Silver Lining - A Carpelli Adventure: Sequel To The Bestselling Thriller Fatal Mistake (10 page)

I smiled and waved as I started to step away. It was then I noticed he was flexing his fingers and trying to move his legs. I tasered him again, this time in the center of his chest, he went ridged, his eyes rolled back into his head again and this time, he passed out. His concealed weapon was showing now, so I took his gun and its holster too. I could use a second holster; the gun was simply to plant somewhere that made him look bad, real bad.

As I stepped through the door, Michael Nolan’s cohort was caught completely off guard. I guess no one’s ever stepped through the door ahead Mikey, when he had decided to tune them up. When he realized I had done the impossible and came out of the closed room before his boss and hero, he turned to confront me. There was actual fear in his eyes.

“You ain’t going anywhere, Asshole, Where’s Michael?” he snarled as I started to walk passed him. As he reached out, I tasered him and he went ridge, standing on his tiptoes, his eyes rolled back in his head and after about ten seconds I yanked back my hand, palming the taser so it wasn’t all that noticeable. Then I called out loudly,

“Hey, this guy fainted. There’s another one in the men’s room he’s sick too. Maybe it was the food?” I then ran for the doors. People started milling about the front of the restaurant and the goon twitching on the floor. Everyone was asking questions, but no one was doing anything about the guy on the floor.

I was long gone before anyone finally called 911, and while I was crossing the parking lot, on my way to the side street where I’d parked, I saw Nolan’s girlfriend sitting in the car doing her fingernails. I was curious as to how long she’d sit there waiting for him but I didn’t have time to stop to talk, I had some drug dealers to go see, maybe some other time.

CHAPTER TEN

I checked myself out in the rearview mirror and couldn’t believe my right eye was mostly swollen shut and turning black and blue. I was bleeding from a split lower lip and my nose had taken a new lean to left. With the bleeding, the swelling and the pain, I’d say it was a good bet it was broken. Surprisingly it didn’t hurt as much as I thought it would but it sure did look bad. My silver lining was that Michael Nolan looked and felt a whole lot worse than I did. I had to wonder though what it was about this town that made me so popular. I’d only taken one job and I had at least three different groups or individuals trying to kill me, why was that?

The biker’s well, they were bikers. Many of the hard core gangs across the country took trespassing on their turf very serious and I had certainly done that. Then when you included the fact I had messed up one their own and well, I could understand that threat. But the biker’s hadn’t attempted any pay back, yet. The biker gang’s leader had, but he didn’t bring up his tasered comrade. He only talked about my interest in Collins.

The two detectives must be extremely paranoid to have gotten so overwrought that I could place them at The Wild Rose, the night after a murder was committed there. Other than that, they hadn’t drawn my attention, until they hassled the good doctor. The attack on Holston and the plan to frame me for it; had all transpired before I knew anything about their interaction with the doctor and after I had met them in the bar. So were they also concerned about why I was asking about Collins?

I was missing something, but what? There had to be someone who was pulling the strings behind the scenes but who could it be? I’m not exactly a well know entity and I had only really talked with Holston until tonight when I met Betty for dinner and drinks. Holston and Betty were the only two people I’d met and interacted with until I met Doctor Anne and I didn’t see her as a criminal mastermind type.

It then occurred to me that there was one other person that knew I was here, the Oracle. The Oracle was the one with all the answers. Was he the spider? No, that couldn’t be it. Could the Oracle be selling my info, despite claiming, he would never do that? I don’t know, it didn’t make any sense. The Oracle seemed to be extremely honest and because we were going to be friends, he would never sell what he knew. Would he give it away?

Damn, I’d never been around so many deeply paranoid people at one time. What if, this was just another case where I was a loose end? What if, Holston was the one making waves and I was a target because they didn’t know what he told me. I didn’t know what to do right at this moment, I guess I needed to let things stew a bit and see what presented itself. Besides, I had a couple of things to occupy my time, a few drug dealers and a couple of Feds who needed talking to. Well, first things first, I went to try and talk to the drug dealers, something easier said, than done.

I headed into east Knoxville, where Doctor Anne had said Daniel typically stayed. Thankfully, drug dealers in the intercity, any intercity, were pretty easy to find, they almost advertised. By that I mean, they dressed alike. Everyone seemed to be, a want to be punk rapper. But as with most things in the drug world, they over did it with too many gold chains, too many gold teeth, too many clothes for the weather. Plus, they stood on corners, almost twenty four hours a day. Hopefully, my having a little come to Jesus speech with several of them, would be enough to force Daniel to seek medical care and treatment, because his supply had dried up.

I found my first dealer standing in the shadows on the corner of East Magnolia and South Castle, about three blocks from the zoo. He was dressed in unseasonably warm clothes, since the average temperature of late had been in the sixties at night. He was dressed in an oversized hoodie with big baggy sweat pants and a winter coat. It was the perfect outfit to hide your drugs or your concealed weapons. Now all I needed was a plan to get to this guy. I knew from my hometown this guy wasn’t alone. He had a guardian angel, somewhere nearby who was armed and would defend him, if anything looked out of place. Their modus operandi was to shoot first and shoot often. Then don’t wait around for any questions to be asked by anyone.

I drove around the block and saw three more dealers dressed basically the same as the first one and doing a brisk business. Each of them stood in the shadows and passed out their poison to passersby through the tried and true method of the handshake. The dealer holds the drugs in his hand and the buyer holds the money in his. The buyer walks up and shakes hands with the dealer and they trade the money for the drugs.

I picked a spot two blocks away from the first guy I spotted and settled in to watch evening show. I was using night vision binoculars, so as to be sure I got a good view of everything happening. It was a safe place to watch from but I needed to get a whole lot closer, if I was going to talk to the guy. The first half hour, I saw at least thirty people walk up, shake hands, and buy drugs.

I sat watching for more than an hour, before his guardian angel gave himself away. The guardian was three doors down, from the dealer, just inside an abandoned building. He had been hidden deep in the shadows, completely out of sight, until he had to have a smoke. He stepped from the shadows inside the building and out onto the sidewalk. He even waved at his cohort and walked down the street towards him.

I took this as my cue to move in closer. I made great time slipping out my car, trotting the two blocks between myself and where the guardian had been. I slipped inside the building, where he had been hidden in the shadows, in less than three minutes. I found a shadow of my own to hide in and leaned against the wall to wait for the guardian to return.

I watched as the guardian, collected all but a small amount of cash from the dealer and stuffed it in his pockets. I had no idea how much money they taken in tonight, but as the guardian drew closer I could see his pockets were bulging. Yes, business was good, making it all the better for my message to stick.

I waited for the guardian to step back inside the building and out of view of his partner, before I made my move. In the deep darkness of the abandoned building, all I could see was a silhouette against the light created by the street light on the corner. When the silhouette stepped passed me, I acted. I’d made sure I had my retractable night stick with me now, quickly popping it up and bring it down in a tight arc, bashing the guardian on the back of his head. He crumpled to the floor and I quickly rifled his pockets for the cash, drugs or any weapons. I checked his pulse ‘cause I may have hit him a little hard. His pulse was strong so I assumed he would live. I rolled him over and rifled the rest of his pockets, discovering additional cash. All told, I took from him a big wad of cash, maybe ten grand, two hand guns, his lighter, which he used to signal the dealer on the corner besides light his smokes. Plus a nasty six inch switch blade and about three dozen small plastic bags of what appeared to be crack. I tucked it all in my pants pockets and snuck out the back of the building.

I stayed in the alley and walked past the spot the dealer was working out front, in favor of using the smaller pedestrian access alley that ran from the street to thbetween the two buildings just east of him, so I could sneak up behind him. My luck was holding as the dealer was busy watching this couple that had just pulled up in a Mercedes and were slowly dragging themselves out of it. It was a comedy of errors as the woman in the passenger seat opened her door and fell right out of the car. The driver turned to the window and puked without rolling down the window. I was sure that would make for one hell of a putrid odor in the morning. The dealer chose to heckle them rather than help them, which was fine by me, coming into this neck of woods in their condition deserved whatever they got, short of raped or killed.

“Shit, you just ruined your ride, mother. How’d that taste a second time?” The dealer called out. Then when he saw the woman passenger was struggling to get up after having fallen out of the car, he yelled “Hey, walk much?” Neither the driver nor the passenger seemed to be able to respond, but the dealer kept it up apparently because he was bored. “Hey bitch, what you do for me, it I help you up?”

Finally, the dealer decided to go over to them to make the sale, because it didn’t appear they’d be able to walk that far, once they got up.

“Mr. Mercedes, what’s you doing here?” The dealer inquired, as he slowly stepped over to the pair.

“Say man!” The male driver yelled loudly, as he dragged himself to his feet using the fender of his car as a prop. “Man, I want some…I…a…you know man blow, crack, rock candy, coke.” 

“You got any money, Dude?” The dealer asked as he checked out the woman now leaning on the car’s rear fender and puking on the trunk lid. She wasn’t half bad. As the driver fumbled with his money, couldn’t seem to get his hand out of his pocket, the dealer asked, “You’s sick or something?” Then he turned to the driver and said, “She’s really puking hard back there, all over your car.”

“Bitch! You’re gonna wash that off, Bitch.” The driver yelled, as he stood weaving in the middle of the road. “If the damn paint peels, you’re gonna pay to fix it, bitch!” the guy screamed at her and she in responded by flipping him the finger. “You bitch. Stop puking on my car. Can’t you see I’m buying crack here?”

“Hey, Mr. Mercedes, get the fuck out of here. I ain’t got no dope.”

“Oh, hey man, I got’s money, lots of money. Here, here’s a hundred. Come on man, I just need some blow.”

“You a cop, Mr. Mercedes?” The dealer asked.

“Where’s the cop? I ain’t no cop. Bitch, get back in the car and stop puking. I don’t want no puke, inside my car. Oh hey, come on man, what do you say? I got five hundred.”

“Get in your car, Mr. Mercedes. I’ll walk by and give you some coke and you give me the five hundred.” The dealer barked at him and the guy struggled to comply.

After a minute or so, the guy and the bitch, had managed to get back in the car. The guy rolled down the window and held five hundred dollar bills out for the dealer. He glanced at the building where his guardian was supposed to be and he looked at the building hard. When his guardian didn’t come out he foolishly assumed he was okay with proposed deal.

I was still just around the corner of the building he was standing in front of, so when he glanced around he saw no one and wrongly assumed it was safe to move. He quickly stepped around the car and grabbed the money, then dropped four small bags in the drivers lap.

“Now get the hell out of here,” the dealer ordered, “while pulling his gun in an effort to intimidate, Mr. Mercedes.

It apparently worked as the Mercedes squealed its tires as it raced away. The dealer stood in the street for a moment looking at the building his guardian was supposed to be in, but nothing happened. When he had finally had enough of the guardian ignoring him, he turned to come back to his corner. I was standing in his spot and I was pointing my gun at him.

“Who the hell are you?” The dealer snarled as he reached for his gun.

“Really? Are you that stupid?” I yelled. The dealer looked at me again and realized I had him dead to right and slowly pulled his hand away. “Take it out nice and slow, and you just may live through this.” I informed him. He glanced at the building where the guardian was supposed to be, as he slowly pulled his gun from his belt. “Hold it by the very end of the butt with two fingers and drop it to the ground, then kick it away.” I instructed him. Despite the contemptuous look on his face, he did as he was told.

“What happened to your face?” The dealer asked.

“Rough sex.” I snapped. “Now walk over here,” I ordered him and he slowly shuffled my way. Twice during the fifty foot shuffle over to me, he glanced at the guardians building. Finally, I’d had enough of his foot dragging.

“There’s no point in looking for him. He’s not going to be coming to help you anytime soon.” I told him.

“Oh, how do you knows that?  Did Tommy do that?” he asked. I ignored his question about my face and mimicked him in responding to his other inquiry.

“I knows ‘cause I did it. Now, I need some information and if you provide it, I’ll let you live.”

“I talks to you, they might kill me.”

“Who might kill you?”

“You don’t know who I work for?” The dealer asked.

“Nope. Don’t care. Not my concern,” I stated.

“You be crazy. They will kill you just because you hassling me. If you really did take care of Tommy, they kill your ass for sure.”

“Oh wow, I guess I should be scared. So who is it you work for again?” I asked despite knowing already.

“I works for Smith and Jones.”

“Smith and Jones? Never heard of them. They sound like gay dancers. They perform out to The Wild Rose, don’t they?” I teased the dealer a bit. “That’s close enough.” I stated when the kid got within fifteen feet.

“You got a death wish or something?” the dealer asked, as he stopped.

I held out the picture Doctor Anne gave me. “Does he buy his crap from you?”

“Never seen him,” He stated without really looking.

“That’s too bad. Cause if you’ve never seen him then my information is no good and I’ll have to rethink how I’m going about this. You’ll then be a loose end that I can’t afford, so I’ll have to eliminate you to ensure there won’t be a problem.” I said as coldly as I could.

“Maybe I should looks a little closer at that picture.” The dealer said, as he held out his hand for the picture. I handed it to him and he looked at it this time. “Yeah, I knows him, but he ain’t been around in while.”