Wednesday morning, October 20
Raul had lain low for the past two days, waiting for the heat to blow over. Now he was back in Joey Ramirez’s office, trying to explain why Detective Morales had let it be known that the cops were no longer interested in him.
Joey was not a happy man. He glared across his desk at the squirming Raul.
“You worthless piece of shit,” he hissed, “you spilled your guts to Morales, didn’t you?”
Raul mustered enough courage to be indignant, as if he had stood firm against the detective’s grilling. “I didn’t tell him nothing about the drug deal, Boss, I swear. Not a word.” The fact that Morales had let him off the hook on that aspect of the case was not mentioned.
“So what did you tell him? Spill it, all of it.”
“I told him that Carlos and Lam were buddies, that’s all. That Carlos came up here to you because he’s Cuban and you’re Cuban and he thought you could help him out.”
“How would he know about me?”
“Maybe from Tio Julio at the Port of Call. It’s right across the street from the dock where his ship tied up.”
Joey considered this explanation. “Did Morales buy that?”
“Yeah, sure. Why not? Anyway, I said you gave him some money and told him to get lost. Didn’t want nothing to do with no murderer.”
“They figure he did kill Lam, didn’t just find him dead like he said?”
Raul nodded. “They’re looking for Lam’s killer—that’s all we talked about. Don’t care about nothing else.”
“So you think Carlos was lying?”
“Yeah, I figure he iced him and robbed him, then came up here to sell you the dope, get paid twice. But I didn’t say nothing like that to Morales.”
Joey leaned across the desk and fixed his gaze on Raul. “I’m glad to hear it.” His eyes narrowed. “Real glad. From now on, you got an opinion, keep it to yourself unless I ask for it. And if I hear you been blabbing on the street or anywhere else, you’re gonna wish you’d never been born. Now get out, and keep your cock-sucking mouth shut!”
“Absolutely, Boss, you got it!” blurted Raul with relief. He had prepared himself for much worse abuse.
He was not a prayerful young man, but he now prayed that Carlos had escaped. If they got him, he could lead them straight to Joey and a kilo of cocaine.