Cereal Killer

curse floated through the summer air, references to unnatural sexual acts and equally unsavory intimate relationships with immediate family members.
    “Damn it. Not on my day off,” he grumbled, rising from the bench. “And I know one of those idiots, too. The blond one’s a CI of mine.”
    Reluctantly, Savannah left her own lunch to the mercy of marauding seagulls and followed him as he strode across the grass toward the pair.
    “One of your informants?” she said, running a couple of steps to catch up with him. “Did he ever give you anything worthwhile?”
    Dirk snorted. “Naw. He just rats out anybody who’s on his shit list, anybody he wants to get even with.”
    “Hmmm... he’s not long for this world if he keeps doing that. Somebody’s bound to punch his time card.”
    “Not soon enough to suit me.”
    As they reached the middle of the park, the tall, skinny blond guy spotted them and abruptly left his opponent, a husky black fellow dressed in leather garb, draped in chains, and bristling with silver studs.
    “Hey—hey, you, Coulter!” the blond yelled as he hurried toward Dirk and Savannah. “Come ’ere! I got a complaint to make!”
    The children in the sandbox had stopped playing and were watching with their concerned mothers as the guy ran up to Dirk and grabbed him by the arm.
    “Let go of me,” Dirk said, shaking his hand away. “What’s the matter with you, cussin’ like that in front of women and children? You got no couth?”
    “He ripped me off! That dude sold me bad rocks, man. I want you to arrest him.”
    At the word “arrest,” the dude in question began to I not-so-nonchalantly stroll away in the opposite direction.
    “Go get him, man! He cheated me out of fifty dollars, cuz. Fifty big ones! That’s gotta be a felony, right?” Dirk fixed him with an evil eye. “What are you telling me, you moron? That somebody sold you some bad dope? Is that what you’re trying to say to me?”
    Savannah grinned. Even the slowly retreating guy in leather had a smirk on his face.
    “Yeah, man!” the blond wailed, holding out his open j palm, which contained a couple of tiny wads of cellophane plastic, wrapped around small cream-colored squares of something that looked like soap. “He sold me macadamia nuts, man! Fuckin’ macadamia nuts instead o’ rocks! What does he think I’m gonna do with these... make friggin’ chocolate chip cookies? I ain’t no Mrs. Fields, man! Lock him up, Detective! But get me my fifty dollars back first.”
    Dirk stared down at the bindles in the guy’s hand for what seemed like forever. Savannah stifled a snicker.
    Then Dirk growled and batted them out of his hand. The misnomered contraband sailed through the air and landed in some nearby shrubs.
    “Are you stupid or just plain dumb?” Dirk asked him. He grabbed him behind the neck and gave him a shake like he was a puppy who had just piddled on the good rug. “You want me to intervene because you got ripped off in a drug deal? You expect me... on my day off, no less... to arrest some guy for selling you macadamia nuts instead of rock cocaine? Is that what you’re telling me?”
    “Well... I...”
    ‘You come here to a city park, where mothers bring their babies to play, and you make a damned drug deal, and you have the nerve to complain to me when you get ripped off? Why, I oughta—”
    “Actually...” Savannah said, stepping between them, “Dirk, you oughtn’t to. Really...”
    She nodded toward the dozen or so wide-eyed children and their mommies who were hanging on every word.
    Dirk released his informant, who seemed to quickly realize that this situation wasn’t going at all the way he wanted. Not only was the police detective not interested in dispensing any justice his way, but his dishonest dealer was about to leave the park.
    “I can’t believe this,” the blond sputtered. “So much for ‘protect and serve,’ huh? So much for keeping the peace and all that crap.”
    He left Dirk and rushed over to the shrubs, where he retrieved his bindles. Then he hurried after the guy in the leather jacket, who was waiting for a break in traffic to cross the street and exit the park.
    “Can you believe that?” Dirk said, watching him and shaking his head.
    “Oh, yes. I believe anything. That was a close one, huh, buddy?”
    Dirk nodded. “No kidding. If they’d actually come to blows I’d be spending my day off dragging them to the house and doin’ fives. The last thing I want