SAVAGE

12.

The sounds of the Hamilton Beach coffee maker distracted Detective Newton from his paperwork. He was so busy trying to get the whole story on Rudy, and that left him with tons of incomplete work on his desk.

"Can't you stop that damn thing from making those loud noises?" Newton asked, shuffling his files.

"What's the use? This old thing is almost done." Tilly replied as she banged on the black coffee maker, the noise seemed to go even louder with every hit she made.

"Might as well make the use of it, right? Stanley isn't going to get us a new one. With the budget this station is on, he can barely afford light bulbs."

"Well, you do have a point." She replied while dressing her black coffee. Tilly made her way towards her desk and took a seat.

Newton leaned in his chair and looked off in concentration. He punched his ink pen rapidly as while trying to think.

"A fifteen-year-old boy was shot and killed on Crawford Boulevard." Newton announced, causing Tilly to dart her eyes at him.

"I heard...Detective Gaines was talking about it."

"I covered the story while Gaines was out. I just gave him the case, so that's probably why you overheard him talking about it."

"So, give me the information on this kid."

Newton sighed and said, "Well...he was shot and killed in the Crawford building. They found him dead with his eyes open. He was a bloody mess and-he had four bullet wounds. One in the leg, one in the stomach, and two in the chest."

"Shit." Tilly cursed. "Any witnesses?"

"I'm afraid not." He replied. "You know the usual...everyone's too scared to say anything."

Tilly sat there in deep concentration as she thought about the situation. It was hard being a police officer and working beside a police detective. People barely gave her respect or answers. She had to assert herself in order to get something.

"I was out there the other night and I ran up on this girl. The same girl who works at Malcolm's Bar. Jersey." Newton continued as he twisted his ink pen in between his fingers.

Tilly furrowed her eyebrows as she sat there in suspense. "Why was she there?"

"Apparently, she knows him. She's kin to him." He replied. "And if anybody has any answers about this case-it's her."

Tilly licked her lips and said, "Well, good thing this case belongs to Gaines. We're narcotics, not homicide. You did what you had to do-you covered the story."

"It won't hurt to get a statement from her. Don't forget that she's on the board now and she's working at the bar. She knows what's going on in there." Newton replied as he stood up to pull the white blinds down.

He revealed a board that had pictures of possible suspects, along with their name and age. Tilly gave him a nonchalant expression as she looked over everybody. She didn't know all of them, just a few.

There was Malcolm, listed as the primary suspect and supplier. He didn't have a mugshot since he never got arrested before. Tilly also noticed Jersey at the very end of the board. Newton had her listed as an informant/possible suspect.

"You better get this out of here. If the chief sees this, he's going to suspend your ass. You know he doesn't want you near this case. This is not even supposed to be a case, Newton."

Officer Newton pulled the blinds down and looked over at Tilly. "This a case and I'm going to figure everything out. Malcolm will not win; I can promise you that. Now, I need you to go to that bar and speak with Jersey-alone. Let her know that you're my partner and she can talk to you about everything that's going on."