"Ring . . . Ring" screamed the
phone. "Damn who could that be . .
. its almost seven a.m. on a Saturday . . . . hold on Allison it will only take
a minute . . . Hello?" detective Pat said.
" Hey sorry Sergeant McGurn but we
need you to come down to the station as soon as possible . . . there's more
trouble over at Gibbons. Meet me there."
"Hey sugar I have to go down to
Gibbons there's more trouble, do you need a ride someplace?" said the
exasperated homicide detective.
"It's always something with you Pat .
. . every time I come over you either get called in or you're so drunk that you
can't even remember who I am . . . It's over Pat!" and then she left.
"Come on car . . . Please work . . .
Just this once . . . There you go. No
matter what anyone says your the best three tone Buick I've ever
had." See he was a real cheap
skate, spent all his money on St. Ides and Old English 64oz.ers. He was always borrowing money too. He still owes me seven hundred ninety eight
dollars and ninety five cents, plus tax. For a Harvard graduate he sure is a
wash up. The only thing he could afford
to drive was the car the police station gave him. It was a 1986 Buick with a green trunk,
maroon body, and a navy blue hood. The
thing took about three minutes to start and another five to warm up, and that
was in the summer.
Ten minutes later he showed up at my
desk. I could still smell her perfume on
him. He looked terrible, like usual, man
he was such a good guy, but he didn't have a lucky bone in his body.
"So what's up now Steve? . . .
another vending machine robbery . . . more scuff marks?" Pat looked like a detective, you know what I
mean, the way the detectives looked in
those old movies. He had a bad suit on,
with a tie loosened and hanging down and his shirt opened up, and he usually
was sleeping at his desk with the light dimmed and his feet up. The hat he had on looked like it had really
been worn by a detective out of an old movie, it was all dirty and had a fold
like somebody sat on it.
"No not this time Pat . . . Its a
little worse . . . there's been a murder."
Pat froze, then as calm as can be he sat
down and said "Give me the who, what, when, and where's about it. You know, the faster we get moving, the
fresher the scent is."
"Yeah I know you always say that . .
. to bad it hardly ever works . . . we haven't cracked a case since you got
involved that Richter girl . . . she's bad news . . . you should get rid of her
as soon as possible."
"Too late for that . . . right after
you called she threw a fit and left . . . too bad I was just starting to like
her . . . oh well lets get down to business"
"I don't know how to break this to
you Pat, but at six thirty Jim Collins phoned me at the station . . . he sounded very upset, never heard him
talk like this before . . . and it didn't really sound like him, he had to
identify himself . . . he might even have been crying."
"No way . . . not Jim."
"Well it wasn't Jim. I had Mrs. Page phone him, and he was home
sleeping at six thirty, it was his day
off."
"That explains why you didn't
recognize him on the phone."
"As I was saying, he said 'Steve we
need you to come as soon as you can, Mr. Chank and Mrs. Hartnett were found
dead on the ground in room one.' I
asked if there was anything that looked funny to him, but just then I heard the
fire alarm go off and the connection was lost."
"That's funny the fire alarm has no
bearing on the phones"
"Well we looked into that and when we
got here we found that the main switch was turned off. Jim's office has both of those controls and
those were the controls that were used.
We also found out that when the fire alarm goes off it over loads the
video system, the cameras fold into the fire proof boxes in the wall."
"I'd like to take a closer look, hey
I wonder how much that cost?"
When ever I told him something he always
had this annoying way of needing to check just in case I in fact screwed up,
but he never found anything wrong with what I did. After about ten minutes Pat came out and said
to me "We're gonna need to get Chank's room finger printed and Jim's office printed too . . . and see if there is
any tape from the video cameras. I'm
going to breakfast can you lend me ten?"
"I'm broke . . . I already looked
into the camera situation. They leave
the cameras rolling at night and they were taping, but because of the alarm
they didn't catch the murderer on the film . . . I made sure of it checked
everything myself. The culprit must of
known that the cameras withdrew when the alarms went off. And there is no one available to print right
now have to call back later."
"Were do they keep the monitors and
the VCRs with the tapes in them?"
"Two places one in Brother Mark's
secret lair and one in Ms. Cervo's office"
"We'll what are we waiting for lets
go and check them out . . . between you and me, I think it might have been an
inside job. You know people don't like
when others are too powerful and pushy."
"Yeah I know that feeling." Little did Pat know that I was referring to
our relationship. I was getting rather
sick of him pushing me around, hey I have just as much experience as him, so
what if he's a lieutenant and I'm just a lowly assistant, he's not so smart.
He has just started toward Br. Staniecki
and is about to start his line of questioning on him. I wonder if Brother is going to let us into
his secret lair? Brother never really
liked me, he just had to tolerate me because I wasn't bad enough to kick out or
maybe I should say I never got caught.
Anyway I don't want to blow our chances of getting into the room, so I'd
better stay out of the conversation. But
I made sure to stay in ear shot of the conversation, I didn't want to miss
anything.
"Good afternoon Brother . . . sorry
to have to speak with you on such a bad terms, but what can you do?"
"You guys could start by getting off
your lazy @$$es and start working . . . just look at Greeley standing over
there with his thumb up his butt, why isn't he finger printing or questioning
or investigating?"
"Brother I know this is tough on you
but its tough on us too, we're doing all we can for the moment . . . Bother we
have to wait until the finger printers and photographers get here to do those
kind of things, Steve is checking possible links between the scuff marks, the
vending machine thefts and the murders.
It's a tough job, but someone has to do it. Brother, what we need now is to take a look
at your secret lair" just then Brother cut him off and remarked.
"No Way that is out of the Question!" but Pat answered with.
"Brother the only way we are going to
get this case solved is if we have your complete cooperation, this could be
vital to our investigation. You can even
blind fold us until we get there. Is it
a deal?"
"I guess so, but only for the victims
sake."
"Thank you! You won't regret it Brother. Steve come on lets go out to the car and get
our stuff. And Brother one more question
. . . Did you hear anything unusual or something I should know that others
failed to mention?"
"Well . . . I did hear Mrs. Hartnett
singing if that's any use to you."
"Steve follow me"
When we got out in to the hallway away
from Brother he said to me 'I think we'll find something useful in there I just
know it.' and I asked him if he thought Brother had something to do with it but
he said no. I wonder what it could be
that would interest him.
When we went outside he told me "Go
to the station and get Jimmy to come down and dust the room for prints and take
some pictures of the crime scene"
"Why do I need to go all the way down
town, why don't I just call him"
"He doesn't have a car"
"He can use his black and white,
can't he"
"He could but I need you to go down
to Slick's and get some sandwiches . . . I want a roast beef with mayo on rye .
. . and get a six of St. Ides."
"We're on duty!"
"Its not for now its for later"
"Well do you have any money? Or should I just put this on your tab?"
"Don't get like this man . . . listen
if its a problem I'll just do it myself."
I don't know why I let him talk me into
it, he already owes about a thousand dollars.
I don't plan to get any of it back but it would be nice for him to pick
up lunch just once, he makes twice as much money as I do anyway. Anyhow, when he said Jimmy he was referring
to his older brother. He's kind of a
dead beat. If he's not working at the
station he's usually there locked up, but it never sticks. He is Schenectady's version of "Teflon
Don", sometimes I think he might be involved in the mob or something, but
Pat tells me he's just a trouble maker.
Maybe I can get a few bucks off him, but it's highly unlikely he owes me
about five hundred dollars himself.
Their tabs go all the way back to senior year, those were the good old
days.
When I pulled up to the station Jimmy was
outside smoking, so I just parked in front of
him and shouted out the window "Yo Jimmy . . . Pat needs you down
at Gibbons . . . we need some pictures
and prints . . . and bring some money for lunch."
"Hold on I be right back . . . I need
to go get the dust." That's what
they call the finger printing kits, kind of corny if you ask me.
"Where we getting lunch?" As someone opened the door and got in, it was
a familiar voice but I just couldn't seem to
place it with out turning around.
"No way Walker . . . get out we don't
need any blues with us today the unmarked is bad enough." It was Sean Walker he was a rookie and he
was always trying to tag along, he was the crookedest cop in town, he beat up a
few to many and pinched money too often to have him tagging along. If the Captain saw us together that would be
the end of my dreams of being promoted to a detective. See I wasn't a full blown detective just a
temporary arrangement the Captain, Mr. Lazzarri, set up. He said he wanted to see what I was made of
before I got the promotion.
"Why don't yous guys let me come with
yous anymore . . . remember when we were back in Gibbons how come we can't hang
any more?"
"Because you don't always do things
by the book and we're on a big case, if its blown I can kiss my promotion good
bye and then I'd be a beat cop again like you.
Two years of that is enough for me."
"What ever but if yous guys go out
tonight then give me a call." And
then he jumped out and started to talk to Jimmy, but Jimmy just opened the car
door and said to me.
"Drive . . . I hate talking to that
punk. I could only find a ten
spot" and he held it up to show
me.
"Thanks that'll do" and I
snatched it.
"Hey man that's all I got till Friday
. . . give me five back man"
"Jimmy were going to Slick's for
sandwiches what do you want?"
"It's only ten in the morning . . .
Let me guess Pat told you we're eating here?"
"Shut up man I have to kiss his butt,
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