New York Chief of Detectives (16 page)

“It’s not that at all. My mind was racing ninety miles a minute, trying to figure out all the pieces of this puzzle and how this fits. I couldn’t sleep and decided to satisfy my need to know if it was really there.”

“It obviously was there.”

“Yep, it was covered up with a tarp just like the perp said. I called George McBain and they’ve taken the car to the lab on a flatbed truck for processing.”

“You like to get things done quickly.”

“I most certainly do.” Pat affirmed.

Pat and Bryan entered the conference room. All the task force members were there. Pat briefed them on the recovery of Tony’s car and Mary McDonald went over her interview with the Sturdivant kid at Belleview. Pat asked about other leads.

“Where are we at in trying to find this dog-bitten Marcus Johnson?”

Mike Logan spoke up. “We got a call from his mother, who claims she hasn’t seen him. She did, however; give us the name of the place where he works as a dishwasher. It’s a little Hispanic joint, called the Blue Goose Cantina. It’s actually just around the corner from the Newman Brothers Garage in Corona. They open at noon. Sanchez and Alverez have agreed to check it out and see if they’ve seen the kid. As best we can tell, he has no cell phone or car. He’s obviously on the run. I don’t know what he knows, but he’s scared to death.”

“I hope we find him before the people he’s afraid of find him.”

“We’ll keep you posted, Chief.”

“What do you have from forensics, George?”

“We have some results, Chief. We raised the serial number on the Glock from the Times Square incident, and it’s definitely not Tony’s gun. It was stolen from a pawn shop burglary over two years ago in Jersey. We also test-fired it, and it doesn’t match Tony’s either. There is definitely a connection between Rodriguez’s death and the car fire near Queens College. We still don’t know who the crispy critter was, but his DNA matches the unknown DNA found on Rodriguez’s jacket. The car was torched with gasoline, and our unknown victim was shot and killed before the car was lit up, confirming Fire Marshal Sparky McGregor’s theory. As soon as I leave the briefing, we’ll start examining Tony’s car.”

“Thanks, George. Good information. When you process the car, I’d like to see if you find our Times Square perp’s fingerprints on it to verify their story. A lot of people would like for them to be Tony’s killers, but I just don’t see it.”

“If they left a print, we’ll find it Chief.”

“Thanks, George. I’m confident that you’ll do your best.”

“So, Chief, what do you think?” Bryan Flannery asked.

“I think we’ve answered some questions, but there are others still out there. So far we have two people killed with Tony’s Glock. We have no idea who one of them is, but we do know that they came in contact with Tony’s jacket. They ended up dead for some reason. My guess is that whoever else was involved in Tony’s murder, wanted them to be silenced. Now we have these two rocket scientists that end up with Tony’s tags. The driver says they stole the tags from behind the Newman Brothers Garage and put them on the Escort they had also stolen. So far, all of this checks out, so I tend to believe this is accurate. The question we don’t know is why Tony’s car was parked behind this garage and what he was involved in last Friday night. Then we look at this kid, Marcus Johnson, who got dog bit and escaped. What in the hell has him so scared that he won’t even go home? His saying that this is bigger than the NYPD makes me think it involves drug lords or heavy duty gang bangers, but we have no information to support it that I know of.  Both the Gang Units and Intelligence Division have nothing that seems to fit in the area where he lives. We need to find him, because if he’s telling the truth, he may be in danger.”

Mike Logan spoke up. “That’s exactly what we told the mom, Chief? He’s afraid and may need our help. He may be in danger. She insists that she hasn’t heard a word, but will let us know if she does.”

“Okay, let’s pay her a visit every day, Mike. I think the helpful approach is the way to go. She is also probably scared to death. Check with Street Crimes, Bryan, and see if they can help us with some surveillance on his house. He may be our best lead, if we can find him.  In the meantime, let’s hit up our snitches for information. The reward for information has been raised to $50,000 as of yesterday afternoon, courtesy of a private contributor. Keep us posted on any developments, and be safe. I don’t want any more bodies in this case.” 

CHAPTER 33

Saturday, April 10-Day 9

Chief of Detectives’ Office- One Police Plaza

Borough of Manhattan, New York

1030 Hours

Pat
returned to his desk and finished most of the paperwork in his in-tray. He thought it would be nice to come in on Monday morning with a clean tray. He wondered how many trees the NYPD used up in a day to support over 40,000 people if you counted the civilian support staff. The paper that changed hands every day was hard to comprehend. He wrote a brief report about locating Tony Rodriguez’s car. The case detectives would be amused because he knew how hard it was to get reports out of the One PP brass, but he was well aware that a good cop always documents his actions. He once had an old detective boss who loved to admonish his squad if it’s not in writing, it didn’t happen, as far as I’m concerned. Pat knew he was right.

At about 1130 hours, Pat’s private desk phone rang. “Pat O’Connor.”

“I woke up this morning, and I’d lost the man who I’d captured last night.”

“Good morning Maggie. I’m sorry I had to leave.”

“I got your sweet note. I know that duty calls.”

“Yep, we’ve made a little progress.”

“Are you going to be tied up all day, Pat, or will you be able to break away?”

“It’s kinda hard to say. I’m in a holding pattern to see how a few leads check out.”

“I was thinking about going to Hugo’s, getting a couple of those giant corn beef sandwiches, and maybe meeting you somewhere.”

“That sounds wonderful, Maggie. Would you like to go to Central Park and have a mini picnic?”

“Sure, do you want me to pick you up?”

“Call me when you are close, and I’ll meet you in the garage. Just show your creds to the guard, and he’ll let you in.”

“See you then, Pat.”

Maggie arrived in about half an hour driving her personal Lexus. Pat got in, and they went to Central Park, where they found a vacant bench near where Maggie parked the car.

“What a nice treat this is, Maggie.”

“I enjoy your company so much I’d hoped something would work out. Remember how we used to go down to the village and browse the antique shops?”

“Yep, you looked for antiques while I hunted old jazz records. I haven’t been in over a year. About the only place I have time to look is on the internet.”

“Do you want to go now?”

“Yes, I do!”

Pat and Maggie finished their sandwiches and drove over to Greenwich Village and parked in a public garage. They went to a few stores and Pat came out with a big stack of Woody Herman
records. He had a musician friend who was a nut for that band and Pat loved the great trumpet players that came out of the Herman Band. Maggie was less impulsive and bought only a crystal candy dish, but was equally thrilled with her purchase. Pat knew she would research the pattern and know everything about it before the day was over. Even in her passions, she was a great investigator.

As they walked down the sidewalk, Pat’s cell phone buzzed.

“Pat O’Connor.”

“It’s Bryan. We have something shaking.”

“What do you have?”

“Alverez and Sanchez went over to The Blue Goose Cantina looking for Marcus Johnson. They went inside in the UC mode and just sat at a booth. They were quickly served a big bowl of bright blue tortilla chips, just like the ones we have been looking for in this case. I definitely think we’re on to something. If you go in the back way, this joint is in sight of the Newman Brothers Garage where we found Tony’s car.”

“This is good stuff, Bryan. Have we approached the owner?”

“No, the place was pretty crowded, but should thin out after lunch for a few hours, according to Sanchez. How do you think we should proceed?”

“Our ultimate goal will be to go through the place with a fine tooth comb. I’m not sure if we have enough to get a search warrant yet, but we’re close. I would try to get consent and if that doesn’t work, we’ll go the search warrant route. Wanna meet before we go in?”

“Get most of the task force guys together, and get some uniforms from the ‘one-oh-seven’ to go with us. Let’s just meet at the ‘one-oh-seven’ squad.”

“Sounds like a plan, Chief.”

“I’m in Greenwich Village. It’ll take me a little while to get there.”

“We’re all scattered.”

“Okay, Bryan I’ll see you in a few.”

“Thanks, Chief.”

Maggie smiled as she spoke.

“I’m learning to enjoy these brief moments of normalcy between the rigors of police work.”

“It’s kind of like the President going to Camp David.” Pat chided.

“That doesn’t seem relaxing to me, because I’ve stood post at Camp David many times.”

“But you were the protector, not the one being protected.”

“True. Can I give you a ride?”

“That’d probably be the fastest way for me to get there, but I can call Dickie, if you had rather go home.”

“I’ll be glad to drive you.” She said softly.

CHAPTER 34

Saturday, April 10-Day 9

107th Police Precinct

Borough of Queens, New York

1500 Hours

Maggie
dropped Pat off at the 107th Precinct. He told her to be safe, even though he knew she always carried her gun and was one of the best trained federal agents in the business. After all, she spent three years in the Presidential Protective Division. He still wasn’t crazy about her riding through some of these neighborhoods in Queens. 

The task force was assembled in the detective squad room upstairs. Everyone was there except Sergeant George McBain, who was still working on processing evidence in the lab, and Sparky McGregor, who only attended the meetings occasionally, as needed. Bryan nodded to Pat that he had the floor.

“Thanks, guys, for working on Saturday. We have some developments. Detective Sanchez, would you like to share your results?”

“Sure, Chief. It’s nothing brilliant, but it’s important. Alverez and I’ve been looking for Marcus Johnson, the kid that escaped from the hospital early yesterday morning. His mother told us he was working as a dishwasher at The Blue Goose Cantina. We went there today and just looked around and had lunch. We’ve located those damn, bright-blue tortilla chips.”

Rosa Sanchez reached into her purse and pulled out a plastic evidence bag and held it up. Everyone could see the unusual bright blue chips. There was little doubt in anyone’s mind that this was an important lead.

Rosa added information about the close proximity of the Blue Goose to the Newman Brothers Garage where Tony’s car had been recovered. Pat acknowledged Sanchez and resumed his comments.

“I’m open to suggestions, but I say we approach the owner and ask for consent. If he doesn’t play ball with us, we lock it down, and go with a search warrant.”

Mike Logan asked a question. “Do you think we have enough probable cause to get a search warrant. Chief?”

“Legally, yes, I do, but I think that the Queens DA may want a little more. We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it, Mike.”

“Then why don’t we just wait until we have the “pc” and go in with a warrant?”

“I’m afraid more people will die if we delay in doing something about this. I’m getting a bad feeling about this guy Marcus Johnson, and we have to ask questions at the Blue Goose Cantina in order to try to find him.”

“Good point. Something sure scared the hell out of him. Maybe it’s something he saw at the Blue Goose Cantina.” 

“My gut tells me this is very likely, but we won’t know for sure until we get in there and turn up the heat a little. The joint hopefully will have thinned out some, so there won’t be many patrons in there. Bryan and I’ll go in with Sanchez and Alverez. We’ll take our portables with us, and if we need
to lock it down or have any issues, we’ll call in the calvary. Mary, you and Mike can come with us as well. You guys can come in through the back door in case anybody tries to rabbit. Remember, this is a multiple homicide case. Everyone put on your vests and raid jackets. Be careful. We still have no idea who the suspect really is. We’ll use the Queens Detectives channel on the radio.”

Bryan Flannery stood up.

“Okay, guys, we’ve heard Chief O’Connor. Let’s get suited up, and solve this case. I know we’re getting close.”

Bryan handed Pat an extra ballistic vest and a blue nylon windbreaker with “NYPD” on it in large gold letters. Pat took his suit jacket off, put the vest on, and then the raid jacket. Not having his car, he climbed into the car with Bryan.