They all watched as Pine and Puller exited the restaurant and met up with Agent McElroy. A few moments later a shot rang out on the video. Though they’d been expecting it, they all flinched. McElroy dropped to the pavement, and Pine and Puller ducked down behind the car as more rounds sailed past.
“Okay, back it up until I tell you to stop,” said Puller.
Shaffer did so.
“Freeze it there.”
They were now watching the mouth of the alley where pops of gunfire were erupting from. And, just as Dawn the waitress had said, there was a blur of something. A sleeve, a leg, a hand. Even with Shaffer zooming in, they couldn’t see any more than that.
“Run it now,” said Puller.
They watched on the screen as first Puller and then Pine ran into the alley and vanished.
A minute went by and Pine visualized herself running down the alley, paralleling Puller’s movement from above. They had reached the end—the dead end, in many ways—of the alley.
Jerome had risen up from behind the trash cans. Pine had talked to him, tried to coax the gun from his hand. He had said what he had.
The next instant she heard the shot. The shot that had ended Jerome’s life. She visualized the surprised look on his face, and then his seemingly slow-motion descent to the alley floor. In reality he had dropped instantly.
But that dramatic vision was instantly overshadowed by something else, something both terrible and inexplicable.
Stunned, she looked over at Puller. His expression was granite, a knot in his jaw was flexing and unflexing.
She leaned over and whispered to Puller, “The cop who shot Jerome never appeared on the camera running into the alley.”
“No, he didn’t,” he replied in an equally low voice.
“Which means he was already in the alley.”
“Which means he was the one who killed Ed McElroy,” replied Puller.
Chapter 23
UNLIKE THAT NIGHT, it was quiet in the alley. With death came a stillness unlike any other, thought Pine. You could be in a crowded plaza teeming with the sounds of the masses, and a dead body would suck in all the noise around you and turn it into grim silence.
Puller and Pine bracketed Blum as they entered the space.
“The question is, where was the shooter hiding that we didn’t see him,” said Pine.
They walked to the end of the alley and noted the line of garbage cans, behind which Jerome Blake had been hiding. They glanced down at the bloodstains on the ground where he had been shot and died.
In those splotches Pine saw a young man who could have gone on to make the world a better place. Now he was lying in a morgue accused of a murder he had not committed. Something harsh and deep and unyielding burned in Pine’s gut. The world was filled with enough injustices every day to make you want to pull out your hair and scream at the country’s leaders to do something.
“You came down from the roof using that ladder,” noted Pine, coming out of her musings and speaking to Puller.
Puller eyed the same spot. “Right. Let’s run through what happened.”
Pine said, “The cop came running up after he shot Jerome. Said Jerome was getting ready to fire his gun. I told him I didn’t think so. He checked his pulse, then almost drew down on you when you came down the ladder.”
Puller took up the recollection. “He asked for our creds and we showed him. Then he said he was responding to your 911 call, which was clearly a lie, since he was already here.”
“You asked if he knew Jerome and he said no. He asked who the dead guy was back there, and you told him.”
“And he asked why a kid would be targeting an Army CID guy.”
“Then more cops showed up and things got frenetic,” said Pine. “We both got pulled away to make statements.”
“He was about six one and broad shouldered. Never really saw his face clearly. How about you?”
Pine took a moment to answer. “I’d definitely recognize the guy if I saw him again.”
“What happened to him?” asked Blum. “How did he get away?”
“I remember looking over at Jerome’s body and then gazing around the area. Puller was talking to a sergeant.”
“Right. He was in charge and jotting down notes and then he called in the tech team.”
Pine said, “Then I turned and looked back down the alley. I couldn’t swear to it, but I thought I saw the guy heading out. But there were a lot of uniforms around at that point.”
“Which made it the perfect disguise,” interjected Blum. “And also the only way you wouldn’t have jumped the guy and arrested him for shooting Jerome.”
Puller said, “He might have been a real cop. Which would make this situation even more of a nightmare. Did you see his name tag?”
“No. And I would have. I always look at that. Which means he wasn’t wearing one. Which should have been a dead giveaway that something was off,” said a sheepish Pine. “I blew it.”
“I think you can be forgiven for not noticing, Agent Pine,” said Blum.
“I can’t forgive myself, Carol. I’m trained to notice what other people don’t.” She thought for a moment. “His uniform looked legit, except for the name tag. He kept his cap on, so I don’t know if he had thinning hair or a bald spot. His forearms were pretty hairy. Like I said, I’d definitely recognize him if I saw him again.”
Puller looked behind them. “We just have to find out where his hidey-hole was.”
They walked back down the alley, taking it slow and looking at the blank walls. There were no doors or windows anywhere. No one could have come silently over the barbed wire that topped the locked gates going into the side alleys. A few spots looked to have once had either windows or doors but had either been bricked or boarded up. They checked these places and ensured that they were fully mortared or solidly nailed shut.
Puller said, “They probably closed up all the side alleys and nailed all these doors and windows shut to keep out drug users and prostitutes and burglars hiding their stash. Some of these buildings are abandoned or are being renovated. Big temptation for certain elements like that.”
“Could he have come via one of these roofs, like you did?” said Pine.
“He still would have had to access a building somewhere. And folks running across roofs are sort of conspicuous. I’d think he’d want to keep a lower profile, no pun intended.”
They walked back to near the mouth of the alley.
Pine said, “Jerome must have come into the alley earlier, before the video feed we saw.”
“But what made him do that?” asked Blum.
Pine took a few steps forward. The sounds of her boots hitting the ground changed slightly, from a thump to a hollow sounding clink.
She looked down at the manhole cover.
Puller followed her gaze. When they both looked up, each smiled resignedly.
Puller ran back to his car, grabbed the lug wrench from the trunk, and rejoined them. He inserted the shaped end of the wrench into the notch in the center of the cover and exerted leverage. The metal slowly gave way, and then Puller and Pine lifted it out and set it aside.
Pine pulled out her Tac light and shone it down into the hole.
“Carol, you stay up here while we check this out. We’ll text you with what we find.”