Hetch (Men OF S.W.A.T #1)(44)
“You are. Relax your arms.” It takes a few a minutes to detain him, but eventually we get him.
“What the f*ck were you thinking, Victor?” I ask when he’s calmed down and secured.
“I swear I didn’t mean to run. You just rolled up on me out of the blue,” he grunts out his reply as Fox pulls him up to his feet, giving him a full pat down. “I was scared.”
“You have something to be scared about?” Fox asks when he establishes he’s clean.
“Nah, man, I’m on the straight arrow.”
Straight arrow my ass.
“Well, you're not on the straight arrow today. You’re going to jail.”
“What the hell for?”
“Well for one, making me run and two, for whatever we find up under the house.”
“What? That’s some bullshit. I didn’t put nothin' under there.” He denies any wrongdoing, but guilt is etched all over his face.
“What’s up under the house, Victor?” I ask again.
“Nothin’, I’m innocent.”
“347. We have the perp in custody. We’re gonna need a K-9 unit out here." I call in for the dog unit. If there’s anything up under the house, they will find it. Almost immediately, control radios back with confirmation and an estimated time.
“I have the dog coming out, Victor, so we'll know for sure then.”
“I swear I didn't drop anything.” He holds his ground, not admitting to anything.
“Good, so my dog isn't gonna find any drugs up under the house then?” I push, knowing I’m gonna find something.
“No, I mean, if there is something under there, it isn’t mine.”
“You think there are drugs under there, but someone else put them there?” I bite his play.
“I mean, maybe. I-I think I saw something.” He shrugs like it’s no big deal.
“You saw something?” It takes everything in me not to shake the f*cker out of his stupidity.
“Yeah, I mean maybe.”
“How much are we talking about?” Fox steps in when he notices how hard I’m finding it to keep it together.
“Maybe, I don’t know, looked like a gram. Maybe two.”
“And you didn't touch it?” I gather myself enough to keep up the interrogation.
“Well, I mean, when I crawled up under there my hand might have touched it.”
Seriously, you can’t f*cking make this shit up.
“347 to control, cancel the K-9.” I decide to go up under the house on my own. We still have Mitch in the back of the cruiser to take back to Boys Haven and the less paperwork I need to file, the better off he might be in this.
“You remember where you saw it?”
“I can’t be sure, but maybe up in the back corner somewhere.” Fox can’t hold his laughter this time, and if I wasn’t worried about Mitch getting caught up in this bullshit, then I’d be laughing right along with him.
Fortunately, a few minutes later, it becomes clear we have something to hold over Victor when I find about five grams of cocaine up under the house. If we’re lucky, we may be able to get Victor to shed some info on Dominic. Unfortunately, it means Mitch may be in more shit than the poor kid can handle.
Not the news I want to give Liberty.
“Look what I found, Victor,” I call out when I crawl back out from under the house.
“Ahh, man it’s not mine, I swear.” He starts shaking his head, still denying it’s his.
“This is how we’re gonna play it, Victor. You’re going to tell me the information I want and I’m going to drop the charges of assaulting an officer and resisting arrest.”
“Nah, man, that's bullshit. I’m no snitch.”
“Then you’re under arrest for obstruction, assaulting a police officer, and possession of an illegal substance.” I start to read him his rights, knowing he’s going to cave before I finish.
“Aww, hang on, man, what do you need?”
“I need information on Dominic Westin.”
“Are you f*cking insane? No way I’m going against him.” He shakes his head, not okay with what I’m asking.
“He doesn’t need to know it's you. I just want to know where we can find him.”
“Jesus, I don't know.” His shoulders slump, and I know he’s thinking about it.
“You think you got problems with a guy like Dominic finding out you snitched. You’re gonna have huge problems with me if you don’t give me what I want.”
“Fuck, man. If he finds out I rolled on him….”
“He won't,” I promise, knowing it's not really a promise I can keep. Hopefully, the information he gives us is enough to put the * away.
Then he won't be anyone’s problem.
Least of all mine.
Fourteen
Liberty
“Uggg, this is hopeless.” I slam the phone down on its cradle and let out a frustrated groan. Does anything ever happen smoothly around here?
“Bad news?” Sue asks from the doorway of my office, bringing me out of my pity party.
“Yes. The church where we were going to hold the car wash next Saturday just informed me they can’t let us use the parking lot. They booked the hall and now due to health and safety, we both can’t be there.”