Chapter 24
CHAPTER
Three hours later, after wrapping up the crime scene, Sampson and I decided to pay Guillermo Costa a visit at his auto-body shop in Bowie, Maryland, about nine miles from where Shay Mansion had been found.
I parked but kept the car running, waiting for him. I had WTOP, all-news AM radio, playing softly in the background, an old habit.
“Yes, I know Shay is no longer a student,” John said, then listened. “Expelled, right. But a last address for him would be very helpful.”
He looked at me in despair and then brightened. “Great. Okay.”
Sampson scribbled something, nodded. “You’ve been a great help.”
He hung up and slid into the car, and we headed out.
“Rosalina Mansion. Shay’s mom. We’ve got an address and a home number, but the Woodson secretary says the mom’s a nurse’s aide.
Husband died a few years back. She works crazy hours, two jobs, never home.
Probably part of the reason the kid got involved with Lobos Rojos. ”
On the radio, I heard: “Prince George’s County Sheriff’s investigators are said to be converging on a homicide scene in Beltsville this morning. WTOP’s Bill Johnson is there. Bill, what can you tell us?”
Before the reporter could reply, Dispatch called on our police radio, so I turned the broadcast off.
“Roger, Dispatch, this is Sampson.”
“Call Chief Pittman.”
“Roger that.” Sampson sighed, shrugged, and we found another pay phone and pulled over again. This time we both got out of the car and huddled over the pay phone’s receiver so we could talk to him together. Pittman answered on the second ring.
“I heard it’s damn gruesome, this kid in the park,” the chief said.
“It’s not pretty, sir,” said Sampson.
I said, “Downright brutal if you ask me, Chief.”
“Motive?”
Sampson said, “We’re thinking it might be gang-related. According to intel, Mansion was a recruit to Los Lobos Rojos, so this could be a statement killing by rival gang LMC Fifty-One and its leader, Patrice Prince.”
“I saw a report on Prince. Any link to the other kid, the one in the Potomac?”
“Tony Miller,” I said. “Possibly, but I haven’t looked into it yet.”
Sampson said, “Sorry, sir, but we haven’t had much time to devote to the Miller case because of our focus on—”
“Conrad Talbot,” Pittman said. “And that’s right where I wanted your attention and still do. That kid’s death is priority one. It takes precedence. Even over this case.”
“Because Talbot’s white, sir?” I couldn’t help asking.
“No, and don’t play the damn race card with me, Cross. Talbot gets attention because he was a first-team, all-state, Division One–bound athlete who was also smart enough to get into several Ivy League schools.”
“Exactly my—”
“Cross,” Pittman said, cutting me off, “you’re not letting me speak. I want to be clear, okay?”
Sampson slapped me on the upper arm.
“Okay, Chief.”
“Black, Latino, Asian, white, whatever—a kid with those credentials who was killed like that? I’m sorry, but we are giving his murder investigation priority over gangbanger kids who got caught up in a turf war.
If that sticks in your craw, swallow hard, because my stand on that is not changing. Clear?”
“Clear, Chief,” Sampson said.
I said, “But also, one last thing, Chief—I don’t know much about Shay Mansion at this point, but I know Tony Miller was a hell of a student. My grandmother knew him and thought he was brilliant, capable of getting into a great school.”
There was a pause, after which Pittman said in a calmer tone, “I’m not telling you to ignore Miller’s death, Cross.
Or this kid’s. I expect you to work them too.
But you’ve got to learn that as a big-city homicide detective, you’ve got six to eight burners on your stove, and some cases are front burner and others are back burner. ”
He hung up.
I said, “I hate when he does that.”
“I do too, especially after he’s said something that makes total sense.”
I frowned, and we got back in the car again. “About prioritizing the Talbot case?”
“About there being a lot of cases you’ve got to keep track of all at once. It takes time to learn how to do that and not lose momentum on any of them.”
“I can see that,” I said. “Still learning.”
“Always,” Sampson said.