Conversation

She was walking downtown with Roger, her black lab, when a man in a gray hoodie intercepted her. He looked right at her and said, "Do you know who I am?" She looked at him. His voice and lips looked familiar but not the goatee.
"Yes," she said before she was sure. He told her about the latest drug bust in her neighborhood over at the blue buildings.
"Sorry for not getting back to you. I lost my iPhone. I got in trouble for it. I have no email now except on my laptop. I have a temporary cell phone but I can't do email on it." He opened the black clam-shell phone and pointed to the tiny screen inside.
"What a coincidence to run into you," she said. "I just copied down a license plate number and was wondering if I should send it to you." She pulled a white folded envelope out of her front jeans pocket and showed him the plate numbers she had written along with "silver SUV Cadillac" and a sketch of a cactus. "I think the cactus is an Arizona plate. It could be my wild imagination but these three guys were parked in the alley and they were up to something," she said.
"If you think they were, they probably were," he said. "Do you have a pen?"
"Yes, I do," she dug out a blue pen and small black notepad from her shoulder bag and wrote down his new cell phone number. "I just worry that I'm a pest," she said.
"I was just doing some surveillance on Ivy Street and while I was there I saw three other drug deals happen right in front of me. I had to ignore them and stay focused. We are spread thin," he said.
"I understand," she said. "As long as the bigger dealers are knocked down before the problem becomes a huge monster. Then it's much harder to stop."
"True, and things are much better in your neighborhood than they were in the 90's when it was all out in the street everywhere you looked."
"I know, and I am so grateful."
"Okay give me a call if you need to get in touch, I've gotta go," he said crossing the street.
"Thanks so much!" she replied. As she walked down the avenue past the new Thai restaurant two policemen got out of their patrol car and gave her big smiles. "I guess they know me," she thought to herself, "the local Miss Marple and her friendly dog Roger."