.

"OK." Flourishing her pen like a baton, giving him a show. "What's your name?"

"Winston Ciu."

"OK, Winston Ciu. How about you? Did you see or hear something?"

"No," he said. "But I wish I did."

On the third floor the Dominican woman who came to the door jumped back, hand to chest, when she saw the detective standing there."Jeez, do I really look that bad?" Gloria Rodriguez said, patting her hair. "Sorry to bother you so early, but there was a shooting right outside."

"An hour ago," the woman said. She wore spin-rack reading glasses, a floral housedress, and vinyl slippers. "You saw it?" "Heard. I was in bed." "What you hear?" "Like a shot, shots." "Which."

"One, like a firecracker, like pop pop.'" "That's two." "Yeah, no, just one."

Gloria could hear Kendra knocking on a door below her, getting a nibble.

"OK, so, you heard the shot, the pop. You look out the window?"

"No, I don't do that."

"You overhear any talking? Arguing?"

"I don't do that either. If I hear something? I don't listen."

"Maybe you couldn't help it. Maybe . . ."

"I heard arguing, maybe. Maybe I was dreaming it."

"What were they arguing about?"

"In my dream?"

"Sure."

"I don't remember my dreams."

Gloria looked at the woman. "You know there's still some bad people around here we're trying to get off the street." "Good."

"You probably see them every day, right?"

The woman shrugged.

"Who am I talking about . . ."

The woman shrugged.

"Who's got a gun around here."

She tilted her chin to Gloria's hip. 'You do."

On her way down the stairs, Gloria could hear another tenant also talking about an argument out on the street, but when she got to thefloor, she saw that the person she was talking to wasn't Kendra but a reporter.

At a quarter to six, Bobby Oh stood across the street from the still-bustling crime scene with Nikki Williams, the redheads girlfriend.

"I still can't believe, it's like, it's like your life. I mean all you have to do is walk down the wrong street . . ." The tall, slender kid was shivering, her eyes stark in her head. "Nikki . . ."

"It was like nothing. It was like God snapped his fingers."

"Nikki"-Bobby gave a little wave-"you need to tell me what you saw."

"There's a famous line in this poem, 'the world will end not with a bang but with a whimper.' "

Bobby took a breath, spoke to her eyes. " This is the way the world ends. Not with a bang but a whimper.'"

Nikki stared at him with naked surprise.

"Now please, time is everything. Tell me what you saw."

She took a deep, shuddery breath, palmed her heart, followed the arc of a pigeon scouting the commotion. "Nikki."

"OK. Me and Randal we were walking towards each other on Eldridge?"

"Towards each other?" Bobby cocked his head.