District-Two stands high in uptown, many of the officers placed here are only a stone’s throw away from a Divisional placement, and Gary feels sick to the stomach about it.

“Welcome to Two, where cops come to die?”  Gary announces to Davey.

“Come to die?”

“Fuckers placed here are a hop, skip and a jump away from a Divisional seating. Waste of time task forces are formed here, people sit around and make out they are doing real police work, but in reality, they’re just slowly losing their grip with the world and then Divisional completes that separation.”

“You don’t think real cops can work in Divisional?”

“Never seen one,” Gary replies with a smile as he points to a well-dressed man sitting at a desk. “That’s Steedman, see look at the fucker, he thinks he’s a fucking movie star.”

As they get closer Steedman looks up and locks eyes with Gary, he gets to his feet and smiles, “Gary, it’s been a while.”

“Gets like that when you’re reaching for that brass ring,” Gary says as they shake hands, “You remember Davey?”

“Of course, Davey, what can I help you boys with, or are you just visiting?”

“I was wondering if you could answer a few questions about a former partner of yours?”

“What do you want with Allison?”

“How do you know we’re after Allison?”

“I’ve been a cop for twenty-five years Gary, it’s my job, and I got a call before you boys got here about the murders you’re dealing with at Three, you have to remember anything drug related comes across my taskforces desk.”

“Spoiled the surprise then, anyway we have reason to believe Allison is responsible for the murder,” Gary replies. “If you’re not aware, we have DNA samples from all the children that are a one hundred percent match for Allison, and we also have reason to believe he’s in possession of a batch of MercuryFour that was meant to be in the evidence locker at Eight.”

“Kids were never Allison’s style Gary, whatever evidence you have it planted. And the MercuryFour, junkies don’t even touch that anymore, and Allison he would’ve never been able to get his hands on the stuff in an evidence locker anyway.”

“We’ve already checked Right’s evidence lockers and the drugs are gone, so that might be a small hole in your assumptions.”

“Fuck, look Allison may have fallen into drugs, but he’s still a good man. I use him as a snitch every now and then, but I’m telling you Gary, there’s no way he would be involved with killing children, that’s just not him.”

“I don’t give a fuck Steedman, the evidence points at Allison, good men don’t go around killing innocent children, let alone pumping them up with MercuryFour. Now do you know where Allison is?” Gary asks, Steedman looks down at his feet for a few moments.

“I can take you to him, but Gary, please, let me talk to him first before you do, I may be able to get at least something out of him.”

“Lead the way,” Gary replies as he holds his arm towards the doorway.

 

#

 

Gary screws up his nose as he gets out of his cruiser, ‘How the mighty have fallen, Allison used to have a place in uptown, but this shithole is definitely a move in the wrong direction.’ He looks around the junk riddled car park of the Costa Mae Hotel.

“You sure he’s here?” Gary asks.

“If I know Allison this is where he will be, he may be a junkie, but he’s also a creature of habit. Regardless of anything else, he always comes home at around eight and then leaves again around eleven-thirty, he’s very predictable, that’s why I use him so much,” Steedman says.

“Good for you, let’s hope your creature of habit is just that,” Gary replies as he leans up against the doorway.

“So you like it rough or easy these days?” Steedman asks.

“On three,” Gary says giving Steedman a vicious stare. “One, two, three!” He yells as they crash through the doorway.

“Marcus Allison, District-Three PD, stay where you are!” He spots the body instantly, his mouth covered with foam, drug overdose, blood trails lead from his eyes and nose to a pool on his chest, pockets of blisters cover most of his face, as well as a white powder.

“Fuck!” Gary yells as he slams his fist into a wall. “Get Danny over here, and tell him we’ve got Allison’s body.”

 

#

 

“I’m telling you, he didn’t kill himself,” Danny says.

“How can you be sure?”

“The amount of MercuryFour in his system is astronomical, no one could’ve survived a quarter of that amount and still managed to feed the rest in, he was killed,” Danny replies. “And there’s something else, see these markings on his inner thigh?” Danny pulls the sheet back over Allison’s body pointing them out. “Someone held him down, drove their boot right into his thigh and forced the drugs into him. These red marks around his mouth and nose tell me that right away. We’ve all seem the damage MercuryFour can do, it rips away at the skin, but these are more like grazes than side effects of the drugs.”

“Great, one door closes and another one opens, so you think it was revenge for the kids?” Davey asks.

“Maybe, or maybe he never did the kids, maybe this was a way of completely throwing us off whoever really did this, dead men tell no lies.”

“So what do we do, how do we find the killer?”

“I bet Steedman knows!” Gary replies as he grabs his phone.

“Hello Delta District-Two PD, you’re speaking with Thomas, how may I help you?”

“Thomas, this is Detective Inspector Jackson from District-Three, I need to have a word with Chief Inspector Steedman?”

“One moment detective inspector,” Thomas replies, the Delta City police logo appears and some crappy music begins to play, several minutes pass before Thomas reappears, “I’m sorry Detective Inspector, I cannot locate Chief Inspector Steedman, he seems to be out of the office at the moment. Would you like to leave a message?”

“Do you know where he is?”

“No, sorry detective inspector, there are no notes on his schedule.”

“Look Thomas, this is an emergency, can you locate his cruiser for me?”

“One moment, I’ll patch through to dispatch and get the coordinates for you.”

“Thanks,” Gary looks at Davey.

“You got a feeling?”

“Sort of, I’m not sure just yet, we’ll see how it plays out.”

Thomas comes back on the other end of the line, “Detective Inspector Jackson, his cruiser is located at Clover Mall, parking level A-Thirty-Seven.”

“Thanks Thomas, you’ve done great,” Gary says as he places the phone down.

“Clover Mall it is?” Davey says.

“Too fucking right, Clover Mall, let’s see what he’s hiding from,” Gary replies.

“You think he’s going to ground?”

“Only one way to find out.”

 

END OF ACT III