Page 268 of 7+Us Makes Nine

I crossed my hands behind my head and sighed absently.

“What you got for me, Lucas boy? Better be good. Can’t you see I’m busy, man?”

I kept a straight face as he laughed again.

“Listen, I know you’ve been taken off the case you were on with your partner. Ain’t no shame in twiddling your thumbs between cases, bro. How is Kale? He holding up alright?” He frowned with genuine concern.

Kale was my partner, and we had worked together on the case that made us both detective. He’d taken a bullet during a shootout on our first big detective case, looking into a local illegal prostitution ring. We’d gotten close to taking the operation down when we were spotted by two armed thugs while snooping around an old warehouse.

We both got bullets sprayed at us, he got two in the chest, one in the shoulder and one in the thigh. His vest saved his life, but he was still recovering from the other two bullets. None of the bullets went near me. Lucky, I guess.

One of those rounds had been near fatal, but I’d shot the two gangsters pinning us down by popping out from solid cover, inviting them to show their heads. They obliged. I killed them both coolly with headshots. They’d fired first, after all.

Until the ambulance arrived I’d kept him alive with rudimentary first aid, combined with shouting threats of what I’d do to him if he fucking died on me. He was out for a few months at least, but we all knew the psychological scars might take a while longer to heal than the bullet wounds. It was an unspoken rule that most who’d been shot or seen their colleague shot knew all too well.

I snapped out of the flashback, looking up at Lucas.

“He’s tough. He’ll live, but I don’t know how he’s taken it, y’know. Haven’t been round to see him since he left the hospital, figured he needs time with his family.”

I picked up a mug of coffee from the table in front of me, studying the contents.

“I’m gonna go see him this weekend, take him some flowers or something. Maybe sneak in a cold brew or two.”

“Sounds like a good plan. Glad to hear he’s pulling through, Storm.” Lucas nodded sincerely.

“Anyways, got something that will cheer you up.” Lucas beamed at me proudly, white teeth showing behind his tanned skin.

Lucas reached into his pocket and pulled out a sealed evidence bag, waving it at me. There was a smaller bag inside it, with what looked like a small amount of crystal meth.

“Bit early for that. You know I don’t tweak before at least 3pm, bro.”

He snorted. “Look at it closer.”

My new boots thudded on the floor as I leaned forward to inspect the contents of the bag he was holding. It was a small amount, maybe

an eighth of an ounce, so I had to lean across the desk on my elbows to get a good look.

I whistled.

“No shit. Thought this stuff had pretty much disappeared now?” The crystals were clear, much clearer than low grade street meth. They had a yellow tint to them, and a slight blue hue when looked at closely.

“Thing is, it had. I got this off a guy earlier today. I saw him leaning into a car that was driving around, you know. He thought he’d go into a side alley for a little smoke.” Lucas shrugged.

“Booked him, but he wouldn’t talk. Wouldn’t say a damn word, said he was scared shitless. Isn’t enough there for us to really do anything. First offence. So we let him off with a caution.”

Lucas passed the bag to me and sat on my desk, turning to face me.

“This isn’t the only batch that’s been grabbed recently, Jack. There’s more of it appearing, driving the small-time dealers out. There’ve been shootings, disappearances. Seems like…” He drifted off, a concerned look on his face.

“Yeah. Seems like the O’Rourkes are back. But that’s not possible,” I said, my mind racing.

Before I’d made detective, I’d worked undercover on a special assignment to take down a bigtime drug operation. Me and my partner Kale had been called in to work on the case undercover, following direct recommendation straight from our Captain. Our Lieutenant had later said the Captain had wanted us fast tracked to detective, to shake things up a bit in the department.

It was well known that a few of the old boys in the department had agreements with the main dealers in town, taking bribes and coercing them to keep to their designated turf and to not cause too much trouble.

The drug operation we’d infiltrated was run by the O’Rourkes, a biker gang that had rolled into town one day out of nowhere and had set up with the biggest meth operation we’d ever seen. They took every corner, killed or recruited every small-time dealer in the area. They had eventually made a few deals with some detectives, but the Captain was under pressure to shut the gang down. The O’Rourkes were making national news, and the publicity gave our town a bad name.

Soon enough after the biker gang had arrived, the streets were flooded with almost 80% pure meth. The town’s youth were hooked not long after.

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