Free Ch. 04

Tapping the spot with his foot, he said, "I see you didn't put plastic down before you killed Donnie. Or is this someone else?"

"None of your concern."

With a glare in his eyes, Rick responded, "It IS my concern. I'm not going to jail for you again. You're messy and hotheaded. You do dumb shit like pull guns on people you think are wearing a wire or beat guys to death INSIDE OF YOUR OWN WAREHOUSE! This..." he said, while tapping his foot on the discolored spot. "...is blood. Once those CSI assholes hit it with a blacklight, it turns into EVIDENCE. If I'm getting myself involved, I need to know who this is so we can stay ahead of it."

Groaning in acquiescence, he said, "Fine. It's Donnie. But that stain shouldn't be there. I told these two fuck-ups to clean it up."

With a disappointed shake of his head, Rick said, "I think you need change your hiring practices."

"Yeah. I'll get HR right on it."

Pinching the bridge of his nose, Rick took a breath and said, "At least tell me you got rid of the body and the murder weapon yourself, and not entrusted it with one of these two."

"Dude, fuck you!" A groggy Mo spat out, finally waking up from his nap. He rose to his feet, albeit a little wobbly. Once he got his legs under him, he glared at Rick before saying, "I'm 'bout sick of you! Boss, please let me off this motherfucker! Please!"

Manny chuckled and looked him up and down, almost like a referee trying to assess a boxer after a knockout. "You sure you wanna go for round 2 there, Rocky?"

Mo's ego was withering visibly as his boss laughed him off like he was nothing. With anger bubbling in his eyes, he practically pleaded, "Just give me the word, Manny."

"Hush, Li'l Tay." Rick said as he dismissively waved him off. "Why don't you go upstairs and play while the grown folks are talking?"

"Mother-fucker, I'll..."

Mo tried to rush at Rick, who didn't even flinch. He was stopped by Manny, who stepped between them. Manny pushed him back with an irritated look on his face.

"Damn dude!" Manny yelled. "Sit the fuck down, Mo! We trying to talk business here! How about instead of asking for another ass-whooping you go wake up your little brother!"

Looking like a chastised kid, he pointed at Rick's smug smirk and said, "This ain't over, bitch. We're gonna finish this."

"It's a date." Rick said as he blew him a kiss.

As Mo walked off to see to his partner, Rick looked at Manny with bored exasperation and repeated, "PLEASE tell me you got rid of the body yourself."

With a guilty look, he shook his head. As Rick groaned, Manny felt the need to defend himself, and by proxy, his boys.

"You can relax." He said quickly. "The bat is at the bottom of the river in the trunk of Donnie's car. And by now, Donnie is in dozens of pieces being fed to animals. The butcher took care of that."

Still looking unconvinced, Rick asked, "Is that what you know, or what he told you?"

By this time, Mo had awakened Tuck. He'd been listening the entire time and growing more infuriated by the second. Marching himself back into the conversation, he said, "Bitch, I know how to get rid of a fucking body! In case you hadn't noticed, we all made it just fine without you. Boss man drives a sick ass Beamer; I drive a Rover. He lives in a Penthouse. Me? I live in a condo. So does Tuck. Meanwhile, you living at your ol' lady's momma's house and taking the bus! Manny may think you're the shit, but all I see is a pussy living off the reputation of what he used to do!"

That caused Manny to look curiously at Rick, as if asking, "What you gonna do about that?" As dumb as Mo was, he made some valid points.

Of course, the fact that he made these points AFTER getting knocked the fuck out was just as valid.

Rick didn't respond; he only smiled. Then, seemingly out of the blue, he said, "You guys know what? I think I'm done here. I got everything I need. Maybe you're right Mo. Maybe I just need to go home, kick my feet up, turn on some music, and eat some asparagus."

"Asparagus?" Manny asked with a snigger. "Is that what they were feeding you in prison?"

With a wicked "I-know-something-you-don't-know" smile, Rick said, "Not when I was there. Let me know if they changed that."

"What?"

Leaning in closer, Rick calmly whispered, "You should have gone for the full Monty."

Before confusion could turn into understanding, a loud bang turned all of their attention to the door. Shocked, horrified eyes stood helplessly by as a swarm of SWAT that flooded into the place.

The only person not surprised was Rick.

"EVERYONE ON THE FLOOR NOW!" the uniformed guns yelled.

While Mo and Tuck complied, he and Manny locked eyes. Rick watched as the hurt look of a friend betrayed turned into a bubbling rage. Then, Manny looked at the floor to the spot where his gun lay.

Knowing the Manny he knew, Rick saw what was going to happen next before anyone else in the room did.

Blaze of Glory? Not today. You don't get off that easily.

Before Manny could jump down there and get it, Rick flashed over and kicked it out of reach.

With the suicide-by-cop option removed, the uniforms descended upon Manny, swiftly dropping him to the ground. His arms were twisted behind his back as cuffs were clamped around his wrists.

A plain clothes detective wearing a bullet proof vest over his shirt emerged from the sea of uniformed guns. As a struggling and cussing Manny was roughly yanked to his feet, the two men exchanged a look before the cop smiled and said, "Manchester Childs, it is my pleasure to finally say that you, sir, are under arrest."

With false bravado, Manny snidely said, "This is harassment, pig. Haven't we done this song and dance before? What do you think you have on me?"

A cat that ate the canary grin appeared on the detective's face.

"Well, let's see. For starters, we have you confessing to receiving $750,000 worth of drugs with the intent of selling it for $2.5 million. You know; because you're an all access kind of guy. On top of that, we have..." The detective's smile grew even wider when he looked over at the spot Rick's foot was tapping. Looking back at Manny, he finished with, "...the murder of Donald Childs. And now, thanks to your big mouth, we know where to find the murder weapon and the body!"

He looked to Rick, who nodded his head and added, "And if memory serves, I'm sure you'll find some weapons over there in that room."

"Rick, you fucking snitch!"

"...you have the right to remain silent, you have the right to an attorney..."

"I'M GOING TO FUCKING KILL YOU! YOU HEAR ME? I'M GOING TO FUCKING KILL YOU, YOUR WIFE, YOUR KID..."

"...anything you say can and will be used against you in the court of law."

"YOU'RE DEAD MOTHER FUCKER! DEAD!"

Rick shook his head mockingly at Manny. "If there were ever a time to shut the fuck up, now would be it!"

Manny, fully incensed with irrational rage, lunged at Rick. Since his hands were locked behind his back, he did it headfirst, like a charging bull. The only thing he accomplished was being taken down to the ground again by three guys. They weren't gentle about it, either. He landed face first on the cold, hard, unforgiving floor.

Mo and Tuck's handcuffing wasn't as dramatic. They fully complied with the cops, knowing that any resistance could end fatally. They did manage to shoot a furious glare at "the snitch". Rick waved at Mo as he and his partner were led out the door.

The detective gave Rick a look that was hard to decipher before extending his hand. "I never thought I'd be saying this to you, Mr. Morrison, but good job."

Rick shrugged as he accepted the handshake. "Yeah, well, I never thought I'd be shaking hands with a cop. Life's full of surprises, detective."

"That it is." The detective said with a nod. "I must admit, you had us worried there for a second. We almost rushed in prematurely when things got hairy. But we heard you telling us that you were in control, so we backed off and waited until we heard the safe word. To be honest, I was wondering how you were going to work in the word Asparagus and make it sound casual."

Rick chuckled and nodded. "Yeah, well, I'm not sure I accomplished that. I hate asparagus!"

The detective gave Rick another look that was strange; especially coming from a cop. This time, Rick recognized what it was in the detective's eyes.

It was respect.

"You know, there are officers who've been on the force for years that can't keep their cool like you did. You had guns pointed at you, you were jumped, and you had a guy working hard to trigger every soft spot he knew of. Yeah, you lost it a little, but you still managed to get a FULL confession from him and one of his men. What you accomplished tonight was pretty impressive." With an appreciative nod, he added, "In another life, you would have made one hell of a negotiator."

"Yeah. Another life; far from this one. No offense, but I like cops about as much as I like asparagus."

The detective gave him a final friendly pat on his arm before walking away. Over his shoulder, he yelled out, "There are some good cops left, Mr. Morrison. We don't all get reassigned to Narnia!"

I'll have to take your word for that. Rick thought as he took a deep breath and allowed his eyes to scan the warehouse one final time. If he never saw this place again, it would be too soon.

With that, Rick made his exit. He strolled past the SWAT team, the CSI geeks, and the flashing lights of dozens of police vehicles that flickered across sky. He found the car he was looking for, so he opened the passenger door and got inside.

Officer Giuliani looked at him with a proud expression. Then, he patted him on the shoulder and asked, "How you feeling, kid?"

Somehow, Rick thought he'd feel victorious. He won. He beat Manny at his own game. But for some reason, he didn't feel good about himself. He felt...

"Like a snitch." He answered honestly with a sad sigh as he leaned back on the headrest.

The cop nodded, took a sip of his coffee, and put it back in the tray. Comfortingly, he said, "Whether you realize it or not, what you did here was nothing short of incredible. I was surprised when you called me and told me that you were ready to do the right thing about Manchester, but I wasn't shocked in the least. You're one of the rare ones to come out of the prison system for the crimes you committed. You genuinely want to rehabilitate your life and become a better man, even if it means giving up the easy money. It's people like you that give me hope; keep me behind that desk. Thank you for that, kid."

Looking at him, Rick sighed unconvinced. He looked beat, like his entire soul was tired. Casting one more glance at the chaos outside, he said, "If it's all the same to you, officer Giuliani, I'd like to go home. I need to see my wife."

The cop nodded knowingly. "I understand. As soon as you get them to remove the mic from you, I'll get you back home."

Rick nodded gratefully, got out of the car, and went to find the detective.

***

By the time Rick had made it home, sunlight was sneaking into the living room through the blinds. He tried to quietly slip in the front door without waking anyone, but Cynthia had barely been able to close her eyes. She was on the couch in a shallow sleep, and her eyes popped open the moment she heard movement.

She didn't know what she expected to see. Her heart hadn't really accepted the fact that her husband could possibly be dead. Maybe he was just on the run and hiding from Manny. Donnie was so smart! He wouldn't have met with a psycho like Manchester, knowing he wanted to kill him, without a backup plan.

But the look on Rick's face when he caught her eyes wasn't good. It was...sympathetic.

"Did you find him?" she asked with wishful hope in her voice.

Damn...

Rick took a breath, like he was finding the right words to say. Then he explained, "When I left here last night, I went to see my probation officer. He knows the cop who's been investigating Manny."

Cynthia gasped in horror. "What the fuck? You went to the cops?"

"Yeah. I had to..."

She jumped up from the couch and screamed, "I asked you to go and talk to Manny about Donnie, not the fucking cops! Oh my God! This is bad...this is bad! If they search the house, Donnie's going away for sure. What will me and the kids do if he gets sent up? Oh my God, oh my god, oh my..."

"Cynthia!" Rick exclaimed as he grabbed her by both shoulders to get her to stop. When he had her attention, is voice dropped as he said, "Donnie's dead."

"Huh?"

He didn't want to repeat it. As the words hung in the air, he could see the recognition start to set in on her face. Her lips fumbled as they feebly tried to form words. Nothing but inaudible sounds came out until she softly said, almost in a whisper, "He can't be dead. I just saw him yesterday."

She looked at him as if begging him to retract those two words. She'd hear anything but that!"

But he couldn't do what she wanted, nor say the what she needed to hear. Instead, he said, "Manny confessed to killing him. He..."

He paused and wondered if he should tell her the rest or save her the pain. Realizing that she'd eventually find out the truth anyway, he reluctantly finished, saying, "He beat him to death with a baseball bat."

The grotesqueness of that sentence hit her hard. Tears streamed down her face as it morphed into a mirror of pain of horror.

"No no no no no no..." she cried as her shaking body started to crumble before his very eyes. She collapsed under the weight of her new reality and started to fall to floor. Luckily, Rick saw her about to go down, so he swiftly wrapped her up in a tight hug and guided her to the couch.

"OH MY GOD!" She wailed as the widow's song of heartbreak sprang from her lips. She sobbed loudly into Rick's chest as she beat it with her small fists. "HE CAN'T BE DEAD! YOU'RE LYING! PLEASE BE LYING!"

He felt like the two of them weren't alone. When he looked over towards the hallway that leads down to the bedrooms, he saw his wife and mother in law standing there. Each of them wore heartbreaking expressions of sympathy as the woman in Ricks arms bitterly wept for the ending of her world.

As he and his wife locked eyes, she got a good look at his face. The bruises from his tussle with Mo and Tuck were now showing plainly. Her concern for the woman evaporated as she now had new worries.

"Umm...Rick? Can I speak to you in the kitchen, please?" Traci asked with a little too much politeness. He wanted to object to leaving Cynthia in this state, but the undertone beneath his wife's icy civility had sparked his curiosity. So, he told Cynthia he was going to be in the next but would be right back, and he met Traci by the dinner table.

"What's up?" he said with a tinge of impatience slipping into his voice.

"What's up?" she repeated, snapping her head back with a sarcastic shrug. "You tell me? You took my phone and then left last night without telling anyone, and now we find out that you went to the cops to turn Manny in. Not to mention the fact that you look like you've been in a fight. What exactly is going on here?"

"It's a long story."

"I'm listening."

So, Rick started to tell her an abridged version. It may have been wiser for him to soften certain details, because he didn't very far into it before being interrupted. When he made it to the part of meeting the three guys at the warehouse wearing a wire that was cleverly disguised as a belt buckle, Traci flipped out.

"Wait...what?!" Traci's screeched. "You wore a fucking wire to go talk to Manny and his goons, and you went in there by yourself?! With MANNY? The guy who kills people for fun. Are you insane?!"

Rick was kind of taken back by her choleric response. Then he felt offended by her hypocrisy.

"Yes, with Manny; the same dangerous criminal that you had an affair with for God knows how long!"

Indignance immediately set on her face as she fired back. "So, that's why you did this?! You risked your fucking life to get some petty revenge against me?!"

"Petty revenge? ISN'T THAT WHY YOU WERE FUCKING HIM IN THE FIRST PLACE?!"

Martha, who'd quietly entered the kitchen and was just sitting back listening, saw this conversation on the way to getting out of hand and losing focus. Each exchange had them getting louder and louder, and traveling further down the rabbit hole of drama. No doubt their grieving houseguest in the living room could hear every word by now.

"WILL YOU TWO JUST STOP IT?!" she abruptly blurted out, causing the spouses to instantly stop bickering and turn to look at her. Stepping in closer and lowering her voice, she said, "That poor woman in there just found out that her husband was beaten to death, and you two sit in here arguing about this? This is not the time, place, or manner in which to have this discussion. Right now, everything is about her, not this soap opera crap you two have going on. Do you understand me?"

Like scolded siblings, the two of them dropped their heads. Almost in harmonic unison, they said, "Yes Ma'am."

Taking a sigh like she was relishing the quiet, she said, "Good." Then turning her attention to her son in law, she continued. "This woman needs to go to the police. No doubt they'll be looking for her with a ton of questions. It'll be best if she can get ahead of it and have someone by her side as she does. Now, I know you've had a rather...ahem...adventurous night, but we can't let her do this alone. So, I think the two of us should go down to the station with her."

Nodding at her wisdom, Rick said, "I was just thinking the same thing."

She patted him tenderly on the unbruised cheek, as if rewarding him for being smart and agreeing with her. Then she gave him a funny look before saying, "Before we do anything, I think you should do something very important first; probably the best thing you can do for anyone right now."

"What's that?"

"Take a shower." She said with a twisted smile.

That broke the built-up tension in the room as the three of them shared a laugh. Rick then walked away to spare them his stench. Traci tried to leave also, but her mom grabbed her by the arm.

"You know he did that for you and Anya, right?"

Traci's eyes dropped as she nodded. "I know. Manny coming up to my job kinda scared him. I could see it in his face when I told him." She gave a rueful laugh, then she added, "It was the thing that got him to finally stop ignoring me."

Martha smiled in admiration. "I don't think there's anything in this world that scares that man more than harm coming to the two of you. He's not even afraid for his own life. He risked it because Manny had become a danger to you, and he'd gladly do it again."

"But that's what scares me, Ma. He could have died tonight. What if Manny beat him to death with bat? I could have been on that couch with Cynthia, crying my eyes out. I can't lose him again! I won't survive it!"

Traci became so emotional that she burst out into sobs. Martha wrapped her daughter up and hugged her tight. She lovingly stroked Traci's head, and in a comforting whisper, she said, "It's time the two of you learned to communicate. Raw sexual tension will only carry you but so far. You need to be able to tell him things like this without anger and resentment. Then, the two of you can do what you do best; fight for each other until your dying breath."

Traci nodded into her mother's shoulder. A determination unlike any that she'd ever felt set in. That was what she would do. She was going to fight for her family and her marriage.

But first, she had to fight herself.

She had to finally let go of the seething anger that was always simmering beneath the surface. Every time she thought about life without Rick, she felt a knife of betrayal sliding into her. Yes, she was the one who cheated, but he cheated first! He cheated with Manny when he chose to leave her for longer than he had to. Was Rick's love for his family so overshadowed by his love for Manny that he would choose him?