The hardest part of police work was trying to convince people to cooperate. Jarek was impressed she’d gotten more out of the woman than anyone he’d tried to talk to. “We can head back to my place and see if we can find any drug or weapon arrests by a guy with either a first or last name of Stuart spelled both ways.”
“After we try talking to the occupants here on the first floor too,” Di said. “People mingle with other tenants regardless of the floor they live on. I happen to know a few people on different floors in my building.”
“You do?” He couldn’t hide his surprise. “I would have thought you’d keep to yourself.”
She shot him an exasperated glance. “I’m not an ogre. Or a hermit. Believe it or not, my scar sometimes has the opposite effect of keeping people away.”
Again, it was hard to cover his surprise. “Really?”
“Yep. There’s a guy by the name of Barry Olden who lives on the first floor of my building. He kept trying to convince me I should move in with him so my boyfriend”—she used air quotes to emphasize the word—“wouldn’t be able to hurt me anymore. I tried to assure him I didn’t have a boyfriend, but he was so persistent I eventually put him up against the wall with my hand around his throat to demonstrate my ability to take care of myself.”
He couldn’t help but smile at that. It was all too easy to imagine her getting the upper hand on some poor unsuspecting shmuck. Back in Afghanistan, he’d watched her lay out a drunk soldier without breaking a sweat. Di could take care of herself, but fighting against an armed guy who hid from sight while taking shots from a distance was different from hand-to-hand combat. “Okay, I get what you’re saying. We need to expand our search parameters. That’s fine with me, but you should take the lead from here on.”
“Gladly.” She made her way down the hall, stopping at the first door. Di fared slightly better than he had, especially when she expanded their request to looking for either Gil or Stewey. Jarek found it interesting that both men and women alike tended to respond to her. Yet when they were finished, the only real information they’d gotten was the name provided by the young mother. It was one small piece in their otherwise gaping hole of a puzzle.
“I guess that was better than doing nothing,” Di said, as they headed outside. Overhead, a scattering of dark clouds had gathered in the western sky. Summer storms often popped up without warning, and he was relieved the gloomy sky provided a bit of cover. Di gestured to the apartment building next door. It looked to be a twin of the one where Gilbert had lived. “What do you think? Is it worth going door to door there?”
“I don’t think so.” He eyed his watch. They’d only been there about an hour, but he was anxious to get back to his place. “I think our time is better spent looking for Stewey. Since Gilbert had a rap sheet, it stands to reason Stewey was arrested at some point too. Maybe we’ll find he has outstanding warrants. That will give me a legitimate reason to haul him in for questioning.”
“Okay by me.” She turned to look back at the apartment building they’d just left. He followed her gaze to the second-floor windows overlooking the street. He glimpsed a pale face pulling back from the third window from the right. He couldn’t say for sure, but he thought it was one of the apartments who hadn’t responded to their knock.
“We’re being watched,” he said, nodding at the window.
“I know.” Di shrugged and shook her head. “I’m not that surprised, even though it would have been nice if some of these people would have been a little more forthcoming.”
“Welcome to police work where people are often less than cooperative with providing information that could keep their community safe.”
“Yeah, well, it’s hard to pass judgment.” She grimaced. “If you were that young mother with a baby and knew gang members lived nearby, you wouldn’t be so eager to point the finger at them either.”
“Maybe not. But not cooperating only keeps the bad guys living next door when the police might have enough to toss them in jail,” he argued. He paused, then added, “Maybe a couple of them sensed I was a cop, even though I didn’t flash my badge. I must say, you were great. I’m impressed at how well they opened up to you.”
“Thanks, but it’s more about how much you look like a cop. Even without the uniform. Nobody would look at me and assume I’m with law enforcement.” A smile tugged at the corner of her mouth. “I’m glad we learned something, even though I was hoping for more.”
“We’ll find Stewey.” He started walking back toward his car. “It’s a good lead.”
The words were barely out of his mouth when he saw a beige sedan round the corner up ahead. The beat-up Chevy looked exactly like the one described in Gilbert’s police report. The car sped up, coming straight toward them.
“Look out!” He grabbed Di’s arm and yanked her down just as the rear passenger-side window rolled down, revealing the barrel of a gun. He ducked and dragged Di behind the closest parked car just as several rounds of gunfire rang out. Bullets pinged off the car, whizzing past his head as he and Di took cover.
He crawled quickly to the rear of the parked car. He pulled his weapon and leaned against the vehicle to take aim at the retreating sedan, but he was just a few seconds too late. The beige Chevy careened around the corner and quickly disappeared from sight.
This was the third attempt against Di in one day, and he was getting mad. And worried.
Clearly, this guy wasn’t going to stop until she was dead.
4
Being targeted by gunfire was getting old. She wasn’t in Afghanistan anymore; this shouldn’t be happening in Newburgh, New York. Crouched beside Jarek, Di caught a glimpse of the beige sedan before it disappeared around the corner. Swallowing hard, she rose to her feet. “I didn’t get the license plate, did you?”
“Only the first two letters, PK.” Jarek grimaced. “I think it must have been Gilbert Levine’s car, don’t you?”
“Makes sense they’d use a dead man’s ride for their dirty work.” She glanced around the area, wincing when she realized the vehicle they were hiding behind had been struck with bullets. That meant another wait for the police to arrive, not to mention the need to provide statements. “I guess this drive-by shooting reinforces that someone from the gang is involved. It’s their typical MO.”
“Yeah, but the first two shootings weren’t like this.” Jarek scowled and raised his voice to be heard over the police sirens. “Why the changeup to a drive-by attempt?”
She shook her head, having no answer for that question. Di felt better about her sister Michelle’s safety now that it looked as if this was gang related. She raised her voice to be heard as well. “We know there were two people involved. The driver and the shooter.”
Jarek nodded, then turned to approach the oncoming squads. She stayed back, letting him take the lead with his fellow officers. While she understood the need to follow protocol, this would delay their investigation into Stewey. And the beige sedan with the license plate starting with PK. Sweeping a casual glance around the neighborhood, she wondered who had called in the report of gunfire. This neighborhood was far outside known gang territory, so it made sense that someone cared enough to make the emergency call.
