Page 38 of Cannon

As I approach, Big Ugly looks directly at me. It takes him far too long to register who I am, as by the time he does, Vortex is already behind him. Vortex does something to him, I don’t see what, and as he crumples to the ground Vortex catches him and bundles him back inside the Cadillac. Carlos looks panicked and about to run, but I’m close enough that I grab him and push him against the hood.

“Get off me. You don’t know who you’re messing with. You’ll be sorry.” He babbles as though his words were his weapons.

“That bullshit might work on kids, but you’re not dealing with kids right now. We know all about Stephan and his operation. You need to find a new line of work in a different town. Preferably something legit but certainly a long, long, long way from here. I have some friends who have a few questions for you before you go, though.”

Raising an arm tells Griller and Rage they have a collection to make. The van rolls up, the side door opens, and Carlos disappears inside. Checking the Cadillac reveals some small plastic bags with a white powder in them. These we drop on the ground and grind them into the asphalt with our heels. Going through Big Ugly’s pockets, we find what we assume is the day's takings. A sizeable amount that I pocket to give to Bank when we get back.

I’m just about to shut the SUV door when a voice stops me. “Put your hands on the roof of the vehicle and spread your legs.”

Calmly doing as I’m told, I glance behind me and see an officer of the law, hand near his holstered weapon, watching me very closely. “Good day, officer. Is there something I can help you with?”

“Don’t get smart with me. I’ve been waiting to catch you guys dealing drugs. Looks like today's my lucky day.” He takes a step closer, and Vortex appears behind him. He clamps one hand over the officer's weapon and an arm around the officer's neck.

“Officer, I’m not going to hurt you. I’m just preventing you from making a grave error in judgement. I’m going to release you in a second, and then we’re going to explain that we are not the ones you need to arrest. We are on your side here. We are not the criminals in this. Okay?”

Watching the officer's face closely, I don’t think he’s going to react well when he’s released. Judging by the resigned look on Vortex’s face, he doesn’t either. As he releases him, he slips the weapon from the holster in one fluid movement. Sure enough, the officer’s hand immediately drops to his weapon only to find an empty holster. Looking at Vortex, he sees his weapon hanging limply from Vortex’s finger and thumb.

“Let us explain what’s going on here, and you can have your weapon back as soon as we know that you’re calm and not going to overreact and shoot someone,” I say in a resigned tone. “This could all go sideways in an instant, and that’s not what we want. Believe me, we want these assholes off the street every bit as much as you do.”

“You have a funny way of showing it. Taking my weapon was a mistake.” He is angry, frustrated, and embarrassed.

“Look on the ground and you’ll see that we have destroyed their drugs. There may be more in the vehicle somewhere, we don’t know. One of them is unconscious on the driver’s side rear seat. The other one is answering some questions right now in a van at the back of the lot. You’re welcome to him when they return him. If we’d known you were around, we would have spoken to you first.” Like hell we would. We would have waited for another time and place, but he doesn’t need to know that right now. “Give the officer his weapon, so we can all be adults about this.”

Vortex holds his arm out, still dangling the weapon from his finger and thumb. The officer takes his weapon, checks it, and slowly puts it into his holster.

“You’ve destroyed evidence that I could have used against the two of them.” I’m beginning to seriously dislike this asshole and his attitude.

“No. We stopped that shit from getting into the systems of a lot of kids who should know better. Like I said, we both want the same thing. We’ve just become aware of Carlos and his friend here, so we came to see for ourselves.” I’m getting tired of explaining myself, and my patience is being tested, almost to its limit.

“There are issues like this popping up all over town wherever kids congregate. They are getting less and less conspicuous and bolder by the day. It’s getting to be a serious epidemic in a very short time. I took two dealers in last week and a lawyer had them out in less time than it took to book them in. I haven’t seen either of them since, but it just seems that as fast as you arrest one, there’s a replacement the same day.” I hear the frustration in his voice, and I can sympathize with how that must feel.

“Look, Officer?” I ask his name even though it says Williams on his shirt.

“Call me Bill.” He looks like I’m supposed to say something to that, but Vortex understands before I make the connection.

“Your name is William Williams?” Vortex asks him.

“No. My name is William Bill Will Liam Williams. My great-great-grandfather on my mother's side started this ridiculous thing of calling every son William first and then a second name. So, William Henry is my uncle, for example. My father didn’t want to be told what his son would be called, but it was causing a rift in the family. When I was born, he decided to make his point and called me by most of the derivatives of William. Luckily, he left out, or didn’t realize he’d missed out, Billy and Willie. Family gatherings were a nightmare as he insisted on using my full name at every opportunity. We didn’t have many family gatherings, as you can imagine. They always led to an argument. I don’t know what he would’ve done if I’d had a brother.”

“Good job you don’t have any sisters!” Vortex splutters between his laughter.

“Oh, but I do. I have four. Wilhelmina, every one of them. Willa, Billie, Wilma and Willow. I think he ran out of ideas when it came to Willow. Mother won’t talk about it. It’s probably the only thing I’ve ever heard my parents raise their voices or genuinely argue about.” Officer Bill sighs and shakes his head. “I don’t know how many more times in my life I will have to explain that. I might just have it printed on cards or something and just hand them out.” He smiles at the thought.

“Well, Bill, I think we can leave you with this piece of trash and Carlos. We found some cash that I was going to hand over to our treasurer, but you can have it as evidence if it will help?”

“Treasurer?”

“Yes, we’re from the Bitter Slayers MC. I’m Cannon and the slippery one there is Vortex. We should exchange numbers, and then if either of us needs help to clear more trash, we can keep in contact.” I hope he will take me up on this, as it’s always handy to have a law enforcement contact.

“Yeah, why not. If you message me though, be careful with the wording. Probably better if we talk more than we text, if you catch my drift?” Telling me his number, I give him a call so he has my number.

Griller and Breaker return Carlos, unconscious, and surprisingly he doesn’t look any the worse for wear. Griller throws him in the back of the Caddy with Big Ugly. Speaking from the side door, Breaker says, “He knows nothing more than we do, except for one thing. He doesn’t believe that the drugs are direct from a cartel. He thinks there is a middleman somewhere because the senator is always complaining about the price changing. Stephan is trying to contact a cartel directly. If he does, he’s going to go from a big fish in a little pond to a little fish in a freakin’ big pond overnight. They won’t take long in taking over control of his operation and using him as the fall guy if anything goes wrong.” Breaker is shaking his head, and I know what he’s thinking. We don’t need a cartel getting its foot in the door of our town. That will become very messy, very quickly.

“Senator? What senator? Who is this Stephan?” Bill is not as knowledgeable as he could be, so I make a suggestion.

“When you get off shift, Bill, give me a call. We should meet up and share our intel. We may learn a lot from each other.”

“I’m done in fifteen minutes. I can meet you somewhere as soon as I’m done and change out of my uniform. How about the diner between here and Stirlingsville?” He looks at me hopefully, and I have nothing else to do, so why the hell not.