"I ain’t goin’ to jail, Nick. We already got enough problems with the DEA without this. Last thing we need right now is them crawling all over us again," Black told Nick that night.
"So what are you gonna tell Angelo?"
"I been thinking about that. How I can give Angee what he wants and without actually doin’ shit."
"How you plan on doin’ that?" Nick asked.
"I’m gonna get him and Stark together and then I’m gonna tell him that I would offer advise and council to Stark as a personal favor to him. But for reasons that I know he understands, I can’t go any further than that."
"You think that will satisfy him?"
"As long as I can get Stark to do business and as long as I can control him. But for that to work, you gotta be my guarantee. You gotta make sure that nothing we do touches that. We can’t have our hands dirty in none of that."
"I’ll stay on top of it," Nick promised.
"I haven’t said anything about this to Wanda. But she was there when Angelo came to Cuisine, so she knows something’s up. She wasn’t happy with the answer I gave her, so she’ll be coming at you. But she doesn’t need to know anything about this."
"Understood."
Nick knew that he couldn’t tell Wanda anything about Rain or why he had to handle it, because it would lead back to the arrangement Black made with Angelo, and that wasn’t what Black wanted. He had a choice to make. Remain silent and run the risk of losing Wanda. Or betray Black’s confidence.
The choice was easy.
"Did whatever you were doing all night involve Rain Robinson?"
"No," Nick lied.
"Don’t lie to me, Nick, please don’t lie to me. Have you been with her all night?"
"No," Nick calmly lied again.
"Then tell me where you’ve been?"
Nick got up and walked toward Wanda.
"You can’t tell me, can you? You can’t tell me because you were with her, weren’t you!" Wanda yelled.
"No!" Nick yelled back.
"Are you fucking her?" Wanda screamed.
"No!"
Wanda took a deep breath. "I don’t believe you. I know you’re fucking that bitch. Why can’t you just be a man and tell me the truth about it."
"Why we gotta go there?" Nick said and shook his head. He never understood why Wanda thought that questioning his manhood would make him confess all of his sins.
"Because I think I deserve that much. We’ve known each other too long for you to think that you have to lie to me like this."
Wanda looked at Nick and waited for him to say something. When it became obvious that he wasn’t, Wanda stood up and started walking toward the door.
"Where are you goin’?"
Wanda turned around. "I’m leaving, Nick, unless you give me a reason to stay."
"Stay."
"Are you fucking her?"
"No," Nick said flatly.
"Whether you are or not, and I have to be honest with you, I think you are, I don’t think we need to see each other on this level anymore. Before we lose our friendship and I lose all respect for you, I should go."
Nick tried to put his arms around her.
"Don’t, Nick. Don’t do that. I can smell her on you," Wanda said and Nick backed away.
Wanda opened the door and turned to face Nick.
"Goodbye, Nick."
"Goodbye, Wanda."
"I really did love you, Nick, even though I never said it before now. I really did love you."
Wanda closed the door.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
The sound of morning traffic woke Kirk up that next morning. He stayed at the precinct reviewing files long after Richards went home for the night. When he finally did leave the building, Kirk didn’t go far. He got in his car, reclined the seat and went to sleep.
He looked at his watch. It was just after seven. After walking across the street to get a cup of coffee, Kirk went back in the building looking for Detective McNally. He had known McNally since their days at the academy and this seemed like the perfect time to catch up. Besides, McNally was vice and Kirk wanted information on the recent activities of Mike Black. It wasn’t that he thought Black was involved in his case, but he couldn’t rule him out either, and there was something about the rumor Sanchez mentioned about an alliance between Black, Angelo Collette and Bruce Stark that made him uneasy.
He could understand Collette hooking up with Stark; that would make sense, but what was Black’s involvement? Kirk knew that Black had turned his back on the drug game years ago. But when he was involved, the streets ran red with blood. That was a scenario that Kirk had no desire to see again.
Kirk’s fear was that his long-time friendship with Collette might be enough to bring Black in, and if that was the case, these robbery/executions may just be the beginnings of Black trying to force his way back into the market and make a statement.
"Kirk?" McNally questioned, surprised to see him when he stepped up to his desk. "What brings a high- roller like you down here?"
"Just a little information," Kirk replied and sat down.
"Tell me what you need."
"Mike Black."
Knowing Kirk’s obsession with Black, McNally laughed a little. "I’m tempted to say, who?"
"Why would you say it like that, Mac?"
"’Cause the Mike Black you know doesn’t exist anymore."
"That’s what I keep hearing; but what about his operation?"
"Since Freeze got killed things have changed. And Black himself, the guy’s completely hands off."
"So who’s running the show now?"
McNally got up and walked over to his file cabinet. He pulled out a file and thumbed through it. "That’s a good question, Kirk; doesn’t seem like anybody is in charge."
"What about Bobby Ray?"
"Night club called Impressions. Face it, Kirk, these guys made enough money to go legit. So unless you got some new evidence on some old shit," McNally shrugged his shoulders.
"You heard anything about him and Angelo Collette?"
"Him and Collette been friends for years, never has been a business relationship, but you know all this, Kirk."
"Okay, Mac, thanks," Kirk said and left the area, but he wasn’t done yet. He went back to his car and drove off.
Maybe he was going about this from the wrong angle. Or maybe he was just obsessed with pinning something on Black. He often wondered why, after making it his mission to arrest him for any of the countless murders that Kirk was sure he’d committed, when Black was in jail, he did everything in his power to clear him of murder charges in the death of his wife. Had it not been for Kirk, Black would be doing life for the crime.
Maybe the way to approach this was from the Collette side of the triangle. Kirk knew somebody that he could talk to in the organized crime division of the FBI. Kirk called and made an appointment to see him. The information he came away with was more of the same.
"Naturally, I can’t go into any detail about our ongoing operations against Collette, but I can say with a high degree of certainty that there is no business between Mike Black and Collette."
"High degree, huh," Kirk said to the agent, almost sounding disappointed.
"Look, Kirk, the best I can tell you is that every once and a while, Black comes out to Collette’s social club. They get pissy drunk, talk about bullshit and Black leaves."
"What about Collette and Bruce Stark?"
"Never heard of him," was the agent’s answer.
Kirk still wasn’t satisfied. McNally was a desk jockey, and he needed fresh info from the streets. He ran down a cop named Fields, one of McNally’s detectives who was working deep cover.
As soon as Fields saw Kirk he started running, but he didn’t make it too hard for Kirk to catch him, cuff him and drag him back to the car for all to see.