Deliver Us From Evil

Poison started outlining the aspects of Terry's drug business; How much he bought - Where he bought it - How much he sold - How long he had been dealing. She seemed nervous, but simultaneously excited as she recalled the time Terry almost sold to “an undercover narc...” Poison volunteered a lot of free information; Except she left out the "one thing" that I really wanted to know: Does he drive a black Buick that has a smashed right window? I leaned in to listen to Poison's offerings; interested in hearing more, but at the same time, hoping that she'd move on to another subject. "Lie to me about how you're working your way through college or how you only dance because it keeps you thin, something, anything, but forget about selling me dope." I was having a hard time discerning whether Poison was "bragging" about her old man or trying to get him busted. Maybe she was just trying to fit into the group. She knew Mary was selling Meth to LT and JR. Who knows - she was cleaning out the closets, though; throwing all of Terry's skeletons out on their collective asses.

Poison tossed up another home run ball, "I can get him to sell to you - I'll tell him that you come in here all the time and that I know you're cool." I could have driven it out of the park, but, I tried to dissuade her from the topic, instead; "I don't know him. You said he almost sold to a narc once. What if he "did" get busted and now he's working with a cop or something?" Poison pressed on, "I promise - I swear to God he's cool." "I don't know," I said, "We'll see. What time is he coming?," I asked. "One of these days you'll look back on this, and I just hope you remember that it was YOU that kept pushing the issue." "Midnight, but I can call him and have him come earlier if you want - Let's go to the payphone and I'll call him." Poison still hadn't made any mention of money. I had never been around a dancer that didn't try to get into my pockets within the first five minutes. Is she doing "this" to get her share? "Does he give you any of the money he makes?," I asked. "Nope - I don't need his money - I make more in here than he does out there." "Then you don't need to help him sell that shit!," I shot back, hoping to end the discussion. "I'm not helping him. I like you, Tony... I wanna help YOU." "Lead me not into temptation; I can find the way all by myself."

I had no way of knowing if Poison's boyfriend was the same guy that had sold to Thunder. I asked Jasmine to let Thunder breathe for a few minutes while we stepped over to the bar. I briefed him on what we had been discussing. "Damn Precious, I thought you wuz proposing to that little Nissan, as serious as you two were acting over there. Just buy a house and give it to the little bitch." Thunder; always handy with a wisecrack. Thunder got serious long enough to school me on the fact that if this was the same Terry, we wouldn't get an additional delivery case because it would be seen in court as a continuation of the earlier transaction for fifty (50) hits. Both transactions would occur within the same calendar day and I had been with Thunder on the earlier buy. "Fuck 'em! Do him - just wait 'till after midnight, then it's a different day - a completely separate charge." "Damn. Makes sense... But I don't really want a case against her". "You sure you wanna do her?," Thunder asked. "Damn! Am I thinking out loud or are you a comedian AND a mind reader?" Thunder didn't care if we did Terry again, but the "womanizer" in him showed a little remorse for tagging Poison with a felony delivery case. Thunder was more interested in finding out if Black Buick Boy was banging Poison. "Let's do it - How much you gonna buy?" Back then, LSD was the cheapest felony case you could make. One (1) hit of LSD, for the average price of $3, bought the defendant a first degree felony. "I don't know - Let me talk to JR first," I said, hoping Poison would be called to the main stage before I went back to the table, "We're up here to do his buy anyway - that comes first." Thunder had a parting shot, but it wasn't one of his classic one-liners: "They're gonna eat her ALIVE in the joint..." "Literally - Thanks."

I went to JR, hoping his deal was happening soon so we would get tied up with that. Fat chance. JR had some of the same questions that Thunder had, "Terry's bought and paid for. He's the source. We're trying to work "UP" the ladder here. What do we gain by doing her?" JR seized the opportunity to administer another test. "If it's a different guy, you come out of this with two new defendants. If it's the same guy, yeah, you might add another case, but you can explain that it was set up by her, the conspiring girlfriend." JR was steering me in the direction he knew I should go, but he wasn't actually telling me how to get there. "You wanted to be a narc - now, make a decision - this is all part of it. Either way, you're gonna send her to prison."