Snaggle

by PD Kiernan

  Cassidy and her father honked their car horn outside of Suzie’s house by mid-morning. It was Monday of a new week, and, as it happened, Mr. Dibella was off from his job that day. Cassidy kissed her grandmother goodbye and jumped into the backseat of the large car.

  “Howyadoin’ Suzie?” Mr. Dibella asked.

  “Hey Suzie,” Cassidy added.

  “Hi Cass. Very well, Mr. Dibella. Thank you,” she said.

  “You’re very welcome. Maybe these cops will have some answers. We can hope,” Mr. Dibella said as he pulled away.

  They walked in to see good old Sergeant Joe standing behind his large desk once again. He had his head down while writing in some papers and didn’t see them walk up.

  “Hey there, Sergeant Joe!” Suzie said.

  “Well, hello there, Suzie!” he said, lookup up at them over his reading glasses. “And who’s this?”

  “Hello officer, my name is Tony Dibella. This is my daughter, Cassidy.”

  “Oh yeah, me and Cassidy go way back. Right, Cass? When was that, like a year ago Suzie brought you in here for gum?”

  “That’s right, maybe a little longer,” Cassidy answered.

  “Well, we aren’t here for gum today, Sergeant Joe,” Suzie said.

  “Oh, yeah?”

  “Yes. My bike was stolen,” Suzie said.

  “Oh, I- I’m so sorry to hear that, Suzie,” Sergeant Joe said as his face grew serious. “When did this happen?”

  “It was the day before yesterday,” Suzie said, and Joe seemed a little surprised.

  “I called it in,” Mr. Dibella said. “The person who answered said there have been quite a few, and we should come down this morning to fill out a report, when the detective is back in.”

  “Yeah, right. I think whoever you spoke to was, what we call in the police business, passing the buck,” Sergeant Joe said with a smile. “Let me go grab the detective, I think he’s around. In the meantime, come over here and I’ll have you fill out this report. Just the top part, okay?”

  They all moved over to a side bench and completed the report. Sergeant Joe returned after a few minutes and said the detective would be down in a little while, but it was a long time before a man strolled down the stairs.

  He had light colored pants with a dark short-sleeved shirt and his usual light colored tightly brimmed hat on. The toothpick was hanging from his teeth along with the slim smile he put on as he approached them.

  “Hello again, Suzie, right? And who’s this?” he said to Mr. Dibella.

  “Hi, I’m Tony Dibella. I’m with my daughter, Cassidy, and her friend Suzie here, who I guess you’ve met.”

  “Yes. I’m Detective Rosario, petty theft, among other things,” he said with a sneer. He turned towards Suzie and spoke a little louder to her. “So, Suzie, I was sorry to hear from Joe that your bike was the latest to go, huh?”

  “Yes, that’s right,” she answered.

  “Well, I’ll take the paper, if you don’t mind, and we’ll get that processed right away,” he said and she handed him the sheet. “Okay, we’ll be in touch when we have something,” he said and walked away.

  “Well, I, uh-” Suzie said but was cut off by Cassidy.

  “Hey, wait a minute!” Cass yelled and started to walk after Rosario.

  “Hold on, Cass,” her dad said as he put himself between her and the detective. “I think what the girls are trying to say,” Mr. Dibella began to say cordially, “is they actually have some information. See they’ve been working with a map, and Cass here, she’s actually seen the guy riding away on Suzie’s bike.”

  “She’s seen the guy?” the detective asked. He raised his eyebrows, tipped his hat back, and stuck his toothpick in the brim. “Well, that changes things.” He quickly took out a small notebook, similar to Suzie’s. He flipped it open and took out a small pencil. “If you saw some photos, do you think you can recognize his face again?”

  “Well, I didn’t see his face,” Cass said.

  “No? Well,” he knelt on one knee next to Cass, “what did you see?” he asked and held out his notebook. “Let’s start with that, okay?”

  “He was a little far away, but I definitely saw he was young, or- not really young, but not old, definitely not old like my dad,” Cassidy said, which made her dad raise his eyebrows. “I mean, he moved really quick, like. He had on a hooded sweatshirt, and jeans, I think.”

  “You think?” The detective wrote down a note, stopped and stood up. “What color was the sweatshirt?”

  “Um, it was blue, I think- no,” Cassidy stammered as Rosario looked at her sideways. “Maybe, yes, blue, definitely,” Cass continued.

  “Definitely?” Rosario asked.

  “Actually, Cass, I hate to say this, but I’m pretty sure it was green. Like a dark green,” Suzie added and Cass quickly gave her a stern look. “But I can see how you would think it was blue, really. It was close.”

  “Maybe it was blue-green,” the detective said as he closed his notebook and put it away. “Look, I’m sure you got a good look at his sweatshirt, but this is a big precinct and we have a lot of cases here. Don’t get me wrong, this is an important one.” He then placed the toothpick back into the corner of his mouth. “There’s a lot of bikes missing, and if it is all one guy-”

  “It is, officer,” Suzie said cutting him off.

  “That’s detective,” Rosario quickly said.

  “That’s right, she is!” Cass said.

  “Yes, I apologize, of course, detective,” Suzie continued. “But we’ve found a pattern on the map.”

  “Right, you said that,” Rosario said.

  “Detective, I know you’re busy, but these bikes are all these kids got,” Mr. Dibella said. “They use ‘em all day long. And I don’t have to tell you in this neighborhood we can’t go out and get new bikes at the drop of a hat. Maybe you can listen to Suzie for a minute.”

  “Look, Mr. Dibella, I would love to stand here all day and look at kid’s maps and scribbles, and whatever else they have, but, unfortunately, like they say, the city never sleeps, and I have to get back to work. So, Mr. Dibella, kids,” the detective lifted his hat up as a goodbye and turned quickly and started walking towards the stairs.

  “What about all of my friends’ bikes!” Cassidy yelled out.

  “It takes a while sometimes, but we’ll get ‘em,” he said without stopping or turning around.

  “But the summer is almost over!” Suzie pleaded, but Rosario kept walking while glancing down at Suzie’s report, then he disappeared up the stairs.

  “What a goober!” Mr. Dibella said, then looked at Suzie and Cass who were a little surprised. “I’m sorry, but he is what he is. He barely gave us the time-a-day! I mean, really!” They all started walking out.

  “Hey kids. What did Rosario say?” Sergeant Joe said as they walked past.

  “Not much,” Suzie said.

  “No, well. He’s a little, uh, I’m not sure of the word I’m lookin’ for,” Joe said.

  “Rude!” Cass said.

  “That might work,” Joe said. “Did he give you his card?”

  “No, nothing,” Suzie answered.

  “Here,” he said as he waved Suzie closer to the desk, “take mine.” He handed her a little card with the police shield on it and his full name, which she still couldn’t pronounce. “It has my mobile number on the back. You call me if you need help, anytime. You might wake up the wife, but I’m awake most of the time, okay? I overheard some of what you said over there. You guys saw the creep?”

  Suzie nodded, still holding the card up and admiring how nice it was compared to hers.

  “Listen, stay away from that guy if you see him again. You call me, right away. You guys stay safe, okay?”

  “Okay,” Suzie said.

  “You take care, okay kid,” he said with a wink beneath his reading glasses.

  “Yes, sir,” Suzie said.

  “Thank you, officer,” Mr. Dibella said as they walked out.

 
Chapter 14