Uncle Janice by Matt Burgess

Author:Matt Burgess [Burgess, Matt]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-385-53681-3
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Published: 2015-01-05T16:00:00+00:00

Three down, one to go.

She told the investigators that she had maintained her post outside the bar. The whole time. Never left it. The Mexican dude? He had approached her. Understand? He was the one who’d initiated the sale, practically forcing the rocks on her. What was she supposed to do? Say no? Just because she was ghosting? Tell him to fuck off and sell his drugs to someone else: a child, a nun, a recovering addict? After making the buy—outside La Escuelita, mind you—she watched the Mexican wander around the corner, the dude so fat and so slow that she bet the investigators could catch up to him easy. Because Sergeant Hart needed the overtime, he chose to believe her. Detective First Grade Chester Tevis, however, was as always a whole other story. While McCarthy and Duckenfield were head-steering the birthmarked Mexican into a p-van, Tevis met her three blocks south of Roosevelt, at the investigator car, away from any potential witnesses except for Cataroni and Hart in the front seat. She sat on the warm hood and tried to rub the chill out of her arms. She was afraid to look into his face. She stared at his throat instead, his coat buttoned to the top even though he hadn’t made any buys. He had been close, though, he told her. He had been just about to make a buy when he got this mother-f’ing call on his Nextel. Cataroni and Hart, with the dashboard heat blasting their faces, could see Tevis standing over her but probably not hear what he was saying.

“Fourteen years I’ve been doing this,” Tevis told her. “Fourteen years and I’ve never had a ghost leave me. Not once.”

“You’re not listening,” she said. “The whole time, I’m telling you, I was outside the—”

“No,” he said. “This is to my face now. You’re peddling this nonsense to my face, Itwaru.”

“You’re not listening!”

“You’re not listening. Tell them whatever,” he said, gesturing to the investigators, “but you gotta understand I’m not falling for this, Itwaru. It doesn’t work on me. I’m the one who taught you how to lie.”

Wrong. Her father taught her how to lie—don’t hesitate, don’t overdetail, don’t change stories, because no matter how angry people seem, they really do want to believe you—but she didn’t tell Tevis that. “I swear to God,” she said. “I never had the bar out of my sight.”

“My life’s at stake with this shit,” he whispered, cursing for the first time in front of her. “I can’t … I have daughters, understand? I can’t be playing this game.” He reached into his pocket for the Kangol cap, as if to signal the end of their transaction. “I know your eighteen months is coming up. Just so you don’t get in any trouble with that, it should probably be you and not me to ask Prondzinski for a partner switch. She’ll give it to you, I’m sure. Tell her … I don’t know. Tell her whatever you want. You’ll think of something, I can guarantee that.

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