They made their way up the stairs and found the exact setup as the floor below. This time, before they had a chance to split up, they could hear a fairly loud conversation coming from the hallway to the left. It seemed to be one of good nature, but it was the term “greedy white ass” that really caught their attention.
They walked to the first door along the hallway and Frank stepped in the lead, knocking on the door. The conversation inside stopped right away and was replaced by a loud, booming male voice. “Yeah, hold on!”
When they door opened, they were greeted by a frail but intimidating black man. He wasn’t wearing a shirt, and the pants he wore showed the telltale rips and tears of hard manual labor.
“Can I help you?” the man asked.
“I hope so,” Frank said, pulling out his badge. “We’re Detectives Wimbly and Gold. We’re looking into the new building management, trying to get some details on how things have been going since the building was purchased.”
The tall man laughed and looked back into the apartment. Ava looked in over Frank’s shoulder and saw two other black men. They were sitting at a table with bottles of pop. “You boys hear that? They want to know what we think of the new building manager.”
One of the men cackled a bit while the other only shook his head.
“Would you mind if we came inside?” Ava asked.
“Yes ma’am, come on in.”
Frank seemed momentarily irritated at this but she also got the feeling it was simply out of his protective nature.
“So, why the laughter?” Frank asked the cackling man at the table.
“Well, I live next door. And the same man that bought this building got that one, too. And I hope you folks don’t take offense to this, but as soon as we knew a white man was buying up property in Harlem, we’d be forced out. Sure enough, rent was jacked up within two weeks.”
“What was the difference?” Frank asked.
“We were paying fourteen a month under the old owner. But this new white fella came in and it was bumped up to twenty-two. Prices like that, and I may have to go back to tenement housing. But…well, I guess that’s what he wants.”
“Gentlemen,” Ava said, “you may be interested to know that your new landlord was killed two days ago. We’re currently looking for the murderer and aren’t having much luck. We were hoping to find out what sort of relationship he had with the people living in these two apartment buildings.”
All three men looked baffled. The quiet one at the table even looked ashamed that they’d just been speaking ill of him.
“He’s dead…for real?” the tall man who had answered the door asked.
“Yes,” Frank said. “In an alleyway not far from here. Do you know of anyone in these two buildings that had any sort of grudge with him?”
“Well, yeah,” the other man at the table said. “Just about everyone does. Look, it’s nice that he’s trying to clean up the place and make it nicer, but everyone is pretty upset about how he increased the rent. But I don’t…well, I just don’t know that it would be enough for anyone to kill him. Then again, we don’t really know everyone in both the buildings.”
“Hell,” the man that answered the door said. “I don’t even know everyone that lives in this building.”
“There’s Harriet, though,” the man at the table said.
“Oh, there’s nothing wrong with Harriet,” the other man at the table argued.
“And who is Harriet?” Ava asked.
The man who had answered the door reclaimed his seat at the table and sipped from his pop. After swallowing, he said, “Sweet little young girl that lives in the next building. She’s already looking at getting out of here. Pretty sure her husband died and she was left with a baby. Now, I didn’t see this, just heard about it, you know? But rumor has it that someone complained about the baby crying and that new landlord of ours went to her and raised all kinds of hell. And ever since then, Harriet has been…”
“Different,” the quiet man said. “Every time I see her, she’s damn near scared. For what, I don’t know.”
“The landlord got on her about a crying baby?” Ava asked. “That seems harsh.”
“A crying baby, walking too loud, snoring, whatever it takes. A new white landlord with mostly black renters. Doesn’t take a genius to figure out why he might take a complaint like that seriously.”
“And she’s in the next building over?” Ava said.
“Yes, ma’am, the one right beside here,” the quiet man said. “Harriet knows me a bit. I can walk you over there if you want. I’m sure you know…well, there’s not many people around here that are going to trust cops. No offense.”
“None taken,” Frank said. “And what’s your name, sir?”