The Wire s01e06 Episode Script
The Wire
Rise and shine! Come on, man, get up! Oh, boy.
Come on, get up! School day.
Y'all gonna be late! Let's go.
Get up for school.
Go! Get up.
Come on, man.
- Damn, Wallace.
- "Damn, Wallace," nothing! Y'all know what happens if you don't go to school? Soon enough, they're gonna be callin' and all y'all gonna end up in foster care.
If y'all want foster care, climb your little black asses back into bed.
Get outta my way, man.
Damn, it's too early for this shit.
- Narcos? - No, rollies.
Yo, where's breakfast at? Here, man.
You get two.
- I want two bags.
- You don't get two.
Come on, getting greedy.
Take the chips! Come on.
Take your juice.
Come on, man.
Where's mine? Go show your teacher.
Come on, man.
- Where's your book bag? - Teacher ain't giving no homework.
That's the worst case of suicide I've ever seen.
That's him.
You see? That's him, right there.
That's Omar's boy.
- What the fuck can I tell him? - Whatever the man wants to hear, Jimmy.
Prodigal son.
Major, we got a good shot at clearing a couple of cases here.
- One- - We're not here to talk cases.
I don't care about your cases.
Sit.
Relax.
I'm a reasonable guy.
In fact, everywhere I go, people say to me: "Bill Rawls, you are a reasonable fucking guy.
" - Am I right, Jay? - You are reasonable, sir.
Yes.
Yes, I am.
And because your sergeant knows me to be reasonable he came in here a couple weeks ago and reasoned with me.
Right, Jay? We reasoned.
We did.
We reasoned that despite his negligible Irish ancestry and a propensity to talk out of turn, Jimmy McNulty is a good worker.
Probably worth saving.
- Major, I'm not- - He's a good-looking kid, huh? Do you know what we do here, McNulty? What we do here? That was one of them What is it? A question you don't have to- A rhetorical question.
You were being rhetorical.
Rhetorical and reasonable, sir.
We work murder cases here, as they come in, one at a fucking time.
It's called a rotation.
You're up till you catch one, then you step down, work it for a while someone else steps up.
It's a simple but effective way to do business in a town that has 250 to 300 cases a year.
Yes, sir.
But if someone gets it into his head to leave the rotation it puts an unfair burden on other detectives who have to pick up their casework.
Overworked cops make mistakes.
Mistakes lower the unit-wide clearance rate.
And that can make someone who is otherwise as reasonable as me Unreasonable.
Detective McNulty, I expect to see your ass back here next week when your shift rotates to night work.
- He's up early today.
- A lot of pager activity last night, too.
No woman takes that long.
Yeah.
But I look good, right? Wow.
You did all this? - Burned an egg or two.
Ain't no thing.
- Yeah? My mama always said: "Don't let them get to cooking.
"Once they're in the kitchen, ain't nothing left to do but give 'em a key to your house.
" I don't want no key.
I don't want no house.
And your mama don't know shit about me.
Looks just like you.
Yeah, he do.
Where's his mother? Around the way.
Yeah.
You friends? You know, she want a key she want a house, she want a car, she wants some new clothes, a necklace some pocket change, a trip to the shore, she want a credit card with her name on it.
Ain't no such thing as free, right? When it come to pussy, there ain't no free.
I gotta go.
Been working on this one.
You'll get the lines on the other two payphones tomorrow.
- So we up? - On the low-rise payphones, yeah.
Let's hear it.
See, what I'm talking about is he ain't paid no one, hejust think it's right to do it.
See how it goes? So I ain't got shit.
I ain't got it.
Damn, for real? Thinking he all that because he got his family back.
- Hey, it was getting good.
- It's unmonitored.
It's what? Unmonitored.
We can't listen to a conversation on an unmonitored payphone.
- What's that mean? - We got a tap on the courtyard payphone.
By tomorrow, we'll be up on two near the high-rises.
But we can't listen to anything unless we know one of our targets is using the phone.
So we gotta be out there on those rooftops for hours watching these assholes talk on the phone? Yep.
It's more bullshit.
Detective, this right here, this is the job.
Now, when you came downtown to CID, what kind of work were you expecting? So what are you gonna do? I can't get back here in a week, this case is taking off.
You tell Rawls that? - No.
- McNulty, Line 3.
Yeah? Where at? Thanks.
Yeah.
We're still waiting on a lab unit.
Do you have an ETA? Negative.
They're all out.
- Damn dog got Norris, too.
- You didn't think to warn me? Too much fun not to.
Damn.
Is he one of yours? We found him with Kevlar, like the one Worden caught last week.
- We thought it might be a connection.
- Yeah, it connects.
How so? Don't have a name, but he's part of a stick-up crew.
Took off a stash house last month.
My guy, Barksdale, is coming back on them.
- In a big way.
- They must've killed him four or five times.
Cut him in a dozen places, burned him with cigarettes.
Torture-fest is what it was.
Doesn't look like your scene, either.
Fuck him up somewhere else, dump him here for all to see.
- Anything we can use? - Not yet.
We're up on some phones.
If I hear anything, I'll let you know.
- Bring 22.
-22.
Anything yet? Or are we just gonna let this guy go ripe on us? - You been waiting for crime lab? - Over an hour.
Only two units on the street.
Both are up at the City Council President's house.
- What happened there? - Someone stole his lawn furniture.
They're taking pictures of an empty patio, dusting the backyard gate for latents.
I kid you not.
I swear, you show me the son of a bitch who can fix this police department I'd give back half my overtime.
He was all cut up and shit.
His insides was hanging out.
Fucked up, yo.
I mean, damn.
Sometimes you gotta send a message, yo.
I mean, when you picked up that phone, what did you think they were gonna do? - All that shit is in the game.
You know that.
- Yeah.
Like you and that girl, huh? - What girl? - The one in the apartment.
The one you told us about, remember? I mean, I like what you said about all that killing, you know? Especially that part about how it ain't gotta be like that.
Just sell the shit and move on.
Get me a ginger ale and get something for yourself.
Yeah, I remember that.
But it ain't like that, is it? Yeah, I know.
I know it ain't.
Thing about it was his eye.
His eye was blown out.
And the other one was open.
And yo, Dee, it fucks me up.
It's like he's looking out, like he sees everything, you know? Don't think about it.
- Fuck! - Yo.
Let that shit go.
Just let it go.
Barksdale kid on the line.
He's beeping someone.
- Yo.
- What up? Hold on.
Yo, Strings! This is Dee.
- Yeah.
- Yeah, you hit me? Yeah, I wanted to know ifyou know a young hopper, the one they got down there.
- Which one? - The fool, drop in there with a punch.
- Yeah, what about him? - He got some problems, right? - What you mean? - Enough to bring home, right? You know, man, whatever.
All right.
They're bringing Bodie home.
A young boy who was with him, light-skinned kid from the cemetery.
Where? In the alley behind 800 block of Argyle, across from the low-rises.
Shot? - Stabbed, beaten, burned.
- Jesus.
- Yeah, we gotta get with Omar.
- Yeah.
Impressive.
I don't often see a respondent come so prepared for a juvenile commitment meeting.
In addition to the signed statements from Preston's sponsors at the Police Athletic League I also have a Photostatted copy of a cashed check which indicates that he is enrolled in the GED program at the Baltimore City Community College.
Can I ask how this young man is able to afford not one - but two attorneys from your firm, Mr.
Levy? - This is pro bono, Your Honor.
My firm is making it a priority to identify a number of city youths who are in crisis, and to undertake efforts to reorder their lives.
Excuse me, I can't help but notice that your client is under a delinquent petition for the sale of narcotics, and further, for assault on a police officer.
Beyond that, he walked away from a JSA facility.
You Honor, my client stands ready to acknowledge that he was involved for a time in the sale of a small amount of drugs a transaction for which he received no remuneration having been manipulated by older traffickers in his neighborhood.
- That was a mistake, Your Honor.
- So noted.
We will contend that it was Preston who was the victim of a brutal police beating indications of which are still evident on him, Your Honor.
He struck back, wildly and in self-defense, Your Honor.
And the walk-away? Preston was heavily medicated when he left the Cheltenham facility.
In that state, Your Honor he was simply trying to get back to see his grandmother.
Did you know what you were doing when you left the Boys' Village, son? - No, I was messed up.
- Anything else you'd like to add? Just I don't know I'm ready to be good.
Pending a hearing on these charges to be scheduled within six months I'm putting the respondent on home monitoring with his grandmother.
Your honor, I'm afraid Mrs.
Brodus doesn't have a telephone for any monitoring calls.
She's on a fixed income, Your Honor.
How about he calls his probation officer twice a week? Cool.
Whatever Your Honor.
- Yo, Bubbles, what's the game? - Hey, Johnny.
- Rubbing them down, huh? - Yeah.
- What is the scam out here? - Ain't no scam.
Thank you, ma'am.
What you got here is an honest day's work for an honest day's pay.
Right, Lavelle? Mr.
Straight Time, Bubbles.
Gotta give something back when they least expect it.
Me and Uck, here, we got something on, too.
We got a plan.
- No shit.
- For real.
Yo, we're gonna take off on the copper house.
Damn, your first two days out and you get dramatic on me.
- Copper house.
- Got to be got, homes.
- What about the fence? - Fuck the fence.
- What about the dog? - Fuck the dog.
All that time I was resting, it got me thinking.
It got good to me, too.
Copper house.
Gracious.
I gotta go, can you cash me out? If you ain't got dreams, Bubs, what the fuck you got? Thank you.
Come on, dreamer.
Yeah.
- One of ours on the line.
- Got him.
- Is Carv still there? - Hold a second.
Carv, call for you! - Yeah, hello? - You ain't gonna believe who I'm looking at.
Again he walks off? Ding! Round three.
- Yo.
- What up, man? - Yo, Stink, what up? - Where are your manners, fool? - Oh, my bad, yeah.
- You need to keep your fucking head, boy.
Forgot.
- What's up? Where you at? - Where you at? I'm down in the Pit.
Ijust came home I don't see nobody around, Ijust wanted to know what was up.
Ain't nothing going late, man.
Just catch us tomorrow, man.
- All right? - All right, yeah.
All right.
Later.
"Non-pertinent"? How do you log that non-pertinent? No drug talk.
They use codes that hide their pager and phone numbers.
And when someone does use a phone, they don't use names.
And if someone does use a name, he's reminded not to.
All of that is valuable evidence.
- Of what? - Conspiracy.
Conspiracy? We're building something here, detective.
We're building it from scratch.
All the pieces matter.
All right? Shit.
Shit! Are you fucking serious? Fuck, man.
You keep walking away from JSA, we keep kicking your ass.
- I'm all right with that if you are.
- I ain't walk away from nowhere, man.
Check my back pocket.
- "Home monitoring"? - Yeah, man.
If you ask questions before you start wildin' on niggers, you might save some trouble.
How the fuck are you home? You ain't bright, man.
Juvenile judge, man.
He saw my potential.
He expects big things from me.
Yeah, like what? I don't know, college, law school, medical school, all that good shit.
- Seriously, how are you out? - Look, I'm gonna tell you something.
Okay, this is just my opinion, but the juvenile system in this city is fucked up.
It's a big-ass fucking joke.
No offense.
Fucking fuck! You could give me a ride down to my grandma's, we'll call it even.
In back, fucknuts.
Get outta the street! Bitch! - Hey.
- Hey.
What's up? What you need? - Little late in the month for this shit, isn't it? - What you mean? - For my aunt, she hit the Match Four.
- You stealing from me, Cass? What? You look fresh today.
- Got laid last night, that's why.
- Oh, yeah? Your asshole still hurting? - Call Jimmy.
- What's up, boss? Rawls finally got around to reading the office reports that McNulty tried to give him.
He wants arrest warrants for Diedre Kresson and the two project murders that match up to that gun.
I know.
- Come on, Jay, be right on this.
- I can't.
It's Rawls, he wants warrants today.
All right, no problem.
So who the fuck are we supposed to charge? You got a witness that puts D'Angelo Barksdale at the scene of the murder, the night of the murder.
You got a ballistics match between the Kresson girl and the two dead mopes in the project where Barksdale hangs.
Run with it.
This weak-ass shit is not gonna get past the Grand Jury.
Charge the mope, and work it more afterward.
Call Jimmy, let him know.
Yo.
All right, listen up.
New deal.
Wallace, you're gonna be on the stash now with Latroy and Peaches.
What about Sterling? He's gonna be down on Crescent, looking out for a while.
Cassandra, too.
- What happened? - Nothing.
- Why you wanna change up, then? - Nigger, I gotta explain shit to you now? Stringer Bell's pager number? - Stinkum's too, I'm pretty sure.
- Very sweet.
If they moved around, then nobody would have problems.
They're a little lazy, you know tend to go to that one payphone in the courtyard a little too much.
Jesus.
He's lit at 9:00 in the morning? Or from the night before.
Detective.
Detective Polk.
Yeah, it's McNulty.
Bunk paged me.
All right.
Why did you even come in today? - I had some - To pretend that you were here? To fill out a run sheet? I know I missed a couple of days last week, Lieutenant, but- I got a run sheet from you every day for the last two weeks.
Twice in Carv's handwriting, twice it was Prez, once it was McNulty.
They covered for you.
But I won't.
Well, Lieutenant, I I don't know.
I'm not really up for this drug thing, you know? Maybe if Mahone was here, I could get into it more, learn some new tricks.
Hell, why don't you just send me back to Property and keep everyone happy? Send you back to Property Crimes so you can binge for two more weeks? I'm not doing that.
- Lieutenant, please- - You were dumped on me, Augie.
But it ends there.
I don't dump people.
You either go out on those rooftops today to watch payphones with the others or you go over to the medical office and check yourself in.
- Medical? - For alcohol abuse.
Either dry yourself out or go up on those rooftops wet.
Take a few minutes and think on it.
- Where'd they go? - Who? Lieutenant we need a file cabinet or two.
The paperwork from this, I mean there's a lot of it.
Lieutenant sir I'm going to Good luck with the case.
Fucking Rawls, he's fucking up the case to get to me.
No, he's fucking it up for three paper clearances on prior cases.
It ain't personal.
All he's got is D'Angelo at the scene through hearsay and a ballistics match to a couple unrelated drug murders.
How can he charge that? He can charge anything he wants to get credit for clearance.
Grand Jury doesn't indict, he drops the case, keeps his stats.
- I'll go tell him what the fuck he can do.
- No you don't.
I'm trying to build something here.
Rawls just sticks a finger in my eye.
- You talk to Landsman? - Jay can't fix this.
Rawls told him to have the warrants typed and ready by morning.
He's gonna charge murders he can't prove just to get the stats? And fuck up our case in the process.
We give up ballistics info and motive for the Kresson killing in the charging documents, and Avon Barksdale is gonna change up.
And what he don't change up he'll clean up.
Someone should tell Rawls.
Rawls couldn't care less.
He wants me home, and the stats, that's all.
- Then we take it to Daniels.
- Daniels? - It's his case, he'll fight for it.
- He won't do shit.
He plays stiff every now and then, but he's a good man.
Are you kidding me? He's been trying to put the brakes on this for weeks now.
This'll be his new excuse to close shop.
Look, you guys gotta make your move soon, I'm sorry to say.
- Freamon.
- All right, Bunk, take care.
We tell Daniels.
Fuck Daniels and his ass-kissing up-the-chain-of-command ambition.
What other choice you got, huh? We go to Daniels.
If he fights, he fights.
If he gives it up to Rawls, then fuck it, we were never gonna do the case anyway.
All right, come on.
Fucking idiot! - Come on, get up, stupid.
- I'm hurt, man.
What are you doing? Leave me alone! - What, are you on dope or something? - Mostly, yes.
Come on, get up.
You trying to rip out my guts? - Fuck.
- What, are you trying to kill me, man? - Wait! Where are you going? - Listen, I gotta get help.
You can't leave me here.
You gotta stay with me.
Let's go over to the curb.
Just go get help, man! What are you doing? Stay there! - Damn, boy! What the hell come out of you? - Onion soup.
Campbell's.
- Yeah, my plan! - Run, Forrest, run! You could go to Foerster, or the Deputy Ops.
Why come crying to me? Why not go to your friend, the judge? I don't see a circuit court judge being able to argue the city homicide commander out of three murders even if the cases are all weak sisters.
It's put-up or shut-up time, Lieutenant.
- Either you step up or you send us all home.
- So this is on me? I don't see anyone else in charge of this detail.
- Rawls is a major.
- Rawls is an asshole.
My point is, he ranks me on this.
Chain of command might mean nothing to you, McNulty.
What'd I tell you? - Yo, how we doing? - We doing good.
You know, if you say we doing good So the word is out about these stick-up boys, right? Yeah, y'all being heard.
There goes shorty right there.
What's up, man, you know I'm a man of my word.
I said it would be $4,000 to Omar $2,000 on each of the young ones, this being a team effort.
I'm putting $500 in the boy's hand who's doing the scope $500 in your hand for doing the relay put $500 in Wee-Bey and Bird's hands for doing the muscling up.
- All right.
- How you doing with that other thing? What? Everybody a little depressed, right? Oh, yeah, you know, ain't no surprises yet.
Cut everybody loose on Friday and they all just a bunch of begging-ass bitches.
I mean, ain't nobody showed no money since.
- You gonna keep it humming, cuz? - Yeah, you know.
Oh! You got your hands up.
You keep on doing like how you're doing we'll talk about points on the package.
- All right? - All right.
- Keep it humming.
- Yeah, most def.
- All right, then.
- Take it light, but take it.
Hotter than the Wu-Tang, killer bee.
-40 cents.
- Not 40 cents a foot, no sir.
Look, respectfully, I gotta tell you for 40 cents a foot, you might as well go to Home Depot, pay them.
They're gonna charge you For copper that isn't stolen.
Look, all right, 35 cents a foot.
And that's in respect I have for y'all, what you're doing in our community with these quality domiciles here.
Thirty cents a foot, take it or leave it.
I understand the interest in clearing these cases, I do.
But charging those murders now and putting the information that we have into the charging documents I just call them like I see them, Lieutenant.
Three murders, same gun, we got this Barksdale kid right at the scene on the one.
We're up on the wire.
We're starting to pull good information.
You charge these prematurely and Barksdale will change up on us.
- The work we've already done- - Look I can't tell you how to run your case, I can only run my own.
Major I'm asking as a favor.
- As a favor.
- Yes, sir.
A favor.
In that case no.
Sorry.
- You got home from work early today.
- Yep.
Work sucks.
- Are we eating dinner with you? - Why not? - You promised we'd eat lasagna.
- So we'll go to Little Italy.
Get some lasagna at Sab's.
- You never cook.
- Yeah, cooking sucks, too.
- Who's this? - Hey, yo, I wanna see him.
- Who? - Brandon, my boy.
- Copper house, yo.
- Was the shit.
My plan, Bubs.
Johnny had a plan.
Get out the way, motherfuckers.
This here is White Boy Day.
- I got a plan, too.
- What? We're gonna wait for that cheap-ass, speculating motherfucker to put that good copper line back into them row houses he's fixing up.
Then, before the drywall get up we creep back in there, and steal that shit right back.
Gotta come back at the motherfucker for that, you know? Yeah.
You good? I could top off with one more.
- Yeah.
- Just one more.
Johnny got it.
I'll be back.
It's my night with the kids.
You ain't gonna find nothing, because I didn't do nothing! Why don't you just leave me alone, man? A white man can't walk down the street? What's that about? Come on, man! It's messed up, all right? Profiling! What? It's 'cause I'm white, right? Why don't you let me Oh, man, what the fuck's that? What's that? That boy ain't got no luck.
All right.
Hold up! - Hey.
- Hey.
So, what are you going to do with your money? You know what you should do? Take the whole roll and do something nice for your girl.
You do have a girl, right? Anyway, you've got enough money to go get yourself one now.
Why'd you punk Sterling like you did? I mean, he did get shot behind this shit.
- I didn't punk him.
- So why are you dropping the lookout? Cass, too.
'Cause they was thieving.
Both of them.
They got pissed 'cause I wasn't paying them.
So Sterling started shaking up the vials, handing off to Cass.
She was selling on the side.
You didn't tell anybody? Stinkum, Bodie? They don't know? If I tell them, what you think they're going to do? They're going to take a baseball bat to Sterling.
Cassandra, too.
It's too much drama, right? So, I just took them both off the stash.
So why didn't you pay us? That wasn't right.
Listen, man Stringer thought we had a snitch down here.
You know, with the jump-out, Omar, all that shit.
So he told me to punk you all for a little while.
See who was still holding money at the end of the week.
Was they snitching? Sterling and Cass? No, man, just thieving.
All right, going to Homicide.
Okay, you two, you sit right here, okay? Don't wander off.
- Dad? - What? It's a school night.
Mom said we had to- I know, I know.
We will.
Just stay there.
Runners at second and third, nobody out yet here in the first inning.
Here's Mora at the plate, and the pitch is high.
Lopez on the mound.
The pitch is outside.
them have been balls.
It's a ground ball down the right-field line.
You up to this? Pay it back, Omar.
Pay it back.
Why we ain't in a real police office? We're a little like you, Omar.
Out here on our own, playing the game for ourselves.
Hard way to go sometimes.
Sorry about your friend.
Avon is one sick bastard.
Of course, he had his reasons.
For one thing, you all did take his stash.
For another, he's looking for you, Omar.
That's what all the cigarette burns were about.
The broken fingers and cracked forearms.
He wanted your boy to give you up.
An address, a street.
Kid had heart.
Yeah.
I know you want to go to wherever it is you lay your head and pick up that sawed-off you like so much, and go on the hunt.
That's how a man like you wants to carry.
- You wouldn't be wrong.
- No, you wouldn't.
But one man with two barrels ain't enough, Omar.
Now, you're going to do what you're going to do.
But whatever else you can give us on Barksdale and his people that can go to hurting him, too.
Just throw us what you can.
Let me tell you all something, all right? What I do, I do, straight like that.
Ain't no sense in you all troubling yourselves over that 'cause the way I feel right now, today What do you all need from me? When did you last see Brandon? Tuesday around 7:00.
Maybe later.
He was on his way down to Mindamin and the Greek's after that.
Everybody's talking about he got snatched up from there.
The Greek's on Baltimore Street? Yeah, he liked to play the pinball games to death.
He go alone? Yeah, and I didn't like it none, neither.
But you can only treat a young man like a boy for so long before they book.
When Bailey got killed you must have figured Barksdale was coming back on you? Bailey? Please.
That nigger's enemies got enemies.
I just figured he tried his hand on the wrong corner and got dropped.
But you were worried about Brandon, right? Look, in my game you take some kid, you play it the safest way you can.
But it ain't about no hiding forever.
You heard? Frankly, you been in it as long as me you do the thing on your name.
Anyone going to come after Omar, they know Omar's coming after him.
Oh, indeed.
So, who came after Brandon? I heard it might have been Wee-Bey his boy Stinkum and Bird.
He was down with the snatch, too.
So, what can you give us on the job? had an incoming call to D'Angelo Barksdale's, giving him the number of a pay phone.
Westside exchange.
Number's encoded, right? Three minutes later, we get another call from the low-rises to that number.
Then, a half-minute later, you get another call from the low-rises to a pager we know is Stringer Bell's.
I'll be damned.
Finally, you get another call.
Probably from a pay phone.
Probably Stringer Bell calling back.
Coming on into the low-rise courts.
Forty-five minutes later, another call.
This one from the same pay phone that went to D'Angelo's pager to start the whole thing off.
You see that? This is the murder, right here.
This first number, the one they sent to D'Angelo I'm thinking this comes from a pay phone over by the Greek's.
He's on you.
We're up on those pay phones Tuesday night we catch that murder.
We get there before the murder.
It's all here on the pen register.
This one calling that one, that one calling back.
We're up on those pay phones when we should be, and we have him cold.
But we're not up in time, are we? In this case, we're never where we need to be.
Bad time for you all? He fight, but you arrest.
You saw him get arrested? - On Tuesday? - Tuesday, yes.
Tuesday.
By the police? The police arrested him? Cops, they handcuffed him? What about these guys? Were they there with him? No.
- He fight, you arrest.
- Right.
Okay, thank you, sir.
Thank you.
It's a match.
No.
I need help.
Rawls ranks me.
Lieutenant, think what you're doing here.
You're going to cross Bill Rawls as ruthless a fuck as we have in this department? And to do what? To fight for a case the Deputy of Operations doesn't even want.
No.
I like my career, thank you very much.
In the cemetery, you were telling us that a guy named Bird killed the working man.
Yeah, the man who testified.
William Gant.
Right.
Yeah, Bird did that one, for sure.
- How do you know? - Everybody knows, man.
Nigger walked up behind the man and shot him in the head.
The whole blessed project saw that much.
And Bird worked for Avon? Yeah, as one of his shooters.
Liked to use this real sweet gun he got.
A.
380 from Austria or Australia.
Something like that.
But I know he loved that gun.
A.
380.
Yeah, a.
380.
You get him, you get the gun.
'Cause Bird's too dumb to throw a gun like that off.
- A gun alone ain't enough.
- Oh, no? He testifies he bought the gun on the street after Gant was killed.
- What would be enough, then? - Eyeball witness.
Some kind of corroboration for what you're telling me here.
- Okay.
- Okay, what? - I'm your man.
- You saw the murder? Yeah.
You can ID this man, Bird, as the shooter of William Gant? And you ain't afraid to go into court and testify against one of Barksdale's people? Omar don't scare.
The fact is that while Lt.
Daniels and his merry band are lost in the swamps playing with beepers and pay phones and body mikes my people have developed information that ties Barksdale to three killings.
- D'Angelo Barksdale, not Avon.
- D'Angelo on behalf of Avon.
The victim is identified by our witnesses as being involved with Avon Barksdale.
Sir, we're developing- You're dancing around this thing.
I'm charging three murders.
You charge those cases, my investigation folds.
Not one of those cases is strong enough for court.
You know that.
So we bring the Barksdale kid in throw a little mindfuck at him and the case becomes stronger.
You've had him in the box twice before.
He's gonna go for less the third time.
So we re-canvass, develop fresh witnesses.
The case I charge on today can be twice as strong by the trial date.
We get a conviction we roll Little Boy Barksdale into Big Boy Barksdale then we go home like good old-fashioned cops and pound some Budweiser.
This is bullshit! It was McNulty who made the ballistics match on these murders and he's telling me to fight this.
He knows you don't have a viable prosecution so do you, so do I.
Enough.
Look, I've got no love for your wiretap, Lieutenant.
I'm spending $2,000 a day over the unit operating budget to staff the case.
Now, Major Rawls here is offering a chance to leverage Barksdale through a murder prosecution.
Why not jump on this? Because if Major Rawls is right then he will be just as right a month from now.
If the wire doesn't give us a case, he can charge all the murders he has.
We lose nothing.
But if he's wrong if he can't convict, or if the Barksdale kid doesn't flip then it's too late to do anything else.
Avon Barksdale changes up his pattern, and the wiretap dies.
At that point, there isn't going to be a thing that you, or me, or Rawls here is gonna be able to say to that judge.
You wanted to see me, Major? McNulty does personal business on the clock, I want to know.
He cheats on a run sheet, I want to know.
He runs any kind of game at all, I want to know.
Major, the man's an asshole but he doesn't do much other than work.
He's got this case in his gut like it's cancer.
He does no wrong? Doesn't drink anymore? Doesn't drink on duty? Doesn't drink and drive, Detective? - Major - You've got to help me on this, Michael.
The murder warrant's on hold.
The Deputy gave us another month.
Also, whoever that was you brought in here today gave himself up as an eyewitness to the Gant murder.
Who? Omar? Greggs said to tell you she'd write it up in the morning.
Lieutenant thanks.
It cost you?
Come on, get up! School day.
Y'all gonna be late! Let's go.
Get up for school.
Go! Get up.
Come on, man.
- Damn, Wallace.
- "Damn, Wallace," nothing! Y'all know what happens if you don't go to school? Soon enough, they're gonna be callin' and all y'all gonna end up in foster care.
If y'all want foster care, climb your little black asses back into bed.
Get outta my way, man.
Damn, it's too early for this shit.
- Narcos? - No, rollies.
Yo, where's breakfast at? Here, man.
You get two.
- I want two bags.
- You don't get two.
Come on, getting greedy.
Take the chips! Come on.
Take your juice.
Come on, man.
Where's mine? Go show your teacher.
Come on, man.
- Where's your book bag? - Teacher ain't giving no homework.
That's the worst case of suicide I've ever seen.
That's him.
You see? That's him, right there.
That's Omar's boy.
- What the fuck can I tell him? - Whatever the man wants to hear, Jimmy.
Prodigal son.
Major, we got a good shot at clearing a couple of cases here.
- One- - We're not here to talk cases.
I don't care about your cases.
Sit.
Relax.
I'm a reasonable guy.
In fact, everywhere I go, people say to me: "Bill Rawls, you are a reasonable fucking guy.
" - Am I right, Jay? - You are reasonable, sir.
Yes.
Yes, I am.
And because your sergeant knows me to be reasonable he came in here a couple weeks ago and reasoned with me.
Right, Jay? We reasoned.
We did.
We reasoned that despite his negligible Irish ancestry and a propensity to talk out of turn, Jimmy McNulty is a good worker.
Probably worth saving.
- Major, I'm not- - He's a good-looking kid, huh? Do you know what we do here, McNulty? What we do here? That was one of them What is it? A question you don't have to- A rhetorical question.
You were being rhetorical.
Rhetorical and reasonable, sir.
We work murder cases here, as they come in, one at a fucking time.
It's called a rotation.
You're up till you catch one, then you step down, work it for a while someone else steps up.
It's a simple but effective way to do business in a town that has 250 to 300 cases a year.
Yes, sir.
But if someone gets it into his head to leave the rotation it puts an unfair burden on other detectives who have to pick up their casework.
Overworked cops make mistakes.
Mistakes lower the unit-wide clearance rate.
And that can make someone who is otherwise as reasonable as me Unreasonable.
Detective McNulty, I expect to see your ass back here next week when your shift rotates to night work.
- He's up early today.
- A lot of pager activity last night, too.
No woman takes that long.
Yeah.
But I look good, right? Wow.
You did all this? - Burned an egg or two.
Ain't no thing.
- Yeah? My mama always said: "Don't let them get to cooking.
"Once they're in the kitchen, ain't nothing left to do but give 'em a key to your house.
" I don't want no key.
I don't want no house.
And your mama don't know shit about me.
Looks just like you.
Yeah, he do.
Where's his mother? Around the way.
Yeah.
You friends? You know, she want a key she want a house, she want a car, she wants some new clothes, a necklace some pocket change, a trip to the shore, she want a credit card with her name on it.
Ain't no such thing as free, right? When it come to pussy, there ain't no free.
I gotta go.
Been working on this one.
You'll get the lines on the other two payphones tomorrow.
- So we up? - On the low-rise payphones, yeah.
Let's hear it.
See, what I'm talking about is he ain't paid no one, hejust think it's right to do it.
See how it goes? So I ain't got shit.
I ain't got it.
Damn, for real? Thinking he all that because he got his family back.
- Hey, it was getting good.
- It's unmonitored.
It's what? Unmonitored.
We can't listen to a conversation on an unmonitored payphone.
- What's that mean? - We got a tap on the courtyard payphone.
By tomorrow, we'll be up on two near the high-rises.
But we can't listen to anything unless we know one of our targets is using the phone.
So we gotta be out there on those rooftops for hours watching these assholes talk on the phone? Yep.
It's more bullshit.
Detective, this right here, this is the job.
Now, when you came downtown to CID, what kind of work were you expecting? So what are you gonna do? I can't get back here in a week, this case is taking off.
You tell Rawls that? - No.
- McNulty, Line 3.
Yeah? Where at? Thanks.
Yeah.
We're still waiting on a lab unit.
Do you have an ETA? Negative.
They're all out.
- Damn dog got Norris, too.
- You didn't think to warn me? Too much fun not to.
Damn.
Is he one of yours? We found him with Kevlar, like the one Worden caught last week.
- We thought it might be a connection.
- Yeah, it connects.
How so? Don't have a name, but he's part of a stick-up crew.
Took off a stash house last month.
My guy, Barksdale, is coming back on them.
- In a big way.
- They must've killed him four or five times.
Cut him in a dozen places, burned him with cigarettes.
Torture-fest is what it was.
Doesn't look like your scene, either.
Fuck him up somewhere else, dump him here for all to see.
- Anything we can use? - Not yet.
We're up on some phones.
If I hear anything, I'll let you know.
- Bring 22.
-22.
Anything yet? Or are we just gonna let this guy go ripe on us? - You been waiting for crime lab? - Over an hour.
Only two units on the street.
Both are up at the City Council President's house.
- What happened there? - Someone stole his lawn furniture.
They're taking pictures of an empty patio, dusting the backyard gate for latents.
I kid you not.
I swear, you show me the son of a bitch who can fix this police department I'd give back half my overtime.
He was all cut up and shit.
His insides was hanging out.
Fucked up, yo.
I mean, damn.
Sometimes you gotta send a message, yo.
I mean, when you picked up that phone, what did you think they were gonna do? - All that shit is in the game.
You know that.
- Yeah.
Like you and that girl, huh? - What girl? - The one in the apartment.
The one you told us about, remember? I mean, I like what you said about all that killing, you know? Especially that part about how it ain't gotta be like that.
Just sell the shit and move on.
Get me a ginger ale and get something for yourself.
Yeah, I remember that.
But it ain't like that, is it? Yeah, I know.
I know it ain't.
Thing about it was his eye.
His eye was blown out.
And the other one was open.
And yo, Dee, it fucks me up.
It's like he's looking out, like he sees everything, you know? Don't think about it.
- Fuck! - Yo.
Let that shit go.
Just let it go.
Barksdale kid on the line.
He's beeping someone.
- Yo.
- What up? Hold on.
Yo, Strings! This is Dee.
- Yeah.
- Yeah, you hit me? Yeah, I wanted to know ifyou know a young hopper, the one they got down there.
- Which one? - The fool, drop in there with a punch.
- Yeah, what about him? - He got some problems, right? - What you mean? - Enough to bring home, right? You know, man, whatever.
All right.
They're bringing Bodie home.
A young boy who was with him, light-skinned kid from the cemetery.
Where? In the alley behind 800 block of Argyle, across from the low-rises.
Shot? - Stabbed, beaten, burned.
- Jesus.
- Yeah, we gotta get with Omar.
- Yeah.
Impressive.
I don't often see a respondent come so prepared for a juvenile commitment meeting.
In addition to the signed statements from Preston's sponsors at the Police Athletic League I also have a Photostatted copy of a cashed check which indicates that he is enrolled in the GED program at the Baltimore City Community College.
Can I ask how this young man is able to afford not one - but two attorneys from your firm, Mr.
Levy? - This is pro bono, Your Honor.
My firm is making it a priority to identify a number of city youths who are in crisis, and to undertake efforts to reorder their lives.
Excuse me, I can't help but notice that your client is under a delinquent petition for the sale of narcotics, and further, for assault on a police officer.
Beyond that, he walked away from a JSA facility.
You Honor, my client stands ready to acknowledge that he was involved for a time in the sale of a small amount of drugs a transaction for which he received no remuneration having been manipulated by older traffickers in his neighborhood.
- That was a mistake, Your Honor.
- So noted.
We will contend that it was Preston who was the victim of a brutal police beating indications of which are still evident on him, Your Honor.
He struck back, wildly and in self-defense, Your Honor.
And the walk-away? Preston was heavily medicated when he left the Cheltenham facility.
In that state, Your Honor he was simply trying to get back to see his grandmother.
Did you know what you were doing when you left the Boys' Village, son? - No, I was messed up.
- Anything else you'd like to add? Just I don't know I'm ready to be good.
Pending a hearing on these charges to be scheduled within six months I'm putting the respondent on home monitoring with his grandmother.
Your honor, I'm afraid Mrs.
Brodus doesn't have a telephone for any monitoring calls.
She's on a fixed income, Your Honor.
How about he calls his probation officer twice a week? Cool.
Whatever Your Honor.
- Yo, Bubbles, what's the game? - Hey, Johnny.
- Rubbing them down, huh? - Yeah.
- What is the scam out here? - Ain't no scam.
Thank you, ma'am.
What you got here is an honest day's work for an honest day's pay.
Right, Lavelle? Mr.
Straight Time, Bubbles.
Gotta give something back when they least expect it.
Me and Uck, here, we got something on, too.
We got a plan.
- No shit.
- For real.
Yo, we're gonna take off on the copper house.
Damn, your first two days out and you get dramatic on me.
- Copper house.
- Got to be got, homes.
- What about the fence? - Fuck the fence.
- What about the dog? - Fuck the dog.
All that time I was resting, it got me thinking.
It got good to me, too.
Copper house.
Gracious.
I gotta go, can you cash me out? If you ain't got dreams, Bubs, what the fuck you got? Thank you.
Come on, dreamer.
Yeah.
- One of ours on the line.
- Got him.
- Is Carv still there? - Hold a second.
Carv, call for you! - Yeah, hello? - You ain't gonna believe who I'm looking at.
Again he walks off? Ding! Round three.
- Yo.
- What up, man? - Yo, Stink, what up? - Where are your manners, fool? - Oh, my bad, yeah.
- You need to keep your fucking head, boy.
Forgot.
- What's up? Where you at? - Where you at? I'm down in the Pit.
Ijust came home I don't see nobody around, Ijust wanted to know what was up.
Ain't nothing going late, man.
Just catch us tomorrow, man.
- All right? - All right, yeah.
All right.
Later.
"Non-pertinent"? How do you log that non-pertinent? No drug talk.
They use codes that hide their pager and phone numbers.
And when someone does use a phone, they don't use names.
And if someone does use a name, he's reminded not to.
All of that is valuable evidence.
- Of what? - Conspiracy.
Conspiracy? We're building something here, detective.
We're building it from scratch.
All the pieces matter.
All right? Shit.
Shit! Are you fucking serious? Fuck, man.
You keep walking away from JSA, we keep kicking your ass.
- I'm all right with that if you are.
- I ain't walk away from nowhere, man.
Check my back pocket.
- "Home monitoring"? - Yeah, man.
If you ask questions before you start wildin' on niggers, you might save some trouble.
How the fuck are you home? You ain't bright, man.
Juvenile judge, man.
He saw my potential.
He expects big things from me.
Yeah, like what? I don't know, college, law school, medical school, all that good shit.
- Seriously, how are you out? - Look, I'm gonna tell you something.
Okay, this is just my opinion, but the juvenile system in this city is fucked up.
It's a big-ass fucking joke.
No offense.
Fucking fuck! You could give me a ride down to my grandma's, we'll call it even.
In back, fucknuts.
Get outta the street! Bitch! - Hey.
- Hey.
What's up? What you need? - Little late in the month for this shit, isn't it? - What you mean? - For my aunt, she hit the Match Four.
- You stealing from me, Cass? What? You look fresh today.
- Got laid last night, that's why.
- Oh, yeah? Your asshole still hurting? - Call Jimmy.
- What's up, boss? Rawls finally got around to reading the office reports that McNulty tried to give him.
He wants arrest warrants for Diedre Kresson and the two project murders that match up to that gun.
I know.
- Come on, Jay, be right on this.
- I can't.
It's Rawls, he wants warrants today.
All right, no problem.
So who the fuck are we supposed to charge? You got a witness that puts D'Angelo Barksdale at the scene of the murder, the night of the murder.
You got a ballistics match between the Kresson girl and the two dead mopes in the project where Barksdale hangs.
Run with it.
This weak-ass shit is not gonna get past the Grand Jury.
Charge the mope, and work it more afterward.
Call Jimmy, let him know.
Yo.
All right, listen up.
New deal.
Wallace, you're gonna be on the stash now with Latroy and Peaches.
What about Sterling? He's gonna be down on Crescent, looking out for a while.
Cassandra, too.
- What happened? - Nothing.
- Why you wanna change up, then? - Nigger, I gotta explain shit to you now? Stringer Bell's pager number? - Stinkum's too, I'm pretty sure.
- Very sweet.
If they moved around, then nobody would have problems.
They're a little lazy, you know tend to go to that one payphone in the courtyard a little too much.
Jesus.
He's lit at 9:00 in the morning? Or from the night before.
Detective.
Detective Polk.
Yeah, it's McNulty.
Bunk paged me.
All right.
Why did you even come in today? - I had some - To pretend that you were here? To fill out a run sheet? I know I missed a couple of days last week, Lieutenant, but- I got a run sheet from you every day for the last two weeks.
Twice in Carv's handwriting, twice it was Prez, once it was McNulty.
They covered for you.
But I won't.
Well, Lieutenant, I I don't know.
I'm not really up for this drug thing, you know? Maybe if Mahone was here, I could get into it more, learn some new tricks.
Hell, why don't you just send me back to Property and keep everyone happy? Send you back to Property Crimes so you can binge for two more weeks? I'm not doing that.
- Lieutenant, please- - You were dumped on me, Augie.
But it ends there.
I don't dump people.
You either go out on those rooftops today to watch payphones with the others or you go over to the medical office and check yourself in.
- Medical? - For alcohol abuse.
Either dry yourself out or go up on those rooftops wet.
Take a few minutes and think on it.
- Where'd they go? - Who? Lieutenant we need a file cabinet or two.
The paperwork from this, I mean there's a lot of it.
Lieutenant sir I'm going to Good luck with the case.
Fucking Rawls, he's fucking up the case to get to me.
No, he's fucking it up for three paper clearances on prior cases.
It ain't personal.
All he's got is D'Angelo at the scene through hearsay and a ballistics match to a couple unrelated drug murders.
How can he charge that? He can charge anything he wants to get credit for clearance.
Grand Jury doesn't indict, he drops the case, keeps his stats.
- I'll go tell him what the fuck he can do.
- No you don't.
I'm trying to build something here.
Rawls just sticks a finger in my eye.
- You talk to Landsman? - Jay can't fix this.
Rawls told him to have the warrants typed and ready by morning.
He's gonna charge murders he can't prove just to get the stats? And fuck up our case in the process.
We give up ballistics info and motive for the Kresson killing in the charging documents, and Avon Barksdale is gonna change up.
And what he don't change up he'll clean up.
Someone should tell Rawls.
Rawls couldn't care less.
He wants me home, and the stats, that's all.
- Then we take it to Daniels.
- Daniels? - It's his case, he'll fight for it.
- He won't do shit.
He plays stiff every now and then, but he's a good man.
Are you kidding me? He's been trying to put the brakes on this for weeks now.
This'll be his new excuse to close shop.
Look, you guys gotta make your move soon, I'm sorry to say.
- Freamon.
- All right, Bunk, take care.
We tell Daniels.
Fuck Daniels and his ass-kissing up-the-chain-of-command ambition.
What other choice you got, huh? We go to Daniels.
If he fights, he fights.
If he gives it up to Rawls, then fuck it, we were never gonna do the case anyway.
All right, come on.
Fucking idiot! - Come on, get up, stupid.
- I'm hurt, man.
What are you doing? Leave me alone! - What, are you on dope or something? - Mostly, yes.
Come on, get up.
You trying to rip out my guts? - Fuck.
- What, are you trying to kill me, man? - Wait! Where are you going? - Listen, I gotta get help.
You can't leave me here.
You gotta stay with me.
Let's go over to the curb.
Just go get help, man! What are you doing? Stay there! - Damn, boy! What the hell come out of you? - Onion soup.
Campbell's.
- Yeah, my plan! - Run, Forrest, run! You could go to Foerster, or the Deputy Ops.
Why come crying to me? Why not go to your friend, the judge? I don't see a circuit court judge being able to argue the city homicide commander out of three murders even if the cases are all weak sisters.
It's put-up or shut-up time, Lieutenant.
- Either you step up or you send us all home.
- So this is on me? I don't see anyone else in charge of this detail.
- Rawls is a major.
- Rawls is an asshole.
My point is, he ranks me on this.
Chain of command might mean nothing to you, McNulty.
What'd I tell you? - Yo, how we doing? - We doing good.
You know, if you say we doing good So the word is out about these stick-up boys, right? Yeah, y'all being heard.
There goes shorty right there.
What's up, man, you know I'm a man of my word.
I said it would be $4,000 to Omar $2,000 on each of the young ones, this being a team effort.
I'm putting $500 in the boy's hand who's doing the scope $500 in your hand for doing the relay put $500 in Wee-Bey and Bird's hands for doing the muscling up.
- All right.
- How you doing with that other thing? What? Everybody a little depressed, right? Oh, yeah, you know, ain't no surprises yet.
Cut everybody loose on Friday and they all just a bunch of begging-ass bitches.
I mean, ain't nobody showed no money since.
- You gonna keep it humming, cuz? - Yeah, you know.
Oh! You got your hands up.
You keep on doing like how you're doing we'll talk about points on the package.
- All right? - All right.
- Keep it humming.
- Yeah, most def.
- All right, then.
- Take it light, but take it.
Hotter than the Wu-Tang, killer bee.
-40 cents.
- Not 40 cents a foot, no sir.
Look, respectfully, I gotta tell you for 40 cents a foot, you might as well go to Home Depot, pay them.
They're gonna charge you For copper that isn't stolen.
Look, all right, 35 cents a foot.
And that's in respect I have for y'all, what you're doing in our community with these quality domiciles here.
Thirty cents a foot, take it or leave it.
I understand the interest in clearing these cases, I do.
But charging those murders now and putting the information that we have into the charging documents I just call them like I see them, Lieutenant.
Three murders, same gun, we got this Barksdale kid right at the scene on the one.
We're up on the wire.
We're starting to pull good information.
You charge these prematurely and Barksdale will change up on us.
- The work we've already done- - Look I can't tell you how to run your case, I can only run my own.
Major I'm asking as a favor.
- As a favor.
- Yes, sir.
A favor.
In that case no.
Sorry.
- You got home from work early today.
- Yep.
Work sucks.
- Are we eating dinner with you? - Why not? - You promised we'd eat lasagna.
- So we'll go to Little Italy.
Get some lasagna at Sab's.
- You never cook.
- Yeah, cooking sucks, too.
- Who's this? - Hey, yo, I wanna see him.
- Who? - Brandon, my boy.
- Copper house, yo.
- Was the shit.
My plan, Bubs.
Johnny had a plan.
Get out the way, motherfuckers.
This here is White Boy Day.
- I got a plan, too.
- What? We're gonna wait for that cheap-ass, speculating motherfucker to put that good copper line back into them row houses he's fixing up.
Then, before the drywall get up we creep back in there, and steal that shit right back.
Gotta come back at the motherfucker for that, you know? Yeah.
You good? I could top off with one more.
- Yeah.
- Just one more.
Johnny got it.
I'll be back.
It's my night with the kids.
You ain't gonna find nothing, because I didn't do nothing! Why don't you just leave me alone, man? A white man can't walk down the street? What's that about? Come on, man! It's messed up, all right? Profiling! What? It's 'cause I'm white, right? Why don't you let me Oh, man, what the fuck's that? What's that? That boy ain't got no luck.
All right.
Hold up! - Hey.
- Hey.
So, what are you going to do with your money? You know what you should do? Take the whole roll and do something nice for your girl.
You do have a girl, right? Anyway, you've got enough money to go get yourself one now.
Why'd you punk Sterling like you did? I mean, he did get shot behind this shit.
- I didn't punk him.
- So why are you dropping the lookout? Cass, too.
'Cause they was thieving.
Both of them.
They got pissed 'cause I wasn't paying them.
So Sterling started shaking up the vials, handing off to Cass.
She was selling on the side.
You didn't tell anybody? Stinkum, Bodie? They don't know? If I tell them, what you think they're going to do? They're going to take a baseball bat to Sterling.
Cassandra, too.
It's too much drama, right? So, I just took them both off the stash.
So why didn't you pay us? That wasn't right.
Listen, man Stringer thought we had a snitch down here.
You know, with the jump-out, Omar, all that shit.
So he told me to punk you all for a little while.
See who was still holding money at the end of the week.
Was they snitching? Sterling and Cass? No, man, just thieving.
All right, going to Homicide.
Okay, you two, you sit right here, okay? Don't wander off.
- Dad? - What? It's a school night.
Mom said we had to- I know, I know.
We will.
Just stay there.
Runners at second and third, nobody out yet here in the first inning.
Here's Mora at the plate, and the pitch is high.
Lopez on the mound.
The pitch is outside.
them have been balls.
It's a ground ball down the right-field line.
You up to this? Pay it back, Omar.
Pay it back.
Why we ain't in a real police office? We're a little like you, Omar.
Out here on our own, playing the game for ourselves.
Hard way to go sometimes.
Sorry about your friend.
Avon is one sick bastard.
Of course, he had his reasons.
For one thing, you all did take his stash.
For another, he's looking for you, Omar.
That's what all the cigarette burns were about.
The broken fingers and cracked forearms.
He wanted your boy to give you up.
An address, a street.
Kid had heart.
Yeah.
I know you want to go to wherever it is you lay your head and pick up that sawed-off you like so much, and go on the hunt.
That's how a man like you wants to carry.
- You wouldn't be wrong.
- No, you wouldn't.
But one man with two barrels ain't enough, Omar.
Now, you're going to do what you're going to do.
But whatever else you can give us on Barksdale and his people that can go to hurting him, too.
Just throw us what you can.
Let me tell you all something, all right? What I do, I do, straight like that.
Ain't no sense in you all troubling yourselves over that 'cause the way I feel right now, today What do you all need from me? When did you last see Brandon? Tuesday around 7:00.
Maybe later.
He was on his way down to Mindamin and the Greek's after that.
Everybody's talking about he got snatched up from there.
The Greek's on Baltimore Street? Yeah, he liked to play the pinball games to death.
He go alone? Yeah, and I didn't like it none, neither.
But you can only treat a young man like a boy for so long before they book.
When Bailey got killed you must have figured Barksdale was coming back on you? Bailey? Please.
That nigger's enemies got enemies.
I just figured he tried his hand on the wrong corner and got dropped.
But you were worried about Brandon, right? Look, in my game you take some kid, you play it the safest way you can.
But it ain't about no hiding forever.
You heard? Frankly, you been in it as long as me you do the thing on your name.
Anyone going to come after Omar, they know Omar's coming after him.
Oh, indeed.
So, who came after Brandon? I heard it might have been Wee-Bey his boy Stinkum and Bird.
He was down with the snatch, too.
So, what can you give us on the job? had an incoming call to D'Angelo Barksdale's, giving him the number of a pay phone.
Westside exchange.
Number's encoded, right? Three minutes later, we get another call from the low-rises to that number.
Then, a half-minute later, you get another call from the low-rises to a pager we know is Stringer Bell's.
I'll be damned.
Finally, you get another call.
Probably from a pay phone.
Probably Stringer Bell calling back.
Coming on into the low-rise courts.
Forty-five minutes later, another call.
This one from the same pay phone that went to D'Angelo's pager to start the whole thing off.
You see that? This is the murder, right here.
This first number, the one they sent to D'Angelo I'm thinking this comes from a pay phone over by the Greek's.
He's on you.
We're up on those pay phones Tuesday night we catch that murder.
We get there before the murder.
It's all here on the pen register.
This one calling that one, that one calling back.
We're up on those pay phones when we should be, and we have him cold.
But we're not up in time, are we? In this case, we're never where we need to be.
Bad time for you all? He fight, but you arrest.
You saw him get arrested? - On Tuesday? - Tuesday, yes.
Tuesday.
By the police? The police arrested him? Cops, they handcuffed him? What about these guys? Were they there with him? No.
- He fight, you arrest.
- Right.
Okay, thank you, sir.
Thank you.
It's a match.
No.
I need help.
Rawls ranks me.
Lieutenant, think what you're doing here.
You're going to cross Bill Rawls as ruthless a fuck as we have in this department? And to do what? To fight for a case the Deputy of Operations doesn't even want.
No.
I like my career, thank you very much.
In the cemetery, you were telling us that a guy named Bird killed the working man.
Yeah, the man who testified.
William Gant.
Right.
Yeah, Bird did that one, for sure.
- How do you know? - Everybody knows, man.
Nigger walked up behind the man and shot him in the head.
The whole blessed project saw that much.
And Bird worked for Avon? Yeah, as one of his shooters.
Liked to use this real sweet gun he got.
A.
380 from Austria or Australia.
Something like that.
But I know he loved that gun.
A.
380.
Yeah, a.
380.
You get him, you get the gun.
'Cause Bird's too dumb to throw a gun like that off.
- A gun alone ain't enough.
- Oh, no? He testifies he bought the gun on the street after Gant was killed.
- What would be enough, then? - Eyeball witness.
Some kind of corroboration for what you're telling me here.
- Okay.
- Okay, what? - I'm your man.
- You saw the murder? Yeah.
You can ID this man, Bird, as the shooter of William Gant? And you ain't afraid to go into court and testify against one of Barksdale's people? Omar don't scare.
The fact is that while Lt.
Daniels and his merry band are lost in the swamps playing with beepers and pay phones and body mikes my people have developed information that ties Barksdale to three killings.
- D'Angelo Barksdale, not Avon.
- D'Angelo on behalf of Avon.
The victim is identified by our witnesses as being involved with Avon Barksdale.
Sir, we're developing- You're dancing around this thing.
I'm charging three murders.
You charge those cases, my investigation folds.
Not one of those cases is strong enough for court.
You know that.
So we bring the Barksdale kid in throw a little mindfuck at him and the case becomes stronger.
You've had him in the box twice before.
He's gonna go for less the third time.
So we re-canvass, develop fresh witnesses.
The case I charge on today can be twice as strong by the trial date.
We get a conviction we roll Little Boy Barksdale into Big Boy Barksdale then we go home like good old-fashioned cops and pound some Budweiser.
This is bullshit! It was McNulty who made the ballistics match on these murders and he's telling me to fight this.
He knows you don't have a viable prosecution so do you, so do I.
Enough.
Look, I've got no love for your wiretap, Lieutenant.
I'm spending $2,000 a day over the unit operating budget to staff the case.
Now, Major Rawls here is offering a chance to leverage Barksdale through a murder prosecution.
Why not jump on this? Because if Major Rawls is right then he will be just as right a month from now.
If the wire doesn't give us a case, he can charge all the murders he has.
We lose nothing.
But if he's wrong if he can't convict, or if the Barksdale kid doesn't flip then it's too late to do anything else.
Avon Barksdale changes up his pattern, and the wiretap dies.
At that point, there isn't going to be a thing that you, or me, or Rawls here is gonna be able to say to that judge.
You wanted to see me, Major? McNulty does personal business on the clock, I want to know.
He cheats on a run sheet, I want to know.
He runs any kind of game at all, I want to know.
Major, the man's an asshole but he doesn't do much other than work.
He's got this case in his gut like it's cancer.
He does no wrong? Doesn't drink anymore? Doesn't drink on duty? Doesn't drink and drive, Detective? - Major - You've got to help me on this, Michael.
The murder warrant's on hold.
The Deputy gave us another month.
Also, whoever that was you brought in here today gave himself up as an eyewitness to the Gant murder.
Who? Omar? Greggs said to tell you she'd write it up in the morning.
Lieutenant thanks.
It cost you?