Frank Zafiro - Some Degree of Murder

My eyes darted back and forth between the entry way and Virgil, who stood stock-still, watching me. As I approached the doorway, I could see a shattered boom box on its side against the far wall. A glass pipe was in the middle of the room, not unlike the thousands of other pipes I’d seen.

I forced my eyes to the bed.

Even folded in half and tied to the bed-post, I recognized her. The slick, red hair was disheveled and there was no hint of anger in her slack face. She still wore the large cross at her neck.

My stomach churned.

VIRGIL

As he stared into the other room, Tower’s face, reddened with the excitement of our stand-off, went gradually white and his lips tightened against each other.

When he moved his eyes slowly back to me, a new hatred burned in his eyes.

TOWER

I flashed a look at Virgil.

“Is she dead?” I asked.

Virgil shrugged slightly. “He hit her pretty hard right.”

I looked back at the young girl’s face and at her bare chest, watching for signs of breath.

“She would be, though.”

I couldn’t tell if she was breathing or not.

Turning my eyes back to Virgil, I asked, “Would be?”

“Dead. If we hadn’t stopped him, she would be dead right now for certain.”

I met his eyes again and stared into them.

VIRGIL

“My way is better,” I said again.

Tower’s lip twitched as he struggled with the dilemma.

“I’ll sweeten the pot for you,” I said, looking for the final push to send him over the edge.

“How’s that?” Tower asked, an odd rasp to his voice.

“In the small of my back is a gun I think you’ll want back.”

“Why would I want it?”

“It belongs to one of your brothers.”

Confusion washed over Tower’s face. “What?”

I struggled with the proper way to tell him. If I planted the hook wrong, he’d want to nail me for what I did to the other cop.

“Let’s just say I found it after I talked with the blonde hooker.”

TOWER

My mind raced. He had to be talking about Toni. And if he was talking about Toni-

Hiero. He had Hiero’s gun.

How did that happen?

Virgil watched me and I watched him back. His gun hand didn’t move, but his left hand drifted slowly to the small of his back. He drew out a Glock just like mine and held it by the barrel.

“You want it?” he asked.

“How’d you get it?”

Virgil was silent for a moment. Finally, he said, “Sometimes people are in the wrong place at the wrong time and shit goes bad for them.”

“You’re the one who beat up Hiero,” I accused him.

Virgil shook his head. “Wrong place, wrong time. Now he’s fucked and you can help him out.”

I stared down the barrel of my gun at him. “Why should I believe anything you say?”

“Because you know it’s the truth.”

VIRGIL

I knelt slowly down, my gun still near Rowdy but not on him. Carefully, I laid the cop’s gun on the ground and pushed it across the bare concrete floor. It bumped into Tower’s foot but he never moved his eyes from me.

I stood back up and shifted my weight, getting ready for whatever play Tower was going to make.

“There’s the deal. Your buddy’s life for his.”

My eyes flashed to the moaning biker on the ground.

Tower’s face went pale and he swallowed hard before speaking. “I don’t make deals.”

“Then we’re both going to end up bloody here. There’s no one coming to your rescue, is there, Tower?”

TOWER

So there it was. I couldn’t bluff him and he couldn’t bluff me.

Somebody was going to die in this room, I realized.

Take the deal. Help Hiero out of a bind.

I shook my head slightly. I didn’t owe Hiero anything. Except that he wore the same badge as me.

Rowdy killed this guy’s little girl.

He killed Serena Gonzalez.

I tried to push that thought from my head, but the picture of the red-haired girl in the next room replaced it.

Rowdy was sick. He was broken.

You’re a cop. Not a judge.

Virgil’s eyes never left mine. It was like he was listening to the screaming inside my head.

“Your way, he gets prison. Maybe.” Virgil said, his voice almost soothing. “My way, he gets what he deserves.”

Rowdy moaned and pushed himself up to his knees. “Where’s my little fuck-bitch?” he muttered like a drunk.

Slowly, I lowered my gun.

VIRGIL

As soon as Tower lowered his gun, I moved toward Rowdy and brought my Glock up on him.

“What the fuck?” Rowdy yelled as his head listed and eyes struggled to focus.

With a thrust, I jammed the Glock into Rowdy’s right eye.

“Hey, man,” Rowdy slurred just before I pulled the trigger.

TOWER

The loud crack of the shot made me jump. It was coupled with the wet slapping sound of the bullet tearing away Rowdy’s face.

I watched Rowdy fall limply to the floor and a piece of me died right there with him.

VIRGIL

My eyes shifted away from Rowdy’s limp body to the cop standing to the right of me. His face was whiter than it had been but his eyes watched me intently.

I nodded to the southwest corner of the room. “I’m gonna walk through that door over there nice and slow,” I said, my voice as calm as I could make it, “and you get to be the hero by saving the girl.”

TOWER

“I’m no hero,” I muttered to him.

Virgil shrugged and watched me.

I swallowed slowly and tried to think.

“Are we good?” Virgil asked me.

I realized that I’d made my decision when I lowered my gun. Enough blood had been spilled here today.

I looked at Virgil’s gun and the black leather gloves he wore.

“Leave the gun,” I told him.

He didn’t move, but only looked at me.

“Is the gun clean?”

“Of course.”

“Then leave it,” I told him. “Don’t make it something we have to look for.”

VIRGIL

Tower’s face had softened but his eyes remained alert. His gun hung at this side. I didn’t think he’d shoot me, but I wasn’t about to play odds with a cop.

I exhaled slow and hard through my nose, forcing me to calm down and consider the situation. “I’ll drop it after you put your gun away.”

Tower gripped his gun tighter and his head shook slowly. “I can’t do that.”

I backed up slowly to the door, my arm extended behind me feeling for the door. In my other hand, my Glock stared harmlessly at the floor. “And I can’t turn my back on you.”

TOWER

Virgil was almost to the door.

“Then drop the gun when you get outside,” I told him. “I don’t care. This just has to be wrapped up tight.”

The big man nodded slowly, finally understanding that I wasn’t going to betray him. Virgil’s hand touched the push bar on the door and he hesitated for a second.

“Hey.”

Virgil’s face was impassive. “What?”

“Turn left when you get out that door. And run.”

Virgil gave me a nod and shoved the crash bar on the door. Light flooded the room as he slipped through the doorway. He was haloed by the light for a brief moment, then disappeared.

VIRGIL

The fresh April air greeted me when I moved outside. I dropped my gun as I sprinted away from the building and past Rowdy’s white van. Three loud cracks rang out, forcing me to pick up my pace.

I glanced over my shoulder searching for Tower and expecting to see a gun blazing away in his hand. When I saw nothing, I turned forward and continued to run, thankful for an honest cop.