My Brother’s Keeper - 29

“Do you know who the people were who did this to your car?” the patrol officer asked Tad once it had been established that Tad had witnessed the crime.

Tad nodded. He had decided that he should go down to the car rather than wait for the police to come to him. When he got there the officers were walking around it, apparently as far as Tad could tell writing down the details of the damage which included a great many dents and a shattered windshield.

“I’ve seen them around. I don’t know their names but…” He had a sudden thought. “I have a photo of three of them.”

The second officer frowned. “Why?”

Tad quickly explained about his nighttime photo expedition, and of seeing them at the end of the alley when he was shooting pictures of two homeless people. “It was just luck,” he explained. “The thing of it is, they saw me too. They weren’t very happy when they realized I’d taken their picture. If you want to come up to the apartment I’ll show you the photos.”

“We will in a minute. From what you saw, did any of them touch the car?”

“When I first saw them, they were leaning against it, which is what set off the alarm.” Tad closed his eyes, trying to visualize the scene. “All of them had either bats or pipes in their hands. While I was watching they never put their hands on the car, but obviously…” He swept his hand out to encompass the damage.

“They must have taken the weapons with them when they fled the scene,” the second officer commented. “Which way did they go?” Tad told him and he immediately headed off in that direction.

“I doubt it’s worth trying to get fingerprints from the exterior,” the first officer told Tad while they waited for his partner to return. “Too many people could have touched it even if you leave it sitting here most of the time.”

“Which I don’t,” Tad told him. “And yeah, I’m sure my friends’ fingerprints are all over it.”

The second officer returned a few minutes later shaking his head. “They didn’t drop them anywhere obvious. One man who was sitting on his stoop saw them run by his house. He says at least two of them were carrying bats. He thought at the time they were running late for a baseball game since they were headed towards the park. He’s the only one I talked to who noticed them, or at least who admits it.”

“Let’s go up and you can show me those photos,” the first officer told Tad.