Soneji climbed into the front and fired up the blue van. As he drove from the parking area, he sang “Magic Bus” by The Who. He was in an awfully good mood today. He was planning to be America's first serial kidnapper, among other things.
Along Came A Spider
CHAPTER 5
GOT an “emergency” call at the Sanders house at about quarter to eleven. I didn't want to talk to anybody with more emergencies.
I had just spent ten minutes with the news folks. At the time of the project murders, some of the newsies were my buddies. I was a press pet. I'd even been featured in the Washington Post's Sunday magazine section. I talked about the murder rate among black people in D.C. once again. This past year there@@ had been nearly five hundred killings in our capital. Only eighteen victims were white. A couple of reporters actually made a note of that. Progress.
I took the phone from a young, smart S. I. T. detective, Rakeem Powell. I was absently palming a biddy baskethall that must have belonged to Mustaf. The ball gave me a funny feeling. Why murder a beautiful little boy like that? I couldn't come up with an answer. Not so far, anyway.
It's The Jefe, the chief.“ Rakeem frowned. ” He's concerned. "
“This is Cross,” I said into the Sanders telephone. My head was still spinning. I wanted to get this conversation over with real fast.
The mouthpiece smelled of cheap musk perfume. Poo's or Suzette's fragrance, maybe both of theirs. On a table near the phone were photos of Mustaf in a heart-shaped frame. Made me think of my own two kids.