chpter 167

word count: 1234

“fucking hank, man..” gil said as he shook his head in dismay.. “i mean i know he had a job to do,, but dammit!! i’m his fricking partner!! he was interrogating me like some idiot fucking perp off the street!! like we had no history,, like he really believed i could have done it!!.. fuck him!!”

“i know you’re pissed bro,, i can tell you in all honesty, i would be too.. but you know hank.. you know he is strictly by the book. he’s a good cop,, no he’s a great cop,, but each of us have our strengths and our weaknesses,, and unfortunately one of hank’s weaknesses is not knowing when to back off on the job.”

buzz reached out and patted gil firmly on the back.. “just for the record,, lemme tell ya,, i never doubted your innocence for a second..” he tried to smile,, and make eye contact with gil.. but gil was having none of it.. 

he was pissed,, so pissed in fact that as soon as buzz left his cubicle gil placed a call to steve shingle.. private dick or no private dick,, gil’s confidence in his brothers in blue was all but shattered right now,, and he needed to get a jump on this case,, a jump only a pair of unjaded outside eyes would be able to supply him with,, even if he had to pay them to be there.. 

they made an appointment to meet at 3:00 in a small greasy spoon on the east side that was rarely if ever frequented by his so called brothers in blue..  the jack had kicked in the with it brought the after effects of whatever it was they had been injecting him with last night to the fore..  it obvious,, even to gil, that he had to get something to eat and some serious coffee in him before he made the trek.. 

as he stood waiting for the elevator,, he could hear hank calling out to him across the squad room.. “fuck him!” gil said under his breath as he totally blew hank off, entered the elevator and let the doors close behind him.. 

by the time 2:30 rolled around,, gil had a decent lunch in him and at least a pot of good strong coffee.. he left the diner and headed back to the precinct parking lot,, where he jumped in his car,, and hit the gas.. it was as if he couldn’t get out of there fast enough.. the one place he had ever really felt like he had a family, had overnight turned into the only place he didn’t want to be.. 

he rolled up on the greasy spoon where he was meeting with steve,, and was happy to find out the ‘dick’ was already there..

steve stood up to shake gil’s hand.. “i must say i was kinda shocked to get your call.. in my experience you guys don’t usually put too much faith in what i do for a living.”

“eh, we can be a bunch of haughty bastards when we wanna be..” he answered as the vision of hanks interrogation replayed in his mind.. “take a seat buddy,, this might take a while..”

gil went on to explain everything he knew to steve,, who seldom looked up he was so busy taking notes.. gil graciously left out the part about him being a suspect in the murder of gina o’houlihan. he had no reason to reveal the fact that there was bad blood running through him and the department right now.. he wanted to get a jump on this case,, and that is the only reason he had decided to take steve into his confidence,, but he didn’t want him knowing the extent of the damage that had been done.. that, he was gonna have to work through on his own.. 

“so i guess what i need to know first,, is who are all these brit’s that have in recent months descended upon us,, and what is their tie in to the princess diana diamond.. once we get a grip on that,, i’ll know better how to proceed.. i know that diamond had something to do with why i was, shall we say, kidnapped yesterday, i'm still just too frickin out of it to be able to make the connection..”

“well if i do say so myself,, you’re not looking much better this afternoon.. wadda ya say,, you go sleep it off and let me handle this for the next 24.. i will contact you with whatever i have right about this time tomorrow.."

with that,, they shook hands in agreement,, and gil took off.. steve was right,, he needed some rest,, and a shower,, oh man,, did he need a shower!!!

as soon as he was sure gil had time to locate his car and drive off,, steve placed a call.. he could be heard saying, as he walked toward the door of the diner, , “so this whole rock thing has suddenly taken on a whole new dimension.. yeah, gottcha.. i’ll be there in 20.”

***

manny had followed the big guys orders to the letter.. he had taken the diamond to the mysterious mr. yoo,, who was only too happy to take the gem off the big guys hands.. but timing was everything,, and the damn thing was just too hot to move right now. he would be happy to keep the stone safe while he approached his many connections across the globe,, and once an amicable buyer was willing to take it off his hands,, at the right price of course,, he would keep his usual cut and forward the remainder to the big guy.. at least that is what he told manny.. 

as was his norm,, he went into his private office where he proceeded to put the deal down in writing, sealed it with his signature wax seal, and sent manny back to the big guy for his final approval.. 

“what a fucking break!!” manny said to himself as he pulled his stocky frame up into the escalade.. this was the first time he had really been invited into a one on one deal with the big guy.. from his point of view,, the world was his fucking oyster,, and he couldn’t get back to the big guy fast enough to deliver the good news.. 

as he approached the compound,, he tapped the security code into the gate,, and then hit the garage door button as he approached, so he could just slide the ecalade in,, and get the crucial piece of  correspondence,, the one that was gonna change his life forever,, into the hands of the big guy,, for his formal approval.. 

it was daylight,, so the fact that the interior garage lights didn’t come on automatically as they should have,,  didn’t become obvious until the door started to close automatically behind him.. “i’ll get right on that!” manny said aloud as he made his way through the dark garage toward the basement entrance of the big guys compound.. 

in the darkness,, he couldn’t see it,, but he could hear the telltale crunch, crunch, crunch, of a plastic painters tarp under his feet as he made his way toward the door.. manny wasn’t a brainiac by any means,, but just before the silenced .45 burned its way into his brain, even he knew why the tarp was there..