shrugged. “Can’t find him just yet. He’s AWOL and he hasn’t been at his last address. We’re working on smoking him out. We’ll get him. I.A.B. has eyes and ears everywhere.” He looked toward the window. “You okay, Cain?”
Lucas answered him without turning around. “Uh-huh. I’m good.” Butch got up and stood just behind him. Butch was usually a nice guy, but he was also one of the best men in I.A. He did his job. “You know, Lucas, I believe you got every right to be angry. I come in here accusing your girlfriend of co-conspiracy, corruption, and possibly being an accessory. Guess it seems like no matter how many times you put your foot in Keith Childs’s ass, he seems determined to pay you back for stealing his girl, huh?”
Lucas smiled a little, but it held no humor. “I would ask you how you know all that, Butch, but it’s obvious you keep your sticky little feelers out.”
Butch smiled, too, but his smile was real. “It’s a small world, Cain, and I like to know what makes it turn. Forgive me for bein’ nosy like that. People talk, and everybody knows I’ve got my spies … and they’re every where.”
Noah sat up a little. “Do tell? Who are they?” Butch chuckled. “That’s information you’ll never get outta me, Ramsey.”
Lucas looked down at him. “You can’t make charges like that stick, Butch.”
“I don’t want to make ‘em stick. What I want is to send Keith Childs away for a long time. I came here for two reasons: to get a formal statement from Nick and to see if I can get anything from you guys that would be helpful in my investigation.”
Leah blinked and sucked her teeth. “You want us to help you with the investigation? I can’t believe you, Butch, after you came in here slinging accusations and collecting formal statements. You must have lost your damn mind.”
Butch shrugged. “Not really, Wheeler. Look, I gotta tell you guys, with the amount of animosity on both sides, it will be a lot easier to smoke him out with your help than to waste time and let him get further away from us, just plain searching for him. Doing it the hard way, we’ll probably have to extradite him. With your help, we’ll have his ass in a heartbeat.”
Noah looked in Lucas’s direction, holding his tongue. Lucas was looking at Nick. She looked back at him apprehensively as he walked over to her and touched her hair.
“Don’t you see what’s going on? They want to use you as bait,” he said quietly.
Nick took his hand out of her hair and held it in her own. She held onto Lucas but she looked at Butch. “I’m not risking my badge, or my reputation for that asshole, and I’m not going for the guilt by association, okie–doke?” She took a deep breath, closed her eyes and opened them. “My official statement for the record, Inspector Harper: I, Detective Second Grade Nicole Dana Hardaway, was involved in an intimate relationship with accused Detective Second Grade, Keith Alexander Childs, for almost three years. During that time, I was unaware of any illicit activity on his part or abuse of his badge. If the department needs my assistance leading to his apprehension, I will comply immediately.” Butch nodded. “Okay, Nick. Good enough. Thank you.” Leah sucked her teeth. Even though Butch Harper was better than most, she hated the bullshit of his job.
Butch looked at her and shrugged, but not with indifference. “You know how it goes, Leah. Regardless of personal feelings, I still got a job to do.”
“Yeah, and right now your job is to railroad Nick into helpin’ you catch this scumbag!” Noah started angrily.
Butch cut him off. “Whoa, wait a minute,” he said, frowning and putting his hands up defensively. “Railroad? What are you sayin’?” Noah looked at him accusingly and actually pointed a finger at him. “You I.A. guys are all alike. Nick might not have a lot of experience dealin’ with you sharks, but me and Luke have. You strolled your fat ass up in this hospital like you were on her side, shuckin’ and jivin’ and doin’ your little tap dance to lull her into a false sense of security. Then you did the swoop down, right Butch? You sugarcoated everything, then you showed her your teeth and let her know you were lookin’ at her for co-conspiracy and corruption charges. You delivered that shit like a wolf lookin’ at a sheep and lickin’ his chops.” Butch was still frowning in offense. He attempted to cut Noah off again. “Wait a minute, Ramsey —”
Noah moved forward like he forgot he was hurt and his leg was in traction. He closed his eyes and gritted his teeth against the sudden pain. Noah opened his clear gray eyes and gave Butch an extremely hostile look. “You got one more time to cut me off when I’m talkin’. You better be glad I can’t get outta this bed and put my foot in your ass.” Leah was startled by Noah’s vehemence. He shouldn’t be working himself up like this. He was going to hurt himself.
She went to him in an attempt to smooth him out. “Noah, you need to calm down. Why are you going off on Butch like this?”
“‘Cause he ain’t bein’ straight with Nick. You see it, don’t you, Luke?”
Lucas shrugged. “I gotta tell you, Butch, it stinks like a deal to me.
A lousy deal.” Nick frowned and stared at Butch with anxious eyes.
“What’s he talking about?”
Butch looked coolly from Lucas to Noah, then back at Nick. “I really can’t say.”
“That’s bullshit. You can,” Noah said.
“Yeah, why don’t you tell her the only option she really has is to do whatever you want her to do, because if she doesn’t, you people are gonna trump up charges on her and either suspend her or relieve her of her badge. Does that sound about right, Butch?” Lucas said, eyeing him like he wouldn’t mind kicking his ass, and looking like he’d be able to do it — despite his injuries.
“What?” The word squeaked out of Nick’s throat.
“They’re puttin’ the squeeze on you, Nick, and if you ask me, that’s pretty damn dirty, too,” Noah said, trying to get comfortable. He glanced at Leah and she shifted his pillow.
“But why? Why are you putting these kinds of conditions on me?
What did I do to deserve this? I could’ve gotten killed, and you treat me like this?” Nick said, angrily.
“It’s simple. They can’t find him by ordinary methods, they need you to flush him out, and they’re not givin’ you room to say no,” Lucas said, staring a hole through Butch.
Nick frowned. “I guess I never really had a choice.” She looked at Butch like he’d grown up out of the ground. “You tricked me into making a statement. You tricked me, Butch. I thought you were different than that.”
Noah snickered. “He’s not. He’s a fuckin’ goblin from the goddamn I.A.B. No offense, Butch. You’re a nice enough guy on your own, but when you got on your I.A. costume, you ain’t got no reflection.” Butch chuckled and put his hands in his pockets. He looked back at Noah with eyes much harder than Leah remembered. “See … I know how you feel about I.A., Ramsey. Your fights with us are legendary you and Cain. If you two weren’t so busy firing your weapons every chance you got, you’d never hear from us.”
“We don’t fire our weapons without just cause. You people stick us in life threatening situations and you don’t expect us to protect ourselves? Fuck you on that one, Inspector Harper,” Lucas said,
