chapter thirty nine

word count: 637

bud punched the redial on his cell,, and just as quickly snapped the phone closed... no... he would not involve "red" in this.. red was a good cop,, a straight cop,, and buds only link to the "real" police force at this point in time.. the less red knew then better.. no telling if they would drag him into this somehow,, and then he would have reds future hanging in the balance as well...

"so tell me ren,, exactly what do we know about this guy,, this di marco???" bud himself knew very little.. he was a guard at the prison, he was pals with stan white,, and more than likely he had in some way been involved,, or at least had knowledge of the whole "baby in the bucket" thing that had gotten them into this mess in the first place....

"well,, i can tell you i know for a fact he is a player.. he has as many friends on the inside as he does on the outside... " ren started,, as he loudly smacked his lips around the tip of each finger in hopes of finding a bit of leftover sugar.... '"he's good at what he does... lots of underlying suspicions,, no proof,, ya know what i mean???"

yeah.. bud knew exactly what he meant.. in fact to him it sounded like ren malleo was reading aloud his own autobiography...

for as long as bud could remember everybody suspected warren "ren" malleo was dirty,, was playing both sides against the middle.. but no one could ever pin anything on him.. he had too many friends.. to many favors out.. too much protection... and it wasn't only on the dark side of his family tree.. he had just as many dirty cops that owed him, as he did compadres...

bud decided he might be handy to have as a partner on this thing after all,, if anyone could crawl up vic di marco's ass,, it was ren malleo.. they were one in the same....

as they pulled into the parking lot of the prison, bud flashed his badge at the guard at the gate.. he had not had the chance to make any of his findings on the case public,, and thus the hierarchy of the DOC had no reason to believe he was not there in his original official capacity...

he would continue with the investigation as if he had never heard of the now deceased, jessica what ever the hell her last name was,, and her virulent lover, stan white... he would forget that he knew that it was them that had conceived not only the fetus itself,, but the plan for its unceremonious burial in a bucket full of used kitchen grease. he would forget that he had seen stan white bound, gagged, hog tied, and beaten on the cold cement floor in the back room of malleos restaurante...he would forget for the moment he had ever heard the name vick fucking dimarco...

but he would not for so much as an instant,, forget that this two faced piece of human shit that was now being forced upon him as his partner, was linked by blood to the bastard that had his beloved janey,, held somewhere against her will,, and would not release her to him,, until he had extracted the highest payment imaginable from bud,, his honor... no that he would not, could not forget...

bud took a deep breath.. he closed his eyes and let some of the homicidal rage that now dwelled within him to be caught up in that breath,, and with it,, exhaled...

he would start at day one.. all the way back.. with the two inmates that originally located the baby in the bucket on the side of the road...

he would start with jason alexander and raul martinez....