Page 22 of Wrench
picked it up to see a picture of the remains of a house explosion in the northeast of
Mascid.
Confused, I looked back at Tank with my brows knitted and he continued talking.
¡°Last night after our meeting, I went home and was thinking about the Freeways and
them being on our territory. Then I remembered I read about a house explosion in the
paper earlier this week. It was in one of those ritzy areas, you know, with all the rich
people, but I guess, coincidentally, no one was living in the house.¡±
He was pacing back and forth, reminding me of Sherlock Holmes, if Sherlock smoked
cigarettes instead of pipes and said, ¡°Somethin¡¯ didn¡¯t seem right about that. Explosions
don¡¯t just happen in rich neighborhoods, especially in empty houses. The police called it a
gas explosion, an open-and-shut case. But a gas explosion would have done more damage
to the surrounding houses¡ This seemed more¡ confined. So, I decided to investigate
myself.¡±
I had to laugh at Tank. ¡°Jesus, when did you become a detective?¡±
He ignored me and continued. ¡°And you¡¯ll be thanking me for it because that¡¯s where I
found this,¡± he said and pointed at the patch. ¡°I found this buried under some rubble.
Lucky I found it before the cops did, god, they¡¯re useless. It was left out in the open,
hardly covered, near a bag of crank. With that final piece of information, everything
became a lot clearer. ¡°
¡°What the fuck?¡± I said. ¡°Are they trying to frame us?¡±
Tank shrugged. ¡°Could be. Could be something else. Not sure. But first things first, I
need you to head over there and look for any other pieces of our patch. Or anything else
that might link us to it. Don¡¯t wear your jacket, drive your truck, try to blend in.¡±
By reflex, I almost agreed without hesitation, until I remembered Buddy, sick upstairs.
My stomach sunk. There couldn¡¯t be worse timing. ¡°Tank, I just remembered. I can¡¯t.¡±
Tank¡¯s expression morphed from looking as though he was engaged and taking me
seriously to looking as though I was a twelve-year-old who told him I just accidentally
knocked his Harley over. ¡°You can¡¯t?¡±
I kicked myself for not telling him earlier in the conversation. At least I wouldn¡¯t have
had to witness that face he just made. ¡°It¡¯s Buddy. He¡¯s sick. I don¡¯t know what¡¯s going on,
