Prisoned - Marni Mann Page 0,70

the scene, the evidence—it all was part of the procedure. They were immediately sent to Mario along with a detailed report. He usually had it in his inbox before the police even arrived.

There was that sigh again. “I’ll send them over in the morning.”

“Send. Them. Now.”

“He was family to you. You should wait until the morning to look at them. You need a second. Trust me on this, Garin. I’ve lost enough people to know.”

“Send them.”

“Fine…but I warned you.”

I grabbed the picture frame off the back wall and walked it over to my desk. It now sat on top of a stack of folders and stared at me while I took a seat. It was of the three of us—Billy, Kyle, and me. We were in Mario’s basement. We were laughing. We were high.

We were so fucking happy.

“Have the cops filed anything yet?” I asked.

“I hear they’re going to rule it an overdose because of where he was found and since the needle was still in him.”

So, the police weren’t going to look into it. I wasn’t surprised. It was less work for them that way than pulling together an investigation. One less junkie on the street, they thought.

Billy wasn’t just some junkie. He was my goddamn family. But having the police investigate wouldn’t help me. If there was something to be found, I’d find it on my own.

“Who sold him the junk? Was it us?”

“I’ll have that answer tomorrow. If it wasn’t us—”

“I’ll want his name, Mario, and I’ll want to know who he works for.”

“You’ll have everything you need.”

I flipped the picture over. I couldn’t look at it for another second.

Billy should have been in rehab, sober living, or clean and living with me in Vegas. But dead? Fuck no. My best friend shouldn’t be dead.

He should have been saved.

And I should have been the one who saved him.

“You know we’ll take care of everything—the funeral, any other costs,” Mario said. “Whatever you need, you just tell me.”

“Thanks.”

I wasn’t looking forward to the call I needed to make. Billy’s ma rarely answered her phone. Hell, she wouldn’t have one if I didn’t pay the bill. I just hoped I could reach her before she heard the news from someone in The Heart. She needed to hear it from me.

“I’ll see you tomorrow?”

“Yeah,” I said. “I’ll be in Atlantic City by the morning.”

“I’m sorry, brother.”

“Me, too.”

Seconds after I hung up, Mario’s texts came across my screen.

Leaving my phone on the desk, I went to the other side of the room and poured myself a few fingers of whiskey. I’d heard the news. Now, I needed to numb it. I swallowed down the dark liquid and poured more.

I knew where Billy should have been right now, but that didn’t mean I hadn’t thought about this moment. I’d told myself plenty of times that the day I saw my best friend sober would be the day he was lying in his casket. Still, that didn’t mean it didn’t fucking hurt.

I carried my third glass of whiskey over to the desk and picked up my phone, finally pulling up the snapshots. The first picture showed his face. The shot was zoomed in, his lips dull blue.

The color, that blue, I couldn’t get it out of my fucking head.

The second shot showed his whole body, his back slumped against a brick wall. His feet were out in front of him. His shirt was pulled up to his neck, and there was an empty needle sticking into his heart.

His goddamn heart.

I shook my head, my fist balling again. The only thing close enough to hit was the desk. The desk was going to get hit. So were the walls and the door and someone’s fucking face once I got my hands on them.

Mario knew.

I guaranteed that was one of the reasons he didn’t want to send me the pictures. He didn’t say anything because he probably figured I couldn’t handle it right now.

Anyone who had been around drugs as much as we had would know.

Billy had OD’d. There was no question about that. The heroin had been too potent, the dose too lethal for his body. That had ultimately caused his death.

But Billy wasn’t the one who had stuck in the needle.

A junkie hit up a vein. They shot straight into their bloodstream. They sure as hell didn’t stick a needle into their fucking heart.

Someone found out that Billy had been looking into Paulie’s death. Someone wanted that secret to be kept buried. Someone