Evil Double-Crossing Swine! - A deal gone bad
Gonzo trip #2
When the phone rang I was a bit surprise. They called back quicker then I had expected. Then again it doesn't take long to make a few phone calls when everybody's response is "I got nothing." I was even more surprised when my buddy Rick showed me the thumbs up while he continued to talk on the phone. It looked like this thing may be a go after all. Finally things were looking good.
Things had been good for a while. We would get some calls from friends looking for pills, once it looked like we had a couple hundred lined up we would call our guy who usually had 2 or 3 more guys waiting. He would go around and collect the money, drive out and pick up a thousand pills. Then we would meet somewhere so he could count out our order. We usually only paid about $10 per pill and then would sell the ones that were already lined up for $11 - $15. What was left would usually get us thru another week or two and by that point everything was ready to go again. Then everything went dry about 2 weeks ago. It turns out this shit was coming from Israel. A couple of weeks ago a shipment of computer manuals from an Israeli company was being inspected by customs at Logan Airport. There was like 20 boxes, and 19 of them felt like they were packed full of books, just like the shipping manifest stated. However, one of the 20 felt much lighter. Well Mr."If I work real hard and brown nose the boss maybe I'll get a promotion and a raise" customs agent decided this needed some looking in to. Turns out that curiously light box was full of 50,000 hits of pure MDMA. Needless to say that caused a very quick shortage in the supply of ecstasy. Well fast forward a couple of weeks and here we are with a shitload of people looking for pills, and us calling our guy daily to find out what the hell is going on. Finally it looks like a ray of hope as poked through. Besides the shitty crank I had been doing the last week didn't compare to a nice E roll and I was ready to get back to the good stuff.
My buddy hangs up the phone.
"So what's the plan?"
"Should be the usual cost, but he doesn't think we'll be able to get more than 200. He has a few details to work out but we should be able to meet him down in Mattapan tonight"
"Well, 200 should be a good start, I think I'm gonna eat 3 tonight just to chill while I get this crank out of my system. Hell, we can sell this stuff for $25 each and it will still be gone in a day."
I hopped on the Red Line to go to my apartment and get the money. I also needed a drink. Rick enjoyed his weed, but that shit just makes me paranoid which isn't a good combination after doing crank for two days. I've had 3 hours of sleep at best. Work had been hell today, but I figured I would stop at the packie on the corner by my house get a pint of vodka, go home and drop off the rest of my crank, mix my drink, grab the money, then head back down to Fields Corner. It would be crowded on a Friday afternoon rush hour train, but should only take about an hour and a half.
I got back to Rick's house around 6:30.
He looked pleasantly toasted, "Dude, you look like crap. Maybe you should get some sleep."
"Sleep, sleep this is no time for sleep! What's the plan, besides how can you even tell how I looked your eyes are so damn squinty! How the hell can you see anything?"
I took out what remained of the pint of vodka I had bought, and started looking for something to mix it with.
"So we have about 2 hours to kill then were gonna meet him at the McDonald's over on Blue Hills. I'm gonna order some food you want anything?"
"Fuck, are you kidding me?! We're gonna sit around waiting for him there! Yeah, will just fit right in. Nobody will notice us sitting around there for an hour. Do you have any soda or OJ or anything I can mix this with?"
I was still deciding on weather or not I wanted food. I wasn't really hungry and besides if I was gonna have to sit around in a McDonald's I might as well save what little appetite I had for then. At least I might blend in a bit if I had food in front of me.
"Will be fine there don't worry. There should be some Sprite on the bottom shelf."
I found the soda mixed it up and sat down. Perhaps he was right. We would be pretty far south on Blue Hills Ave. I took another sip and calmed down a bit.
"I think I'll wait till eat, besides were gonna needs some beer for later."
The next few hours were uneventful just watched some TV and anxiously waited. Around 8:30 our guy came by and collected the money. He left and then we headed out to the meeting spot to wait up for him. When we got there it wasn't as bad as I expected mostly a bunch of teenagers being rowdy and running around. We ordered our food and sat down by the window and waited for our guy to show up. This is always my least favorite part of the situation. So many things can go wrong and at this point you don't even have your money anymore. So even if something happens and the cops don't get you; your still out a lot of cash. Usually it's only about 45 min to an hour then the phone call to let us know when to start looking for him. I kept my cool up till about 1 hour. That was when I started to get suspicious. I look up at Rick, "Man, what the hell, it shouldn't take this long. He burned us man, this is bullshit!"
"He never did before why would he do it this time. Just relax and maybe try keeping your voice down. You look like a headcase."
I got up and went to the bathroom. I looked in the mirror and he was right I did look like crap, my eyes were bloodshot with dark circles under them. My jaw would involuntarily clench every couple of moments. I had notice when I was walking to the bathroom I was moving in a very erratic and jerky way from a combination of clinched muscles from the crank and lack of coordination from the alcohol and minimal sleep. Take all that and add in my recent outburst about being burned and he was right I'm sure did look like a headcase. I went back out to the table hoping to the call came in while I was in the bathroom. Still nothing.
That rat bastard I'm was sure of it now. He had taken our money and split. No business for a few weeks and he had run out of money so he had decided to just scam us. Why not it's not like we're gonna call the cops. If we could track him down we could kick his ass, but the retaliation on that would definitely be ugly and he did know where we live. Well, at least he knew where Rick lives. I could feel my face turning red with anger. Maybe I was over reacting, perhaps things were just not going well. I wouldn't even mind too much if he came back empty handed and just gave us our money back that I can understand after all everything had been dry. Besides in that situation I would still have all my money and some beer sitting at home waiting.
I got up and went to the counter to get more food. I wasn't hungry just needed to do something. Also I figured we would look less suspicious if we at least had food in front of us while we sat around. That fear faded while I waited for the kid behind the counter to realize I was waiting. That took about 3 minutes. I was the only person at the counter and it still took him 3 minutes to realize that he actually needs to stop talking to his coworkers in back and walk over to do his job Obviously we had nothing to worry about. Hell' Rick's hair could be on fire and I could be wearing no pants and still no one behind the counter would have even noticed us sitting there. At least not until it was time for them to close the lobby. I got my order and went back to our table at least a bit calmer about one thing. As I sat down Rick's phone rang. Finally! I began to relax as he went to answer it.
I could hear lots of yelling coming from the other end of the phone. The color drained from Rick's face.
"What do you mean took it all", Rick yelled in to the phone.
"Shot, what the hell are you talking about? WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON?"
I looked around and that last one defiantly got a lot of attention. People were now looking.
Rick was on the phone for a few more seconds before he hung up and yelled
"DAMN IT!"
I really needed to know what was going on' but first we needed a change of venue. We defiantly drew too much attention here. I could see Rick look around and come to the same conclusion, "Let's get outta here."
We ran down the street to the car and got in.
"OK what the hell is going on?"
"He said the deal went bad."
"REALLY! YOU THINK! NO SHIT!"
"He said he and his driver meet up with their dealer, they did the deal then all of a sudden the dealer pulls a gun out and wants the pills back"
"They told him to fuck off. So the dealer shot him in the leg grabbed the pills and took off."
"Damn it' they got the pills and the money! How do we know that he is not just bullshiting us! All we know Rick is he called you and told a good story!"
"I don't know man. Can you die from getting shot in the leg? If he dies we'll know. They'll have to put that shit in the newspaper."
"Die? From a shot in the leg? I doubt it. Ok we need to figure this out let's get back to your place. I need a beer."
So this was a fine mess we were in. It is still possible that we're just robbed and the rest of the story was just BS. Still for the moment it would be best to assume the worst. I tried to calm down and figure this out logically while ignoring Rick's incoherent rambling.
If there was in fact a shooting then he was most likely headed to one of the hospitals. Now if he is admitted to the hospital with a gunshot that means the cops will be notified. It's a minor gunshot most likely so it will probably be a low priority. He will have to give a statement or some sort of explanation to the cops. I'm sure his statement will be a load of BS that the cops will see right thru. They're not dumb and see this crap every weekend in Boston. I'm sure they will suspect drugs, but won't know if they have the dealer or the buyer. Now if he is smart and doesn't bring his phone with him they cops will have very little to go on and a non-fatal drug related shooting with no injury to innocent bystanders is probably a low priority case for them. Still' if they do find out that he called us then we might see cops come by asking questions. By this point we had arrived at Rick's house. We went in and I went to the fridge and grabbed a couple of beers.
"OK I've been thinking and here is the plan. Worst case the cops are gonna nose around and find out that he called us around the time of the shooting. They won't have an exact time unless someone called in the shooting but they may come around and ask some questions."
"Yeah I had been thinking the same thing."
"Well, I doubt they will have that much pieced together tonight. If they do show up we don't want to talk to them till we know what they've been told. We want our stories to match with any statement that has been given. Worst case is they show up with a search warrant."
"Yeah then I'm fucked."
"You shouldn't be. Pack some clothes and grab anything incriminating. Crash at my place for a while. Well know if the cops come by and if they do search everything it will be clean and you won't be around to question. Remember, as of now there is no connection between me and the rest of this so there is no reason they will come by looking."
"Good plan let's start packing everything"
"I think it's best if we take a cab or the train. Don't want to get pulled over with a car full of weed, bongs, pipes, rolling papers and whatever else you got hiding in the place you damn degenerate."
"Right, hey is the liquor store still open?"
"Yeah 5 more minutes. You pack. I'll go get a couple of bottles and flag a cab."
"Good. I'll be down in about 10 minutes"
I grabbed another beer and put it in my pocket. Then ran next door to the packie and bought a fifth of whiskey and a handle of vodka. I went outside and started to look for a cab. Rick was coming down the stairs when I finally got a cab. We threw in his 2 bags and climbed in.
I gave the cabbie the address and then slumped back in my seat an cracked open the beer that was in my pocket. Man, what a crappy day. On the way back we stopped and grabbed some ice and some mixers.
We drank well in to the early morning. Around 5:30 we stumbled to the store around the block to get a newspaper. There was a 3 sentence "article" about a individual who was self-admitted to a local hospital with a gunshot wound to the right leg. Police suspected drugs were involved. So we knew our money was gone but we hadn't been dicked around. We went home and passed out till mid afternoon. When we got up we ordered a pizza and made some drinks. It was decided that maybe it was time to lay low for a while and get out of the hustle. The cops never did come looking and it turns out no charges were ever filed against our boy since they couldn't prove it was more than a random act.