NYPD Red 2(72)
“Two cops. They picked him up at 136th and Amsterdam.”
“How did you know they were cops?” I said.
“They cuffed him. At first just one guy got out of the car and talked to him, but then the Tin Man, he started in with ‘Whoa—wait a minute here—’ like he didn’t want to go. But then the driver, he comes around, cuffs him, and the two of them shove him into the back of their car.”
“A squad car?” I asked.
“Unmarked. A black SUV.”
“Make and model?”
“I don’t know. It was dark. I could tell it was an SUV from the shape, but that’s all.”
“Did you see what these two men looked like?”
“White guys.”
“Could you describe them?”
“Just regular white guys in suits. They were tall, but only regular tall, not like NBA tall. That’s all I could see. I wasn’t close enough to see anything else.”
“Do you think if we brought you some mug shots, something might jar your memory?” I asked.
“I don’t have any memory,” Shawn said. “I told you. I didn’t see faces.”
“Was there anyone else with you who might have seen more?” Kylie asked.
The boy was done. He looked at his mother. She too seemed to be coming to the end of her civic responsibility rope.
“Detectives,” Alma said, “my son has been forthright with you. He says that on the night Mr. Tinsdale disappeared, he saw two police officers take him into custody. It certainly didn’t look like a crime to Shawn, so he didn’t report it. That’s all he knows. If somebody else saw something, they can volunteer just like he did. Do you have any more questions?”
“No, Mrs. Hooks,” I said. “You’ve both been extremely helpful. If you think of anything else, please give me a call.”
I reached into my jacket pocket to get one of my cards. My hand brushed against an envelope. Just before I’d left the office, I had decided to bring along some mug shots. Four of them were random middle-aged white criminals that I pulled out of my files. The other two were the ones I hoped young Shawn would finger. I fished out a business card and handed it to Mrs. Hooks.
“That’s not necessary,” she said, returning it. “If I think of anything else, I’ll call your boss.”
My boss? I had to admire Alma Hooks. She was fiercely protective of her son, and once he’d given us all he was going to give, she dismissed us with a little reminder that Kylie and I answered to her buddy Miss Delia.
I shoved the card back into my pocket, next to the pictures of my two best suspects—Donovan and Boyle.
Chapter 68
“Where the hell do people park in Manhattan?” Jojo said as Tommy Boy drove the Buick past the precinct for the third time. “There are never any spaces on the goddamn street.”
“The trick is to walk around first,” Tommy Boy said. “Then as soon as you find a space, you get somebody to lay down in it, and you run out and buy a car.”
Jojo didn’t laugh. “You think this job is funny, TB?”
“I don’t think anything, Jojo. I don’t even know what this job is except we’re tailing two cops. You want to fill me in? Are they dirty?”
“Dirty as it gets. They killed my brother.”
“Son of a bitch. Cops killed Enzo?”
“They weren’t cops back then. They were high school kids.”
“So we find them, we tail them, and then what do we do?”
“Nothing. You heard my old man. We do the recon. He decides what to do after that.”
“What the hell do you think he’s gonna decide? He’s gonna whack them. The only question is who gets to do it.”
“You volunteering?”
“Maybe,” Tommy Boy said, pulling into a space in front of a fire hydrant. “When Pacino whacks Sollozzo and that crooked cop in the restaurant, he takes off for Sicily for a couple of years. I wouldn’t mind volunteering for that.”
“Keep dreaming, Pacino,” Jojo said, taking out his iPhone and plugging the white buds into his ears. “Now keep your eyes open and your mouth shut. I need a little Springsteen.”
Three songs into the album, Jojo ripped the buds out of his ears. “The one in front is Gideon,” he said, pointing at two men who came out of the precinct and headed toward a cluster of cop cars. They got into a black SUV and pulled out.
“Hang back,” Jojo said. “Cops can spot a tail. Leave a little real estate between us and them.”
Tommy Boy dropped the Buick back behind two cars. “Okay, let’s just hope these guys don’t go all lights and sirens on us, or we’re fucked.”