Chapter 7 - The Stakeout
Raye dropped the plate onto the table.
"Hey watch it!" The bald customer snarled.
Raye frowned at the man with cold eyes and simply walked away towards the back of Tony's Restaurant. She looked like she was terminal, or as if life had simply left her body. She certainly did not convey the kind of attitude worthy of tipping.
She walked to the back kitchen window to see Lita trying to get her attention:
"Hey," Lita said through the window. Raye unenthusiastically leaned in to hear her. "I know you're not feeling great, but can you try to smile a bit?"
"Just give me the damn sandwich," Raye said to her friend.
Lita simply shook her head and handed Raye the customer's food. "Hold on a second," Lita said. Rita looked at the brunette annoyed, "We're lucky Tony gave us back our jobs. But you keep sulking over Mina and we're gonna be out on-"
"I'm not sulking over her!" Raye snorted and walked towards the customer, "Here!" She threw the plate onto the table and walked away.
Lita shook her head and sighed. The sounds of Serena's footsteps entered the kitchen: "Is she still all emo?"
Lita turned to her blonde friend, "Yeah it's gonna cost us money in tips."
"Hah," Serena mocked and twirled her hair around, "What a baby! She breaks up with Mina and she can't get over it."
"Serena," Lita said didactically as she added some spices to a burrito, "I'm sure you feel the same way about Amy."
Serena laughed, "Oh please! I've forgotten all about her. I can get on just fine without her, and her big know-it-all brain, and her calm soul, and her…" The princess' enthusiasm began to deteriorate, "Her beautiful body, and the way she took care of me when I felt sad and-" The blonde simply started to cry like a baby. Lita rolled her eyes.
"HEY!" Tony said as he came into the kitchen, "What's with all the waterworks?"
"Oh," Serena wiped her eyes off, "I'm sorry Tony, I'll get back to doing the dishes."
"Nevermind that," Tony said as he looked over to Raye, "What's with your girl Raye?"
"Oh," Lita jumped in, "She's having a tough day, problems at home, you know."
"Well I can't have her working like this; she's gonna scare away all my customers! Sarah…"
"It's Serena," The blonde corrected him.
"Whatever, you're gonna be waitressing for the day."
Serena's sad eyes lifted with joy, "REALLY? OH MY GOD THIS IS SO AWESOME!!!" She began to jump up and down like a little girl.
"But Tony," Lita interrupted, "Serena doesn't know the first thing about being a waitress!"
"Hey!" She snapped.
"Better her than the Princess of Darkness over there. Get a uniform on and get busy." Tony left the room.
"Oh my god," Serena talked really fast, "This is so awesome, I always wanted to be a waitress. Well actually, no I didn't, but at least I don't have to wash dishes anymore. Raye is gonna be soooo pissed when she finds out I'm taking her job. I'm gonna be so awesome, I'm gonna be like 'Hi I'm Serena Usagi Tsukino, may I take your order?' And they're gonna be all like, 'Oooo who's that waitress, she's so beautiful and nice and is definitely not a fat ass.' And then…"
As she continued to ramble on nonsensically, Lita picked up a large kitchen knife, looked at Serena and fantasized.
Sirico and Dante sat in their grey Lexus, Dante in the driver's seat, both dressed in suits and ties. They were staked-out on a broken street in Tribeca filled with pieces of wood, tires and horse-crap. Dante's eyes were fixated on a red rusted graffiti covered building about ten yards away on the corner of the block to his left. Sirico was shooting his mouth off as usual:
"So I'm riding in the car with this rookie. We come to a red light, he speeds right through it. I say 'What are you doing? You just ran that red light?' He says 'Nevermind, my brother drives like this.' We come to another red light, and he speeds through that one too. I'm like 'What's the matter with you? You ran another red light?' He says 'I told you, my brother drives like this!' We come to a green light, and he stops. I say 'What are you doing?' He says, 'Well my brother might be coming the other way.'"
Sirico laughed at his own joke. Dante stared off into space trying to ignore his partner. Sirico's laughter was interrupted by a knock on his window. He immediately turned to see a white gloved hand knocking on the door. It belonged to an incognito Mina, or perhaps Sailor V. She was dressed in a trenchcoat and a cabbie hat. She was wearing glasses, but they appeared to be regular red eyeglasses. Sirico rolled down the window:
"Sorry I don't have any change," he chuckled.
Mina rolled her eyes and laughed sarcastically, "What's going on?"
"That's a good song," Sirico joked around almost trying to impress her.
"Where's A?" asked Dante.
Mina jerked her head to the left, "Scanning the buildings."
Dante and Sirico looked off to the sidewalk to see the blue-haired Amy checking her iPhone (she had the computer implemented in her phone, an applicated called "iScout"). Amy was also incognito: black beret, suede coat, black jeans; and yet her white gloves and blue boots were visible, as were her blue goggles. She stood across the street of the slums puzzled.
"Why are you two all dressed in coats and hats and crap when it's 90 degrees outside?" Dante asked.
"Well," Mina said, "Amy thinks it wouldn't make much sense for us to walk around in broad daylight with our Sailor uniforms for a drug bust. Besides you guys are wearing suits and ties. You don't think a junkie's gonna know you guys are cops?"
Dante eyes drifted. "He's got you there buddy," Sirico turned to annoy his partner. He turned back to the blonde, "Are you in your Scout uniform?"
Mina pulled up her hat to reveal her tiara better. "I used to do this back in England, never had a problem. So c'mon are we gonna go break up some drug dealers or what?"
"Not yet," Dante said, "We're waiting for one of Sollozzo's men to go in."
"We've been trying to get Sollozzo himself, but he always slips away," Sirico explained, "So if we nab some of his top men and shut down his operations on this street, it'll weaken his power."
"I dunno," Dante said, "We shut out his crib in Brooklyn, but he's still going strong."
"I see," Sailor V said softly, "Maybe Amy can scan some of the-"
"Wait," Dante said looking forward. A man emerged from the corner of the building, dark hair, tanned complexion, brown hat, jacket and pants. "Holy shit, It's him!" Sirico couldn't believe it either.
"Who?" Mina asked in confusion.
"Sollozzo in the flesh!" Sirico said. "We're gonna be made captains for this!"
"Take it easy," Dante calmed his friend down. Sollozzo turned a key and walked right into the building. "Okay," Dante looked over towards Sailor V, "The three of us are gonna go in. Go talk to your girl, tell her to wait where she is and see if that scan thingamajig of hers can find out exactly which floor and room he's on, AND if she can find any source of heroin in there."
Mina immediately walked towards Amy as Sirico phoned all police units their position. Amy stopped typing and turned to her friend.
"This Sollozzo is the guy who just walked in," Said Mina, "We're gonna go-"
"Mina," Amy interrupted, "I'm picking up some very strange energy coming from this building."
Mina looked puzzled, "What kind of energy?"
"I'm not quite sure," Amy said, "Of course this phone doesn't have many bars right now."
"Well for now," Mina said, "Can you scan the place and find out which room Sollozzo is in?"
"That much I can do." Amy said.
"FUCK YOU TONY!" Raye said as she stormed out of the restaurant in a fiery rage.
"Yeah keep up that attitude!" Tony screamed out into the street and went back inside.
Raye fought tears as she took a long walk across town. She stepped off onto the street almost getting run over by a taxi cab. She slammed her hand on the hood of the cab, "Hey, I'm walking here! I'm walking here!" The cab driver yelled back at her in some foreign language she couldn't understand. As she started to walk away she waved angrily at the guy, "Up yours you son of a bitch, get outta here!" A crowd of people turned their heads to see this girl in a waitress uniform recreating the scene from Midnight Cowboy. She ignored everyone and walked away in anger.
She must have been walking for half an hour before she finally came to see a familiar face.
Sirico, Dante and Mina walked up to the fourth floor before hitting apartment 4E. The hallway was lit only by the sun peeking in from a small window.
"4E," Dante pointed.
"I can't believe how stupid this guy is." Sirico said, "He's got no guards, no posse, no nothing!"
"Don't underestimate him," Dante said, "He's been eluding us for God knows how long."
"So how are we gonna do this?"
Dante knocked on the door. A voice came through, "What's the magic word?"
"Your mother," Sirico answered.
"No," the voice came through, "That was last week's password."
"Look," Dante's said, "Jesse sent us."
"Hold on a second," The voice said.
Sirico and Dante looked to each other with thumbs up.
"Hey Jesse," the voice from inside said, "Did you send a couple guys here today?"
"No," another voice came through.
"All right beat it whoever you are," the other voice said.
Sirico smiled at Dante, "Now what, Mr. Smarty Pants?"
Mina rolled her eyes, "It's the police, open up!" She shouted.
Dante and Sirico waved their hands to her, "What's wrong with you?!" Sirico whispered. "Are you out of your-"
The sound of a lock opening interrupted Sirico's words. Only a few seconds later, the door opened to a big fat bald guy opening the door. Dante and Sirico looked to Mina puzzled. The three of them walked into see Sollozzo sitting on a leather arm chair sipping a glass. Another one of his men stood off to his left.
"Ah," He said smiling, "Officer Dante."
"It's Sgt. Dante now."
"Sgt? They made you two Sergeants? They must really be desperate down there." The sleazy drug-lord lit a cigarette.
Sirico laughed for a second before looking at the wanted man with red eyes, "I can't wait to put your smug-ass in the slammer."
Sollozzo looked over towards Mina with the cigarette dangling in his mouth, "Who's the bitch?"
"Hey!" Mina said fiercely.
Dante held her back. "She looks familiar," Sollozzo said taking the cigarette out of his mouth.
"All right enough Sal," Dante approached him. Sollozzo's men moved forward to protect him, but Sollozzo raised his hand to call them off. "Where's the stash?"
"I dunno what your talking about."
"Do we really need to tear this place down to find the junk?"
"You got papers?"
Sirico pulled out a search warrant and threw it in Sollozzo's face. "We'll find it!" Sirico said. "Last time, it was inside the TV."
Dante walked over to the Plasma TV and threw it onto the ground.
"Hey," Sollozzo said without getting up, "That cost two grand, you break it, you buy it!"
"Shut up!" Dante said looking at the broken screen. There was no sign of any heroin. "Listen Sollozzo," Dante said getting up, "If you tell us where it is, it'll make our lives a lot easier. We might be able to say in the police report that you co-operated."
"Oh," Sollozzo laughed, "You mean easier than sitting around in a car drinking coffee?"
Dante simply started breaking everything in a pit of rage. Sirico tried to calm his partner down. Sollozzo simply sat in his leather chair staring at Mina who stood before him not saying a word. Sollozzo looked down to her feet.
"Interesting," he said, "You're all bundled up like it's 15 below zero outside, and yet you're wearing gold heels."
Mina stood there staring at the man. A chime came from her pocket. She pulled out her cell-phone to reveal her long white gloves going into her sleeves.
"White gloves too? Who wears white gloves? Especially in 90 degree weather. Maybe you can do a little strip tease for me." He smiled at her and flicked his cigarette over the ashtray to his left.
"Leave her alone Sal," Dante said searching all the drawers of his armwar. Sirico looked for any cracks in the floor.
Mina checked her text messages. After reading one, her eyes focused back on Sollozzo.
"And what are you hiding under that hat? Something on your forehead? And what's behind those red glasses?"
Sollozzo and Mina stared into each other's eyes.
"Wait a minute," He said with more fear in his face, "I know who you are."
Mina pulled off her hat to reveal her red bow and tiara. A quick wave of her hand over her eyes revealed her familiar Sailor V mask. Her trenchcoat quickly flew off to reveal her Sailor uniform with her long white gloves. Her legs kicked off the black pants she wore to reveal her short skirt.
"Sailor V!" Sollozzo said. Dante and Sirico stopped to see their partner reveal herself. Sollozzo's men were astounded, and slightly turned on, to see the famous superhero.
Sailor V quickly walked right over to Sollozzo's chair, took him by the hand and threw him onto the ground causing his brown hat to fly into the doorway. Sollozzo's men advanced towards her.
"Don't touch her," Sirico said pulling out his 9mm and pointing it at the gang. Sollozzo stood up trying to catch his breath, feeling the top of his bare black haired-head. Dante also pulled out his gun.
Sailor V pulled off the pillow top and ripped the bottom lining out to reveal kilos of brown substances. She picked one of them up. Dante, with his gun still focused on Sollozzo, moved over towards Mina. He took out a knife and cut a slit into the bag. Touching his finger to the substance, he then put it to his tongue. He then smiled at Sollozzo.
Mina too looked at Sollozzo, who's eyes were full of fear.
"Don't ever," She said waving her finger, "Call me a bitch!"