High Noon

Johnson’s lost both her sons. Her children are dead. The first, that’s not on us, at least not on the surface. We found and arrested the man who killed him. Would we have done so as quickly, even at all, if Charlie hadn’t gone into that liquor store yesterday? I don’t know the answer. That troubles me.”
    “I don’t know it either, but I do the best job I can. So do you. We save who we can, Phoebe, one crisis at a time.”
    “Maybe.” She picked up one of the chips that came with her sandwich, broke it into pieces. “I told him it was going to be all right. If he came out, it would be all right.”
    “You didn’t make a mistake. It should have been all right. He should be in custody now, with his public defender working to cut a deal with the prosecutor. The mistake was in Tactical, and we’ll find it. Every minute of the incident is going to be investigated. Every move, every order. Meanwhile, there’s the anger of the community, the public relations nightmare and the very real problem of keeping this from boiling over into riots and burning. You’ll be giving a press conference this afternoon, along with the tactical commander. You’ll each read a brief statement and answer questions. It’ll be short, and it’s necessary.”
    “And it provides a visual. I’m a white woman, the commander’s a black man.” She lifted a hand before he could speak. “I’m not discounting the fact that the visual doesn’t matter nearly as much as the statements. I’ll do my part. What time?”
    “Three.”
    She nodded. “All right. That’ll give me time to go over to Hitch. I want to see the crime scenes. Both of them.”
     
    She stood at the window where the shots had been fired, verified now by the crime-scene investigative team. It was a narrow window, casement style, on the second floor of a building diagonal from the liquor store.
    According to the reports, the fifteen-unit apartment building had been evacuated, and SWAT team members stationed on the roof and on the third floor. As it was within the inner perimeter, no civilians should have been in or around the building.
    But it wouldn’t be the first time a perimeter had been compromised.
    The sniper would have had a decent view and angle from there, Phoebe judged. Better on the roof, better on the third floor, but decent from here.
    Especially if the intent was to take down an unarmed man who would step into clear view. Oh yeah, not so hard to hit the target when the target was standing still, hands in the air. All that body mass just open and waiting to be riddled.
    “Tenant’s a Reeanna Curtis, single.” Detective Sykes spoke from behind her. “Two kids, boy age five, girl age three. No criminal. They were outside the barricade at the time of the shooting. Witnesses verify. Her boyfriend was at work at the time. Also verified.”
    Phoebe nodded. “I read her statement. She said a cop came to the door, ordered her out, hustled them along. Cops swarming through the building, according to her, and all over the place outside. She got out with her kids, straight to her sister’s place a few blocks over.
    “She doesn’t remember if she locked the door. Can’t clearly remember if she even closed the door. Said it all happened so fast, and she was scared.”
    “Somebody else is getting hustled out,” Sykes speculated, “but doesn’t want to miss the show. Dips in here.”
    “Armed?” Phoebe turned back. “Whoever came in, unless we suspect the single mother with two preschoolers kept an AK-47 in the broom closet, he came in loaded. And if it wasn’t target specific, why not take out a big bunch of cops?”
    “There are Lords members in the building, plenty more in this block. They’ll all get a close look.”
    Didn’t make Charlie any less dead, Phoebe thought. Then pulled herself in. It wasn’t about that any longer, that was done. Now it was about fixing what had gone wrong.
    “How did the shooter know Charles Johnson, specifically, was inside?” Phoebe wandered the cramped, cluttered apartment.
    “Maybe not specific. Just a Posse was inside.”
    “All right, how did he know that? Did he see Charlie go in—he was wearing his colors. Timeline puts him inside for nearly ten minutes before the first response. And that came quick because one of the tenants in the building next door to the liquor store called in gunfire. She states she saw him crossing the street a few minutes before the first shot.”
    “Shooter sees him, or