God was shaking his head, looking as if he was not amused. “Ignore him. Never do anything Day tells you to do. It’ll either get you cursed out or laughed at.”
Quick didn’t speak, simply turned around and followed his two saviors’ directions. They did have to walk through a few other departments, including homicide to get to the Narcotics Unit. It was interesting that they got a lot of curious, and more than a few unpleasant looks, but Day had no qualms flicking off other cops if they stared to long. He unnecessarily shoulder checked officers who walked by them in the hall instead of giving them room to pass. He swiped another cop’s lunch bag off the end of his desk and rifled through it, all while not missing a step. He took out the apple, tossing the bag back to him. “Next time bring an orange. And stop eating PB&J, what are you, five? Did you come to work or day camp?!” Day yelled with his mouth full of a Red Delicious. He continued to tease his coworkers by plucking papers off their desks when he walked by. Anything to rile up the other officers. Quick hoped they didn’t get jumped before they could get to their destination.
Judge had been right. Day was an annoying, gorgeous pain in the ass, whose sole purpose was to get drugs off the streets of Atlanta and make everyone else within its borders miserable.
He had to hide his smile by the time they got to the other side of the huge precinct. Day was one funny motherfucker. It helped to keep him thinking about something other than Cayson or Vaughan. That were both without protection as long as he and Duke were being held. Quick immediately noticed Judge and Duke standing around with several other men, who he assumed were members of God and Day’s task force. The older gentlemen in suits stood out like a sore thumb amongst the casually dressed men.
Duke spotted him walking up and held the door that read “Special Task Force – Narcotics – Lieutenant Cashel Godfrey, Lieutenant Leonidis Day, Sergeant Corbin Sydney” open for him. It was an impressive set up. They gave each other a fast one armed hug, Judge stepping up to do the same.
“What the hell took you so long?” Quick grumbled, holding Judge’s hand longer.
“Hey. Those guys aren’t easy to track down.” Judge flicked his long beard in God and Day’s direction.
“I’m sure they’re in real high demand,” Quick said under his breath.
“Hey. If you’re dissatisfied, I’m more than happy to let wonder-rookie, here, hold you for a few more hours until he figures out he doesn’t have a goddamn case,” Day said sarcastically, pointing his finger at the rookie cop who had followed them the entire way and was now standing in their department.
“Captain. I’m glad you’re here.” The rookie sneered, still looking at Day.
“Rome, sit down. Hopefully, this will be over soon.” Judge motioned to the chairs positioned around a huge white board and conference table. “Captain Murphy is God and Day’s boss. Captain Jones is from homicide. Technically, because this falls under his jurisdiction, he’s the only one who can release you.”
Quick got it. Day and God were good. But their authority was limited. They didn’t have the power to just let Duke and Quick walk out of there, but at least they were able to get them in front of the right people, so they didn’t have to be there all night.
Captain Murphy was standing back, observing. Captain Jones unbuttoned his suit jacket and sat down at the table, fingering through the file. “I usually let my cops handle their own cases, but God asked me to come over and speak to you personally, as a favor.” Everyone was quiet while he read a statement Quick had written when he first got there. When he moved that paper aside, he saw another exactly like his, which he suspected was Duke’s.
“Where is Dana Montgomery?”
“He’s still at the hospital with the guy who was beaten,” Judge answered.
“He was the shooter, sir. I’m sending a car to his house and the hospital. I want to charge him with first degree murder until—”
“Have you lost your mind? I ordered him to shoot. So if you wanna charge someone, charge me,” Duke said angrily, struggling to keep from yelling. “That man had a gun trained on one of my guys, and after he’d beaten him half to death, he was definitely getting ready to kill him.”
The captain put his hand up, a gesture everyone recognized as telling them to be quiet, while he flipped a few more pages.
“Missing quite a few reports, Officer Cambridge.” The captain frowned, looking back at his officer. “Ballistics, forensics, do you have any more evidence that points to malice?”