Deadlock || ᴠᴍɪɴ

Chapter 9

The following evening after the bomb incident, Jimin got a call from Neto.

Neto said that he had something to tell him, and wanted to speak in private. Jimin headed downtown after sunset.

The Mexican bar that Neto had chosen was on a relatively safe street. The patrons were not exclusively Chicano; there was a healthy mix of Black and Caucasian people as well. Jimin watched a group enjoy a game of darts as he searched for Neto. He saw Pepe, the man from yesterday, walking toward him from the end of the hallway.

“Neto’s already here. Follow me.”

Pepe showed him to a booth at the very back of the bar that was partitioned with a curtain. When Pepe spoke up, the curtained opened and another man appeared. The man looked at Jimin and jerked his head, gesturing him to come in.

Neto, who was sitting on the sofa, smiled at him.

“Sorry for dragging you out here on short notice. My neighbourhood is rough at night, so I didn’t want you coming out there all by yourself.”

“Thanks for the consideration, but you make me sound like a sheltered teenaged girl,” Jimin said as he sat down across from him.

“Don’t be so hard on me,” said Neto, smiling wryly. “Just yesterday, an officer was shot on the street nearby my house. Anyway, how about something to drink? Tequila?”

“Thanks, but I’ll pass. I need to drive. So, what’s this news you were talking about? Have you found out anything about Ara Roja?”

Neto told his two men to leave, and began to speak once they were alone together.

“Alonso hooked me up, and I was able to speak to his cousin directly. We found out who was supplying Ara Roja during their heyday.”

Jimin’s face shone in expectation.

“Who was it?” he pressed eagerly.

“But before that, take a look at this.”

Neto opened a newspaper that was lying on the table. “Here,” he said, pointing at an article that said a man named Tim Faber had been shot by an unknown assailant on the streets of Compton late yesterday night.

“What about it?”

“This Faber guy was the one supplying wholesale cocaine to Ara Roja.”

Jimin was stunned. Just when he had found someone who might be part of White Heaven – but he had been a second too late.

As Jimin cradled his head in frustration, Neto mentioned something odd.

“I’ve known about Faber for a while. He’s somewhat of a big name drug dealer in the underground world. But I didn’t know he dealt with Ara Roja, too. I was in prison at the time, though, so I wasn’t up to date on the news outside. So I was surprised, to be honest, when I found out that you and V were looking for the same guy.”

Jimin was confused by Neto’s words.

“What do you mean? What about V?”

“V came to me yesterday asking about Faber.”

“Wait a minute. Why would V be looking for him…?”

“I don’t know why. But V called me when I was still in prison, using a fake name. He said he was looking for a man called Faber, and asked me to look into his whereabouts. By that time I knew when I was getting released, so I told him I would start looking as soon as I was out, and I gave him my contact info.”

Jimin’s mind was thoroughly tangled. He didn’t know what to make of this new information.

“You’re saying that Faber was coincidentally shot the same night that V heard his whereabouts from you?”