Page 66 of Crosshairs
Trilling let out a laugh. “Like anyone in the NYPD is going to turn away the famous Michael Bennett. Or are you too busy trying to pin some more murders on me?”
“Rob, listen …”
Trilling didn’t want to hear it. He just turned and walked away.
CHAPTER 82
I TURNED ROB TRILLING’S fugitive, Lou Pershing, over to a patrol sergeant I knew named Chris Zuelie. He was thrilled to claim the arrest. I was still uneasy about the whole event. Trilling was unpredictable, by my estimation. I had to write an affidavit on everything I’d learned about the sniper case, then see what happened from there.
My phone rang. It was Harry Grissom. I answered it, “Hey, what’s up?”
Harry jumped right into it. “There’s been another shooting.”
“Shit.” I said to Harry, “Give me the address and I’ll head over there.”
“No. Keep working on your affidavit and close out any leads you have. I’ll supervise our own squad detectives on this and get you the important details.”
I blurted out, “I saw Trilling a few hours ago.”
“Doing what?”
I explained it all to Harry. When I was finished, Harry said, “That doesn’t sound good.” Harry had a gift for understatement.
“Do you know anything about the new shooting? Victim? Witnesses?”
Harry said the victim was named Scott Dozier. “He’s a twenty-six-year-old white male who dropped out of Rutgers. He’s got a couple of arrests at protests. One of those antifa folks. He tried to light a patrol car on fire with two cops inside.”
“I remember that.”
Harry said, “Yesterday, a judge gave him five years’ probation. Today, the kid was shot outside his apartment on the Lower East Side.”
“Shit.” That did sound like something that would get under Trilling’s skin.
Harry asked, “What’s wrong?”
“That’s where I saw Trilling.”
I told Harry a few more details of what I’d found and what I was working on. My mind raced with the possibilities. I’d found a pattern among all five victims: each had committed crimes but wasn’t being prosecuted. At least we now had a potential motive. Any homicide detective would be excited about that.
As I was about to hang up, Harry said, “One more thing.”
“What’s that?”
“Dennis Wu is already involved in the new shooting.”
“Why?”
“He just showed up. I don’t have control over Internal Affairs. Something tells me the guy wouldn’t listen if someone told himnotto get involved.”
My phone beeped. I looked to see who was calling, then saidto Harry, “Wu is trying to reach me. I’ll call you back in a little bit.” I switched over to Wu’s call. Before I could even speak, I heard Dennis Wu’s voice say, “Bennett, have you heard about the latest shooting?”
“Harry was just filling me in.”
“Why aren’t you at the scene? What are you, on vacation?”
“I’m trying to finish the affidavit on Trilling. Isn’t that what you and command staff want?”
Wu said, “I got something you can add to the affidavit.”