“Donna ‘Missy’ Harris.”
He was quiet for a full thirty seconds. When he looked up at me, I saw a tear on his cheek. “I will remember her every day. It’s too easy to forget the people cast aside by society.”
The three of us sat down on some crates in the alley. The duke said, “Odd things have been happening in the Tenderloin. Strangers have been talking to young women. Some of the young women who lived here have moved on without a word. It’s all very concerning.”
He mentioned a residential hotel a few blocks away that seemed to be a hub for this activity. I knew the place. The Garden Spot. A six-story, ramshackle building with about sixty rooms. Not exactly a tourist attraction. The city administrators had used it to house homeless people, but unfortunately it had been corrupted over the years. Now it was apparently a center for prostitution and drug dealing.
After we said our good-byes, Alain and I turned and started walking toward my car.
It was late afternoon and there were a lot of people around. We stopped for a minute in front of the Luz Hotel.
Suddenly, we heard a clear gunshot. A bullet impacted about a foot above Alain’s head on the side of the hotel.
Close enough to spray concrete chips onto his head.
We both jumped forward and ducked behind a parked car. Alain was remarkably calm. I pulled my duty weapon in case someone tried to come closer to finish the job.
After a second, I took a quick peek over the hood of the older Chevy. Only a few people on the street had even realized what had happened. Most people went about their day. I looked but couldn’t see who’d fired the shot. I wasn’t even sure exactly where it had come from.
Was this a case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time? Or were we getting too close to something?
CHAPTER65
THE REST OFthe day was a whirlwind after Alain and I left the Tenderloin. I dropped Alain back at his hotel, and we made plans for him to come over tomorrow evening to meet Julie and Joe and enjoy a home-cooked meal.
Back at the office, I got stuck writing a report about the single gunshot. It felt like a dozen bosses asked me about the shooting incident near the Luz Hotel. Word gets around a police department quickly when there is even a hint of a shot being fired at a cop. It was almost as draining as the event itself.
We all have days like this. I’d had no time alone because I’d been driving around with Alain all day. I was worried about the investigation. And most importantly, I had no idea why someone had taken a shot at us. Although I tried to play it down to anyone who asked me about it.
Plus, I still had to talk to Joe about it. I dreaded that as much as administrators asking me about the incident.
I finally made it home, feeling like a prisoner in the RussianGulag as I trudged up to our building’s front door. Even running into Gloria Rose, our beloved neighbor and part-time sitter, didn’t perk me up.
I barely managed to get out, “Hey, Gloria.”
The elderly woman stopped me and said, “Are you all right, sweetheart?”
“I look that bad?”
“You look exhausted. Everything okay?”
I nodded and assured her it had just been a very long workday.
Inside our apartment, I breathed a sigh of relief. It was like entering a comfortable bunker. I like to pretend nothing can bother me inside our own apartment.
Joe and Julie were in the kitchen. I saw that Joe was wearing the apron Julie had made him back in preschool, white with a purple-crayon portrait of what I thought was a dinosaur. I could tell by the look he gave me that he had a lot to say but was holding back for now. I gave him a kiss on the cheek and then turned to catch Julie midflight as she leaped into my arms.
After I took a quick shower and changed into jeans and an oversized SFPD T-shirt, we had a dinner of chicken parmesan and a quick game of Go Fish. Then Julie changed into her lavender unicorn pj’s and I read her a chapter fromA Bear Called Paddington. Before I’d even finished half of the short chapter, she drifted off. One arm cuddled her beloved plush stuffed cow, Mrs. Mooey Milkington, and the other dangled off the side of the bed. Martha lay on her favorite dog bed directly under Julie’s tiny hand. It made me smile.
It was time to gather my courage. I knew Joe expected a serious conversation. I crept out of Julie’s bedroom and stepped into the living room. I found my husband sitting in the recliner we calledhis Dad’s chair. I dropped into my Mom’s chair, an oversized easy chair, and we turned them so we were facing each other.
Somehow my comfortable Mom’s chair didn’t feel like any protection.
Joe simply said in a calm voice, “Tell me about the shooting.”
“It wasn’t really a shooting.”
“Was there a gunshot?”
