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CHRIS
Carrie is not happy when I tell her that I have to drive into the station today, but I temper her anger by telling her I’m going to return with a bottle of wine and some takeout for a nice romantic dinner. I have another surprise up my sleeve, but she’ll call all day asking for hints and clues if I let that information slip.
This is a weird place to be, and I tell myself that the Universe must have a wicked sense of humor. I’ve never smiled so much in my life yet I’m filled with anger, paranoia, and concern.
It’s like a switch has been installed in my head. See Carrie, smile. Think about Carrie, lose your mind with worry. I’ve never had to process something like this before, and I shake it off and tell myself it would be a useless exercise.
Instead of wasting time dissecting my feelings, I need to put an end to the danger. That’s who I am. I’m the guy who fixes things.
When I arrive at the precinct, the Chief comes out of his office and meets me at my door. The lock has been broken, so I push it open and click on the lights.
“I left it exactly as it was,” he tells me. “Maybe you can look around and see if they took anything.”
“I want to see that tape, too,” I tell him as I scan the scene and try to remember what case details I may have left here.
“I told you, you can’t make out the face. For all we know, it could be a civilian that stole one of our uniforms.”
I look at him and raise an eyebrow, “How likely is that?”
“I don’t know. It was the graveyard shift. There weren’t very many cops in the building. Someone could have slipped in unnoticed,” he replies, his eyebrows drawn together.
“And slipped into my office with the big glass wall? With cops sitting right outside? It might have been the graveyard shift, but they weren’t dead. How did they miss this?” I don’t want to accuse my brothers in blue but things just aren’t adding up here.
Shaking my head, I shove my hands deep into my pockets. “No, there had to be at least two of them. One to ransack my office and the other to keep the other cops away. A civilian can’t put on a uniform, walk into a precinct, and converse with cops. This was an inside job. I want to talk to everyone that was on duty that night.”
“Hold on, now. You’re technically the victim here and we don’t allow victims to work their own cases. I spent all day yesterday on interviews. We’ll get to the bottom of this,” he tells me but I’m not having it.
“Someone is meddling in my case. I have a right to find out for myself who that is. I don’t have to tell you that I’m the best investigator in this department. I don’t care if I have to do it in an unofficial capacity. I will investigate this.”
“How do you even know that this is connected to that case? You’ve put a lot of dangerous people away and some of them get paroled. Maybe this has nothing to do with the co-ed murder at all,” he says.
“So, it’s just a coincidence that this shit starts happening as soon as I make some traction on the case? No, it’s connected. And what about the bum that attacked Carrie? How did he manage to get a high-powered attorney in his corner?” My inflection catches the Chief off guard and he shakes his head at me.
“Carrie? You’re not getting in over your head with this girl, are you? That’s not like you at all, Chris,” his tone makes me want to lash out even more. Nobody speaks to me like I’m a child.
“Just do everyone a favor and get me a list of officers that worked that night,” I growl.
“Listen to me. If you have a conflict…” he begins but I slam my fist down hard on the desk and shout. “I have a huge conflict. I have a dead girl whose family has been waiting six months for justice and a living, breathing girl who might not stay that way if I don’t come through on this. Now, get me the damn names!”
“No. You are welcome to sit in on the interviews that I conduct, but I won’t allow you to question any of my officers when you’re so easily riled. It’s my job to protect them, but it’s also my job to protect you from yourself.” He denies me but seeks a compromise. That’s just the way he is, and since I know I won’t get what I want from him, I reluctantly agree.
“Is there anything missing in here as far as you can tell?” he asks me.
“Just one thing. The list of names and addresses of Carrie’s known associates. It was sitting right next to the phone when I left. I want tails put on all of those people. They’re all in danger now.”
“I’ve got three uniforms coming in for interviews starting in about thirty minutes. Let’s go get some coffee and you can give me the names and addresses of these people. We’ll get eyes on them today.”
“Let me make a call first, Chief. I’ll catch up with you in a minute.” I have to sit in on these interviews, so I need to let Carrie know that I’ll be later than I thought.
The interviews go about the way that I expected. Nobody saw anything. Two of the officers were out on calls for most of the shift. The one who was in the station was seated on the other side of a partition and couldn’t possibly have seen my office from that vantage point.
I start to think that this is a complete waste of my time until this last officer stops on his way out of the Chief’s office and says, “You should talk to Hudson. I could hear him cutting up with somebody on the other side of the wall around midnight. I think they went out to the garage to look at something in the other guy's truck. That would have left your side of the wall empty.”
“Did you hear Hudson come back inside?” I ask him.
“Yeah, he was gone probably about thirty minutes.”
He leaves and I look to the Chief, “Where’s Hudson now?”
