New Jersey Noir Part 2

"Where'd it happen?"

"Line Street, between South 6th and Roberts."

"Tell me what happened."

When Negron finished, Cash ran a hand through his hair thoughtfully. "Sounds pretty clean," he said. Then pointedly added, "If that's how it went down."

Negron smiled and raised his right hand. "I swear on my eyes, counselor, I ain't dumb enough to lie to the lawyer. 'Specially for this kid."

With their eyes locked, Cash nodded. "Go get him. Bring him to me."

Negron turned and left.

When Miles entered the room, Cash was immediately stricken by his youthful appearance. Although twenty-two, he looked seventeen. His black hair was long, unkempt. It spilled over the collar of the faded navy peacoat he wore. Dried vomit stained the front panel of the coat, its sour odor touching at Cash's nostrils. Dark blood was splattered across the left cuff and forearm. The young man's eyes were hollow and listless. A stubble of light whiskers covered his chin and cheeks, giving him a dirty, unpleasant look. While the clothing and grooming fit well with Miles's antinarcotic a.s.signment, he seemed a little too comfortable in the outfit. Cash found a mild disliking begin to dawn.

"Have a seat, Miles," he said, and watched as the cop slid a chair back from the small, round table. Cash sat opposite him, folding his hands on the smooth plastic tabletop. How much bad news, he wondered, had been discussed in this very same room?

"All right," he said as Miles's eyes lifted to meet his own. "My name is Frank Cash. My law firm represents members of the local chapter of your union, the Fraternal Order of Police. I'm here to help you deal with all this."

Cash saw Miles's gaze fall away, dropping to the tabletop, his body shaking with a sudden chill. His appearance seemed to suddenly morph into that of a frightened boy caught in some youthful transgression and summoned to his father's study. Cash found his initial suspicions and dislike begin to waver. In all his fifty-one years, he had never taken a life, not even that of a small animal or rodent. And here was this boy, barely out of school, who had violently sent a man to h.e.l.l in what surely must have been a horrifying, desperate moment.

"All right," Cash repeated, gentler this time, softer. "State, county, and city headhunters will be hounding you tomorrow, son. I need you to tell me what happened, everything, every detail. Get it straight in your head. Let's see where I can help. Just start from the beginning and go slowly. Tell me everything, even if it doesn't sound very good. It'll sound worse said cold tomorrow, believe me."

Miles raised his eyes. "Negron said he told you everything already."

Cash nodded. "Yes. He told me what he did and what he thinks he saw. I need you to tell me what you did. What you saw."

Miles's eyes filled with tears. "Yes. I understand."

The young policeman shifted himself in his seat, fixed an unblinking stare at the darkened window behind Cash, and began to tell his story.

"We were on patrol, the three of us, me in the front recorder seat, Negron driving, Sanchez in back behind me. It musta been about two in the morning. We were cruising known drug locales; just eyeballing. Cold, c.r.a.ppy night like this, most of the deals were going down indoors. Anyway, we wind up on Line Street, heading east, just rolling past the broken-down houses along there."

"Where is Line Street?" Cash asked.

Miles shrugged. "'Bout six, seven blocks south of here, just east of Broadway."

"What neighborhood is that?"

Another shrug. "I don't know. Whitman Park, I guess."

"Go on."

"So we're just rolling along, real slow-maybe ten, fifteen tops. The street is narrow, a few parked cars here and there, some just abandoned. So we cross South 6th Street heading toward Roberts. Northwest corner of Line and 6th is an empty lot where some condemned buildings got demoed. There's a fence around it, chainlink. Even though we're kinda looking around as we roll, none of us saw this old lady till she was right in front of us, like she just appeared out of the dark, you know? Negron almost ran her over. Well, she makes us for cops and starts banging on the hood of the car and screaming at us."

"Was she black? Hispanic, Caucasian, what?"

Miles glanced briefly at Cash. "Hispanic." He paused for a moment before continuing. "Anyway, she's all excited, so Sanchez gets out of the backseat and approaches her. He tins her and starts talking in Spanish, and she starts bawling and pointing to the only house on the north side of Line Street that's still standing. It was the house she had come out of."

"Had you seen her come out of it?"

"No, like one second the street was empty, the next second there she was, in front of the car." Cash noticed the trembling begin to intensify, apparently overcoming the dosage of Xanax the cop had received. When Miles spoke again, there was a rise of pitch in his voice. "So anyway, I get out of the car and Sanchez winks at me and makes a face, like he's saying, Look at this old b.i.t.c.h, do you believe this?"

"How old would you say she was?"

Miles shifted in his seat and leaned forward slightly, still directing his words at the black rectangle of the window. "Old. Pushing sixty. I don't know."

Cash smiled slightly. "Go on."

"So when I reach them, she starts speaking English, telling us there's a black guy up on the second floor of the house, been acting crazy all night, people coming and going and she was trying to sleep and told him something and he cursed her and tried to hit her, and she got scared and ran out and saw us. So by now, Negron is standing there too, and he asks her if she called the cops. She says no, there's no phone in the house, no water, no electricity, nothing. We can see it's boarded up, abandoned, and we figure her for a squatter. She tells us the black guy deals H, sometimes crack, the building is his base, everybody is afraid of him and all this kind of s.h.i.t. So Sanchez starts writing it down, you know, to sort of appease her a little. We figure maybe she's stoned, you know, old and stoned and half nuts. So then Negron says he feels like a little action, let's check it out. Well, I'm a little bored myself, it was a slow tour and I figure, what the h.e.l.l. So Sanchez stays at the car with the old lady to call in our ten-twenty. Me and Negron start walking toward the house."

"Describe the house."

"Two-story brick, like all of them around there. Most of the windows boarded up. There was a narrow, covered front porch with side steps leading up to it. The front door was missing, it was just a dark open hole. The east side of the house was just like the west, another empty lot."

"All right. Go on."

"Well, me and Negron get to the house and I walk around the porch to the side steps. Just as I reach them, I hear Negron cursing. He stepped in dog s.h.i.t. At least he hoped it was dog s.h.i.t. The place really stinks-p.i.s.s, garbage, s.h.i.t, everything. The nearest streetlight is burned out, it's dark as h.e.l.l ..."

Now Miles's body seemed to tighten on itself, the trembling turning sharply into a steady shake. He tried desperately to moisten his mouth before speaking again.

"So, I'm laughing at Negron, he's wiping his shoe on the edge of the porch. I start up the steps."

"How many steps?"

"Four, maybe five."

"Where's your gun at this point?"

"Well, I have two guns on me. My Glock is in a belt holster under my coat, and a .38 revolver is in the right coat pocket."

"Both regulation sidearms?"

"Yeah."

"Is your coat open or b.u.t.toned up?"

"Open. You know, it was warm inside the car, so it's open."

Cash glanced at the now tightly closed coat, the warmth of the room unable to reach Miles's chill. "Go on."

"The old lady told us this guy didn't have a weapon, none that she saw, anyway. We figured it for a dispute between two homeless squatters, we'd check it out and then leave. So while Negron is still sc.r.a.ping s.h.i.t off his shoe, I go up maybe two, three steps and I hear something coming from inside the doorway."

"What did you hear?"

Miles's shoulders twitched and his right hand jerked out of his lap, fisting. "A sharp double metallic click. Like a weapon being locked and loaded. Negron heard it too. He said, f.u.c.k! and I saw him duck in front of the porch and go for his gun. I just stood there, frozen."

Cash sat back in his seat, eyeing the young, trembling cop. "Go on," he said softly.

"All of a sudden this guy, this enormous f.u.c.kin' guy, is right there, right in the doorway, maybe eight, nine feet away from me. A huge, crazy-looking guy, and he's got a f.u.c.kin' rifle in his hands. A rifle!"

The words were pouring out now, and Cash held his questions. Let him spit it out, get it all out and over with. The details, actual or invented, could wait.

"I almost peed myself. I mean, this guy looked like a real maniac, sweating, cursing to himself, stepping out onto the porch and swinging that rifle back and forth." Miles spasmed slightly. He took a deep breath, held it briefly, then continued. "So I say, Hey, you know, like a f.u.c.kin' idiot, and the guy zeroes in on me, he don't hesitate for a second. I'm telling you he was crazy, and he starts yelling at me, something about his old lady, about his kid, something like that, and he's pointing the rifle at me and I know he's gonna kill me, and I've got my left hand on the banister, you know, I was climbing the stairs, and so I push myself backward. I don't know what the f.u.c.k I'm doing, just throwing myself down the stairs. Then I hear this tremendous explosion and there's a giant flash of light and I'm rolling down the stairs into the dirt, and Jesus Christ, I swear I did pee myself. I mean, I felt it, you know, the warm p.i.s.s in my pants. I thought it was blood, I thought I was shot. Mr. Cash, I swear to G.o.d, I don't remember taking it out, but my .38 was in my hands and I'm pointing it at the guy and he's swinging his aim over toward Negron who's down behind the front of the porch yellin' something about us being cops and the guy starts screamin' he's gonna kill us and he swings the rifle back at me, right at my f.u.c.kin' chest, and he jacks another round into the chamber and my gun goes off and the guy just blinks like bullets can't hurt him, and so I figure I missed. Then he fires again and I think I'm hit again, I'm going to die, and I start firing over and over. The last shot I see his shirt, he's wearing a T-shirt, and I swear to G.o.d I see the shirt tear. It's like slow motion. The shirt gets pushed in, like somebody poked him with a pencil or something, and then it pops out, out of the hole in his chest, and it's torn, you know, the shirt is torn and it's red with blood, and it just popped in, then out of his chest. Blood sprayed out of the hole-some of it hit me. It was like slow motion. Then he falls down, sits down actually. Negron goes rushing past me. The guy drops the rifle and it slides down the steps and Negron, he's all red and excited and he sticks his Glock in the guy's face and says, You son of a b.i.t.c.h, and the guy just plops onto his back and his head hits the porch, and that's it. That was it."

Cash let a few moments elapse before asking, "Would you like some water or something? Coffee? Maybe the doctor can give you something more to relax you."

"No sir. No." Tears welled in Miles's eyes, and he wiped them quickly away. He sighed and looked down at the floor, his right leg shaking, anger and shame weighing heavily on him. The tears welled again, and Cash rose and turned to face the window, his back to the young man. Uneasy moments pa.s.sed before he sat down again and spoke.

"What happened next?"

Miles shook his head clear. His voice was low, flat. "Sanchez came up and started running his hand over me. You know, I was down on the ground, the guy had fired right at me, so Sanchez figured I was. .h.i.t. He kept saying, Holy Christ, are you okay, are you okay? I stood up. Sanchez took the gun out of my hand and put it in my pocket. We just stood there looking at each other. Then Negron said, Come on, and he ran into the house. There coulda been a second perp, we had to clear the place, so me and Sanchez followed him."

"Did you look at the body?"

"No."

"Go on."

"The old lady told us the guy's room was on the second floor. We went up. It was very dark. Then we saw an old kerosene lamp in what we figured was the guy's room, that was the only light. Negron and Sanchez went in. That's where they found the heroin on a small table against the wall. I just sorta wandered into the bathroom. And for the first time in my life, my mind was a total blank. I wasn't even thinking, Hey, you're not thinking about anything. It was just completely blank, empty. I had a pencil flash in my pocket. I took it out and turned it on. That's when I saw myself in the old mirror, in the bathroom, you know, and I started ... I started crying. But it was crazy, like I was crying for no reason, because my mind was blank, totally blank. I was just looking at my reflection, then I started shaking like a leaf and threw up in the sink. Just like that, I puked, and I felt so embarra.s.sed. Negron came into the bathroom, he had his light on too. I don't know what he was saying, I felt so ashamed, and then he just went away and I was alone. I shut the door. I wanted to wash out the sink, clean myself up, but there was no running water. I didn't want to leave the bathroom. I was embarra.s.sed." Miles shook his head slightly. "Then it dawned on me, what the h.e.l.l, I did my job, I've got no reason to be ashamed. Then, all of a sudden, I got real hostile ... like I was thinking, f.u.c.k everybody, f.u.c.k them. It was stupid, I guess."

Cash didn't comment. Instead, he asked, "What happened next?"

"Sanchez came in, didn't knock or anything, just opened the door and walked in. He said he was going to seal the building and call for the detectives. I think that's when he told me they had found some crack too, I don't remember for sure. Anyway, I walked out of the bathroom. There were uniformed cops everywhere. Sanchez had put out a Shots fired-ten-thirteen. I wandered off, went downstairs. Some neighborhood people were standing outside the house, a little crowd of them. I guess the radio cars woke 'em up. It was very weird, this deserted street all of a sudden with this crowd ... They looked like ... like zombies or something. Like it was Hallowe'en. They were talking and looking at the dead body and having a good time. I think some of them made me for the cop who shot the guy. I got some dirty looks, you know, and some mumbles. Most of them didn't seem to care much, though. One old guy wanted to shake my hand, told me there were a few others around needed killing."

"Where was the woman who started the whole thing?" Cash asked.

"Some uniform was holding her in a black-and-white, waiting for the detectives. Anyway, I went to look at the body. You know ..." He shrugged and let his voice trail off.

"You said the people were looking at the dead body. How'd you know it was dead?"

This seemed to stun Miles. "I just figured. I don't know, he looked dead."

"You said before you hadn't yet looked at the body, so how'd you know it looked dead?"

Miles did not respond. Instead he seemed puzzled, confused.

Cash said softly, "Listen, Anthony, I'm only asking you what others will ask. And you have to provide the right answers. Just off the top of my head, you had better polish up your demeanor and change some terminology about certain things when you're speaking to the investigators. And you need to make eye contact with them, not stare out the window like somebody reciting Hamlet's soliloquy. You can't say you responded to the call because Negron wanted 'action' or because you were 'bored.' You can't say you didn't know what you were doing when you threw yourself down the stairs, you can't say you don't know how your weapon got into your hand. You can't say you felt hostile or p.i.s.sed off. Look, I'm not trying to put words in your mouth, Anthony, but you need a tighter version, a neat, professional version. You took the call because the woman made an official complaint, you defensively threw yourself out of the way of the first shot, you drew your weapon, and after Negron's shouted identification as police officers and the perpetrator's second shot, you fired that weapon. Your gun just didn't 'go off,' you fired in defense of your life and the life of your partners. Now I'll ask you again, how'd you know the man was dead before you looked at the body?"

Miles was sweating heavily at this point and at last opened his coat. He shifted in his seat and looked into the lawyer's eyes. "I knew he was dead because ... because Negron had examined the body shortly after the shots were fired, and he told me that the perpetrator appeared to be dead."

"All right," Cash said with a curt nod of his head. "And after they sealed the house, what then? Did you speak to anyone? What did you do?"

"Sanchez approached me. He told me not to talk to anybody, not even another cop, until after Negron got ahold of the union lawyer. Then he slapped me on the arm and walked away; he was trying to disperse the crowd. In the meantime, more cops poured into the area. Negron was keeping guys away, you know, so they wouldn't mess up the scene. I just sorta got lost in the crowd."

"Is that when you looked at the body?"

Miles squirmed slightly in his seat. "Yeah. I walked over and there he was, just where he fell. His eyes were open."

"What did you think when you looked at the body? Did you think, This guy almost killed me, something like that?"

Miles hesitated. "Look, Mr. Cash, I didn't think anything like that. And what does it matter what I thought? Thoughts don't mean much. I had ... I had crazy thoughts, but they weren't anything like you might think."

Cash smiled a thin, tired smile. "You're right, Anthony, most thoughts don't mean much. But tell me anyway. I need to get the whole picture in order to best protect you."

Miles looked pale. He was trembling more noticeably now and clasping his hands together in an attempt to steady them. He suddenly removed his peacoat, folding and dropping it neatly to the floor. He peered up at Cash. "All right," he said. "You want to hear it, I'll tell you. But like I said, it was a little crazy. I don't really understand it, but here it is. I went over and looked at the body. It seemed sort of ... sort of fake, you know? Like a mannequin or a pile of laundry. It was like ... like a machine that somebody unplugged. And then, all of a sudden, I started thinking about ... about college. When I took an anatomy cla.s.s, senior year. The professor I had was great, he made it very interesting, you know? We learned about the human body, the bones and muscles, the glands, the brain, the blood and heart, all functioning together, forming a human being. You know, it doesn't matter how smart you are, if you're rich or poor or whether you're good or evil, everybody's got the same stuff inside, like a computer or something. Your values, your personality, that's all secondary. What's important is your body, your anatomy. That's what I thought about when I looked at the guy. My anatomy elective."

Cash said nothing when Miles fell silent. Over the years he had interviewed enough people to know when to be silent and when to speak. He knew Miles would continue. Cash didn't care about body parts, he cared about the facts surrounding the shooting. And he was willing to let Miles digress for a while if that's what it took to gather those facts.

"Anyway," Miles continued as though there had been no break in his narrative, "I just kept on thinking about anatomy and my professor. The human body was like G.o.d to him, he worshipped it. Like even though he spent years studying and teaching, he was still fascinated by it. Some of the students didn't give a d.a.m.n, but I did. I found it all so amazing. I remember discussing it one day with some blonde who sat next to me in cla.s.s. She said it was boring, she only took the course because it fit into her schedule and was offered as a pa.s.s-fail. I tried to explain why it was so fascinating, but she was completely turned off by it. Then she said something that had never occurred to me. And it all came flooding back into my head while I was looking down at the b.l.o.o.d.y hole in that guy's chest."

Cash found himself frowning. "And what was that?"

Now Miles raised his eyes to meet Cash's. "She said, This guy, meaning the professor, the one I figured was so cool, This guy is a real cold b.a.s.t.a.r.d. He talks about people like they're meat. To him, there's no difference between anybody-just between dead and not dead. That's what she said. At first it kind of p.i.s.sed me off. But then after I thought about it, I began to see her point. And I had it filed away in my head all these years that she was right, you know? Like people really are more than just blood and veins and body parts. But when I looked at that body tonight, I realized the only difference between it and me was that it was dead and I wasn't. The only difference. Its systems were shut down, mine weren't. Its heart was stopped, mine was beating." Miles shrugged. "See? Crazy, right?"

"Yes, well ... people have odd thoughts at times like that." Cash wanted more relevant information. "What about the perpetrator, Anthony? How many times had you shot him?"

"Well, there was the chest. There was also a side wound, the right side, by the ribs. And one of the bullets. .h.i.t him in the hand. The EMT found that one. The detectives checked my gun. I had fired all six rounds."

Cash reached across the table and patted Miles's shoulder. "This sounds like a very clean shooting, son. If Sanchez goes along and the crime scene unit confirms those two rifle shots, you'll waltz through the mandatory grand jury inquest. You did what you were forced to do. You need to realize that, calm down a little."

Miles looked up at Cash, his sad eyes hooded. "Mr. Cash," he asked softly, "have you ever wept?"

The question surprised the older man. "Sure, son, everyone cries. Don't think because you're a man or a police officer that you're not allowed to cry."

Miles shook his head sharply and leaned forward in his seat. His tone implored Cash for understanding. "Not cry. I'm talking about weeping. When I looked at that guy, I sat down on the porch next to him and I wept. I mean, really wept. In my whole life I never did that; sure, I've cried-from pain, frustration, anger, sorrow, but I never wept. Not until tonight."

Cash straightened in his seat. Jesus, he thought, the kid was really taking this hard. All this c.r.a.p about weeping and crying, as if there were some difference. "Look, son, it's tough, we all cry, and no cop who saw you will ever mention it. They know it could be them next time."

Miles reacted sharply, almost rising from his seat. "No, d.a.m.nit," he said in a suddenly strong, clear voice. "It's not the macho thing, it's not about crying, it's about weeping! You don't understand. I didn't care about that guy, or his family, or his friends, n.o.body. I only cared about his body, his blood and his brain, his chemistry, his parts, his f.u.c.kin' anatomy. All that incredible machinery, broken, dead. I wept for that. Don't you understand? n.o.body ever thinks about that or cares. But that's all there is, Mr. Cash, that's all there is to care about."

Cash leaned back in his seat. "Listen, Anthony, you're tired, you're upset. You're not making a h.e.l.l of a lot of sense here, and tomorrow no one will appreciate that kind of talk. It doesn't sound ... just doesn't sound right, do you understand?"

Miles shook his head and abruptly stood up. He was still trembling. He stepped around the table to the window. "I don't care how it sounds, it's true. Just look out there." He gestured at the window. Cash turned somewhat nervously, as much to keep his eye on Miles as to glance out the window. "Look out at Camden. Tell me, what value does a person have if he's a rapist, a murderer, a junkie? Or a liar or a cheat, or a mean b.a.s.t.a.r.d or skinflint for that matter? How many people out there fit that description, or part of that description? If some terrorist blew it all to h.e.l.l, what would be said? All those poor people, those poor human beings, murdered. But they'd be talking ... about something else, something totally different from what I'm saying. They wouldn't care about the bodies, the machinery. That's why I wept for that guy, because I destroyed his body. If his soul even existed, it wasn't worth a d.a.m.n to him, me, or anybody else. Humans are pompous fools, they award themselves souls so they can look at a cow or a monkey and say, I'm better than that, I'm a human being. So what, Mr. Cash? How can anyone really give a G.o.dd.a.m.n?"

Cash rose from his chair and moved closer to Miles. He faced the window, speaking to his own reflection in the darkened gla.s.s. "Anthony, you killed a man tonight. When you took this job, you must have asked yourself at least one time, Am I willing to chance being killed? Am I willing to chance killing someone? Well, tonight it came to pa.s.s, son, and you did what had to be done. If you're going to get all philosophical about it, you'll only cause yourself a lot of grief. You wouldn't be so d.a.m.n philosophical if you were lying in the morgue right now, or up in the OR with a bullet lodged in your spine. You killed a man; I don't give a d.a.m.n if you think you killed his soul, his body, or his G.o.dd.a.m.ned a.s.shole. He's dead and you're not. So when you're interviewed tomorrow, you forget about all this bulls.h.i.t and you talk facts; you talk distance in feet and inches, you talk lighting and visibility, and you talk police procedure. You talk it because that's what they want to hear. That's what they need to hear. If you have a problem with something, talk to a priest. If you can't handle it, go see a psychiatrist. This is a police shooting and we talk facts, not bulls.h.i.t. Do you understand me, Anthony?" Cash turned and peered at the young officer. "Do you understand me?" he said into the bloodshot eyes glaring back at him.

"Yes, I understand. It's you who doesn't understand. You prove my point. Answer the questions, fill out the forms, toe tag the corpse, and shovel it under. Then on Sunday talk soul and spirit." Miles paused and returned to his chair. He sat down heavily and spoke softly: "I'm sorry. Maybe I don't know what I'm saying. Maybe you're right. Maybe any d.a.m.n thing. It's dawn and I feel like I came to work a week ago. I'm exhausted. Can I go home now?"

Cash turned back to the window. "Where are your guns?"

"The detectives took them. They gave me a receipt." Miles produced the wrinkled paper and placed it on the table.

Cash glanced at it. "All right, put it away, hold onto it. You know procedure. You'll be rea.s.signed to a desk job until you're cleared on the shooting. Tomorrow we'll talk again and cross the T's and dot the I's. Then you'll sit for your official interview. I'll be there personally to monitor things."

Miles stood up and began to leave the room.

"One more thing," Cash said to the man's back. "Stay home. Let Negron take you straight home and stay there. Don't speak to anyone about the shooting, not even Negron. I'll call you tomorrow."