Chapter 22: Burn the Heretic

Hugh Spade carefully hid a baseball bat by the door, peering outside through the peephole for a dozen seconds before he took a deep breath, slowly opening the door.

Although it was unlikely that a high schooler would be a gang member, it was always best to be cautious.

Dennis Herbs stood outside, wearing headphones with a mini Walkman clipped to his waist, seemingly moving slightly to the beat of some lively music. When he saw the door open, Dennis took off his headphones and flashed a brilliant smile at him, leaning on the doorframe, showing the bills in his fingers: "Mr. Hugh Spade, I'm here for the stuff."

"You had better get lost right now, there's nothing you need here." Hugh Spade said, his face grim.

The smile on Dennis's face froze, and he stared at Hugh Spade, somewhat angrily: "Sir, I drove from Warwick City to East Greenwich hoping to make my party tonight more exciting, and now you're saying you've got no goods? I came over because he said over the phone that you have the goods!"

"That guy clearly played you, go settle it with him!" Hugh Spade finished speaking and slammed the door shut, then breathed a sigh of relief.

But before he could turn around, the doorbell rang again. Hugh Spade muttered under his breath and pulled the door open. The money Dennis Herbs was holding had increased to fifty dollars, and with an ugly expression, he said, "You win, I don't want to screw up my party, fifty bucks, sir! This is fifty bucks! I worked part-time for a long time to save up this huge sum! I'm willing to give it to you for my party! Give me the goods I ordered!"

"What's your name, kid?" Hugh Spade looked at the money and then at the high school boy in front of him as he asked.

Dennis spoke up, "Dennis Herbs, known all across the high schools in the whole state! The big shot of Lincoln High School! The future President of the United States! Sir, he's standing right in front of you, begging you to sell him the stuff so as not to screw up his party full of hot chicks!"

"Wow~" Hugh Spade was stunned for a moment, finding the name somewhat familiar, and after a few seconds of thought, he pointed at Dennis and said, "Aren't you the one who played a pay-per-view adult show during class, causing all the schools in the state to check their own TV classrooms?"

"Yes, but my classmates prefer to call me the godfather of liberalism at Lincoln High School, and to celebrate my coronation, I've prepared a grand party." Dennis seemed pleasantly surprised that Hugh Spade knew his name and flashed a grin.

Hugh Spade nodded, the wariness in his eyes dissipating somewhat, but he still said, "Go back, kid, you won't find what you're looking for here."

"Fine, seventy bucks, that's the most I can offer!" Seeing Hugh Spade still refusing, Dennis became a little impatient as he rummaged through the pockets of his leather pants, and some loose bills fell out. Dennis picked them up, put the rest away, and left seventy dollars in his hand, offering it to Hugh Spade.

"Looks like you're pretty flush, kid," Hugh Spade said.

"I might have been before, but now it's all turned into this gear. See, this Walkman, the new stuff for a hundred and forty-five bucks, and these Reebok pumps with air cushions..." Dennis, thinking the other was about to jack up the price, hurriedly said.

"A hundred bucks, you give me a hundred, and I'll hand over the stuff to you." Hugh Spade couldn't resist the temptation of the money and finally said.

He wasn't planning to learn from Melanie and become a drug dealer, but selling this batch to the scumbag high school kid at a high price didn't seem like a bad deal either. After all, he could just stay away from these things in the future. Fifty pills of Adderall, thirty tablets of Lunesta—the quantity of prescription drugs like this wouldn't cause any trouble. He had dealt with drugs in college too and knew how to avoid problems. As long as he never touched them again, even if this got out, the police wouldn't arrest him, at most they'd give him a warning and put him on a watchlist.

"A hundred bucks? Normally, this stuff at most... Sir, you really know how to do business." Dennis, frustrated, gathered all the money he had on him, which totaled up to only ninety-six dollars and twenty-five cents, and handed it all over to Hugh Spade with a downcast expression: "It's all there."

Hugh Spade took those bills and turned back into the living room. He picked up the medication he had brought back, didn't allow Dennis inside, and simply threw them at him, "Take this stuff and leave, and don't come back."

"Even without you telling me, I wasn't planning on patronizing your business anymore!" Dennis checked the medication, cursed drearily at the door, and then turned away.

Hugh Spade closed the door, peered through the peephole to make sure Dennis had left, then walked over to the living room window and looked out. He watched as Dennis got into an old muscle car and drove off into the dust before he finally breathed a sigh of relief.

…

It wasn't until the evening lights were lit that Dennis drove back to the apartment rented by Warwick Tommy Hawk. He greeted Melanie, who had just returned home from counseling and was taking off her coat, with a light step and pushed open the bedroom door. He tossed the fifty Adderalls and thirty Lunestas he'd bought from Hugh Spade onto the small desk where Tommy was bending over his homework:

"It cost a hundred bucks for these, Tommy. If you want this kind of stuff, you should come to me. I can get them for no more than forty. I took a good look at that guy; sure, he's a bit strong, but with Pam and a few guys from the hockey team, we could easily smash his car and beat him up to avenge Aunt Melanie—no need to go to all this trouble."

Tommy Hawk stopped writing, screwed on the cap of his fountain pen, and hooked his finger toward the Walkman on Dennis Herbs' waist.

While taking off the Walkman, Dennis said, "Make it clear, you've said before that you would give this to me."

Tommy Hawk put on the headphones and pressed the play button, and the previous transaction conversation between Hugh Spade and Dennis Herbs played back.

After listening, Tommy Hawk handed back the Walkman to Dennis, "Not just the Walkman, the tape is yours, too. What were you saying just now, that you could get these meds for forty bucks? What about now?"

While talking, Tommy Hawk opened a drawer and pulled out the remaining one hundred and twenty Adderalls and fifty Lunestas, piling them up with the drugs Dennis had brought back, forming a small mountain on the desk.

Dennis Herbs was instantly stunned, speechless: "What the hell!"

"Only a single illegal transaction of a hundred or more prescription pills triggers our great United State America's Controlled Substances Act," Tommy Hawk said, looking up at the shocked Dennis Herbs.

Dennis Herbs, bewildered, looked at Tommy, "What does that mean?"

"It means if you bought one hundred and seventy Adderalls and eighty Lunestas from that guy and the police find out, not only will the FDA be on his case, the DEA will also get involved," Tommy Hawk told Dennis Herbs. "But simply selling some prescription drugs to a high school punk like you isn't enough for him to lose his job and be disgraced. So, we need a final spark."

"What spark? Tommy, for fuck's sake, can you not talk like my godfather, and have a human conversation with me?" Dennis Herbs asked, exasperated.

Tommy Hawk leaned the fountain pen on the small mountain of drugs as if adding a piece of kindling:

"Take these drugs to Holy Cross Private High School, let the anger of those students' parents who have spent a lot of money ignite into flames, and burn a heretic named Hugh Spade to death."