Deadside in Bug City Read Online Free PDF Page B

road kill,” Fuller confirmed. “Gone home to Allah. Get an ambulance for that piece of shit, rookie.” He pointed at the man in handcuffs, who hadn’t moved since he’d whacked him upside the head. “Then call in the ghoul crew. The homicide dicks are gonna love this shit.”
    Todd used the two-way clipped on the epaulet on his left shoulder.
    Fuller waddled over to the witness and said, “All right, Joe Citizen, spoze you tell me what happened. Give me the short version and save the details for the dicks.”
    “Well, I came in for a pack of cigarettes, then this guy comes in and…Habib starts yelling at him, calling him a thief and telling him to get out of his store. They had some more words, fought over the phone, and the cashier pulled a gun on the guy. He shot him, I think, and then the guy pulled a knife and went over the counter after him. He…well, you saw what he did with the knife. And then he started…”—Joe swallowed bile—“biting the man’s throat, eating him like an animal, like a lion on the Discovery Channel. God.”
    “And you just stood and watched?” Fuller said with arched brows.
    “Uh, well, I looked for something to hit him with, but then he came at me with the knife. That’s when you came in.”
    “Uh-huh. What about the titty girl?”
    “The…?”
    “The girl who came running out to flag us down.”
    “Oh, yeah. She came in to buy some beer and I sent her outside to get the police.”
    “So you weren’t injured.”
    “No, sir.”
    “Lucky man. I’d say this moke was definitely hopped up on some bad shit.” Fuller looked down at the killer, then said, “Okay. You go wait outside with the titty girl and make sure she don’t run off. You’ll both have to give your statements to the detectives.”
    As Joe Carr went out the door, Todd said, “Ambulance is on the way, Sarge.”
    “That should give us just enough time,” said Fuller.
    “For what?” asked Todd.
    “Watch and learn, rookie. Watch and learn.” Fuller found a broom behind the counter, then took it to the dairy case, pulled out a tub of margarine, opened it and stuck the tip of the broom handle into the margarine and twisted it around. “Got to grease up the old pole, see?”
    Todd stared at the wood twisting in the yellow goop in the plastic tub. Remembering a news story of police brutality from a few years back, his face got hot and the back of his neck went stiff with tension. He didn’t want to believe Sergeant Fuller was going to do what he thought he was going to do.
    “Bare his ass,” said Fuller.
    “What?” Todd swallowed hard, but the lump in his throat wouldn’t go down.
    “Pull his goddamn britches down. I’m gonna break him in for the butt fuckers in the joint.”
    “You’re not serious.”
    “Fuck I ain’t. In case this shit head survives his belly wound, I wanna give him something to remember us by. Hell, if Rhode Island had the death penalty, I wouldn’t be forced to do this, but it don’t, so I gotta dispense a little backdoor justice my own damn self. Now get his fucking pants down, rookie.”
    “No way, Sarge. I won’t do it.”
    Fuller stopped twisting the broomstick in the greasy goop and looked with narrowed eyes at Todd. “I’m giving you a direct fucking order, kid. You best think long and hard before you go against me. You want your cop career to be over before it starts?”
    “No. But this is an unlawful order. We could go to jail for this.”
    Fuller laughed. “Nobody can prove nothing if you keep your mouth shut. And you will keep your mouth shut.”
    “What about that security camera?” Todd pointed at the camera mounted near the ceiling behind the counter.
    “Shit, old Habib never puts tape in that thing. Cheap bastard. You gonna help me or not?”
    Todd shook his head.
    “You just fucked yourself, rookie. Wait till the guys hear about this. One day you’ll be in deep shit and you’ll call for backup and nobody’ll come. You’re about to become what