Free Hollywood Tough (2002) by Stephen - Scully 03 Cannell Page B

appalled. "You can't go see hi m a lone. What the hell's going through your head, Shane?" "Hold it. Didn't you just ask me to get in touch wit h h im?"
    "Yes. In touch . . . call him . . . talk on the phone."
    "Alexa, he's the Inca. He's not gonna have an important conversation with me on the phone. This guy is too careful. He'll think he's being bugged. Besides, he'll want to be looking into my eyes when he talks, and I want to look into his. Eyes are the best lie detectors."
    "He's a killer, Shane. His yellow sheet is a bible of street violence."
    "Jesus, be fair. You asked me to get in touch with him. I got in touch. This is the only way he'll do it, and you damn well know it."
    "How?" she asked.
    "How'm I meeting him?"
    She nodded.
    "I'm . . ." He started to say it, then stopped. "You don't want to know."
    "The hell I don't. Spit it out, buddy."
    "Okay. I'm going to the corner of Largo and Abbott Kinney. I'm gonna stand there alone, until they send a war wagon down to pick me up. Amac might be in the car or it might just be a buncha califas who'll escort me to him."
    "Over my dead body. You need a tail, some backup."
    "Alexa, I have to go alone. He'll spot a tail. I called him. I can't back out. If I'm not on that street corner he's gonna think I was setting him up. It'll piss him off and he'll never trust me again. This is the only way."
    She changed her posture and was now standing defiantly in the kitchen doorway, her legs apart, hands on her hips, trying to figure a way to stop him.
    "Amac may be violent, but he's a man of honor--a mara salvatrucha. Three Rs--womb to tomb."
    "Don't pitch that gang tripe at me. I ran the CRASH unit. I busted a kid once in a Catholic church. He'd jus t d one a triple drive-by. We caught this vato on his knees, lighting candles, thanking God for assisting with the killings. They're twisted. Amac especially."
    "Amac is different. He'll guarantee this one free trip. In and out. If he doesn't like what I've got to tell him, that will end it."
    "And what are you going to tell him?"
    "I was just about to wake you, because I need something to trade."
    "Now we're giving him inter she said. "It was supposed to work the other way."
    "Honey, it's a negotiation. He's not gonna let it be a one-way street."
    She sat down at the kitchen table and rubbed her right forearm. Shane knew it still went numb at times from the shot she took in the shoulder at Lake Arrowhead, when she'd saved his life at the end of the Molar case. "You're nuts, you know that?"
    "I know. It's why I'm seriously considering a posting at Internal Affairs. I should fit right in with that bowl of fruits and nuts."
    Then, slowly, a smile twitched at the corner of her mouth and he knew he had her. "Okay. I don't have much, but we did pick up one piece of interesting street info. There's some new heroin that's supposed to hit the street soon. It's called White Dragon, and according to our source, there's a huge shipment coming in from Mexico. I think the Crips are moving it. We don't know who's sending it in, but we've had the product line described to us. It's snow-white heroin, probably China White, wrapped in cellophane with a white dragon outlined in red on the bag. Also, there may be some kind of Arizona connection. The Clip banger we got this from had a stolen credit card. For the last two months this guy, who's never been outside South Central since he was born, has been making more trips to Arizona than the Monsanto regional sales rep. We've traced him through the card charges: motel rooms, gas, restaurants, like that. The Arizona cops also picked u p a rumble that Arizona is the new point of entry for this White Dragon line, probably the general distribution site as well. But most of this is more gossip and guesswork than fact."
    "It'll have to do."
    She followed him to the front door. "I really hate this," she said. "I'm just supposed to wait here and pray for your safety?"
    "Honey, no prayers necessary. Amac is guaranteeing