The Darkness - Jason Pinter [70]
"That," replied Leonard, "is going to revolutionize
our business."
Morgan stared at it. Theo's eyes were wide open.
"We call it 'the Darkness.' And in one week's time,"
Leonard said, "you'll be so busy selling those bags you
won't have time to spend all the money you make." Then
Leonard smiled. "But I imagine you'll find the time."
27
"Nobody knows anything."
Even though I was holding a telephone to my ear, I
wanted to wrap my hands around the piece of plastic and
choke the life out of it.
"You can't be serious," I said.
"I'm telling you, Henry," Curt said. "Nobody here
knows a damn thing about Paulina Cole's article. Nobody
knows who gave her those quotes, nobody knows where
she got her information, and if it makes you feel any
better nobody here has even heard of this so-called magic
drug, Darkness or whatever. It's like she pulled the whole
thing out of thin air."
My head hurt. Both from the chewing out by Wallace,
the frustration in having been scooped by Paulina Cole,
and the feeling that Curt was telling the truth. Curt had
his finger pretty well placed on the pulse of the NYPD,
and whenever a bombshell was about to drop, even if he
didn't clue me in ahead of time he was rarely surprised.
Right now, though, he spoke as if he was as pissed off as
I was. It sounded like Curt felt he'd been scooped by
Paulina as well.
"This whole thing doesn't make any sense," I said.
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Jason Pinter
"And the details about the rocks inside the balloon--you
didn't mention that."
"I didn't even know about that until I saw the article,"
Curt said, frustration growing in his voice. "Listen,
Henry. I know the rank and file. I know the guys who
work narcotics detail, the guys sweeping the street
corners for dealers, the ones who confiscate this crap, and
even the ones who log it in to evidence. None of them,
let me repeat, none of them, have any idea what the hell
she's talking about or where she got the info from."
"Either she pulled enough information from her ass to
make her walk funny for a month, somebody in your department has loose lips, or something is being kept a
pretty big secret from all of us."
"I don't know about you, but I think her article is
half bull."
"And the other half?"
Curt was silent for a moment. I could feel my heart
pounding in my chest. I knew his answer before he said it.
Bull or not, there was a lining of truth in Paulina's article.
"The other half," he said, "I'm just praying she's
wrong about. I grew up in this city in the eighties,
Henry. I had a cousin who got hooked on junk. He stole
two twenties from some junkie's wallet because he
needed money to cook more of that poison on a spoon.
He ended up taking eight bullets. From a six-shooter.
Which meant the junkie who killed him reloaded and
then shot him two more times. I know what crack did
to this city. I saw it, man. I'm not comparing apples to
oranges, belts to syringes. I'm just saying that if there
is any truth to Cole's story, and this stuff is already in
the marketplace, it's a faucet that's gonna be real tough
to shut off."
The Darkness
201
"If this thing is as big as Paulina claims it is," I said,
"won't it be easy to track down?"
"You'd think so, but I know a dozen narco officers
who have eyes and ears and informants up the yin yang
with access to all kinds of dope. They know everyone
from the absolute bottom of the totem pole to the people
at the top. And not one of them has heard a single peep
about Darkness."
"I just don't see Paulina making this up. I mean, she
presses every button there is, but she's not an all-out
liar. Even when she torpedoed Jack, everything she
said was true. It was a pretty despicable takedown, but
she wasn't lying."
"Listen, Henry, I hear you, but this isn't my beat. I
can only go by what the guys in Narcotics are telling me.
And if I hear anything I'll let you know. But right now
there's nothing."
"Thanks, Curt. Good luck out there. For your sake, I
hope Paulina had a sudden case of the truthful yips."
"Truthful yips.