He opened his mouth to speak, but hesitated. How did he know the cops would follow through? He knew they said stuff like that all the time to get confessions, but it didn’t do shit. Still, it gave him a small hope that he had a bargaining chip.
Before Bates could push the issue, I jumped in. “So tell me Xavier.” I leaned forward. “If you’re running a drug operation, why kill Slasher? If he was your supplier, you’d have to get someone else. Did he threaten you or something?”
“I didn’t kill him.” His thoughts turned to the night Slasher told him he had to lay low for a while. It made him so angry, he could hardly stand it. They had a deal, and this ruined everything. His business would go down the toilet, and the people he sold to would find someone else. Laying low was for sissies.
He remembered how the gun felt, tucked into the back of his pants. The rage burning inside him had to go somewhere, so he’d pulled the gun and shot Slasher. He’d expected to feel elation that he’d gotten rid of the jerk, but it just made him feel sick instead. What the hell had he done?
He had to figure a way out of this before his parents found out. His dad was gonna kill him. This had turned into the worst nightmare. He closed his eyes and tugged at his hair. Who had ratted him out? It had to be someone on his crew… no one else knew anything about it. At least he was high right now, or he’d really be freaking out.
I glanced at Bates. “He’s high.”
“Yeah.” Bates shook his head. “Tell me something I don’t know.”
I knew it was a rhetorical question, but I answered anyway. “Uh… okay. This is what I’ve picked up. Slasher was Xavier’s supplier, but they were partners in this. When Slasher told Xavier he was taking some time off, Xavier got angry and killed him. It wasn’t premeditated… so I think you could go for a lesser sentence.”
“What?” Xavier asked, his eyes widening. “That’s not what happened. You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Yes I do. I just don’t know what you did with the gun.”
Xavier’s thoughts immediately went to the box under his bed. He should have hidden it better, but once he got out of here, he’d see if he could leave it at someone else’s house until all this blew over.
“Are you charging me with something?” He’d seen enough on TV to know that we couldn’t hold him without bringing charges against him.
Bates glanced my way, thinking he couldn’t get away with putting words into the kid’s mouth with me there, but he sure wished he could say something about the mob. He thought for sure this Slasher person worked for the mob, but the kid hadn’t taken the bait.
“Just tell us who Slasher’s supplier is, and we’ll go easy on you,” Bates said.
“I don’t know. Probably the…” He quit talking, realizing he’d almost given away his one bargaining tool. “No. I’m not talking.”
“Look Xavier… we don’t care so much about who killed Slasher,” Bates continued. “We care more about stopping the drug deals in the first place. You give us some names, and we bump the charges down… maybe you’ll only serve a couple of years.
“But if you don’t help us, we’ll throw the book at you. Second-degree murder could put you away for the rest of your life. You want to spend your best years in jail over a low-life drug dealer?”
Alarm tightened my stomach. Bates wanted Uncle Joey so badly that he was willing to tell this kid anything, but none of it was true. Bates wasn’t about to go easy on the kid, no matter what he told him. I wasn’t sure what to do, but I couldn’t let Bates bully this kid into pointing a finger at Uncle Joey.
“Just tell us the truth,” I said, hoping to steer Xavier in the right direction.
Xavier started to sweat. No way did he want to go to jail, now or ever. Should he confess? Give the cop something? Yeah… maybe that would work. “I don’t know, but I think Slasher worked for the mob.”
Crap, crap, crap. How could I stop this?
Bates leaned forward. “Do you have a name?”
Xavier shrugged. “He set up the drug drop at a health-and-nutrition store. I don’t know any more than that.” He rubbed his face with his hands. What was he doing? This was all too much. He shouldn’t be talking to the cops.
“I want my dad. He’s a lawyer. I’m not saying another word without him here.” His dad would kill him, but at least he wouldn’t lie to him and, right now, he was the only person he could trust.
I swallowed my panic. Having the name of the health-and-nutrition store wouldn’t necessarily implicate Uncle Joey, right? They weren’t selling drugs there anymore, so it wouldn’t lead anywhere. And Vinny had promised he’d take the fall if it did. I hoped Uncle Joey was still safe.
Bates huffed out a breath and looked at me. Did I have anything? I tried not to show my nervousness and shrugged. He pursed his lips and shot Xavier a disgusted look. “This is your last chance. It’s now or never.”
“Never.” I had to give it to the kid. He didn’t even flinch. That didn’t mean this was over. But it was over for now. Bates stood, his chair screeching on the floor. He stomped out, and I glanced at Xavier with sorrow. What a waste. He was only seventeen, and his life was ruined.
“What are you lookin at?” He knew he was in trouble. I had that same look in my eyes as his mother. Damn… why did he shoot Slasher? Why did he take the gun? It
