New River Blues Read Free Page B

car by the time she folded the phone. As she walked over to meet him, she saw Tobin coming half a block away, Menendez just rounding the corner. Delaney, who because he was grossly overworked always felt he was running late, jumped out of his car saying, ‘Morning, Sarah,’ and walked right past her to begin questioning the officer behind the tape. ‘Frankie, you the first responder?’
    Lopez nodded. ‘Yeah, I just happened to be turning on to Broadway when I heard the tone.’ He swallowed when he said, ‘tone,’ a delayed reaction to the jolt of adrenalin he’d received when the heads-up signal sounded in all the cars. ‘Dispatch said three 911 calls in a row from people in this block, saying they heard gunshots and screaming and a lot of dogs barking. Soon as Dispatch said this address I said, “I’m six blocks from there, I’ll take it,” and then Tommy come on and said he was right behind me.’
    â€˜Gil Tompkins? He’s your backup?’
    â€˜Yeah. He’s around there in back somewhere. This is one big mother of a place.’
    â€˜For sure. Three 911 calls, that’s what they got?’
    â€˜Right. Kind of surprising when you see how far apart the houses are here. But the weather’s so perfect right now, I guess a lot of people are sleeping with their windows open. The neighbor in that house over there –’ he pointed across the street – ‘said he was awake when it started so he was pretty positive about what he heard – two gunshots and two screams, coming from this house. Dogs were still barking when I got here, they sounded really freaked. So I got Dispatch to call the house, stood out here and listened to it ring. Nobody answered, but I said, “That’s funny though, I can see from here there’s a couple of lights on, sure looks like somebody’s home.” So they sent the night detectives.’
    â€˜OK. They still here?’
    â€˜Uh . . . just handed it off, I think. No, wait, that’s them talking to the Field Sergeant, over there by the front door.’
    â€˜Oh, it’s Dietz’s crew tonight, huh?’ Delaney slid a quick glance at Sarah. ‘He’s doing all right, isn’t he?’
    â€˜Yes.’ Fighting a deep desire to run over and grab him, she stood still and kept her expression bland. Dietz was her new steady. Probably. If she could get herself to believe in this much luck and not do something stupid to wreck it. He had just gone back on full time after a long recovery from a near-fatal shooting, and had taken a night shift gladly in order to get command of a crew again. They were at pains to stay reserved when their paths crossed at work, to show everybody their romance was no distraction.
    â€˜OK,’ Delaney said, starting toward him. ‘Leo, you’ll take the scene, OK?’
    â€˜You got it,’ Tobin said. He pulled his long notebook out of the back of his pants and pulled the fat ballpoint he favored off his pocket protector. All his work utensils showed the wear and patina of long use. He called himself ‘the old dog,’ and hated change. Ollie Greenaway, smiling and chipper as if it was noon, caught up with them as they walked over, and Menendez was right behind him. So Delaney had an almost full crew by the time he greeted Dietz and the Field Sergeant.
    â€˜Well, if you’re here already,’ Dietz told Delaney, ‘I might as well just pass off to you—’ The Field Sergeant nodded and took a step back, and Dietz started downloading information at once. Her boyfriend got along very well with Delaney on the job, Sarah noticed with pleasure. Two driven workaholics with hardly a word of small talk between them, why not?
    He described the scene he’d found an hour and a half ago, two patrolmen in the yard trying to decide if the neighbors’ reports of gunshots and screaming, and the frantic barking