“DA must have wanted Copeland bad for them to give Tyler witness protection.”
“Copeland comes from a long line of drug dealers. His uncles, cousins-all dealers. DA thought if he could flip Copeland that he could get his suppliers.”
“Fuckin’ DA.”
“What can I say; it was an election year.”
“Anything else you wanna tell me?”
“On my sainted mother, that’s the whole story,” Sanchez said and crossed himself.
“Okay, but that doesn’t explain why you guys don’t have anything on this woman?”
“No, Kirk, it doesn’t. But I got some ideas about that.”
“Like what?” I had to ask.
“Give me a couple of days and ask me that again,” Sanchez said and sipped his coffee.
Just then I got a text from Reyes saying that he had ID’s on this morning’s victims. “That was Reyes,” I said and started walking back across the street toward the building.
“Mind if I tag along?” Sanchez said and I stopped.
“I hate to ask this, Gene, we go back a long way, but I gotta. What’s your interest here?”
“Let’s get out of the street,” Sanchez said and I had to agree. When we were back on the sidewalk, Sanchez stopped and faced me. “I know you’re thinking, just like I am, that the only way for this to be going on is for somebody blue to be taking green. This is my house, my guys; I need to get on top of it.”
“This is the part I don’t like. You’re not here to cover this up, are you?”
“I know you gotta ask, but a cop’s family getting his pension is one thing, covering for dirty cops is something else.”
“Good enough for me. Let’s go,” I said and went into the building.
“Right behind-partner.”
When we talked to Reyes and he gave us the names and rap sheets of the other three bodies. Robert King and Bernard “Blade” Bradshaw both had long records for possession and firearms violations, but the one that bothered me was the woman that was found in the vacant apartment. Her name was Shantia Lewis. All we had on her was a shoplifting charge and that was eight years old. We got her last known address from the DMV and headed over there.
What we found when we got there was police tape. “See if you can find out what happened here,” I said to Sanchez and got out of the car. I went under the tape and walked toward the house. As I got closer, I could see the chalk outline and the bloodstain on the pavement.
When I got back in the car, Sanchez had the rundown. “Her name was LeSean Wooden. Her and Lewis were roommates. Witnesses say that after they heard the shots, they saw three people lead Lewis away at gunpoint, and drive off in an old Chevy Nova.”