Was he serious with this? “You’re talking about teaming up with a murderer, Paul. He had his initials burned into those dealers’ balls. How can you think of making a deal with a guy like that?”
“Don’t give me the goody-good bullshit, Juno. Crime isn’t the real enemy. It’s poverty. Why pretend that we can beat crime when we’d be better off partnering with it, controlling it? I’m sick of these college-educated pinhead politicians riding their fucking white horses, telling us cops to clean up the city. Who are they to deny people the right to gamble or take a few hits of O? It’s the only thing that’s keeping them all sane. It takes their minds off how hopeless their lives are. The only thing we achieve by arresting them is filling up the Zoo with prisoners-just more people living off the government peso. In the meantime, the people keep gambling, whoring, and drugging as much as ever.”
I couldn’t believe he was seriously thinking about this. “And you think that you can change things by giving our evidence away?”
“Why not? I’ll go to Bandur and tell him that I can make him the most successful crime boss Lagarto’s ever seen. We’ll arrest all his competition. The whole city will be his. Who would turn down a deal like that?”
“And what do you get in exchange?”
“Some rules, that’s all. Just some rules. We’ll carve the city up into zones-areas where illegal activity is accepted and areas where it’s not. Maybe we can get some more tourists to come down here if they know there are areas where it’s safe to go. We’ll be able to regulate the illegal areas. Whores won’t have to hide out in alleys anymore. We’ll have whorehouses as classy as anywhere. We can even run honest games. That way offworlders won’t be afraid to play, because they’d know they wouldn’t be cheated. You know the mines are doing well. There’s going to be more and more people up there. They all need to take a vacation somewhere. What do you think?”
I was shaking my head. Was he insane?
Paul grinned at me. “It comes down to this. We need offworld money; that’s the best thing we can do for Lagarto.”
“This is too far out for me, Paul.”
“Hey, man, I wouldn’t ask you to do this with me. I’m okay doing it alone. Just let me do it if you don’t want to be part of it.”
I was tempted. Despite it all, I was tempted. Crime-free zones could actually work. Paul’s ideas, no matter how fucked up, could be infectious. Then Natasha’s picture came front and center. “I can’t let you do it, Paul. If you don’t want to arrest Yashin, I’ll do it myself.”
Paul clenched his drink. “You would do that to me? We’re supposed to be partners. You can’t just go and take a collar for yourself. We’ve been working Yashin together.”
“I’m going to do it tomorrow. I’m going to walk in there and arrest the fucker. Are you coming with me or not?”
“Why are you so hot to do this? We’ve got Yashin sewn up. Why the rush?”
“I’m sick of waiting. I don’t want to watch that family anymore.”
“What are you talking about? You love to watch them. What are you going to do if we arrest Yashin, and you can’t watch Natasha anymore? I’ve seen the way you look at her.”
“It’s weird to watch them like that-in their own home.”
“You didn’t think it was weird when we started. You told me yourself that you liked it. You said that watching them made you feel invisible. You could move from room to room, and they couldn’t see you.”
“That was at the beginning. I don’t feel that way now.” Let it go, Paul.
Paul downed his drink and held up two fingers for the bartender. An overweight Tarzan filled our glasses halfway and hurried back down the bar to keep up with the late-night rush. Paul looked like he was going to say something. He took a couple long pulls on his brandy before he spoke up. “There’s something you’re not telling me. What made you have a change of heart?”
He was going to find out anyway. “I’ve been seeing Natasha.”
Paul just about busted a vein. “What? How long?”
“Since April.”
“Is that who you’ve been seeing all this time? Shit, what are you thinking? Does she know you’re a cop?”
“Yes.”
“Does she know we’re after her father?”
“Yeah. She knows, but she won’t tell him.”
“Why the fuck not?”
“She hates him.”
“Does she know about the cameras?”
“No.”
Paul rubbed his face with his hands. “How could you do this? We put too much effort into this case for you to risk it all for some tail.”
“It’s not like that.”
“What is it like?”
“We’re serious about each other.”
Paul finished off his drink with a gulp and put two fingers back up. The bartender came and filled Paul’s glass then gave me an irritated look when he had to wait for me to empty mine.
Paul frowned. “How serious?”
“Serious.”
Paul took a deep breath and let it out slow. “Is that why you’re so gung ho on getting Yashin? You feel guilty about those cameras, about watching her without her knowing.”
I didn’t have to answer. I just took another drink. The brandy burned all the way down to my stomach.
“Why did you go off on those lizards?”
I told him about the fight I had with Natasha and how I thought her father abused her. I told him about the suicide scars on her wrists that she wouldn’t admit to. Her father put them there-like my father put scars on my wrists. I was going to arrest that asshole. He had to pay for what he did to her. I hoped he’d resist arrest. Any excuse to get a few licks in would suit me fine.
We sat for a long time without talking. Finally, I said, “So are you coming with me when I arrest the bastard or not?”
“You’re really serious about her?”
I nodded.
“You love her?”
I nodded again.
Paul put his true-friend hand over mine. “Okay, Juno. I guess Bandur can wait. We’ll pinch Yashin tomorrow.”
SEPTEMBER 31, 2762
I pounded on the door. “Get up, Josephs!”
After two minutes of continued pounding, Mark Josephs finally opened the door, heavy lidded with cowlicked hair. His voice was a half-awake croak. “What the fuck are you guys doin’ here?”
“You going to let us in or what?” Paul challenged.
Josephs let us through. We didn’t bother wiping our shoes. The stone floor was already covered in muddy footprints. We settled in his living room. Dried up tea bags were stuck to the walls-he’d do the same shit at the office, make his tea and whip the tea bag at a wall to see if it stuck. I had to move an empty liquor bottle to make room on the sofa. A gecko scuttled out from underneath. A poof of moldy air came up out of the cushions as I sat down, making me sneeze.
Josephs sat on a chair that looked ready to collapse. “It’s too early for this. What do you two want?”
Paul said, “We’re going to make a sweep this morning. We need your help.”
“Can’t it wait?”
“No, it can’t. You know that morning is the best time to catch drug dealers, when they’re still sleeping.”
“Shit. I wish I was still sleepin’. Who are you bringin’ down?”
“Pavel Yashin. He sells O to a high-class crowd. You know him?”
“I don’t know him, but I know who he is. What do you need me for?”
“You’re just our first stop. We’re going to wake up Reyna, Cheng, and Banks next. We have names and addresses of the top guys that work under Yashin. Juno and I are going to arrest Yashin in two hours, and we want all of you to pick up the scraps.”
“You have evidence?”
“We have a bundle. Convictions will be a cinch.”
“Damn. Who would have thought you two could put together a bust like this?”
A female voice came from the back. “Are you talking to somebody?”
Josephs yelled back, “Yeah, it’s just some guys from work. Go back to sleep.”