In the black sports car just down the road from the Adams Street Corner, Johnny LaMonica and Skinny Pete sit.
"Ya'll got a line on the clown yet?" Pete asks.
"I haven't got anything, but Max is working on something."
"Is Dillon...," Pete ventures cautiously, "is Dillon all there? I mean, mentally."
"He's got a few screws loose, I think. But who the **** doesn't have a few loose in this business?"
"True, but how many of those people also shoot lightning out their hands?"
"Point taken."
Both men turn their heads as a tapping noise on the passenger side window draws their attention.
"You selling?" A disheveled woman asks the two men.
"Take it down to the corner," Pete curtly replies.
The woman nods and goes down to the corner, purchasing her drug of choice from the young boy selling. The boy looks over her shoulder at the SUV that parks across the street. Councilman David Kane steps out of his car and looks at the woman.
"Marie," he says with a hint of sadness in his voice as he crosses the street. "Give the boy his stuff back."
"Ain't no refunds, man," the corner boy replies.
"I don't care about that, keep the money, just take the drugs back."
"You don't tell me what to do, David," Marie snaps. "You're not my father."
"But I am your husband. Our daughter will be home from school in a half hour. You want her to see mommy with a needle stuck in her arm, passed out on the couch?"
"You don't understand!"
Kane knocks the vial of drugs out of his wife's hand.
"Ya'll take this **** somewhere else," the corner boys says to the husband and wife.
"More than glad to," Kane replies. Grabbing his wife's hand, he drags her across the street and into his car.
From their vantage point, LaMonica and Pete watch.
"Breaks your ****ing heart, don't it?" Pete asks.
"Yeah, cry me a river."
******
In Hamilton Hill's office, Deputy Commissioner Josh Grogan slaps down a report on the mayor's desk.
"Gordon cheated."
"How is that?" Hill asks, looking through the report.
"When he appeared before the public safety committee yesterday, he presented a report that showed crime is down in the city. But he fudged the numbers, juked the stats. Crime is actually up by 4%."
Hill looks through the report, and then looks up at Grogan.
"Did he do this or did you?"
"Does it matter? You want a way to put him under your thumb, this is it. Either he plays ball, or you fire him for these phony numbers."
Hill nods, staring off into space.
"And that Major Crimes Unit, it's still active?"
"Alive and kicking. Doing God knows what, investigating God knows who. You and I both know the former DA's reach extends beyond the drug corners in the westside."
"Okay then. Thank you for this info, Josh. I believe it's time I have a sit down with our dear police commissioner."
