Dead End Street by Sheila Connolly

case.”
    â€œI don’t know whether to be horrified or flattered,” I told her. “So what you’re thinking is, there’s some motive for this shooting that we aren’t seeing—yet. What do you plan to do about it?”
    â€œI do my job. I look at the victims. I look at other crime in that neighborhood. I look to see if anyone has an interest in that property, either seeing it stay up or fall down.”
    â€œAnd is there something you want me to do?”
    â€œYeah. Blakeney and Chapman brought you into this—you’re the wild card, at least until we find some dirt on either of the other two. Look at the history and why you were there. I’ll take care of the rest.”

CHAPTER 8
    We had little more to say to each other, so I signed the statement she had indeed brought with her, and handed Detective Hrivnak over to Eric to be escorted downstairs, after promising her that I’d contact her with any ideas I came up with, even if they seemed trivial. Then I went back into my office and dropped into my chair.
    â€œWell, that was interesting,” I said to Marty.
    â€œSure was. I do believe she trusts you now,” Marty said.
    â€œEnough to follow her gut, even if her bosses want this closed? I’m impressed. Do you agree with what she said?”
    Marty didn’t answer immediately, and she finally said, “I think so. I think we all agree that the guys in the car checking you out more than once is suspicious. Like maybe they were looking for somebody specific, not just any old body. Who else knew you were there?”
    â€œMe, singular, or we, plural?”
    â€œWhatever you know.”
    â€œHeck, I had no clue where we were going. No, I take that back: I had the address, but I had no idea where it was. I told Shelby to look into what we had on it, so she knew. But apart from that, we didn’t even decide to go there until that morning. I told Eric I was going with Tyrone and Cherisse, and I told Shelby to look up any records she could find about the property, going back a ways. And that was it. You think Eric or Shelby told some drug thug to take me out?”
    Marty stifled a smile. “Not hardly. So it doesn’t sound like they were gunning for you, since they didn’t know you’d be there. Unless, of course, the guys followed you—the plural you—from the Society to wherever you went. Which would mean they were following one of the other two. What do we know about them?”
    â€œNot much. I met them both for the first time twenty-four hours ago. You said you’d met Cherisse—what do you know about her?”
    â€œI met her, which is not the same as knowing her. There was some fuss when I inherited the family house when my father passed on, and I had to go to Licenses and Inspections to sort it out. I lucked out with Cherisse—she seemed to be the sharpest apple on that particular tree.”
    â€œHow long ago was this? Because she looked like she was in her early thirties.”
    â€œMaybe three, four years ago? She was efficient—figured out what was wrong, fast, and fixed it. Best experience I’ve had, dealing with a City agency.”
    â€œThat matches what little I know about her. I haven’t had a lot of interactions with the City. Are you hinting that she wasn’t a typical City employee?”
    Marty shrugged. “You said she was interested in this community redevelopment stuff? Maybe she figured working on the inside would be useful for that. Otherwise it’s not usually a great springboard for a career, from what I’ve heard.”
    â€œProbably not, in most cases,” I agreed. “I could see that Cherisse was using it as a way to get up close and personal with how the City works, and to see where the opportunities lay.”
    â€œWhere’d she come from? Local?”
    â€œI don’t know. We never had a chance to talk about stuff like that. Let Hrivnak