Authors: Patrick Abbruzzi
“So nothing is done. No follow up, no nothing, and the scumbag gets away with it,” said Frankie with a growl.
“That’s fucking bullshit. We have to deal with these cock suckers ever
y
day!” chimed in Willie.
“Well, this is what they want and this is what they’re going to get,” Murphy said angrily.
As far as the Sargewas concerned it was pure bullshit, but for some reaso
n
headquarters wanted to keep it hush-hush so Murphy instructed both men to get every piece of paper pertaining to th
e
case and throw them all into the sewer instead of leaving them in the hospita
l
waste bins. He then told his men not to discuss any of it with any hospita
l
worker.
Murphy left and resumed patrol. While Frankie and Willie were upset that the job had let them down, they also knew that this wasn’t anything new.
Every textbook ever written about police work extolled the value of the patrol force. It was forever called the backbone of the police force. Yet
,
when the chips fell, it was always the patrol force that bore the brun
t
of every politician’s attack, just like it was always the patrol force that was told there was no money in the city’s coffers to fund a raise i
n
pay. Mayors and chiefs alike would visit the funerals of deceased cops
,
praising the virtues of the slain warrior almost as if they were thei
r
own children, but all cops knew this was just for media attention and a way to garner votes.
“Charlie, I made my wife swear to me that if I should ever die in th
e
line of duty she would insist that no mayor or politician b
e
allowed within ten miles of the funeral parlor, even if i
t
meant that I would be denied the so called honor of an Inspector’s Funeral,” stated Lt. A.
The very idea of keeping a tight lid on this vicious attac
k
against a cop would be tantamount of sending a message that we al
l
surrendered to the scum bags of the earth.
Frankie knew he could not let that happen, no matter what the cost. If he did, he would lose control of the entire sector and, in time, wor
d
would spread. If it did, there was no doubt how fast he would lose the entire precinct and then the city.
Frankie knew what he had to do.
“Charlie, my partner and I had no idea about what Frankie had in mind for The Underground, even though we knew what had happened that night, down to the smallest detail. Adjoining sectors shared almost everything. We backed each othe
r
up in life and death situations almost daily and trusted each othe
r
explicitly,” explained Lt. A. as he went back into his story.
On the night Frankie decided to exact street justice, Sergeant Murph
y
was the only patrol sergeant. Frankie didn’t want to involve Murphy because if his plan backfired, Murphy would be held accountable. He was too good a cop for that to happen.
Frankie chose 10:00 P.M. because he knew Murphy would be in the station house relieving the desk for meal time.
At exactly 10:00 P.M., Frankie, Willie, Frank and I pulled up in front o
f
T
he Underground. Neither of us notified the dispatcher of our location. As far as Central radio was concerned, we were all still on patrol.
The four of us approached the front door to The Underground and walked in. Heavy metal wa
s
playing on the jukebox and the sweet smell of marijuana filled the air. There were about eight people sitting at the bar and the same scumbag bartender was drawing beer from the tap. It wasn’t long before every bloodshot eye was focused on the four of us. Willie went to the bathrooms and checked out every one, male and female alike. They were empty. Still not a word was said and you could hear yourself fart. Willie nodded at Frankie who quickly locked the door.
“You’ve got to pay the piper,” Frankie said as he smiled from ear to ear.
“Go fuck your mother,” said the bartender while giving him the poin
t
of his middle finger.
Frankie walked behind the bar and quickly found the jack that had been used on the young cop only weeks before.
“What’s this, mother fucker?” he asked the bartender, who had finally begun to swea
t
and squirm.
“Never saw it before,” said the bartender spitting at the object.
With that, Frankie raised the jack into the air. In less than a split second, the bartender’s own weapon came down onto the side of his head, leaving a gaping hole that quickly began gushing with blood. As soon as the
skel collapsed onto the floor behind the bar, the other skels at the barstarted to mouth off, but we weren’t finished yet. We raised our night stick
s
and with a battery of blows, rendered everyone at the bar incapacitated.
Blood was gushing and spewing all across the room. Teeth and pieces of teeth were lying all over. Would you believe that when we were done, some of those fuckers stil
l
had enough strength to moan? Frankie, who was still behind the bar, placed the jack into his rear pocket. Then, with his baton, he shattered the mirror on the wall behind the bar then proceeded to break every liquor bottle behind th
e
counter as well as those in the wooden cabinets that adjoined the broken mirror. We eve
n
found more stored in cases, which we poured all over the floor.
We took out our knives and sliced every piece of upholstery in each one of the booths. Next, we went into the bathrooms and broke all the mirrors and destroye
d
every piece of ceramic toilet into millions of pieces. When we were done with that, Frankie cut all the lines to the taps and broke all the lines to the water supply.
Once we were finished, Frankie bent down and grabbed the bartender by the hair.
“If you report this to anybody, I’ll come back and find you, then I’l
l
kill you. You can bet your ass that’s a promise,” Frankie cooed as he smiled again from ea
r
to ear.
“Then the four of us walked outside and totally destroyed all the motorcycles that were parked illegally on the sidewalk. When we were finished there was nothing left of any of
them.Energized with adrenaline, we got in our cars and simply drove away. We handle
d
a few calls but did not hear anything else that night about The Underground. As a matter of fact, Charlie, we never heard anything again unti
l
a few weeks later when The Underground closed. It never re-opened and eventually th
e
lease was turned over to a Hispanic man and his family. They opened
a
bodega, much to the pleasure of the neighborhood. So you see, Charlie
,
that’s just another reason why I love the 120th so much,” Lt. A. said with a satisfied smile.
Charlie liked the story he had just heard even though it was har
d
for him to visualize his boss breaking the law in so many ways. That was when he understood that what he had heard from other old timers was true. The cops of the old school did hold court in the street and meted out justice brutally and savagely, but it was justice, pure and simple.
If the story he’d just heard from the lieutenant happened in today’s world, it would mean certain jai
l
time because the skels of today realize that politicians consider locking up a cop the road to promotion and advancement.
Charlie had been eager to tell the lieutenant about his decisio
n
to break off with Terry but the tour was almost over and he chose t
o
wait until he had more time.
The lieutenant suggested they grab a couple of coffees and take a run into the station house so he could catch up on some of his paperwork. There were enoug
h
sergeants out on patrol and bedsides, if the lieutenant was needed, the
y
could always call the house.
Twenty-Three
Back at the station, Charlie found a comfortable chair in the lounge so he could catch a few winks. He was just about to drift off when he heard his name bellowed over the precinct intercom directing him to report to the telephone switchboard operator. He ran back up the steps and walked over to the rookie on the switchboard wh
o
handed him a folded sheet of paper.
Charlie opened it and it read, “Call me please, Terry.
”
“What the hell does she want?
”
heasked out loud. Then, looking at the rookie, he asked, “When did you get this?
”
“She called about twenty minutes ago,” the young cop answered.
It was almost 5:30 A.M. and she was calling the precinct. Charlie didn’t know if he should call her back or not. He knew she lived with her mother but he didn’t want to wake up th
e
entire household if he called. After struggling with his decision he got the key to the clerical office, where he would at least have some privacy, so he could make the call. He entered the offic
e
and found a desk with a phone. After making himself comfortable, he dialed he
r
number. She picked it up in the middle of the first ring.
“Terry? It’s Charlie. Are you okay? It’s kind of unusual for you to be calling the station at 5:30 A.M.,” he said quietly.
He could hear Terry blowing her nose on the other end of the line.
“Charlie, I miss you so much. I just want to see you one last time. Please
,
Charlie, can’t you come over in the morning just for twenty minutes?
”
she sobbed.
“I don’t think that’s a good idea, Terry,” he answered as he ran a hand through his hair.
“Oh, Charlie. How am I going to get through this? Please, you have to help me get over you. I feel as if I’m losing my mind,” she sobbed.
Charlie had no doubt he could have stayed on the phone with her for hours
.
She had lost it completely and was in so much pain that he began feeling guilty again. Against his better judgment but wanting to help her through the transition, he decided to visit her in the morning.
“I’ll come over when I get off work, okay?
”
“Oh, thank you, Charlie!
”
she said with a deep sigh of relief as she blew her nose again.
“I’m only going to be able to stay for a few minutes though,” he cautioned as he trie
d
to make his point quite clear.
“Okay. I’ll see you later, Charlie,” she said.
As he hung up the phone, Charlie knew that going there was a mistake. If he was ever going to patch things up with Annette, he had to stay away from Terry. He suddenly realized that even his wife wasn’t sure if the marriage could be saved, but it did look as i
f
she was trying. He was crazy to even think about going to Terry’s hous
e
but he felt trapped and didn’t want a crazed female walking into the station house looking for him in front of the desk officer. He had see
n
that happen before and it was embarrassing for the cop, the mistress an
d
the wife who innocently was dragged through the quagmire. He also didn’t want to be transferred and knew that the department would relocate his ass to the far reaches of the Bronx or Queens on just mere suspicion o
f
conduct unbecoming a police officer.
He had to be strong enough to resist whatever it was that Terry had planned. Did she want to seduce him again with perfume and sexy outfits? What could she do that she hadn’t done already? Most importantly, Charli
e
knew that he was weak in the flesh.
He hadn’t made love to Annette since they both learned about eac
h
other’s secrets. Although he missed having sex, he simply wanted to cool thing
s
down with Terry. His mind was in overdrive thinking of different ways in which t
o
appease her. Maybe he could convince her just to allow them to have sex every once in a while but there would be no phone calls. Yet Charlie knew that having sex with Terry was something he swor
e
to himself he would never do again. He didn’t want to be used and h
e
certainly didn’t want to use anyone else like that.