Neighborhood Watches

“For the life of me,” Ross said as he forcefully clicked off the ignition of the car and opened the door.

“…is why you park all the way around the corner from where ever we gotta be?”

Farrell patted his pot belly before unfastening his seatbelt.

“Look, I’m not as young as I used to be. I need to get my steps in.”

He then opened his car door, stepped out and unfastened his blazer button, so that the pot belly poked over his belt buckle. He met Ross at the back of the car who was loosening the strap of his holster.

“I dunno what we expect these folks to know,” Ross half stated half asked.

Farrell half chuckled half sucked his teeth, “I know I’m not gonna be runnin after nobody, and I damn sure know I’m not gonna need my weapon. What the hell you loosen your strap for?”

“Habit.” Ross said deadpan, “How you wanna do this?” He asked Farrell as they walked down the middle of the street and rounded the corner to the Douglas house. Ross squinted, “You sure we on the right block?”

Farrell nodded and pointed to a house with pink ribbons flapping in the breeze fastened to the mailbox with black electrical tape. Ross sighed and tapped on the window part of the screen door with his knuckle.

“I doubt anyone is home.”

“If they are, they ain’t gonna hear you with that knock” Farrell raised his arm to knock on the window with more force, but Ross caught his arm in mid air just as Dennis’ face appeared in the window causing both detectives to take a startled step backwards. Dennis opened the screen door and tiptoed out to the stoop. He had a baby monitor clipped to his shorts. If it were the right size it would have looked like a beeper from the early nineties. Unfortunately, it looked more like a Playskool radio. He also had a bib on his shoulder and didn’t even bother to put his house shoes on, so his socks were sticking to the rough concrete.

“Somethin I can help y’all with?” he whispered while patting the air down with his hand to signal to the officers to keep their voices low.

“Dennis Earl?” Ross asked in his usual gruff nature.

Dennis winced and covered the monitor with his hand as if to shield any unwanted noise. Farrell chuckled and said,

“Relax Dennis it’s not a two way, we can’t wake the baby.”

Dennis waved the detectives off of his stoop and motioned down the street with his head.

“I ain’t takin no chances. I just…JUST got her to sleep, and I swear fo God she hears me thinkin bout goin to sleep.”

Both Farrell and Ross were unconsciously tiptoeing around the corner with Dennis until they both chuckled.

Ross said “Got two of em, I remember. Sometimes you gotta let em cry.”

Dennis sighed, frowned, then snapped at the officers, “Have you ever tried to sleep through a baby cryin man?”

Farrell chuckled, “Nah, I dodged that bullet. If I show up late for shift it’s cuz my night was wild.”

“Yeah well, I can’t show up late no more. They already threatenin to cut back on hours since they put a hold on the buildings that had the bodies in em…”

Farrell snapped his fingers, “That’s where I know you from.” He winked at Ross.

“Mr. Earl here was foreman on the condo site by the waterfront.”

Ross played along, “Right. I remember now.”

Dennis leaned up against the wall and the baby monitor hissed and cackled. Everyone held their collective breaths and listened. It sounded as if someone crumbled a piece of aluminum in her hand then the trio winced as the baby let out the most ear piercing scream. Then they all jogged around the corner and Dennis flew up the steps into the house losing the baby monitor in the process.

“ Fuck! C’mon’ back!” He yelled over the wails of the baby that he was now bouncing on his hip. “Daddy’s sorry baby girl, let me talk to these detectives.”

The baby fell back to sleep in his arms. Ross had picked up the monitor which had fallen down the stoop and placed it onto the coffee table.

“Thank ya. What can I help y’all with? I told y’all at the time, I had just got the gig so I wasn’t on site when they found those boys…”

Farrell who was right behind Ross in the foyer interjected, “No, no Mr. Earl. We’re not here about those boys. We’re here about your boy.

Confused, Dennis gestured to the baby in the pink sleeper with a slight nod of his head.

Ross was tired of dancing around the subject and spat out, “Malik. We’re here about Malik.”

The scream from the baby as well as from her mother in the kitchen were deafening.