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“Would you like coffee?”
“Oh, heavens no. It’s provided free in the hotel lobby. I’ve probably overdone my intake.”
Though seriously in need of my morning jolt, I sacrificed the caffeine and settled in my chair.
“There have been some developments,” I began. “The man who fell from the bridge has been identified as Deniz Been.”
“Yes. I could see that from the autopsy photos you sent. The poor boy.”
Not the response I’d expected. Recognizing Been, but unaware that he’d been murdered, why had Musgrove made such a long trip?
“At autopsy, we observed no evidence of lightning trauma or drowning.”
Now Musgrove was the one to look surprised.
“The pathologist, Dr. Pierre LaManche, determined that Mr. Been had been fatally shot.”
I described the entrance and exit wounds and handed Musgrove a set of images I’d had printed. Her chin dipped to study the photos.
Time passed. I pondered the part running the top of Musgrove’s scalp. Wondered how she’d managed to get it so straight. Tucked my own hair behind my ears. Several offices down, a phone rang. A woman’s heels clicked past in the hall.
Finally, Musgrove looked up.
“The detective handling this case, Detective Claudel, is with the city police,” I said. “It was he who told me that the tattoo on Mr. Been’s shoulder was associated with a crew calling themselves the Cay Boys. In our first conversation you said that they were one of your local groups. May I ask, are they a gang?”
“Eh.”
I raised my brows in question.
Musgrove couldn’t keep the sarcasm out of her voice: “In the words of the assistant police commissioner, young men on Providenciales who form into violent groups to inflict injuries on each other cannot be classified as gangs.”
“Why not?” I asked.
“They do not meet the established criteria.”
“Which are?”
“Gangs must have leaders and proper networking.”
“That’s not the case in the Turks and Caicos?”
“Of course, it is. Young men form groups, defend turfs, engage in a type of revenge killing called beefing.”
“Sounds like gangs to me.”
“Indeed.”
“The Cay Boys is one of these groups?”
Musgrove nodded.
“I don’t understand your deputy commissioner’s thinking.”
“According to him, these groups are merely copycats parading as gangs. If that’s true, they’re doing a cracking fine job of it. Not long ago a video made the rounds showing a kid kneeling over a gunshot victim as gangster rap plays in the background and the messageR.i.hellappears over the body. Language such as ‘shoot to kill,’ ‘devil want soul,’ and the names of rival gang members are also featured in this cinematic gem.”
“That sounds pretty hard core.”
“According to the deputy commissioner, and I quote, ‘There will be no gangs in the Turks and Caicos Islands. Plain and simple.’?”
