All characters are adults.
*****
Cast of Characters:
Ruby Sparkman: An appealing American woman put together on an assembly-line and mass produced for men across America.
Detective Dodie Hilton: She looked like a plump poodle with a sweet face. Her husband ran off with a Jehovah's Witness long ago. She lived alone with a cat though she never lacked for cock. Her associates called her a serial slut. She gave me plenty of her plump pussy.
*****
Elizabeth took a nap and awoke sober. I took her to get her car, then I went to my apartment to see Sergeant Diaz.
Diaz was dressed casually and drove her Chrysler Sebring. She came to the door after I parked and opened the front door of the apartment. I turned the air on and made me comfortable. She joined me. I'm no inquisitor so I waited for her to speak her mind.
"You're coming back to work and assigned to me, she said. "I fought it but that's how it is."
"It sucks to be us," I said.
I wasn't surprised I got demoted from detective to road patrol. I wasn't consulted for an opinion but they didn't have any legal grounds to fire me outright. The whole deal was political because the stiff was a Usual Suspect known to all. My pay and bennies remained the same, and prestige means shit to me. Diaz knew what she had with me. I'd get the job done and piss everyone off doing it, because I'm deaf, dumb, and blind when it comes to kissing ass, and that's how it is.
"Sarge, drop your drawers and I'll kiss your sweet ass with gusto, but I ain't getting in bed with your bosses to win hearts and minds. Homey the Clown don't play that game."
"I hope you don't try and use what happened with your wife to fuck me."
"I plan to use cash with you. I already told you what happens at her house stays at her house. She isn't my wife, and if you wanna get in her pants it's okay with me. I'll be the last person to kick you outta our bed."
"You don't care?"
"I don't care lots. I mean I want some of you, too, and I plan to get some, but it don't piss me off when someone else gets some, too. And I'm not too proud to turn down a charity fuck if you ever change your mind about me."
"Anything I need to know about Elizabeth?"
"She's a drunk, but you already know that. And she doesn't know the meaning of fidelity, if what you're feeling for her is love. Just keep your eyes open when you're in her bed feelin' luv. Enjoy!"
Diaz beat me to Elizabeth's place when I stopped to do my boxing workout. I became a boxer because it's the most honorable way to be me. All the other ways involve something else giving you permission to be whatever. Usually booze or drugs or madness or your partner or some pip squeak in the main office or city hall. Boxing lets me make the other guy hurt like a bastard, too, when he wallops me. You can't kick a whisky bottle's ass.
My work out place is a stall at a storage place. The equipment is simple and inexpensive: A jump rope, and two punching bags. I do it the Rocky Way. But at thirty-five I'm an old fuck. A boxer hits his peak at twenty-seven, by thirty-seven he's sitting in a rocker.
Back home, I saw Marisol's Sebring parked out front along the curb. I went inside. The bedroom door was shut. I put my boxes of shit in the garage, showered, and left.
I went to the Come & Go for coffee and was warming a bus stop bench when Tyrone Mohammed Islam Jackson came out of the store. Tyrone was wasted, and giggling with his companions. I stared at Tyrone. Tyrone saw it. "What you lookin at, fool?" Tyrone's aspect changed to a hard frown.
"I'm watching you," I stood up. "I'm curious to see if you can run across this busy street without getting run over. What do you think?"
"I think you're fulla shit," Tyrone said.
"Then come on over here and let's see," I said.
"Kiss my mutha fuggin ass!" Tyrone replied.
"Come on over here, man."
"Mutha fucka you better get your tired ass down the road before your luck dumps your ugly ass."
I pulled out a pissant pistol I carry in my pocket. "C'mon over here, Tyrone. I'm gonna count three and shoot your skinny ass if you're not here by then. One! "
Tyrone walked over to me.
"That's a good nigga. Now stand on the curb facing the street. That's right. When I say GO you take off for the other side as fast as you can. OK? I'm gonna fill your ass with caps if youre still here after I count to three." I smiled at Tyrone's friends. "Ready, Tyrone?"
"Fuck you mutha fucka," Tyrone snarled.
"Go!" I said without warning. Tyrone jumped onto the pavement, dodged the first car, and the second, and was hit by a truck when he crossed the center-line. I then waved the pistol around the scene to chase away witnesses, it was time to leave.
Ruby Sparkman looked out the window of her Cadillac at me. "He needed killing," she said. "Where you headed?"
"No where in particular," I replied.
"Then get in the car."
I got in beside her. She cranked up the Cadillac, backed out of her spot, and we were off. On the highway she pulled a cigarette from her purse and lit it, then cracked the window to exhaust the smoke.
"You mind?" She asked.