Friday, May 21, 2004

   Cream Filling & Nougat: Third Helping (Chapter III)
[These chapters seem to be a lot longer than the ones I used to right, eh? Hehe . . . anyhoo, on with it . . . . .]

"Slow down, Pastille," Nougat said as the unmarked car made its way into a less-populated area of the downtown west side. "I believe our boy should be around here somewhere . . ." Nougat had studied Valdez's original casebook for much of the other evening, and had planned out the best starting points to find the lesser dealers and work from there. He figured by going name by name he would eventually get to a big hit which would in turn really put a dent into the case. Of course, he knew it all still depended on whether they would be able to narrow their search quick enough before the dealers could counter them . . . . . finally spying his quarry, Nougat picked up the radio to message the other car. "Ruit, I've got him in sight, you two in position?" Ruit responded,
"Ready when you are, sir."
"Perfect. Just keep an ear open, then." Nougat looked to his driver. "Don't stray too far, now."
"I'll be right behind ya, Nougat," Officer Pastille answered.

Nougat got out of the car and walked towards the young dealer. Immediately feeling threatened, the dealer casually turned away and began walking down the street. Nougat continued walking forward, slowly increasing his pace - the dealer did likewise, and rounded a corner.
"Ruit, jean jacket, you see him?" Nougat said into his earpiece, rounding the corner himself.
"We don't see anything yet . . . wait . . . . . there! Ducked into the convenience store."
"Alright, one of you get out and meet me in there." Nougat ran into the convenience store and began scanning the area. Ruit came in shortly afterwards and started walking around the shelves. Nougat stayed at the door, watching . . .

Nougat was relieved when Ruit escorted the young man back out of the store. He was still protesting heavily about abuse and his having not done anything - they brought it out into the parking lot.
"Am I under arrest?" the man asked, a heavy tone of contempt in his voice.
"We just wanna ask you some questions," Nougat said.
"I'd rather you didn't," the man replied. Nougat upped his approach.
"Alright, in that case I'd like to search your pockets."
"Do you have a warrant for that?"
"No, we . . ."
"Then no, you can't search me." Nougat sighed.
"Ruit, grab 'im."

The man was now screaming obscenities as Nougat patted and searched all the surfaces of the man's clothes. By now the other two members of the west team had arrived and were just covering the area, especially from passers by who might have felt it important to voice an opinion. Still, Nougat was unable to find anything and stepped back.
"You guys can't do this to me!" the man yelled. By now a crowd was forming around them. Some were just there to see what was happening, though others were quick to criticise the lawmen and their approach as barbaric and wrong.
"Normal people do not get this defensive!" Nougat shouted, almost ready to draw his pistol.
"Get offa me already, you damn pigs!" As Nougat watched the man's mouth form the words, something caught his eye.

"Raute, help Ruit out," Nougat requested. Raute quickly took hold of the man's other side. "Open your mouth," the detective told him. The man would not comply. "Pastille, help me out." The man grunted furiously as Pastille squeezed his jaw and forced his mouth open. Nougat jammed his fingers into the man's mouth, elliciting more screams and more protests from the crowd. After another half minute of fishing his fingers around under the man's tongue, Nougat found what he was looking for: he gripped the small string and yanked it back. The drug dealer coughed and retched as the plastic bag cleared his teeth and dangled from Nougat's hand.

"That's about two hundred dollars' worth of light you had in ya, my friend," Nougat said as he swung the small bag of powder in front of the dealer's eyes. "So aside from this amount of light being capable of seizing your heart into a rock, you've got two choices: either you tell us where you got your stuff from, or you go to jail for a long, long time." The man remained silent, looking down and away. He grunted momentarily when Raute cinched up on his armlock, but still wouldn't speak. "Alright, you two put him in your car . . ."
" . . . . . Koko . . ." the dealer muttered.

"Come again?" Nougat asked.
"His name is Koko . . . . . I meet up with him down by Nissin Street." Nougat smiled.
"Alright, cut 'im loose," he said, "we've got bigger fish to hook. Oh . . . I'm gonna keep the cryssal, if you don't mind." The dealer coughed again and replied.
"Yeah, go fu- . . ."
"Glad you see it our way," Nougat interrupted. "Alright, let's go, guys." Nougat was happy because "Koko" was indeed one of the names Valdez had come across during his investigation; he would most likely lead closer to the source.

As the four officers walked back to their cars, Nougat looked at the crowd that was still gathered. He allowed them all to see him with the newly acquired bag of drugs.
"Don't you people have trees to chain yourself to or something?" he asked the now-quiet mob, huffing hard as he turned back around. "I don't know about you guys, but people really piss me off sometimes . . ."
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