Ricky

Getting a Confession

         As he walked, Viper turned the recorder on and held it inside his jacket, hidden. He ran a hand through his hair as he reached Rob, who was still where Viper had left him. Now though, Rob was leaning on the police car, facing the opposite way. Viper’s heart slowed down a little when he saw that because it meant that Rob probably hadn’t seen the tape recorder. Viper leaned next to Rob, against the car. They were both silent for a moment, but Viper knew how much Ricky and Drake needed this confession.
         “Okay, now you can tell me what’s going on. Oh, did you call Deuce yet?” Viper asked, as innocently as a gangster possibly could. Rob shook his head, but the two weren’t looking at each other; so Viper couldn’t read Rob’s emotions.
         “I’ll call him when I can get away from all these cops, which will probably be a while. In the meantime, I’ll just tell you what happened here,” Rob told Viper, glancing over his shoulder at the other two teens and Detective Early.
         “The straight-up truth or that story you pitched to the cops?” Viper questioned, already guessing what the answer would be. He watched Rob decide that it was safe to tell Viper the truth. When Rob was satisfied, he turned and looked Killer’s brother right in the eye with a grin.
         “How about both? I’ll be nice and tell you the truth and my little frame job. After Drake left, me and his mom got into it. He told her that I had beaten him and forced him to leave a year ago, so she wanted to know if it was true. Well, it is true, but I wasn’t about to tell her that, so I told her that I saw him the night he left, but I didn’t talk to him or anything. She wasn’t quite sure who to believe, so I played up how I felt. I mean, I married her even thought she had a little brat of a son. The thing is, I don’t even know why I actually married her. I guess I got bored and just wanted to do something new. Anyway, I bought a gun from Reno a while ago, so of course it didn’t have a permit. You know Reno, don’t you?” Rob asked, stopping suddenly. Viper nodded. Reno was the local gun dealer, so he was the man to see if Rob wanted an unregistered gun. Reno sold the guns out of his van, but he was in a different place every day, so the police never found him.
         “Well, I had that on me and I decide how I was gonna get even with those two punks for turning my wife on me. I actually hesitated, which is rare for me, so I decided that she was a weakness and that’s not acceptable. That’s the major reason as to why I got rid of her. Most people wouldn’t understand that, but I figured you would, since you are one of Deuce’s boys. I had to get rid of her. Plus, it helped me get even with Ricky’s brother fro pissing me off and disrespecting me. So, I took the gun out and, before she even realized what was going on, she was gone. One shot, simple enough. Then, I just put the gun down on the ground and called my man Jay. He always has gun permits laying around, so he filled one out for Blayze and put it in the database, setting the date as last week. That way, when the cops ran the serial number, it’d come back that Blayze bought the gun last week, so after that was set, I called the police,” Rob explained. Viper had to ask how Rob managed to keep himself clear.
         “What about fingerprints? I mean, you can’t just kill someone and leave nothing behind to say that it was you instead of somebody else,” Viper added, getting curious. Rob wasn’t so sure now.
         “Why are you asking all these questions, kid?” he countered, now obviously suspicious. Viper’s heart sped up as he realized that Rob’s seemingly baseless suspicions were right. He fought to keep his expression calm and emotionless.
         "Man, I just wanna know how you do it. Then again, Deuce told me that my curiosity would get me killed if I don’t learn to control it,” Viper added, sounding somewhat put down. At that, Rob laughed and Killer’s brother felt that the trust was back.
         “How I do my job isn’t really your business, but I guess if you asked nicely, I’ll answer. I was wearing gloves that are now properly disposed of. That’s all you’re getting. You better disappear because the detectives aren’t done with me yet,” Rob explained. Viper nodded wordlessly and strolled back to Ricky, Drake, and Detective Early. As he walked, he glanced back at Rob and saw that Drake’s step dad was looking the other way, watching the officers near the house. Viper reached into his coat and switched the recorder off. As he reached the other two teens, Viper slid the tape recorder out and handed it to the detective, who looked skeptical, but accepted the recorder. Viper adjusted his jacket, glancing back to see that Rob was still watching the other officers.
         “Did you seriously get him to admit it? What did he tell you, Viper?” Drake asked, talking quickly. Viper realized that Drake hadn’t talked normally since they’d brought him home. Then again, Viper couldn’t blame him.
         “I just betrayed the gang trust between Bobby and Deuce’s soldiers. Deuce is gonna kill me,” Viper groaned, holding his head in his hands. Ricky watched all of this silently, then he heard the tape recorder click. He glanced up and saw that the tape was spinning quickly inside. The detective must be rewinding it, Ricky decided. The group was quiet, just standing there. There was really nothing else to say, so it was an awkward silence. The recorder clicked, but Detective Early hesitated, glancing around. When Viper saw that, he flipped out his phone and speed-dialed a number. He was probably taking advantage of the break, Ricky realized.
         “Deuce, it’s Viper. I’ve gotta talk to you, man,” Viper explained, so Ricky knew who Killer’s brother was talking to. Viper slid away to have a conversation privately. Ricky turned back to the detective, getting Drake’s attention.
         "Sir, can you let us listen to the tape? We wanna know why Rob did this. Please?” Ricky asked, his tone almost begging. He watched the detective’s eyes and saw the uncertainty flash through those brown eyes. At that, Ricky realized that maybe he and Drake shouldn’t listen to the tape because the detective hadn’t even heard it yet and so Detective Early didn’t know if he himself should hear it before he told his colleagues.
         “Detective, if you don’t listen to it now, Rob might get away, and we’ll never find him," Drake warned, reading Ricky’s mind, it seemed like. The detective still wasn’t sure, but this time, he shook his head firmly. Ricky sighed and lazily glanced over to the driveway, but he didn’t see what he expected. He straightened up quickly, on alert all of the sudden.
         “Detective Early, I think we already lost Rob. Unless your people are talking to him,” Ricky added hopefully, but he guessed by the speed that the detective turned towards the drive that Rob wasn’t talking to anyone from the police station.