Authors: Ken White
Chapter Twenty-five
Captain Jimmy Mutz was standing in the lobby of the Downtown District station. He
wasn’t happy.
“You part of this clusterfuck?” he asked as I came through the front door.
“Afraid so, Jimmy,” I said.
“Then maybe you can tell me what the hell is going on,” he said. “I got tanks in the
street, guards at the front door, my officers locked up in the squadroom, and I can’t even get to
my office.”
I’d seen the two armored personnel carriers on the street in front of the station when I
came around the corner. Both had a heavy machine gun up top and were manned by watchful
troopers of the Area Governor’s Security Force. Two more troopers stood guard in front of
the main entrance to the station, automatic rifles at the ready. One of the guys at the door had
tried to run me off as I got close to the station, but a hard stare and my ID had brushed him
back.
“There must have been a screw-up with communications,” I said, looking past Jimmy. A
pair of guards stood in front of the main receiving desk, where the desk sergeant usually sat.
There was no desk sergeant behind the desk today. It was manned by another trooper. “I
wanted the station locked down when they brought Jedron Marsch’s sister in. I didn’t tell
them to shut it down.”
I looked back at Jimmy. “We’ll get this straightened out. How long have they had your
officers locked up?”
“Since seven this morning,” he said through gritted teeth.
“Shit. Okay, follow me.”
As I approached the raised counter, the guard on the right moved in to block me. I
shoved him hard and he stumbled back, raising his rifle. To my left, I heard a click as the
other guard thumbed the safety on his rifle.
I ignored them both and stared up at the guy behind the desk. He had a silver bar on each
collar. “Who’s in command here, lieutenant?”
He was silent for a moment, his eyes moving from me to the guards on either side.
“Don’t look at them,” I said, my voice sharp. “Look at me and answer the question.”
“Captain Hill,” he said. After a brief pause, he added, “Sir.”
“Where is Captain Hill?”
“Watch commander’s office, sir,” he said. The ‘sir’ came faster and easier this time.
“Buzz the door. We’re going to see the captain.”
“Sir, my orders are . . .”
I didn’t give him the opportunity to finish. “I don’t give a flying
fuck what your orders are, lieutenant,” I said. “You got new orders. Buzz the fucking door.”
“Sir . . .” he began.
I could have pulled my ID card and ended the discussion, but I was angry. So angry that I
wanted to make him sweat a little. “I’m going to reach into my pocket and remove a cell
phone,” I said. “Make sure your goons keep their fingers away from the trigger.”
The lieutenant nodded to the men on either side of me. I pulled out the cell phone and
held it up.
“You’ll notice three buttons at the top of this phone,” I said. “If I press the first one, I’ll
be connected to the Area Operations Center.” I paused. “I don’t think I want to talk to them.
If I press the second button, the phone on the Deputy Area Governor’s desk will ring.” I
paused again. “But it’s the middle of the afternoon, so I imagine he’s happily asleep in his
bed right now.”
The lieutenant was watching me, the color slowly draining out of his face. The fact that I had a cell phone meant I was somebody pretty goddamn important. What I was saying told him how important.
“Now if I press the third button, the Deputy Area Governor’s cell phone will start ringing.
Now I’m not a gambling man, lieutenant, but I’d be willing to bet the farm that General Bain
has his cell phone sitting on the night table next to his bed, for situations just like this one.”
I stared at him, hard. “How about it? You wanna take that bet?”
The lieutenant’s face was the color of fresh snow. “No, sir.” he said.
“Then buzz the fucking door,” I said. “And lieutenant, I want this to be a surprise for
Captain Hill. When I see him, if I get the feeling that you’ve called ahead and told him I’m
coming . . .” I smiled. Not a nice smile. “Well, we’d have to have a little talk then, you and
me.”
“I understand, sir,” he said. His hand moved and the door to the right buzzed.
“I appreciate the cooperation,” I said.
There were guards every fifteen or twenty feet in the empty halls. They watched as
Jimmy and I passed, but made no move to stop us. They must have figured we wouldn’t be
there if we weren’t supposed to be.
As we came around the corner, I saw a tall, beefy guard standing in front of Jimmy’s office.
He held his rifle across his chest and he was giving us a hard stare as we got closer.
I stopped in front of him and said, “Move.”
“Captain Hill is not to be disturbed,” he spat out, his eyes focused at the top of my head.
“Move.”
“Sir, Captain Hill left strict orders that he was not to be disturbed.”
I stared up at him in silence until he finally lowered his eyes to meet mine.
“Move,” I said, drawing the word out. “Now.”
Cops and soldiers, though both part of command-driven organizations, approach their
roles differently. Cops usually don’t care who you are. They carry a badge that says they’re
the physical embodiment of the law. They may eventually do what you tell them, assuming
you’ve got the authority to force it, but they’ll give you a hard time if it doesn’t meet with
their approval.
Soldiers are different. Soldiers follow orders. If you’ve got the authority to issue those
orders, or if they even think you have that authority, they’ll follow your instructions and never
say a word.
A cop at the door would have given me an argument. The soldier hesitated for a second,
then stepped to one side and snapped to attention.
I threw the door open and stepped into the room, Jimmy right behind me.
A youngish blond guy in the familiar blue uniform sat behind Jimmy’s desk, red beret
pushed to the back of his head. He was studying a map that was spread in front of him.
“I told you, no interruptions until Mr. Welles gets here,” he said, not looking up.
“He’s here,” I said. Behind me, Jimmy closed the door.
He looked up, then awkwardly stood, pulling the beret forward. “Captain Simon Hill,
sir,” he said. “I’m sorry. They didn’t notify me that you were in the building.”
“How long have you been here, captain?”
The question seemed to catch him off-guard. “Ummm, since zero-six-thirty, sir,”
Hill replied.
I nodded. “You relieved the Security Force personnel who were here overnight?”
“Yes, sir.”
“What was their disposition?”
“Sir?”
“The Security Force detachment that was here when you relieved them. Were they stationed
throughout the police station? Did they have the night shift officers detained in the
squadroom? Was Miss Takeda sitting behind that desk, looking at a map, while the watch
commander stood in the lobby of his own station?”
Hill looked like he was going to throw up. “No, sir,” he said. “The detachment was
outside, in the APCs. Miss Takeda was in the field with the search teams.”
“You know, captain, when I spoke with Miss Takeda this morning, she told me that you
were a competent officer who could handle this assignment.” I shook my head slowly. “I
have to tell you. I just don’t see that.”
“Sir?”
“Your orders, as I understand them, were to find Chelsea Wilkins, bring her to this
station, secure this station against outside interference, and hold Miss Wilkins until I arrived.”
I was silent for a moment. “What you’ve done, instead, is shut down this police station for the
past, what, seven hours, and prevented the officers who provide police protection for the
entire Downtown District from doing their jobs.”
Hill was silent.
“Now, I might be wrong about your orders, but probably not, since I’m the one who
issued them last night. But just in case I’m wrong, you can be sure that I’m going to talk to
Miss Takeda and determine exactly what was expected of you and your men when you took
over this morning.”
“Sir,” Hill said. “I believe the captain . . . exceeded his orders.”
“I believe the captain is correct.”
“Sir, permission to speak freely?”
“Go right ahead.”
Hill took a deep breath. “Sir, I’m asking you as one human to another, please don’t tell
Miss Takeda about my . . . fuckup.”
“Don’t want to lose those shiny silver bars?”
“Sir, I would lose considerably more than my bars if you complain to Miss Takeda about
my deployment.”
I studied him for a moment in silence, then nodded. “All right, captain. I’ll let this
. . . fuckup be our little secret. That’s assuming of course, that Captain Mutz is willing to let it
pass. By the way . . .” I jerked my head back at Jimmy. “. . . have you met Captain Mutz?
He’s the watch commander for day shift here.”
Hill came to attention and started to raise his hand in a salute. He stopped with his hand
halfway to his beret and lowered it.
“That’s my desk,” Jimmy said.
Hill quickly rolled up the map and put a rubber band around it. “Sorry, sir,” he said.
Jimmy stepped up next to me and pointed to the left. “Those are my things.”
I followed his hand and saw his desk set, a couple of file folders, and some pictures in
frames stacked against the wall.
In under a minute, Hill had all of the items back on the desk, arranged in a rough
approximation of the way I remembered them from the last time I’d been there.
Jimmy was nodding. “My officers,” he said softly.
Hill picked up the phone on the desk. “Connect me to Donaldson.”
A couple of seconds passed, and he said, “I want you to release the police officers. Do it
nicely. Be apologetic, tell them there was a screw-up, whatever it takes.” He hung up the
phone.
“I don’t think it’s really necessary to have guards in the lobby and the halls,” I said. “This is a
police station, not a prison. If there’s a threat, it’ll come from outside, not inside. Maybe one
of your people should stay with the Wilkins girl till I get there, but the rest . . .”
Hill nodded picked up the phone again. “Lieutenant Bristow, I want you to move all our
teams out of the building,” he said. “Have one man stay with the subject, everybody else
outside in a loose perimeter around the station. Low key, but have them keep their eyes open.
Do it now.”
He hung up. “Will there be anything else, Mr. Welles?”
I shook my head. “No, that’s fine. Where are you holding Chelsea Wilkins?”
“Holding cells, sir,” he said.
“Good. I’ll be down there in a few minutes to talk to her. You might mention that I’m
coming so your guard doesn’t give me a hard time.”
“I’ll see to it, sir.”
“Why don’t you do that, then join your men outside,” I said.
He started around the desk, and I said, “Oh, and captain . . . I think we can leave Miss Takeda out of this. No harm, no foul, as they say.” I paused. “That’s if Captain
Mutz is willing to go along, of course.”
“Just let my men get to work,” Jimmy said.
“Yes, sir,” Hill said. “Thank you, sir.” He turned to Jimmy. “And thank you, sir.”
Jimmy watched him walk out, then closed the door and shook his head. “That Miss
Takeda must be a real piece of work,” he said. “From the look on his face when you said you
were going to tell her, I think that boy probably needs a change of underwear right about
now.”
“Yeah, she’s not somebody you want to disappoint.”
Jimmy laughed. “Of course, you can be pretty scary yourself.”
“I’m just irritated,” I said. “Vees and people working for Vees throw their weight around
because they can. And nobody says a goddamn thing about it.” I paused. “I’ve got a piece of
paper in my pocket that makes me the biggest human badass in town. I’ll admit, I’ve used it.
But I try to do things the right way first. I pull out the paper when
conversation stops working.”
I looked around the office. “So, you okay?”
“I’ll be okay when you tell me what the hell’s going on.”
“Long story, and to be honest, I haven’t put it all together. Those two cops who yanked
Jedron Marsch out of here were bent. Matter of fact, I’m not even sure they were cops.”
I reached into my jacket and pulled out the printouts I’d gotten at Uptown station.
“Here,” I said, handing them to him. “Show these to the sergeant who released Marsch. Find
out if those are the two cops who picked him up.”
“Martinez and Fields,” he said, looking at the pages.
“Or Gutierrez and Washington,” I said. “Or maybe somebody else. When you find out,
give me a call on the cell.”
Jimmy nodded.
“As for the clusterfuck here, I had them find Marsch’s sister, Chelsea, and bring her in. I
figure her brother is long dead by now. And if the killers are smart, they’d want a clean sweep.
I’m thinking they took out Jedron because of something he saw or something he knew. If
that’s the case, there’s a possibility he told his sister.” I smiled. “To be honest, sarge, I’ve got
a lot riding on that possibility, cause otherwise, the air’s getting pretty goddamn thin.”