be… the most I smoke is cigarettes…” Coco started to respond. She became suspicious and her voice trailed off.
“Where do you buy the cigarettes?” Hall asked.
“Yeah, I wanna hear this one,” Kowalski said with a smirk.
“I bum smokes off people, ahight. When my mother is home I be borrowing off her.”
“How old are you?” Hall asked.
“You know everything else, you should know my age.”
“She’s only seventeen…” Kowalski said.
“It’s just about illegal for you to do anything, Coco.” Hall interrupted.
“So...?”
“Please, let’s go inside your apartment. We’d like to talk to you about the gunshots that were fired earlier.” Neighbors started slowly easing out of their apartments into the hallway.
“Look, why can’t we talk about this another time, yo? I already spoke to the other police about that. I mean I gotta go to the hospital and take them these documents,” Coco complained as she opened the door to her mother’s apartment. She entered and the detectives followed.
“Hmm, new furniture.” Kowalski walked in and immediately surveyed the room.
“Okay young lady, tell us what happened,” Hall demanded in a comforting fatherly tone.
“Earlier? Ahight, ahight already, this girl attacked some other girl when she got off the elevator.”
“What caused the attack?” Hall asked. While sitting facing Hall, Coco’s eyes never let Kowalski out of her vision. He was strolling around the room examining things.
“Coco, do you know what caused the attack on the girl?” Hall repeated.
“I don’t know. Maybe they didn’t like the fact that her gears was better than theirs, or sump’n,” Coco answered sarcastically.
“A gun was fired. Do you know who fired the gun?” Hall asked.
“I don’t know.”
“Any idea? You were close enough,” Hall said.
“Yeah, but understand, you in the hood, and ain’t nobody sticking around trying to see if someone pulled out a gun. You be out, running, or you ducking, man,” Coco added with a shrug.
“If it was all running and ducking, how do you know someone had a gun?” Hall asked.
“One of them did. Sump’n went bang. Someone let off but I’m damn Skippy, it wasn’t me. And that’s what’s really up.”
“Is that your story?”
“My story? That’s what happened.”
“We spoke to several people who suggested that maybe you also had a gun. Or…” Hall began to say.
Coco walked to the door and opened it. She stuck her head out and yelled:
“People round here need to learn to mind their damn BI and stop giving po-po wrong info, yo.” She slammed the door then returned to face Hall.
“You’re being straight with us, Coco? You are aware that you can go to jail for a very long time for lying to the police.” Hall said.
“I don’t know what you’re talkin’ bout, yo.”
“C’mon Coco give us a name. You’re a smart girl, I’m sure you know one name,” Hall pleaded.
Kowalski walked over closer to them. His face bore an agitated look of impatience. He stood in front of Coco trying to intimidate her.
“Yeah, why won’t you give us the right info, huh?” He asked. Before Coco could give an answer, Kowalski moved closer. He continued yelling in her face. “You lied about your involvement in Ascot’s shooting. I’ll bet anything that you’re lying about your attackers and who had the guns. You’re covering up your involvement in each of these instances and I don’t like it one bit.”
“She told us whatever she knew,” Hall offered weakly in Coco’s defense. “We can’t blame her, she had to duck. Bullets have no names on them. You know, you got to get out the way…”
“I don’t believe a thing this lying Black bitch has said so far!” Kowalski screamed. Coco bit her lips and clenched her fist.
“Hey man, be easy now. You can’t be just going around making racial slurs…” Hall cautioned.
“I could give a rat’s ass about race. We are here to catch criminals.”
“But she’s not a criminal,” Hall said trying to no avail to step between his partner and Coco.
Kowalski was so close to Coco that the spatter of his saliva sprinkled her face. She turned to wipe it off.
“I’m going to prove that you’re nothing but a liar Coco. You break the damn law, you smoke your weed, drink your alcohol, you think that is so cool. You and your friends were probably coming back here to smoke this,” he said holding a bag of weed close to her surprised face. “Someone lost the bag when a fight broke out. I am here investigating a crime and found a bag laying in plain view inside your apartment. Marijuana is illegal. Your ass is grass, Coco. I’m gonna be that lawnmower and cut you down.”
Coco glanced at it and smirked. It was a dub sack, the type she never bought. This incident made her remember the social workers; they had found another bag of weed a couple weeks ago.
“If your jail-bait-ass does not come clean right here and now, the sounds you’re gonna hear is cling-cling on your way down to the poky.” Kowalski roared as if he had won.
Coco shook her head. She opened her mouth but nothing came. In the back of her mind, she could hear her mother’s voice screaming: ‘You were smoking weed in my apartment? ’
“What other lies do you have for us, Coco?”
“That isn’t mine,” she said trying to convince herself more so than the detectives. “You both know that it’s not. You did not smell any marijuana in here. What’re you trying to do?” Coco screamed. “You’re trying to frame me for sump’n I ain’t do. I never fired no gun. I don’t even own a gun. Why y’all don’t go harass the person who fired the gun? And stop tryin’ to plant weed on me.”
“What’s her name, Coco?” Kowalski asked hypnotically shaking the bag side to side in Coco’s face.
“I don’t know. Why you fuckin’ with me? I ain’t no rat. I ain’t gonna be snitching out anyone I don’t know.”
“Oh well, lil’ sis it’s gonna be your behind. There won’t be a lot that I can do to stop this racist cop from arresting you and sending you to jail for a long time.” Hall said.
“She’s wasting my time. Let’s go!” Kowalski said gruffly shaking his handcuffs. He approached Coco with his handcuffs undone.
“You can’t arrest me! Why you gonna?” Coco was outraged.
“Because we represent the law and you’ve broken it, Coco. You’re under arrest for possession of marijuana,” Kowalski said. Coco shoved him when he tried to put the handcuffs on her wrists. “Now you’re resisting arrest. I’ll gladly add that to your charges.”
“Coco, don’t make things any worse,” Hall stated.
“Bitch, put your hands behind you,” Kowalski ordered. “Do you have anything in your pockets that is gonna stab me, any pointed objects or a knife?” He yelled slapping the handcuffs onto Coco’s wrists.
She was on the floor with Kowalski’s knees on her neck.
“Ugh… No,” Coco said barely audible. Suddenly she felt Hall hands rifling through the pockets of her jeans. Coco bit her lips