The Night Gardener by George Pelecanos Read Free Book Online

is.”
    “It
damn
sure is. And then, to lose my wife and kids on top of that. I mean, I’m an honest man, Detective. I ain’t never been in trouble in my life.”
    “I know your family. You come from good people.”
    “I never even messed with no drugs before my luck turned bad. A little marijuana, maybe.”
    “That ain’t no thing.”
    “And then my wife goes and takes up with a low-ass criminal. Man sleepin in my bed, telling
my
kids what to say and do… telling them to shut their mouths and show respect. To
him
.”
    “It bothered you.”
    “
Shit
. Wouldn’t it bother
you?
”
    “It would,” said Green, giving him that. “So you smoked some crack yesterday and you went to see your ex-wife.”
    “She was still my wife. We ain’t had no divorce proceedings yet.”
    “My mistake. I got some bad information.”
    “We were still married. And I was just… I was
angry,
Detective. I’m sayin my head was on fire when I left out the house.”
    “Did you take anything with you when you left?”
    Tyree nodded. “A knife. You know, that knife I told you about.”
    “The one you put in the Safeway bag.”
    “Uh-huh. I snatched it up off the counter before I tipped out.”
    “You carried it on the Metrobus.”
    “It was inside my shirt.”
    “And then you walked up Cedar Street with the knife in your shirt and you went to your wife’s apartment.” When Tyree nodded again, Green said, “You knocked on the door, right? Or did you have a key?”
    “I knocked. She asked who it was, and I told her it was me. She said she was busy and couldn’t see me right then, and asked me to go away. I said I just wanted to talk to her for a minute, and she opened the door. I went inside.”
    “Did you say anything else to her when you went inside?”
    In the video room, Antonelli said, “No, I just fucking murdered her ass.”
    “What did you do when you went inside, William?” said Green.
    “She was unloading groceries and stuff. I followed her over to where the groceries were at, by the eating table.”
    “And what did you do when you got there?”
    Ramone leaned forward.
    “I don’t remember,” said Tyree.
    Rhonda Willis entered the video room. To Ramone she said, “Gene found the Safeway bag in the Dumpster. The clothes and the knife are inside it.”
    Ramone did not feel elation of any kind. “Tell Bo,” he said.
    Ramone and Antonelli watched the monitor as Green’s head turned at the sound of a knock. The door opened, and Rhonda came half through it to tell Green he had a call he should probably take.
    Before Green left the interrogation room, he looked at his watch, then up at the camera, and said, “Four thirty-two.”
    He returned several minutes later, stated the time the same way, and took a seat across the table from William Tyree. Tyree was now smoking a cigarette.
    “You all right?” said Green.
    “Yes.”
    “Need another soda, somethin?”
    “I still got some.”
    “Okay, then,” said Green. “Let’s go back to your wife’s apartment yesterday. After you went inside, you followed her over there to the eating table. What happened next?”
    “It’s like I said: I don’t remember.”
    “William.”
    “I’m telling you straight.”
    “
Look
at me, William.”
    Tyree looked into the big soulful eyes of Detective Bo Green. They were caring eyes, the eyes of a man who had run the same streets and walked the halls of Ballou High School, just like Tyree had done. A man who had come up in a strong family, just like him. Who had listened to Trouble Funk and Rare Essence and Backyard, and seen all those go-go bands play for free at Fort Dupont Park, just like him, when both of them had been young men. A man who was not all that different from Tyree, who Tyree could trust to do him right.
    “What did you do with the knife when you followed Jackie over to that table?”
    Tyree did not answer.
    “We have the knife,” said Green without any tone of threat or malice. “We have the clothes