Page 26 of Dirty Cops Next Door

11

David

I followed Grant,the soles of our tactical boots barely making a sound on the gritty pavement beneath our feet. We moved swiftly, staying close to the building as we moved to the gap between the mill and the bakery. I took out my weapon, a standard issue 9 mm given to me by the department when I started, and waited for Grant’s signal.

There was never any arguing about who would lead and who would follow in this relationship, we did whatever was needed to get the job done. Like with Toni last night. Grant started, but I ended up leading, only to give over and follow again. We flowed like that. I’d follow him into Hell, the same as he’d do for me.

He held up two fingers and I knew he meant there were two guards by the car. I’d spotted them earlier. I shook my head in acknowledgment and waited for his signal. We were in our usual paramilitary gear, but we had our black facemasks on, along with body cameras to provide evidence.

Most of our operation had been approved by our chief. He knew what we had planned and had help on standby if we should need it. We wanted to do all of this the right way, even though we were treading a very thin line between totally legal and completely illegal.

Grant stuck his head close to the wall again and gave me a signal to move. Without speaking I knew we were heading for the car parked five feet from us and went for it. We hunkered behind it together, no shouts or shots breaking the relative silence. He gave me one of his patented grins of triumph and we bumped fists before he stuck his head around the edge of the bumper. Another hand gesture, another move, and soon we were in a running crouch for the end of the other building.

Grant gave me a gesture to stop, looking back to make sure I had obeyed before he checked what was around the edge.

He gave me a thumbs up and we moved again.

My heart was pounding, anxiety not a constant companion, but something new. I knew the anxiety wasn’t for my own safety but for Grant’s. Because we had Toni now and I didn’t want to have to go home and give her bad news. I could see Grant was focused, that the distraction of earlier was gone, but fate could fuck us over at any time and I didn’t want it to. This was new, this fear, and I didn’t like it, but it was something I was going to have to live with if I wanted the dream that was already forming in my mind.

“Move.” Grant intruded on my thoughts and I followed him again, entering the building quietly, seeking out the shadows and moving into them.

We were in a back office, empty and without a guard. The ceiling had collapsed here long ago and the room was dark. They’d left it unguarded thinking nobody would come back here then. They didn’t know us.

Grant and I moved, walking through a hallway until we heard voices in another room. Grant pointed at a set of stairs and I followed once more.

We made it up the rickety stairs, old wood not exactly inspiring as we walked up, but we made little noise and found a room above the one Avery and his guests were using. We couldn’t just go storming in, guns blazing, we had to do this right.

“Here,” Grant called quietly as he found a hole in the floor. Once used as a way to heat the upstairs, and to provide an outlet for a stovepipe, the hole was big enough to see some of the room below but not the area we needed. We could hear what was happening though.

“I’m going to go down, see if I can find a spot where we can get some footage of this with the bodycams,” Grant whispered to me. I didn’t like splitting up, so I went after him.

We made it down the stairs and were crawling along the wall, heading to the main part of the factory. I could see that the inside of the building was much different. This one had a hole in the first floor, rooms on each side, but empty in the middle to allow for the height of the machinery once used inside. Grant and I had missed this when we first came in because we’d been looking for Avery, not at the interior.

“If you’ll come this way, gentlemen, you’ll see that Jeremy has brought the required payment. If the quality is as pure as you say it is, then I’ll be happy to give you every penny.” Avery came out of the room and Grant and I scurried behind some of the ceiling beams that rested in a pile on the damp floor.

Avery, a tall white man with graying blond hair, sun-damaged skin, and greedy green eyes walked out of the room and into the open area. I’d seen two suitcases in there earlier, the tall kind that could be pushed or pulled. I’d made sure the camera caught them, but then Avery came out and interrupted me.

I felt for the camera again, adjusting its position to make sure it caught Avery with the two other men in the room. A tall pale man, so pale I knew he must have albinism, especially with those pink eyes, followed Avery, alongside a normal version of himself. The pair were obviously twins, but only one had been born with a total lack of pigmentation in his skin, hair, and eyes. The other one had dark hair, tanned skin, and brown eyes.

“Ah, here we are.” Avery stopped at the two cases and opened one. Money was stacked on each side, straps holding each stack in place. “And the other.”

He opened the next one, and I could see the exact same thing. “Now, about that product?”

Avery rocked back on his heels, his face smug with the future he had planned.

I wanted to wipe that smugness off his face.

“In here, Avery.” The pale man took out several packets wrapped in Christmas gift wrapping paper from a box I hadn’t seen earlier. “There are five more boxes waiting for you at your home, in a rented trailer that is being delivered as we speak.”

“Good, good. I don’t like having it delivered like that, but what can you do? If that’s your rules, that’s your rules. Can I see the product now?” Avery was all but rubbing his hands together in a way that made me wonder if he was using his own drugs. Or if he just couldn’t wait to rake in the cash from whatever the packets contained.

The pale man handed the packet to Avery and he tore into it, throwing the wrapping away. Black plastic covered the contents, and once that was gone, a layer of aluminum foil was revealed.

“Your boys are thorough,” Avery chuckled.

“It is the only way to be.” The pale man opened his palms as if in supplication, his voice a monotone that gave me pause. Either the man was totally unemotional or something was wrong that Avery had yet to notice. It put me on edge and I shifted in place, my foot kicking at a beam.

I stilled, my heart pounding as I watched the men, waiting for the world to explode into gunshots and screams.