Free Wicked Break by Jeff Shelby Page B

annoyed at his lack of bravado. “They’re not cops. Relax.”
    He turned to her, the corners of his mouth pinched. “Really? You told me they needed a DJ for some party. So fuck you if I don’t believe you, okay?”
    Carter sat up a little on the bench. “Easy, there, Backstreet Boy.”
    Donnie looked at Carter, unsure of how to take him.
    â€œLook,” I said. “She’s right—we’re not cops. I’m a private investigator. I know Linc was selling guns and that you bought one from him. I’m not looking to bust you. I just have some questions I need answers to.”
    Donnie’s threw his chest out, adjusting the knapsack. “If you’re not cops, I don’t have to talk to you.”
    I nodded. “True.”
    Donnie tilted his chin upward slightly. “So why don’t you and Donkey Kong just fuck off?”
    â€œBecause then we’ll have to follow you until we get you alone,” Carter said. “Then we’ll take turns kicking you in the nuts until you feel like talking to us.”
    I nodded again. “Your choice, man.”
    Donnie’s shoulders slumped, his confidence gone as quickly as it had arrived. “Whatever. What do you wanna know?”
    â€œWhat kind of gun was it?” I asked.
    â€œA handgun. A .38, I think.”
    â€œYou think?”
    His cheeks flushed again. “I don’t know much about guns.”
    â€œThen why did you need one?” Carter asked.
    â€œBecause.” He took a deep breath, expelling everything in his body, like a child both disappointed and relieved to be caught in a lie. “We sell X out of our apartment.”
    â€œWe?” I asked.
    â€œMe and my roommates. We’re in the same frat. Pi Kappa Alpha. We’re Pikes.” He looked at us like that should mean something.
    Carter looked at me. “Weren’t you in I Phelta Thigh?”
    Dana chuckled.
    I ignored Carter and focused on Donnie. “You’re selling ecstasy. So why the gun?”
    He shrugged the perfect shrug of the disaffected youth. “I dunno. We thought it would be cool to have. Just in case or something. Sometimes we have guys who don’t wanna pay or try to screw around with us. We figured flashing the gun might take care of that.”
    I suppressed the urge to smack this stupid kid in the head. He was going to get shot one of these days if he kept waving a gun around that he didn’t know how to use. “Fine. How’d you know to go to Linc?”
    Donnie looked uncomfortable. “Look, I don’t wanna say.”
    â€œWhy not?”
    â€œBecause I don’t.”
    â€œThese two are gonna kick your ass if you don’t tell them,” Dana chimed in.
    â€œYeah, well, fine,” he said, trying to look like he meant it. “I’ll take that over getting killed.”
    â€œKilled?” I said. Now we were getting somewhere.
    Donnie screwed his mouth into a tight pucker, looked to his left, then his right, then at me. “My roommate knows a guy. From high school. He runs a gang, alright? In Southeast. And he said if we told anybody how we got the gun, he’d kill us. He sent us to another guy, who gave us Linc’s address and said to bring five hundred in cash.” He paused, shaking his head. “I went to the apartment, guy opens the door, I hand him the envelope, and he hands me the gun. And that was it. Never met him before and haven’t seen him since.”
    So the gang connection appeared to be real, not just imagined by a paranoid landlord or nosy neighbors.
    â€œI need both guys’ names,” I said. “I’m not gonna tell them where I got them and I’m not gonna mention the gun you bought from Linc. But I need those names.”
    â€œNo way, dude,” he said. “They’ll fucking kill me.”
    â€œNo, they won’t, because they won’t know how I found them,” I