Don't Look Twice by Andrew Gross Page B

Security and try to scare me with some kind of TV Law & Order rap. You must’ve brought something with you, bro.”
    â€œJust some good sense, to get this off your back.”
    â€œThat’s all?”
    Hauck shrugged. “How ’bout I toss in an Xbox 360? That do the trick?”
    Vega’s eyes sparkled. “That and an Escalade STS, maybe—to take me home. Shit, what show have you been watching, man? You think I need juice from any of you? Mr. big shot Greenwich detective? You think I’m gonna roll on my man because you come down here with your little badge and tell me you’re gonna smooth out my way with the FBI?” Vega shifted around to the guard. “Hey, Leon, you better stun me now, bro, because I don’t think I can sit and listen to this no longer. You know you ought to be on Leno, Lieutenant, because you are a fucking riot!”
    When he turned back, Vega’s laugh had quieted and his grin was gone. “Now you copy this, bro—I don’t need your fucking juice. I don’t need you to smooth anything out for me. You think you got it all sized up? Well, here’s my juice: When I’m outta here, when I’m back home and you’re still scratchingyour heads trying to put together two and two, you come to me and I’ll smooth it all out for you. You copying that, bro?”
    He laughed again, glancing back at the expressionless guard. When he turned back, Hauck grabbed the gang leader by the wrist.
    â€œI leave, and the next time I see you it won’t be Ellen that’s on your mind.”
    â€œOooh, you scare me, niño. ” Vega grinned.
    Hauck got up. Something wasn’t right here and he was starting to sense what it was. “One more thing. The woman at the restaurant. Who turned in the gun. Annie Fletcher.”
    â€œWho?”
    â€œShe’s off-limits now. She’s out of it. For good. You understand, Vega?”
    â€œNot sure I know exactly what you’re meaning.” Vega looked back at Hauck with a smile.
    â€œThis is what I’m meaning.” Hauck leaned forward and took the man’s wrist. “One of your boys ever threatens her again…Demonstrates a sudden urge to try the crab cakes or maybe check out where she lives…I don’t care if a goddamn water glass falls off the bar in the wrong way…I’ll tear your head off. You understand? I’ll rip your little network so wide open, the nickels and dimes will fall out on the floor. You hear what I’m telling you, Nelson? You copying that, bro?”
    â€œYeah.” The gang leader pulled his wrist out of Hauck’s grip. “I’m copying, Lieutenant. So let me get this straight…” He leaned in close and pretended to be interested in something. “This mean that Xbox is off the table?”
    â€œYou don’t get it, do you, Nelson?” Hauck went to the door. “I’m gonna find out why that prosecutor had to die. Sooner or later, I’ll be back on you for it. That’s my credo .”

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
    O utside, Freddy Munoz turned to Hauck as soon as they got to the parking lot. “What the hell was going on in there?”
    It wasn’t adding up to Hauck either.
    â€œWhy does a guy who’s on the hook for fifteen to twenty in a federal jail laugh in our faces like we’re a couple of high school bus monitors? What was it he said? ‘When I’m out of here you can come to me, if you’re still trying to put two and two together…’?”
    Vega didn’t need any help. From any of them.
    â€œYou know what I’m thinking, Freddy? I’m thinking we can look for a year for some kind of connection between Josephina Ruiz and DR-17 and we’re never gonna find it. Because it’s not there. Vega was doing a favor for someone. He knows he’s never going to face those charges. The man’s protected. That’s what that act was