The Cut (Spero Lucas) Read Online Free PDF Page B

out it, not once, till she returned about six at night. During the day, no one ever answered our knock.”
    “This the first time you had the package shipped to this location?”
    “We used this house three times,” said Edwin. “It got good to us, man.”
    “When’d you lose the package?” Tavon told Lucas the date. Lucas said, “What time?”
    “In the day? Right about now.”
    “So you tracked the delivery time on the Internet,” said Lucas. “If you knew it was coming, say, around eleven, how long from the time the delivery was made to the time you picked it up off the porch?”
    “Say, five minutes,” said Tavon. “I was parked over there on Kenyon, beside the elementary school.”
    “You had a laptop in your car?”
    “I tracked it on my phone. You ain’t the only one got a handheld computer.”
    “The elementary school would be Tubman,” said Lucas. “Near Wonderland, right?”
    “Yeah, that bar y’all got,” said Tavon, and in the rearview Lucas saw Edwin grin.
    “So, from the time the package dropped, in the five minutes it took for you to get to the house, someone else stepped in and took it off the porch.”
    “Seems that way,” said Edwin.
    “Was it both of you doing the pickup?” said Lucas.
    “Just me that day,” said Tavon.
    Lucas turned his head to face Tavon. “Any idea who took it?”
    “No.”
    “Edwin?”
    “No,
sir
.”
    “Could your source be involved in this?” said Lucas.
    “Huh?”
    “Is it possible the people you’re buying from are stealing it back from you?”
    “We don’t know who the connect is,” said Tavon. “Only Anwan does.”
    “For real,” said Edwin.
    “Okay,” said Lucas. “Let’s check out the back.”
    He ignitioned the Jeep and turned it around. Across Clifton Street the high school, Cardozo, took up the entire block.
    “It takes hair to choose this street.”
    “Why?” said Tavon.
    “Squad cars are parked in front of that school often,” said Lucas. “MPD uniforms are inside, working security every day.”
    “How you know all that?” said Edwin.
    “My brother teaches there,” said Lucas.
    “Well, we never had no problem,” said Tavon.
    “Until you got boosted,” said Lucas.
    He entered the alley that cut west to east on the Clifton end of the block and drove very slowly. The passage was narrow and widened considerably as he turned right and went behind the houses on 12th Street. Many cars were parked in driveways and in the open garages of the backyards. Lucasstopped, took photos, and proceeded to the end, where he hung a right and passed through another narrow alley, landing once again on 12th.
    “All right,” said Lucas. “I’ll drop you guys back at the Grill.”
    “That’s it?” said Tavon.
    Lucas nodded. “I’ll be in touch.”

FOUR

    L ATE IN the afternoon, on the way out to his mother’s house, Lucas drove over the District line and stopped by the Safeway on Fenton Street, where he said hello to his friend C.J., who was stocking canned goods in the soup aisle, and bought some vitamins. In the parking garage he ran into Cory Wilson, a guy he had wrestled with in high school, and they talked for a while about where guys they had known were at in their lives, and then Lucas headed off in his Jeep.
    He lived in the District, but in his head he was never far from his boyhood home, just over the line in Maryland. He ate and drank here frequently with his brother, dates, and friends, and took his coffee at Kefa Café on Bonifant because he liked to visit with the lovely sisters, Lene and Abeba, who owned the shop. Wasn’t ever a day he came out here that he didn’t see folks he knew, the barbers up at Afrikuts; the Hispanic men standing beside their beloved 4Runners; the Wanderer, a guy who walked with a staff and wore a flowing robe; and the women who stood at Silver Spring Avenue andThayer and yelled at passing cars. He’d see dudes he’d played basketball with at the courts on Sligo or more serious hoops