First, he tuned up his radio jammer, then he dug out his cell and hit Will’s ID. On the third ring, the head C.U.F.F. member answered.
“What do you have?” Will’s voice sounded gruff, like he’d been shaken from a sound sleep.
In the background Chase heard the sweet sound of a ball connecting with a bat and the roar of a crowd, followed quickly by the dampening sound of disappointment.
“You Ok?” He looked at the clock on the microwave. Ten-fourteen. He slid his badge and wallet from his back pocket and dropped them into the side compartment of his go bag. Then he trapped the phone between his ear and shoulder and placed his foot on the dinette chair’s seat and yanked up his pant leg. He undid his holster strap and scratched his leg, feeling a liberating pleasure before he dropped his foot to the floor.
“I must have dozed off during the sixth inning. The baby had us up most of last night.” Will yawned.
It was hard to picture his boss caring for a tiny infant. He’d seen Will with kids before, especially with Luka and his friends, but handling older kids was a totally different scenario. Luka was now six and developing a ten-year-old’s attitude.
Diaper duty and puke bibs were a whole other story.
Chase wondered if he might someday walk in Will’s shoes and have a family of his own. It would be nice to come home to someone and share parts of his day. He couldn’t tell all, but lying next to, and holding someone he loved through the night would go a long way to explaining why he did this demanding soul-sucking job. But could he ask someone to love him, knowing full well death could separate them in a split second? He didn’t want to be the one to cause someone pain. He had family: a mother and father, a sister, aunts, uncles, cousins and friends. All would feel sorrow at his demise but none would likely suffer the same anguish as a spouse.
Emma’s smiling face popped into his mind, startling him. He hardly knew the woman and yet thinking of someone who he could share his life with had brought her to mind. Why? Was it that she challenged him with her quick mind and spirit? She had a gentleness about her, an innocence, that lured him to her fire. Her easy laugh made him want to spend hours doing nothing more than learning everything about her. Then there were her lips. Her plump, rosy lips. Looking at them, he’d known she’d taste as sweet as honey right from the comb.
Chase felt his body react as he thought about Emma and quickly shut down all thoughts of her.
“What’s the score?” he wondered out loud. Both he and Will were Philly fans. He and Will seemed to have a lot of common interests which made for an easy working relationship.
“They’re up by two in the bottom of the eighth with Tolson on second and two outs,” Will answered. “Youst has pitched a helluva game. What I saw of it. He looks tired but I think Michaels is going to let him try to finish this. So tell me. Where do we stand?”
Back to business.
Chase drew a breath, knowing he didn’t have a hell of a lot to report. He wondered whether Will would have found several juicy leads by now if he’d stood in his shoes. “I met up with Jolene after my last class.”
Will chuckled. “Having a good time, are we?”
“Hell, no.” Chase shook his head. His boss was having a good time. He opened the refrigerator and stored the breakfast sandwich and five of the beers. “I was never a book worm.”
“Right. Action Joe.”
“Roger that.” He easily imagined Will’s grin. “Anyway, she hasn’t got anything to report. She’s settled in and making connections with Denise’s friends. Same here.”
“Anything in the wind so far?”
“No. It’s quiet.” He recalled his run-in with Nanette Yves and what she had said about Emma and Denise. Should he mention it to Will? No, he decided. It remained a rumor until he got collaboration from another source and only facts were reported to the higher ups. The grant money Emma received would show up on her records. There was also the bag Emma’d dropped. The little grains inside were white. What were they? Cookie or cracker crumbs? Ice?
“Any more contact with Emma Lewis?”
“Yeah. I ran into her tonight.” Will knew his words were bogus. His run-in with Emma had been planned.
“And…”
“The door is open for more contact.”
“She fell for your boyish charm?”
“It’s why you selected me for the job, boss.”
“Among other reasons.”
Chase wondered what Will’s other reasons were.
“Is your gut still telling you Lewis is not involved?”
“Yeah.” Again, Nanette’s words echoed in his ear and he wondered if there had been a confrontation between Emma and Denise which ended badly. “But, as I said, until we know what the fuck is going on here, I’ll keep an open mind.”
“Good. No juice on any of the other victims?”
“Their deaths came as a surprise to those I was able to talk with about them.”
“Well, you know what they say about a raging forest fire when there’re no clues as to who set it?”
“No. What?” Chase waited. Will was noted for his lame anecdotes.
“Some bear had to be holding a match when he farted. You need to find the bear.”
He chuckled to himself. “Roger that.”
“It’s the first day out, kid.” Will’s tone had gone serious again. “Cases sometimes don’t break easy. Something is going to jump into your path. Get some sleep and start again in the morning. You might be running twenty-four-hour shifts, from here on.”
“Yes, sir.” As Chase tossed his phone onto the table, he pondered Nanette’s accusations aimed at Denise and wondered who could verify them. He retrieved his copy of the file from his bag and scanned the information. Tara Beck was the name of Denise’s roommate and supposedly, Denise’s best friend. Since Jolene was getting chummy with a few of the student body’s females already, he could ask her to check on the information, but then he’d have to divulge Nanette’s allegations to her. He really didn’t want to do that. Maybe he’d find Tara himself and use the same boyish charms that landed him this job.
***
After checking the hallway once more to ensure no one remained in sight, Einstein slipped into the professor’s private office and locked the door. Lector sat tilted back in Langson’s chair with his feet propped on the desk’s edge. He cracked his gum between his molars, a biting noise that mirrored the resentment tensing his face muscles.
“You finally decided to show,” he stated flatly. “I can’t sit around here waiting for you. I need to be places.”
“Relax. It’s what we pay you for,” Einstein replied coolly, knowing the comment would cause him further aggravation. “You have gum on your shoe.”
Booker, who sat perched on a stool near the window, chuckled. “You crack me up, Einstein. I liked you from the first day we met.”
“Ditto.”
“If the two of you are done kissing ass, maybe we could get down to business before the cleaning ladies hit this floor.” Lector dropped his feet to the faux-hardwood flooring with a loud thud and shot forward in the leather padded swivel chair. “I’m running low. I have a dozen eight balls left and next week, after parents’ weekend, my regulars will be knocking on my door. Plus they’ll have friends who’ll want to be on our preferred customer list.”
Lector wasn’t stating anything that wasn’t already known. Einstein kept track of every ounce of ice and had been thinking about the low and diminishing supply for the last several days, especially since Denise’s body had been discovered Sunday morning. Demand would definitely pick up after alumni week. They’d been selling an easy three pounds of ice during a normal week, but after the next weekend everyone would have Mommy and Daddy’s cash in their pockets and their customers would willingly hand it over for their grade A product. At five-hundred dollars a pop, for an eight ball, they could easily pull in ten grand, or more, next week—but was the risk worth it?
“No problem,” Booker spoke up. I
’ll cook this weekend. Friday night in fact. The recipe we’ve developed doesn’t take long. I should be done by Saturday afternoon.”
The recipe Booker spoke of would be worth a fortune to the right people. After this semester, they could put out feelers to potential buyers in New York and Philly and see who’d be interested. But they meant only two of this trio. Lector, the pig, had no leverage in the deal. Even though he thought he was the brains of this operation, he was only a grunt on the street, the guy who sold the product and collected the money. Booker had the recipe and Einstein had the contacts.
None of them planned to hang around this campus after May anyway. From the beginning, this enterprise had been dubbed short term with a whole lot of fuckin’ cash to be made. However, with all that had happened in the past few weeks, maybe they should consider selling out early.
“I need to check on something.” Booker pulled his cell from his back pocket and swiped the screen.
Einstein’s eyes widened. “What the hell are you doing?”
“Checking my texts. I make notes about what I need for the next batch.”
“What the fuck?” With pulse racing, Einstein stomped across the room, intending to rip the device from Booker’s hand.
“Relax.” At the last possible moment, Booker held up the screen for Einstein to see. “I have my own shorthand. If anyone saw this, they’d think a two-year-old played with it.”
“You are a fuckin’ two-year-old,” Einstein snapped.
“Scared you, huh? And Lector. Look at his face.” Booker pointed at Lector and smiled the movie-star smile which made foolish co-eds crawl into his bed.
“Shit face.” Lector frowned.
As maddening as the man could be at times, Booker was worth putting up with, for now. He could cook with the best of them. He could have a future in the underground world, if he wanted it, but Booker’s path was already set in another direction.
Booker, like a two-year-old child, scratched some nerves at times. He was also a free spirit, of sorts, but Lector, he was a totally different animal. The kind you didn’t turn your back on.
Einstein turned around and met the heat of Lector’s stare.
“As much as I enjoy a good comedy show,” the beast growled, “we need to get back to business. What materials do you need, Booker?”
“Sulfuric acid. That’s it.”
“Ok, then.” The rigid lines of Lector’s face mellowed into a smile and he did a drum roll on the desk top with his two thick index fingers. “Starting this Saturday, this place will be crawling with cleaning and maintenance people. They’ll be sprucing up the buildings and grounds for parents’ weekend, so we better move as soon as possible. Einstein, tomorrow night, you bring the keycard and I’ll meet you at the back entrance at eleven. We’ll hit the storage area and be out by eleven-fifteen, before the cleaning staff even reaches the floor.”
“Wait,” Feeling a sharp pain shooting through the right eye, Einstein blinked several times, warding off a migraine and then raised a hand, hating to say what needed to be said. Ten thousand dollars was nothing to piss away, but doing jail time wouldn’t be a piece of cake. Neither of these gorillas had the experience necessary to do time. It was a dog eat dog or die world inside the juvie compound. Einstein knew it would be worse with the main population. “I think we need to back off for a while—just a few weeks.”
“What? Why?” Lector’s jaw visibly locked, causing the muscles on his right side to twitch.
“Since Denise took a header off the bridge, there’ve been cops all over the place. You can’t turn a corner without running into one. We should let things cool down. Make the cops think whoever is selling the dope has moved on. We can come back strong at Halloween.”
“Hell no,” Lector said.
“If we get caught now, we’d be looking at murder raps. I don’t want to piss away my life in an eight-by-eight cell.”
Lector picked up a pencil from the desk and tapped it on the solid surface. “Do you know for a fact Denise was high when she went off the bridge? Because I haven’t heard anything like that, and I know I didn’t sell any ice to her.”
“No. I don’t. Not for a fact. I assumed—”
“Assumed.” Lector laughed. “We’re supposed to shut down operations because you assume the cops are looking for drug dealers, in addition to a possible murderer, if they find Denise didn’t off herself.” He shifted his eyes to Booker. “You’re right, Booker. Einstein, you crack me up too.”
“I don’t want to do time,” Booker said, looking so nervous Einstein swore the scent of piss hung in the air.
“Are you fuckin’ with me?” Lector snorted and shook his head. “This was never a game, pretty boy. It was all about the money. You knew doin’ time would be the reward for screwing up.”
Einstein felt the tensions rising in the room. “That is why we need to be careful, and not act stupidly.”
“Relax. The cops will be gone in two days. By Friday for sure.” Lector, looking like the man in charge, calmly leaned back in the chair. He raised his left hand in the air and picked at a hangnail on his middle finger with his thumb.
Einstein wondered if Lector was privy to more information than he’d believed. “And you know this how?”
“Let’s just say I’m doing my job. I’ve kept my ears as well as my eyes open over the last few days. The police gathered all the evidence they could from the scene. The board of directors will only allow the cops to hound the students with questions for so long. The board certainly won’t allow them on campus by next Wednesday, unless Denise’s death is ruled murder, which has nothing to do with any of us, right?”
“Why next Wednesday?” Booker asked.
“Some parents come in early to help set up booths for the student fair. The board members wouldn’t want any indication something is amiss in Camelot.” The chair squeaked under Lector as he shifted his lean frame on the padded cushion and placed his elbows on the desk. “News gets old real fast and I predict by Tuesday all will be back to normal.” He gave a satisfied sigh and looked from one to the other.
“It would be stupid to allow our customers to get strung out, leaving them open to cutting a deal for a fix. There is a shitload of money to be made. Maybe you and Booker don’t need the cash, but I certainly don’t want to spend the rest of my life on this campus. I have a boat with my name on it, waiting in the Keys. The sooner I’m out of here the better. If we don’t meet the demand of our customers, they’ll go someplace else. Let me tell you, there is some bad-ass shit being cooked in the next town over. I wouldn’t sell theirs to my mother.”
“Hell, if I don’t need the cash. My old man cut off my allowance the day after the dean’s list posted and I missed it by a fuckin’ half point.” Booker slid off his perch and took the few steps that placed him next to Lector. “Maybe Lector’s right.”
Einstein tasted bile mixed with angst. “He could be… Are you willing to risk your neck to find out? I don’t know. I have a bad feeling.”
“Stop acting like a girl, Einstein,” Lector bit out as he rose to his feet, sending the office chair spinning back against the bookshelf behind him.
When referred to as a wuss, Einstein’s spine tensed. Lector looked like he was ready to rip off the proverbial gloves. He had no idea who he dealt with. The professor’s oak desk, piled with papers and books, was the only thing that stood between them. A short three feet, wired with tension. “You know we don’t need you. We were doing fine by ourselves.”
Lector leaned across the desk. His eyes narrowed into lasers. “Are you threatening me?”
Einstein’s jaw locked and between clenched teeth he said, “Why Booker let a weasel like you in on our operation is a mystery to me.”
“I had to,” Booker interjected. Without thinking he stepped closer, putting himself in the fight zone. He quickly backed off. “He was going to turn me over to the cops.”
Einstein checked Lector before slanting a look toward Booker, letting him k
now backing away was a good idea. Patience was the word that came to Einstein’s mind, looking back at Lector. An unguarded animal was easy to take down. And Lector would go down.
“Ok, we’ll do it your way this time,” Einstein conceded.
“What changed your mind?”
“I’m gambling on the fact that what you say about the investigation on campus is true and if things go south, your head will be the first to get chopped—and I know you don’t want that.”
“I knew you’d come to your senses.” As Lector rounded the desk his eyes sized up Einstein in a way that filled Einstein with uneasiness. “I’d love to stay and chat some more, but I’ve got to get back to work.”
Einstein waited until Lector’s footsteps faded and silence filled the hallway outside the office—then turned to Booker.
“Remember how piss-ass scared you were when he found you out? You should be ten times as terrified now. I come from a world where trust means life. Lector, on the other hand, doesn’t know the meaning of loyalty.”
Chapter Ten
Wednesday afternoon, Emma hurried across the courtyard between Logan Hall and the library. The afternoon sun hit the brass numbers set in the library’s tower clock and sent a blinding shaft of light directly into her line of vision. Before shielding her eyes against the glare, she caught the minute hand’s bounce forward, indicating it was three minutes to two.
Damn. The lab class she was to instruct on behalf of Professor Langson started in a few minutes. A phone call from her parents had set her back half an hour. Apparently the recent deaths of the three students on campus had made the morning news. For the second day, she hadn’t taken time to grab a bite of lunch and the aspirins she had gulped on her way out the door lay in her stomach like two hockey pucks, sloshing in acid.
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