The Second Girl(55)

I hear the phone set down and then, “Justine! You have a call!”

Shortly thereafter, a click as a phone is picked up in another room. “Hello?”

“This is Frank Marr, Justine. Mrs. Durrell, are you still on the line?”

I hear a click from the other phone.

“She hung up,” Justine says.

“I think I made it clear when I was there, but I want to make sure you understand that the boys you’re playing with are dangerous.”

“You made that clear. And I’m not playing with them.”

“That boy you’re rollin’ with is bad news, Justine. You need to stay clear of him, especially now, or you might get yourself caught up in the police investigation. I need you to really understand that, all right?”

“You don’t have to keep telling me.”

“Don’t get smart.”

“I’m not getting smart. I couldn’t text or call him even if I wanted to. His number’s on my cell phone that my parents took, and I don’t have it memorized, okay?”

“Good. Also, like I said, the police are probably going to get in touch with you soon. You need to tell them what you know. Everything.”

“You said I could trust you, and now you call me back like two hours after you were here and tell me this.”

“You can trust me, so you need to trust me when I say these boys are dangerous, so stay away from them.”

“Okay, okay. I have to go.”

“You call me if you need anything.”

“I will,” she says, and hangs up.

She’s a smart girl made stupid by addiction. I hope she’ll listen. I don’t even know if Playboy is involved with all this shit, but I got a bad feeling anyway.





Forty-nine



I walk back to the other room but don’t sit down. It appears that I’ll always have to keep a few steps ahead of these guys when it comes to this case. I can’t hold on to the information Justine gave me today. I may not be responsible most of the time, but sometimes I have good sense. Luckily, these boys here move at a much slower pace than I do. They set things up differently. They have to get everything cleared with their supervisors. Then they have to brief, debrief, and map everything out. That can take them anywhere from several hours to several days. All I have to do is pack my backpack with a few essentials, get in my car, and go. Despite all that, I gotta be careful. They’re not giving me details related to Edgar’s murder for some reason, and I’m beginning to think it’s not because I’m no longer a sworn member and a part of the fraternity.

“I didn’t call my client.”

“I heard you talking to somebody,” Davidson says.

“I was. It’s a source I have.”

“So why didn’t you call the Gregorys?” Caine asks.

I look at Davidson and ask, “Did Detective Caine give you a call after I said he should, or was he already in on the search warrant?”

“He called, but after we discovered the decedent, we asked if he could stop by.”

“I just wanted to make sure you were still in charge.”

I hear a chuckle from the other side of the room, but don’t know from who. It wasn’t Caine, though.

“You guys got some bad blood together or something?” Whatshisname asks.

“Not me; maybe he just doesn’t like retired cops who have to work to supplement their pension.”

“It ain’t nothin’ but a thing,” Caine says, as if it’s a song lyric.

“Let’s get back on track, guys,” Davidson says.

“Well, Caine, despite what you might think of me, I’m glad Davidson called you in. That means Miriam Gregory will be on your mind while you’re working this.”

“Yes, she will be.”

“It’s not a competition. We all want the same thing,” Hernandez adds, and I think I’m falling in love now.

“You know you still have a couple of Angelo’s boys out there, right? Or did you pick them up?” I ask.

“They’re in the wind,” the silent one, Hawkins, says.

Well, they’re not keeping that from me, so maybe things aren’t so bad.

“I’d say they’re good suspects, then, right?”

“We’re on it,” Hawkins replies.

“You might want to get an undercover or someone like Luna in Columbia Village in Adams Morgan. My source said they used to hang out there.”

“Appreciate that. We will,” Hawkins says.

“That’s a start,” Davidson says.

“There’s another girl, Caine has her information, Justine Durrell. She was a friend of Edgar’s. You’ll want to talk to her. Just do me a favor and make it look like it comes from you, Caine, not me. I promised her I wouldn’t tell anybody about her friendship with Edgar. And she’s more afraid of her mother than she is of you guys, so use it.”

“She used to hang out with Edgar Soto?” Caine asks.

“That’s what I said.”

“She never told me that.”

“Like you said, you got rules of engagement, and I don’t walk on eggshells when it comes to juvies.”

“So you’re saying you beat it out of her?” He smirks.