Mercedes-Benz SL600.
“It looks like he’s coming in here!” Amal al Zaid said.
“Why would a heavy hitter hood like that come in a dump like this?” O’Hara asked rhetorically.
Lieutenant Jason Washington walked through the restaurant, slid onto the banquette seat beside O’Hara, quickly shook hands with O’Hara and Harris, and then smiled cordially at Amal al Zaid.
“Thank you for coming,” he said. “I really appreciate your time.”
Amal al Zaid said nothing.
“I’m Lieutenant Washington,” Jason said, oozing charm.
He had told Tony Harris to ask the witness to meet them in the Roy Rogers in the belief he would be more comfortable there than he would have been, for example, in the Homicide unit in the Roundhouse.
Amal al Zaid said nothing.
“Actually, I’m Detective Harris’s-Tony’s-supervisor.”
“You’re a cop?” Amal al Zaid asked, incredulously.
“I realize that dressed like this-I’m going to sort of a party with my wife…” He paused, and then asked, “What did Mr. O’Hara tell you about me?”
“He said you just got out,” Amal al Zaid said.
“Actually, sir,” Tony Harris said. “The phrases Mr. O’Hara used were ‘fifteen to twenty’ and ‘heavy hitter hood.’ ”
Washington came out with his badge and photo ID, and showed it to Amal al Zaid.
“Mr. O’Hara is an old friend,” he said. “Despite a well-earned reputation for a really weird sense of humor.”
“I’m weird?” O’Hara asked. “You’re the first man in recorded history to walk into a Roy Rogers in a waiter suit.”
“It’s not a waiter suit, you ignoramus.”
“It looks like a waiter suit to me,” Mickey said. “What about you-Double-A Zee?”
Amal al Zaid giggled and nodded his head in agreement.
“Are you going to take our order, or is there something else Double-A Zee and I can do for the cops?” Mickey asked.
Amal al Zaid giggled again.
“Do you mind if he calls you that?” Washington asked.
Amal al Zaid shook his head, “no.”
“Can I call you that?”
“Sure.”
“Thank you,” Washington said. “Okay, Double-A Zee, let me tell you where we are in finding the people who murdered Mrs. Martinez and Officer Charlton.” He paused.
Amal al Zaid looked at him expectantly.
“Just about nowhere,” Washington said, finally.
“How come?” Amal al Zaid asked.
Washington shrugged.
“We’ve done-and are still doing-everything we can think of. We’re going to get them eventually. But the sooner we do, the sooner we can get them off the streets, the sooner they won’t be able to do the same sort of thing again. We don’t want any more people to die.”
Amal al Zaid nodded his understanding.
“An investigation is something like taking an automobile trip,” Washington said. “You can make a wrong turn and wind up in Hoboken when you really want to be in Harrisburg. I’m beginning to suspect that we’ve made a wrong turn, early on, and this is what this is all about.
“What we have here, where this trip began, are the only two witnesses who seem to know what they’re talking about; the only two who kept their cool in terrifying circumstances-”
“I was scared shitless,” Amal al Zaid corrected him.
“Make that two of us,” O’Hara said.
Amal al Zaid looked at him with gratitude.
“Who kept their cool in terrifying circumstances,” Washington repeated, “the proof of which, Double-A Zee, is your behavior in this from the beginning. And Mr. O’Hara’s attempt to take a photograph when they came out of the restaurant-”
“Attempt’s the right word,” Mickey said. “All I got is an artsy fartsy silhouette.”
Washington ignored the comment.
“So what we’re going to do now,” he went on, “is start from the beginning, once again, to see where we took the wrong turn. We’re going to do this very slowly, to see where what you saw agrees with what Mickey saw, or where it disagrees. Detective Harris”-he pointed to a huge salesman’s case on the banquette seat beside Harris-“has brought with him records and reports that he and others have compiled that he thinks will be useful. We’re going to see if what you and Mickey saw agrees or disagrees with what other people saw, or thought they saw, and if it disagrees, how it disagrees. You still with me, Double-A Zee?”
“Yeah, I got it.”
“If either you or Mickey thinks of something-anything- or if you have a question while we’re doing this, speak up. I’ll do the same. Okay?”
O’Hara and Amal al Zaid nodded their understanding.
“Let’s get some more coffee,” Washington said, waving for the attention of the shift manager, who was hovering nearby to see what he could see, “and then Tony can begin.”
Tony Harris took a sheaf of paper from the salesman’s case, took off a paper clip, and divided it into four.
“This is the chronology as I understand it,” he said, as he slid copies to Washington, O’Hara, and Amal al Zaid.
“We know for sure that Mrs. Martinez called 911 at eleven-twenty P.M. We have that from Police Radio. And we know that at eleven-twenty-one, Police Radio dispatched Officer Charlton. So I sort of guessed the time of the events before that.”
He waited until the shift manager had delivered a tray with coffee.
“If I get any of these details wrong, Double-A Zee, even if it doesn’t seem important,” Harris said, “speak up. Same for you, Mickey.”
Both nodded again.
“Okay. Sequence of events,” Harris said. “Double-A Zee was standing there”-he pointed-“mopping the floor, when he saw the doers come into the restaurant. How long had you been there, Double-A Zee, when they came in?”
“A couple of minutes.”
“A couple is two. Maybe several?”
“I keep the mop bucket right inside the kitchen door,” Amal al Zaid said. “What happened was when I cleaned the table-”
“This table?” Harris interrupted.
“Yeah. I see that the people who’d left had knocked a cup of coffee-what was left of one-on the floor. So I went in the kitchen, got the mop and bucket, and come back. It wasn’t a big spill, but it was right in front of the kitchen door-”
“The one on the left?” Harris interrupted.
“Yeah. The Out one, they come through with full trays and they couldn’t see the spill.”
“I understand,” Harris said.
“So I figured I better clean it up quick, and I did.”
“And you’d been there a couple, like two, minutes and the doers came in?”
“Right.”
“Why did you notice, Double-A Zee?” Washington asked.
“Excuse me?”
“You were mopping the floor, paying attention to doing that. Why did you notice these two?”
