Free Bad Apple by Anthony Bruno

you doing?”
    â€œShut up and listen, numbnuts. Gary Petersen was shot last night.”
    Tozzi’s gut clenched. “Oh, shit.” He didn’t need to hear the reason.
    â€œLast I heard he was in stable condition.”
    A young guy wearing a leather jacket and carrying a briefcase stepped into the nearby bus-stop shelter. Gibbons immediately shut up and walked back to the plate-glass window of the candy store on the corner.
    Tozzi waited a few moments before he joined his partner. “Who shot him? Do we know yet?”
    â€œHe was supposed to be meeting Tony Bells at one last night.”
    â€œBells? That fuck.”
    â€œIvers ordered a manhunt.”
    â€œI was with Bells last night. It was after three, though. Jesus.”
    â€œYou know where he is now?”
    Tozzi shook his head. “I don’t even know where he lives. He’s a very strange guy, very secretive.”
    â€œWell, stay away from him. I don’t think the press has the whole story yet, so we may be able to grab him before they tip him off. Let’s hope.”
    â€œI could reach out and see if I can find him.”
    â€œNo,” Gibbons snapped. “You’d better not be anywhere in the vicinity when he’s arrested. Buddha Stanzione and his merry men will put two and two together. Then to save your hide, we’d have to get the word out that you’re a fed, and that would be the end of Shark Bite. Ivers wants to keep the operation going if we can, and for once I agree with the shithead.”
    â€œBut I can—”
    â€œNo, you can’t. Go to a movie, go take a ride down the shore, go get laid—just stay away from Bells until we can find him.”
    Tozzi frowned and thought of Gina. He wished he could get laid.
    â€œBy the way, Toz, what’s all this shit with you and Freshy’s sister? What’re you, nuts?”
    The blood rushed to Tozzi’s face. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
    â€œThe fuck you don’t. Listen to me, asshole. For once in your life, I’d like to see you keep it in your pants while you’re on the job. Why do you always have to get involved with the wrong women?”
    â€œThere’s nothing wrong with Gina DeFresco. She has nothing to do with her brother or the mob. She’s an innocent civilian.”
    â€œDon’t try to bullshit me, Tozzi. She’s a blood relative of a connected guy ratting on his friends to help us out. I’d say that makes her pretty involved.”
    â€œYou know, I resent you saying that. You don’t know—”
    â€œI know enough. Just leave her alone, capisce? ”
    Tozzi didn’t answer. He wanted to know how the hell Gibbons knew about him and Gina. Then he suddenly remembered the transmitter on his belt. Dougherty. That deceitful mother—
    Gibbons started to go into the candy store.
    â€œWhat happened to your face?” Tozzi asked only to stop him. He was still smarting from his partner’s remark about Gina being a wrong woman, and he wanted the last word.
    â€œAbscessed tooth. Hurts like a bitch.”
    â€œWhy don’t you go to the dentist?”
    Gibbons glared at him. “When do I have friggin’ time to go to the dentist?”
    Tozzi glared back. “Why not have ’em all pulled and get dentures? Then you can just send them out when you have trouble.”
    Gibbons looked him in the eye, puckered his lips, and suddenly four of his upper teeth were hanging out of his mouth. Tozzi stepped back, startled by the sight. He never knew Gibbons had bridgework. It reminded him of something he’d seen on one of those nature shows on TV. A shark’s jaws work independently of the head. The teeth chomp, and the mouth catches up a split second later. He stared at Gibbons’s snaggle-toothed mouth in disgust. He’d always thought of Gibbons as having a crocodile smile. Son of a gun.
    The teeth slipped back