Quoted By:
<span class="mu-b">THE GATHERING STORM</span>
<span class="mu-b">AMIR CARTER</span>
Roland Wozniak. Roland motherfucking Wozniak. You gotta say, you never thought it would be him who would give you the evidence that would break a case you’d been working on for months. ‘Private investigator gig’ huh? That poor bastard always did have the most rotten luck. First it was when he was too dumb to know better than trying to bring a case against the mayor’s own son, then his wife left him, and then… His daughter. Now, he took on the one PI case in the city that would lead to him butting heads with the most vile mob in the city. Most of those guys end up chasing lost puppies or taking pictures of wives fooling around behind their husband’s backs, but no, not the Woz, that’s too simple and easy for him to bother with.
The fucking Woz. God bless the moron, you gotta respect his tenacity if nothing else. You always did feel bad for him when Sophia died, no man should have to outlive their own children. You felt worse, much worse, when her case got passed onto your unit and the chief himself told you to bury it. Why he’d do that, you don’t know. Maybe he was still pissed at him for the Big Fuckup he caused that made the mayor breathe down the chief's neck for years afterward, but to stop us from catching his daughter’s killer? That’s too fucking far. Still, you followed orders and before long, the case got shuffled under the hundreds of other murders and crimes that get passed to your unit every week, because you have a career you want to hold onto, and a wife and two kids you want to keep with you.
You suppose that in a way, that makes Roland a better man than you. He never buckled under pressure, not even when he was going after the heights of power within Bad Brick. Maybe so.
Maybe so…
But you intend to do right by him this time. Saving that prost, Candy. Perhaps because of your obedience to the chief and the mayor, you sometimes get allowed to bend the rules a bit. Like now, what would normally take at least a couple weeks but more likely a month or two, has been fast tracked to just under 10 hours. At exactly 6:00 AM sharp this morning, the warehouse on 46 Perkin Street with the neon red sign emblazoned with the words “THE STACKED DECK” will be raided with just over 60 of Bad Bricks finest. Street cops, S.W.A.T. teams, APCs, and even a helicopter or two will surround and then infiltrate the building, with a special order to make extra sure that a young woman matching the picture Roland sent you will be kept safe and secure at all costs.
You owe him that much, at least.
Checking your watch, you see it’s 1:47 AM. Another late night at the precinct, Julia and the kids will <span class="mu-i">not</span> be pleased. But still, at least you got a wife and kids to go home to. That guy's apartment… No man his age should live like that. He was… Something else, once. Something good. Somebody who could have done some real good for this city.
Maybe he will be again, one day.
