Banshee | $crim

0. Ora

Florescent lights buzzed over my head, creating an irritating hum in the otherwise silent room. I didn't like the silence, but there wasn't anything I could do about it. One detective offered me food while the other sat across the table from me.

"We can do this the hard way or the easy way," the female detective said. "Do you want to know what the hard way is?"

I didn't say anything. Nobody walks, everybody walks and I'm not a snitch.

"If you don't cooperate," the other detective said, "you're going to prison. Your friend already confessed in the other room. She told us all about the plan to bring the cocaine to New Orleans and sell it on the streets. If she takes the deal; you're going down for it."

The detectives went on and on for another ten minutes about what my friend in the other interrogation room had supposedly said and how I definitely don't want to go to prison. Mabel and I weren't even going to sell the drugs on the streets, so I knew she wasn't talking either.

"I want a lawyer," was the only thing I said.

The inside of a jail cell wasn't an unfamiliar place to me. I spent many a weekend in jail with fifty other women trying to use a damp shower room at once while I withdrew in my cell. It didn't scare me anymore.

"Savoie," a deputy called into my dorm.

I followed the deputy to visitation, although I was confused. My public defender had already visited me and there were no in-person visits in the jail anymore. Once I sat down, two young-looking men sat across from me.

"Penelope Savoie?" one of them spoke, doing a double take at the paperwork in his hand. "I need you to listen carefully. We're from the Orleans Parish Sheriff's Office. We're willing to drop the charges if you help us out. Mabel already told us what we need to know either way. If you agree, you'll be out of jail in a few days. If not, we'll let the prosecutor know."

Although I had never seen it with my own two eyes before, these cops were asking me to scratch their back if they scratch mine. I didn't ask too many questions; I didn't need to know that cooperating with the cops was a bad idea. But it also didn't take a genius to figure the charges I was facing could land me years in jail, not the few weeks I'd spent maximum prior.

All I needed to do was give the police enough information to arrest New Orleans's most elusive kingpin. I didn't know much about him, beyond his name. They call him $crim.