Episode 7
The Hoodie had been robbing liquor stores, small grocery stores and mini-marts for the past three months. Most of the stores had been owned by Korean immigrants, and had all taken place within a half hour of closing time in the cases of grocery and liquor stores, and between eleven at night and one in the morning in the cases involving 24 hour mini-marts. Tuesdays and Thursday were the days he chose to ply his trade, and as his spree progressed he became more aggressive. At first he had just banished a gun, grabbed the money and run out of the store. In the last two incidents he had hit the clerks with a pistol, a small revolver, despite the fact that neither clerk had put up any resistance to being robbed.
The only description the police had was of a man about 5' 8" wearing blue jeans, white running shoes and a dark hooded sweat shirt that was zipped to the neck and the hood pulled up over the head the clerk only a view of wrap around sunglasses, a nose and, depending on the clerk's memory, a sparse black mustache. He was described a having olive toned skin and an Hispanic accent.
The tapes from the security cameras didn't add much to the description given by the victims except to show that he moved quickly and exhibited fewer nervous movements as he robbed more stores.
The Korean Grocer's Association was beginning to make noises about racism in the police department and hinting that they would either recommend that the members of the KGA arm themselves. Tate couldn't blame them for their wanting to arm themselves, but he didn't want to have to investigate a shooting where the store clerk was slower on the draw than the Hoodie. And he didn't like the thought of a grocer carrying the psychological weight of killing a man, even if it was the Hoodie, for the rest of his or her life. Tate had been carrying that weight for more than twenty years and he knew that it was a hard thing to bear.
Now he wished that the Hoodie was his major problem. The Hoodie had a simple motive; money. Hauser's murder was different. It didn't appear to be the result of robbery. Hauser's murder seemed to be personal. Hauser was in a place that one wouldn't expect to find a minister. Hauser seemed to have either known and trusted the killer, or had been taken by surprise by someone who had a hate for him that Hauser didn't realize as Hauser entered his car because it appeared that the car door had been open when Hauser was shot. Until he had further information Tate had to work on the assumption that the killer had shut the door. So far all he had was a murder without a motive done by a person never seen.
He emptied his pipe ash into the gutter and pocketed the pipe before going back to the parking lot to see if science could find what insight and instinct was still pondering. He walked past Garza's Ford truck and looked in the cab. Garza was sleeping with his mouth half open and Tate could hear Garza's snoring through the open window.
"The sleep of the innocent," he thought as he walked by.
The only description the police had was of a man about 5' 8" wearing blue jeans, white running shoes and a dark hooded sweat shirt that was zipped to the neck and the hood pulled up over the head the clerk only a view of wrap around sunglasses, a nose and, depending on the clerk's memory, a sparse black mustache. He was described a having olive toned skin and an Hispanic accent.
The tapes from the security cameras didn't add much to the description given by the victims except to show that he moved quickly and exhibited fewer nervous movements as he robbed more stores.
The Korean Grocer's Association was beginning to make noises about racism in the police department and hinting that they would either recommend that the members of the KGA arm themselves. Tate couldn't blame them for their wanting to arm themselves, but he didn't want to have to investigate a shooting where the store clerk was slower on the draw than the Hoodie. And he didn't like the thought of a grocer carrying the psychological weight of killing a man, even if it was the Hoodie, for the rest of his or her life. Tate had been carrying that weight for more than twenty years and he knew that it was a hard thing to bear.
Now he wished that the Hoodie was his major problem. The Hoodie had a simple motive; money. Hauser's murder was different. It didn't appear to be the result of robbery. Hauser's murder seemed to be personal. Hauser was in a place that one wouldn't expect to find a minister. Hauser seemed to have either known and trusted the killer, or had been taken by surprise by someone who had a hate for him that Hauser didn't realize as Hauser entered his car because it appeared that the car door had been open when Hauser was shot. Until he had further information Tate had to work on the assumption that the killer had shut the door. So far all he had was a murder without a motive done by a person never seen.
He emptied his pipe ash into the gutter and pocketed the pipe before going back to the parking lot to see if science could find what insight and instinct was still pondering. He walked past Garza's Ford truck and looked in the cab. Garza was sleeping with his mouth half open and Tate could hear Garza's snoring through the open window.
"The sleep of the innocent," he thought as he walked by.
posted by Hitz at 5:40 PM
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