The Force

by Don Winslow

she don’t shit where she eats.

And they’re all tough, with a healthy hatred in their hearts.

“So where are you from, Levin?” Russo asks. “The Bronx.” “The Bronx?” Monty asks. “Riverdale,” Levin admits. The crew cracks up. “Riverdale isn’t the Bronx,” Russo says. “It’s the suburbs. Rich Jews.” “Tell me you didn’t go to Horace Mann,” Monty says, naming the expensive private school. Levin doesn’t answer. “I thought so,” Monty says. “And then where?”

“An egg,” Monty says, “is a symbol of birth, new life. When you bury and then recover it, it’s a symbol of new life resurrected. But a rabbit can no more lay an egg than a man can come back from the dead. Both require miracles. So the Easter Bunny is a symbol of hope, that miracles—resurrection, a new life, redemption—are possible.”

“I’m just saying”—Carter smiles—“if she gets sick, I can get her well.”

“You have a grandma?” Malone asks. “’Course I got a grandma,” Jackson says. It’s at least ten seconds before he says, “Jamichael Leonard.”

Because the real truth that they both know is that without cops “testilying,” the DA’s office would hardly get any convictions at all.