Page 60 of Enforcing the Rules

“There’s some new shit been hittin’ the streets for about the last six months. The supply of fentanyl has been runnin’ low, so the dealers are cutting it with a tranquilizer used on horses and cows. Some shit called xylazine. They add the tranq to bulk up the low supply of fent and increase their margins. Supposedly, it prolongs the high and induces a semi-conscious state. They’re callin’ the shit Tranq Dope.”

“Tranq Dope,” I repeated, committing the name to memory. There were so many new drugs on the streets these days, I’d almost given up trying to keep track. “I’ll see if I can remember that name tomorrow.”

“You’re gonna need to remember this one. Utah, this shit is godawful. I’m not lyin’. My buddy took me to this rundown neighborhood where a ton of addicts are, and showed me what it’s doing to these poor souls. First of all, it’s the oddest thing. You’ll see these people standing, but bent at the waist, their arms hanging on the ground, like a puppet flopped over. How they stay on their feet, I don’t know. But I saw it again and again.”

“Sounds crazy.”

“That’s not the worst part.”

“What’s the worst part?”

“Honest to God, I’m not one to pity a drug addict, but this drug is literally rotting their skin off their bodies.”

“Christ.”

“I’m not shittin’ you. These people would roll their pant leg or their sleeve up and there’d be these horrific wounds, I’m talking holes in their skin, big chunks of missing flesh. My buddy’s wife is an ER nurse. She told him the doctors have never seen anything like it; the only way they know to treat it is amputation.”

“And that asshole is bringing that drug here?”

“I don’t know, brother. Probably.”

“We should talk to Rock.”

“Yeah.”

I shifted on my feet. “What about the Dude? Find anything?”

“I don’t know. I’ve been goin’ over everything, wondering what we’re missing. I thought for sure we had something with that car detailer. I was sure we had a line on Cochran until the guy at the hardware store said the only man he’d been drinking with was named Ray somebody or other.”

I looked toward Kate, everything crystallizing in my brain. Ray. The man she was after was Ray Baker. That’s why that name nagged at me.

“Utah? What is it? You think of something?”

I turned to Memphis. “Kate’s been lookin’ for a man named Ray Baker.”

He snapped his fingers. “Baker. That was it. Wait. What do you mean ‘lookin’ for’?”

“Sunshine Bail Bonds. Turns out she doesn’t just do the filing. She’s a licensed bond enforcement agent.”

“Are you bein’ serious right now?”

“On my oath.”

“And she’s after Ray Baker. And you think Ray Baker is—”

“Charlie Cochran. Gotta be the same guy using an alias. Probably has a dozen of them.”

“So, every time she’s turned up in the same place we were searching for the Dude, she was looking for the same guy.”

“Un-fucking-believable, huh?”

“How’re we handling this predicament? We can’t let her take him in. We do, we’ll never get the money back. Plus, Rock wouldn’t stand for it.”

“I’m gonna have to have a long talk with her. Don’t say anything until I figure this out.”

“Okay. But we can’t keep this under wraps for more than a day.”

I nodded, in total agreement with that, and walked over to the bar. I took the bottle out of Kate’s hand and set it on the bar. “C’mere. I want to show you my room.”

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