Roughly one smidge later I’m inside the police line, snapping shots away to my hearts contents. Franky’s interviewing witnesses. First the people on the street, and then the parlor management and staff. I wink at the willowy fellow I met up front who told me that he’d never seen the man who was not more than a tangled heap of human on the ground in front of me. He smiles back at me. No telling the temperament on those things, he knows that I knew he was lying. He knows that I’m rubbing his face in it. He grins the same smile he had on when he told me to buzz off. Maybe they just don’t have the same number of facial features, I mean for all intensive purposes they are basically talking trees.
“Did you see where the green guy got to?” I hear Frank say from behind me.
“Not a clue. All I know is that he didn’t come out the front entrance and he left the room pretty darn quick.” I said, snapping another shot of the newspaper stand that had “cushioned” Vince’s fall. “You know who he is?”
“Yeah actually I do.” He says.
“No shit. I thought all those greenies looked the same to you cops.” I said with a smile.
“Yeah well, when they start getting investigating by more than just vice and homicide they start having names.” He says, as I urge him to continue. “He goes by Grog the Mac.”
I laugh a little. “You’re shitting me right?”
“No, they go for names like those. Anyways he’s with the Stormbrew clan. You know, bunch of orcs, make their home in that project down in the Swain district. Look at your pic there, see the tat on his left shoulder.” I look and sure enough, a small bubbling pot with a lighting bolt streaking into it.
“Okay, so whose investigating this Grog the Mac?” I ask.
“Major Crimes Unit.” He says. I whistle in appreciation. In case you don’t know, the major crimes unit are pretty much the top of the top when it comes to police forces in the city. They’re like our own little internal FBI/CIA/NSA rolled into one. You gotta be two things to be a member of the MCU, ballsy as all hell and smart as all get out. If you’re under their gun it’s typically because you really really screwed the pooch. Then again some guys use it as street cred. Not too many chumps out there badass enough to claim to be on the MCU’s list. Not many at all who can keep boasting that for very long.
“So what the hell did he do to get on their list?” I ask.
“Don’t know, it’s above my pay grade, but I will give you one thing. I need a little help upstairs, an opinion on where you think this guy got to would help me out if you know what I mean.” He says.
* * *
