“So that’s it?” asked Aaron. “We’re done with these cases from Shitland?”
Ellen rubbed her face with both hands and looked up at the clock.
It had been a while since she’d seen 5:32 a.m. for any reason. Especially in a conference room surrounded by five cops, and one private dick who doubled as her dad.
Brice and Aaron sat to her right. Big Harv and Bella, sitting close to each other, on her left.
Dave Ackles and Deputy Commissioner of the CPD, Jeff Moore, a stocky, good-looking man with thinning hair and dark-rimmed glasses sat on the other side of the oblong, wooden table.
“Still lots of cleanup to do on our end,” said Brice. “We have that mess near the warehouse and inside of those vans to take care of too.”
“I’m on top of that one,” said Moore, looking at his thick notebook. “Crews from three other precincts are working as we speak. But it doesn’t stop there. There will be a very thorough investigation as to why deadly violence was ordered without any attempt to arrest the alleged suspects.”
“Who ordered it?” asked Big Harv.
“You know you don’t work for me anymore, right?” said Moore, with a glint in his large eyes.
“Yeah, I do. And you owe me for keeping your ass out of a sling that time in 06.”
Moore dropped his head, a small smile tugging at the corners of his mouth. “Yeah, I remember. Hell of a night, though.”
Big Harv laughed. “For you, I’d say that was true. Not so much for me.”
“Agreed. At any rate, rumor has it that the lieutenant in charge of the raid got orders from high up, and that person got them from someone higher.”
“You mean the mayor?” asked Ellen, knowing the answer.
Moore nodded. “We’ll dig deep, but trying to implicate the mayor in this thing will be difficult. Not impossible, but difficult. But he has some explaining to do.”
“I hope you’re right. He’s neck deep in this whole thing,” answered Ellen, surprised at how sure of herself she sounded. Truth is always truth, as she recalled the saying.
“We’ll find out. We believe you’re right,” said Moore.
“Do we know how the perps were located?” asked Bella.
Moore sighed. “Seems the address where those people in the vans were killed was found on a note crumpled on the ground behind where Blunt and The Father died. The mayor denied knowing anything about it, but we’re having the FTs take a run on it for trace DNA and fingerprints. I think we’ll like what we find.”
“I’d also say Amanda Blunt had something to do with it. No loose ends would be tolerated. I believe that was mentioned a time or two in regards to how she did business.”
“Who mentioned that?” asked Brice.
“It came up twice in the mayor’s statement. Which he gave willingly.”
“I guess another question is how did he know her that well?” said Ellen.
“She had several business dealings with the city, including upgrades to each district’s security systems. We have some other sketchy information, so far at least, that he knew her well enough. Once we audit her records and the city’s dealings, I think we’ll get more cooperation from the mayor’s office.”
A faint buzzer sifted through the room at about the same time as the thick aroma of freshly brewed coffee filtered to the table.
Aaron jumped up. “I’ll pour. We’re going to need more of this. Much more.”
After he’d filled each CPD mug with caffeine, he sat back down.
It was a full minute before Dave Ackles broke the silence. “I have to get this straight in my mind, so bear with me. My Ramona died along with those other five souls to create a diversion away from what Amanda Blunt was truly after?”
Ellen shook her head. “I don’t think it was that simple, Dave. It was like the meeting you had with the drug gang lieutenant. He was just part of the puzzle. We’ve all seen what crime waves can do to a police force. It can cause confusion and spread us all a little thin. I think Amanda Blunt had her agenda perfectly planned, even putting those limbs in my SUV, to put the pressure on the CPD to solve these cases. She knew Henry was capable of the very bizarre and what a red flag those kinds of murders throw up.”
She sipped her coffee. Then felt Brice’s hand on her thigh. She didn’t think there was a better feeling on the planet.
“So by escalating these cases, she caused a level of urgency and that played into her hands how?” asked Bella. “I mean we have thousands of cops on the CPD.”
Ellen nodded. “Agreed. But she was concentrating on only a couple of districts. We all know that we can’t always get a lot of help from other precincts, at least not that often. This city is huge and everyone thinks their districts have priority. But I do think putting stress on our district was only a luck of the draw for us.”
“It could have been that she had the most cops in her pocket here as well,” said Big Harv. “Brown is dead, obviously involved with what we saw on the traffic videos. Not to mention the cop who wanted to shoot Brice.”
Moore raised his hands. “All good points. And I can see how these three worked together with their common bond of drug addiction, but, like Dave asked, to what real end?”
Ellen flexed her neck, feeling the rush of adrenaline subsiding by the second.
Why indeed?
It was time to see if her point of view made any sense to the others. She didn’t understand every human motivation, but she did understand evidence that flew under the radar and how that evidence, at times, was the key to solving a case.
Amanda Blunt had been good at flying under that radar and supporting others, yet coming out on top, eventually. Her whole life’s profile, including her professional life and her charity work, showed that to be true. So where had all of the hellish last two days been leading?
She cleared her throat. “The Father had said she was about the power. God knows she had more money than she’d ever spend so that couldn’t have been her motivation. When he had the gun to her head he said she wanted to run the city and then maybe the country, but how would someone with her background do that? It wouldn’t take long for her past to come to the forefront of any election campaign. Not in this day and age.”
“True. Throw in any association with a serial killer brother and a close friend that could have been the biggest drug lord in Chicago and you’d be dead in the water,” said Aaron.
“But what if you got your foot in the door another way? What if you’d built such a network of support and trust throughout a community that no one would think twice about a person like that being appointed to a position of influence?”
“I’d guess that could work locally, but what about a state or national level? I mean she’d have no mayor to cover her tracks,” said Big Harv.
Ellen leaned over the table. “True, but if the record weren’t there any longer, then she’d be home free.”
“You mean erase and delete records from law enforcement data bases?” asked Aaron.
“It could be done. Remember, it’s not what you know, but who you know,” said Ellen. “If you meet enough people, anything is possible. Like that case in Texas last year where the IT guy in charge of the state’s data bases changed some of the parameters for the lotto and won thirty-five million. During that process, he’d created a dummy ID for himself and deleted other records to make everything fit. He would have gotten away with it if one of his employees hadn’t recognized him by his voice when he went to pick up his check.”
“Okay, I’ll give that one to you,” said Moore. “With that in mind, I guess we might have saved the state and country some problems. Maybe. Who really knows?”
“And lives, I suspect,” said Bella.
The room grew silent. They had experienced a hell of a couple days and it had finally caught up with them.
Moore took another sip of coffee and stood. “That’s it for tonight. Hell of a job of police work, all of you. Even Big Harv.”
“Bite me,” said Big Harv, grinning.
“Ahh, no thanks. All of you go home for a couple of days. We’ll let the CPD do what it does and get to the bottom of Abraham Murphy’s story. All of it. We’ll meet again when we get the full reports completed from every department. Now, get the hell out of here. I’m not paying any of you any more overtime.”
Ellen hadn’t heard a better order in her life.
Five minutes later, she was standing in front of HQ, the sun peaking over Lake Michigan, in front of her SUV with Brice and Aaron and Big Harv and Bella.
“Come on Sanchez, let me buy you some breakfast, then you can drop me off at home,” said Big Harv, smiling.
“Mexican breakfast, right?”
“Can I come?” asked Aaron. “I’m still hungry.”
“Sure, why not?” said Big Harv.
“Great, I know this great place on Ohio.”
“No hot sauce though,” said Big Harv.
“Like hell. I’ll show you how it’s done.”
“I’m with Sanchez on that one,” agreed Aaron.
“Whatever.”
“You two want to come?” asked Bella, gesturing to Ellen and Brice.
Before Ellen could answer, a blue Chevy Traverse pulled up. The driver’s door flew open and out streaked Beaux, Anna on his heels.
He stopped at Ellen’s feet, and gave her that let-me-lick-your-face look while he sat at full attention.
She laughed. “Anytime, Big Dog.” She leaned over and obliged him.
“HQ told me I’d find you out front. You people need to get a life,” said Anna.
“We’re working on it,” said Brice.
Ellen gave Brice a curious side glance, then turned back to Anna. “How’s my boy?”
“He’s no worse for wear. We bandaged his wounds and made sure his head is fine. But once these dogs are wounded, they can’t go back into service. So we either have to find a good home for them, send them to the pound, or put them down,” said Anna.
“What?” asked Ellen.
Anna laughed. “Just kidding about putting him down. But not the other part. He’ll need a home.”
“I’d love to have him. But I’d have to move. No dogs. And then. . .”
Ellen raised her hands in surrender. She kneeled and gave Beaux a hug. “Of course. I’ll take him. We’ll figure something out.”
“We’ll take him,” said Brice, kneeling with her.
“What does that mean?” asked Ellen, her heart suddenly thumping in her chest.
Brice pulled one hand away from Beaux, his eyes getting her full attention.
“It’s time Ellie. I love you and can’t imagine my life without you. Please say you’ll marry me.”
“Yes,” hollered Bella.
“Shhh, Sanchez. This is big,” said Big Harv.
“Sorry.”
Ellen hadn’t really heard Bella and her dad. Instead, her mind ran to all of the reasons she couldn’t. She wasn’t ready. Not worthy of a good man. She and Miss Pissy were still far too close. None of them seemed true though. Just hollow lies.
Life had changed for her over the last few months. Brice Rogers had been the reason for that. His acceptance of her and her for him had bound them together. Now it was more than a bond. It was love.
“I love you, Brice. So yes. Hell yes.”
The tears came and she let them. Joyful tears were the best kind.
The very best.
THE END