Page 41 of Wrench
Ripper caught it and hung his head, hiding it in his pocket. ¡°Yes, Tank.¡±
¡°Idiot,¡± Tank mumbled before resuming. ¡°What else did you find at the site? The rest
of the patch?¡±
¡°Nothing,¡± I said. ¡°We searched every inch, even all around the site, everywhere we
could without trespassing, that is. Just the meth and that¡¯s it.¡±
¡°Hmm¡¡± Tank stroked his beard with his thumb and index finger. ¡°Hopefully it
burned away and doesn¡¯t show up somewhere later.¡± Brief worry flashed over his eyes
before he moved onto the next person. ¡°Archer. How were the roads today? Did you and
the gang find anything?¡±
¡°Nothing official,¡± Archer said, ¡°but Hollywood ¡¯n Crow went asking around the
convenient store alleys around Seventeenth Avenue.¡±
Crow brushed the strands of light blond hair that fell from his low ponytail out of his
eyes. ¡°Bunch of junkies said they saw guys in our colors selling crank last week. Even got
one of their whores to go back with them in exchange for some. Disgusting.¡±
Tank slammed his fist on the wooden table and the vibrations rolled Maverick¡¯s beer
bottle over.
¡°Watch it!¡± Maverick leaped off his chair to avoid the spill of the contents. ¡°Now you
owe me a beer!¡±
Tank responded with a cold, dark glare that made Maverick mutter, ¡°Sorry, Tank,¡± and
zip his mouth before walking to Evelyn behind the bar to grab a new beer.
Tank cleared his throat to regain attention from the club. ¡°Boys, we¡¯re getting framed,¡±
he said and all of us grew silent. When Maverick sat back down, he looked confused but
didn¡¯t interrupt.
All of us already suspected that was the case. Since the day before, we had all
conversed and mulled over our theories, all of them leading to framing. But when Tank
confirmed it, a fire blazed within me. Within all of us, I was sure.
¡°Rooster,¡± Tank said. ¡°I told you to check their black book. What¡¯d it say?¡±
¡°Right, oh.¡± He pulled out the raggedy book onto the table, opened it up to a June
calendar, pointed to the 14th, and paraphrased the messy writing. ¡°Two months ago, they
had a meeting to buy a house on Argyle Road, another nice neighborhood in the
