“Yeah, yeah, I know. I’ll tell him. But he’s like a loyal dog. I mean, who would kick a golden retriever?” Green smiled at his partner who in turn gave him a look that said…
“What the fuck? Stop being an idiot. Tell the guy he ain’t got it and move on. Besides he’s always running errands for you and getting you coffee and shit. That’s fucked up to do that, man.”
Green opened his mouth in mock confusion. “I don’t ask him to do those things.”
“Can we talk about this later?”
Green shrugged. “Sure whatever.” And turned his attention back to their informant. As soon as Green leveled his hard, dark brown eyes on him, he immediately got defensive.
“I swear I don’t know nothing, Detective Green,” the man whined sadly.
“Whoa, whoa. I didn’t ask you no motherfuckin’ questions,” Green said back calmly. “You lying to me already, Tommy?”
The man was shaking his head no before Green could even finish. Ruxs stood by with a slight smile playing on his mouth as he watched him. Sometimes he felt like Ruxs loved this part a little too much, just sitting back and watching Green work. Their only job was to secure intel and suspects for their lieutenants. Squeeze information out of people. Bring in whoever needed to be questioned. Arrest suspects. Basically they were God and Day’s muscle, and they were damn good at it.
Green squatted in front of their informant, eyeing him carefully. His dingy clothes were hanging off his straggly frame and his hair looked like it hadn’t been washed for days. His eyes were glassy and unfocused. The fucker was high. He wouldn’t be good for shit right now.
“Tommy. Tommy listen to me. Why’d you feed us that bullshit about the meth lab in East Point?”
“I didn’t —”
“Shut the fuck up.” Green cut him off, his voice at that low frightening timbre he used on suspects. A voice that sounded like he was so pissed off, he was too angry to yell. “Yes, you did. You gave us some straight bullshit. There were no real players in there. We got two lousy fuckin’ bags. What the hell are we supposed to do with that?”
“I been in there myself. There be some high rollers in there, Detective Green. I swear it.”
Green stood slowly. “You’re still lying. Someone got to you. Who?”
“Nope. No one. I said I’d help you guys.”
Green was done. This guy had been flipped. He was no use to them now. “Well it was nice doing business with you Tommy. But your services are no longer needed.” Green stepped closer and draped his arm around Tommy’s neck. He pulled out his wallet and held his badge up with one hand and gave a thumbs up with the one around Tommy. “Smile.”
“What?”
As soon as Tommy turned his head back to Ruxs he snapped a picture of their pose with his cell phone. Green pushed Tommy away from him. “Now. We’ll print out a few of these and post them around East Point, all the way up Church Street. Let a few of the fellas see who Tommy’s been hanging with.”
“You guys trying to get me fuckin’ killed man?” Tommy yelled, pulling at the cuffs like they’d actually budge.
“I don’t give a damn,” Ruxs chimed in.
“Come on man. Don’t do this. I gave y’all good info. It ain’t my fault you guys fucked it up,” Tommy argued.
“Oh. So now we’re the fuck-ups. I see.” Green rubbed at his neatly trimmed goatee. “Let’s go tell God how he fucked up that bust.”
Ruxs quickly undid the cuffs and grabbed Tommy around his frail forearm. The man shook his head so hard, spittle landed on each of his cheeks. “No. No. No. Fuck no. I don’t. I don’t want to talk to God.” Tommy looked like he was about to shit himself.
“I’m sure as fuck not gonna give him your message. You said he fucked up, so let’s go tell him,” Green said casually. This was usually their trump card. No one wanted to talk to God or Day.
Ruxs was effortlessly pulling Tommy to the truck.
“I didn’t say God fucked up. You know I didn’t. Okay, okay. Stop one second Detective Ruxsberg. I g-got a little s-something to tell you. I don’t know a whole l-lot, but I know a little something about a l-little bit.” He stuttered nervously, making very little sense.
Ruxs let go of Tommy’s arm, sending him falling back to the ground.
“Ouch. Damnit.” Tommy rubbed at his wrist, glaring back up at Ruxs. He folded his legs Indian-style like he was on a damn Persian rug and not some filthy concrete. “There may be a pretty big shipment coming to the house on Cleveland Ave.”
“How big?” Green asked, now slightly intrigued.
“Big, man. I don’t know. Just f-fuckin’ huge, okay. Got everyone uneasy, ya know?”