“Hey, what’s that?” John nodded to an apparent clandestine transaction happening by the side of an abandoned building.
“Not, sure,” Greyhawk answered, “but it looks like something we should investigate.”
They pulled their bikes over to the curbside just as the buyer was departing the scene. The two men parked and strolled over to the “retailer”, who was a scrawny little guy, wearing oversized pants and sweatshirt. The hood was draped over his head, headphones keeping it in place as he bopped to unheard music. Even though it was late at night, he wore sunglasses. He noticed the men walking towards him.
“He, what you want, man. I got all the goodies you need to part-ay” the skinny guy said.
John leveled his shotgun. “Money.”
The guy looked scared and stammered, “hey man, you guys don’t want to rip me off. I ain’t got much and the guy I work for is gonna come looking for you. He gonna break you.”
John and Greyhawk exchanged glances.
“OK, we won’t rip you off,” John said without dropping his weapon, “just tell us where we can find the guy you work for.”
Now the guy looked really scared. “What?”
John ripped the headphones from the guys head and pulled down the hood. “Pay attention now. Tell us where your boss is.”
“No way man. He’ll kill me.”
“Yeah well, that may be, but I’ll kill you if you don’t tell.”
“Go ahead. Don’t make no difference to me, You or him. I tell you and I’m dead for sure.”
Greyhawk, placed his hand on the shot gun and dropped the barrel down. “Hold one there, friend. No need for violence.” Greyhawk was snapping his fingers at around 60 beats per minute as he talked. The pace of his speaking was slow and quiet. “This man is an employee, and a friend of ours. He wants to cooperate with us, he’s just worried. But there is no need to worry, is there? Everything is going to be alright.” Now Greyhawk waved his hand in front of the man’s face and the skinny guy’s eyes glazed over.
“Now, tell me your boss’ name,” Greyhawk said.
“Crusher.” Greyhawk looked over at the amazed John. “Old Indian trick,” Greyhawk said by way of explanation.
“Now, tell me where Crusher can be found now.”
“Around the corner there. First door on the right. Take the stairs up one flight. Apartment #1.”
“Tell me how many people are with him now.”
“Just one, his girlfriend.” Greyhawk smiled. John smiled.
“OK, go to sleep now and forget we ever met When you wake up, you’ll be refreshed and you’ll go out and get a real job. Go now.” The skinny guy went to the wall of the building, laid down on the floor and promptly feel asleep.
“Man, I didn’t know you knew any Indian tricks.”
“Family secret.” Greyhawk said.
They followed the directions and approached the door. John readied the shotgun. Greyhawk looked at him. “You know, violence isn’t the answer to every problem. Let me handle this.”
John looked at him and shrugged. “OK” he placed the shotgun back in the sling he had on his back. Then folded his arms.
Greyhawk knocked. “Mr. Crusher, can we speak to you?”
The door suddenly popped open and a very big guy took up every inch of the door frame. He looked at the two men.
“Yeah, what you want, fools?”
“We have a business proposition for you.” Greyhawk started snapping his fingers as he did before.
“Business what? You fools come in here at 1 o’clock in the morning wanting to do business with The Crusher? Well I don’t do no business now. Business hours are never for you. You understand? And what the fuck are you doing with your fingers man! You getting me riled up, in fact,” and he pulled out a gun, “I’m gonna do you right here and….” Then Crusher’s head turned to red dust. The body lingered for a moment then dropped heavily to the floor. Greyhawk turned and saw John standing there with the shotgun. It must have been right up against Crusher’s head when he fired.
“I don’t think he knew any Indian,” John deadpanned.
The two quickly dragged the body inside and shut the door.
The skinny guy was wrong, no one else was in the apartment. They started to toss the place and soon John came up with a bag full of money.
“How much is in there?”
“I don’t know it’s full of paper bills that have a hundred printed on them.”
“You think it’s enough?”
“I think it’ll have to be. Let’s get out of here and go shopping.”
They stopped in front of a store that displayed women’s clothes in the window.
“This looks about right.” Greyhawk said as they tried the door. It was locked.
“What the ….”
“Says here they’re closed. We’re about six hours too late.,” John said. “Should we wait until morning? They open at ten.”
“Damn. No. If we don’t get back soon, Teresa will kill us! And the Captain will want a piece of us too.” Greyhawk shuddered at the thought.
“Hey, that place looks open.” Greyhawk follwed his partners
gaze. Across the street was a shop whose glittering lights read “Buchouski’s of
Hollywood
”. The ware’s displayed in the window looked interesting to the men.
“Looks, good to me,” John leered. “I’m sure we’ll find just the right stuff.”
“For the Captain too?”
“Well, we may have to improvise.”
“Excellent! I love to improvise.”
(to be continued ……………………..
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