Page 87 of Rules of Engagement

"Glad you brought up Mikey. We're currently putting together a nice, little deal for Mikey. He's not going to do a whole lot of time in prison. In fact, he'll probably get out in just a few years for a reduced charge of aggravated assault. You want to know how he's getting his sentence reduced?"

"How?" asked Mooch.

Garrett pointed a finger at Mooch's chest. "He's going to sell you out. He's going to tell the DA how you hired him, and offered him the deal, and gave him the gun, and what you promised to pay him. He's even got a nice piece of notepaper with John Solomon's address, one that you wrote and an interesting statement about how you sent him there to kill a couple."

"A couple?"

"The two people in the house. A double murder charge, Mooch."

"If there was someone else, that's nothing to do with me! I didn't tell him about anyone else, just the... Shit!" Mooch trailed off.

"So there wasn't a hit on the woman?"

Mooch folded his arms and looked over Garrett's head.

"Here's the thing," said Garrett. "You know and I know that I can make this stick. We both know Mikey will have no problem selling you down the river, and you know what else Mikey is going to do? He's going to see about getting no jail time whatsoever if he decides to enter the witness protection program. He'll get cleaned up and get to live a nice, little life far away from here, a place where you will never find him, which sure beats you finding him and us never finding his parts. And you know what else? I think I'm going to encourage him to take a deal like that. There're a couple things you can do now. You can refuse to cooperate, and you go to jail on your two feet and come out lying in a box. Or, if you're the middleman, you can sell out whoever is above you and we can start looking at a reduced sentence for you too. You've got no way out and just a couple ways forward. What's your call?"

I held my breath, waiting for what Mooch would say. I was afraid he would say nothing at all.

"I'm just the middleman," said Mooch. "I set up Mikey to deliver a warning, but only on the Solomon dude. I didn't say anything about a woman. Maybe she got in the way. Mikey's an idiot."

"Who put you up to it?"

Mooch shook his head. "It ain't worth my life to say."

"This got something to do with your gang? The Niners?"

Mooch shrugged.

"We know someone's shipping heroin into Montgomery and after the money we found in your house, I'm guessing it's the Niners. What did Solomon do? Interrupt the supply line? Piss off the boss?"

"Naw," said Mooch. "This is the first I ever heard of him."

"So what did he do to deserve getting shot?"

"It was warning," said Mooch. "That's all I know."

"To the woman?"

"I don't know anything about a woman."

"Someone came after Solomon again last night," said Garrett. "One of your people?"

"I don't know anything about that."

"Who is supposed to be warned by this shooting? Who's the warning for?"

"All I know is someone owes a lot of money and if they don't pay up, they're gonna see a lot more people paying instead; and eventually, someone's gonna wind up dead. Now, I want a lawyer."

Next to me, Maddox said, "Should have asked for that fifteen minutes ago."

"He's going down for this," said Damien. His hands curled into fists. "That's two down."

"And how many more to go?" I wondered.

---