As I got lost in the case file, I didn’t pay careful attention to what was going on around me. In fact, I did exactly what I tell my kids not to do: I was not aware of my surroundings.
The loud rap on my driver’s side window startled me. I looked up and to my left to see two young black men staring at me. One of them motioned for me to roll down the window.
They were two strangers approaching me in a strange city. I wrestled with the age-old question that went back and forth in training classes: Do you interact with potentially hostile strangers from the protection of a car or outside where you can move? Exiting the car went against common sense, but I knew I would learn nothing by sitting inside.
I decided to greet my visitors in person. I struggled out of the Prius with as much dignity as I could muster. By the time I was standing up straight, the two men had stepped to either side of me. Was that on purpose? From a tactical standpoint, if they were going to attack me, doing it from two directions was their best bet.
I turned to put my back to the little car. Before I could say or do anything, the man to my right spoke.
“Are you sure you’re in the right place?” His Baltimore accent had a touch of Brooklyn. He was a little heavy and wore a light Ravens jacket over a fluorescent Nike T-shirt.
I said, “As a matter of fact, I’m not sure I’m in the right place.”
The heavier of the two young men said, “We always try to help lost tourists so if something bad happens they can’t blame our neighborhood. It’s all about optics.”
The thin man on the other side of me, who was maybe twenty-five, said, “What are you looking for?”
I said, “The usual: love, security, and a long-term investment plan.”
That earned an odd look from the thin man. The chunky fella on my right laughed out loud.
The chunky young man said to his friend, “This guy has seen some shit if he’ll joke with two strangers in the hood.” Then he looked at me and said, “What are you really doing here?”
“No bullshit. I’m interested in the murder of a woman who was found in her car just about in this spot almost two years ago.”
The thin man said, “The white woman in the Audi?”
“That’s exactly it.”
“You probably heard it was gang violence.”
“I know that’s what was on the news. I’m not sure I see it that way.”
“That makes you smarter than the average reporter. No one has any idea why someone killed that lady. Technically, we’re a gang according to the city. We call ourselves the Fairfield Crusaders.”
“You’re not acting much like gang members.”
“How are gang members supposed to act? Maybe we should sell drugs or rob people. Don’t watch so much damn TV. There’s all kinds of gangs.”
I nodded. “You’re right. I’m sorry.”
Now the chunky guy said, “Know what our toughest achievement is?”
I shook my head.
“We built a playground in the next block that gives kids under six a place to play safely. When we were done with that, we made sure Meals on Wheels came in to help serve the elderly people. They refused to come out here until we started taking over the routes. Never listen to the news, mister. Reporters don’t know shit.”
The thin man said, “You want to find out more about the woman in the Audi?”
I nodded.
“Come with us.”
Chapter 31
I felt comfortable with these two. They hadn’t bothered to give me any names, and I wasn’t going to ask. This wasn’t an official investigation. I didn’t have to write any reports.
The chunky man and the thin man led me into the next block. A man who could have been anywhere between fifty and seventy-five was balancing on a plastic chair with only three legs. His sparse gray hair circled around a bald crown over one of the darkest complexions I’d ever seen. His right eye was gauzy with cataracts. Half of his teeth were missing. The others were yellowed and jutted out in odd directions. He had that worn look of a man who had lived on the streets a long time.
The chunky man said, “Charles, tell this man about what you saw two years ago when that lady was killed in her car.”
I looked again at the old man. He lowered the bent cigarette he was smoking and squinted up at me with his filmy eye. The man said, “I seen two people pull up in that fancy car. About ten minutes after it parked, one person got out and walked away alone.” Before I could ask any questions, Charles added, “And no, I couldn’t see the person walking away. Not sure if it was a man or a woman. But I could tell they were white. That’s about the only thing that stands out in this neighborhood.”