Brown, Kling, and the police artist interviewed four
teen people that Tuesday morning. Only one of them— Steve Carella—was a trained observer, but even he had
difficulty describing the two shooters who'd marched
into the pizzeria at ten minutes past nine the day before.
Of all the witnesses who'd been there at the time, only
two blacks and four whites remembered anything at all
about the men. The white witnesses found it hard to say
what the black shooter had looked like. If they'd been
asked to tell the difference between Morgan Freeman,
Denzel Washington, Eddie Murphy, and Mike Tyson,
there'd have been no problem. Maybe. But when the police artist asked them to choose from representative eyes, noses, mouths, cheeks, chins, and foreheads, all at once all black men looked alike. Then again, they might have had similar difficulty describing an Asian suspect.
In the long run—like many other decisions in America—the result was premised on race. The blacks had better luck describing the black suspect, and the whites had better luck with the white one. The detectives were less than satisfied with what the artist finally
Ed McBam
delivered. They felt the composite sketches were
well . . . sketchy at best.
When Carella and Meyer walked in late that Tuesday
morning, Fat Ollie Weeks was sitting alone in a booth
at the rear of the diner, totally absorbed in his breakfast.
Acknowledging their presence with a brief nod, Ollie
stabbed a sausage with his fork and hoisted it immediately
to his mouth. A ribbon of egg yolk dribbled from the sausage onto Ollie's tie, where it joined a medley of other crusted and hardened remnants of breakfasts, lunches, and dinners devoured in haste. Ollie always ate as if expecting an imminent famine. He picked up his cup, swallowed a huge gulp of coffee, and then smiled in satisfaction and at last looked across the table at the two visiting cops. He did not offer his hand; cops rarely shook hands with each other, even during social encounters.
'So what brings you up here?' he asked.
'The murder yesterday,' Carella said.
'What murder?' Ollie asked. Here in Zimbabwe West, as he often referred to his beloved Eighty-eighth Precinct, there were murders every day of the week, every minute of the day.
'An informer named Danny Gimp,' Carella said.
'I know him,' Ollie said.
'Two shooters marched into Guide's Pizzeria while
we were having a conversation,' Carella said.
'Maybe they were after you,' Ollie suggested.
'No, I'm universally well-liked,' Carella said. 'They
were after Danny, and they got him.'
'Where's Guide's?'
'Culver and Sixth.'
'That's your turf, man.'
'Lewiston isn't.'
'Okay, I'll bite.'
'A pal of Danny's was in a poker game a week ago
Saturday,' Meyer said. 'On Lewiston Avenue.'
'Met a hitter from Houston who later treated him to a little booze, a little pot, some casual sex, and a strip of
roofers.'
'Uh-huh,' Ollie said, and signaled to the waitress.
'So what's that got to do with me?'
'Lewiston is up here in the Eight-Eight.'
'So? I'm supposed to know every shitty little card
game in the precinct?' Ollie said. 'Give me another toasted onion bagel with cream cheese,' he told the waitress. 'You guys want anything?'
'Just coffee,' Meyer said.
'The same,' Carella said.
'You got that?' Ollie asked the waitress, who nodded
and walked off toward the counter. 'You think this card game's gonna lead you to the shooters?'
'No, we think it's gonna lead us to the hitter from
Houston.'
'World's just full of hitters these days, ain't it?' Ollie
said philosophically. 'You think your Houston hitter and
the two pizzeria shooters are connected?'
'No.'
'Then what are you . . . ?'
'Don't you work in the Eight-Three?' the waitress
asked, and put down Ollie's bagel and the two coffees.
'I used to work in the Eight-Three,' Ollie said. 'I got
transferred.'
'You want more coffee?'
'Ah, yes, m'dear,' Ollie said, doing his world-famous
W. C. Fields imitation. 'If it's not too much trouble, ah, yes.'
'You like it here better than the Eight-Three?' the
waitress asked, pouring.
'I like it better wherever you are, m'little chickadee.'
'Sweet talker,' she said, and smiled and walked off,
shaking her considerable booty.
'People ask me that all the time,' Ollie said. 'Don't
you work in the Eight-Three? As if I don't know where
the fuck I work. As if I'm making a fuckin mistake about where I work. The world's full of people playin Gotchal They got nothin to do with their time but look for mistakes. Ain't your middle name Lloyd? Hell, no, it's Wendell. Oliver Wendell Weeks, I don't know my own fuckin middle name? If I told you once it was Lloyd or Frank or Ralph, I was lying, it was all part of my fuckin cover.'
A faint effluvial odor seemed to rise from Ollie whenever he became agitated, as he was now. Ignoring his own bodily emanations, he picked up the bagel and bit into it, his gnashing teeth unleashing a gush of cream cheese that spilled onto the right lapel of his jacket.
'Has this guy got a name?' he asked. 'The fag was
in the card game with your hitter?'
'Harpo,' Carella said.
'Works at the First Bap?' Ollie said.
Both detectives looked at him.
'Only Harpo I know up here,' Ollie said. 'I'm surprised he was in a card game, though. If it's the same guy.'