Commit To Violence

"How you know?"

Nick sat down on the couch in Jackie’s office. "Me and Freeze were stickup kids. We’d hit two or three a night some times. And the money was good; three, four, five grand a pop for a minutes work. Most times we never had to fire a shot."

"I never knew that, and I thought I had heard every story there was about you and Freeze from back in the day," Rain said.

"Nobody knew it was us," Nick said and thought about it. He had heard about somebody named PR coming up in the game, but since it didn’t concern him he didn’t think much of it. Now he looked at Rain. "Just like nobody knows it’s you, PR."

"What you say?" Rain asked.

"PR, that’s you ain’t it. Purple Rain," Nick said and shook his head.

"What you know about that?"

"I told you, I know everything," Nick told her. "Maybe you ain’t as smart as you think you are, Purple Rain."

"Maybe I ain’t. That’s why I need you to help me get outta this."

"Yeah," Nick said.

There was one other thing. Rain’s reluctance to tell him who she was buying from led him to believe that it was Stark. If that was the case, Stark would have to be dealt with. But for now, that would have to wait. As much as he hated to admit it, Rain was right. He had to help her and do it before Black found out what he was doing.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

It was late and detectives Kirkland and Richards had gotten a call about a triple murder. They had worked together on drug-related homicides for the last five years and Kirk was just starting to get comfortable enough with him to let him drive. Taking the lead in their investigations was another matter.

When they got the call, Richards was on the phone with his wife. She called to complain about their young sons. Complaining about how much of a handful they were becoming, and with him working so many crazy hours, it felt like she was raising them alone. He was glad to rush her off the phone.

"So what was it this time, Pat?" Kirk asked.

"Matt took apart the toaster."

Kirk laughed. "Why’d he do that?"

"Same reason he takes apart everything, to see how it works," Richards said as he drove.

"Makes sense."

"Yeah; right up to the part where it comes to putting stuff back together. The parts never seem to all get back in there and they never work right after that. Drives Helen crazy."

Kirk laughed but didn’t comment. He’d learned years ago to stay out of his partner’s marriages. Especially since his track record with wives wasn’t stellar.

"How come you never had kids?" Richards asked.

"I’ve been married three times, but I never stay with one long enough to have any."

"Three wives. I gotta say, if this one doesn’t work out, I’m not doing it again."

"I seem to remember sayin’ that too. One thing I learned, you’re married to the badge and after a while, your wife becomes a mistress you sneak and see when the badge allows it. I even tried marrying another cop this last time."

"How’d that work?"

"Lasted eight months. It was worse ’cause she was married to the badge too. Shit, we rarely saw each other and when we did, it was just to have sex."

"Sounds like the perfect marriage to me," Richards laughed.

"Not really, you still have the arguments. Now that we’re divorced, we still have the same sex and we don’t have to argue," Kirk said as they arrived at the scene of the murder.

When they walked in the apartment they were met by Detective Gene Sanchez from the narcotics division. "There they are," Sanchez said and walked them into the room where the bodies were found.