Published: 14 Mar 2019

Case 1

From Chapter 8

I awoke to my alarm going off on my phone. I leaned over and looked at the time. 8:00 am. Shit we literally got about 4 hours of sleep and had to pick up James in an hour for the Zoo trip. I looked over at Tristan sleeping and leaned over, kissed him and shook him awake. “Babe we have to get up. James is going to be waiting for us.”

He smiled. “Last night was a blast. Thank you, Brett and I have never had that much fun together.”

“Anything for you. Speaking of Brett go wake him up while I jump in the shower.”

I kissed him again and went into the bathroom to get ready, turned the shower on and leaned against the wall. I sighed, copious amounts of coffee were going to be required.”

I got under the hot water and let it cascade down over me. I heard the door to the bathroom open and Tristan slid in behind me and kissed the back of my neck.

“You ready for family day babe?”

“I will be in a few minutes.” I pushed back against him. “But we don’t have time to fool around so let me get ready, you slut.”

He chuckled but mocked being offended. “Slut, why I never. Hmph.” He pushed me out of the way and started washing his hair. The shower turned into a playful wrestling match as we jostled each other, laughing while we tried to get ready.

We managed to finish, got dressed and headed to the kitchen, anticipating having to drag Brett out of bed. When we arrived in the kitchen, Brett was there making coffee, dressed and ready to go. “Gooood Morning, guys. Ready to go? This is going to be an awesome day.”

I sighed. “Oh god another morning person, I don’t know how much more I can handle.”

We quickly got our things together and headed to my mom’s to grab James. When we arrived, Kelly and James came bounding out of the house with my mother watching from the door. Both of them threw themselves at us.

“Dads… Dads, can Kelly come with us please, please, please?” Tristan and I looked at each other and smiled. I don’t think James realized he was calling us both dad yet.

“Of course buddy as long as it’s ok with my mom.”

“Grammy already said it was if you did.”

I looked up at my mom and she just smiled and sipped her coffee.

“Then of course she can come.”

The two of them cheered and ran off into the house. We walked up to my mom and gave her a big hug. “There is coffee in the kitchen, and your gonna need it to keep up with those two. Those two love each other but just keep an eye on Kelly. I think she can get to be a bit too much for James sometimes and he needs space from her.”

Tristen smiled as he hugged my mom. “I can imagine the age difference has an affect on them both. We will all make sure we spend a few minutes alone with each of them so they don’t get jealous of each other.”

She nodded and waved us in. “Oh… I know you guys will make sure they are ok. I trust all of you. Beside it will be a rare thing that Wayne and I get to spend a day together. We both cleared our schedules and are going to spend the day over on the Commons. Who knows maybe we will act like teenagers and take a swan ride. Neither of us has made time to go to the gardens in years.”

I put my arm around her. “You guys deserve a day, let us know anytime you want one. Tristen and I will take Kelly and James together anytime.”

We quickly fixed another cup of coffee and got the kids loaded into mom’s SUV. It was huge and much better arranged to take two kids, a college student and two adults to the zoo. Once the young ones were loaded, Tristen, Brett and I climbed in, waved to mom and headed to the zoo.

The trip to the zoo was a whirlwind of James and Kelly dragging us to a new animal every couple of minutes. Brett was a trooper and seemed to be having the time of his life. About half way through the day my phone ran. It was Woods calling so I stepped away from the kids for a second.

“Whats up Sharron?”

“Hey Matt… sorry to bother you during your zoo excursion but your friend Kevin came through and convinced the judge to approve the wire tap. The tech teams are going to start setting up today, Rodriguez and I will be serving the warrant to the cell phone provider so we can tap their cell phones too.”

“Ok anything you need us to do?”

“No I just wanted to fill you in.”

“Thanks Sharron I will let Tristan know.”

I hung up the phone and walked back over to the group. “Judge approved the wire tap including cell phones. They are getting it set up now.”

“Awesome. Anything we need to do?”

“Yes we need to get these two monsters some ice cream.” I reached down and tickled Kelly. Her giggle always made me smile.

The rest of the day was spent checking out all the animals, eating lots of junk food and chasing a toddler and her new accomplice. By the time we left the zoo everyone was exhausted. James and Kelly were sound asleep within 5 minutes of getting them in the car. We decided to just order in tonight and rest. Brett had to catch a train back to Providence and then had an early flight out the next morning.

By the time we dropped Kelly off and made it back to the apartment, we were all almost ready to crash. Marcy and Kevin were at the apartment waiting on us and had already ordered pizza. The five us sat around chatting over a couple beers and pizza until it was time for Brett to leave. Tristan drove him to South Station and returned a short time later. I could tell he missed his brother already.

Marcy and Kevin were spending the night and Marcy would take James with her in the morning. She had picked up a 2 day a week job at a day camp and we agreed to let her enroll James. It had taken a little bit of work and the court order placing James in police custody to get it accomplished, but this way, he would be around kids his own age and still have Marcy available to look out for him.

The next morning, we all quickly got ready. I made homemade waffles for everyone before we started our long day. James was very nervous about the camp but after Tristen talked to him for a bit he settled down and started asking Marcy question about the camp. His inquisitive nature took over and soon he was excited.

As Tristan and I got out of our car at headquarters we noticed a couple of officers pointing at us. We ignored them, walked into the building and headed to the squad room. As soon as we entered we noticed Captain Mitchell and a suit standing in the squad room waiting for us. The Captain looked up and waved us over.

“Morning guys. Nothing like a little drama to start the day off. Have you guys meet DA Conley yet.”

Tristan reached out his hand. “No sir, it’s a pleasure to meet you sir.”

DA Conley shook Tristen’s hand. “Thank you Officer Cole, the pleasure is mine. Matt good to see you again, how are your mom and Wayne doing?”

“Danny it’s been awhile. Mom and Wayne are good. What’s going on?”

Captain Mitchell motioned for all of us to move into his office. Once everyone else was seated the DA started pacing.

“Here is the deal, some of the senior members of the union are making some noise about the shooting and are threatening to start their own investigation. In order to shut it down I am conducting an independent investigation.” He held up his hand to stop us from talking. “I have reviewed the file and see no cause for alarm or concern, this is just political maneuvering, however you two should get independent legal representation now. I am sure your mom can make that happen Matt. Trust me, my next call after I leave here is to your mom. There is nothing for you to be concerned with but just cover your asses, got it?”

I nodded. “Yes sir.”

“Okay that’s all I have for now. My investigators will be reaching out to you after you finish the Reverend Bailey mess. That should help with the media on this. Any questions?”

I stood up and reached out my hand. “None, sir and thank you for coming to let us know.”

The DA smiled. “That’s the first time you have ever called me Sir, Matt. Thank you both and Captain Mitchell for your time, we will have this all behind us very quickly.” He left the office, leaving us staring at Captain Mitchell.

“Guys this is just a formality. The fact that he is here telling you about it says alot. If he thought it was going to be a big case he would never tell you.” We both just nodded and let him continue.

“Now we have a lot of work to do. You guys are going to do one more run through on the raid today. If any of the SWAT guys give you a hard time let me know. I will tear them apart. The wire taps are in place and tomorrow Dice makes the call. Then it all should be clockwork from there.”

We stood up to go, Tristan stopped and looking back at the Captain. “Captain, you have put your neck on the line a few times for us, thank you.”

Captain Mitchell laughed. “Don’t go getting all sentimental now. You both are damn fine officers and I am proud to have you on my team. Go, get to work.”

Tristin and I walked back to the squad room as everyone was beginning to get started on their daily assignments. As the big operation was tomorrow it was mostly a paperwork day and everyone was in the office. Periodically throughout the day members of the squad came by and offered words of encouragement to us. It made us both start to feel better about the whole situation.I was reviewing the plan for tailing the Reverend after he picked up the child and was headed back to his house, when I noticed something.

“Hey Tristan look a this.” I motioned for Tristan to come over.

“What am I looking at?”

“Reverend Bailey uses the same car service every time he is in the city.”

“And?”

“What if we could put one of our people in that car.”

Tristan stood staring at the notes on the computer screen for a moment. “It would have to be someone we trust. Let’s talk to Luis and Sharron.”

I stood up. “Luis, Sharron… Can we talk to you both for a second, we have an idea.”

Luis looked over to Sharron and rolled his eyes as he stood up. “Everytime they have an idea we end up in the captain’s office. What did we do to deserve being paired with the dynamic duo.”

Sharron laughed. “We sure pissed someone off. What do you guys have?”

I pointed at the computer screen. “Everytime the Reverend come to the city he uses the same car service. Boston Livery. Never once has he used another. I ran all known employees and owners through the database and there doesn’t seem to be any connection to the Reverend or the church. Do you think we could put one of our people in that car.”

Sharron and Luis paused for a minute and looked at the screen. “That would make me feel a hell of a lot better about having that kid in the car. Give us a couple minutes and let us run it by the captain.”

They both walked over to the captain’s office, knocked on the door and disappeared inside . Tristan and I finished going through the plan and noticed Lieutenant Welsh enter the captain’s office. A few minutes later Woods, Rodriguez and Welsh all came out.

Welsh stopped and looked at the two patrolmen. “Grab your gear rookies we are going to go make me a chauffeur.

The five of them left the building and split into two cars with Woods and Rodriguez driving. I was in the car with Rodriguez, Lieutenant Welsh sat in the back. “I called ahead and the owner is waiting on us. He is a neighbor of mine and our kids play baseball together so this should go pretty easily.”

He sat back and didn’t say anything else for the rest of the trip across town. Lieutenant Welsh had a reputation for being very quiet but when he did speak everyone stopped to listen.

It only took a few minutes for us to arrive at the dispatch office. As we pulled into the lot we saw a good looking man in his mid 40’s come out of the office and start to approach us. He smiled when he saw the Lieutenant get out of the car. “Jesus Larry I didn’t expect the whole damn department.”

Lieutenant Welsh laughed and shook his hand. “Ben this is Detectives Rodriguez and Woods and Officers Williams and Cole. This is Ben Harley the owner of Boston Livery.”

Everyone shook hands and Ben led us to a small conference room. “My office is a little small to host this crowd. Please everyone have a seat. How can Boston Livery help our friends in blue. “

Lieutenant Welsh leaned forward. “You have a regular client we have been asked to surveille by the Feds.” None of the team reacted to their boss’ lie.

“Which client?”

“The Reverend Bailey and his wife.”

“Ok I know them. Kind of a pain in the ass client but they always book with us. What’s going on you need their booking records or something.”

“No, we actually have a court ordered surveillance warrant. It’s kind of a weird lame situation and happens a lot with these big churches. Someone files a complaint about their finances and this one looks pretty on target so we have to do some surveillance. We were hoping you would make this easy on us and let one of our officers be their driver.”

Ben sat and thought for a moment. “Honestly Larry, I don’t have a problem with it but what about insurance and CDL and all that.”

“We will have a contract drawn up that Boston PD assumes all insurance liability. And police officers drive commercial vehicles and all have a CDL it’s part of the job. To give you a little bit more reassurance I have agreed to be the driver myself.”

“Wow this must be pretty important for you to be the driver.”

Welsh shook his head. “Nah, it’s just that I am asking you for this favor and our boys are best friends. I owe it to you to be personally responsible.”

Ben stopped and thought. “Sure why not. Have the contract sent over to me personally I assume you want to keep this hushed?”

“We do Ben. And thanks, this is going make this little case so much easier on us.”

Ben pulled out his tablet and scrolled through a couple things. “Ok they have a car reserved for tomorrow morning and its reserved for at least a week.”

“Just tomorrow should be fine.”

“Ok here is what I am going to do. I am going to override their reservation and take it from dispatch. Nothing unusual about it, I do it all the time with regular clients. The car is already reserved and in the lot.”

Rodrigues finally spoke up. “Would you mind if we put a GPS tracker on it?”

“No not at all. It won’t damage the finish will it?”

“No it goes underneath car and has an industrial magnet on it to attach to the frame. We can turn it off and on remotely. He reached into his bag and pulled out a small black box about the size of a cell phone and showed it to Ben.

“That works for me. I will show you to the car and then we can take it from there.”

We all walked out to the lot, looked at the car, attached the tracker and then finalized all the details.

After we got back to the station we all grabbed our gear and headed home to get some rest for the big day tomorrow.

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