CORRUPTION.

FIRST KILL.    “  The first time Miller killed anyone was in his third year working security. He'd been twenty-two, just married, talking about having kids. As the new guy on the contract, he'd gotten the shit jobs: patrolling levels so high the Coriolis made him seasick, taking domestic disturbance calls in holes no wider than a storage bin, standing guard on the drunk tank to keep predators from raping the unconscious. The normal hazing. He'd known to expect it. He'd thought he could take it.

The call had been from an illegal restaurant almost at the mass center. It had happened fast. The perp had come out of the hole with a gun in one hand, dragging a woman by the hair with the other. Miller's partner, a ten-year veteran named Carson, had shouted out the warning. The perp had turned, swinging the gun out at arm's length like a stuntman in a video.

All through training, the instructors had said that you couldn't know what you'd do until the moment came. Killing another human being was hard. Some people couldn't. The perp's gun came around; the gunman dropped the woman and shouted. It turned out that, for Miller at least, it wasn't all that hard.

Afterward, he'd been through mandatory counseling. He'd cried. He'd suffered the nightmares and the shakes and all the things that cops suffered quietly and didn't talk about. But even then, it seemed to be happening at a distance, like he'd gotten too drunk and was watching himself throw up. It was just a physical reaction. It would pass.

The important thing was he knew the answer to the question.

               @ceresmade liked for a starter !!

               ❛ that’s one way of doing it. ❜

charles nods; brow furrowed and grin turning serious as he follows the other man. 

  ❝ —oh, i know. very sketchy stuff. ❞

  he’d been on a case with jake in this area before; they’d made up really cool code names for it, as well. spanish-sounding ones. (boyle’s was “el pequeno”, if he could remember correctly). 

    ❝ —and i’m not worried. we got each other’s backs, right? ❞

   ❝ don’t worry detective miller. i got you. ❞

@ceresmade | [cont.]

Dodger’s eyes tracked the motion of the man’s hand, chin jerking defiantly at the bloke’s words. It never was just a question or two, never. Not with the police. And if word got ‘round that a body saw Dodger yammering with a cop, then he would find himself in a rather ticklish situation and he most like wouldn’t be able to talk fast enough.

    “Coppers always mean trouble.”