Charlie-316 by Colin Conway

Author:Colin Conway
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Down & Out Books

They had more luck with Peter Yates, finding him at the second address they tried, which was the age-old standby for male criminals—his mother’s house. Mom didn’t even bother lying for him. She just swung open the door, pointed through the kitchen to another door that they quickly discovered led to the basement.

Yates was a skinny white man with long hair and a scraggly beard. He sat on a futon and was playing a video game on a small TV when they entered. From the cursing, Harris imagined it wasn’t going well for him.

“Peter Yates?” she asked, causing him to jump. When he saw her badge, he paused the game and set aside his controller. His expression became sullen.

“What do you want to hassle me about now?”

“We just want to talk.”

“About what?”

“You knew Todd Trotter, right?”

Yates snorted. “That douche bag? Yeah, I knew him. You guys killed him, and he still owes me forty dollars.”

“Why’d he owe you money?”

“He lost a bet. Why do you care?”

“We’re investigating his death. We’re trying to fill in some missing pieces about him.”

“Isn’t that convenient?” Yates said. “First you shoot him in the back for no reason, and now you get to investigate it yourself? Gee, I wonder how that will turn out?”

“We’re with the Sheriff’s Office, not SPD.”

“Like that makes a difference. A cop’s a cop.”

Harris moved closer to him, ignoring the stench of body odor and other smells she’d prefer not to classify. “Look, Pete, it’s our job to find out what happened in this shooting. If it was a bad shoot, we need to figure that out. You might know something that can help us.”

“I don’t help cops.”

“You’d be helping Todd.”

“The news is saying that he didn’t have no gun and that moolie cop shot him in the back, anyway. If a white cop did that to a black guy, there’d be riots already.”

Harris cringed at the epithet but hid her reaction as best she could. She kept her voice neutral. “I don’t know about any of that. I do know that we are trying to get to the bottom of this. The real bottom.”

Yates eyed them suspiciously. “Are you saying that they might actually nail that cop for this?”

“We want the truth. Even if it is painful.”

Yates nodded slowly, as if processing her words. “All right,” he said reluctantly. “Ask your questions.”

“How did you know Todd?”

“We run in some of the same circles, that’s all.”

“He dealt drugs.” Harris looked at him impassively.

Yates squirmed slightly in his seat. “Yeah, so? I like to party, and news flash, some parties have drugs. Sometimes I’d see Todd at parties. He had good shit.”

“Parties where?”

“Wherever, man. Parties, they just…happen.”

“Here?”

Yates shook his head. “No, my ma would never allow it, but there’s always something doing somewhere, if you know people.”

“You ever party with Ernesto?”

Yates shook his head. Harris didn’t see any sign of deception in his reaction when she spoke the name.

“You know Ernesto? Drives a purple Impala?”

A flicker of recognition showed in his eyes. “Yeah, man, I seen that car running up and down Division Street some nights.

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