I waited until eight and called Captain Daryl Sippleman, who was coordinating the search for Li’l Eight. I didn’t want to tip him off about my discovery; I just wanted to know if he was close to arresting Li’l Eight.
“Sorry, Ash, no luck yet,” he said. “But I did bust that woman who set you up.”
“Where they holding her?”
“She’s at the jail over at Seventy-seventh. And don’t worry about Li’l Eight. It’s supposed to heat up over the next few days. The natives will be restless, and they’ll all be out on the streets. We’ll get him.”
“I don’t like the idea of this guy still roaming around.”
“Neither do I,” Sippleman said. “We’ll scoop up his ass. Don’t worry.”
But I was worried. And I wasn’t going to wait around to see when-or if-Sippleman would finally find Li’l Eight. Sippleman had his chance. Now I was going to track him down using my own methods.
I showered, dressed, and headed down to the 77th Division. After parking in back, I hustled over to where they kept the female prisoners. I told the jailer to bring out the woman who’d set me up.
A few minutes later, she shuffled into the interview room, wearing a frayed yellow housedress. When she saw me she shouted, “All because of you that I’m here.”
“No. It’s all because of you. Remember when you told me where I could find Rip? Well, when I got there he tried to kill me. And he was almost able to do it because he knew I was coming. And he knew I was coming because you warned him. That’s why you were arrested for conspiracy to commit murder. That’s why you won’t see the sun shine for the next twenty years.”
She buried her face in her palms. After I let her cry for a few minutes, I said, “There might be a way for me to help you.”
She lifted her head and looked up at me, eyes red and tear-stained. “How?”
“I’ve got to find Li’l Eight. You let me know where I can find him, and I’ll talk to the DA for you. He might cut your sentence.”
“How can I find him from the jailhouse?”
“Follow me.”
I led her down a narrow hallway that smelled of disinfectant to the small windowless sergeant’s office, which was empty. “Sit,” I ordered, pointing to the chair behind the desk.
I handed her a pen and pad, pointed to the phone, and said, “Get me an address.”
During the next fifteen minutes she made a series of calls, the phone jammed between her ear and the crook of her neck, her voice muffled. After slamming the receiver down on the hook, she glared at me and jabbed her finger on a number she’d scrawled on the paper.
“There’s the address right there. You put it out that I tell you where he stayin’, I dead. You understand?”
I grabbed the piece of paper and said, “If he knows I’m coming, you’ll never get out of here. You’ll never see your kids again. You understand?”
After leading her back to the interview room, I left for a moment to tell the jailer not to let the woman make any phone calls for the next twenty-four hours. When I returned, I said, “I want to ask you something else before I leave. You know Li’l Eight?”
“I seen him around a few time.”
“You know anything about a market shooting he was involved in?”
“Don’t know nothin’ ’bout that.”
“You sure?”
“Sure I’m sure.”
“You ever hear of a woman named Latisha Patton?”
She crossed her legs. “I heard of her.”
“What did you hear?”
“I heard she a snitch.”
My mouth went dry. “Who’d you hear that from?”
“It was out on the street.”
“How’d it get out on the street?”
She jiggled a foot and said, “Will it help my case if I tell you?”
I slammed my fist on the metal table. “Where’d that information come from?” I shouted.
She glanced at me with distaste, pursing her lips as if she had just sucked a lemon. “A girl from ’round here, named Rhonda Davis, her sister work at your po-lice headquarters downtown. She a secretary. She work with all the kiddie cops.”
“Juvenile?”
“Yeah. That’s it. Well, she gettin’ down with one of your big shot cops there. A guy she call the Big Leprechaun. Rhonda’s sister hear it from him.”
As I walked back to my car, I was so stunned I had trouble walking. I tried to sort out what I had just heard, but I still couldn’t believe it. I took a few deep breaths, slowly exhaling.
I called Ortiz at the station. I tried to speak, but my mouth was too dry. Finally, I managed to croak, “Meet me on Second Street behind