Page 83 of Mimosa

Then, like a hero riding in on a white horse, Hippy strolled across the floor and hollered, “I was fucking him. Is that any of your business?”

Mims’s head swung around and saw Hippy, shirtless, button of his jeans undone before he came to the table and placed both hands on the surface. “We were fucking since this afternoon. Want the condoms I used?”

Marion’s face was priceless. She was furious, and she spat, “If you’re lying…”

“What? Aren’t you all supposed to serve and protect? The question is, who are you protecting?”

Hippy grabbed Mims’s hand. “Come on, baby. We have some lawyers to call.”

“No need of that,” Marion said as she stood. “We were obviously mistaken.”

“Yeah. You were.”

The search went on for another half an hour, and when they left, they left a mess. Tally ran in as soon as the cops left and hurried over to Eazy and Cosmo. “How are they?”

“They’re fine, sis,” Murphy told her. “But it’s time. You take them.”

“Murphy!”

Murphy told Eazy, “Take the kids up and put them in our bed. I’m going to take the guys to talk to them.”

Whispering to Mims, Murphy said, “Call Sonny on the landline. Make sure he didn’t see them placing cameras or other listening devices in the basement.”

Mims nodded and got on the bar phone. Once Sonny answered, Mims said, “Are we clear to go see you?”

“Yeah. I was watching.”

“Good.”

After he hung up, he nodded to the others and everyone filed down the stairs and to the basement, getting into the secret room before any of them said another word.

Once the door was closed, Sonny waved them to the computers. He rewound the video for the basement and said, “Nothing here. I think they truly believed it was just a gym and storage, but look at this,” he said while he rewound the tape for the second floor, the one outside the bedrooms of Goldie, Mims and Hippy. “See that?”

They all watched as one of the officers placed something tiny under the table near the doors for the bathrooms.

“That can’t be a camera. They’re just listening.”

“It would be hard to set up a camera in that short of time,” Mims said. “But not impossible.”

“We just have to pretend they have eyes and ears everywhere,” Murphy said. “And Sonny, sorry, but not even leaving the basement to get a little air.”

“I miss the sun already,” he said with a sigh. “This is too much. I have to get out of here.”

“Not yet. If you can handle it here for a little longer, we’ll have a place for you soon.”

“I can handle just about anything, obviously. I am more worried about all of you.”

Murphy called them all to the table in the meeting room and after they were all seated, Murphy announced, “I’m sending the kids, my father, and Ryan with Tally. They’ll be going on a little vacation.”

“Damn,” Hippy said. “Sorry, Murph.”

“No. It’s fine, because we’re getting this over with once and for all.” He tossed the warrant on the table and slid it to Sonny. “Do you know this judge?”

Sonny took the warrant and opened it, looking it over. “Yeah, sure, he’s one of jurists in the criminal courts. He takes care of the dirty cops busted from IA. Why?”

“How are his convictions?”

Sonny shrugged. “I don’t testify. I know that most get off with a slap on the wrist, but it’s that way all through the country.”

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