Ghetto Girls Too. Anthony Whyte

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СКАЧАТЬ should, cold and with no empathy. Hall knew that Lil’ Long was a career criminal who deserved to bleed until lifeless. His evils were unrepentant. It would be the right thing to do. Hall had a wife and three girls. He was a family man. He wasn’t God. He was only a human being with responsibilities. He hoped that maybe one day, the ill feelings he harbored toward this type of scum would leave. Right now they were only roadblocks, he thought. Hall’s focus was jarred when he heard his white partner clamoring for attention. He turned to him like a studious father dealing with an impatient child.

      “You got to learn to trust me. You’ve got to show more enthusiasm for the team,” said Kowalski before shouting, “Bring those fucking medics down here now.” Hall knew he was going to have to deal with this type of immature behavior from his partner. It was what everyone expected from the highly charged junior detective. Kowalski had less than ten years on the job but he had made his bones fast by becoming a narcotics officer. He rode a wave of successful busts for three years, which landed him as detective. Young and arrogant, he wasted no time in pissing off his partner. “Come on, what is it you’re waiting for?”

      An officer charged upstairs to deliver the request. The owner and occupants of the apartment were in one of the bedrooms surrounded by six or seven officers. Two paramedics tended to Coco and Deedee. They sat huddled together as the paramedics, two young guys, attempted to comfort them by obviously flirting with them. The girls were cold and appeared shell shocked. They didn’t seem to want to say too much.

      “Y′all were pretty lucky surviving all that with just minor scratches and bruises. Wouldn’t want to mess up two beautiful faces now, would we?”

      The other paramedic spoke on his walkie-talkie. “Both the girls are fine and the adults are okay,” he said then an officer rumbled through the door disturbing everyone.

      “The sarge needs a medic downstairs right away,” he said then bounded back downstairs. Coco’s lips curled in silent fury. Deedee eyes slanted as they stared at each other hoping the incredible hadn’t happened.

      Eric turned around and looked at the girls. He heard the paramedic who had been flirting with Coco speak.

      “Duty calls. It seems like we’ve got someone who’s not ready to die just yet.” The paramedics removed their equipment and went out before Eric recovered enough to ponder aloud.

      “Who?” Eric asked. His question was met by an angry growl from Detective Kowalski. He leaned inside the doorway and answered.

      “Well, put it like this, Mr. Ascot, you’re no longer looking at double homicides,” he remarked rudely.

      “Man, I already told your ass that the cat downstairs with all the bullets, he was trying to rob me and the rest of the people here. He shot the other lady, a guest of mine, and I had no choice but to defend my household. Would you let somebody run up in your crib and rob you?” There were no answers. Eric continued, “I didn’t think so.”

      “Is that your story? I’m to stand here and understand that you had no other type of problems, ah, any beef with this notorious drug dealer? You mean there were no drug deals gone bad?” Kowalski asked.

      “Listen, with all due respect, detective, if you’re gonna charge me with something then you just go ahead and...” Ascot was about to get on a roll but Sophia didn’t want him to. She tried to intervene.

      “Eric... Officer...” Sophia began. Her pleas went unheeded after the detective went beyond the limits of courtesy. His tone changed and professionalism was out the window.

      “No, you listen,” Kowalski shouted angrily. “The only reason your black ass ain’t locked down is because your girlfriend here got connections.”

      The detective stood eyeball to eyeball with Eric, staring dead center in Eric’s angry mug. Their faces were close enough for Eric to smell his pores. Testosterone growled loudly but cooler heads prevailed. Detective Hall tugged at his partner’s arm. Eric resisted the urge to push the officer out of his face. Instead, he stood arms folded across his chest and stared furiously at Kowalski. For a couple of frantic moments, both held their ground grill to grill until a fuming Ascot made his overture.

      “Before I ask you to leave my place, I want your fucking badge number. Fuck with me, I will have your job.”

      “All right then, Mr. High and Mighty, take a look but I want you to know that we’ll be checking these guns carefully and the serial numbers better match correct. Start worrying if you see me again.”

      The detectives walked out of the room towards the stairs. Eric sat next to Sophia.

      “The nerve of those fucking cops. They just jealous, that’s all,” Eric said as the other officers slowly filed out.

       FIVE

      The commotion had caused nearly all of the officers to leave their posts to take a look. Now as they all walked out, their mumbling was constant as they shambled down the stairs admiring the artwork on the wall.

      “You believe him?” Hall asked his partner as they made their way downstairs.

      “No, not one word. What about you?” Kowalski asked and turned to look at Hall.

      “Everything he said after his name was a damn lie. I hate these hip hop rich kids,” Hall opined.

      “I know for a fact that he’s more R&B, my man,” Kowalski corrected.

      “I guess that makes a difference, huh?”

      “You goddamn right, buddy. It does make a big difference.”

      “Explain why.”

      “It means we can’t request back up from the hip hop guys.”

      “I wasn’t aware there were hip hop police,” Hall was staring at Kowalski as if it was all a joke.

      “I didn’t say hip hop police.”

      “I meant cops. Squad or cop, I didn′t know such a thing existed in the department.”

      “It goes to show you don’t know everything, do you, sergeant? They’re like the Keystone cops or something like that, only they specialize in cases involving the brothers.”

      “You shitting me. Keystone? Never heard of them.” Hall threw a glance at some uniformed officers.

      “No, not them. I’m talking about us, Kowalski and Hall. You and I need to work together as a team. That’s very important to the overall success of our mission as officers of the law.” Kowalski knew he made sense. He had a nose for the investigation. Young, white, and hip, Kowalski was destined to be a cop. His father and his father before were. That’s how the story goes. More importantly they were all heroes of one kind or the other. For Kowalski, failure at busting this or any other case wide open was not an option. Kowalski was primed and ready to take down his number one suspect. The only thing was that his partner was a respected black sergeant of detectives who may object to some of Kowalski’s tactics in achieving the goal. He wanted to make sure. The young detective took jabs at the older man’s chin.

      “Yeah, Kowalski and Hall, we should be the Starsky and Hutch of this division,” chuckled Kowalski.

      “Man, I’m just too old and СКАЧАТЬ