The Evil That Men Do by Dave White

why he’s all bruised?”
    Cops are such cutups.
    “Nice to meet you,” he said.
    Krewer turned from Donne and waved his hand in Carlos’s direction. “And this here is Carlos. He found a gun. Didn’t you, Carlos?”
    “Fuck you. I ain’t gotta stay for this.”
    Krewer smiled. “Yeah, you kinda do. Otherwise we’ll talk to Juvie. You’ve been holding on to a gun for a few days. Not supposed to do that.”
    “Yo, I just found that shit three hours ago.” Carlos puffed out his chest and looked at them. “Who are these fucks?”
    Krewer ignored Donne and pointed toward his chauffeur for the day. “This is Detective Iapicca from Rutherford. He’d like to ask you a few questions.”
    “Why I gotta answer more questions? This ain’t school. Take the gun. I gotta go home.” Carlos folded his arms in front of him. “Fuckin’ cops.”
    “Whoa, he’s been brought up well, hasn’t he?” Iapicca said, and laughed.
    “Yo, fuck you,” Carlos said. “This ain’t your town.”
    Donne leaned against a desk across from the trio, deciding to watch and keep his mouth shut like Iapicca had advised. The way this kid was spouting off, the conversation that was about to happen would no doubt be entertaining.
    “Make it quick,” Krewer said. “I got tickets to see Brian Wilson tonight at Radio City.”
    “After all the shit that’s gone on, you’re gonna go into the city?”
    “Dude, the city’s the safest place to be right now. Cops are everywhere. And he’s gonna do all of
Pet Sounds
. So get this over with.”
    “Listen, kid,” Iapicca said, putting his hand on the kid’s shoulder, “we just need to ask a few more and then you can go home.”
    Carlos shrugged violently. “Don’t touch me. You ain’t my father.”
    “All right, all right. Calm down. How’d you get the gun?”
    “I already told the other one.”
    “Uh-huh. And now you’re gonna tell me.” Iapicca’s voice was no longer playful. There was a tension to it, commanding. Definitely a cop’s voice.
    Carlos let out a long sigh, flared his nostrils, and leaned back in the chair. Completely defiant. But at the same time, he answered.
    “I found it down by the Passaic River. Down by Delawanna. In that park over there.”
    “It was just lying there?”
    “Nah, yo. Some gangsta threw it out his car window.”
    “Oh really?” Iapicca leaned forward. “What did this ‘gangsta’ look like?”
    “I don’t know. He was black. That’s all I saw.”
    “What kind of car did he drive?”
    Even Donne noticed Carlos’s eyes light up. “Yo, that car was hot. It was like a black Cadillac Escalade, all pimped out. Shiny, and you shoulda seen the rims. Man, those shits were spinning the opposite way of the wheels. And he was thumpin’ some Akon on the radio. You could hear the bass, man. That shit was hot.”
    “And you watched him throw the gun right out the window.”
    “Well, he didn’t like throw it. He just kinda dropped it. I think he thought it would roll into the river, but he didn’t know how muddy the ground was. Didn’t even get out the car to check. Drove off like a motherfucker. Too bad, too. I wanted to hear more from the radio. I think he had on Hot Ninety-seven.”
    Carlos’s legs were both bouncing up and down, and his eyes weren’t focused. They rolled from side to side. He looked like he was about to jump up and run off.
    “So then what?”
    “After he drove away, I went over to see what he dropped. And it was all stuck in the mud and shit, the gun. So I picked it up and thought, you know, some kid might find it.”
    “Like you?”
    “Nah, I ain’t no kid, yo. I’m thirteen.” Carlos sucked his teeth. “I mean, like a little kid.”
    “I see. And when was this?”
    “I don’t know, this morning?”
    Krewer jumped in. “Right. That’s why we had reports of some kid shooting in the bushes over by Rutt’s Hut yesterday.”
    Carlos didn’t say anything. If the cops were any good at their job, they both saw