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I glance at Jinx. “Looks like you’re not gettin’ your wish today.”
He cracks his knuckles and mutters, “We’ll see. If he doesn’t tell us what we want to know, I’m messin’ him the fuck up.”
Richards holds up both hands in a placating motion. “There ain’t no need to play good cop, bad cop with me. If it’s information you want, I’ll tell you whatever you want to know.”
“Good. That’s why we’re here. I want to know everything you know about Anthony Vale.”
He doesn’t go white with fear or even have the good sense to look guilty about anything. Instead, he scrunches his whole face up as though I’ve handed him a riddle.
“You put a couple of hundred bucks in his prison commissary account.”
It takes him a minute to work out what I’m talking about; then he shrugs. “You want to talk about some chump change I put on some dude’s commissary account?” He lets out a nervous laugh without meaning to. “The dude’s on lockdown. Somebody says put some money on his account so he can buy some fuckin’ coffee, so that’s what I did. Unlike breakin’ into my apartment, it ain’t even a crime.”
I give him a withering look. “We didn’t break in. You left your door unlocked. We knocked and I could have sworn you said to come in.”
He glares at me, but I go back to Vale. “And you’re right, what you did ain’t a crime either. What do you know about Vale and who told you to put money on his account?”
He suddenly realizes he’s practically naked and wraps his towel around his waist. “Look, I don’t even know the dude. What does it matter anyway?”
“This is what the brothers call bein’ non-cooperative. You’re dangerously close to me unleashing my friend on you. Trust me, that’s not something you want. Just tell us who asked you to put money on his books. That shouldn’t be a difficult question to answer. Tell us what we want to know, and we’ll be out of your life forever.”
A nervous little sound escapes from the back of his throat and he says, “I can’t. You don’t get what you’re askin’. If I start talking about this and word gets out, I’m a dead man walkin’.”
I take a menacing step closer. “You’re failin’ to see the big picture here. Whoever this is that you’re afraid of ain’t standing right in front of you right now. My friend and I generously agree to allow you to continue breathin’ but only if you tell us what we want to know. If not, all fuckin’ bets are off.”
He stares at his bare feet a few seconds. I get the strong feeling that he’s just stalling for time and is pissing me off. “Fuckin’ fine,” I say. Turning to Jinx, I say, “Your turn to talk to him.”
Richards immediately starts talking. “There’s a dude. He handles the money for the whole operation. He came to me and told me to start quietly puttin’ money on Vale’s books. He told me to spread it out, so it wouldn’t draw any notice. I followed his directions exactly, but here you are, not only noticing but asking a bunch of questions.”
“Slow the fuck down,” I tell him. “What kind of operation are we talkin’ about here?”
He stares at me and just blinks once and then again, like he’s tryin’ to communicate by Morse code or something. “Stop bein’ a dipshit and just answer the question.”
He leans forward slightly and lowers his voice. “You know the drug operation. I thought that would be obvious.”
“So you don’t even know Vale. Is that what you’re tellin’ me?”
He shrugs again. “I know of him, but we ain’t friends or nothin’. So, if you have a beef with him, it’s got nothin’ to do with me.”
“Does this money man have a name?” Jinx asks.
Looking from one to the other of us, he reluctantly says, “It’s Keene. That’s what everybody calls him.”
Before I can respond, he volunteers, “Nobody goes to him without permission, or bad shit happens.”
“Where can we find him?” I demand.
“I don’t know. He always pays in cash and meets in a different place each time. Sometimes, he doesn’t even show up himself. He sends a stand-in. We do the transaction and then we leave. It’s not a complicated setup.”
I frown because this is sounding more and more like some kind of organized local crime syndicate.
I leave Jinx to keep Richards company and step outside to give Beth a call. She picks up on the first ring. “Where did you go? Is everything okay?”
“I’m fine,” I respond gently. “Remember Jinx and I were going to talk to Denny Richards this morning.”
Her anxiety clicks down a notch. “Did you find him?”
“Yeah, he’s been all kinds of tedious. I’ve got a fuckin’ headache from talkin’ to him. He did give us a name. There’s a man who runs all the money for the whole drug operation and pays everybody from the top to the bottom. The man goes by the name of Keene. Have you ever heard of him?”
