owner of the car and he never knocked on the door to see if maybe you heard the break-in or saw anybody?”
“That’s right.”
“What about the kids who broke in?” Thompson asked, robbing Rachel of the payoff question. “You know them, Mr. Atkins?”
“Adkins. With a D, no T, Mr. G.”
Adkins laughed at his command of the alphabet.
“Mr. Adkins,” Thompson said, correcting himself. “Well, do you?”
“Do I what?”
“Know who the kids were.”
“No, I don’t know who they were.”
His eyes strayed past us to the television. On the program they were now selling a glove with small rubber bristles on the palm for grooming pets.
“I know what else you could use that for,” Adkins said. He made a masturbation motion with his hand and winked and smiled at Thompson. “That’s what they’re really selling that for, you know.”
Rachel stepped over to the TV and turned it off. Adkins didn’t protest. She straightened up and looked at him.
“We’re investigating the murder of a police officer. We’d like your attention. We have reason to believe the car you saw burglarized belonged to a suspect. We are not interested in prosecuting the boys who broke into the car, but we need to speak to them. You were lying just then, Mr. Adkins. I saw it in your eyes. The boys came from this park.”
“No, I—”
“Let me finish. Yes, you were lying to us. But we’re going to give you another chance. You can tell us the truth now or we’ll go back and get more agents and police and we’ll go through this dump you call a trailer park like an army laying siege. You think we’ll find any stolen property in those tin cans? You think we might run across some people wanted on warrant? How about some illegals? What about safety code violations? We passed one back there, I saw the extension cord going out the door into the shed. They’ve got somebody living in there, don’t they? And I bet you and your employer charge extra for that. Or maybe just you do. What’s your employer going to say when he finds out? What’s he going to say when the receivables go down because the people who are supposed to be paying you rent cannot because they’ve been deported or they’re in lock-up on warrant holds for not paying child support? What about you, Mr. Ad-kins? You want me to run the serial number off that television on the computer?”
“The TV’s mine. Bought it fair and square. Know what you are, FBI lady? Fucking Bitch Investigator.”
Rachel ignored the comment, though I thought Thompson turned away to hide a smile.
“Fair and square from who?”
“Never mind. It was those Tyrell brothers, okay? They’re the ones what robbed that car. Now if they come in here and beat the shit outta me, I’m suing you. Got that?”
With directions from Adkins we arrived at a trailer four units in from the main entrance. Word had spread that the law was in the park. There were more people on stoops and sitting on the outdoor couches. When we got to Number 14, the Tyrell brothers were waiting for us.
They were sitting on an old glider beneath a blue canvas awning extending from the side of a double-wide trailer. Next to the door of the trailer were a washer and dryer set beneath a blue canvas cover to keep the rain off. The two brothers were teenagers, maybe a year apart and of mixed race, black and white. Rachel stepped to the edge of the shade provided by the awning. Thompson took a spot about five feet to her left.
“Guys,” Rachel said and got no response. “Your mother home?”
“Nah, she not, Officer,” the older one said.
He looked at the brother with slow eyes. The brother started rocking the glider back and forth with his leg.
“You know,” Rachel said, “we know you’re smart. We don’t want any trouble with you. Don’t want to give you any trouble. We promised Mr. Adkins that when we went in there to ask where your trailer was.”
“Adkins, shit,” the younger one said.
“We’re here about the car that was parked out on the road last week.”
“Didn’t see it.”
“No, we didn’t see it.”
Rachel walked over close to the older one and bent down to talk directly into his ear.
“Come on now,” she said softly. “This is one of those times your mother told you about. Think now. Use your head. Remember what she told you. You don’t want trouble for her or for yourselves. You want