“I know,” I said. “I knew that when I called you. I just wanted to give you the information.”
“Which I appreciate,” he said. “I’m still gonna try to find T-Man and have a little one-on-one with him, let him know that you and I were orphans raised by the same pack of wolves and how I’d take it very personally if you so much as stubbed your toe anytime in the next few weeks.”
I chuckled and thanked him, and he promised to let me know if T-Man surfaced anywhere.
My last call was to Community Outreach. Tiffany answered the phone and transferred me back to Asaan’s office. For the third time that morning, I gave a brief description of my encounter with T-Man, et al.
“Shit,” said Asaan. “I can’t say I’m surprised. I been pushin’ both gangs to agree to a truce and a sit-down, and as usual, T-Man’s been the stumbling block. I talked to him yesterday, and it didn’t go well. He ended up walking out on me, tellin’ me there was never gonna be no truce between the Links and the Gates. As pissed off as he was, I can see him deciding to take out his anger on you. That’d be right up his alley.”
Then, after a pause, he added, “Listen, man, I’m sorry if I pushed this kid into comin’ after you. The little prick knows better than to start up with me, but that don’t mean he wouldn’t decide to go after you instead.”
“Don’t worry about it,” I said. “T-Man’s gonna do whatever he wants to do, no matter what anyone else says or does. I just wanted you to know about what happened. It’s bound to cause a few ripples for you.”
“Nothing I can’t handle, JB.”
“By the way,” I said, “if you find out where T-Man is, Paris Soloman would appreciate a heads-up.”
“He’ll get it,” said Asaan, and we hung up just as Denny rang my doorbell. When I stepped out onto my porch, he said, “I just talked to Todd. Everything’s cool.”
I nodded, and the two of us walked out to the sidewalk. Denny stood where I had stood earlier that day, and I knew he was visualizing the whole scene, running it through his mind like a movie. After a while, we sat on my front steps together.
“You get any sense this punk might take another run at you?” he asked.
“I don’t think he will,” I said. “From what Asaan Witherspoon told me, I think I was just a convenient target.”
“Target’s a target, JB, convenient or not.”
“Yeah,” I agreed. “There’s that.”
“You wanna stay at my place for a while? You’d have to learn better table manners, of course, but I’d try to be flexible on some of your other areas of deficiency.”
I laughed and said, “I appreciate the offer, Denny, but I think I’ll be okay here. Besides, the people in your neighborhood are probably sticklers about things like jogging in the nude, so that’d be a major issue right there.”
Denny grinned and shook his head.
“Okay,” he said. “You can stay here. I agree that T-Man’s probably not gonna be back. Just in case, though, how good is your alarm system?”
“Better than it used to be,” I said. “Irv came over a couple of months ago to give me some stuff he’d done to help me on a case. I’d been bragging about my security system, so he went outside and had me turn it on, and then it took him exactly thirty-three seconds to break in without triggering the alarm. The next day, he showed up with what he called enhancements to my system. I won’t bore you with the details, Denny, but suffice it to say that the 82nd Airborne wouldn’t be able to get in here without calling for reinforcements.”
“Okay,” said Denny. “Security by Irv. Check.”
He stood up and stretched, and I noticed that, as usual, Denny’s outfit was sans wrinkles.
“Hey,” I said, “your parents ever say anything to you about a long-lost brother, name of Louis?”
“JB,” said Denny, “I assume that somewhere in the gray sludge that passes for your mind, that question made some kind of sense, but not here on planet Earth.”
As he walked to his car, I saw that it was a BMW, but not his. This one was dark brown, which I suddenly realized was almost exactly the same shade as Denny’s sports coat.
“Jesus, Denny,” I said, “it’s one thing to match your tie to your suit. I’ve been known to do that. But please don’t tell me you’re now actually color-coordinating your clothes and your cars.”
“Of course not,” he said, as he opened the door to the car. “This is a loaner.” Then he paused for a minute and smiled. “But it’s something to think about. Catch ya later, son.”
“Hey, Denny,” I said. “Thanks again, for earlier.”
He nodded.
“Give her my best, JB.”
Chapter 40
As I pulled up and parked in front of Fairview Elementary School thirty minutes later, Todd Jeter’s squad car, which was parked across the street, did a U-turn and stopped side-by-side next to my Camry.
“Hey, JB,” he said, “how’re you doing?”
“I’m fine, Todd,” I said. “How are things with the kindergarten set?”
He smiled and said, “Spending a day with twenty-six five-year-olds is better than chasing bad guys, I guess, but only ‘cause the bad guys are armed. Otherwise, it’d be tough call.”
I laughed and said, “Thanks for your help, Todd. Laura and I both owe you.”
“Just doing my job, JB.” Then he grinned. “Oh, and by the way. That Ms. Fleming? Way too good for you.”
I smiled back at him and said, “Yeah, I hear that
