BULLETS by Elijah Drive

Author:Elijah Drive
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub, mobi
Tags: Fiction
Publisher: Defiant Press
Published: 2015-11-26T00:00:00+00:00

26

Slick felt Camilla’s anger as a palatable presence as he guided the old Nova away from the bar. He wasn’t quite sure what she was angry about, but the anger was heavy in the air between them. He just kept quiet and drove. Finally she spoke.

“What did he mean, he OWED you? What did you do for him?”

“For him? Nothing. But it seems I once helped out a friend of his.”

“What did you do?”

“A favor.”

“For this … Esteban and his little sister, who was a victim of violence? What happened to her? And you helped them? How? What did you do?”

“Like I said, it was a favor, the nature of which is just between me and them.”

She snorted. “Uh-huh. You think you’re a priest now?”

“Uh, hell no.”

“And you’re not a lawyer, there’s no privilege to violate. So answer the question.”

“Just some kids in trouble. I can’t really say any more than that. Kids in a jam and I helped them out. I do that from time to time, get involved in small local dramas. I’m weak like that.” He smiled at her but it didn’t really thaw her out. “As I said, sometimes it’s hard for me to let certain things go. That’s my fatal flaw.”

“What are these other ‘appreciable talents’ of yours?”

“I play a mean game of Scrabble.”

“I don’t appreciate your jokes right now.”

“That’s one of my other appreciable talents.”

“I’m being serious.”

“Me, too.”

She whipped her eyes front and steamed, cursing under her breath in Spanish.

“What are you so pissed off about? Do we or don’t we know a LOT more than we did this morning?” Slick asked.

“It’s all hearsay and conjecture.”

“Like every case you work doesn’t start off exactly like that. Conjecture is a tool of your trade and so is hearsay.”

“Don’t tell me what my job is.”

“So what’s your beef? And not the one you have with me. What’s your beef with Angel’s story, what are you bumping up against?”

She didn’t answer right away, just sat and burned. Finally she turned to him.

“I just cannot believe that two of our uniformed officers picked up a man, drove him out to the desert and murdered him, I can’t believe that.”

“Why is that so hard to believe?”

“They’re officers of the law, not murderers!”

“Officers of the law, deputies, who told me when I was in custody that they were gonna beat me to death if I didn’t confess to a crime I did not commit.”

“That’s what they SAID. That doesn’t mean they would have followed through.”

“Oh, COME ON!”

“I believe you were abused, I have no trouble with that, but they were simply trying to intimidate you into—”

“No trouble believing they were beating my ass but not gonna go all the way and kill my ass, that’s what you’re saying?”

“I can believe that Ted and his cronies bend the law, lean on suspects, tailor testimony to fit what they think they know and can prove, yes. That happens in every police department in every major city. I don’t condone it, but it happens, in ours especially.

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