Read Two Graves (A Kesle City Homicide Novel) for Free Online Page B

across it. His hair was spiked on top and shaved to the skin on one side and hung past his shoulder on the other and the back. He also had three earrings in his left ear. Pimples dotted his face and he had what was, for him, probably a month’s growth of splotchy beard. Mann wandered over and motioned Kydd away. Kydd, in return, motioned him over.
    “Lieutenant Mann, this is Detective Phil Garnham.”
    The two detectives laughed at the expression on Mann’s face. In his early days, when undercover Narcs were first entering the schools, they usually looked like exactly what they were. This creature might look like a cop to the kids but he doubted it.
    “Nice to meet you, Lou. Detective Kydd was telling me that you might have some gang trouble in your area.”
    “Sorry, pleased to meet you too, Detective. You’ll have to excuse the asinine expression on my face.”
    “No problem, sir. You should see what my dad says.”
    “Where are you working out of?”
    “Officially, I’m out of The Hill. SNU. I work anywhere they can get me into school. I just transferred out of the school that Gabel attended. The school he was registered at, anyway.”
    “What can you tell us about the Intimidators?”
    “Lame,” Garnham said as he eased back onto the desk. “Anything but intimidating. Gabel was the leader but the Ints aren’t a gang. They’re a little boy’s club for wannabe losers with only four hardcore members, well, three now. They’ve been friends since diapers. They were together because nobody else would have anything to do with them. Occasionally, they get one or two other members but they soon drift off. Like I said, lame.”
    “Violence?”
    Garnham laughed. “Only on the receiving end. They made some moves on a rival gang about a year ago. All four ended up in the hospital. Total pussies.”
    “They have a sheet?”
    “Small time. Mostly they sit around talking about what they’re going to do and smoke ‘fry daddies’ and drink a bit of ‘swamp juice’.”
    “Sorry?” Mann said, feeling his age.
    “Cigarettes laced with Crack and gin with fruit juice, light on the crack and heavy on the gin. B&E and some auto but the auto was strictly joyriding. They might deal a little crack but everybody is doing that. Unfortunately, I got nine and ten year olds dealing more than these pukes.”
    “So, they’re nothing.”
    “Less than nothing, they are totally off the map. Too bigga losers to bother fighting let alone wasting one of them. They’re just ignored. A bunch of wimps that hang together because nobody else will have them. They wouldn’t even qualify as an initiation kill. They... Oh, Christ.”
    Mann had seen it the same moment Garnham had. Mann grabbed Garnham’s collar with both hands and lifted the detective to his feet. In one smooth movement, he threw the smaller man across Kydd’s desk.
    Garnham was up in a second and flew back across the desk at Mann. He landed a glancing right across Mann’s jaw. Mann turned his head to avoid most of the punch and let himself fall backwards. He stumbled back two steps and Garnham was on top of him. They struggled until two patrol officers pulled Garnham off and pinned him to the desk. They were not gentle putting on the cuffs.
    “Take him downstairs. Put him in holding until I can get something on paper.” Mann swung around and faced the three Intimidators Tetrault had been leading into the squad room. They had been cheering on Garnham. “Who are these three? You dickheads with this one?”
    Faced with Mann’s rage, the three cowered back and Tetrault stepped forward. “No, sir. They are friends of Gabel. I brought them in for a statement.”
    “Take them to Interrogation. Get them the hell out of my face!”
    “Yes, sir.”
    Tetrault led them away and Mann went back to Kydd’s desk. She had picked everything off the floor and was trying to straighten some files. “I’m sorry, Lou. We agreed we wouldn’t pick those three up until tonight. Give