The Wages of SIN
by
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"What makes you think I'll work for you?" Doc Holloway asked.
Lt. Baker smiled. He reached down and picked up the gym bag. He opened it, removed Doc's police ID folder, badge, and gun and placed them on the bar.
"When you come back to full duty, you'll have to turn in this .38 Special and be issued a Glock 17, the department's new standard sidearm. I prefer automatics, don't you? The Glock 17 holds eighteen rounds.
"Speaking of automatics, there's a chrome-plated .45 I have in my possession. It's a murder weapon and it has Brick Jones' fingerprints on it. Excuse me, your fingerprints." He smiled. "That's what makes me think you'll work for me."
Doc frowned. Tudor's gun--the one he wanted Doc to shoot Huckabuck Franks with. For "insurance." Of course.
Baker continued. "Tomorrow at his news conference announcing the success of the Janus Project," Baker continued, "Senator Grumwald's going to play you up as a hero for having brought down a major drug operation. And believe you me, Othello Hollinger's not going to dispute that he's 'Mr. Big.'"
"The dead tell no tales," Doc interjected.
Baker sidestepped Doc's comment and continued. "The bottom line is, you can be a hero or you can be a convicted murderer. What'll it be?"
Doc gave it some thought, then said, "Being a hero is better."
"Of course it is," Baker agreed. "I'm working for the Gang Task Force now as well as coordinating the operations of the Gun Interdiction Unit and the Intelligence Division. When you're ready to get back to work in a month or two, I've got a gig for you."
"Thank you," Doc said flatly.
Baker smiled. "You're welcome."
Lt. Baker walked over to the elevator and got on. "It's a strange new world, huh, Doc? See ya 'round." He closed the elevator door and descended to the garage.
Doc engaged the safety mechanism of the Colt .45 automatic he had been holding out of sight under the bar top. He walked over to a front window and watched the street. As usual, hucks were brazenly peddling drugs on the block. He saw Lt. Baker climb into the back of a black limo, and then watched the vehicle drive away. He watched the drug boys for a long time.
Holloway had worked undercover for nearly two years to disrupt drug distribution in this city and for what? He had wasted his time, had made no impact. Drugs still flowed freely and children were still dying, still killing each other. And the corrupt still reaped the profits.
How could he have thought that he could help bring about the end of violence, that he could save the lives of misguided children? He had been a fool!
Jack Tilden, Lt. Baker, Mayor Monroe, Senator Grumwald, and whoever else was in cahoots with them in the Special Investigations Network (SIN) had underestimated him. They had crossed the wrong man. He almost felt sorry for them. Almost.
Doc Holloway was going to see to it that they were paid what was due them. The wages of sin is death.
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About the Book
D.C. Police Officer Jacob "Doc" Holloway was recruited to work as a narcotics undercover operative for the federally funded Janus Project, working in conjunction with federal law enforcement agencies' entire Special Investigations Network (SIN). Eighteen months later, he discovered that he had merely been a pawn of corrupt government and law enforcement officials seeking to eliminate their competition and ensure the continued success of their own criminal enterprises.
Now Doc Holloway has vowed to bring down these corrupt individuals and to see to it that they reap what they have sown.
The wages of sin is death.
About the Author
Quintin Peterson is the author of several plays and screenplays. He resides in Washington, DC and is a native Washingtonian. As a junior high school student, he attended the Corcoran School of Art on a scholarship. While still in high school, he was honored with the University of Wisconsin's Science Fiction Writing Award and the National Council of Teachers of English Writing Award. Upon receiving the Wisconsin Junior Academy's Writing Achievement Award, his name was included in Who's Who Among American High School Students of 1975.
As an undergraduate communications major at the University of Wisconsin, he wrote and performed in two plays for stage and videotape and received a Mary Roberts Rinehart Foundation grant for his play project, Change. A National Endowment for the Arts creative writing fellowship and a playwriting grant from the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities followed. Subsequently, two of his radio plays were aired on WPFW-FM Pacifica Radio as productions of the Minority Arts Ensemble's Radio Drama Workshop '79.
Mr. Peterson is a 20-year-veteran police officer with the Metropolitan Police Department and is currently assigned to its Office of Public Information as a media liaison officer. He is also a liaison between the department and members of the motion picture and television industries, acting as a script consultant and technical advisor.
His debut novel, SIN, was published in October of 2000. THE WAGES OF SIN is his second novel.