“You okay?” Flash demanded, grabbing Jack by his upper arms and looking directly into his eyes.
“I don’t know,” Jack admitted. He felt dazed. He detached himself from Flash’s grasp and glanced down at the front of himself, as if looking for signs of blood. “I guess I’m okay.”
“What the fuck was that all about?” Warren demanded.
“I don’t know,” Jack said. “I don’t even know if I was involved or not. It all happened so fast.”
“Were those gunshots we heard?” Flash demanded.
“I’m afraid so,” Jack said. “But they weren’t directed at me. The tall guy you said was hanging around the neighborhood seemed to get shot... unless the whole thing was staged.” The idea occurred to him out of the blue. The entire episode seemed unreal.
Jack got his mobile phone out of the gym bag he always brought to the playground to carry a towel and extra wristbands. He turned on the flashlight app and walked back to where he thought the guy had been shot, if he had been shot.
Warren and a few others followed him. “What the hell are you looking for?” Warren asked.
“Blood,” Jack said. “But I don’t see any.” He turned off the light.
“I saw what happened,” Warren said. “Granted, I was back on the basketball court, but I saw the dude get shot. No question. What’s goingon, Doc? I need to know. I can’t have this kind of shit happening around here. Sometimes I can’t decide if having you in the neighborhood is an addition or a liability. These other dudes also looked possibly Chinese from where I was. Were they?”
“I’m not sure,” Jack said. “They were Asian. That I’m sure of. And young, like college age. None of them spoke, or I don’t think they did. It all happened so fast.” Jack started to dial 911, but Warren grabbed his hand and stopped him.
“Who are you calling?” Warren asked.
“The police,” Jack said.
“Why?” Warren asked.
“I can’t believe you’re even asking,” Jack said. “Someone seems to have been shot. You even said so yourself.”
“Yeah, but why call the police? What the fuck are they going to do at this point? You tell them you think someone got shot and was taken away in one of two black Suburbans. That’s bullshit. You’re just going to cause yourself and the neighborhood a lot of grief for nothing.”
“The idea of not calling the police didn’t even occur to me,” Jack said.
“Well, I think you should give it some serious thought,” Warren said. “For me, as a black man, I wouldn’t call. There’s no victim, and they sure ain’t going to stop and search all one hundred thousand black Suburbans that are roaming around the city tonight, so there isn’t going to be a victim. You’re a medical examiner, and you know all that shit about corpus delicti. I tell you, the police are going to do zip except use it as an excuse to stop and harangue every black kid around here wearing a hoodie.”
Jack pondered the situation because he truly respected Warren and cared about the neighborhood. He also again questioned if he’d been involved in the episode or somehow just caught up in it by accident. Yet he remembered the man pointing the gun at him, and Warren had said the man had been hanging around since midafternoon. Combining that with having met more Chinese people earlier today than he ever had made it hard to dismiss. Yet was it a coincidence? He had no idea.
“What about this Chinese billionaire you had lunch with?” Warren asked. “Did you guys leave on an okay note?”
“Not entirely,” Jack admitted. “But I was the one who was bent out of shape. The man had me probed, personal life and all, and it provoked me enough to leave before I did something or said something I’d regret.”
“What is it that you were investigating out there? You didn’t answer my question earlier about whether it involves anything shady.”
“There is possibly something shady,” Jack said. “But certainly not something I would imagine could lead to murder.”
“You’re beating around the bush, Doc,” Warren complained. “Tell me straight!”
“I was looking into some sort of irregularity in the way a transplant organ was obtained for a young woman who I autopsied on Monday,” Jack began. “I don’t know if you are aware, but there’s a very elaborate system set up so that the allocation of available organs is fair. Unfortunately, there are episodes where the system is perverted, like for celebrities, because the supply doesn’t come close to the demand, and it can be a life-threatening situation.”
“That sounds pretty serious to me,” Warren said. “Did any of the people you met act pissed you were out there asking questions?”
“Quite the contrary,” Jack said. “They treated me like a hero, since it had taken me some effort to identify the woman I autopsied. They weren’t aware that she’d died, and it was important for them to know, as they were responsible for her surgery. The Dover Valley Hospital is a recently certified transplant center, and they need to follow their cases closely.”
“All right, Doc,” Warren said. “What’s it going to be? You going to call the cops or not? If you are, we’re out of here. If you’re not, we’ll go back and run a few games.”
“I don’t know,” Jack said as he continued to dither. Yet he was slowly calming down and able to think more clearly. What he realized was that he didn’t know whether it was a crime not to report a crime. And if he was involved, whether he’d be considered an accessory after the fact.
“I think I have to call,” Jack said.
