Earth Angels (27 page)

"Any hits?"

"Nope. The people in the apartment said they were sleeping on the floor. There are no clues, if that's what you came here to find out. This is just another gang drive by shooting."

"Who do you think is responsible?"

"For the shooting?" Candi Forest said.

"For the shooting."

"Probably some gang just shouting White Fence to throw off the investigators: a false clue," Candi Forest said, arranging notes on her clipboard. "Look, I'm busy now. Why don't you just pick up a copy of my report tomorrow?"

"Sorry to bother you," Stepanovich said, gritting his teeth.

Officer Forest lifted her well-painted eyebrows again and folded her arms defensively across her flat, bulletproofed chest.

Stepanovich made his way up the stairs to Greenie's apartment. The door was open and, inside, the glass from the shattered window littered the living room floor. Greenie, wearing only khaki trousers, was standing in the middle of the room angrily whispering in Spanish with Loco and Gato, a couple of dissipated, similarly dressed Mexicans whom he recognized immediately as Eighteenth Street gang members. They stopped talking as he entered.

"Who was it?" Stepanovich said.

Greenie looked at the others. "We ain't got no idea, man. It was a drive by."

"You wouldn't tell me even if you'd gotten a look at them, right?"

"We ain't no fucking stool pigeons."

"Try to stay cool," Stepanovich said, thinking it sounded like something he might say if in fact there really had been a gang related shooting. "This neighborhood has enough problems without another drive by shooting." The gang members just stared at him with dumb looks on their faces, and for a moment Stepanovich wished the rounds he and the others had fired through the window had killed them all.

He sauntered back down the stairs and followed a cement path along the side of the apartment building to the alley. He looked about to be sure no one was watching, then took out a pen and pad, and noted the license numbers of those vehicles parked nearby he thought might belong to the gangbangers he'd seen inside Greenie's apartment. He knew any gang member's car might be used in a drive by shooting at some time or another.

As he was returning to his car, Harger pulled up to the curb in a full sized Mercury sedan with a whip antenna and a cellular phone. He climbed out. "What's up?"

"No hits."

"Does it look like White Fence?"

Stepanovich smiled. "It looks like 'em, all right. The shooters were driving a black Chevy with smoked windows."

"But Payaso's car is at Sparky's impound yard."

"I said, it looks like them."

Harger furrowed his brow. "I don't get it."

"It looks like White Fence, but it may have been ... another gang."

Harger stood there for a moment, watching the apartment house. A look of understanding crossed his face. "I see."

"But there's no doubt that Eighteenth thinks it was White Fence. Therefore, they'll ride, probably to Payaso's house. There'll be trouble."

"And you'll be staked out there."

"It's the only way to gain the element of surprise," Stepanovich said.

Harger licked his lips. "Then I'm all for it."

"I want you to know that if we're there and shooting starts, some White Fence people are gonna get killed."

Harger's hand clamped Stepanovich's shoulder. "The Chief wants them finished off. I want them finished off."

"We may need to rent a room nearby for an observation post."

"The Department will pay for it."

"We need your support on this," Stepanovich said.

"You have it. Go for it. Go."

****

TWENTY

Back at the Rumor Control Bar, Stepanovich found Black and Arredondo sitting at the same booth. As he sat down, they watched him anxiously.

"Don't just sit there," Arredondo said.

Stepanovich smiled. "It worked. Greenie and his homeboys saw Payaso's car. They'll ride."

Both Black and Arredondo laughed as they slapped Stepanovich on the shoulder. Arredondo signaled Brenda for another round of drinks. She pursed her lips into kisses to acknowledge the order.

"My guess is they'll hit Payaso's house," Stepanovich said.

Black leaned close. "What makes you so sure they'll hit there rather than shoot up Hazard Park or do a drive by somewhere else in White Fence turf?" he said in a conspiratorial tone.

"They saw Payaso's car so Payaso's definitely in the bull's eye. "

"He's right, C.R.," Arredondo said.

Black laughed." And since the White Fence homies aren't responsible for the drive by they won't be expecting anything."

"It's what Eighteenth thinks White Fence thinks that's important," Arredondo said.

"Actually, it's what we think that's important," Stepanovich said. "Because when they make their move, we're going to be there to finish all of 'em."

"Did we hit anyone on the drive by?" Black said, tearing open a fresh pack of Camels.

"No hits."

"Too bad.

"Setting up on Ortega Street isn't going to be easy," Arredondo said.

"There's an apartment complex across the street from Payaso's house," Stepanovich said. "I saw a vacancy sign when I drove by."

Brenda came from the bar carrying a tray of drinks. "You guys are so quiet this evening," she said. "But I guess it's not the same without "

"Sit down for a minute, Brenda," Stepanovich said.

Looking pleased at the request, she slid in next to Black, her abalone shell halter-top knocking against the edge of the table.

"Brenda, would you be willing to help us on something?"

She looked at the three of them suspiciously. "I'm not going to go down on another woman so you guys can watch. I just don't get anything out of it."

"It's nothing like that. We want you to help us on a case. "

"Which case?"

"We can't tell you, but it's an important case and it has something to do with catching the people that killed Fordyce."

"This is for real?"

Stepanovich nodded. Glancing at everyone at the table, Brenda could see they were serious. "I don't want to get in trouble."

"What we want you to do is perfectly legal. The only thing we ask is that you never tell anyone about it. Ever. "

"If it's not illegal, I'll help."

"As long as you keep your mouth shut, you'll have nothing to worry about."

She giggled. "I always wanted to be a cop."

Early the next morning, Stepanovich waited at Manuel's taco stand while Black and Arredondo made intermittent passes by Greenie's apartment in an unmarked sedan. They were supposed to notify him immediately if there was any movement from the location.

Brenda arrived shortly after ten and pulled her twelve-year old Mazda into a parking space in back. She walked to the patrol car and climbed in the passenger side. She was wearing a faded flower print dress. He was thankful she proved to have enough sense to wear something other than her seashell halter for her undercover assignment.

She handed him a rental application and a key attached with a piece of string to a tag that read: "APARTMENT 13." "The landlady barely spoke English. She looked at me real funny at first when I asked her about renting the apartment, but things eased up when I signed a Mexican name on the application. I think she figured I was married to a Mexican. But everything was OK the moment I showed the cash you gave me for the down payment."

"Good work, Brenda."

"You're so serious today," she said mockingly. "She thought it was great when I told her my brother and some of his friends were going to be over to paint the place before I moved in."

"You did fine."

"I should have been a cop. In fact, I signed up to take the civil service test once, but I forgot and went the wrong day. Do you want me to do anything else?"

"That's about it, thanks again."

Brenda placed her hand firmly on his thigh. "I've always liked you better than the others," she said. "You're shy. It's cute when a guy is shy."

"I have to be on my way."

"If you want it right now, you don't have to be shy," she said without looking him in the eye.

"Thanks anyway, Brenda, but I've gotta run."

"You have a girlfriend, don't you?"

Stepanovich nodded.

Brenda smiled wryly. "I can always tell when a guy has a girlfriend."

He shrugged. At that moment, perhaps because it was morning and he was used to seeing her in the dim light of the Rumor Control Bar, Brenda suddenly seemed much older. Her crow's feet, the few wiry gray hairs interwoven through her ponytail, and the light spray of aging freckles across her nose and cheekbones seemed to stand out. In the daytime she seemed dumpy, lonely.

Like the other women who hung out at the Rumor Control Bar, she viewed her own life as a series of uncontrollable events hammering her mercilessly. In her case, it was a couple of completely wrong men. Her first husband, a compulsive gambler, lost their house and all their furniture. Her second husband abused her and kidnapped her daughter when they split up. A few months later, the child was killed in an automobile accident and the husband was sent to jail.

Stepanovich felt sorry for her and even before he'd met Gloria, had avoided her offer of sexual favors, except when he was particularly horny.

"Just forget you rented the apartment," he said.

She pinched him on the cheek. "If you guys can't trust good ol' Brenda, who can you trust?" She climbed out of the car and headed toward the Mazda.

Stepanovich lifted the radio microphone from the hook on the dashboard and pressed the transmit button. "CRASH three four to five and nine. I'm ten-seven at the greenhouse." The word "greenhouse" was a code he'd arranged earlier with Black and Arredondo meaning they should meet at Manuel's.

An hour later, Black and Arredondo were downing a box of Manuel's tacos while Stepanovich sipped Coke from a paper cup.

"Brenda handled getting the apartment real well," he said.

"She probably ate the landlord," Arredondo said with his mouth full.

"If we come and go from the place, the neighbors are going to get suspicious," Stepanovich said.

"I have painter's overalls and buckets," Black said. "We go in like we're to put on a coupla coats of latex. "

"Good idea."

Arredondo pulled napkins from a metal dispenser on the table and roughly wiped his mouth. "And since there's no telling how long we're gonna be in there, we'll need some chow."

"Johnson's market," Black said. "The night manager, Javier, likes cops. He's good for all the lunch meat and bread we can carry out."

Arredondo finished his Coke. "Get a jar of mayonnaise. I can't eat a dry sandwich "

"We need some heavy iron for this caper," Stepanovich said.

Black's eyes fit up. Smiling proudly, he led the others to his police sedan and unlocked the trunk. Inside, laid out neatly on an olive drab blanket in military inspection style, were two well- oiled Uzi submachine guns, an Ithaca pump shotgun, and a case of ammunition. "I signed out the tommy guns from the metro division armory."

"What did you put on the equipment roster?" Stepanovich asked.

"Possible warrant service. There's always an arrest warrant we could say we were thinking about serving."

The next few hours were spent returning cars to the motor pool, buying groceries, and procuring the rest of the necessary equipment, including bullet proof vests, binoculars, and radios.

At his apartment, Stepanovich searched through his carport storage box and found his Army duffel bag, figuring it as the perfect camouflage for the weapons when entering the apartment. He tossed the bag in the trunk of the police sedan, then checked his watch. It was almost four, an hour before Gloria would go on duty at the hospital. He climbed in his car and drove straight to her apartment.

As he drove up, he spotted her in the parking lot walking toward her car. He pulled up next to her and climbed out. They embraced.

"You took worried," Gloria said.

"I have a lot on my mind right now, but I wanted to catch you before you went to work."

"What is it?"

"I want you to pass some information to White Fence," he said, forcing himself to maintain eye contact.

"I don't understand," she said fearfully.

"Eighteenth is planning to ride on White Fence. Soon. "

A look of confusion came over her. "After what happened, I don't understand why you would "

"I love you," he interrupted. "Do you love me?"

"You know I do."

"I'm asking you to simply pass on some information," Stepanovich said. "Will you do this for me?"

"I don't want anyone else to get hurt."