“She said she was,” Hoersch said. “I think she said she was the one who phoned it in. She was holding the victim’s hand, crying that kind of gospel crying that blacks do in those old-fashioned movies. ‘Lordy, Lordy.’ That kind of shit. Victim was bleeding all over the place. Al—Officer Torres—immediately administered aid to the victim, took a towel and tried to stanch the bleeding. I went over to the perp and cuffed him.”

“How’d you know who the perp was?”

“He was the only man in the room,” Hoersch said. “Besides, the neighbor, in between her Lordies, kept pointing to him and saying, ‘He did it! He did it!’”

“The neighbor made the accusation?”

“Yeah.”

“How’d she know? Did she catch him in the act?”

“I think she did.”

“Was this neighbor middle-aged?”

“Yeah.”

“Do you remember her name?”

“Not offhand.”

“Was it Leandra Walsh?”

“I think her first name was Leandra,” Hoersch said. “Last name wasn’t Walsh, though.”

“Think you could ID her?” Decker asked.

“Yeah.” Hoersch shifted his weight, cocked his hip. “Why?”

“What did the perp do while Leandra was shouting, ‘He did it, he did it’?”

“He was dazed,” Hoersch said. “Leandra had hit him over the head with a lamp.”

“Leandra hit the perp over the head with a lamp?”

“Yeah,” Hoersch said, nodding.

“Not the victim?”

“No way!” Hoersch said, laughing. “The victim was hanging on for dear life.”

“Detective Andrick stated in his report that the victim knocked the perp over the head.”

“Not the way I saw or heard it,” Hoersch said. “’Course, they may have told Detective Andrick something different. You know how it is. People get mixed up all the time.”

“Sure,” Decker said. “When you talked to Leandra, what did she say happened?”

“Just that she’d heard screams,” Hoersch said. “Came in through the victim’s door—”

“Door was unlocked?”

“Must have been.” Hoersch folded his arms across his chest. “You know, it’s hard to remember without my notes in front of me.”

Decker said, “You’re doing better than I could. Besides, this is all off the record.”

“This gimp really a buddy of yours?”

“Yep.”

Hoersch raised his eyebrows.

Decker said, “So Leandra heard screams and rushed in the victim’s door.”

“Yeah,” Hoersch said. “No…wait. I think it went like this. First, she said, she called the police. Then she rushed in and saw the perp attacking the victim. She conked him over the head with a lamp. He was still dazed by the time we got to him.”

“She called nine-one-one first?”

“I think that’s what she said. She heard screams and called the police. But the police were too slow, and she went in herself…something like that.”

“A nine-one-one call was placed,” Decker said, “But it was called from the victim’s phone.”

Hoersch paused. “I think she said she called the police from her apartment.”