16. Killer
How to catch the next one?
Joe has the simplest routine to follow.
Brutus isn’t seen out and about as much. From what I have been able to gather, he is likely the one that hides out in the deli dispersing the drugs to the dealers on the street. That means he can lead me to the last victim. I don’t know the guy’s name. I would recognize his face anywhere. He works somewhere in the higher levels and has the benefit of not showing up unless he wants to.
Knowing Joe is going to be easy to find again, I aim for Brutus.
In my new-to-me clothes from the thrift store downtown, I visit the deli each morning. I order a coffee and bagel and scope out the place. The dealers arrive in small groups at appointed times. Some are there as early as eight A.M. and others do not appear until later in the day. Joe comes early in the morning. I don’t spot Brutus until I show up one afternoon for lunch. He doesn’t speak as he walks past all the customers and heads into the kitchen.
My observations of the deli show that there is only one entrance in the front. There is a storage cellar in the back with a lifting door and a metal door that must lead into the kitchen. There is an apartment above the deli, but I never see anyone going in or out of it.
Changing tactics, I dress up as a new junkie and spend time sitting outside the abandoned pharmacy across the street. After a few days of this, I find out that Brutus appears at the cellar door on Thursday evenings. A white delivery truck pulls up in the alley and unloads what looks like boxes of packaged pastries and sandwich ingredients. To anyone else they would look like the average delivery guys.
There are three men that come with the truck. The driver never gets out, and he never shuts off the engine. He always backs the truck in so it can be pulled away quickly. A second guy always stands behind the truck and a third moves the deliveries into the cellar. That is where the drugs are coming in to be distributed by Brutus to the men on the streets.
Now, how do I get into the kitchen? The idea to shoot Brutus comes to mind. Maybe I could wait inside the deli, put a bullet in his head, and run. What is the likelihood the other Disciples inside are going to shoot back? But I need to know how to get to the last man, and I need Brutus alive to do that.
I am stumped on the matter for a few days. Deciding that Brutus was going to take some more thought and planning, I go for Joe.