Authors: Karen Rose
‘I’ll be all right, Marcus. Stay with your detective. I’ll see you later.’
Cincinnati, Ohio
Wednesday 5 August, 4.50
P.M.
‘So,’ Dani murmured as she and Scarlett went back to the clinic. ‘You and Marcus?’
‘Oh yeah.’ Scarlett chanced a glance at Dani’s face and saw that her friend wore a delighted smile. ‘It’s been him for a long time. I just didn’t know he felt the same.’
‘I’m really happy for you. I’ve been grinning ever since Faith called and told me.’
‘I didn’t think it would be a secret all that long the way you two burn up the phone lines,’ Scarlett said wryly. ‘Still, less than a day is pretty fast.’ She set Emilio down and Dani gave him his crutches. The boy hobbled over to his grandmother, who began to scold him.
Dani looked over her shoulder, her smile dimming. ‘Is Marcus’s friend okay? I didn’t want to embarrass him by asking, but he didn’t look so good.’
‘I don’t know. I only met Diesel last night, but I know there’s something going on there. He seems like a decent guy, though. Marcus will tell me if I’m supposed to know. Otherwise . . .’ Scarlett shrugged.
‘I know. I just can’t help but try to fix things.’ Dani sighed. ‘And people.’ She pointed across the room to where the elderly Tommy and Edna sat snoozing in front of the television. ‘I’ve got patients to see, so I’ll leave you to your job.’
‘Thanks for keeping them here, Dani.’ Scarlett took stock of her friend’s face, the dark circles under her eyes expertly covered with makeup. ‘How are you? Really?’
Dani sighed again. ‘Tired. And nauseous. But my counts are back in whack, so I’m healthy. I’m just stressed over not knowing where I’m going next.’
Dani had taken a leave of absence from the hospital where she’d worked in the ER when her HIV status had been exposed. Now she looked around at the waiting room bursting at the seams with people. ‘I love my work here, but it doesn’t exactly cover the bills, especially since I moved back into my apartment. At least I’m getting some sleep again.’ She scrunched up her face. ‘Deacon and Faith were keeping me up every night. They weren’t exactly quiet while, you know, in the throes. “Oooh, Deacon!”’ she cooed.
Scarlett laughed. ‘I know. I’m getting to the point where I’m afraid to call him at home. I keep interrupting them.’
Dani tilted her head. ‘I haven’t heard you laugh like that since . . . maybe never. I’m glad. Marcus is a good influence on you.’ Her eyes were wistful for a moment before she forced a smile. ‘I have to go. Keep him safe, and yourself too.’
‘You always have a room at my place if you need to ditch the apartment.’
Dani walked backward toward her office, shaking her head ruefully. ‘Not that I don’t appreciate the offer,’ she said lightly, ‘but then I’d have to hear, “Oooh, Marcus!”’ She chuckled when Scarlett blushed, then blew her a kiss. ‘Bye now.’
She felt Marcus come up behind her. ‘What was that about?’ he asked.
‘Oh, you know Dani. She and Faith have been giggling over us.’ She studied his face, saw his worry over Diesel’s abrupt exit. ‘I know, I know, some secrets aren’t yours to share,’ she said gently. ‘But you know you can, should you need to.’
‘Thanks.’ He curled his hand around her neck and pulled her in for a kiss. ‘Thanks for that too. I needed it.’ He scanned the waiting room. ‘That’s Tommy and Edna?’ he asked.
‘Yeah. Let’s wake them up.’ She took out her phone and brought up her email. ‘I had Isenberg’s clerk work up a photo array with Drake’s picture in it, just in case they did see something. Oh, and don’t mind Tommy. He’ll propose marriage at least once before we leave.’
‘To you or to me?’ Marcus asked.
She grinned at him. ‘Edna might propose to you. We can have a double wedding.’
‘How long have you known them?’
‘A long, long time. I walked a beat around here when I was right out of the Academy. I’ve tried to get them housing so many times, but this is the life they know.’ She walked over to where they slept, shook them both gently. ‘Tommy. Edna. Wake up.’
Edna came awake in a panicked jerk, while Tommy roused slowly. Edna looked around, disoriented. Then she saw Scarlett and relaxed.
‘Detective Bishop. Dr Dani said you wanted to talk to us.’
‘Miss Scarlett,’ Tommy drawled. ‘I knew you’d finally come to your senses. Where you taking me for our honeymoon? Better make it the mountains. Cooler this time of year.’
Scarlett went down on her haunches so that they didn’t have to look up at her. ‘I’m afraid we’ll have to put that honeymoon on ice, Tommy. You remember early, early yesterday when I saw you?’
Edna nodded. ‘You ran off to that alley where the girl was shot.’
‘I came back later to talk to you, but you were gone.’
Edna grimaced. ‘Too many cops and flashing lights. Tommy and I took our stuff and found a quieter stoop.’ She glanced up. ‘Who’s he?’
‘His name is Marcus. He’s the man I was meeting. He was there to help the girl because she was being hurt by the people she lived with. Somebody shot and killed her to keep her from asking Marcus for help. Did you see anything else? Like maybe someone running away?’
‘Lots o’ people were running away,’ Tommy said. ‘They hear shots and they scatter, cuz the cops’ll think they did it and shoot ’em.’ He shrugged. ‘Mebbe they did. Don’t seem to matter to the cops who they shoot.’ He lifted one grizzled gray brow. ‘No offense, Miss Scarlett. You’re not like them. Is he?’
‘Marcus? He’s not a cop. He’s a reporter.’
Tommy visibly relaxed. ‘That’s good. Hate to think you’d leave me at the altar for a cop. I saw you kissin’ that man.’
Scarlett smiled at him. ‘You little sneak. You weren’t asleep at all.’
Tommy didn’t smile back. ‘I sleep with my eyes open, Miss Scarlett,’ he said soberly.
‘Cops’ll sometimes give us a hard time,’ Edna said, ‘for sleepin’ on our stoop. They shake us awake, yell at us.’ She dropped her voice, mimicking a cop’s command. ‘“Move along, move along. Can’t sleep here.”’ She shook her head ruefully. ‘We’ve been sleeping on that stoop for years. I don’t know why they care. Nobody else is using it.’
Their neighborhood had been the epicenter of racial violence more than a decade before. While things had dramatically improved in the years that followed, many residents still feared and mistrusted the police.
‘I’m sorry,’ Scarlett said simply. She knew better than to tell them that most of the cops who made them move along were trying to keep them safe. ‘Did you see anyone running away who looked like they didn’t belong? Someone you didn’t know from the neighborhood?’
Edna hesitated. ‘I don’t want no trouble.’ Scarlett waited patiently until Edna sighed, long and heavy. ‘Fine,’ the old woman said. ‘I saw him.’ She pointed up at Marcus. ‘He was running.’
‘I know
he
was there,’ Scarlett said mildly. ‘One of those shots you heard was fired into his back. Luckily he was wearing a Kevlar vest or he wouldn’t be here with me now.’
Edna gave Marcus a thorough looking-over. ‘Would be a shame to waste a man like that,’ she agreed. ‘There was one other. White boy. Blond hair. Ran fast. Cleared an overturned garbage can like one of those guys in the Olympics.’
‘You mean like he was running hurdles?’ Scarlett asked. The Detroit guys had sent them the background check on Drake. The punk had run track while in high school, so running hurdles fit. ‘Did you see his face?’
‘Yes,’ Edna said. ‘He ran right past me.’
‘I was too busy lookin’ at his gun,’ Tommy drawled. ‘Kid wavin’ it around like some stupid gangbanger.’
Scarlett sighed. ‘Why didn’t you tell me this yesterday morning?’
‘You didn’t—’
Scarlett waved her hand. ‘I know. I didn’t ask.’
‘No,’ Tommy said. ‘I was gonna say that you didn’t stick around long enough for me to tell you. You were running toward that alley as fast as he done run away.’
‘Oh,’ Scarlett said, feeling very foolish. ‘Do you think you could pick him out of a lineup?’
Tommy wagged his head side to side. ‘All them white boys look the same to me.’
‘We’re not going into any police station, Detective,’ Edna said, folding her arms over her chest. ‘Not gonna happen.’
‘That’s okay. I have a few photos for you to look at.’ Holding her phone so that they could see, she flicked through the photos Isenberg’s clerk had provided for the array. She’d cajole Edna into the station for a formal identification later if she needed to.
‘That’s him,’ Edna said, identifying Drake on the second pass. ‘The third one.’
Yes. We got you, you little fucker
. Scarlett kept her expression impassive even as she fiercely fist-pumped the sky on the inside. ‘Where did he run after he passed you?’
‘To the end of the street. Got into a fancy car. Passenger side.’
‘A Mercedes,’ Tommy added with gusto. ‘Silver. Shone under the street lights. Took off, burnin’ rubber.’
Excellent
, Scarlett thought. A silver Mercedes had been registered to Stephanie Anders. She quickly typed a text to Vince Tanaka:
Check silver Merc taken from Anders garage for evidence that Drake Connor and Tala Bautista rode in it
.
‘Did you see who was driving?’ she asked.
‘A girl,’ Tommy said.
‘Figures you’d notice the girl,’ Edna grumbled.
‘Like you noticed that boy?’ Tommy shot back. ‘Just cuz there’s snow on the roof don’t mean the fire’s dead.’ He licked his lips lasciviously.
‘Oh, that fire’s dead,’ Edna said, annoyed. ‘Wasn’t more than stick kindlin’ anyway.’
‘Thank you for that visual,’ Scarlett said sarcastically. ‘What did she look like?’
‘Pretty,’ Tommy said. ‘Though not nearly as pretty as you.’
‘Good to know,’ Scarlett said. ‘Details? Hair color? Skin color?’
‘Blond hair. White skin. Sparkly earrings. Red fingernails. Long, like claws. She held the steering wheel like this.’ He positioned his hands with the thumb tucked under and his four fingers sticking straight out. ‘That’s all I know.’
‘That’s a lot. Thank you both.’
Edna frowned, troubled. ‘Is he gonna come after us? The boy?’
‘No. He’s in custody two hundred and fifty miles from here.’
‘Good.’ Edna nodded hard.
‘I agree. Now, you two stay cool, okay? It’s hot out there.’
Tommy pointed at Marcus. ‘Does he talk?’
Scarlett laughed. ‘Yes, he does. Why?’
‘Tell him to stay here. You run along, Miss Scarlett. I want to talk to him. Alone.’
Scarlett glanced at Marcus with a shrug, then came to her feet and walked to the door, where she texted Isenberg and Deacon with a progress report while watching Tommy, Edna and Marcus from the corner of her eye.
Positive ID for Drake Connor leaving Tala Bautista crime scene yesterday
A.M.
DC seen with a firearm, getting into silver Merc. Have files from Woody McCord investigation to review. Possible that McCord planned to name his supplier. Product
=
people/children. Likely for porn. McCord died in jail next day. His attorney died soon after, in a fire, possible arson. Wife died a few days later. All connected to McCord are dead. Possible Demetrius connection is as supplier of people to both Anders and McCord. Headed back into CPD.
Twenty seconds later, Isenberg called her cell phone.
‘Good work, Detective.’
Scarlett wanted to sigh. They were still on formal terms. ‘Thank you, Lieutenant,’ she said, echoing Isenberg’s crisp tone. ‘I’m not in a place where I can speak freely.’
‘Understood. Just listen, then. Agent Coppola finished her interview with the quality tech from Constant Global Surveillance. She was right – he was so shaken from the attempt to kill him that he was happy to give up what he knew in exchange for protection. He named Demetrius Russell as his customer for the ankle trackers. The tech would routinely cull out a few of the trackers for destructive testing, record them as recycled parts, then sell them to Demetrius, who always paid in cash.’
‘So he’s the link, like we thought.’
‘Yes. The quality tech said that he was selling upwards of two hundred units a year.’
Scarlett’s mind spun, thinking about all the victims like Tala’s family. ‘Wow. How did he keep that many destroyed units from being noticed?’
‘He’s implicated his boss, who was getting a cut of the profit. The Feds are picking up the boss as we speak.’
‘Look at the seventh sentence of my text.’
‘The one that says McCord died in jail? You think he was murdered in his cell to keep him quiet and didn’t commit suicide?’
‘Yes. So simple confinement may not be enough protection.’
‘Then I’ll make sure the Constant Global Surveillance employees have extra guards,’ Isenberg said. ‘But I also have other news for you. We have information on the sniper on the roof of the building across from CPD. The Feds did some fancy work with their facial recognition software. Her name is Alice Newman. Law degree from the University of Kentucky.’