The Darkness - Jason Pinter [73]
did he have to do with this new drug? And if he had
something to do with it, no doubt Brett Kaiser did, too. I
The Darkness
207
could only hope Victoria Kaiser could shed a little light
on this, because just like the drug, this story felt dangerous as hell and getting darker.
28
Morgan held the metal bar as the train sped uptown. He
was standing next to Theo Goggins, the two of them
carrying briefcases with enough narcotics to last Scarface
until the sequel.
Morgan admired Theo's suit, and his blue tie was bold
and bright.
"You were right about the tie," Morgan said. "It works."
"You think I'd lie about something as important as
that? I started off making cold calls. First time I got a fish
to bite on a stock, I was wearing a blue tie. First time I
closed an account--blue tie."
"First time you sold stuff that would get you jail time."
Theo smiled. "Blue tie. But I ain't never going to jail.
Only way I go to jail is if you rat on me, and I ain't never
going to give you cause to do that. So you make up a
story, it's your ass they find broken into itty-bitty pieces
floating in the East River."
"Same to you, my friend."
"See," Theo said, smiling, "we're going to get along
just fine."
Morgan's palms were sweaty. His legs shook from
time to time, as he waited for somebody to come up to
The Darkness
209
him--maybe a cop or one of those transit workers--grab
him by the collar, rip open the briefcase spilling pills and
dope all over the dirty car floor.
But that didn't happen.
Nobody batted an eye at them.
It was about eight-thirty in the morning, and Morgan
and Theo were on their way to meet their first customer
of the day. Morgan wondered who ordered drugs along
with their morning cup of joe, but he figured there were
enough people in this city who either worked from home
or were unemployed that there was a 24/7 market for
their wares.
Theo was whistling something softly. Morgan couldn't
tell what it was, but he figured trying to guess would
keep his mind off the legal ramifications of being caught
with his goods.
Guessing the tune was impossible. First of all, Theo
didn't seem like a particularly good whistler. Instead
of a clean, high-pitched noise coming from his lips, it
was more like a low rattle punctuated by occasional
bursts of spit.
Theo paused to wipe his mouth, then he said to Morgan,
"You need something?" Morgan hadn't realized that he'd
likely been staring at his partner for nearly five minutes.
"Just wondered what you're whistling," he said.
"A little Jay-Z."
"Cool."
Theo resumed his "whistling." Morgan held the rails,
his mind beginning to wander.
"So what's your story?" Theo said, snapping Morgan out of it.
"My story?"
"Yeah. How'd you end up in the basement of some
210
Jason Pinter
nightclub loading up on this stuff. Not exactly the kind
of job you find on Monster.com."
"I got laid off," Morgan said. "A few months ago."
"How much you owe?"
"Excuse me?"
"Come on," Theo said, smiling. "You wouldn't be
here if you didn't have debts pouring out your eyeballs.
So how much?"
"In total?"
"No, itemize it for me, asshole."
Morgan smiled back. He liked Theo.
"All in all? A little over nine hundred thousand."
Theo whistled. For whatever reason, this time the
sound came through clean.
"Let me guess, most of that tied up in your pad."
"Most of it. Still have almost a million on my mortgage."
"You try to sell it?"
"Yeah. No takers. What about you?"
"Same shit. Only I got laid off a year ago."
"How much do you owe?" Morgan asked.
"Three million."
"You're kidding me."
"Uh-uh," Theo said. "I bought up half a dozen properties in the city. Made the down payments, figured I could
rent them out, have other people pay my carrying costs
and then I'd just sell them down the road and make a
killing."
"Man, talk about bad timing."
"Yeah, tell me about it. My credit is shot. I couldn't
get a loan for a pack of gum right now."
"So who'd you know