Tommy Briggs entered the Tenderloin district and parked his squad car somewhere along the middle of Ellis Street. There were many apartment buildings to choose from in the area and he knew without a physical street address that this might be a long search. Happily, he was wrong. As he walked along the street, a teenager of Hispanic descent on a skate board came bounding around the corner and ran into him, knocking him down.
"Hey kid. Be careful!" said Briggs.
"Sorry. Sorry man." said the boy who was about fifteen. "You okay?"
"I'm fine." said Briggs as the young man helped him up.
"You a cop?" asked the boy.
"Yeah." said Briggs, brushing himself off.
"Cool. I want to be a cop when I graduate." said the boy. "Zack. Zack Sanchez." He said, reaching out his hand to shake Brigg's hand.
"That's great Zack." Said Briggs. "I here looking for some information on a man named Enrique Valdez. Do you know anything about him?"
"Enrique. Yeah, I knew him. He used to live in those apartments right across the street with his girlfriend." said Zack.
"Josie?" said Briggs.
"Yeah. Josie Jones. She was about three years older than me. He was a bit older." the young man said. "I heard on the news last night that Enrique got killed."
"Yes. I'm trying to figure out if he may have had any enemies." said Briggs.
"None that I know of." Zack said. "He was one of the nicest guys you could meet. I think he may have been in one of the gangs several years ago, but he had cleaned up his life. He was working steady. And, he always helped out around here. Nice guy. Shame someone killed him."
"Yes, it is. Now, he moved recently, right?" asked Briggs.
"Yeah. I actually helped him pack up." said Zack.
"Any idea where?" asked Tommy.
"Some place over on Pixley. In Cow Hollow." Zack responded.
"Any address?" Tommy asked.
"Nah. I know the grocery was right around the corner." Zack said.
"That's a good lead." said Briggs. "Anything else you can think of?"
"No. Not really." said Sanchez.
"Okay. Well, here is my business card." said Briggs. "If you think of anything, go ahead and call that number. That's my cell. You can call it day or night."
"Cool. I'll do that." Zack responded.
After dropping off Adrian's car at the house, the Monks took Natalie's car to the café. Briggs called Natalie's cell phone and updated them as to what he had found thus far.
"I wonder what Valdez was doing at that end of North Beach in the middle of the day?" asked Natalie. "Could it be drugs?"
"No evidence of drugs anywhere near the crime scene. No evidence of anything, really. " said Adrian.
"Except the charm." Said Natalie.
"Yes. But we're not really sure that was even connected. It was just close by. Briggs indicated that the kid appeared to be clean. Well liked in his old neighborhood."
"I wonder why he moved." said Natalie. "The area he moved to wasn't an upgrade."
"I know. And this Josie woman. I wonder where she is today." said Adrian.
"That's something hopefully Tommy can find out for us." said Natalie, pulling into a parking spot at the café.
The Monks went into the café and ordered lunch. It was nice being together out on the streets again. It felt complete. Adrian was right. They had been together so much on investigations that to not be together now seemed off. As they enjoyed a meal, the sedan pulled into a drive thru one block over and ordered some food. Parking the car across from the café, the Monk's watcher ate and listened to music while watching the door.
After lunch, Adrian took Natalie's keys and told her he would drive. As they walked out of the café, arm in arm, Natalie noticed the Sedan again. Getting into the car, she told Adrian "Adrian. Don't look now, but I think we are being followed."
She explained about seeing the sedan at the apartment, the crime scene and now at the café so Adrian decided to try an experiment. He drove around in a somewhat haphazard manner, turning on various side streets as well as main roads.
"I think you're right." said Adrian, as he pulled up to their apartment.
The sedan parked across the street, and Adrian and Natalie decided to go talk to the person to see what it was they were up to.
"Stand behind me." said Adrian.
As they got closer to the car, the hoodied person opened the car door, looked at the Monks, and took off running down Taylor street.
Adrian and Natalie both began to chase the person who took them down the block and into an alley way. Once again at a dead end, the person hid behind a dumpster and then pushed a box of rotting food off of the top of the dumpster onto Adrian before exiting the alley. Adrian stalled as Natalie continued the chase.
Sensing she could be in danger, Adrian took off his jacket which had taken the brunt of the blow, removed his keys and anything else that was in its pockets and threw it in the dumpster. He rejoined the chase about a block and a half away from Natalie.
The lunch had given Natalie new energy and soon she was able to make up space between her and the person spying on them. Eventually the person really began to lose pace and Natalie was able to close the gap. Grabbing the back of the hoodie, she pulled the person down and to the ground. The person struggled to get away and wouldn't roll over.
Adrian finally caught up to them and breathlessly asked if Natalie was okay.
"Yeah. Help me here." she said as the rolled the person over and held them down. Natalie reached for the hood and removed it. It was a teenaged girl.
"What do you want? Why were you following us?" asked Natalie.
The girl would not answer.
"Fine. You're not going to answer, we'll have to take you to Police headquarters and have them get you to answer." Said Adrian.
"NO!" said the woman. "I can't go to the cops. We have to get back."
"Back?" said Natalie. "Back where?"
"To my car. Please. Please don't take me to the cops. I have to get back to the car." She replied.
"You gonna tell us what you were doing?" said Adrian.
"Yeah. I'll tell you everything. Just please, help me. Don't take me to the cops. Please." The girl said.
As they walked back towards her car they asked her what her name was.
"My name is Josie. Josie Jones." she replied.
"Enrique's girlfriend." said Natalie.
"Yeah, that's right." she replied.
"Why were you following us?" asked Adrian.
"I seen you on the news.. Saw you were working on Enrique's case. Knew about you from before. You were all over TV. I can explain more later, once we get to the car." she answered.
They finally reached where she had parked the car and she went to the back seat. Taking out a cardboard box, she pulled the box out of the car and set it on the ground. As she opened the box, Natalie and Adrian looked over her shoulder and instantly understood why she was so anxious to get back to the car.
Josie reached into the box and gently picked up a baby, about 2 or 3 weeks old.
"Mr. and Mrs. Monk, this is Serendipity. I call her Seri. She is my and Enrique's little girl." Josie announced as the Monks looked at the tiny child in wonder.
After a pause, Natalie asked "Has she eaten?"
"Not for the past few hours. I was about to feed her." she said.
"Come with us. You can come up to our apartment, and we can talk there." said Natalie as she and Adrian led Josie across the street.
