asked.
“I don’t know. Listen, there’s something I forgot to tell you, something they haven’t mentioned in the news. There was a witness in the store that night.”
“Who?”
“The clerk. A young girl named Deecie. Deecie Styles. She was working the counter when the shooter ran into the store. She saw the guy.”
“So what’s the problem?”
“The problem is she’s gone. She ran off right after the cops got there. She’s got a baby. A little boy, not even a year old. One minute she was there, the next minute, in all the confusion, the store swarming with cops, she’d vanished. And C. W., that’s not all. There was a surveillance camera mounted above the cash register. She took the videotape with her. And about twelve hundred dollars in cash, from the store’s safe.”
“I’ll be damned,” C.W. said. “I got some good sources, but nobody said a word to me about a girl.”
“You know Ellis Washington?”
“I know him,” C.W. said. “Worked with him for a couple years before I quit. He’s a good man.”
“He’s the one who told me Deecie Styles was missing,” I said. “Mackey was furious when he found out Washington told me about it. He made me promise to keep my mouth shut about her.”
“Some chance of that,” Hunsecker said.
“Washington made it sound like the girl planned the whole thing,” I said. “But I don’t buy it. I was there, C.W. She was completely unhinged. And she had a baby with her. None of this makes any sense to me.”
C.W. laughed. “What’s wrong with you, Garrity? You were a cop once. Since when does robbery or homicide make sense? It never makes sense. All this talk about master criminals, evil genius. That’s a bunch of crap and you know it. Mostof these bad guys, they’re just lazy, stupid fuck-ups. Shit happens, that’s all. This time, the shit happened to somebody we care about.”
“Bucky wasn’t stupid. He wasn’t lazy and he wasn’t a fuckup,” I said. “And he wasn’t a criminal, either. This afternoon, you said something. You said the white cops had something going, some kind of scam with security jobs. You still think that’s true?”
“Maybe,” he said cautiously. “So what if it is?”
“What if Bucky somehow got mixed up in the scam? What if he knew something he wasn’t supposed to know? And that’s what got him shot?”
C.W. snorted. “You got an overactive imagination, Garrity. It’s a scam, that’s all. These assholes got a little gig that’s against department policy. But it ain’t nothing that big. Ain’t nothing could get Bucky shot. It’s just business as usual.”
“I don’t think so,” I insisted. “That girl, Deecie. She didn’t run because she’d stolen the money. She ran because she was scared. Scared of what she’d seen.”
“A safe full of twenties is what the girl saw,” Hunsecker said. “What you call your crime of opportunity.”
“No. There’s something else. That girl saw something she shouldn’t have.”
“What if she did? You gonna track her down and ask her about it? That’s why we got a police department, Garrity. You take my advice, you mind your own damn business. Stay out of it, you hear?”
“I hear,” I said. But my mind was already racing.
“C.W.,” I said, “you being in the security business, do you do pre-employment screening for your clients?”
“Sure,” he said. “Drug testing, credit history, lie detector tests, all like that. That’s Linda’s specialty. You oughtta see her on the computer. You give her a modem and a data base, there ain’t nothin’ she can’t find. Why do you ask? You fixin’ to start doin’ urine testing on all those ladies working for your cleaning business?”
“I might,” I said.
12
I sat and brooded about Bucky for a long time. Finally, I got out a yellow legal pad and started to doodle, a habit I have when I’m trying to bring order to a world of chaos.
The facts were few—but brutal. Bucky had been shot twice in
“I don’t know. Listen, there’s something I forgot to tell you, something they haven’t mentioned in the news. There was a witness in the store that night.”
“Who?”
“The clerk. A young girl named Deecie. Deecie Styles. She was working the counter when the shooter ran into the store. She saw the guy.”
“So what’s the problem?”
“The problem is she’s gone. She ran off right after the cops got there. She’s got a baby. A little boy, not even a year old. One minute she was there, the next minute, in all the confusion, the store swarming with cops, she’d vanished. And C. W., that’s not all. There was a surveillance camera mounted above the cash register. She took the videotape with her. And about twelve hundred dollars in cash, from the store’s safe.”
“I’ll be damned,” C.W. said. “I got some good sources, but nobody said a word to me about a girl.”
“You know Ellis Washington?”
“I know him,” C.W. said. “Worked with him for a couple years before I quit. He’s a good man.”
“He’s the one who told me Deecie Styles was missing,” I said. “Mackey was furious when he found out Washington told me about it. He made me promise to keep my mouth shut about her.”
“Some chance of that,” Hunsecker said.
“Washington made it sound like the girl planned the whole thing,” I said. “But I don’t buy it. I was there, C.W. She was completely unhinged. And she had a baby with her. None of this makes any sense to me.”
C.W. laughed. “What’s wrong with you, Garrity? You were a cop once. Since when does robbery or homicide make sense? It never makes sense. All this talk about master criminals, evil genius. That’s a bunch of crap and you know it. Mostof these bad guys, they’re just lazy, stupid fuck-ups. Shit happens, that’s all. This time, the shit happened to somebody we care about.”
“Bucky wasn’t stupid. He wasn’t lazy and he wasn’t a fuckup,” I said. “And he wasn’t a criminal, either. This afternoon, you said something. You said the white cops had something going, some kind of scam with security jobs. You still think that’s true?”
“Maybe,” he said cautiously. “So what if it is?”
“What if Bucky somehow got mixed up in the scam? What if he knew something he wasn’t supposed to know? And that’s what got him shot?”
C.W. snorted. “You got an overactive imagination, Garrity. It’s a scam, that’s all. These assholes got a little gig that’s against department policy. But it ain’t nothing that big. Ain’t nothing could get Bucky shot. It’s just business as usual.”
“I don’t think so,” I insisted. “That girl, Deecie. She didn’t run because she’d stolen the money. She ran because she was scared. Scared of what she’d seen.”
“A safe full of twenties is what the girl saw,” Hunsecker said. “What you call your crime of opportunity.”
“No. There’s something else. That girl saw something she shouldn’t have.”
“What if she did? You gonna track her down and ask her about it? That’s why we got a police department, Garrity. You take my advice, you mind your own damn business. Stay out of it, you hear?”
“I hear,” I said. But my mind was already racing.
“C.W.,” I said, “you being in the security business, do you do pre-employment screening for your clients?”
“Sure,” he said. “Drug testing, credit history, lie detector tests, all like that. That’s Linda’s specialty. You oughtta see her on the computer. You give her a modem and a data base, there ain’t nothin’ she can’t find. Why do you ask? You fixin’ to start doin’ urine testing on all those ladies working for your cleaning business?”
“I might,” I said.
12
I sat and brooded about Bucky for a long time. Finally, I got out a yellow legal pad and started to doodle, a habit I have when I’m trying to bring order to a world of chaos.
The facts were few—but brutal. Bucky had been shot twice in
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