Commit To Violence

"Kirk?" McNally questioned, surprised to see him when he stepped up to his desk. "What brings a high- roller like you down here?"

"Just a little information," Kirk replied and sat down.

"Tell me what you need."

"Mike Black."

Knowing Kirk’s obsession with Black, McNally laughed a little. "I’m tempted to say, who?"

"Why would you say it like that, Mac?"

"’Cause the Mike Black you know doesn’t exist anymore."

"That’s what I keep hearing; but what about his operation?"

"Since Freeze got killed things have changed. And Black himself, the guy’s completely hands off."

"So who’s running the show now?"

McNally got up and walked over to his file cabinet. He pulled out a file and thumbed through it. "That’s a good question, Kirk; doesn’t seem like anybody is in charge."

"What about Bobby Ray?"

"Night club called Impressions. Face it, Kirk, these guys made enough money to go legit. So unless you got some new evidence on some old shit," McNally shrugged his shoulders.

"You heard anything about him and Angelo Collette?"

"Him and Collette been friends for years, never has been a business relationship, but you know all this, Kirk."

"Okay, Mac, thanks," Kirk said and left the area, but he wasn’t done yet. He went back to his car and drove off.

Maybe he was going about this from the wrong angle. Or maybe he was just obsessed with pinning something on Black. He often wondered why, after making it his mission to arrest him for any of the countless murders that Kirk was sure he’d committed, when Black was in jail, he did everything in his power to clear him of murder charges in the death of his wife. Had it not been for Kirk, Black would be doing life for the crime.

Maybe the way to approach this was from the Collette side of the triangle. Kirk knew somebody that he could talk to in the organized crime division of the FBI. Kirk called and made an appointment to see him. The information he came away with was more of the same.

"Naturally, I can’t go into any detail about our ongoing operations against Collette, but I can say with a high degree of certainty that there is no business between Mike Black and Collette."

"High degree, huh," Kirk said to the agent, almost sounding disappointed.

"Look, Kirk, the best I can tell you is that every once and a while, Black comes out to Collette’s social club. They get pissy drunk, talk about bullshit and Black leaves."

"What about Collette and Bruce Stark?"

"Never heard of him," was the agent’s answer.

Kirk still wasn’t satisfied. McNally was a desk jockey, and he needed fresh info from the streets. He ran down a cop named Fields, one of McNally’s detectives who was working deep cover.

As soon as Fields saw Kirk he started running, but he didn’t make it too hard for Kirk to catch him, cuff him and drag him back to the car for all to see.

Once they had driven for awhile Kirk unlocked the cuffs. "What brings you to the streets, Kirk?"

"You know me; I just need a little info."

"On Mike Black I take it."

"Am I that predicable?"

"No just consistent. And Mac mentioned that you dropped by this morning askin’ about Black," Fields said. "What can I do for you?"