Abuse of Power

11

“My baby! They killed my baby!”

By the time Jack reached the muscle car it was parked out in front of one of the tenement houses. The ambulance sat in the middle of the street, its red strobe flickering, curious neighbors spilling from their homes to see what the commotion was.

The paramedics were already rolling a gurney out a doorway, the small body on it covered with a sheet.

Jack checked the address. It was Jamal Thomas’s apartment.

An emaciated but not unattractive woman in her early forties stood on the sidewalk, her arms stretched toward the gurney, her face twisted in agony as Leon held her back.

“My baby!” she cried, her high, shrill voice full of raw emotion. “Why did they kill my baby?”

She tried to wriggle away but Leon held tight, his own face slack with shock and grief as he stared at the gurney, tears running down his cheeks. The other kids stood around him, open-mouthed, looking much more like children than gangstas, their bravado overwhelmed by the tragedy of the moment.

Jack quickly assessed the scene, and as the paramedics reached the rear of the ambulance he approached the one nearest the doors and showed him his GNT credentials. “What happened here?”

The paramedic waved him away. “Stay clear.”

“Have the police been notified?”

“Soon as we got the call.”

“What’s the C-O-D? Was he shot?”

The guy hesitated, as though sizing Jack up; he seemed to decide it might not be a bad idea to keep a potential ally on hand.

The EMT shook his head. “Overdose.”

“Like hell!” Leon shouted, gently passing the crying woman into the arms of one of his friends. “I already told you, Jamal wasn’t no junkie!”

“Okay, man, take it easy,” the paramedic said.

“Yo, man, that’s not good enough,” Leon snarled. He drew a Glock from the back of his waistband and crossed the sidewalk. “You take it back! You apologize to my mother!”

“I’m sorry!” the young man said. “I take it back!”

The other EMT had stopped moving the gurney. He edged behind the ambulance. Jack positioned himself between Leon and the other paramedic.

“Leon, listen to me-put away the gun,” Jack said. “I want to find out who did this but we need to talk. ”

“The cops did this. That’s who killed my brother.”

“How do you know? Do you have any names, descriptions? Are there any witnesses?”

Jack couldn’t make a grab for the Glock. Leon’s finger was on the trigger, and though they were backing off, moving behind cars, there were too many people standing around to risk an accidental discharge. Instead, Jack ignored the gun. He’d had weapons pointed at him before, and they were never the threat. The man holding it was. If Jack stayed calm, chances were fifty-fifty he could talk Leon down. Or at least delay him until his mother realized what was happening.

Jack looked into Leon’s eyes and held them. They were bloodred in the flashing light of the ambulance, still clouded with tears.

“Talk to me, Leon,” he said calmly.

“The cops,” he said, sobbing but still pointing the gun. “They came in our house and put Jamal down like a dyin’ dog.”

“If we’re going to prove that, I need details,” Jack said.

“Man, you need to go away!” one of the kids shouted.

“Me, too?” came a voice from the middle of the street.

They all looked over as Maxine came walking from out of the darkness. If she wasn’t exactly an angel, she was the closest thing Jack had ever seen.

“This is my associate Maxine,” Jack said. “You saw her in the car. Remember?”

Leon kept the gun on Jack while he looked at Max. “Yeah.”

“Leon, if you want to show your brother respect, then let the paramedics do their job while we go inside and have a nice calm conversation,” she said. “Think you can manage that?”

Leon looked at her. Then, choking back a sob, he wiped tears from his eyes with the back of his gun hand. He nodded.

“Great,” she said.

The apartment was a cluttered, two-bedroom disaster in serious need of a handyman. Cracked ceiling. Dents and scuff marks on the walls. A battered oven in the small kitchenette with its door hanging lopsided, probably unused for months.

From the looks of things, Juanita Thomas wasn’t much of a housekeeper, and judging by the drug paraphernalia scattered across the worn coffee table, she wasn’t much of a mother, either.

Jack and Maxine exchanged looks the moment they entered the place. Max’s expression said, See, I warned you. Jack’s replied, Did I say I doubted you?

But he wasn’t here to judge anyone, just to get information. It took Max a little more persuasion to get Leon to sit down with them-minus his gang-but the kid finally came around. In fact, now that his rage had given way to sadness, now that he didn’t have to put on a tough-guy show for the gang, he seemed grateful to have someone to talk to.

As they entered, Leon escorted his mother into the bedroom and closed the door behind him. Jack and Max were silent as they waited, Jack feeling the walls of this depressing dump close in on him. He caught Max flash a look at the water stain on the ceiling, the dark, mildewed rot around it.

“You made it out,” Jack said in a voice barely above a whisper. “This isn’t your life anymore.”

“But it’s theirs,” she said sadly.

There was no disputing that. Jack was trying to imagine where Mrs. Thomas got Leon’s bail money. Either she had the cash on hand for drugs, got it from selling drugs, or went into hock with a pusher who would have her on her back till it was paid back with interest. Or maybe Leon would knock over a 7-Eleven. Roll some tourists on Market Street. There were all kinds of opportunities for people who had nothing to lose.

A moment later Leon came back out. “I gave her medicine to calm her down,” he said. “She needs to sleep.”

They didn’t ask what he had given her. They didn’t have to.

“What about you?” Max asked. “You feeling any calmer now?”

Leon dropped into a threadbare armchair and lowered his head slightly, trying to hide the tears that were forming again.

These guys are always different when you get them alone, away from their posse, Jack thought. The tough talk, the gestures-it was all for show, like a peacock fanning its tail feathers to seem bigger.

“He was just a stupid runt,” Leon said. “Never hurt anybody. Not even-”

Leon stopped himself.

“Not even the guy he was supposed to pop on the Tenderloin?” Jack asked.

Leon looked up sharply. “A dude gotta know how to survive,” he said. “Off this block, another thug’s turf, you choke, you dead.”

“Did you see what happened that night?” Jack asked.

Leon didn’t answer.

“You stopped at a light,” Jack prompted. “That’s how it’s done, right?”

“Yeah.”

“What happened then?” Max asked.

Leon took a tremulous breath. “Jamal got out and I drove ahead. I looked back an’ the Arab dude was gone and Jamal was swervin’ through traffic. I saw him hit- wham, wham — an’ I went back. But I couldn’t get him out. Next thing up, I was bein’ hustled into a cop car.”

“You never saw the Arab again?”

Leon shook his head.

“What about today?” Jack asked. He moved around the coffee table and sat on the sofa. “Tell me about the cops in the Escalade.”

Leon took another breath. “I picked Jamal up when we got the okay. He was all smilin’ even though he was in a wheelchair and me an’ a nurse had to carry him into the car.” He smiled. “Banged him up, tryin’ to fit him an’ crutches.” The smile faded. “Then, ’bout an hour before you guys showed up, some cops come poundin’ on the door.”

“You saw this?”

“I heard ’em when Mom let ’em in. I was in the bedroom with Jamal. He was talkin’ about wantin’ to go to the lot, show his badass casts, an’ I told him I’d think about it. I took off out the window.”

“Why?” Jack asked.

“’Cause I heard them ask where I was.”

“Really?” Jack said. “Leon, I need to ask you something. Were you ever picked up on a gun charge?”

“What that got to do with anything?”

“Humor me.”

“Yeah, sure, once, two years ago,” Leon said. “They couldn’t prove shit.”

No, Jack thought, but it would show up on your rap sheet. If they were coming for Jamal they’d want to know where his pistol-packing brother was.

“How do you know they were driving an Escalade?” Maxine asked.

“Saw it parked out front, one of ’em standing next to it. I called Mom on the cell, but she said they went into the bedroom and closed the door. Tol’ her they had to ask Jamal a few questions. Jus’ like you.”

“And you’re sure they were cops?”

“What else?”

“Were they in uniform?”

“Suits, man,” Leon said. “Black. Plainclothes. I know the law and they was it.”

“No, Leon,” Jack said. “They were bigger than cops.”

Leon made a face. “What the hell that s’posed to mean?”

“The EMT said they phoned in the OD. That was at least a half hour ago. The Tenderloin Station is, what, five minutes from here? You’ve got the largest concentration of parolees in the city with nonstop patrols. Don’t you think they’d be here by now?”

“They don’t give a damn ’bout us, and Jamal was already dead-”

“‘Officers shall investigate and complete Juvenile Disposition Report Form 8716,’ I think it is, ‘and get a statement from the parents and/or guardian in the event of a suicide or accidental death of a person or persons under the age of eighteen,’” Jack said. “They didn’t always come to bail out my ass, either, so I memorized the codes.”

Leon and Max both looked at him.

“This is not a situation someone would slough off unless someone high up told them to do it,” Jack said, adding pointedly: “Someone high up told them to stay away. What happened when you got to the lot?”

“After a while I called Mom again and she said they was gone and Jamal was resting,” Leon said. “I figgered he just pass out, y’know what I’m sayin’?” His manner was different now, cooperative and even contrite. “Next thing I know, you two show up and there’s an ambulance.” He averted his gaze again, sniffed back tears. “I get here an’ paramedics are already about, ‘Jamal OD’d’ and Mom is screamin’ that the cops kilt him. She said she came into the bedroom and found a needle lyin’ on the bed beside his mouth.” Leon glared into space. “My kid brother stuck himself under the tongue, right, ’cause his arm was in a cast? Is that real? We kept drugs on the nightstand so we could shoot up before bed! That’s bullshit, man!”

“Isn’t that how you put your mother to sleep?” Maxine asked.

Leon shifted uneasily.

Jack leaned forward. “Are you sure Jamal didn’t take drugs?”

“I told you, man, that kid was clean. Maybe smoked some weed, but that was it.”

They were all silent a moment. There were a lot of pieces now, but they still didn’t fit. Try throwing a rock and see who throws it back, Bob Copeland had told Jack. What kind of target did they have?

“The guy standing next to the Escalade,” he said to Leon. “Did you get a good look at him?”

The kid shrugged. “Good enough, I guess.”

“Can you describe him for me?”

Leon dug a hand into his pants pocket. “Don’t need to.”

He brought his cell phone out, pressed a few buttons, then handed it to Jack.

A video started playing.

Maxine moved around next to him and they watched together, a dark, shaky shot of the tenement house from about half a block down, a tall, muscular guy in sunglasses standing near the hood of the SUV, looking off toward Jamal’s apartment.

Professional, Jack thought. But definitely not a cop, from the looks of him-local or federal.

So who was he?

The video cut to black and Jack punched a button to play it again.

“What do you think?” Jack asked as the image replayed.

“I think it’s amazing what you can shoot on a cell phone these days. That’s HD quality. Maybe I should chuck the vidcam.”

He made a face but he let it pass. That was Max’s way of blowing off tension; she’d earned the right tonight.

“Why, what do you think?” she asked.

“If I had to guess I’d say private security.”

Max squinted slightly, concentrating. “Y’know, there may be a way we can find out.”

“How?”

She pointed at the Escalade. “We don’t have a view of the license plate, but you see that little rectangle in the corner of the driver’s window?”

Jack looked, nodded. “Parking sticker.”

“Right. And I bet if I dump this video into my system at home, I’ll be able to enhance it enough to get a fix on that sticker. At least tell us where they park their car.”

“It’s a start,” Jack said, then shifted his gaze to Leon. “Is there some way you can transfer this video to Max?”

He shrugged. “E-mail.”

Jack nodded. “Good. I don’t know who’s behind all this, Leon, but I’m gonna do everything I can to find out.”

“Why?” the kid said. “Why do you even care?”

Jack studied him grimly. “Because that’s just who I am.”