Dirty Cops Next Door

by Summer Cooper

  “Mark’s trouble, but Eric is smart. He’ll figure it out.” Grant looked as though he wanted to take my hand but something stopped him. He took a sip of the wine instead.

  “He says he wants to save Mark. That it’s not his fault his dad is a drug dealer.” I took a sip of my own wine to hide my face. I knew I wore every thought I had, and I wasn’t sure what I felt just now so I wanted to hide it.

  “Eric’s right. It was a kid like Eric that saved me, you know.” He leaned forward onto his elbows, staring out of the window into the darkness across from the table.

  “What do you mean?” I asked quietly, not wanting to break the mood of the moment. I wanted to know more about the man I’d been spending more time around but barely knew anything about. “Was it David?”

  “No, but a guy like David. Strong, serious, tough as fuck.” He looked sheepish for a moment but kept going when I didn’t protest the bad language. “He was a fighter but he fought for good; he set me on a new path.”

  “Was?” That wasn’t a good sign. I leaned forward, wanting to hear more.

  “Yeah. We lived in a town called Portsmouth, ever heard of it?” He paused long enough to let me shake my head in the negative. “It’s a port town, on the coast. Has lots of Navy types floating around, people with huge yachts and bad habits. Tim was a couple of years ahead of me in high school when I met him, took me under his wing, kept me out of trouble.”

  He paused, taking a sip of the wine and I knew he wanted something stronger but I didn’t have it. I waited for him to gather his thoughts.

  “We were at the basketball court at my mom’s apartment complex. Just shooting hoops, you know? He’d kept me out of the drug scene, even after he graduated. He was trying to get into the state police academy but a bum knee was giving him problems. He’d come around in the evenings, almost like one of those guys from the Big Brother program.”

  I shook my head again, dreading where this was going. I had a horrible suspicion.

  “Drugs were bad in my neighborhood. Crack most of the time, some weed and heroin, but usually crack. That shit made people crazy! I just wanted to finish school and get the hell out of that place, and Tim was trying to help me do just that.”

  He paused again, swallowing what was left of his wine so I poured him some more.

  “This car came creeping by. Slow, with the lights off. Tim saw it first and tried to pull me to the ground, but he was too late. They’d already started shooting.” His voice broke and he looked out into the night again, the memory obviously replaying in his mind. “He fell on me, and all I could do was sit there and pray that the bullets wouldn’t hit me. The car sped away and that’s when I felt something warm spreading along my back.”

  He gulped down more wine.

  “I heard him whispering to me, so I moved, pulling him to my ear so I could hear him. He was whispering ‘keep moving forward, Grant, don’t give up.’ He’d taken three bullets to the abdomen and one just above his heart. The warmth was his blood spilling all over me.”

  I took Grant’s hand, the pain obvious on his face.

  “Did they catch who did it?” It was all I could think to ask.

  “Yeah. They didn’t know it until the next day, but they’d shot up the wrong court, they’d wanted the apartments two streets over. It was all one huge fuck-up!” He stood, pacing between the table and the fridge opposite. “That’s why I won’t let the same shit happen to Eric, and it’s also why I think Eric not giving up on his friend is important. Eric is Mark’s Tim, his David. I met David when I finally finished Tim’s dream and he brought me out here.”

  “So you think this is more a sign of maturity than childishness?” I hadn’t really thought of it like that.

  “Definitely. Eric is a smart kid; he’s also kind. He won’t mess with the drugs, but he’ll be around them if it saves Mark. He’s obviously got it in his head to be Mark’s savior. We just have to hope it doesn’t turn out like it did with Tim.”

  “Why can’t you just arrest Mark’s dad and get it over with then? Everybody in town knows he’s the one bringing all those opioids in.” I’d learned as much in my short time at the paper.

  “We have to have proof, don’t we? Take that explosion, for example. That was all Avery Winslow’s goons, not Avery himself. From what we’ve learned, his name doesn’t appear on anything, his goons arrange everything. And we want him, not the goons.” His fingers tightened on the glass he still held in one hand, but he relaxed them before the fragile cup shattered. “We don’t want the minnows, we want the shark.”

  “Ah, that makes sense.” I stood up to put my empty glass in the sink, brushing past him.

  “I’m going to take care of this, Toni. I want you to know that. I’m not going to let anything happen to Eric if I can help it.” He stopped me as I moved past him and I was suddenly aware that we were alone in my kitchen.

  His hand moved from my elbow, up to my face, stopping when his fingers tangled in my hair above my ear. I could feel my eyes going round as my lips parted and I wanted whatever came next. The weeks, years of behaving myself, of never letting anyone in, of being alone in the world of grownups, had taken its toll, and I wanted, just for a moment, what everyone else had.

  Solace in another human being. Human contact. Passion.

  His face moved toward mine as pressure from his hand guided my face to his. My body moved, straining toward his as he made a soft sound deep in his throat.

  “Do you know how fucking tempting you are?” He whispered the words, close enough that his lips teased mine.

  I didn’t answer. I just waited, my eyes closing as his lips came ever closer. Almost.

  I inhaled his scent, anticipating the pressure of his lips against mine, longing for it. My hand went to his shoulder, clutching at him to stay upright.

  His lips fused to mine suddenly, and I gasped into his mouth as his tongue quickly swiped at my bottom lip, before he pulled away, only to come back for more as he turned my head to a better angle.

  Both of my hands were on his strong, broad shoulders, clutching him closer, no light showing between our bodies as I pushed him against the fridge.

  Our tongues tangled as the kiss deepened, and I sighed a moan as I felt his hardening length against my lower abdomen. He wanted me as much as I wanted him. I knew it was dangerous, I knew it could cost Eric and me everything, but I wanted this. Just this one moment with Grant.

  “Sis, I’m home!” I heard Eric open the front door and moved away from Grant, my chest rising and falling rapidly.

  “I...” I whispered as I pulled my eyes from Grant. I wanted to tell him to stay, that I wanted him, that I would get Eric sorted out and we’d continue this. But he was already pulling away.

  My brows knitted as he moved away from the fridge, his hands going to the back pockets of his black tactical work pants. I’m not sure why the detectives wore the military-style garb but it looked incredible on them both. Even if David was still on my shit list.

  “Hey, Grant, how are you, bro?” Eric came into the kitchen, bumping Grant’s fist before he went to the fridge. “Toni, we got any orange juice? I’m about to die of thirst!”

  He hadn’t noticed the tension between Grant and me then or the way we were still staring at each other.

  “I think we do, yeah,” I said, obviously distracted, but trying to pretend I wasn’t.

  “Cool. I have some homework to do. See you, Grant.” Eric breezed out of the kitchen, as if he hadn’t created a maelstrom of tension, totally unaware he’d done just that.

  “I’d better go too, Toni. You have things to do. I’ll, uh, I’ll see you later.”

  “Okay. See you.” I didn’t know what else to say. I knew what I wanted to say, but he’d pulled back like a turtle that had seen a menacing shadow. What had I done wrong?

  5

  Toni

  “Yeah, that’s where the two hottest men on earth live,” I said to Bee standing behind me as we stared from my living room wi
ndow over at Grant’s and David’s.

  “I don’t think I could stand it, Toni. I’d be all over those two like white on rice! Girl!” She looked at me with a doubtful look. “Are you sure you’re straight?”

  “As far as I know, yeah.” I laughed, my cheeks burning a little. “I’m just not, I don’t know, very good at flirting?”

  “Me neither, but I think I’d have broken a cabinet door or something by now to get one of them over here at least.” She stepped away from the window and over to the couch, gathering her purse and coat. The nights were growing colder and I’d broken mine and Eric’s coats out from the box they were in a few days ago.

  “You aren’t leaving, are you?” I asked, sorry to see my only real friend going already.

  “I have to get home. Work starts early around here. My show will be on soon too, and I like to watch in bed before I go to sleep. I’ll give you a call tomorrow though. Oh!’ She paused as lights beamed into the window. “Someone’s just pulled into your driveway anyway. I’ll buzz you, okay?”

  “Fine, leave me then! Go watch your show!” I said in a miserable voice before I gave her a wide grin. “I hope it’s good. Talk to you tomorrow.” I gave her a peck on the cheek as she opened the door to a very stormy looking David.

  Bee turned to me with knowing, mirth-filled eyes before she gave me a slight wave and left.

  “Hi, David, what can I do for you?” I kept my tone pleasant, trying to brush away my previous anger at the man. Something about him was making me bristle!

  “I told him once that sometimes you have to pay for the company you keep.” David’s cold gaze and hard words drilled into me as I stared up at him, mouth agape.

  “Pardon me?”

  “Where’s Eric?” He pushed in, not waiting for me to move out of the way.

  “He’s at his program, where he’s supposed to be! Grant knows he’s going, there’s no need to harass him about it. Why are you here?” I protested, following him into my living room. “Who said you could come in here, anyway?”

  “This.” He held out a warrant, Eric’s name printed in uppercase letters. I scanned the paper, not a word of it making any sense.

  “I thought you weren’t going to press charges against him? What’s this about now, David?” I pointed to the list of charges, around ten in total. I couldn’t believe it all.

  “The chief says we have to. And what the chief says goes.” He wouldn’t look me in the eye. “Where is he, Toni?”

  “He was with, well, he was out.” I wasn’t about to tell this man anything, even if he did stand over me in a way that made me want to curl into a ball and hide my head.

  I stuck my chin out and met his hard gaze, the intense blue a match for my own.

  I didn’t know what Eric had gotten himself into now, but the man standing across from me wasn’t about to hear a word out of me.

  He glared at me for a moment longer, then took out his phone.

  “Yeah, he’s at the center. Pick him up there.” He turned the phone off and turned to me. “I suggest you call a lawyer and go down to the station. Now.”

  Without another word, David left, leaving me stunned. Eric was in trouble again, only this time it seemed to be much worse. I looked down at the jeans so old they felt like a second skin and the university sweatshirt I was wearing and decided it would suffice. Who wanted to show up at the local cop-shop looking like a million dollars?

  I called the lawyer and talked with them for a few minutes before I grabbed my keys, slid on a pair of trainers, and left the house. This time there wasn’t anyone to calm the panic, there wasn’t anyone to tell me not to yell or to stay calm. I didn’t let it get to me as I drove through the evening traffic, wishing it was summer and not so dark.

  David’s words played over and over again in my head: ‘Sometimes you have to pay for the company you keep’. I didn’t know who I wanted to rant at first, David for being such a complete dick or Mark for dragging Eric down with him. I relented a bit and admitted to myself that I wanted to yell at Eric too. He’d sworn to me he was going to pay back all the money he’d cost us, and as soon as he’d finished the program he was going to get a job and pay every cent back. Now it looked like he might not get the chance!

  I knew he couldn’t have been involved in drugs; he’d only just met Mark on the first day of school. Eric was headed in the right direction before we moved here. He was already accepted into a good university, his grades were excellent, and he’d never been in trouble. This move had changed all of that. Instead of ensuring Eric had a bright and stunning future, the move to New Hope seemed to have ruined my brother’s prospects. And mine, if this kept up.

  I tallied up the fee the lawyer had quoted me against my bank balance and almost hit the brakes on the car. I’d never be able to pay all of this! Tears of frustration stung my eyes and I pulled off the road in a wide spot, needing a moment. I’d scrounged together the money to pay for the program Eric had been blackmailed into and now I was going to have to pay lawyer’s fees, court fees, and who knew what else?

  The world was crashing down around me and I didn’t even have a best friend to call to commiserate with! I had Bee, but would she understand when I was such a new friend? My thoughts shied around Grant, but I hadn’t seen him since we’d kissed in my kitchen last week. Plus, he was going to be on the team investigating Eric’s case. I let my head fall to the steering wheel, totally lost and overwhelmed. A sob wrenched from somewhere deep in my chest and I punched the dashboard, a scream of anger breaking forth.

  “You’re supposed to be the ones doing this! You were supposed to be here for Eric and me! Why? Why did you leave me on my own with this mess?” I screamed at the sky but, as usual, I didn’t get an answer back.

  My parents should have been the ones handling this. I should be on the sidelines, wringing my hands but out of the crossfire. Instead I was the sole target, that black shadow on white paper with little circles in white to give accuracy ratings. I knew it was the one in the center of my forehead that was taking the most hits, though so far I’d been able to deflect most of them. Now I felt a ghost of pain in that spot.

  I wanted my parents here to handle this, but most of all, I wanted them here to comfort me. I missed them both so much. I missed the way Dad’s laugh would dry up my tears, and the way Mom’s fingers would soothe my hair as well as my soul, as she told me to let it all go. I missed being cradled against Dad’s chest, or on Mom’s lap as she told me stories about her life as a reporter, before Eric and I came along. She’d traveled the world, she’d reported atrocities in far off places, covering wars across the seas. Now, they were both gone.

  Gone because Natalie Wallace loved adventure and Henry Wallace had loved Natalie more than life itself. More than his children too, it would seem. With another bang of my fist against the steering wheel I pulled myself together and pushed the memories aside. I found a balled-up napkin in my bag and wiped my face dry. Eric was waiting for me. I didn’t have time for this. I could be angry with my now deceased parents later, a far-off point in time that never seemed quite right.

  I finally arrived at the police station in one non-snotty piece and quickly found Grant. He was on the phone and waved at a chair by the side of the utilitarian desk. Dressed in his usual black outfit, I watched him out of the corner of my eye, keenly aware of his presence. He was just so handsome!

  I distracted myself by thinking about the articles I’d written this week. One on the local football team with a promising start to their season, boring me nearly to tears, one about a local chicken farmer who swore he had a headless chicken that was still alive, but most certainly didn’t when I arrived there, and another on the town’s plans for the burned-out factory proven to be an abandoned building. None of it was exactly page-turning material, but I was learning the ropes.

  “Right, about Eric,” Grant said, pulling my attention back to him. He spoke to me as if he hadn’t had his tongue down my throat only a week before. “He’s definite
ly going to need a lawyer for this one.”

  “I thought this was over with?” I folded my arms and stared at him with indignation, not sure if it was because Eric was being pulled into the station again or because Grant was so cold about it all. “You said this was done.”

  “The chief has different ideas, Toni. There wasn’t anything I could do about it.”

  Grant had the decency to look away.

  “What made him change his mind?” I relaxed a bit, brushing a loose strand of hair over my ear. It never seemed to stay in place.

  “I don’t know. He called us in and told us to find the boys and bring them in. I think he might have had a call from higher up. He usually doesn’t go back on his word like this.” Grant looked down at his hands, obviously at a loss as to his boss’s behavior.

  “He knows he’s about to ruin Eric’s chances at getting into a good school, right? Of even being able to finish school?” I tried not to snap at him but the whole situation was getting to me. I just wanted to scream!

  “Somebody has to be pushing him, Toni. He knows Eric has always been a good kid, even before he came here. We have all of his information here.” He looked up at me from the file he’d consulted, pity in his eyes. It only made me angry.

  “This is your partner’s doing, isn’t it? That man has it in for Eric now and he won’t listen to me! Why does he hate me so much? Us so much?”

  “David doesn’t hate you, Toni, he’s just suspicious. Surely you can understand that! We’ve tried to get answers out of Eric but we don’t know anything because he won’t talk to us. That’s part of what has David so pissed off right now; Eric won’t speak to save his own neck!” Grant looked a bit put out too, his patience obviously running thin.

  “Can you blame him? We’ve all seen the news, we’ve all seen it, Grant. We’ve seen the documentaries about people put behind bars who were completely innocent. Can you really blame Eric for keeping his mouth shut?” My outburst seemed to silence Grant, but I saw a wall go up I hadn’t meant to build.