“Go around and cut him off,” I shout out to Fox, watching the little fucker jump the fence. I follow him up, dropping to my feet while he clears the next fence.
“Remind me why we’re chasing this fucker?” Fox’s irritated voice comes over my lapel radio, and I smirk, knowing deep down he secretly likes this shit.
“’Cause the punk runs with The Disciples and we still need to get a lock down on Dominic,” I pant back, keeping up my chase.
“So, for *. Got it.” I ignore his jab, scaling another fence into a second backyard. Victor keeps his lead, clearing the third fence as I clear the second.
Little fucker is fast.
Upping my pace, I make it over the third fence just as I catch him crawling up underneath the house of an unsuspecting family.
“Come out, Victor, you have nowhere to go!” I shout, reaching for my flashlight and shining it under the house.
“I got nothin’ to hide. I don't want no trouble,” he calls out, just as Fox meets me around the back.
“Then don’t make us come under there, Victor,” Fox warns, his flashlight finding him first. He’s in the back corner, back to us. Either searching for a weapon or dropping his stash.
My bet he’s dropping his stash.
“Victor, we can play it two ways. You can come out, slowly making no sudden movement, or we can send the dogs in there.”
“Don’t send the dogs, man,” his shaky voice pleads back.
“Aww, look at that, Sarge, he doesn’t like dogs either.” Fox snorts, enjoying this way more than I am.
“Then slowly come out, with your hands up,” I shout, keeping my gun trained on him.
“This is fucking bullshit.” He starts cursing as he crawls his ass back out. After a few choice words, he clears the house, and I step in closer, ordering him down on the ground.
“Hands behind your back.” Fox wrestles him to the ground, and I follow him down.
“What am I under arrest for? I didn’t do nothin’” The dumb fuck tries to fight us, suddenly more brave than ten seconds ago.
“Quit resisting.” I grunt, digging my knee deeper into his back.
“I ain’t resisting.”
“You are. Relax your arms.” It takes a few a minutes to detain him, but eventually we get him.
“What the fuck were you thinking, Victor?” I ask when he’s calmed down and secured.
“I swear I didn’t mean to run. You just rolled up on me out of the blue,” he grunts out his reply as Fox pulls him up to his feet, giving him a full pat down. “I was scared.”
“You have something to be scared about?” Fox asks when he establishes he’s clean.
“Nah, man, I’m on the straight arrow.”
Straight arrow my ass.
“Well, you're not on the straight arrow today. You’re going to jail.”
“What the hell for?”
“Well for one, making me run and two, for whatever we find up under the house.”
“What? That’s some bullshit. I didn’t put nothin' under there.” He denies any wrongdoing, but guilt is etched all over his face.
“What’s up under the house, Victor?” I ask again.
“Nothin’, I’m innocent.”
“347. We have the perp in custody. We’re gonna need a K-9 unit out here." I call in for the dog unit. If there’s anything up under the house, they will find it. Almost immediately, control radios back with confirmation and an estimated time.
“I have the dog coming out, Victor, so we'll know for sure then.”
“I swear I didn't drop anything.” He holds his ground, not admitting to anything.
“Good, so my dog isn't gonna find any drugs up under the house then?” I push, knowing I’m gonna find something.
“No, I mean, if there is something under there, it isn’t mine.”
“You think there are drugs under there, but someone else put them there?” I bite his play.
“I mean, maybe. I-I think I saw something.” He shrugs like it’s no big deal.
“You saw something?” It takes everything in me not to shake the fucker out of his stupidity.
“Yeah, I mean maybe.”
“How much are we talking about?” Fox steps in when he notices how hard I’m finding it to keep it together.
“Maybe, I don’t know, looked like a gram. Maybe two.”
“And you didn't touch it?” I gather myself enough to keep up the interrogation.
“Well, I mean, when I crawled up under there my hand might have touched it.”
Seriously, you can’t fucking make this shit up.
“347 to control, cancel the K-9.” I decide to go up under the house on my own. We still have Mitch in the back of the cruiser to take back to Boys Haven and the less paperwork I need to file, the better off he might be in this.
“You remember where you saw it?”
“I can’t be sure, but maybe up in the back corner somewhere.” Fox can’t hold his laughter this time, and if I wasn’t worried about Mitch getting caught up in this bullshit, then I’d be laughing right along with him.