Crystal Meth Cowboys by John Knoerle Read Free Book Online

"Stoli martini, straight up, one olive,
vedy
dry."
    Cosmo surveyed Bell's cash pile and said, "It's on the house." He turned to Lyedecker.
    "I'm good," said Wes.
    The cops watched Cosmo repeat his martini ritual for the umpteenth time. Cosmo set the brimming glass down on the unvarnished bar with great care. Bell braced his hands on the wood and bent his lips to the glass. He sipped. He faced the ceiling and shook his shaggy mane like a blue jay at a birdbath.
    Wes sucked on the ice cubes at the bottom of his glass. Looking down he saw Cyril Reese's nine millimeter sitting snugly in Bell's off duty holster. Was Bell rubbing it in? Surely he had a backup pistol at home he could have brought.
    After Sgt. Harrick collected Bell and Lyedecker's guns, he got on the radio, summoning detectives. Cyril Reese, who arrived just after Sgt. Harrick and witnessed their ritual emasculation, wasted no time. He pulled his nine millimeter from his holster and presented it to Officer Bell. Wes understood that this was a gesture of ultimate respect. A cop disarming himself in the presence of a superior to show support for his comrade. None of the other officers who crowded into room #12 thought to do the same for Wes Lyedecker. He crunched an ice cube. "So, what do you want me to say at the Shooting Review Board?"
    Bell reared back and looked offended. "Just tell the truth."
    Cosmo flicked off the overhead lights. The beer signs in the window buzzed neon reds and golds into the blueblack night.

Chapter 5
    "'8/21/93. Officer Bell stood with both feet on the back of a handcuffed juvenile,'" said Chief of Police Frank Sunomoka, a taut, handsome man with a high forehead. "'He was suspended for three days following a citizen complaint.'" The Chief pushed up his reading glasses as he shuffled Officer Policy and Discipline reports inside a yellow file folder.
    Of course, thought Bell. The surfing on a Mexican call. Shitamoko would be sure to dredge that up.
    "'11/14/92. Officer Bell broke two ribs of a handcuffed
female
suspect in the process of placing her in the rear of his squad car.'"
    Bell almost laughed. Under the informal rules of the Chief's Shooting Review Board he was entitled to object at any time. But it was too stupid, and too goddamn early in the morning. The woman had been out of her skull on jug wine and misery, and well in excess of two hundred pounds.
    "'4/30/91. Officer Bell shot a burglary suspect in the scrotum at close range. The Shooting Review Board found the shooting unjustified and recommended a two week suspension.'"
    Bell snorted. First of all the guy was at least eight feet away. Many's the time cops and crooks emptied their weapons in an eight foot firefight and not a bullet landed.
He
had fired only twice at eight feet and hit a junkie bagman ripping off a drug store and brandishing a two-foot pigsticker in the dark of 3AM, NOT killed him (though prospects for a bouncing baby Junkie Jr. were sadly slim) and still took ten unpaid days on the beach.
    Bell pried the seat of his wool uniform pants from the sticky vinyl of the secretary's chair with an audiblesqueak. The chair had been wheeled in to accommodate the makeshift hearing. The moment he'd sat in that sticky chair Bell knew he should have brought a PORAC attorney. The Chief's Shooting Review Board was not a judicial proceeding. Testimony was unsworn. Bell had explained things to the rookie. There was no one still alive who would contradict his account of what had happened. But
this
Chief's Shooting Review Board was being held in the office of the Mayor.
    The rules governing the SRB permitted the officers being questioned to select one member of the panel. Bell nominated CJ the narc because he had the most lead in his ass on the crucial question of the dangers posed to cops dealing with crazed speedfreaks. The Chief of Police was the second member of the panel and entitled to select the third and final member. When Bell and Lyedecker arrived at the Chief's office at