“What’s wrong,” he asked.
“Nothing. I’m just tired. I’m probably going to go to bed early tonight.”
She sounded weary. He tried not to read too much into it. She was likely just tired and it was coming across as more than that, but he really felt like there was something else.
“Did anything else happen, Lucy?”
There was silence on the other end and then a sigh. “Maybe,” she said.
“What?”
“It’s nothing. There’s a car that keeps parking down the street. A man sits in it, maybe waiting for someone to come out. I don’t know. I’ve seen him before, but today he really scared me.”
“Scared you how?”
She relayed the incident to him and again told him it was likely nothing.
“I’m coming over there,” he said.
“No. Ryan. Please. I just need some rest and he’s gone now.”
“I’d just feel better,” he protested.
“I just need to get some rest. I’ll call you tomorrow.”
“Well, I’ll at least check with the station and see if they are doing surveillance on anyone down there. Chances are he might be a cop keeping an eye out for someone.”
“Okay, Ryan. I’m going to go now. I’ll talk to you later.”
He didn’t miss the fact that her “tomorrow” had become a vague “later” but he said nothing about it. Instead he said goodbye and ended the call, tossing his phone onto the counter in frustration. After a few minutes, he picked it back up and called the station, asking for a friend in the investigations unit and explaining that a friend had someone who might be undercover parked across from her house.
“I don’t need the details. I just need to know if you have anyone hanging out there or if I need to check into it further for her.”
“Give me the address.”
Ryan rattled off her address to him, but told him it could be any house within view of hers as she said the man was parked across and slightly down the street.
“Alright, I’ll check into it and get back to you as soon as I can.”
“Thanks,” Ryan told him, ending the call.
When he returned to the station the next day, there was a note on his desk with a cryptic message that simply read, “no surveillance in that area.”
Maybe she was right and it was nothing Ryan told himself, but he wasn’t certain and he didn’t like that. He logged onto his computer and pulled up the database of people listed on her street, selecting only those on her end of the street and checking each of them for records. Most of them were clean. As she had told him before, it was a mostly geriatric neighborhood, but there was one guy who had priors as a low level dealer. Though there were no open investigations, Ryan decided to pay him a visit himself after work.
“Charlie Downfield. There’s a blast from the past,” a voice said from behind him.
He turned to see Tate standing over his shoulder, looking at the screen. He quickly clicked off the old mugshot in the file and turned to sideways to look at his partner.
“Don’t creep up on people you sneaky old bastard,” he joked.
“Don’t steal the little joy I have left, kid,” Tate retorted. “What are you looking at ole’ Chuckles for? He roll over a baby or something?”
“What?” Ryan replied, not understanding the reference at all.
“Lost his legs to a train. Developed a habit of his own after all the drugs they pumped into him for the pain. He’s pretty much a vegetable these days. The state has to take care of him, sends someone in several times a day to make sure he eats some pureed food and to clean him up if he shits himself.”
Ryan nodded. It might even explain the man in the car outside if they were driving someone over to check on him and then just waiting for that person to come back out. If nothing else, it eliminated any reason for surveillance. So, either the man in the car was there to watch Lucy or to wait for someone else. He decided it might be in both their best interests to find out for certain.
“He lives in a friend’s neighborhood. I guess his help is getting dropped off and the man waiting on her creeped a few folks out,” he said, not wanting to admit it was just one person, the one he’d been seeing.
“Hardly anything that concerns us,” Tate replied.
“Just a favor for a friend sort of thing. Told them I’d check who lives there. It makes sense now.”
“Ah, okay. You ready to hit the road? I’m going to grab another cup of coffee and we’ll be on our way.”
“So, what are we up to today?” Ryan asked as they drove toward the east side to start their day.
“Just need to get out and about to see what we hear. Word is that the shit’s about to hit the fan over there. One of the girls said they’ve been servicing a new crew that has taken over everything in their hood. They like to party hard and they are pushing some heavy artillery out to their minions.”