The Mourning Missed Read online

  “The video was reviewed immediately and the bag was switched out,” Jenny explained. “It’s in the lab now, under armed guard, being analyzed. If he had injected whatever it was into the feed line, Clint would most likely be dead. Whoever it was wanted to make sure he got out of the hospital before the alarms started sounding.”

  “Wait, back that up as he turns toward the door,” Lilly said excitedly. When Jenny did so, the face was blurry due to the quality of the camera.

  “Any way you can clean that up?” Lilly asked hopefully.

  “Not really,” Jenny replied. “The cameras are really just to show who does what in the room. Most of the staff are easily recognized, so really high definition isn’t needed.”

  “Let me stand over here and watch it,” Lilly requested. “Something about him is familiar.” Standing at the rear of the small nurse’s station, she saw less detail but got a greater overall impression of the attacker’s body language. Clapping her hands together, she said, “Yes. I knew I recognized him. That’s the driver of the Camaro from the high school incident four days ago. This isn’t about Clint, it’s about me.”

  Nine

  “SARGE, I DIDN’T KNOW who else to call. This is becoming more convoluted with each passing hour,” Lilly moaned into the phone handset in Clint’s hospital room.

  “I’ll be there in 30 minutes,” he replied. “Just hang on until I get there.”

  She stuck her head out of the ICU room long enough to let Jenny know. “Sergeant Bacchus from the Police Academy is on his way. He said he’ll be here in about 30 minutes.”

  “Wonderful,” Jenny enthused. “I like him, he’s very manly.” She finished by waggling her eyebrows provocatively, which made Lilly laugh.

  As she was waiting a handsome middle-aged man wearing slacks and a sportcoat knocked discretely on the glass. Looking up, Lilly saw him motion her over to the doorway. This guy has cop written all over him, she thought. Opening the door, she could see Jenny was at the nurse’s station watching him suspiciously. She had just risen from her seat in apparent preparation of challenging the visitor. Brushing past the man, Lilly walked behind the counter to stand beside Jenny and turned. “How can I help you?” Jenny asked as he approached.

  When his hand moved toward the inside of his jacket, Lilly quick-drew her service weapon and held it in high battery. “Freeze,” she commanded. Jenny quickly sidestepped and eased behind Lilly, out of the potential line of fire.

  “Easy, Officer Jackson, I’m one of you,” he said, raising his offending hand open-palmed alongside his head and tweaking his jacket open with his off-hand. Inside, stuck in his shirt pocket so the shield hung outside of it, was a badge wallet holding a gold detective’s shield.

  Lilly holstered her weapon as Jenny visibly relaxed and slumped into her chair. Lilly didn’t apologize, choosing to explain her reason for being on high alert instead. “A street thug who either attends Montrose high or hangs around there came in tonight and tried to kill Officer Parsons.”

  “You’ve ID’d the suspect?” The detective asked, surprised and elated.

  “Just a few minutes ago,” Lilly replied. “I was reviewing the video when I recognized something familiar in his mannerisms.” Catching Jenny’s eye, she nodded and the video played again.

  “You can’t make out any distinguishing characteristics from that,” the detective said dubiously.

  “Correct. I said I recognized his mannerisms,” she repeated. “This is the same street punk I was going to cite for reckless driving until I had to subdue him when he assaulted me.”

  “Start from the beginning, please?” he requested.

  “It’s all part of the record, Detective...?” Lilly paused.

  “Assistant District Attorney Phillip Samuels,” he supplied, offering his hand.

  “If I shake your hand, are you going to try and arrest me?” Lilly asked with a smile.

  “Huh?” Samuels replied, caught off-guard. “No, you were well within your rights to draw down on me earlier. I screwed up by not identifying myself right away.”

  “Not about that,” Lilly continued, shaking the proffered had. His grip was firm and warm, the skin dry.

  “Please, can we start from the beginning?” He asked again. “I’ll go first if it’ll help. I’ve been assigned by the DA’s office to investigate the attempted murder of Officer Clinton Parsons. Not for the shooting, the PD is running that investigation. But when an officer is assaulted in the hospital it becomes a matter of multiple jurisdictions, so the DA’s office gets involved as well.”

  “You’ve identified the substance in the IV bag,” Lilly surmised.

  “Good, you’re quick,” Phillip smiled. “The substance was pure heroin. It was still in its liquid state, which means the assailant must have cooked it while on the premises.”

  “And it only retains its liquid form in a syringe for about five minutes, even if held against a warm body. So he did it here in the building or right outside in the parking lot,” she concluded, adding her street knowledge of Skag.

  “Right,” Phillip nodded, smiling at how quickly she picked up the line of reasoning. “Surveillance cameras in the parking lot recorded an Hispanic male, moving and dressed like the man in your video. It shows him leaving a pickup with oversized tires near the emergency entrance and making his way internally straight to this room. He had to have cooked the Horse right in the truck, because his transit time in the hospital was four and a half minutes.”

  “Flashy red and yellow paint job, big horse’s head decal or something like it in the rear window?” Lilly asked.

  “Yeah, that’s him. Ran the plates,” he shared, reaching in his waist pocket for a notebook. “The vehicle is registered to one...”

  “Son-of-a-bitch, Reynaldo Montoya,” Lilly finished. “He also owns a blue and silver ’94 Z28. It took me a minute to remember his name. The details are in my blotter entry. Man,” she cried suddenly.

  “Hey, easy, you couldn’t have known. His address comes back in the rural southwest part of the county. I wonder what brings him to the city? And tell me again how you know him?” Samuels requested.

  When Lilly had relayed the complete, unabridged details, she recounted having had the opportunity to cite him on the street and having seen the truck in the parking lot. “I might have been here when he came in if I’d slowed him down. Or he might have still been in his truck when I got here. I had to stop in the Ladies room.” She suddenly collapsed into the extra chair behind the station counter.

  Phillip was immediately supportive. “Don’t beat yourself up over this. Let’s just go get the bastard.” When her head snapped up, he was grinning broadly. “I could use a partner like you in the DA’s office,” he praised. “Too many wishy-washy, afraid to get their Brooks Brothers dirty types for my taste.”

  “I’m working directly for the Commandant of the Academy,” Lilly offered.

  “Nice to see you have resilience as well,” he continued to smile. “I’ve heard some pretty mean rumors about your first week on the force.”

  “I’ve been directed to refrain from discussing any of the details from said events with anyone except my immediate superiors and my legal counsel,” Lilly quoted.

  “Smart move, and good advice,” he said. “All the more reason to get you working for us.”

  “I’ll pass, for now,” Lilly said, hopefully terminating the banter. “In the meantime, what do you intended to do about the attempted murder? And what did you mean about going to get Montoya?”

  “Well, a pass is better than an outright no,” Samuels observed. “What I mean is, I usually work alone, but could appreciate some ballsy backup now and then. Care to join me in determining the whereabouts of said assailant?”

  “Why, I’d be delighted,” she shark-smiled. “I’m certain our reunion is long overdue. When would you like to do this? Because I need to stay right here with Clint tonight.”

  “I don’t want to give him time to leave the local area,”
Samuels explained. “So I’m going to his sister’s address now. I’ll get one of my investigators to help.”

  Lilly looked torn between staying with Clint during his time of need and catching the scum who had tried to kill him; again. Jenny saw the indecision on her face and offered the solution.

  “Why don’t you go with the ADA and I’ll stay right in Clint’s room until Sarge arrives?” She suggested. “We’ll keep watch over him while you go kill the bastard. Or arrest him, if you have to.”

  “Will you let Sarge know who I’m with and that I’ll be back as soon as I can?” Lilly pleaded.

  “Of course; go,” Jenny replied.

  “You know, you have that arrest or kill thing backwards,” Samuels told Jenny.

  “No, I don’t,” she replied with an edge of ferocity.

  “A CROSS-CHECK OF DMV records shows a woman with the same last name registered as co-owner on the truck,” Samuels told her after he’d called his office with his mobile phone for more details on Montoya. “And her license has an address here in the city, on the Southeast side.”

  “Shall I follow in my unit, or would you rather I ride along?” Lilly asked.

  “I think with me is better,” he replied. “An unmarked car still yells cop to anyone watching, but not nearly as loud as a blue and white.”

  “I’ll need to get my vest out of my unit,” Lilly commented as they walked out of the main entrance toward Phillip’s plain four-door Crown Vic.

  “When we get there, let me go to the front door,” Phillip said. “He doesn’t know me and I might actually get him to come out if he’s there.”

  “So I’ll just scurry around back and make sure he doesn’t rabbit,” Lilly added.

  “Let’s circle the block and see if you can walk through,” he offered. “It beats giving the game away if someone sees you walking down the side of the house.”

  THERE WAS INDEED A walk-through from the parallel street and Lilly moved around the residence on the crumbling sidewalk. Looking at the sides of the target house, she tried to determine the best approach. When she saw Samuels roll to a stop at to the curb in front of the suspect’s house, she hurried across the neighbor’s backyard until she reached the chain-linked fence separating the yards. Vaulting it easily, she watched the rear door and windows as she hurried to seclude herself at the corner of the suspect’s residence.

  “I don’t know where he is.” Lilly heard the strident female voice clearly through the open screened windows above her head. She also heard rapid footsteps coming toward the back door. Glancing around, she spied a bulb shovel leaning against the house where someone had been planting Bougainvilleas in a flowerbed. The odor of freshly-turned earth and potting soil still hung in the air.

  Placing the shovel between the handrail rungs on the bottom step, she lay flat on her side next to the cinder block staircase. Her hope was that Reynaldo would be in too much of a hurry to spot her. As the back door burst open and Lilly heard hasty feet beating a quick tattoo down the steps, she lifted the shovel handle two feet off the bottom tread.

  “What the fuck?” Rey screamed as he somersaulted over the shovel handle like a character out of a Saturday morning cartoon. Landing flat on his back, he was dazed for a moment, which was all the time it took for Lilly to pounce. Grabbing an arm, she pulled it up and stepped across it, twisting it at the shoulder.

  Reynaldo had to roll with it to keep his shoulder from being dislocated. Once he had, Lilly dropped a knee forcefully into the small of his back. Slapping one end of her handcuffs onto his wrist, she used the unforgiving metal to twist and lock his hand high between his shoulder blades. As she reached for the other arm, Rey began to gather his wits and fight back. Lifting her knee from his back, she dropped it into his kidney with as much of her 100-pound-force as she could muster.

  “Give me your other hand, or I’ll have you pissing blood for the next month, asshole,” she growled as she wrenched his captive hand even higher up his back. Screaming, he tried to roll out from under her, but her training had prepared her for that move. Placing her thumb behind his ear in the hollow beneath the lobe, she jammed it into the cleft forcefully. He gasped, shivering violently.

  “Okay, okay, I give,” he muttered hoarsely, flinging his free hand behind his back. As soon as it was manacled as well, Lilly shifted her weight onto his shoulders.

  “Let’s just rest her for a minute until my partner arrives, okay puto?” She smiled. “Oh, and by the way, you have the right to remain silent, anything...”

  Phillip found her finishing the Miranda Rights as he rounded the corner of the building. “Well, that was easy,” he congratulated her.

  “Not so much for him,” Lilly replied. “I’ll bet he has a headache real soon, if not already.” Standing, she moved aside so Samuels could hoist Reynaldo to his feet.

  “We’ve got a cozy little cell waiting for you in Central Booking, where you can wait with the really bad hombres while we get you a court date. That should only take about a week. Then once the judge refuses you bail for attempted murder of a police officer, we’ll put you back in with them so you can continue being their entertainment.” Phillip laughed. “A fresh young morsel such as yourself will be the main event for at least a month until everyone has had their fun with you. It’s a shame there aren’t enough guards on the staff there to prevent the regular gang rape of new initiates.”

  “Man, you wouldn’t do that to me, would you?” Rey pleaded. “I mean, I can name names and places, dates, people; whatever you want to hear. I just need protection in return.”

  “Yeah?” Lilly snapped. “I say we leave him in there for a few days to let the system loosen him up a little, so to speak. Then I’m sure he’ll be more than willing to spill his guts.”

  “Oh, I’m ready to spill them right now, officer,” he groveled. “Also, I’d like to really apologize for the way I acted at the high school the other day. I was just frontin’ for my homies, you know? I mean, damn, I’ve never been punched like that before. It still hurts when I piss.”

  “Your call, Phil,” Lilly said in mock exasperation. “You’ve got a better idea what works on scumbags like this.”

  “Let’s take him down for questioning after we do the initial booking,” Samuels seemed to ponder. “We’ll leave him a pencil and a tablet so he can start making a list of the things he wants to share with us while we see what the judge wants to do.”

  “I’ll make a really long list, I promise,” Reynaldo vowed. “Just keep me away from those animals in Central.”

  “HERE’S A TABLET AND a pencil, Rey, don’t disappoint us,” Phillip said as he came into the interrogation room. Rey was handcuffed around the steel rod bolted to the top of the table so he could write, and almost sip the cup of water they had brought him.

  Stepping outside, Lilly joined Samuels as he walked purposefully over to the Desk Sergeant. “Jacobs, the slime in One is the suspect in the attempted murder of Officer Parsons. Make sure he goes on the call sheet as Jackson’s collar. Also, no one goes in to see him. Are we clear?”

  “Sure, ADA Samuels, no problem,” the sergeant said respectfully before giving Lilly the stink-eye as she walked past. She saw it in her peripheral vision but chose to ignore him.

  They walked together down the hall from Police Headquarters Central Division to the adjacent municipal court area. The judge was in his chambers and admitted Phillip readily, although Lilly was instructed to wait outside.

  “It’s because of the confidential nature of the relationship the DA’s office has with the Judicial,” Phillip explained. “Some of the things I can say to him in private would taint the case if you were allowed to hear.”

  “I understand,” Lilly assured him; although she really didn’t.

  PHILLIP WAS BACK OUT in ten minutes and he was smiling. “The judge gave me latitude to decide whether our boy spends his first night in General Population or a holding cell. Let’s see what he’s got for us.”

  When they returned
to the Interrogation Room, the door was closed as before but there was no one in sight. Even the desk sergeant was away from his desk, which was highly unusual. Motioning for Lilly to stop, he snuck a peak around the corner down the hall toward the front door. A commotion of some sort was going on and numerous uniforms were crowded around the double glass doors watching outside.

  The Desk Sergeant was among them. Easing up behind them, Phillip saw a convertible with four beautiful, well-endowed, and very scantily-clad ladies of the night arguing vehemently with a young officer. Samuels tapped the Sergeant on the shoulder.

  “What’s going on?” he asked.

  “Ah, Simpson set up his new rookie to write a moving violation on a stolen car,” the Sarge chuckled. “It started out as a failure to signal, progressed to stolen - which it’s not - to now these young ladies as arguing with the rook. Here comes the best part,” he said, pointing. The tallest woman in the back stood suddenly on the seat and shouted at the rookie. “Well, then you can just suck my dick,” the drag queen lifted her skirt, displaying sheer panty hose over a rather large, very male, appendage.

  The rookie blanched and stepped back, uncertain what to do next. When he turned to his TO with a look of sheer terror on his face, Simpson burst into gales of laughter. This was the signal for every officer in the hall to do likewise. Lilly had remained outside the interrogation room door for two reasons. She didn’t like the fact their prisoner was unguarded and she wouldn’t have been able to see what was happening anyway.

  “Juveniles,” Phillip said smiling, as he returned to her side. “Do you think Rey has stewed long enough?”

  Lilly nodded, and Phillip opened the door.

  Reynaldo Montoya sat slumped in the chair, his head resting at and odd angle across the bar to which his hands were still shackled. It would have been an uncomfortable position for him, except for the pencil stub protruding from his upturned ear.