"Hey, now." "We called earlier, they said you were up... and by the time we get here, you're back asleep." " Been there long?" " No." "20 minutes." "You know, we didn't want to exactly disturb you." "I'm bored, is all." "Yeah, but still." "So, what you got for me?" " Spreads?" " Yeah." "Little Man." "For sure." "That's good." "Are you able to write?" "Okay." "Number two." "I can make Little Man, because he's in the front... trying to snatch the cash off the dashboard." "But the other one, he's outside in the dark." " So...." " So, you know, it's okay." "Is there anyone here that you do recognize?" "Sure." "Wee-Bey." "All right." "Let me tell you where we're coming from with the shooters." "We tracked their escape route, and Landsman came up with their hoodies." "Now, DNA matched... human hair from one of the hoodies to Wee-Bey." "Freamon, he tracked a call from the pay phone... near the scene, to Stringer Bell's pager." "Now, the caller was using Bey's beeper code." "Crime lab, they lift a print... off a soda can near that phone, and that matches Little Man." "You know, so, you know, I'm saying...." "Okay, hear me out." "There's a downside here." "We don't have the guns... no prints from the scene, no witnesses." "But worse, we're going to be dealing with a Baltimore city jury... and a good man is hard to find in this town." "Twelve of them together, especially." "An ID of both your shooters... will play a whole lot easier come trial." "Yeah." "Sometimes things just got to play hard." "We got everyone on our list except C.C.O." "We hit his mama's house... and she says that he went up to Wabash for some court date." "You can get on the computer and see if any of the Sheriff's deputies... can snatch him up in some courtroom." "Yeah." "No, we got Ronnie Moe." "I'm looking at him go in the jail van right now." "All right." " Fished our limit." "Let's go home." " "Sir."" " Huh?" " "Let's go home, sir."" "You're looking at a soon-to-be-made sergeant." "So what I'm saying is, when we're around the troops... you got to get used to showing the proper respect." "So, "Let's go home, sir." All right?" "What's the count?" "So far we've picked up 12." "That leaves seven on the wing." "Anything worthwhile?" "Some phone numbers that match, scraps of nicknames, not much else." "We need something now." "They'll shut us down unless we come up with something fresh to run with right now." "The wires are dead." "The bug in the club is useless." "They're moving out of there even as we got up on them." " To where?" " No clue." "But they're going to have to set up again." "Either Barksdale moves to reset his distribution... or he gives up the towers." " If not Avon, then Stringer." " And why not Avon?" "With no priors, he's out two hours after the bail review." "What we put on Barksdale barely makes him break stride." "Okay, so we get a hint of where they're setting back up." "We ask the State's Attorney for a new bug... maybe even a wire if we get onto a phone." "Not while the deputy breathes air." "We'll be reassigned before you finish typing up your affidavit." "How about the feds?" "You think the Deputy's going to let you take this mess federal?" "Why does the Deputy need to know?" "McNulty, you are a piece of work." "McNulty." "Yeah?" "No shit." "No fucking shit." "It's Rhonda Pearlman." "She just got a call from an assistant public defender in North Jersey... who claims to represent a man by the name of D'Angelo Barksdale." "Meet me in Homicide." "Bring a tape recorder." "No drug lawyers?" "No Levy?" " Case got some legs on her, don't she?" " Don't she?" "Quarter of a million dollars bail." "You believe that shit?" "It hurts to even show that kind of money." " Where Levy at?" "He ain't at the club, is he?" " No, club's out." "We can't talk there no more." " Come on, man, let's get out of here." " What's up, baby?" "So, this is it?" "Look, before you go anyplace else, before you talk anyplace else... we got to think this through." "We're up to almost 20 arrests at last count." "And if you look at the probable cause, they all read just like yours:" "Information from a confidential source." "Don't this seem way too much for one snitch?" "I agree." "My gut tells me a wire." "Either a phone or two, or maybe something in a room somewhere." "Talked to your nephew on the phone about the Jersey thing?" "No." "Of course not, man." "No phones." "When I talk to him, I talk to him face-to-face, in my office, in the back of the club." " Fuck." " It's good you moved out of there." "I don't know, man." "I mean, if they got a Mike up in there... they got you and me saying all kind of shit." "That reminds me." "He said he'd be in tonight." " Thing is, they take you and leave me?" " That's what's fucking me up, too, man." "Look, we'll know soon enough, as soon as I start pressing for discovery." "What do you want to do about the people they locked up?" " We got to pull them." " That's showing a lot of money." "If we don't, we run the risk of making them enemies." "Speaking of which, where are you with your nephew?" "Is he going to see the light or what?" "Let me tell you something, man." "He family, all right?" "He not going to buck." "A day or two in the New Jersey bullpen, he gonna be crying... waiting for bail money like the rest of them." "All right." "So, let's run the money through the families, that'll hide it some." " And don't use the same bondsman." " All right." "Look, gentlemen, I know it's early..." "I want you to start thinking about who was charged... and what kind of time they can do." "One of the ways to limit your exposure is what's called a structured plea." "That means that you're going to have to deliver your people... all of them, down to a man." "I saw your girl today, for the idents." "How's she doing?" "Okay, I guess." "She's out of the ICU." "Moving slow, but moving, you know?" "Jimmy, you ain't been to see her?" "No." "I couldn't go in." "This ain't about you, right?" "I get back from Jersey, I will." "I will." "You know, Cole and me, we showed her the spreads." "Picked out Little Man, no problem." "Wouldn't go for Wee-Bey." "So, I tried the fat finger." "Damn near down on my knees begging her... to make this play easier in court." "You know what she said?" ""Sometimes things got to play hard."" "Real police." "Oh, yeah." " What the fuck did you do to her?" " I don't know." "You two in the same car going to make for a long-ass drive to Jersey." "Shit." "Damn, man, it's just too still in here." "You know what?" "We can " "This place will be fine." "All we really got to do is put a little safe in here some place... and let them know the count comes here from now on." "Period." "Damn, boy, when y'all change up, y'all " "Y'all that paranoid?" "You ain't even been up in there before." "I'm telling you, sis, this shit is different." "We are not going to talk about nothing indoors." "It's a new day." "Thing is, man, we got to get back on our feet." "You know, I mean, the longer we hold off... the harder it's going to be to maintain the towers." "You want to get it back up, you lean to me and String here." " No, I ain't down yet." " You need to step back." "She's right, bro." "You can't take a second chance here." "You know what I'm saying?" "Until you fixed, sis going to handle that money..." "I'm going to handle the products." " We're here for you." " All right." "But you tell Roberto, he got to make it a serious smoker." "I want them motherfucking fiends in the projects...." "I want them dropping like flies." "You feel me?" "You send out the word, you let them know we ain't dead yet." " What about my nephew?" " Don't fret." "Give me a chance to get with Roberto, and I'll get up to Dee." "Do what needs doing." "Tell him I'm sorry for putting him out there like that." "And that I'm going to make it up to him." "You going to make it up." "Most def." "But again, I want to make it clear... that all of this cooperation is contingent on a commitment... that my client finds acceptable." "Failing that..." " Everything said in here, stays in here." " Damn straight." "I'm sure a proffer in Maryland plays much the same in Jersey, counselor." "And I do agree that with regard to matters... involving drug trafficking, your client has been helpful." "He's indicated a willingness to testify that he was a lieutenant... in Avon Barksdale's drug distribution organization... sold large quantities of drugs for his uncle." "Delivered money, attended organizational meetings... and on one occasion made a trip to New York on the behest of his uncle." "All of which corroborates much of what we already know." "What else is there?" "The murders." "Man, why do you keep on that?" "I already told you..." "I don't know nothing about that witness being killed." "Which witness?" "Remember her?" "Jesus." " They did her?" " Yeah, about the same time they did the boy." "All of them bodies." " They covering up, man." " Yeah, that's what we think." " No loose ends." " I can understand the guard." "She got paid, so she had to go." "Orlando, he knew too much, got to snitching, so he had to go." "But then there's the kid..." "Wallace." "But I need to go past Argyle Street tonight." "Check in with Wallace." "Wallace?" "He off the hook since we helped the tower crew... get that stick-up boy." "I'm telling you, man, Wallace is bugging." "Don't hardly even come out of that room no more." " Now, why he be like that?" " I'm thinking he might be getting high." " Wallace?" " The boy's scaring me with his shit." " All right, holler at me later." " That'll work." "You got that shit on tape?" " God!" " His name is Brandon Wright." "Burned him, broke fingers, gouged an eye out, all kinds of fun." "Wallace was the one who saw." "He saw the boy." "But he really didn't think about what they'd do." "You must have known." "You were standing there by that pay phone." " You knew." " What was I going to do?" "I don't call String, word get back uptown, what's going to happen then?" "So, you told Wallace to wait, then you called Stringer... and Stringer, he gathered the troops." "Yeah." "And down at the Greek's, they got Wallace to point the finger, right?" "Then they went in like cops with handcuffs, so they could take their time on Brandon." "They dropped the body where we'd see it." ""Send a message to the 'jects, " they said." "Wallace... he couldn't handle that." "After seeing that, he wanted to get out... go back to school." "We even joked about it, him being 16 and all... needing to go start back over again as a freshman." "About a week ago, my uncle and String, they called me down to the club." "Stringer, he's all worried about Wallace, and I told him." "I said, "Wallace ain't no snitch."" "Plus, he's out the fucking game." "I told him that." "But I needed to do more." "I should've done more... but I didn't, and, fuck, that's on me." "Any idea who they sent at Wallace?" "Come on, Dee, wild guess." "Man, I don't know, could've been anybody." "You know, shooters come cheap." "I don't think so." "Not in the Pit." "Not in his crib." "I counted seven beds when I was up there." " Where were the young'uns?" " Look, if I knew, I would tell you." "All right?" "I swear to God, I would tell you." "They've charged with Orlando and the undercover cop... but we're still hunting." "Him, he in Philly." " How you know?" " I know 'cause I dropped him there." "Where?" "I don't know, a corner, North end, I don't know where he be staying." "Did Wee-Bey say anything to you about the shootings?" "We don't talk shop in the car." "It's a rule we got." "So, is that it?" "Your client must realize that any agreement... is dependent on his full cooperation." "There ain't nothing else." "Deidre." "Tap, tap, tap." "She was one of my uncle's girls." "But we got people who put you with her the night she's killed." "Yeah, I didn't know that he was going to do her." "I swear." "They played me." "How so?" "My uncle gave me an eight-ball of coke." "Told me to take it over there to her." "I was surprised, 'cause, you know, I thought he dumped her." "But he said, no, it wasn't like that no more." "So, he had Wee-Bey take me over there." "You know, I walked up, knocked on the door... she came to the door, all naked and shit, with this little-ass robe on." "So, she's your uncle's girl, but she comes to the door for you naked?" "She used to do that shit with me all the time, man." "Teasing." "You know how girls do." "Maybe you don't." "I don't know." "Anyway, I'm like, "Ain't you going to let me come in?"" "She says "No," because she got to get ready... for my uncle to come by later." "So, I give her the coke." "She laughs about how she's going to put that shit on ice, for later on." "Refrigerate it." "I don't know shit about no refrigerator." "Like I said, I didn't go in." "I turned around, started walking back to the truck... and I heard this shot." "Wee-Bey, he come running back with this big-ass .45 he liked to use so much." "Tells me how he was tapping on the window, real soft." "How with the lights on, she had to walk all the way up... because she couldn't see what was on the outside." "And when she gets up to the window and looks out...." "You did good, D'Angelo." "Yeah, you did." "Y'all don't understand, man." "Y'all don't get it." "You grow up in this shit." "My grandfather was Butch Stamford." "You know who Butch Stamford was in this town?" "All my people, man, my father, my uncles, my cousins... it's just what we do." "You just live with this shit... until you can't breathe no more." "I swear to God, I was courtside for eight months... and I was freer in jail than I was at home." "What are you looking for?" "I want it to go away." " I can't " " I want what Wallace wanted." "I want to start over." "That's what I want." "I don't care where." "Anywhere." "I don't give a fuck." "I just want to go somewhere where I can breathe like regular folk." "You give me that... and I'll give you them." "No, that's great." "Really great." "No, that's great." "Really great." "Yeah." "That's our move." "Okay." "We broke it open tonight." "Wide open." "I'm bringing this case in big." "So, this squares things with Burrell, right?" "To hell with the man." "But I think we might have enough to reach out to the feds... try to run this thing through them." "Cedric." "He knows about the money, Marla." "He's known for a long while." "Fact is, I wouldn't be surprised if it's why he picked me for this case." "What does he...." "What are you going to " "He's got me if he wants me." "Thing is, I don't think he wants me." "Too much at stake." "Too much mess." "Kind of like this case." "I have to admit it, Jimmy, this is a great case." "Not just because of Greggs, because it goes to that and answers that... but because of how deep it goes." "I mean, the murders, the money " "Jesus, I feel like I've been drunk ever since that kid started talking to us." "You okay to drive?" "I can drop you home." "You can pick up your car tomorrow." "No, I'm good." "I'm great, this was fucking great!" "You want to try to go federal with this?" "I am up for it." "I get cross-designated as an AUSA, and we can really run with it, you know?" "Career fucking case." "Anyway...." "Ronnie, the thing at..." "Levy's the other day, I was...." "I was " "Jesus, Ronnie, not here." "What are you doing?" "Like you never did it in the headquarters garage before?" "Jesus, Mary and Joseph." "Look what just walked in without a fucking escort." "Downtown Roy Brown, the living legend... in his own mind." "Uptown Lester Freamon." "Fuck me, how long's it been?" "Your retirement party, wasn't it?" "And this is retirement?" "Yeah." "Nice fucking digs?" "I asked my supervisor when I'll see a little sunlight." "Runt cocksucker says, "When your unit turns a profit."" "But enough of my joy." "What do you guys need?" "We need a trap and trace, but not in Maryland." " Pennsylvania, Philly." " You got to go through them." "We try that, we lose a week, they tell us it can't be done... then another week to okay our subpoena." "It's a little more complicated than just a straight-up trace." "We actually need a list of phones in Philly that called this number in the past week." " What's the number?" " Drug lawyer, downtown office." "Thought Billing would be the place to look." "If we can do it, and I'm not saying we can... it's going to be a fucking week, maybe two." "Thanks, Roy." "Lester, isn't this supposed to be the time... you tell me how all-fired fucking important this is?" "The Philly number gives us the mope who shot that female undercover." "I'm telling you, Fitz, it's the perfect case." " You'll love it." " It sounds great." "But like I said, Jimmy, we're not fishing for drug cases anymore." "Try DEA." "No, that field office is too close to our CID." "We go there, our bosses know it before a meeting is scheduled." "Your bosses don't know you're doing this?" "Who'll be coming?" "Me, a detective name of Freamon, and Daniels." "I can speak for Daniels, brother." "He's played this thing out with real heart." "Come on, set something up." "All right." "Could I get 10 copies?" " 10 copies?" " 10, right." "No problems?" "No." "No?" "All right, man, I'll get at you." "You locked that door, right?" "Yeah?" "All right, so listen." "It's not street-ready, all right?" "So, everybody got to work on their own cut and vial up." "Now, listen to me, tell them to get this straight." "Three parts of this, all right?" "To one of raw, all right?" "And that's how we gonna do until we get the new stash." "And I want you to put the word out there that we're back up." "Understand me?" "We're back up." "It's a good target." "You guys have a pretty good case here." "Look at the violence alone." "There's at least a dozen murders, including state's witnesses." "If you can help us squeeze the Barksdale kid into a witness protection program... we can run wild with this thing." " No suppliers though." " We're still looking for a way into that." "There was nothing on the wire that took us toward New York." "The trouble is, we have these post-9/11 protocols." "We can't pick up any new narcotics work... unless it goes to priority organized-crime targets." "Meaning Cosa Nostra or Colombians." "Or Russians maybe." "We don't have any Colombians in Baltimore." "We don't have any wise guys." "All we got is a whole lot of locals a little busy tearing the Westside apart." "I hear you, but the Bureau-wide protocol applies." "To run with you on this, we need a recognized OC target... or, even better, a connect to counterterrorism or corruption." "You go near stuff like that... we have something we can bring to our ASAC." "What kind of corruption?" "Don't know." "What kind you got?" "Poot, we up yet?" " Where Roc-Roc at with the shit?" " Package in." "Who is it?" " Onion and them off-brand niggers." " Onion?" " What the fuck they got?" " Some shit they call yellow tops." "Yellow tops?" "Got them yellow tops, y'all, yellow tops." "Yellows tops." " Got them yellow tops." " Motherfucker, what the fuck is up?" "Fuck is y'all doing?" "Do what you feel." "But be ready to finish what you start." "What you doing?" "This ain't no open market, you know that." "Ain't no market at all, nigger." "You ain't got shit to sell." "Back that ass up for those that do." " You know what?" " What?" "Get the fuck out of here, bitch!" " See, that's why we can't win." " Why not?" " They fuck up, they get beat." " We fuck up, they give us pensions." "Close it!" "Get the fuck out of here!" "Heard you ain't much as an eyeball witness." "Bad as any civilian." "Guess so." "Where we at?" "With what?" "With the case, fool." "Jesus, give it a rest." "What's on the wire?" " Come on, man." " Wire's dead." "They changed up after we hit them with raids." "Daniels didn't tell you?" "Hell, no." "He only talks to me about the good shit." "About how y'all were onto my shooters and stuff." "Yeah, well, we lost the wire, but the good news is D'Angelo's flipped..." " And we're talking to the feds about maybe " " Fuck both y'all." "She wants me to quit." "Says there ain't nothing worth this." "So, I promised her I'd think about it." "What do you say?" "I don't know." "I guess you should do what you need to." "But she's right." "It isn't worth it." "No?" "Yeah." "Probably not." "Anyway, what took you so long getting up in here?" "Shit, no cards, no flowers." "I mean, what the fuck, Jimmy?" "I couldn't, I..." "I felt...." "A case like this, it's always you or Sydnor... or some other black cop who ends up going undercover." "I swear, if I could do it over...." "If I...." "If I could do it over... you know what I'd do?" "Put more tape on that fucking gun." "I'm sorry, Kima." "I'm sorry." "Anyway, since I got you up in here... acting like my bitch and shit... with all your guilty-ass crying and whatnot... maybe you can do something for me." "She said you were doing good." "Said she was proud of you." "How's she doing?" "Still shook." "But she wanted you to have that... and told me to tell you she's sorry to be late with it." "Girl got such heart, you know?" "Yeah." "This is enough for what I got going now, man." "You give the rest back to her." "Are you sure?" "Give her my love." "Right." "McNulty." "Don't tell her." " What you got, man?" " Over there, man." "Un-fucking-believable." "Five guys got jumped." "Not just you." " Four other guys jumped me." " I'm sorry, man." "It's got to be all the brutality complaints... which means it ain't never gonna matter how well I do on no fucking test." "You don't know that." "You might make the next list, you know?" "You don't know." "Guess I ain't leadership material." " Congratulations, Carv." " Thanks." "Yeah?" "The world is on its ass." "Guy called for you from the phone company." "Says he's got the number you wanted for a house in Philadelphia." "Beautiful, thank you." " Good casework." " Thank you." "I don't think I'm giving anything away... by telling that Arnold here has had a file on Senator Davis... for two and a half years." "It took us a while to see it, but the quid pro quo is right there... in that Westside redevelopment mess." "Barksdale, or his fronts, grease enough city politicians... and word comes back years in advance where the development zone's going to be." "He buys up every piece of garbage real estate he can... flips it three or four times, exaggerating the values." "The city's gonna pay him millions... to condemn the properties for the renewal project." "It's a lot to work with, but we're willing." "The question is, can your cooperator give us the senator... or any other political figure?" " The cooperator?" " D'Angelo Barksdale." "What does he have for us on the money?" "Nothing." "He gives you the drugs and the violence." "He gives you Avon Barksdale, Stringer Bell." " And they give us the senator." " Maybe, yeah." "You're talking about turning Barksdale and Bell into cooperators... and making the politicians the primary target?" "Of course." "No, fuck the politicians." "It's Barksdale and Bell." "No, fuck the politicians." "It's Barksdale and Bell." "Those guys have turned West Baltimore into a free-fire zone." "No one's saying they walk." "What you are saying is that if we bring you the case... it's your intention to let Barksdale and Bell reduce any sentence... they get through cooperation?" "Jesus Christ, are you kidding?" "You're seeing all this ass-backwards." "Detective, in this office we have a mandate to pursue political corruption." "Can you believe these guys?" " Jimmy, look." " What?" "Drugs and murder don't cut it anymore?" "How about terrorism?" "These guys have dropped 14, 15 bodies." "The witnesses, cooperators " "That kind of hyperbole doesn't serve anyone, detective." "I think we're going with a different direction on this." "Thank you for your time." "West Baltimore is dying, and you empty suits... are running around trying to pin some politician's pelt to the wall." "Thought you was real police, brother." "So, they got you all the way out here?" "I started out thinking you was in Jersey." "You ain't in Jersey." "I figured they still got you down in Central Booking." "But, all the way out here...." "Do send a message, though." "Yeah, a message needs sending." "How y'all even find me?" "Ain't no one going to keep a mother from her son, right?" "You know, he's always talking family." ""Family is the heart, " he say." "Well, I'm family... ain't I?" "What about me for once?" "It ain't right." "What's right?" "You like for him to step up, take all the weight, and let you walk?" "Because he will." "You know he will." "But if he got to go away... that mean you got to step up and fill his shoes." "You ready for that?" "Ma, you know I ain't." "I ain't ready, and I'm never gonna be ready for this game." " Dee, come on." " Look." "They're giving me a chance to walk away... to start again some place else." "And what you giving them?" "Look...." "He messed up, Dee, he knows it." "Now if you want to get even with him, you can." "But if you hurt him, you hurt this whole family." "All of us." "Me and Trina and the cousins." "And Donette, too." "And your baby." "Your own baby boy." "This right here is part of the game, Dee." "And without the game... this whole family would be down in the fucking Terrace... living off scraps." "Shit, we probably wouldn't even be a family." "Start over?" "How the fuck you going to start over without your peoples?" "Without your own child, even?" "If you ain't got family in this world... what the hell you got?" "This motherfucker Wee-Bey twitches, there won't even be a trial." "Detective Carver, a word?" "Shut the door." "What's up, Lieutenant?" "Anything you want to tell me?" "Been weeks now... the Deputy Ops knows what's going on in this unit almost before I do." "Except last week... we run the bug up into Barksdale's club office... and Burrell, for once, he's a step behind." "You see it?" " Maybe he " " I see it." "I look around the office... and I see that one of my people is at the academy for in-service." "Lieutenant, I swear, it wasn't my idea." "I'm minding my business, doing my fucking job... when the man calls me for coffee and a Danish." "I mean, I never even been on the eighth floor of that fucking building." "And there's the Deputy fucking Ops... telling me how concerned he is about the case... how he needs to be informed." "I mean, he's the Deputy fucking Ops, man." "Couple weeks from now... you're gonna be in some district somewhere... with 11 or 12 uniforms looking to you for everything." "And some of them are going to be good police." "Some of them are going to be young and stupid." "A few are going to be pieces of shit." "But all of them will take their cue from you." "You show loyalty, they learn loyalty." "You show them it's about the work, it'll be about the work." "You show them some other kind of game, then that's the game they'll play." "I came on in the Eastern... and there was a piece-of-shit lieutenant hoping to be a captain... piece-of-shit sergeants hoping to be lieutenants." "Pretty soon we had piece-of-shit patrolmen trying to figure the job for themselves." "And some of what happens then is hard as hell to live down." "Comes a day you're going to have to decide whether it's about you or about the work." "Grand jury came in Tuesday." "But you knew that, right?" "We're working a flight warrant today." "There's a lot to do here, in-office." "I'd be careful with that, though." "I understand the trigger pull used to be light." "Keep him down, keep him down." "You got him?" "Get him up there, get him up." "Bunch of low-bottom bitches." " Get his wrists." " Y'all didn't have to fuck with my ride." "Motherfuckers got lucky." "Yeah?" "Podunk lawyer in Denton's giving the guards a hard time... about moving D'Angelo from original jurisdiction." "Put the call through." "Okay." "Officer Mace, ASA Pearlman, you got a problem with the lawyer?" "Okay, put the asshole on." "This is he." "You do not make it easy, Jimmy." "I have to admit, I am deeply ambivalent." " Excuse me?" " Sit." "Sit!" " Here." " I heard from Bunk." "Philly." "Great work." "You all did great work." "And the number of clearances I'm looking at here..." "Christ, for the first time this year, we got the clearance rate up over 40%." "That's on the one hand." "On the other hand, I know the Deputy Ops got a call from the first deputy..." "US Attorney this morning... asking whether an asshole such as yourself really works for us." "Of course, this is the first the Deputy hears his troops... are creeping behind his back to take a case federal... when they've already been told the case is closed." "You're a good detective." "And I've got to admit you got some stones on you." "Did you actually call the first deputy an empty suit?" "I want to see you land okay, Jimmy." "So, tell me, where don't you want to go?" "You all know that Baltimore city jurors are capable of just about anything." "Now, look, you want to sit around for months on end... going through a bunch of half-heard... half-said telephone conversations and see how well you do..." " I'll certainly respect the effort." " It's not just talk on the wire." "We've got seized money and lot of dope on the table." "And a lot of violence." "All of which stops way short of Mr. Barksdale." "You know this." "All of it except for the New Jersey bust." "That one he eats." "Maybe he does." "Maybe he pleads to one count of attempted possession... and takes, I don't know, maybe three, four." "Maybe he can arrange for everyone you have... on those tapes to follow suit." "Maybe you get five-year pleas from those with no prior felony convictions... 10 years for those with one prior, 15 for two or more." "What about the murders?" "Maybe we acknowledge you've got Mr. Brice cold for... murder of Orlando Blocker and wounding of the police officer." " Who?" " Wee-Bey." "Representing Mr. Brice..." "I'm fairly confident that to avoid the death penalty... he'll proffer to at least a half dozen of your open murders." "Naming co-conspirators?" "For that kind of cooperation, I'd be willing to consider straight life." "No, indeed." "I believe Mr. Brice is ready to take sole responsibility... for all of his crimes." "Still, you walk away with at least a half-dozen clearances." "Assets." "You take the strip club, you take whatever trucks and cars... you can link to the drug trafficking, and also whatever cash you've seized." "He's got dozens of other properties:" "the funeral parlor, the towing company." "No." "You get the cars, because you can tie them to illegal activity." "No." "You get the cars, because you can tie them to illegal activity." "But there's nothing else of his to take." "So, you keep most of the money, most of the real estate... and Stringer Bell stays on the street with his hand on the throttle." "If you have a charge against Mr. Bell, file it." "Otherwise, I understand that nothing in all those hours of tape implicates him." "Three or four years ain't enough, Maury." "Not for Avon Barksdale." "No?" "Make an offer." "Part 14 of the circuit court of Baltimore City now in session." " Be seated." " First up." " Be seated." " First up." "State versus Avon Randolph Barksdale, Your Honor." "One count of possession with intent to distribute... to wit, a kilogram of heroin." " You have a statement of facts?" " Yes, Your Honor." "Mr. Barksdale is offering a plea of guilty... in exchange for a maximum of seven years in DOC... in consideration of the following agreed-upon facts:" "On or about the date of September 17, 2002... in the jurisdiction of Essex County, New Jersey..." "Trooper Robert Warren of the Newark barracks... effected a traffic stop on a rented Ford Taurus... traveling southbound near Exit 13." "That traffic stop resulted from information gleaned... from electronic surveillance of Mr. Barksdale and his nephew, D'Angelo Barksdale... by detectives assigned to a special detail... under the command of a city narcotics supervisor." "A search of the vehicle, rented from the Avis location at B.W.I. Airport... revealed that a kilogram of nearly pure heroin... was concealed beneath the spare tire in the car trunk." "In accepting this plea, Mr. Barksdale acknowledges his role in procuring... those drugs with the intent to dilute, package, and sell retail amounts of heroin...." "Deidre Kresson, Roland Leggett, Toreen Boyd, all tied to the same gun." "Plus, we got the stick-up boys, Brandon Wright, John Bailey." "With Orlando, that makes six." "Plus the attempted murder on a police." "That it?" " I do better if I give them more?" " Life, no parole, means what it says." "This proffer keeps you off death row." "That's all it does." "You were on the wrong side of a cop getting shot, Mr. Brice." "You want to dream about straight life for these bodies... you got to wake up talking about Avon Barksdale..." " And Stringer Bell." " No." "But for murders, you might as well give them what you have... because anything you leave out is outside the deal." "If they learn about it later, they can charge you later." "Fuck it then." "For another pit sandwich and some potato salad..." "I'll go a few more." " How you want that?" " Medium rare, a lot of horseradish." "All right, I did Little Man... thinking he might get weak on that cop getting shot." "Yeah?" "Where's the body?" "Druid Hill." "Behind the reptile house." "You get back in them weeds, you might could find what's left of him." "All right, that's seven." "What else you got?" "How about them witnesses?" "The security lady, and what's his name, the maintenance man?" "Gant?" "Yeah, Gant." "You did Gant alone?" "They're out of potato salad." "How about slaw?" "Information gleaned from electronic surveillance... would also show that Mr. Watkins, a.k.a. Ronnie Moe... was integrally involved in the distribution of heroin and cocaine in the high-rises... at 734 Fayette and 221 North Fremont." "In exchange for his pleading guilty to one count of conspiracy... he agrees to a sentence not to exceed 15 years in DOC." "Mr. Watkins, who is on probation for a drug distribution charge... that was adjudicated in judge Prevas' court in August, 2001...." "Cedric!" "Major Cantrell." " Congrats." " Thanks." " So, where they sending you?" " Northwest." "Spurgeon's retiring." " I heard that was going to happen." " Ever feel like a change, give a yell." "I could use a good shift lieutenant." "I mean, right now, the whole fucking district's a mess." "What isn't?" " Good seeing you." " You, too." "You see, this ain't no DEU." "It ain't like that." "When you all came downtown, the job changed." "Down here, we make big cases, big hairy-balled cases... like this Barksdale thing, right?" "And all that mess you call police work down in the districts... all that fuck-somebody-up and rip-and-run bullshit... it won't play down here." "You think I'm kidding." "This is what makes cases, gentlemen." "This!" "Remember that." "Nicely done." "Motherfucker, I been here since lunch, waiting." "Ain't nobody been through here." "You hear me?" "I been waiting and y'all ain't about shit." "Yeah, listen, listen to me." "Look, if you feel like that, then get off this phone... come down here and step to me then, nigger." "Yeah, all right." "Yo, if Roc-Roc ain't here in 10 minutes with my re-up... whoop his ass, man." "I understand you did a tour in Homicide years ago... but let me tell you how I run this unit, because how I run it is how it runs." "We work on a strict rotation." "You're up until you catch a call... then you step down, work your case, and someone else steps up behind you." "This is the way we do business in a town with 250, 300 murders a year." "And it works." "You do not play the game for yourself, you play it for us." "If you remember these few rules... you'll find me to be supportive and reasonable." "Very reasonable, sir." " That's what they say about me." " They say that, they do." "Yo, Dink!" "What the fuck was that?" "You take a nigger's money, then you serve him?" "What the fuck?" "I'm saying, you take their money... then you send them round and let some other nigger serve." "The way you doing it... someone snapping pictures got the whole deal." "You hear?" "We got to tighten up around here, yo!" "Jimmy." "Hell of a case." "Read all about it in the papers." "You done good, kiddo." "I gotta...." "D'Angelo Barksdale supervised distribution... in the low-rise courtyards and was also involved... in the violence attributed to the organization." "Further, he was arrested by authorities in New Jersey... in possession of a kilo of raw heroin intended for distribution in Baltimore." "He acknowledges his role as a leading conspirator... and is already on parole for two earlier counts of distribution... dating from March, 1999." "What are you asking here?" "As Mr. Barksdale has two prior convictions and is insisting that the effort to purchase... and transport the kilo was done on his own behest... and is refusing to cooperate against others in the conspiracy... the state is offering only the maximum allowable 20 years, Your Honor." "Mr. Levy, this is your understanding of the plea agreement?" " Yes, sir." " Very well then, Mr. Barksdale." " Can you hear me distinctly?" " Yes." "Are you now under the influence of alcohol...." " Wee-Bey, man." " How'd it go?" "For life, no parole, he puts himself in for Orlando... and the attempt murder on Greggs." "Then he also takes Nakeisha Lyles..." "Deidre Kresson, the two project murders that match that gun... both the stick-up boys, and Little Man." "Little Man?" "Yeah, body found up behind the reptile house in Druid Hill." "He gave us that one just for fun, I think." "He also takes William Gant." "I know, it's bullshit." "How'd he tell it?" " Boom." " He said a contact wound?" "It doesn't play." "Gant had no compression, no stippling." "Wound was to the front." "Bey's talking out of his ass." "I know, but this motherfucker's just taking murders just to take them." "He's taking life, no parole, for shooting a cop, what the fuck?" "Might as well try to spring Bird for killing Gant." "All rise." "Jesus, what the fuck did I do?" "You happy now, bitch?" "Are you the man with them jumbo sixes?" " How many you fucking want?" " Take about three or four hundred." "Damn." "All in the game, yo." "Right, but I didn't think " "For sure."