The real cool killers

2

The telephone rang in the captain's office at the 126th Street precinct station. The uniformed officer behind the desk reached for the outside phone without looking up from behind the record sheet he was filling out. "Harlem precinct, Lieutenant Anderson," he said. A high-pitched correct voice said, "Are you the man in charge?" "Yes, lady," Lieutenant Anderson said patiently and went on writing with his free hand. "I want to report that a white man is being chased down Lenox Avenue by a colored man with a gun," the voice said with the smug sanctimoniousness of a saved sister. Lieutenant Anderson pushed aside the record sheet and pulled forward a report pad. When he'd finished taking down the essential details of her incoherent account, he said, "Thank you, Mrs. Collins," hung up and reached for the closed line to central police on Centre Street. "Give me the radio dispatcher," he said.