Assume Nothing by Gar Anthony Haywood Read Free Book Online

within. ‘Not a chance. No way. You’re talking about what, two hundred thousand dollars? I couldn’t get another dime out of my folks if I put a gun to their fucking heads.’
    ‘And that goes double for me,’ Sinnott said. ‘My father’s cut me off. He’s all done loaning me money.’
    ‘Perhaps if your parents were made to understand the gravity of the situation, they’d reconsider,’ Cross said.
    ‘And exactly how are we supposed to do that?’ Clarke asked him. ‘Make them understand the gravity of the situation? “Hey Mom, Dad, we owe a drug dealer two hundred fifty thousand in a week, and if we don’t come up with the scratch, he’s gonna cut our balls off.” Is that what we’re supposed to say?’
    ‘Of course not. What I would do is make up a story in which, if you don’t get the loan, your family’s good name will become front page news for all the worst possible – and most socially embarrassing – reasons. Your folks may not give a shit about your balls, but they sure as hell care about their reputations. Feel free to correct me if I’m wrong.’
    No one even bothered to try.
    In the four days since that time, Cross had proven to be a prophet. Using bullshit cover stories along the lines of what he had proposed, Clarke and Baumhower had already managed to squeeze roughly a hundred thirty grand, in total, from their respective parents, and each was hopeful they could get another ten or twenty between them if it became absolutely necessary. Only Sinnott’s parents had refused to cave, his father holding fast to his promise that the bank of Harmon Sinnott was closed to his son forever.
    All four partners were cash poor and buried in debt, Cross most especially; by selling what little they could at fire sale prices, they anticipated being able to pull together a little over $50,000, at the most, over the next several days. That, even added to what Clarke and Baumhower had received from their respective parents, wouldn’t be near enough. Sinnott’s old man had to come around for at least another seventy, and fast, or Will and his friends were going to find out just how much truth there was in the horror stories people liked to tell about Ruben Lizama.
    When Clarke read Will Sinnott’s email, referring his Class Act partners to the online version of the Times’ story on the discovery of Gillis Rainey’s body the day before, he could barely believe it. It would have been funny had it not been so terrifying. The burial pit they’d dug for themselves just kept getting deeper and deeper.
    Rainey’s body being found so soon was a complication they didn’t need. To survive, over the next seven days everyone had to be thinking about one thing, and one thing only: scraping the rest of Ruben’s money together. But Clarke knew his weak sister associates couldn’t be counted on to do that and worry about facing a murder rap, too. As long as there was a chance the police could connect them to Gillis Rainey, no matter how remote, Baumhower and Sinnott, and perhaps even Cross, were going to be distracted by the possibility.
    This guy Joseph Reddick was the problem. He was the one who could put Rainey and Baumhower together. The odds were a hundred-to-one against that he ever would, but it could happen. It would be just their luck. The only way to reduce the discovery of Rainey’s body to a non-issue was to make Reddick a non-issue.
    Baumhower and Sinnott would bitch and moan, and Cross would probably object strenuously, but this time around, Clarke was going to tell his best boy where he could stick his objections and play lead dog for once. He’d raised his share of Ruben’s money and the others were going to need clear heads to do the same.
    This dumb shit Joseph Reddick had to disappear and Ben Clarke, felon in training, knew just how to make it happen.

SEVEN
    R eddick’s boss at the City Attorney’s office was a self-important little prick named Carl Hart. Hart was a short, dark-haired man