phillips actually made some sense. Not that Recker liked passing the risk along to others, but getting Vincent’s help or input wasn’t such a bad idea. Judging by the looks on the faces of the others, and the fact that none of them were pushing back on the idea, they didn’t seem to find fault with it either.
“What do you guys think?” Recker asked.
Haley was the first to reply. “Considering it’s as much their problem as ours, a phone call probably wouldn’t be a bad idea.”
“David?”
“I don’t see the harm in getting another opinion,” Jones replied. “Maybe between the two of us we’ll see what this meeting is.”
Recker nodded and pulled out his phone again. “It’s something. It’s something. Just a question of what.”
20
Recker called Malloy, who picked up on the second ring.
“Got some information for you,” Recker said.
“Oh yeah? What?”
“Got word that Jerrick might be having a meeting soon. In about two hours.”
“Really?” There was a sliver of hope in Malloy’s voice, but also some trepidation. They’d never gotten word about any of Jerrick’s meetings before. “Credible?”
“I don’t know. It came from Tyrell.”
“He’s as credible as it gets.”
“But he’s not sure. He heard it from someone else, who heard it from someone else. He can’t put the odds of it being legit at more than thirty-three percent.”
“Thirty-three?”
“Interesting. What do you make of it?”
“We’re not sure what to make of it. We’ve considered all the angles, and honestly, any one of them could be at play here. Figured we’d get your opinion on it.”
“Could be that Jerrick’s on his heels,” Malloy said. “Could be a great opportunity to finish him off.”
“Yeah, we considered that.”
“Or it could be that Jerrick let it slip about this thing, wanting us to show up, and he’s got some type of trap waiting for us, hoping to catch us off guard. Then he kind of has us on our heels. Changes the momentum a little.”
“We considered that too.”
“Where’s this thing going down supposedly?”
“Fifth floor of a vacant building.”
Malloy groaned a little. “Hmm.”
“That’s about where we stand too.”
“I mean, we could try to get there earlier, staking out the place and hoping we can catch them on the way in. Then we’d know for sure.”
“We still wouldn’t know,” Recker said. “Fifth floor of a vacant building, everything could be for show. It might just be an attempt to lure us into the building.”
“That’s true too. Unless we go into the building first. Head over there now. Beat them to the punch.”
“What if they have the place booby-trapped?”
“Lot of variables to consider here.”
Recker laughed. “That’s why I called.”
“Let me run it through Vincent. You guys rolling on it?”
“I don’t know yet. Kind of wanted to brainstorm with you a bit, see what you thought.”
“OK. I’ll give you a call back in a few minutes after I’ve talked to him.”
Recker hung up, but kept the phone in his hand as he walked around the room, assuming it wouldn’t take more than five or ten minutes before Malloy called back. The room was quiet as they waited, until Jones finally spoke up.
“You know, the more I think about this, the more inclined I am to agree with Paxton. I don’t like this at all.”