Of all the things Scott Meadows had to do in his job as a police officer, this would be his least favorite. He stood against the building so he could see both sides of the crime scene and the taped borders. At six feet three, he was impressive; in his police uniform, he became almost frightening. His police hat sat down almost level with his eyes, and the skin on the back of his head showed like brown leather. He was glad that shaved heads were still very much in style for Black men because it hid his receding hairline. He wasn’t vain enough to have wanted to hide it, but he was glad for the opportunity.
Although the night had been cold, the morning sun was beginning to warm the air. A breeze carried the last bit of morning coolness past him to offset the warmth of the sun that was beginning to peek through the upper branches of the trees.
For the entire time he’d been here he’d had an audience of kids, standing, whispering, pointing, and gawking. The TV reporters had, for the most part, gotten their shots, and the few who wandered by saw the group of students and decided against it. College students make a very unsatisfactory backdrop to any serious story.
He’d arrived at about dawn. The forensic people had just approved the cleanup. The President of the college had made a frantic call to his custodians and had only managed to talk one into getting up that early to come in. He seemed unfazed by what he had to clean, so Scott assumed he’d been warned.
In hardly any time the blood on the wall had disappeared, and the blood and gore on the walkway followed. Fortunately, the custodian was familiar with health requirements.
Even the taped outline of the victim was removed. They’d taken hundreds of photos, so it wasn’t needed anymore. But over against the wall were three taped outlines, partly on the ground, partly on the wall, of where the three kids who’d caused trouble had been made to sit until someone took them to the station.
One of the officers suggested the tape as a way of reminding the kids who were in charge. Ben Tucker didn’t object, so they did it quickly, and then put the kids in squad cars.
Scott hadn’t been here when they did it but was told about it later. He had been at the station when they had been brought in. They’d each called their parents, and those calls had been followed by calls from the parents to the station. It was unanimously decided that John Levin would handle the situation since he was the officer who’d put them into custody. They also wanted to see him in action.
Had the boys been the least bit apologetic, they most likely would have been released at the scene, but all three adopted the position that they’d been innocent bystanders. Someone else had caused the trouble, they insisted, they just happened to be standing there. So they’d been brought in. In their phone calls, they continued their story that they’d been innocent victims of police ineptitude and the real troublemakers had gotten off scot-free. Following the phone calls, they’d each been fingerprinted, photographed, and escorted to a cell to wait.
“What are those boys charged with?” the Chief asked Levin.
“I was hoping I wouldn’t need to charge them with anything,” Levin answered, “but they still haven’t learned their lesson.”
“Those are the three that tried to get the crowd to turn on you?”
“Yeah, that’s them.”
The Chief thought a minute, and then said to Levin, “We are in the middle of a murder investigation, and they were at the scene. I believe we would be well within the bounds of appropriate police work if they were processed as suspects. When their parents arrive, we can inform them, and if we see some contrition by then, we can rule them out as suspects. Otherwise, they can be informed that their status could very well change from being detained to being arrested, which means a record.”
Levin had smiled. So had the officers nearby who’d heard.
Scott smiled as he remembered it, and the students nearby saw him smile as he looked at the three chalk outlines, and whispers rippled through the crowd. The smile still on his face, the officer looked at the crowd and then turned to check the other side of the area.