New York Chief of Detectives (18 page)

“We’ll be standing by, Chief. Congratulations on the latest rabbit you’ve pulled out of the hat.”

CHAPTER 38

Saturday, April 10-Day 9

District Attorney’s Office-Queens County Court House

Borough of Queens, New York

1900 Hours

Pat
and Mary arrived at the Queens County DA’s office. Richard Chambers had already located a judge in the courthouse. The paperwork was quickly completed, and the judge signed the search warrant with few questions. Chambers put his arm around Pat and spoke. “I know that my initial refusal was off the Richter scale for you, Pat, but I just didn’t think we had enough. I’m glad you found the new information.”

“I think you were overcautious, but it doesn’t matter anymore. We got what we needed, and we’re going to try to build a case for you to prosecute. At this point, we still, unfortunately don’t know who this suspect will be. However, after this search, we may know more.”

“Good luck, Pat. If there is something there, I know you’ll find it.”  

Pat first called George McBain.

“CSU, Sergeant McBain.”

“Hi, George, this is Pat O’Connor.”

“Yes sir, Chief.”

“Have you found anything else in Tony’s car?”

“We’ve found nothing significant. The radio and laptop are here, but there’s no sign of a gun.”

“I’m not surprised, George. I figure Tony had that on him, and the killer took it.”

“That’s what I think too. It just makes sense. I don’t think for one minute that Tony was dirty. People are dying with his gun even now.”

“I hope we stop that soon. The reason that I called you, George, is that we’ve located the source of those blue tortilla chips. It’s a little Hispanic dive over in Corona called the Blue Goose Cantina at #3 Queensland Court. It’s where the kid that took off from the hospital worked as a dishwasher. We have a search warrant signed, and we need to do a full court forensics press on this joint. We need to find something that can lead us to some answers in this case.”

“I’ll round up our best people, Chief, and put together a full team. Are you there now?”

“No, we just got the warrant signed and are heading back to the scene.”

“Make sure it’s locked down and that nothing is touched. I’ll be there in a couple of hours tops.”

“I’ll take care of that, George.”

“Thanks, boss.”

Pat called Bryan Flannery and made sure that the scene was completely locked down. Pat requested that the command bus be brought to the scene and he added more officers for security. When Pat got to the scene, it was eight o’clock in the evening.

As new officers arrived, Bryan relieved patrol officers and the remaining Public Disorder officers. He allowed the task force members to leave to get some food, instructing that everyone be
back by 2200 hours. Pat wanted to make sure that this scene was handled meticulously by the best people. Pat decided to call the police commissioner before it got ridiculously late. He didn’t bother to call Chief Abernathy.

“Longstreet.”

“Good evening, Commissioner, its Pat O’Connor.”

“Did you survive the Alamo?”

“It wasn’t that bad, thanks to the Public Disorder Unit.”

“I saw the press coverage, and I thought the NYPD looked very strong, but fair.”

“We tried to be fair. Lt. Ellis really did a good job and probably averted a small riot. I have no doubt that this was incited as the result of our arresting the good counselor Romano. This crowd just appeared out of nowhere. The bar manager stood there like a deer in the headlights. I’m certain he didn’t have a clue what was going to happen.”

“I haven’t had any calls from anyone about it. Did we find anything in the bar, Patty?”

“Not yet, but we did find something in Tony Rodriguez’s car that has helped a lot. He had written some notes about his call from the informant mentioning the Blue Goose which gave us the connection we needed to get a search warrant. We’re waiting on all the players to get here and then we’ll get started. It’ll probably take all night and then some.”

“I appreciate your dedication to this case, Patty. You rattled some chains, arresting that lawyer this afternoon, but it sounds like he needed arresting. Keep me posted.”

“I will, sir, and I haven’t let Chief Abernathy know this yet. Should I call him or do you want to?”

“Let him sleep, Patty. You know he really doesn’t like you very much, and I don’t want him to get in the mix of all this just yet.”

“Yes sir, and if he should ask later, what should I say?”

“Tell him you told me and I’ll say I forgot to call him. He won’t raise his temper with me.”

“Thank you, Commissioner. I really appreciate it.”

Pat looked at his watch and saw that it was about 2030 hours. He called Caroline Rodriguez.

“Hello.”

“Caroline, this is Pat.”

“Hello, Pat, it’s good to hear your voice.”

“Caroline, I wanted you to know that we found Tony’s car today behind a garage in Queens.”

“Why was it there?”

“We think that he probably just parked it there while he went to a Latino joint called the Blue Goose Cantina. We believe that he had information from a snitch that something wrong was going on there. Please don’t share this, but we’re going to search the bar tonight and see if we can find some evidence that Tony was there. It’s a long shot, but we’re going to do a detailed forensic search.”

“I know that one day you’ll find out what happened to my Tony. I miss him so much. It won’t bring him back, but it’ll help bring some closure as to what actually happened to him.”

“Call me if you need anything, Caroline. I’ll stay in touch. Good night.”

“Good night, Pat.”

CHAPTER 39

Saturday, April 10-Day 9

The Blue Goose Cantina- #3 Queensland Court

Borough of Queens, New York

2200 Hours

By
2200 hours, the area around the Blue Goose looked like a police convention. The NYPD Command Bus was parked out front, and a huge Crime Scene Unit vehicle was parked behind it. There were CSU vehicles and scores of marked NYPD RMP’s and detectives’ cars. The scene was noisy with blaring radios, supervisors barking orders and the ongoing banter between the cops and the spectators. The crime scene tape had been established almost a block away to enable the teams to work out of the view of the media cameras and to provide a buffer in case more protesters returned. Pat asked Bryan Flannery to get everyone involved in the search into the Command Bus. In just a few minutes, it was packed with CSU Detectives, lab technicians and task force members.

Pat worked his way to the front.

“Now I know how a sardine feels. I’m sorry it’s so cramped. I think most of us know each other, but we have a few new faces. I’m Patrick O’Connor, Chief of Detectives, and this is Captain Bryan Flannery, commander of the Rodriguez Task Force. I recognize some new faces from the Crime Scene Unit. Sergeant McBain, please introduce them.”

“Sure, Chief, and I know how important the scene may be, so we have an all-star team tonight. Sam Vignola is the supervisor of the latent print section and can get prints off of rat turds. Margaret Fitzpatrick is our lead DNA analyst, and Melissa Baldwin is a trace evidence expert. Her expertise is hair, fiber and particle evidence. Mark Desoto is a blood spatter expert and also is a master at finding blood with his alternative light sources and chemical wizardry. We also have Allison West and Corey Madison that are our best photographers and videographers. We have Phil Rembrandt Barony who is a forensic artist and will do the crime scene sketch.  This is probably the strongest team I’ve ever been a part of, Chief.”

“I appreciate all of you being here. Welcome to the team.” Pat began his instructions.

“There are just a few things we need to cover before we get started. I know I don’t need to remind you that we’re investigating the murder of a New York City Police Detective. This is as serious as it gets. To the new members of our team it’s important that you know that we’ve been admonished, in fact ordered by the Queens County District Attorney not to discuss what we discover in this investigation. He’s assured us that he’ll launch a criminal investigation if we do. All media inquiries should be directed to me or Captain Flannery. This’ll be a long and tedious night. If you need relief or a break, just let someone know. I’m sure that we’ll be able to take some regularly scheduled breaks. I’ll arrange for food and drinks. Do your very best work. Several other deaths are related to this case. I hope the Blue Goose Cantina tells a story. Bryan and George you can give any instructions to the team as needed.”

Bryan Flannery spoke quickly. “I echo Chief O’Connor’s sentiments and appreciate you being here. The primary focus will be the back room that’s not open to the public. Detective Rodriguez
left notes in his car that indicated he had received a call from an informant that something was going down in the back room. However, rule nothing out and we’ll process every inch. Sergeant McBain, you can take charge.”

“Thank you, Captain Flannery. We’re going to process this scene in a very slow, deliberate manner. This may take quite a while. The first thing we’ll do is allow the forensic photographers to take overall photo shots and video of the entire premises. Then we’ll get a detailed sketch with measurements. We’ll collectively view the videos here in the command bus, so each of you understands the layout of the joint and any special areas of interest.”

The photographers immediately began to assemble cameras and video equipment. Pat turned to George McBain.

“Thanks for doing this by the book, George. I really hope we develop some leads.”

“Me too, Chief, and we’ll find the evidence, if it’s still in there. I’m sure we’ll find something if this is where Rodriguez was killed.”

After about an hour, the first team returned to the command bus. They were wearing white protective suits, gloves and booties. They each peeled off the white gear and placed it in a box labeled “Discarded Protective Clothing.” They would put on fresh suits if they returned to prevent cross-contamination. A DVD was inserted into a player. CSU Detective Allison West began to go over the layout of the Blue Goose Cantina.

“This isn’t a very big place. When you walk in the door, there’s a dining area of about twenty tables. There’s a small dance floor with a juke box, an L-shaped bar with about eight stools. There’s a very small kitchen that has a grill, deep fryer, oven and some oversized sinks. It’s pretty nasty. There are actually two back rooms. One has a conference room type table and chairs with a corner desk and a couple of file cabinets. The other is just a storage room. The floors are hardwood except for the room with the conference table, which has carpet. I didn’t see anything obvious, but I suspect that any evidence we find will be microscopic. Are there any questions?”

Mary McDonald responded. “Is there a bathroom?”

“Yes there are two very tiny bathrooms between the conference room and the storage room.”     

George McBain stood up.

“Thank you, Melissa. I think we all have a better understanding of what we’re seeing. We’ll now let our latent print and DNA wizards get in there and see if we can find some real evidence. Chief, do you or the Captain have anything else for us?”

Pat had a few more words. “I appreciate all of the work the Crime Scene Unit is doing in this case, George. I’m going to get out of your hair and let these professionals get to work. If there’s anything you need, let me or Captain Flannery know. Good luck, and I’ll eagerly await your results.”

“You’re welcome, Chief. We’ll do our best!”

Pat looked at his watch and it was almost midnight. He was tired, and decided to go home. He tried to remember where his car was parked. It occurred to him that he had been dropped off by Maggie at the 107th Precinct. He approached Bryan.

“Maggie dropped me off at the ‘one-oh-seven.’ Can you take me home, Bryan?”

“Sure, Chief. Mike and Mary are going to wait it out, but I’d just be in the way. Who knows what joys tomorrow may bring for us?”

Pat got into Bryan’s car.

“What does your gut say, Chief?”

“My gut says that we’re getting close, and there’s a lot more to this case than we understand at this point.”

“Why do you say that?”

“Mostly it’s because of that scumbag lawyer, Romano. The Blue Goose Cantina is not the kind of place that would ordinarily have a lawyer on the bar manager’s speed dial, because there’s just not
that much risk. I mean, are they afraid someone will get choked on a blue tortilla chip? It doesn’t make sense. This guy also got a city council member to call the commissioner in just a few minutes, and that the protest was far too quick and convenient. I could be totally wrong, but that’s my gut feeling.”