New York Chief of Detectives (8 page)

“I’m glad that you like it.”

Pat was distracted as his cell phone started to buzz.

“For once, I wish I could ignore this.”

“But, I know you won’t.”

He looked at the caller ID. It said “Private.”

“Pat O’Connor.” 

“This is George McBain, Chief. We have a problem.”

“What’s wrong George?”

“I’d rather not say on a cell phone.”

“Where are you, George?”

“I’m at my desk at the lab.”

“I’ll call you on a land line.”

Pat moved his chair back.

“Sorry, Maggie, this sounds important I need to use a land line.”

“You can use my secure phone in the study, over by the computer. It’s the black one. Let me punch in my code and you’ll be good to go.”    

Pat dialed George’s number.

“Crime Scene Unit, Sergeant McBain.”

“Pat O’Connor here, what’s up?” 

“Nothing good, I’m afraid, but thanks for calling back, Chief. We’ve just finished our ballistics work in the Curtis Gee case. We’ve run both the casings and the bullets in AFIS. We have a hit and it’s been peer reviewed by two other examiners. They all agree. The slugs that killed Curtis Gee were fired from Tony Rodriguez’s 9 mm Glock.”

“Oh, my God! Who knows about this George?”

“Just the examiners know right now.”

“Swear them to secrecy, not a word.”

“Yes sir.”

“It is 1945 now; meet me in the conference at One PP at 2100 hours.”

“Yes sir.” 

Pat turned to Maggie,

“Sorry, this is not good. I need to make a call.”

Pat dialed Bryan Flannery.

“Captain Flannery here.”

“Hey, Bryan, it’s O’Connor here.”

“What’s up Chief?”

“Pull the team in at 2100 hours to One PP. We have a development.”

“Okay, but do you want to give me a clue?”

“No, but I assure you it’s not good.”

“See you at 2100 hours, Chief.”     

Maggie had a troubled expression on her face. Pat could tell she was pissed.

“Pat, do you have any idea what I’d like to do with that stupid cell phone?” 

“I’m sorry, but the call was important, and involves Tony’s case. I have to do this.”

“I understand Pat, but it’s always this way. There is the almighty NYPD that always comes first.”

“Actually, in this case it’s Tony Rodriguez that comes first.”

“I’ll allow that, and you better eat your steak before it gets cold.”

“Thanks, Maggie, you know I love you.”

“I do believe that, but not as much as you love being Chief of Detectives.”

Pat took another bite, called Dickie and told him to pick him up at 8:30 at Maggie’s high rise. Pat finished the meal, and Maggie fixed him a big travel mug full of coffee. The mug of course, was conspicuously marked with the star of the United States Secret Service.

“When this case is over, let’s block out some time together. I really want to spend time with you, Maggie.”

“When this case is over, there will be another case and then another. It’s a cycle, Pat.”

Pat hugged her, and they had a lingering kiss.

“You have no idea how I hate to leave.”

“I know. Go solve this case. I’ll always be here for you.”

Pat kissed her again and left.

Dickie was waiting outside in the black Chrysler. Pat crawled in and Dickie immediately commented.

“I bet this was popular with Maggie.”

“Touchy subject, Dickie, but I hope I’ll survive this with her.”

“Well, she stays pretty busy on her own, I’m sure.”

“She does, but I’ve never complained. I understand the marriage to that shield in your pocket. It’s a difficult master. If she wasn’t an agent, she would’ve probably dumped me a long time ago.”

“Except for the fact that she’s crazy about you, Chief.”

“I just hope that it remains the case. I don’t have a lot of time for romance.”

“When I see her eyes when you’re around, I know that she has those forever kind of feelings, Boss.”

“So do I, my friend.”

CHAPTER 15

Tuesday, April 6-Day 5

Major Crimes Conference Room-One Police Plaza

Borough of Manhattan, New York

2100 Hours

Pat
walked in the office with his Secret Service coffee mug in his hand. He motioned Bryan Flannery into his office.

“What’s up Chief? This must be big.”

“Yes, it’s big, and it’ll complicate everything. Curtis Gee was killed with Tony Rodriguez’s Glock 19.”

“Oh, wow! That’ll not play well with the bosses.”

“I know, but it doesn’t really mean anything bad about Tony.”

“For all we know, the perp that killed Tony took the Glock and just missed the baby Glock 26 on the ankle. It’d be easy to miss.”

“I’m sure that’s what happened, but the IAB rats will salivate over this information.”

“Do we have to tell them?”

“We do, Bryan. If we held it back, that would make us just as bad as they are. I promised Harry Doogin that if we had anything that looked out of place, I’d let him know.”

“I understand. I just don’t like it.” 

“That’s why I wanted the team pulled in. I wanted them to hear this from us.” 

“Then let’s do this thing. I think they’re all in there, Chief.”

Pat walked into the Major Crimes Conference Room. Everyone was in casual clothes except for Bryan Flannery and George McBain.

“Thanks, guys, for coming in. There’s been an important development in this case, and I wanted to make sure you were fully briefed before something leaks out. I’ll let Sergeant McBain brief you.”

George McBain walked to the podium at the front of the room. There was a large NYPD patch on the front of it.  He turned on a large flat screen monitor on the wall behind him and started typing on a laptop.

“Guys, we completed the forensics on the murder of Curtis Gee this afternoon. We recovered two 9 mm slugs from the body. They were good quality and we entered them into NIBIN. We got a hit for a possible match, and we’ve now matched those slugs to a Glock 19 issued to Detective Rodriguez. Tony was involved in a shooting incident before, and we routinely test fired his gun, although he didn’t actually hit anyone.”

The screen lit up, and George brought up a picture of one slug and then added another picture.

“The one on the left is the bullet recovered from Curtis Gee’s body. It was in his brain to be exact. The one on the right is from the test shots recovered in the water tank after Tony Rodriguez’s Glock was test fired by ballistics. You can see they’re a perfect match. This is the second slug and is a little more deformed. However, if you look at the striations, they also match. Here is the first shell
casing found at the scene. Now, this is the test casing from the tests. They’re also clearly a match. Finally, here is the second recovered shell casing, and it matches. These identifications have been peer reviewed by the senior firearms examiners. There is no doubt that Curtis Gee was murdered with Detective Rodriguez’s Glock 19.”

“Thank you, George.”

“I’m sorry to be the bearer of bad news, Chief.”

“Well, we don’t know that it’s bad news yet. For all we know, the bastard that killed Tony stole the Glock and then killed Curtis Gee. I don’t think that this means anything sinister about Tony, but we have to take it wherever the evidence leads us. There’s no doubt that this will complicate the case and undoubtedly bring down some political heat. But I want you guys to know that unless something is proven otherwise, Tony Rodriguez is still the hero cop that we eulogized this afternoon. I have no doubt he’ll remain so. That’s why it’s so important that we keep this development quiet. I know that there’s not a person on this team who would leak anything, but in the morning, this case is going to get ugly. We have to keep it out of the press. I have a plan that may help, but it’ll put me on the line with everyone else here at One PP. I didn’t want any of you to come in for the briefing in the morning and feel like you had been sucker punched by what I’m going to do.”

“Chief?”

“Yes, Mike.”

“Want to give us a clue?”

“Not really. This’ll require a few players and they’ll not know what’s going on until I reach out to them. Thanks for coming in. Do not discuss this with anyone. Try to get some sleep.”

Pat walked back to his office and shut the door. He had to wake up some important people. The detectives could be heard mumbling all the way to the elevator.

“What’s the Chief going to do? This is going to get interesting.”

CHAPTER 16

Wednesday, April 7-Day 6

Chief of Detectives’ Residence

Borough of Manhattan, New York

0630 Hours

Pat
was up early on Wednesday morning.  He had Dickie pick him up at 0630. 

“Good morning, Chief.  I hope you had a good night.”

“Thanks, Dickie, but I’ll have a better night when we solve these murders. This is a cop. We have to solve it.”

“That’s for sure.” 

As they drove closer to One PP, Pat spotted a familiar car near a favorite coffee shop.

“Hey, we’re still a little early, so let’s stop for some caffeine. That looks like Maggie’s ‘G-Ride’ out front.”

Dickie pulled the Chrysler behind the black Suburban.

“I’ll wait in the car, Chief. You may need to do some damage control.”

Pat walked in and saw Maggie standing in line with a very conservative blue suit on. He had no trouble seeing the outline of her Sig Saur P229 in a holster on her right side. He slipped up behind her.

“The girls sure are pretty in this place.”

Maggie turned and smiled.

“Good morning, Pat. Are you following me?”

“Why would you say that?”

“Because, I’ve never seen you in here this early in the morning.” 

“To be perfectly honest, I saw the G-Ride and hoped it was you.”

“I appreciate the attention, even if it’s brief.”

“My pleasure, I have a big day ahead, and I can use the juice from some coffee. I’m sorry about last night. I really hated to leave.”

“Pat, I do understand, and I’m sorry if I showed my frustration a little.”

“You deserved the right to vent.”

Pat ordered two large coffees, and they walked over to the counter to add cream and sweetener. Of course, Maggie had skim milk in hers, while Pat went for the half and half.

“Maggie, I wish I could stay longer, but Dickie is waiting.”

“I need to go too. I’m flying to DC for a meeting this afternoon, but I’ll be back around 8:00 tonight. We could meet for a late dinner, if you want.”

“Sounds great, Maggie!  Have a safe trip.”

Pat smiled and walked away. He knew better than to kiss her when she was in her Secret Service mode.

“I’ll call you when I get in from the flight.”

“Thanks, I look forward to it.”

Pat was pleased and was smiling as he walked out to the car. Dickie quickly headed toward One PP.      

When they walked in the office, Queens County District Attorney, Richard Chambers, was waiting.

“Thanks for being here, Richard.”

“It’s my pleasure, Patrick. I would do anything to accommodate the NYPD Chief of Detectives.”

“Cut the BS. How’ve you been?”

“I’ve been great, but very busy. The caseload is overwhelming and the young ADA’s run me pretty ragged. I have to do a lot of damage control and handle too few cases and too many complaints.”

“I’m sorry that I haven’t reached out to you sooner, Richard. We had some great days when I was catching cases in Queens.”

“You were my best detective.”

“Thanks, but your memory must be failing you.”

“I remember the famous rabbits you pulled out of the hat in more than one case.”

“It was fun. We need to go in my office.”

Pat walked into the office and closed the door. He and Richard sat down at his table by the window.

“I have a task force investigating two murders that will likely be within your jurisdiction in Queens County.” Pat explained.

“I’ve been following the Rodriguez case.”

“That’s one of them, but we also have a second murder case that may be related. On Monday a snitch by the name of Curtis Gee was found dead in Queens with two 9 mm slugs in his head. He’d been dead several days. Ballistics has matched the slugs to Tony Rodriguez’s Glock 19, which is still missing.”