At 7:37 Monday morning, my secret cell rang.
“It’s Prescott,” he said, as if he wasn’t the only one with this phone number.
“How’d it go last night?” I’d wanted to lurk in an alley as the cops swarmed the store, but I knew better than to take an unnecessary risk.
“It’s not what we thought,” Prescott replied. “Tony Walker isn’t laundering money through the Cash Stop.”
My gut sank. “I’m sorry. I really thought—”
“No apologies necessary, kid. What we got is even better.” I could tell he had a wise-ass smirk on his face. “See, Walker’s executives were making cash drops there. You know why? They were paying the Demon’s Sons, who supply the coke for the Diamond Dust.”
“Holy. Shit.” I swallowed this information whole.
“We’ve been trying to put a case together against the Demon’s Sons for years. They weren’t expecting this move, Darren. We’ve got hard evidence on them now.”
“You’re saying some of them will be charged?”
“It’s not that simple. We can put away a couple of the underlings, like the guy who actually runs the place, but the high rollers are based in California and sure as hell won’t be coming back this way anytime soon.”
My fist curled in frustration. “So you can’t connect Tony.”
“Not yet, no. There’s no paper trail. He made sure of that.”
“Oh.” I felt like a fool. Somehow I’d been hoping it would be one tip, one bust, and the cops would find everything they needed.
“Don’t let it get you down, Darren. Think about it. We’ve really hit Walker where it hurts.”
That’s when it clicked. “Wait a minute. If the Demon’s Sons are too spooked to come back here, that means . . .”
“You got it. Our friendly neighborhood drug trafficker is out of a supplier. And trust me, finding new suppliers who can deliver quality product on such a large scale is next to impossible these days.”
I couldn’t believe it. The Diamond Dust was going to run out! It wasn’t what I’d intended to happen—none of this meant Diamond Tony was going to jail. But cutting off his supply was a victory. He’d lose thousands of dollars each day. What would Tony do then?
He was going to be fucking livid.
I felt a rush of satisfaction. Diamond Tony, you have no idea who you messed with.
“My boss is happy, Darren,” Prescott said. “And you know what that means.”
“You’re getting a promo?”
“Looks like it.” He chuckled. “I’ll keep you informed.”
Anatomy of a Snitch
In my hood, being a snitch
Is the worst thing you can be
Get the cash for the tip
Take the sting from poverty
Peeps snitching left and right
It’s more common than you know
Let your conscience be your guide
The rest is gonna flow
You’re behind enemy lines
And you’ve entered into war
It’s not about the money
Time to even up the score.