Devil's corner

Great minds. "Uh, well, I was going to meet Reheema this morning."

"Your friend from last night." Dan's face lengthened under his fresh shave. "What trouble did you two get into, anyway?"

"None, we just said hi." Vicki cheered up. "They were actually having a party in the neighborhood, and they're gonna keep the crack out. We actually helped them. That neighborhood will survive now, and Reheema's organizing it."

"Is that the truth?" Dan lifted an eyebrow, and Vicki made a decision.

"I'm not going to lie to you anymore. That's all we did. But we still don't know who killed her mother or why she was set up for the straw purchase, and I want to help her with that."

"Oh, you do."

"I was wondering what you thought, too, about something else. Can you listen without freaking out?" Vicki didn't wait for an answer. She had told him last night that she'd taken Toner's record from his briefcase, but she hadn't mentioned she'd taken the HIDTA charts of Ray James, too. Time to come clean. "I'd love to have my sounding board back."

"Go right ahead," Dan said, pouring them coffee, so Vicki accepted her mug and filled him in about her taking James's records and tracing her cell phone to Albertus. Dan wasn't smiling when she was finished. "So it's hired killers, now."

"Even I think I might be in over my head."

"But you're not gonna stop, are you?"

"Dan, Reheema ran down that kid for me, and he could have been armed, for all she knew. I owe her."

"No, you don't."

"Then it's the right thing to do." Vicki couldn't believe his stubbornness. "Even a crack addict is somebody's mother. This one was Reheema's. She deserves justice as much as Morty does, isn't that the point? Equal justice under the law?" Chief?

"Okay. You want my help?" Dan set his mug on the tile counter, with a ceramic clank. "Let's make a deal."

"What?" Vicki smelled another fake Vuitton.

"Let me handle it. I'll ask Strauss to make a phone call and get the Bristow homicide a top priority for the Philly cops. VIP treatment. They'll have time, now that the Toys ‘R' Us case is cleared. I also give him a heads-up, off the record, about Bethave and her son. See if he can get a patrol car on their block, keeping an eye out."

"Great!" Vicki felt better already, and Dan was already smiling at her the way he used to. Yesterday.

"In return, you and Reheema don't investigate hired killers. This really is a matter for the cops. You've done great legwork, but it's too risky to go further. Deal?"

"Deal." Vicki nodded. "Only one loose end. I still don't know why Shayla Jackson set Reheema up for the straw purchase. None of the busts yesterday explain that at all. I don't even know how Jackson knew Reheema."

"What's the difference, Vick?" Dan asked, with a weary smile. "Reheema is fine now, and the guy who killed your CI is in custody. No harm, no foul."

Vicki almost laughed. "Except that Reheema lost almost a year of her life in jail."

"If she had told us she had given the guns to her mother, she probably wouldn't have been charged."

"But her mother would have been. It's still a loose end."

"Life is full of loose ends. You can't know everything, babe." Dan smiled. "Now. You coming to work with me?"

"Not yet. I have something to do this morning."

"Not with Reheema?"

"Yes."

Dan laughed. "What now?"

Vicki told him, but she wasn't asking permission.

And, in the end, it wasn't given.

An hour later, the morning sun was climbing the clouds in the sky and Vicki was back driving the Cabrio, supplied with fresh coffee and newspapers. She'd have to return her rental fleet, but that was low priority today. Stopped in traffic, she read the newspaper headlines. TOYS "R" US GUNMAN IN FEDERAL CUSTODY, announced a banner on the Philadelphia Inquirer, while the local tab went with KID KILLER KAUGHT. Both papers had a short sidebar and bio on Morty, including a photo and quotes by Strauss. Neither newspaper had a sidebar on Shayla Jackson.

Vicki glanced up but traffic was still stalled, so she went back to reading. Both papers covered the stories every which way, including sidebars on the ATF SWAT team methods, new security measures in shopping malls, use of surveillance security cameras, and the crack cocaine trade. She paged to the Inquirer op-ed, where an editorial entitled IGNORED AT OUR PERIL emphasized the connection between the crack cocaine trade and random violence at toy stores. Vicki counted that as progress.

The traffic freed up, and she took off, and in no time entered Devil's Corner and turned onto Lincoln Street. The sawhorses were gone, but crushed paper cups, soiled napkins, and beer cans littered the street, and they were being picked up by a small cadre of neighbors carrying black trash bags. Reheema, in her pea coat, was one of the hardy few, and she dumped her Hefty bag in a can and waved good-bye to her neighbors when she spotted the Cabrio.

Vicki pulled up at the curb, leaned over, and opened the passenger door for Reheema, who looked like a new woman. Her hair was pulled back into a sleek ponytail, gold studs made bright dots in her ears, and a light swipe of pink gloss gave her full lips a shine.

"Wow, you look great!" Vicki said.

"No more disguises, thank God." Reheema folded herself into the passenger seat, and almost immediately the Cabrio interior filled with a lavender fragrance.

"You even smell great. I have a girl crush."

"I showered!" Reheema smiled. "I got heat, electric, and water."

"Party! We so love our utilities."

"We so do!"

"In fact, how about I buy the Intrepid, and you can pay me back when you get a job." Vicki felt flush, now that she had her job back. "Or you can have the Sunbird. I'm your vehicle, baby."

"I'll think about it, thanks a lot." Reheema grinned. "Now, where we goin'?"

"First, let me tell you what's going on with your mother's case." Vicki hit the gas and pulled away as she filled her in about the deal with Dan. Reheema nodded, listening with her head slightly inclined.

"So Dan the Man is gonna pull some strings?"

"He'll get the case VIP treatment, he said."

"We'll see what he comes up with, for the time being. I want to know who killed her."

"Of course," Vicki said, praying that Dan came through. "If the cops pick up this hired killer, that frees us to try to figure out why Jackson set you up."

"Wonder if they're connected."

Vicki looked over and almost ran the red light. "Think out loud."

"What?"

"Tell me what you're thinking. Maybe we can figure it out together. I do it all the time."

"I never do."

Vicki smiled. "Go ahead. Try."

Reheema paused. "Okay, well, it's just that Jackson framed me, about a year ago, and then somebody killed my mother. It's like a puzzle, and if you just look at that one piece, it kinda makes you think somebody doesn't like the Bristows."

Vicki blinked. "True. Any ideas?"

"If my dad weren't dead already, I woulda thought of him, first."

Vicki kept her own counsel. It made her family issues look like comic relief. "Any other relatives?"

"No, just her and me, long as I can remember. I had an uncle but he's gone, too."

"What about that boyfriend you mentioned?"

"Gone and married."

"I'd wonder about the FDC, but the timing's wrong, you were set up before."