Once I finished the shower I decided that if I was going to get on with earning the money, I should get back on the city circuit and see who still remembers old Vic Sullivan.
Back in the day, a number of people in and around Dogtown owed me a lot of stuff; back when I was a cop. And that doesn’t mean I was a dirty cop, its’ just that somehow me and Silas always found a number of loopholes in the law. Life was good when Dogtown was safer than it is now. But 4 years back all hell broke loose.
4 years ago, the Lombardi Family was getting into a deal with some newcomers from across the sea. At this time, Vadim Alexiev had just created his small army of men from around town and was planning to pick a bone with the Italians. So when the tourists came, with all their flashy new guns and toys, Vadim didn’t plan to be left out of the deal. So he crashed the Italians party at Long Harbor, and that’s where the battle for Dogtown began.
Few people who were there at that moment dare to talk about what happened at Long Harbor. I was one of the cops who were sent to clean up the mess left by the first fight between the Mob and the Family. Silas was with me at the time and we just thought its going to be a routine forensic gather and register. We never expected the place to look like a war-zone.
Apparently the people the Family was trying to break a deal with had got their very own arsenal of heavy weaponry; grenades, machine guns, the whole deal. So when Vadim crashed the joint with his men, in a bid to cut a deal with them, the Italians didn’t take too lightly to the unwelcome interruption.
Tempers ran high and someone opened fire on the tourists, no ones sure who started it, but it was Vadim who ended it at that place. The head Lombardi’s got out quick once they realized that the tourists weren’t going to hold back on their firepower, Mike was making sure the deal went down smooth, and this qualified as a good time to bail.
All I remember is the mess we cleaned up the next day was not a welcome sight. Vadim and his men killed the dealers and took the goods, when someone tallied what they had taken from the dead tourists I was sure the chief had a little nervous breakdown. All that firepower, in the hands of a renegade Russian, with no morals and only one aim; to control Dogtown. No one was willing to accept what was surely going to happen.
Vadim “The Russian” Alexiev spread a web of terror across the city and declared all out war on the Italians. And somewhere along the line he picked up some gentlemanly habits and turned his small gang into an organized mob. The Italians kept the war raging but had to give up most parts of the city to the Russian’s demands. South Dogtown became the centre of the Vadim’s activities and the Italians were barely able to hold onto their power in the north.
Somewhere between these 4 years a lot of people changed. Me and Silas kept at our job of locking up whoever took a dislike to our tastes and the law, but mostly we remained good, clean cops until the incident. The one incident that would change my life forever. I called it the beginning of my end.
I remember the night vividly; we had been called down to a warehouse in South Dogtown where supposedly a deal was going down between Vadim’s deputy; Miroslav and some drug a dealer from across the border. We were to wait until we received the go from HQ to raid the place. But everyone knew that was never going to come. Me and Silas decided to go in, we didn’t plan on shooting anyone, just keeping an eye on who all were in the building.
Silas went in from the back door, and I crawled in from an open window on the east side. The first thing I heard was the sound of Miroslav talking to some guy about the price of the “goods”. Jackpot. If we put these people in then our career was made. But I couldn’t call for backup without making some noise, and I was sure they would hear.
So instead of calling backup, I did the next stupidest thing on my list. I called out with utmost confidence. “Miroslav, come out with you hands behind you head, the Dogtown PD has the warehouse surrounded.”
I sensed the panic in the room as the drug dealers pulled out their weapons. The Russians didn’t expect anyone of them to bring a piece to a drug deal and Miroslav and his men pulled out their guns, and finding no one else to point them at, pointed them at the drug dealers instead.
I was counting on this chaos and I saw Silas at the other end of the room. I gave him the signal and both of us let out one shot upwards. Sometimes all you need is one sound to start the stampede. The ensuing gunfight was good enough for the 4th of July, and it was a full 10 minutes before it stopped.
I thought everyone was dead, and prayed my partner was alive. So I called out his name from where I was hidden. He called out to say he was alive and unhurt, and that’s when I heard some footsteps right behind me.
I didn’t hesitate for a moment as I turned around and fired off 2 shots into the dark. What I saw next made my blood go cold.
A kid stepped out from the darkness; I saw the bullet holes spewing blood all over his clean white shirt. He must’ve been around 15 years old and his face was going pale as the blood left it. He stumbled over to where I was sitting in shock and fell over in my hands and I felt him leave his body. The only thing I could think of at the moment was that I had killed a kid; an innocent child. I pulled my gun from under his body and put the barrel in my mouth; it seemed like the only way to pay for what I had done. But Silas had hurried over when he heard the gunshots and kicked the gun out of my hand before I pulled the trigger.
What happened afterwards is, as they say, history. The media got a hold of the story of the raid before anything else. They praised police force with the first successful raid in a long time on the morning papers. The next day they found out about the dead kid and crucified me for it. Silas told the chief about me trying to blow my own head off so the chief declared me suicidal and mentally ill and had me kicked from the force.
Silas was going to be celebrated for the greatest drug heist in the history of Dogtown, but instead he chose to resign and put the valor on someone else’s name. He knew that if Vadim found out the person behind the death of his aide Miroslav, then that man was worse than dead. And sure enough the guy who got the credit for the raid was found face down in the river two days later.
After that incident the war raged on. Vadim knew that I was there at the time of Miroslav’s death, and he also knew about the dead kid. Mike sent his regrets for my being removed from the uniform but never mentioned the dead kid, probably out of respect for my mindset, at least that’s what I like to think.
The war had raged on for 3 years since, and I had been in exile for the whole time. I had tried to set up a small private eye business a year back but never got down to working for it. Silas and Mike were my two links to the outside world and everything else was just a blur.
So today after almost 3 years in self exile I was headed out to town again. I was a renewed man; with money to spend and a new life to live. And for the first time in years; a reason to get up in the morning.
I only wish I’d realized then what a fool I was to think that life could come anywhere close to normal.
No comments:
Post a Comment