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“It’s down,” Pellegrini told him.
“What?”
“I locked up two suspects over the weekend.”
Ceruti couldn’t believe it. The Green case was nothing out of the ordinary, a straight drug murder with no initial witnesses or physical evidence. Given a new detective as a primary, it was precisely the kind of case that everyone expected to stay open.
Pellegrini solved it by legwork alone, by bringing in people and talking to them for hours on end. He soon found that he had the temperament for long interrogations, a patience that even the other detectives found exasperating. With his slow, laconic ma
He thought it was a victory, at least, until Latonya Wallace showed up dead in that alley. For the first time in a long while, Pellegrini began to question his own ability, deferring to Landsman and Edgerton, allowing the more experienced investigators to chart the course.
This was understandable; after all, he had never handled a true red ball. But the blend of personalities, of individual styles, also contributed to Pellegrini’s doubt. Landsman was not only loud and aggressive but supremely confident as well, and when he worked a case he tended to become its center, drawing other detectives toward him by centripetal force. Edgerton, too, was the picture of confidence, quick to put his ideas forward or argue with Landsman about one theory or another. Edgerton had the New York attitude, the i
Pellegrini was different. He had his ideas about the case, to be sure, but his ma
It will be months before Pellegrini begins to chastise himself for being so unassertive. But eventually the same thoughts that plagued him at the crime scene-the feeling that he is not completely in control of his case-will bother him again. Latonya Wallace was a red ball, and a red ball brings the whole shift into a case for better or worse. Landsman, Edgerton, Garvey, McAllister, Eddie Brown-all of them had a hand in the pie, all of them were intent on turning over the stone that would reveal a child killer. True, they were covering a lot of ground that way, but in the end, it wouldn’t have Landsman’s or Edgerton’s or Garvey’s name on the case file.
Landsman is definitely right about one thing: Pellegrini is tired. They all are. That night, as the fifth day of the investigation ends, every one of them leaves the office at 3:00 A.M. knowing they will be back in five hours and knowing, too, that the sixteen-and twenty-hour shifts they have been working since Thursday are not going to end soon. The obvious, unspoken question is how long can they keep it up. Dark ridges have already become fixed below Pellegrini’s eyes, and whatever sleep the detective does get is often punctuated by nocturnal declarations from his second son, now three months old. Never much on appearances as a plainclothesman, Landsman is now shaving every other day, and his attire has spiraled down from sport coats to wool sweaters to leather jackets and denims.
“Hey, Jaybird,” McLarney tells Landsman the following morning, “you look a little beat.”
“I’m okay.”
“How’s it going? Anything new?”
“This one’ll go down,” says Landsman.
But in truth, there is little cause for optimism. The red binder on Pellegrini’s desk, number 88021, has grown thick with canvass reports, criminal histories, office reports, evidence submission slips and handwritten statements. The detectives have canvassed the entire block surrounding the alley and are begi
“That’s what’s killing us,” Landsman tells them. “He knows more than we do.”
Edgerton, for one, is aware of the long odds.
On Tuesday, the night after they jack up the old drunk, Edgerton finds himself at a red brick Baptist church on upper Park Avenue, around the corner from Newington, walking slowly through the stifling heat of a packed sanctuary. The small coffin, off-white with gold trim, is at the far end of the center aisle. The detective makes his way to the front of the church, then hesitates for a moment, touching the corner of the casket with his hand before turning to face the front row of mourners. He takes the mother’s hand and bends down, his voice a whisper.
“When you pray tonight, please say a prayer for me,” he tells her. “We’re going to need it.”
But the woman’s face is broken, empty. She nods abstractedly, her eyes washing over the detective to fix again on the floral arrangement in front of her. Edgerton walks to the side of the church and stands with his back to the wall, eyes closed more from fatigue than spiritual conviction, listening to the deep, gospel tones of the young minister:
“… though I walk through the valley of the shadow… and I heard a loud voice from the throne saying… no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”
Listening to the city’s mayor, whose voice breaks as he stumbles through his words:
“To the family and friends… I, uh… this is a terrible tragedy, not only for your family… for the entire city… Latonya was Baltimore ’s child.”
Listening to the U.S. Senator:
“… the poverty, the ignorance, the greed… all the things that kill little girls… she was an angel to us all, the angel of Reservoir Hill.”
Listening to small, brief details of a child’s life:
“… attended this school from age three until the present time with a perfect attendance record… such involvements as student council, school choir, modern dance, majorette… Latonya’s goal was to become a great dancer.”
Listening to a eulogy, to reasons that never sounded more hollow, more empty: