Chapter Two

 

 

 

 

 

Evan

 

 

 

 

“The lab confirmed that there was Sludge in her system.”

I looked up at my partner and sighed. “I figured. That makes twenty-four deaths this year alone.”

“Yeah.” Dominic shook his head as he looked at the crime scene photos. “She’s so damn young.”

That’s because they were targeting the high schoolers now, too. The kids were easy targets, especially when you factored in the side effects of the laced heroin.

When I first transferred to the New Hope Police department two years before, I was almost sure that the job was going to be easy. After all, New Hope was a small suburban city located about thirty miles outside of Las Vegas with a population of around two-hundred thousand. It wasn’t exactly riddled with crime.

Yeah, I’d been wrong. It didn’t matter where you lived- drugs were a poison that was spreading everywhere.

I’d grown up in Las Vegas, so crimes and drugs weren’t something new to me. I entered the police academy at twenty and was promoted to detective just four years later. At that time, I’d been in the homicide department. I had a fall from grace two years later and was demoted back down to patrol.

It’d taken me three years and a new precinct to get my shield back but I joined the narcotics division. I loved getting drugs off the street and helping people get clean. Making a difference was why I wanted to be a cop in the first place.

“I need to meet up with Brian again and see if he has anything new,” I said, speaking of one of my informants. Brian wasn’t privy to much information within the operation of Sludge but he usually could tell me where I could find those who were dealing and when they were supposed to pick up their stashes.

“I’ll reach out to my guys, too.” Dominic stood from his chair with a groan. “Come on. Let’s go update Messer.”

Lieutenant Messer was just as pissed as we were and the three of us sat in his office brainstorming for the next few hours. By the time we were done, we still had nothing else to go on but we were both told to go home and get some rest.

“You and Bec still heading to San Diego tonight?” I asked Dominic as we walked towards the exit. He flashed me a grin and pushed out into the hot afternoon air.

“Hell yes. I can’t wait. I love my kids but two nights alone with my wife sounds amazing. Hopefully she’s already dropped Grace and Jade off so we can hit the road.”

Dominic Morris had been my best friend since middle school. He’d befriended me on the first day of school when we sat next to each other in math class. We’d been forced to share a calculator and took turns spelling out words that were dirty to a twelve-year-old on it. We were inseparable after that.

He was more brother than friend, honestly. His family had taken me in when I felt completely alone and treated me like one of their own.

“I’ll check in with your parents tomorrow and see if they need any help,” I told him as I hit the button to unlock my truck. “I’ll take them for ice cream or something.”

“Thanks, Ev.” He slapped me on the back, purposefully putting all of his strength in it like always, and I suppressed the small grunt before raising my brows at him.

“That was weak, old man. You should probably hit the gym more.”

Dom and I were pretty evenly matched. Both around six-feet-tall and in good shape, people often assumed we really were brothers. My brown hair was darker than his, though, and his brown eyes couldn’t have been more different than my blue. It was something I’d liked when we were growing up. It made me feel like I really was a part of the Morris family.

“Whatever. See you Sunday?”

“Yeah, enjoy your weekend.” He held up his fist and I hit my own against it before we went to our separate vehicles.

I got in my truck and immediately started the engine so I could crank up the air conditioning. While it cooled down, I tossed my suit jacket to the passenger seat and rolled up the sleeves on my blue button-up shirt.

A couple of patrol cars were pulling into the lot as I was exiting and I held my hand up in a wave before using it to loosen the tie around my neck. Wearing the monkey suit every day was something I was used to but it didn’t mean I enjoyed it. I looked forward to getting home and changing into a pair of shorts and nothing else.

The neighborhood where I’d been renting my house for the past few years was an older one. The houses were built in the eighties but almost every single one was well-maintained. Mine was small, just two bedrooms, but I didn’t need anything big since I spent most of my time at work.

I parked in the carport attached to my one-story house and barely had a foot out of my truck before someone said my name.

“Good evening, Evan.”

A smile hit my face when I turned to see my neighbor, a man barely in his sixties, stepping down from the porch so he could walk to the small fence that separated our driveways.

“Hey, Keith. How are you?”

“Oh, just perfect. The grandchildren are here for the weekend.” He glanced behind him at his house, which was twice the size of mine and with a second story, before grinning back at me. “Having the two of them here makes me feel young again.”

Keith and Ruby Morris were Dominic’s parents and they had moved from Las Vegas to New Hope once Dom and I graduated high school, when Keith had taken early retirement after being hurt on the job. The Morris family was the type of family that they modeled TV families after. They were affectionate, they were giving, and they showed me more love in twenty years than my parents had in thirty-two.

Dominic had moved to New Hope about six years ago when his wife, Becca, had been offered a job with the city and he’d been the one to convince me to finally leave Las Vegas. The second he learned his partner, an older guy who’d been on the job for a long time, was retiring, he called and told me I needed to apply to transfer.

Hell, he even made me aware of the house for rent next door to his parents and I was sold. Leaving the city was one of the best decisions I’d ever made.

Dominic was Keith and Ruby’s only child so his and Becca’s two girls, Grace and Jade, were spoiled beyond belief by their grandparents and me.

“Oh, Dom was like a kid on Christmas when we left the station. He couldn’t wait to get his wife alone.” I gathered up my clothes and my bag from the front seat and shut my door. “Let me know if you need a break. The girls can come over here for a bit.”

“Thanks, son. You eat yet?”

“Yeah, I had a sandwich at the station.”

“Okay.” Keith reached over the small fence to give me a pat on the back. “Come for dinner tomorrow.”

I chuckled and nodded my head. “I’ll be there.”

He turned and headed back to the porch where I knew he’d smoke the rest of his cigar before heading inside. I went through the side door that led to the kitchen and dropped everything on the table.

Without stopping, I headed back to the master bedroom and turned on the shower in the attached bathroom. I stripped out of my suit and tossed everything into the hamper before getting into the warm water.

I washed the week off of me, forcing myself not to think about my case. Turning it off was hard, though. The spread of Sludge was getting further and further and the overdoses from it had doubled.

Sludge was a blend of pure heroin and an ingredient found in household cleaners, Vitratrope. The Vitratrope combined with the heroin prolonged the initial rush of the high, giving the user around ten minutes of euphoria rather than just a couple. In turn, the Vitratrope also caused the user to be more docile and desperate for touch and affection. A person using Sludge was in a constant state of arousal, although they didn’t necessarily crave sexual intercourse. Just being touched gave them what they needed.

The drug was popular in the younger crowd for several reasons. The longer high was the most appealing draw of it. Getting a chance to experience the euphoria for more than double the time of just heroin made it well sought after.

It was also essentially being used as a date rape drug. The person not on Sludge could have sex with the user and experience a partner who appeared enthusiastic and appreciative of the act. It made the sober person feel powerful and in control.

It was highly addictive and easy to overdose on. We saw Sludge ruining many lives and it needed to be stopped. Based off what Dominic and I had learned, it wasn’t something country-wide yet and seemed to be isolated to New Hope, although it was slowly spreading to the surrounding cities, Rollins and Canyon City. A few cases had turned up in Las Vegas, too.

That led us to believe it was being processed and distributed right here in our little city. And we were going to figure out where and who so we could bring them down.

Once I was out of the shower and in a pair of basketball shorts, I laid down in my queen sized bed and let out a sigh.

I needed to solve this case and soon.