Black Box: Book Three

44 ~ The New Fish (Part Two)

Big Rob grunted, "Billy Tremont," and hauled hard on the joint, decimating it to a smoldering ember between his thick fingers.

"Yeah, him. Billy Tremont. He was a hack who worked the night shift, and I'll tell ya something - he was just as dirty as they come. Fucking guy wasn't just on the take - he was the take, you know what I'm sayin'? He was as much a gangster as any of the boys in here. He controlled what came into the Pen, and when, and who got it and how much they got. The dude squeezed out whatever competition he had from the other cops that were playing the game, by any means available - he set 'em up to get fired, payed to have 'em shit-kicked by the bikers, you name it. He was a complete fuckin' asshole, but he was also real good at getting you what you wanted ... for a price.

"Well, it's a fact that people love a mystery, especially people who ain't got fuck-all to do with their time. A few guys pooled together some cash and they came to Billy, 'cuz if anyone could find the answers to their questions, Billy Tremont could. Billy laughed and tells 'em that he'd love to take their money, but he couldn't do what they were asking. He says, 'The weird little bastard didn't have no file, as far as I can tell. I don't know who he was, why he came here, or where he came from. No one does, and that's the goddamned truth.' The guys called him a bullshitter and Billy got serious on them. He narrowed his eyes and said to 'em, 'You guys don't think I tried to find out for myself, already? Hah? Far as I can tell, the kid just sorta popped up into the Fish Tank outta thin air. Looks to me like everyone just kept processing him along 'cuz no one wanted to admit that they didn't know who the fucking kid was. Call me a liar again and I'll beat the fear of God into you.' It was clear that they weren't gonna get anywhere with Billy, so the guys-"

"What kid? Wait a minute, man ... which one's the kid?" Richie's eyes looked like black, bottomless pools. I remember that. He had already sunk deep into the mindless tar pit of addiction, by then. He was past the point of no return. You could see it in his eyes.

"Shut up, dummy." Rob turned to Mikey and made a gesture that said please, continue.

Mikey gave Rich a cold stare, then said, "So the guys gave up and said, 'Fuck it, then,' and that's that for a while. Life goes on. Then a day comes when Billy sidles up to one of the cons while he's standing in the morning chow line and tells him that he'd found some information on the fish, if anyone still cared to know. Billy was lookin' bad, they said. He looked tired and scared.

"That night, Billy comes to see the guy in his cell, after lights-out. He asks the guy for a smoke ... and Billy had quit smoking years ago. Billy says to him, 'I don't want any money for this. Keep your lousy fuckin' money. I don't wanna be the only one that can't sleep at night, is all. You pieces of shit got him into my head, and I couldn't get him out. Fuck you for doing that. Fuck you people sideways.' The guy said that Billy Tremont's hands were shaking so fuckin' bad that he could hardly get his smoke lit.

"Billy tells the con that curiosity had been eating him fuckin' alive, so he spent some time thinking on how to go about getting want he wanted ... then he picked his mark. Billy always had his ear to the ground, y'know the type - he knew this and that, who did what and where and why. He knew stuff about people. He knew that one of the suits in the office had a bad coke habit, the kind of raging habit that most people can't afford for long. He also knew that the suit and the Warden were both banging the same chick - the Warden's secretary. Billy gave him an quarter-ounce of good rock cocaine and told him what he wanted. He promised to shoot the guy an eight-ball on top of what he already gave him, if the guy could deliver the goods.

"The suit came back to him a few days later with the sniffles and a file folder that looked older than the Bible. It was made outta some kind of rough, crumbling old cardboard, dry as dust. The office stiff says that the Warden's secretary told him where to find it, locked up in a cabinet in the Warden's office. He said that he'd put himself in all kinds of danger to get it, and he wanted more than a 'ball for his troubles. He wanted more than a quarter, too. Billy told him that he could either take the 'ball, or Billy could let the Warden know that one of his minions wasn't just a coke-head and a thief, but he was dipping his wick into the Warden's honey-pot, too. Billy told the suit that the ass-fucking the Warden would give him wouldn't be anywhere near as bad as the one the wolves would deliver. The guy shut his yap, took his eight-ball and they parted ways.