"Keep talking, " James commanded. Perry leaned forward, his eyes wide and bloodshot, sweat dripping from his brow. "If I go down for this, I'm not going down alone. You want to clean up the fourth precinct chief? You think I'm the problem?
I'm just a collector. I'm a I'm a foot soldier. " "A collector for what? " Donovan asked, stepping closer to the table. The Southside Initiative, Perry sneered, spitting the words out like poison.
That's what they call it. You think the minor traffic citations, the civil asset forfeitures, the cash seized from suspected drug dealers that never makes it to the evidence locker? You think that just disappears? It goes into a slush fund. Lewis gets a cut to wipe the digital trails.
The patrolman get a cut for making the stops. and the lion's share goes straight to the top of this precinct. James felt a cold spike of adrenaline. He had suspected deep-rooted issues in the fourth, but a coordinated systemic extortion ring was beyond his worst fears. Give me a name, Perry. Right now, Captain Robert Mitchell, Perry said, dropping the name of the fourth precinct's commanding officer.
Mitchell runs the whole show. He targets undocumented immigrants, out-of-towners, and anyone who doesn't have the money to fight a bogus charge in court. I targeted your daughter tonight because she was young, black, and driving a beat up Honda in the Southside at 2:00 a. m. She fit the profile of a perfect victim. Someone we could shake down, intimidate, and process without making waves.
I didn't know who she was, but Mitchell, he designed the whole system. The interrogation room fell into a heavy, suffocating silence. Perry had just offered up a king to save a pawn. "Where is the proof? " Donovan demanded, his investigator's mind already moving three steps ahead.
"The word of a disgraced cop facing 20 years isn't enough to take down a precinct. " Captain Perry offered a grim, ugly smile. Mitchell is old school, but he's greedy. He doesn't trust digital ledgers. He keeps a physical burn book, a little black moleskin notebook.
He keeps it in the false bottom of the lowest drawer in his office desk. It has every payout, every wiped file, every fake arrest for the last four years. You want the head of the snake, chief? It's sitting in the commander's office right now. James didn't hesitate.
He turned on his heel and walked out of the interrogation room. Donovan followed, leaving Perry alone with his treacherous confession. They walked briskly down the hall to the precinct's war room, where Maya was still sitting, watching the rain finally begin to taper off through the barred windows. "Did you get him? " Maya asked, seeing the dark intensity in her father's eyes.