Appreciating the assistance no matter how it came about, he nodded. “Drop me off at headquarters, and Evan and I’ll head over to thirty-fifth.”
Several hours later, he and Evan got a sighting of Levi walking out of an old brick apartment building near the warehouse district in one of the areas of Hope City that had seen better days and was nowhere near being on a renovation schedule.
They followed him as he walked down the street and disappeared into an alley at the side of a bar. Evan dropped Carter off, and he hustled into the alley. Levi stopped near the back door and leaned against the brick wall, pulling out a pack of cigarettes from his coat pocket. Carter was nearly on him when Levi jerked his head around, then took off running. Staying on his heels, Carter called out, “Police, stop!”
Levi ran around the corner, slamming into Evan. With Carter’s hand planted in Levi’s chest and pushing him against the brick wall, Levi began protesting.
“I haven’t done anything! You got nothing on me!”
“You want to empty your pockets for me?” Carter asked.
Levi smirked. “Don’t got nothin’ illegal. Go ahead.”
“Empty them.” Carter kept his eyes on Levi as he barely loosened his hold. Levi stood fast for a moment, indecision passing through his eyes. He must have come to the realization that he could not get away from both of them, so he grumbled as he shoved his hands into his pockets.
Cigarettes. Keys. A prescription bottle with a few pills rattling in the bottom. And a wad of cash.
“Where’d you get the money?” Carter asked as he held up the bottle and read the label. It was made out to Levi Marks, filled a month ago at a local pharmacy, prescribed by Dr. Tiller, and was for oxycodone.
“Got me a job.”
“Oh, yeah? Selling what?”
Shaking his head, Levi argued, “No, man. I’m not selling nothin’.”
“So, you’re just giving away bags of drugs.”
Levi’s dilated eyes widened, and he shook his head with more vigor. “Shit, those are my pills. I got ‘em legit from a doctor.”
“What for?” Evan asked, taking the prescription bottle from Carter and looking at it. “What do you need narcotics for?”
“I got a bad back. I was working construction up till six months ago. Making good money. Hurt my back and everything went to shit, man. Lost my job. Couldn’t work. Someone told me the doc at the clinic could take care of me.”
Carter leaned in, getting into Levi’s face. “And does he? Just how does he take care of you?”
“I told him I couldn’t afford physical therapy, and I ain’t got no electricity, so I can’t even use a heating pad. He gave me these stick-on pads to put on my back that have medication that’s supposed to help take the pain away. And he gave me that prescription for pain as well. He says he can’t give me many of those, so I take them only when absolutely need ‘em.”
Carter considered Levi’s words, so far not giving him anything on Dr. Tiller that was not legitimate. Deciding to keep pushing to see if he could break Levi, he asked, “Are you telling me your fingerprints won’t be on that bag of drugs we got off your customer this morning?” Carter hoped Levi had not been in further contact with Baldie to know he was lying.
Levi’s face fell and his shoulders drooped. “Fuck, man.”
Continuing to press his lie, Carter said, “We’ll have your fingerprints off the lunch bag you threw away and bag of drugs you sold to your customer. Looks like you might not have to get your free lunch at the shelter anymore. City can give you free room and board with the conviction.”
Levi opened his mouth, then snapped it shut, all bravado fled.
“I gotta tell you,” Evan said, “I’d be more interested in what you have to say about where you got those pills than hauling your ass to jail.”
“Shit, man, I can’t do that.”
Evan looked toward Carter and shrugged. “Guess he’s not into a deal.”
Carter grabbed Levi by the front of the shirt and jerked him forward before giving him a turn and pressing his front up against the brick wall. Pulling out his handcuffs, he got one snapped on before Levi began talking. “I don’t know much. I just followed the directions I’m told.”
“Yeah?” Carter chuckled. “I think I might need a little more than that.”
“I was standing in the line for the lunches when one of the men came over and said he had a way for me to make some money and keep getting the pills I needed for my pain. I thought he was fucked in the head and asked him what he was talking about. He said he’d seen me in the clinic and knew I didn’t have a job and overheard me talking to the pharmacist about why I had to go to a regular pharmacy to get the pills. I didn’t remember seeing him, but that didn’t mean nothin’. I asked him what I had to do.”
“It didn’t dawn on you that what he wanted you to do probably wasn’t legal?” Evan growled.
Levi’s jaw hardened and he shook his head. “You ever been hungry, Detective? You ever lose your place to sleep or your job? You ever been in so much pain you can’t even sleep? I ain’t never been homeless or unemployed in my life. I worked when I was in high school, did four years in the Air Force. Got back home and got a job. I did my time and paid my dues, and a fuckin’ work accident took all that away. I’m standing in a fuckin’ line 3 days a week to get a ham sandwich and a bag of chips. Someone offered me a way out of that, yeah, I was interested.”
Easing the tone of his voice, Carter said, “Just keep talking, Levi. Tell us what you know.”
Snorting, he said, “It was fuckin’ easy. I go through the
