Published: 02 Feb 2017

Case 1

“Num Custos fratris mei sum?”
(Am I my brothers keeper?)

The next afternoon we were in the squadroom early, waiting on Rodriguez and Woods. As soon as they arrived we pulled them into an interrogation room.

Luis sat down. “This should be good. The two of you have a habit of getting into some serious shit.”

Tristan set a folder down in front of them. “The assaults on gay guys near Boston college are being done by cops.”

Sharon sat down. “I hope you have some proof.”

We pushed the file and Brad’s report across the table to them alone with the photos Brad sent us.

They read the file quietly. Luis stood up. “Fuck. That’s all I can say is fuck.”

Sharon picked up her phone and started dialing. “Interrogation room 215 quietly.” She hung up the phone.

Luis looked at her. “Jeremy?”

She nodded. “Ok guys in a second a detective for IA is gonna walk through that door. Leave the files and lets all go grab a coffee. We will come back and review these one more time.”

Not sure what was going on Tristan and I looked up at Luis. He smiled and nodded so we got up and went to the squad room to grab a coffee.

Captain Mitchell was in the squad room and saw all four of us enter. “The four of you scare me when you’re together. We have everything set for Thursday. Cole, Williams how’s it going with the case over at BC. The Director give you anything?”

I almost choked, but Tristan smiled. “We have a lead that Sharon and Luis are helping us follow up on.”

Captain Mitchell nodded and turned as he was talking. “Good stay on top of it.”

We both turned and looked at Luis and Sharon. Sharon smiled. “You did the right thing. We will fill him in when we need him. But right now keeping him away from this is protecting him.”

Luiz grabbed a cup and started pouring coffee. “Let’s get down to tactical and start getting ready for the practice raid on the Baileys.”

As we left the squad room we noticed a detective leaving the interrogation room we had been in earlier. Sharon turned and looked at Tristan. “Cole where did you put that case file.” She actually winked at him.

“Oh shit, I left in interrogation 2”

She shook her head in mock dismay. “Grab it please.”

Tristan trotted over to the room and grabbed the file. He walked back to us and handed the file to Sharon. She opened and handed it to Luis. I could see a note in the first page of the file, but couldn’t see what it said.

Luis handed the file back to her. “Let’s go to tactical after lunch. There is this really great Thai place over by Newbury I been wanting to try.”

Sharon nodded. “I am game.” She looked over at us. “You two like Thai?”

“Love Thai.” I responded.

Tristan just nodded and we continued to follow them. Sharon pulled out her phone and sent a quick text. Once we got outside we all piled into the unmarked.

Luis was driving so Sharron turned and looked at us. “We are going to meet IA. Most of the cops on our Squad are completely trustworthy but when it comes to looking at other cops no one can be trusted. More than likely IA is gonna try to pull this case. We have to decide if we want to fight for it or not. On the one hand its our case and it fits the profile for our Squad, on the other hand it’s going to make a lot of enemies on the force.”

Tristan stared straight ahead for a minute while I just nodded. She started to turn around when Tristan interrupted her.

“I am not here to be popular with my co-workers. I am here to enforce the law. These cops, and I use that term loosely are stalking gay guys and then attacking them just because they are gay. They don’t deserve to wear the badge. I don’t give a shit if we don’t get invited to the office picnic. I want to stop them and I want the rest of the city to know, If you’re a bigot and you cause trouble with any of the minority groups, the Community Protection Squad will come down on your like a ton of bricks. I don’t give a shit if you’re the Governor.”

Sharron just stared at him and smiled. “Good answer. I am in. Luis?”

“Never liked dirty cops, puts a bad taste in my mouth. Count me in.”

She smiled at me. “Matt?”

I took a deep breath. “It may seem very easy for you guys but I am from a BPD family and anything that could tarnish the BPD name is to be avoided. I am in but we need to be really careful.”

Tristan reached over and grabbed my hand. “Of course babe.”

We pulled into a garage and went to the third floor. We stepped out of the car and walked to the stairway. Inside the stairwell was the detective that we saw leave the interrogation room earlier.

“You two must be the Mayor’s Golden Boy Rookies. No offense, you two have a knack for seeing trouble and jumping into a pile of shit and coming out looking like shining Knights, it’s not a bad thing really, you two are good for the Department.” He reached out his hand and shook our hands. “Detective Jeremy Reid, Internal Affairs. I saw the file and here is the deal. You have a good case against one of the cops. The other two we have no evidence on until we get the DNA back and we don’t know what that is going to tell us. Sharon you and I go way back and you know I like a clean case, this one is close but we need more. Especially on this particular one. One of the cops you identified is Deputy Chief Simmons, bureau Chief of Internal Affairs’ stepson. I know Simmons and he is not one to cover up a case but public affairs may want to squash this one. I can’t touch this until you catch them red handed.”

I was getting pissed and couldn’t hold my tongue. “Are you telling us to wait until these fuckers attack rape and maybe kill someone before we can do something.”

He held up his hand. “No that is not at all what I am saying. Do a sting on them. Continue like you don’t know it’s cops involved. Set them up and run a sting, nobody can cover it up then. It will all be out in the open. What has Captain Mitchell said about this one?”

Sharron leaned against the wall. “We haven’t filled him in yet. Wanted your input first.”

Reid took a deep breath. “Tell him, give him all the details. Catch these guys and get the DA behind you. Clean this shit up before someone tries to hide it.”

Luis nodded. “Ok thanks for the feedback Jeremy. Let’s go get lunch everyone and we can talk about our next step.”

We went to the Thai place Luis was talking about for lunch. We really didn’t talk much but did decide to bring Captain Mitchell up to speed. The drive back to 1 Schroeder Plaza was completely silent as we each weighed the impact of investigating fellow officers.

We arrived back at the squad room and immediately went to Captain Mitchell’s office. It took us an hour to fill him in. By the end he agreed with what Detective Reid had told us, to proceed as if we were not aware the perps were cops.

After the meeting we went to meet with tactical to conduct a training run of the mission coming up. The training was sloppy and we could tell the four of us did not have our heads in it. Lieutenant Mitchell scheduled another training session for the day before the raid.

On our way to pick up James, Tristan and I stopped to see Brad. We met his mother and brother, who were very nice. They all were excited to know we had suspects we were watching. We explained to Brad, we were going to try to set up a sting so we catch all three with a rock solid case. As we were getting ready to leave my cell phone rang. Seeing it was my mom I stepped into the kitchen to take the call.

When I returned Tristan looked up at me. “Everything ok?”

“Yes, James is getting nervous something is wrong because we haven’t spent as much time with him lately.”

Brad had a puzzled look on his face. “You two have a child?”

I sighed. “Not exactly, James is a 9 year old boy that has been living on the streets for a couple years now after escaping the human traffickers his parents sold him to. His parents are pretty high profile with a lot of connections so we have to keep him out of the system until after the case is closed. The problem is he has been staying with us and we have grown really attached and he is getting attached to us.”

Brad smiled. “You two really are Angels in Blue Uniforms. Have you considered adoption yet?”

Tristan leaned forward. “We are considering it. Matt and I have only been together for a couple weeks and it seems crazy to consider adopting at this point.”

Brad nodded and smiled. “It is crazy, but why not apply to be a foster family. I have some connections in DCF I could get your application fast tracked and then James could be assigned to you indefinitely. Once you’re ready to adopt it will be easier and it would give you peace of mind while you weigh all the options.”

I nodded. “Let us talk about that Brad, and we will let you know. We appreciate you offering to help.”

“It’s the least I could do, you guys have been great to me. Listen I have a get together every year for Halloween. It’s a lot of fun and every year we pick a charity to collect donations for. I would like to create a scholarship fund for the children of Openly Gay Boston Police officers and Firefighters and this year we could kick it off.”

I was in shock. “I don’t know what to say Brad, that’s amazing. You can count me in for a sizeable donation.”

Brad laughed. “I am not soliciting a donation from you. I want you and Tristan to come to the party and be the guest of honor. I can guarantee we will collect at least $20,000 that first night and then we start the foundation and begin to grow it. What I need from you two is how many openly gay officers and Firefighters are there in the Boston PD. We should consider BCPD as well, I am going to get a group together to get this started and then I will get in touch with you. Now go take care of your kid. It sounds like he misses his dads.”

We said our goodbyes and left in shock. Brad had just gone through a horrifying experience, most people take years to recover from and here he is planning a way to help future generations.

During the drive to my mother’s, Tristan and I discussed Brad’s idea about being foster parents. We were still nervous about the whole Parent thing but the one thing we both decided was that one or both of us needed to keep James.

James was pretty tired when we picked him up so we took him straight home and made dinner. After dinner we watched a movie and all three of us fell asleep cuddled together on the couch. The next morning we had to take James to a follow up appointment with Doctor Salvatore. The Doctor was pleased with James’ progress and was happy to see him smiling. Marcy met us at the Doctor’s office and took James for the day. Tristan and I made it to the squad room just in time for Roll Call.

Luis and Sharron were already there and had saved seats for us. We sat down just as Captain Mitchell entered the room and walked to the Podium.

“OK listen up, a couple of important things. First we are still investigating the gay bashings over by chestnut hill reservoir. We don’t have a lot of leads so everyone keep your ear to the ground. During the last attack the perps raped the victim. They are escalating their violence and are going to end up killing someone. Any info you come across get it to Rodriguez or Woods.

Next we have reports of vandals using racial epitaphs on Asian businesses near the fens. Again no suspects but Patrol is increasing their presence there. Keep an eye on the area and start putting feelers out in the community.

Last order of business. There is going to be a political rally next weekend. This is not your run of the mill rally as the group has links to some pretty scary groups. It’s a white supremacists rally. Everyone here will be there in plain clothes. Special Operations is pulling in patrol and the Highway unit to keep this thing under wraps. You will not be undercover, just not in uniform. Your job is to patrol the crowd, any one of you of Color will be kept in reserve, they will target you and it will make the situation worse. You see anything crazy like drugs or guns call back up and stick with the perp. The permit for this rally is already approved. The media knows about it and so does the rest of the community. You can bet there will be a counter protest. Keep the two groups apart. You will get your assignments later. Now get out on the streets and solve some crimes.”

As we were heading out of the squad room the Captain got our attention and pointed to his office. Once we were inside we noticed a young man in an impeccable black suit with white shirt and black tie. Everything about him screamed “Government Agent”.

“This is Agent Alex Mills, FBI Department of Professional Standards. I am going to make this as clear as possible. Alex is on Vacation, Alex is gay, Alex is Single, Alex uses the grindr app. If Alex happened to get assaulted and you four were near by and stopped the assault, the perps would be caught red handed and there would be no way to cover it up. You get what I am saying?”

I just looked back and forth from Alex and to the Captain to Sharron and Luis waiting for the right answer. I was sure the right thing here would be to say nothing.

Luis reach over and shook Alex’s hand. “Alex be careful out there, if you feel uncomfortable in any way, give your friends Tristan and Matthew a call.”

“I definitely will. As a matter of fact. I have a date setup tonight at the Joshua Tree, with everything that is going on I would really like it if a couple friends would be close by.”

I looked over at Tristan. “We were planning on be in the area tonight anyway.”

Alex smiled and handed us a card with his cell phone number on it. We handed him our cards back and he immediately entered it into his phone. We did the same.

We left Captain Mitchell’s office and went into the squad room. I sat on the corner of Luis’ desk and and leaned in. “Should we maybe get some help for tonight?”

Luis looked up at me. “You got someone you think you can trust?”

I nodded my head toward the Latino desk. “Perez and Diaz. They are good people.”

Luis glanced over his shoulder. “You’re right, I know they are and I know Diaz’s little brother. Diaz is very protective.” He paused and thought for a minute. “OK tell Sharron I am bringing in Diaz and Perez to help. Tell her to meet us in interrogation 3 in a few minutes.”

I walked over to Sharron’s desk and she listened carefully and nodded. She stood up and said out loud. “Tristan, Matt let’s go review some of these older cases and see if we can find anything new.”

She led the way out the squad room to interrogation 3. When we walked in Luis was sitting with Perez and Diaz already. All three looked up and smiled.

Diaz stood and reached out his hand. “Hey you two are the heros of the gay community. That whole drag thing a couple weeks ago. Everyone is talking about it. My brother Santiago wants to meet you both so bad.”

We both smiled. Tristan looked over at me. “Maybe we can throw a little party and get to meet some of the spouses and family members of the squad.”

Luiz laughed. “If these two throw a party I can promise you two things. 1. It will be over the top. 2. We all better come with badges and guns cause where ever they are, bad shit happens.”

Tristan laughed I mocked anger. “It’s not our fault, you and the Captain keep putting us places that get us in trouble.”

Sharron chuckled. “Okay let’s get serious for a minute. Luis what have you gone over so far.”

“Just the basics of the case, and that we need back up for a sting.”

Sharron nodded. “OK so here is the deal. This is an off the book sting and our bait is an FBI agent friend of ours.”

Perez sat up. “You’re going to have to explain why off book before we are in.”

Sharron took a deep breath. “There is a slight possibility one of the perps is a cop.”

Diaz stared at her for a minute. “Bullshit Sharron, you know there is a cop involved.”

Sharron smiled. “This is why I sucked at IA. Yes we are sure there is at least one cop involved and more than likely all of them are. We have an eye witness but we want a stronger case. One of the perps has a highly ranked father in BPD. We want these fuckers off the streets. We don’t want this getting covered up and them being transferred to a smaller department somewhere. These fuckers are getting their badges taken away and they are going to jail.”

Diaz stood up. “Hell fucking yes I am in. That could have been Santiago at any time. And the thought of someone in BPD doing this has me fucking pissed.”

Perez put her hand on his arm. “Settle down Diaz. We all know you would do anything to protect Santiago. But we are talking about taking down BPD officers. You realize how that is going to effect the department.”

Diaz sat and thought for a minute. “I mean if they were not BPD we would take the same actions right? We would hunt them down. Who knows they are BPD?”

“Everyone in this room, Captain Mitchell and the agent we are working with. We are planning to run this like this. We are putting our team with you guys in the area because of the attacks. The FBI agent Alex Mills is going to call Tristan and Matt to tell them he is excited about a date he has from the Grindr app.”

“They are going to warn him of what’s going on and he is going to blow them off. They are going to call you two and ask you to tail him when he leaves the bar. You two are going to call us when they enter the Reservoir Park and we all are going to converge on the park. Once the attack starts we move in and stop it before Alex gets hurt. As far as them being BPD, we had no idea.”

Perez nodded. “It covers our asses, and keeps us clear of too much backlash. I’m in, let’s get these fuckers.”

Luis nodded “We meet 7:00 pm tonight at starbucks, corner of Chestnut and Beacon. After we meet we will break up. Perez and Diaz you are going to the Joshua Tree for a drink, you’re on a date so dress and act it. Cole and Williams with patrol the park. Sharron is back up for Perez and Diaz and I am back up for Cole and williams. We will all slowly converge on the park as Alex and the perp approach it. Matt, Tristan stay clear and out of sight until Perez and Diaz see shit going down.”

We all confirmed we understood and broke up the group. We all went different ways and eventually made it back to our desks. Tristan and I left a few minutes early to go have dinner with James and my family. James was excited to see us and gave us both great big hugs. We spent a little time playing with him and Kelly before we headed home to change into casual clothes.

We arrived at the Starbucks a few minutes late and everyone was waiting. We grabbed a coffee and chatted for a bit. Tristan got a text after a few minutes.

“Alex is at the Joshua Tree waiting. I sent him a pic of Diaz and Perez earlier.”

Perez nodded “And we have the pic of him you sent us.”

Luis smiled. “Its go time folks. Let’s get these fuckers”

We all put our radio earpieces in and moved out to get into position. Tristan and I walked across the street and began our patrol by walking around the rec center and taking a path through the woods near were Brad was attacked.

“Perez here in the ladies room. Alex is with the perp. Diaz is watching them.”

“Thanks Perez keep us in the loop.” We could here Sharron’s voice, through our earpiece, respond to Perez.

We continued our walk and looped over to the Chestnut Hill Reservoir trail and headed back down towards Beacon St. We stopped by the DPW’s pump house and waited a few minutes.

“We are on the move about a block behind Alex and perp. They are headed down Englewood right for the park.” We could here Diaz clearly through the radio.

I looked at Tristan. “Let’s go back up the trail to where it meets the path from Englewood. Its got to go down somewhere between the Englewood Park entrance and the trail.”

“Sounds good.” we started back up the trail and stopped at the intersection of the path from englewood.” The pathways were mostly stone, some dirt but very firmly packed down from hundreds of years of use.

“Shit we lost them they turned right on Chestnut Hill and when we turned right they were already gone. They have to be entering the park somewhere between Englewood and Commonwealth.”

Luis came over the radio. “Does anyone have them? That’s a big area to search. If we don’t have them I am calling back up and we go loud and make a ruckus to scare them off.”

I was just about to say negative when Tristan nudge my foot with his. Coming up the trail was three men. They were hurrying and took a path right around the corner from us as they turned the corner I noticed one was carrying a baseball bat.

“We think we have the other three perps.”

“Think? Williams we need to be certain.” Sharron was sounding a little worried. If this went wrong we could lose our chance for a long time and these guys would get away scott free.

“Unless there is a late night baseball game in the middle of the woods I don’t know of any other reason to be carrying a bat.”

Luis answered. “STAY ON THEM. Perez come in from the Englewood Entrance and move north. Sharron and I are coming in from the Commonwealth Entrance and moving south. We can’t let them attack Alex with a baseball bat.”

Tristan and I trotted down the path a little ways to close the gap. As we started to round a corner we heard yelling.

“You heard what I said you fucking faggot. Get on your knees. Yeah I bet you like being on your knees. It’s time for us to clean this city up from fucking perverts like you. You like dick do you? Well you’re gonna get a lot of dick tonight. STRIP NOW.”

“Guys please don’t do this.”

“SHUT THE FUCK UP NOW. Billy show him what happens when he doesn’t listen.”

Tristan and I came looked at each other and bolted around the corner guns drawn, radios keyed. “BOSTON PD everyone freeze.”

Alex, shirtless immediately went face first on the ground. The four men all looked over at us and the one carrying the bat dropped and raised his hand. The one doing all the shouting reached behind his back.

“DON’T DO IT. LET ME SEE YOUR HANDS.” Time slowed to the point I could feel my heart beating in my chest. I could see just past the group in front of us as Perez and Diaz came around the opposite side with guns drawn. I watched the guy in front of me swing his arm around from his back and could clearly see a gun in his hand. He started to raise the weapon towards us as both Tristan and I were yelling at him to stop.

The night air erupted in gunshots and I watched as the perp first spun slightly left and then right. The gun dropped out of his hand and he crumpled to the ground. I held my grip tight and just stared as time returned to normal and the sounds of the city and shouts from Perez and Diaz came crashing down around me. My senses were overwhelmed, I knew I pulled the trigger but didn’t remember doing it.

I really would welcome any comments you have on this story. Ken dot Barber at CastleRoland dot Net