Detective Mac Taylor slowly navigated the NYPD Avalanche through the crowd, stopping just outside the telltale yellow crime scene tape blocking off a section of sidewalk and an alley. He grabbed his kit, made sure Detective Jo Danville had all she needed with her, and headed across towards the scene, flashing his badge at the officer on duty while ducking under the tape. Detective Don Flack turned and walked towards him.
"Here's what I know, but to tell you the truth, it isn't much. We have an unknown male DB, shot in the head with what looks to be a 9mil. He was found in the alley behind Michael's Books, but the owner has no idea who he is, neither do any other storeowners on this block. I got my guys canvasing for witnesses, but except for one, its frickin cold and no one saw nothing." He shared a sympathetic look with Mac.
"Of course not. It's below 32 degrees, makes New Yorkers see less than they normally do. Everyone is concerned about getting home, staying warm." Mac began pulling on gloves, nodding when he saw Danny taking the last of the photographs of the body. "You said there is one witness?"
"Yeah, a jogger saw a man rush by her wearing a leather jacket. Brown hair, medium height, medium build. Saw him holding his left arm, maybe he was injured in the scuffle with the vic."
Mac knelt next to the victim, noting the position of the fall. "There are no defensive marks, no indication that the vic put up a fight. Maybe the suspect was carrying something?"
Jo pulled out her own camera and began to document the cigarettes before collection. Mac opened his kit, pulling out swabs to collect trace. He glanced up at Flack who was looking back at him nervously.
"Can the witness give us a more specific description than medium height and build?" His forehead furrowed as he took in Flack's hesitation to answer.
Flack glanced down at his memo book, flicking his gaze up at Mac several times. "She said he had either green or hazel eyes, can't remember much else about his face except that, and I'm quoting here, he looked 'sad'."
Mac shot him a raised eyebrow look. "Her words, not mine. I asked her to be more specific, but she just said that he looked like he had been through a lot. And it made him sad." Flack cleared his throat. "Mac, you should know. The witness…" he glanced toward the perimeter of the crime scene "its Jordan."
The reluctance in his voice made Jo's head snap up to stare at the normally confident detective. She followed his and Mac's line of sight to see a girl in her late teens talking calmly to an officer outside the perimeter. Jo had taken enough witness statements to determine that the officer was trying to establish a timeline. She looked between Flack's nervous expression and Mac's shocked one.
"Do you know her?"
The question was addressed to Mac, but Flack was the one to answer.
"She was a witness to a crime a few years ago. She lives near here. It's a bad neighborhood, so I see her a few times a year about some suspicious circumstance or other." He was still looking at Mac who was still not speaking. Jo looked at them both again, but couldn't read the emotion in their faces.
"Is she reliable?"
Finally Flack turned towards her. "Most definitely. She's a good kid, which is surprising in this part of town, and she's accurate."
They both turned to Mac as he finally moved, returning to his processing as he spoke.
"Keep her around for a while. I'll need to process her clothes, see if the killer left any evidence as transfer." He was now studiously concentrating on the scene, ignoring the perimeter.
"Ok Mac, I'll try. But you know, she's not gonna like it."
Mac didn't look up from his work. "She's our only witness, she might be holding the evidence needed to break the case."
Flack sighed, and walked towards the edge of the scene, dismissing the officer talking to the witness and speaking to her in quiet tones.
Jo finished her collecting, noting that although distracted, Mac had completed trace in record time. She knew how difficult it was to get information from the private man she worked with, but decided to give it a try.
"So who is this girl? Is this neighborhood so bad that we're on first name terms with all the locals?"
Mac continued to process, staying quiet so long that she thought he had simply ignored her question. Finally, with his back to her, she heard him say, "She was the lead witness in a violent crime two years ago. It was a tough case, a lot of which was based on her testimony. Flack and I got to know her pretty well in the meantime. Flack still runs into her from time to time." They continued in silence for awhile before Jo spoke up again.
"But it's got to be more than that. What happened to the case?"
This time it was clear Mac ignored the question. Jo watched him for a while, thought to herself how difficult it was sometimes to be the transfer in a department, then continued her work.
