He sort of lumbered out of a short hallway. The right height, Eve judged. Solid build, and that could fit. Short, almost military-buzz-cut hair shades lighter than his mother’s, a round, not quite homely face.
His eyes, big and brown, stared into Eve’s as he nodded. “I’ve been waiting. You’re really busy, so I had to wait. You must’ve heard about it.”
“Heard about what?”
“How I arrested that guy last night.”
“Oh, Mason,” his mother began.
“I’m sorry, Mom. I gotta do the work, and somebody had to stop the bad guy.”
Eve slipped her hand inside her coat, rested it lightly on the butt of her weapon. “How’d you stop the bad guy, Mason?”
“I had to chase him a ways, then knock him down pretty hard. Then I had to punch him. You’re not supposed to hit,” he said when his mother just sat down, cradled her head in her hands. “But he was resisting, and I was making a citizen’s arrest. I can do that. I read how I can. He was hurting that lady, and he was making her cry and yell.”
Eve flicked Peabody a glance.
“Can we sit down?” Peabody asked easily. “Why don’t we sit down, and you can tell us the details? For the report.”
“I talked to the policemen last night.”
“That’s good, but this is for the official report.”
“Okay. At approximately two hundred hours —” He paused, winced. “I’m sorry, Mom. I know you said don’t go out late like that, but I just had this feeling I needed to patrol, and I did. So at approximately two hundred hours, while traveling west on foot on Avenue A, I observed a male assaulting a female. It appeared he was attempting to steal her purse, and I also observed him strike said female – right in the face, Lieutenant Dallas. That’s not right.”
“No, it’s not right.”
“So I shouted, ‘Stop in the name of the law!’ Then pursued the individual when he ran. I chased him for a block then I knocked him down, and when he resisted, using harsh words, too, I punched him. And the lady, she called the police. When they came… Officers Rhodes and Willis, we talked to them, and they took the bad guy away. I walked the lady – her name was Cherry Pie – home so she’d be safe. It was only down the block.”
He smiled then. “It’s my first official arrest, and Officer Willis said I did okay.”
“Did you go anywhere afterward?”
“I went and had some coffee and wrote up my report. I like to write them up when it’s all fresh. You know how it is,” he said earnestly. “You don’t want to forget any details.”
“Right. Do you know Ledo?”
“Oh yeah, I know Ledo. He sells illegals, uses them, too. I’ve told him he has to stop or else, but he just says, fuck off, dickwad, or like that. I want to arrest him, but he mostly sells underground, and I don’t want to go down there. I promised my mom I wouldn’t. I don’t have the training.”
“That’s right,” Eve told him. “I don’t want anyone going down there without proper training. Have you been to Ledo’s flop?”
“No, sir, Lieutenant. I surveilled it a few times, but I never caught him dealing right there. I can take you there if you want to arrest him. I’d be happy and proud to back you up.”
“No, I don’t need to arrest him. Somebody killed him last night.”
Mason shook his head, a gesture that said the news was no more than expected. “He didn’t respect the law. People who don’t can come to a bad end.”
“Did you go over by his flop on patrol last night?”
“I was pretty tired after making the arrest and writing up the report, so I just came home. I can patrol that area for you after work – at the diner. I can do that.”
“That’s all right, the threat level is low now. How’d you spend the twenty-seventh? Two days after Christmas?”
“We had to go to work – the diner, not the real work. Mom works every day but Sundays, and I work Mondays and Tuesdays and Thursdays and Saturdays. Sometimes Fridays. That day she had to work in the morning until the dinner shift, and I go in and work the lunch and the dinner shifts.”
He glanced at his mother for corroboration. “That’s right. You did the double.”
“Okay. Do you know Leanore Bastwick?”
“She’s dead. I read all the crime reports and watch them on screen. I knew who she was because she defended Jess Barrow, and he was one of your bad guys. I know all your bad guys. I keep a file. He has a right to an attorney, that’s the law.”
“Do you ever break the law, Mason?”
His gaze slid away on a little smile. “Maybe a little… dent.” And the little smile became a companionable grin. “You know how you have to do when you’re after bad guys. Justice is more important than a little dent. The good police know that. They gave you the Medal of Honor. I’d be good police. Not like my dad. But my mom says I’m all she’s got, and she worries.”
“Looking out for your mom’s as important as getting bad guys,” Peabody told him.
“I guess.” But he looked at Eve, doubtfully.
“Detective Peabody’s right on that. The thing is…” She thought she could make it work. “You’ve got a good perspective on the street from here,” Eve considered. “I’d like to give you an assignment.”
“For real?” His face flushed with color; eyes gleamed with delight. “Yes, sir, Lieutenant!”
“I’d like you to take position as observer. Here, and at the diner. Observer, Mason, and that means you don’t break cover, don’t interact with the bad guy. You observe and record. In the event a law is broken, you observe, record, and report. Understood?”
“Sure I do, but —”
“Having your eyes and ears will be of considerable help to the officers in this sector, and to me. I’d like to be able to count on you.”
“You can, Lieutenant. You can count on me.”
“Good. Meanwhile, I’d like a copy of all your files and reports.”
“I’ll get them right now.” He pushed up, hurried off.
“You think he might have something to do with these murders? I heard the crime channel, too. He’d never do something like that. Mason wouldn’t do that – because you wouldn’t.”
“I’m going to check out his alibi for December twenty-seventh, and I’m going to talk to the officers from last night. I can tell you I don’t believe, at this time, he had anything to do with what we’re investigating.”
“It was good of you to give him an assignment – one that makes him proud but keeps him off the street.”
“Any chance of steering him toward a different hobby or interest?”
“You think I haven’t tried? He’ll do what you told him – at least I think he will. Observe, record, report. That was a good one.”
“It seems like he’s got a knack for all three.”
“He does, honestly does. He never forgets a damn thing. Some things, like things his old man said to him, I wish he would.”