Catherine looked behind Andy, and he turned his head to follow her gaze. There, just climbing out of a black Suburban, were Jordan Mayes and Suzanne Brewer. They both wore black overcoats, and Mayes had two bearded bodyguards with him.

Jordan Mayes flashed his credos to the detective in charge of the carjacking scene and took the man aside. While the two of them stepped off beyond the jackknifed semi, Suzanne Brewer walked over to the truck driver and began talking to him.

“I’ll be damned,” said Shoal. “Are you going to ask them what they’re doing here?”

Catherine said, “We both are. Divide and conquer. I’ll take Mayes.” She started to walk off, then she turned back to Andy. “Don’t mention Brandywine Street. You’re just here because this is a crime, and I’m just here because of the Babbitt killing nearby and his ties to the intelligence community.”

“Got it,” Andy said.

—

As soon as Suzanne Brewer finished talking to the truck driver, Andy Shoal caught up to her. “Hello? Excuse me.” She stopped and turned, extended a hand. Andy knew she thought he was a detective, and he was about to ruin her night. “Andrew Shoal from the Post. Can I get your name? Do you have a card?”

She pulled her hand away quickly. “No, sorry.”

“Are you law enforcement?”

“Homeland Security,” she said, and she turned away, making a beeline to the police tape around the blood spatter, thinking it would keep Andy back.

“Really? I just assumed you work with Jordan Mayes over there.”

Brewer knelt under the tape, kept walking. After a few seconds she looked back and saw Andy had ducked the tape as well and remained on her heels. She said, “Sorry, I’m involved in an investigation here. Will you excuse me?”

“Any thought this might have something to do with the Babbitt killing on Cedar Parkway?”

“We are looking into—”

“I mean, it would have to, right? You’ve got bloodstains here. There was a lot of shooting at the other scene.”

“I’m going to have to ask you to step on the other side of the tape.” Her eyes flitted around, trying to find an officer close enough to help her.

Andy continued as if he hadn’t heard. “But the weird thing to me is, there is a lot of blood here, especially considering the first event was an hour and a half before the second. No way some guy is going to bleed like that for that long. You have any information about another shooting? Something after Cedar Parkway, and before here?”

Brewer turned away from Andy, looked around at the scene, as if she was considering what the young reporter was saying. After a few moments her head seemed to clear, and she reached out and grabbed a passing state police officer by the arm.

“Yes, ma’am?”

“Is this reporter authorized to be inside the police line?”