CHAPTER 75

YUKI CALLED AARON-REY’S mother, Bea Kordell, who had her son’s phone, which showed a contact listing for “Arturo.” Yuki sent Arturo a text, replied to his response, then sent another.

An hour later, at nearly 8 p.m., she parked on Turk near Dodge, the bad-news block directly across the street from the peeling three-story crack house on the corner.

She didn’t have to wait long.

A kid came out of the Chinese restaurant next door to the crack house. He looked about five eight, one forty. He was wearing jeans hanging below his hip bones, striped boxer shorts, and a dark hoodie, and had iPod cords dangling from his ears.

He stood on the corner for a while, looking every which way, his eyes resting for a moment every time he swept his gaze across her bronze-colored Acura two-door sedan.

When the traffic thinned, the kid ambled across the street, nodding his head in time to music. Then he walked over to her window.

“Yuki?”

“Arturo. Get in the car,” she said.

Yuki thought if Brady could see her inviting a crack dealer into her car, he would go bug-nuts.

Arturo got in and pulled the door closed, saying, “I got one minute.”

“Mrs. Kordell told you? I need to know what happened that day in the crack house.”

“And what I get?”

“A chance to do the right thing.”

“And a free lawyer if I ever need one?”

“Yes. Free lawyer. Deal.”

They shook on that. She fished a card out of her bag and handed it to Arturo. Christ. She’d tripled her client base today. Meanwhile, Arturo’s eyes were working the streets from under his hood. The sidewalks were empty. He started talking.

“Aaron didn’t shoot no one. It was three men that did that. They looked like cops. They wore police jackets. They showed up on the second floor and everyone scattered—but I was coming out the bathroom and I saw it going down.”

Yuki was startled. More than that. She was shocked.

“The men who shot those dealers—were cops?”

“I don’t know if they were cops. They were wearing cop jackets. They had guns. They said ‘SFPD.’ But they were wearing plastic masks. They pushed Duane, A. Biggy, and Dubble D up against the wall. They kicked their legs apart, patted them down. They took they money, they drugs, they guns, they phones, naked pictures of they girlfriends for all I know.

“Then A. Biggy and his crew turns around and A. Biggy says, ‘You done?’”

“And one of them cops, seemed like the head dude, said, ‘I’m sorry. Put yourself in my shoes,’ something like that, and he just blew them away.”

Arturo’s expression drooped, like he was seeing it all over again. He shook his head like he couldn’t stop the images.

Yuki said, “Arturo. Why haven’t I heard this before?”

“’Cause I was the only living one that saw it go down. And then I see the three of them men go down the stairs like nothing happened.”

“Then what?” Yuki asked.

“I wait a couple of minutes, make sure the coast is clear, and then I’m ready to run out and A-Rey comes charging upstairs. He missed the shooting and he’s looking for his homies like always. They treat him OK. He doesn’t see anything yet. He says to me, ‘Lookit what I found on the stairs, ’Turo.’

“He had a thirty-eight in his hand that belong to the shooter.

“And I say, ‘A-Rey, get out of here, man.’ He sees the dead guys and he starts to go over to them. He loves them, man, and he’s crying and I just yell, ‘Let’s go!’

“And then we run down the stairs. Aaron-Rey is first. And by the time I get to the street, he’s running and a patrol car sees that big boy and they chase him in the car. Then they get out and throw him to the ground.”

Arturo went on.

“I see that, but what I’m supposed to do, huh? It was cops who shoot those boys. I just fade out of sight.”

Yuki said, “You know what happened to A-Rey in jail?”

“I heard, yeah. He thought everyone was his friend.”

“Arturo. Could you ID those men in the police jackets?”

“Not really. Definitely not the head dude. One of the other two, maybe. He had a little tat on his neck. I might have seen a tat like that on a narc.”

Yuki felt the adrenaline shoot straight through her, but she kept her expression as neutral as possible. She said, “I’m suing the City on behalf of A-Rey’s family. I need you, Arturo. I need you to testify for Aaron-Rey.”

“And then what? I’ll be dead, too.”

“Let me see what I can do,” said Yuki.

“Oh, yeah. Right,” said Arturo. He started to get out of the car, but Yuki reached over and gripped his forearm.

She said, “I’m your lawyer. I’ve got pull. If I call you, take my call. It means I can get you whatever you need.”

Arturo got out of the car and didn’t look back.

Yuki sat in the car and watched him cross the street the way he’d come. Then she did the unthinkable. She called her former boss and current opponent, Red Dog Parisi. When he answered, she said, “Len. It’s Yuki. I’ve got two new witnesses who can turn this case upside down. We need to meet right away.”

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