Say Yes, Senator

I snapped out of the flashback, looking up at Lucas.

“He’s tough. He’ll live, but I don’t know how he’s taken it, y’know. Haven’t been round to s

ee him since he left the hospital, figured he needs time with his family.”

I picked up a mug of coffee from the table in front of me, studying the contents.

“I’m gonna go see him this weekend, take him some flowers or something. Maybe sneak in a cold brew or two.”

“Sounds like a good plan. Glad to hear he’s pulling through, Storm.” Lucas nodded sincerely.

“Anyways, got something that will cheer you up.” Lucas beamed at me proudly, white teeth showing behind his tanned skin.

Lucas reached into his pocket and pulled out a sealed evidence bag, waving it at me. There was a smaller bag inside it, with what looked like a small amount of crystal meth.

“Bit early for that. You know I don’t tweak before at least 3pm, bro.”

He snorted. “Look at it closer.”

My new boots thudded on the floor as I leaned forward to inspect the contents of the bag he was holding. It was a small amount, maybe an eighth of an ounce, so I had to lean across the desk on my elbows to get a good look.

I whistled.

“No shit. Thought this stuff had pretty much disappeared now?” The crystals were clear, much clearer than low grade street meth. They had a yellow tint to them, and a slight blue hue when looked at closely.

“Thing is, it had. I got this off a guy earlier today. I saw him leaning into a car that was driving around, you know. He thought he’d go into a side alley for a little smoke.” Lucas shrugged.

“Booked him, but he wouldn’t talk. Wouldn’t say a damn word, said he was scared shitless. Isn’t enough there for us to really do anything. First offence. So we let him off with a caution.”

Lucas passed the bag to me and sat on my desk, turning to face me.

“This isn’t the only batch that’s been grabbed recently, Jack. There’s more of it appearing, driving the small-time dealers out. There’ve been shootings, disappearances. Seems like…” He drifted off, a concerned look on his face.

“Yeah. Seems like the O’Rourkes are back. But that’s not possible,” I said, my mind racing.

Before I’d made detective, I’d worked undercover on a special assignment to take down a bigtime drug operation. Me and my partner Kale had been called in to work on the case undercover, following direct recommendation straight from our Captain. Our Lieutenant had later said the Captain had wanted us fast tracked to detective, to shake things up a bit in the department.

It was well known that a few of the old boys in the department had agreements with the main dealers in town, taking bribes and coercing them to keep to their designated turf and to not cause too much trouble.

The drug operation we’d infiltrated was run by the O’Rourkes, a biker gang that had rolled into town one day out of nowhere and had set up with the biggest meth operation we’d ever seen. They took every corner, killed or recruited every small-time dealer in the area. They had eventually made a few deals with some detectives, but the Captain was under pressure to shut the gang down. The O’Rourkes were making national news, and the publicity gave our town a bad name.

Soon enough after the biker gang had arrived, the streets were flooded with almost 80% pure meth. The town’s youth were hooked not long after.

“This ain’t no Heisenberg shit.” Lucas said. “But it’s almost 80% pure, a shade off 78.” He pointed a finger at the bag I was still studying intently. “Rest of the other stuff we got is the same quality. Exactly the same quality. Someone’s trying to get back into the game.”

“Well, unless they’re running it from prison or from beyond the grave it ain’t the old O’Rourkes,” I said absently, deep in thought.

We had infiltrated the gang successfully, but to do so I’d done some stuff I wasn’t proud of. Coercion, giving and taking bribes to grease the palms of police informers, drug dealing and taking, recruiting new police informers by intimidation and even assault, manipulating and planting evidence… the list went on.

But eventually the clean detectives working the case built up enough evidence to take down the whole operation. Three of the gang leaders were shot, resisting arrest. Two were behind bars, almost indefinitely.

The rest of the gang had been given various sentences and had been split up and sent to jails across the country. They had been strongly advised to avoid making contact with any of their previous “associates” when the day finally came when they walked free.

“So it’s either a new operation,” I said, ticking the possibilities off on my fingers as I stared into the middle distance. “Or it could be an old batch that’s been found. Or could be we didn’t get everyone before that was involved in the operation. Or, there are some O’Rourkes we never knew about in the first place.”

I drummed my fingers on my desk as my brain started sifting through the possibilities.

“Well, listen. I’ll get you the names of the guys who found the other stuff. We both know this ain’t enough for a case yet, but you ain’t busy anyway, right? So you could look into it, if you found the time. That’s all I’m saying. Help a brother out, you know?” Lucas leaned over and patted me on the shoulder.