“Good. Okay. Stanley’s coming in later. I think he said nine.”

She considered the traffic and closed her eyes. Body would be on a bus and tagged by the time she got to D.C. What was the point of going? She could so easily phone it in, and no one would be the wiser. She looked longingly at Chain Bridge Road. She was so close. Was it really going to take three rides out here to get to the MECS parking lot? Seemed so. She was stinging with frustration, but she pushed it away, checked her mirrors, and pulled out into the screaming horn of another motorist she just hadn’t seen.

•  •  •

“An officer was sent to the 200 block of C Street NE to check on a person staggering in the road. Police said the man grabbed the officer’s collapsible baton and hit him on the head several times. The officer, whose name was not released, then fired once, striking the man in the shoulder, police said.”

Vera paused until she heard the keyboard stop. She asked Stanley to read it back. When he was done, she said, “Oh. That one was 7:30 p.m., okay? Just stick it up there after the word ‘sent.’ ‘An officer was sent at 7:30 p.m.,’ and then the rest, like I had it.”

She heard him type it in.

“Ready?” she asked.

“Go ahead,” he said.

“An 11-year-old boy was shot in the wrist about 10:20 p.m. in the 1500 block of 45th Street NE, police said. About 10:50 p.m., three men were wounded in their legs in a drive-by shooting in the 600 block of Park Road NW, police said. Officers found one man on the scene, and a short time later, two other men hit in the shooting arrived at a hospital, police said. Investigators do not know of a motive.”

Finally, he stopped typing.

“Okay, new graph,” she said.

“Right, new graph.”

“Then, just before midnight, a woman was shot in the back in the 5100 block of Fitch Street SE.”

“That’s it?”

“Yeah, that’s all I have on that one,” Vera said.

“There was another shooting there last year,” Stanley said.

“For real?”

“It was a woman too,” Stanley said.

“I’ll ask them about that.”

“No, no, don’t. This is taking you away from your pilot.”

“I have one more,” Vera said, a little ticked off at Stanley, though it wasn’t his fault, not at all, this annoying night. But she still wanted to find out where he’d been earlier. “You ready?”

“Yes,” Stanley said.

“The busy night continued at 12:05 a.m., when a man in his early 20s was wounded in a shoulder as he left a carryout in the 2100 block of Alabama Avenue SE, police said.”

She stopped, scanned her notes one last time. “Okay,” she said. “That’s it.”