The Rock 'N Roll Detective's Greatest Hits - a Spike Berenger Anthology Read Online Free PDF Page A

volatile soul. He was usually in trouble with the law—for drugs more than once and for vandalism of public property at least three or four times.
    “Is that all?” he asked.
    “Well, what about his second wife?” Gina suggested.
    “Carol Merryman?” Rudy interjected with disbelief.
    “Sure, why not?” Gina countered. “She’s VP of Flame’s company. I’m sure she stands to inherit a shitload of money. Her son Joshua probably does, too.”
    “When did they divorce?” Rudy asked.
    Patterson answered, “Nineteen eighty-seven. But they remained friends. She was already a partner in the business. It was part of the settlement that she be made a Vice President.”
    “You think she’ll inherit Flame’s estate?” Berenger asked.
    “Either she will or Joshua will. Or they both will.”
    “He sure isn’t going to leave anything to me or Adrian, that’s for damn sure,” Gina muttered.
    There was an awkward moment of silence. Berenger shrugged. “Is that everything?” he asked.
    Patterson cleared his throat. “There is, uhm, one other thing.”
    Gina frowned and nodded, preferring to let the lawyer explain it.
    “What’s that?” Berenger asked.
    “Adrian was selling drugs,” Patterson said, “for the Jimmys.”
    “Oh shit,” Berenger said. “What was he doing associating with the Jimmys?”
    “Dealing drugs!” Patterson answered. “He hasn’t admitted as such, though. The police found a bunch of evidence in Adrian’s apartment that indicated he was selling for the Jimmys. That’s a big strike against him.”
    “Sorry, but as I live in California, I don’t know a lot about them,” Gina said. “Just what’s been reported in the news.”
    Berenger shook his head. “The Jimmys are only the most ruthless and violent gang operating in the New York area,” he explained. “Unless you want to count the Cuzzins. They’re probably just as bad.”
    “They’re rock bands, too,” Rudy added.
    “I guess you can call them that. The Jimmys play Death Metal Punk to the extreme—really angry stuff. They incite riots and always cause a lot of destruction whenever they play somewhere. As a gang, they allegedly supply drugs to a mostly very wealthy clientele—Manhattan’s rich and famous. Not a lot is known about their organization other than it might have originated in the Caribbean and immigrated to America sometime in the nineties. Legend has it that they send a package full of broken guitar strings to the people they plan to knock off. A very nasty bunch.”
    “There’s an on-going war between them and the Cuzzins,” Rudy said.
    “At least I like the Cuzzins’ music better,” Berenger added. “It’s mostly fifties-era rock ‘n’ roll. Needless to say, both gangs have gone a long way toward giving rock ‘n’ roll a bad name in this town.”
    This information caused Gina’s eyes to cast downward. “I see,” she said. “Why haven’t they been arrested?”
    “By the time the cops arrive at one of their concerts—which always occur unannounced—they’re already speeding away, leaving a mess in their wake. They like to start fires, things like that. It’s what you might call ‘guerilla punk.’”
    “Unfortunately, the kids in New York love them,” Rudy said. “The gangs have become underground heroes. The word gets out, usually over the Internet, that the Jimmys or the Cuzzins are going to play somewhere and magically the high-schoolers and college-aged kids show up. Both camps sell homemade CDs through various dubious distribution centers that do very well. In fact, you can probably buy them at any of the indie shops in the East Village.”
    “Wow, that’s totally bizarre,” Gina said. “I had no idea.”
    Berenger looked at Rudy and asked, “You’ve already discussed terms and stuff?”
    Rudy nodded. “The case is ours if you want it.”
    Berenger looked at Gina.
    “Please, Spike? We need you,” she said.
    He gazed into the green eyes that had once exhibited a great