Roland P D Omnibus

by Ruth DuCharme

  He holds Angie’s shoulders at arm’s length. “There’s no use crying about it. Or at least cry and work at the same time, ok? This is time sensitive and we don’t have time for break downs. We’re gonna find her.”

  “Are they bringing in divers?” Angie sniffed.

  “Maybe, once the sun comes up. I can’t imagine they will be able to see a damn thing in that water though. The Coastie’s will handle that. All you need to worry about is this car and those clothes, ok?”

  Angie wiped her nose on her sleeve and grabbed her large camera from the backseat of her car. “I’ll do it for Shaw.”

  Chapter Eighty-Seven

  Carson knew this would happen. This whole scene and search party routine was not a surprise. He realized Shaw’s officers were smart and capable and he had accounted for that. The only thing bothering him was the new information that Shaw had a second phone. He hadn’t even considered that. It could be a problem. The phone wasn’t pinging so that meant it was either dead or broken. Maybe Camden had made a mistake about her carrying it with her this shift. Maybe that halfwit CSI officer would find it in Shaw’s car. Regardless, he had to keep this moving.

  He stepped away from the hustle of the scene and used his cell phone to dial his boss. “Chief, sorry to wake you but it looks like we have an officer down.”

  “What do you mean it looks like? Either we do or we don’t?”

  Carson gave the phone the middle finger but made sure his voice didn’t betray his disgust. “It’s Sgt. Shaw. She’s gone missing. No one can find her. We did find a pile of her belongings on the naval yard dock. She may have jumped.”

  “Shaw? That doesn’t track with what I know of her. Any reason to believe she would have done this?”

  “No, none.”

  “Tell me what you’re doing to find her.”

  Carson gave the phone the finger once again. “We have all the officers grid searching. I’ve called the Coast Guard, mutual aid from surrounding jurisdictions and Parks police to search the surrounding hillside.”

  “Call in our boat patrol officers to assist the coast guard.”

  “Already done, sir.” Geez did the guy think Carson was a complete moron?

  “I’m on my way. Get ahold of the Public Information Officer and tell him to get ready for the media shitstorm that’s about to hit. And call in as many off duty officers as we can find.”

  “Already done, sir. Dayshift and swing shift are on their way in and detectives have all been called out.”

  “How did this happen Carson? She is one of yours. You had better find her and fast.” The Chief disconnects before Carson can say anything further.

  Carson stared down at the phone in his hand. He hated that man. The chief was not a real leader. He was a political mouthpiece. Carson despised the current Chief of Police from the first moment he arrived in the city.

  The city manager had searched for the new police chief when the last one retired and Carson was bitter. That job could’ve been his. The fact that the city manager hadn’t promoted from within the department was a sore spot with everyone. But not everyone cared as much as Carson did.

  The last chief had been his best friend. They had come up together and when he had made chief, he had promised Carson to bring him along with him to the top. The new city manager had made that impossible. In fact the new chief had instituted some new measures “to eradicate the good old boys network” and had seriously put a crimp in Carson’s extra-curricular activities.

  Maybe Shaw had been one of his stooges. Didn’t matter. He was smarter and better connected and Shaw was never going to be able to do anything to hurt him. He made sure of that. Carson spit on the ground and took one last look at the scene before him.

  Shaw wasn’t ever coming back.

  Chapter Eighty-Eight

  Once the K9 officers were on scene, Camden formed three search parties. He assigned Parks Police to take the paths leading into the hills, the county K9 to search the abandoned buildings and he and his team would search the tunnels.

  Camden tried not to get discouraged at the thought of how much ground they needed to cover. It was overwhelming to consider the acres they had to look through. But, the only way to eat an elephant is one bite at a time so that’s what he was going to do.

  Camden watched as the other teams started off in their respective directions and followed his own team towards the tunnels. Camden tried to use the K9 to track Shaw’s scent but the pup hadn’t alerted to anything. That didn’t mean they shouldn’t keep trying.

  The team reached the stairs and Camden split his team in two.

  “You four take the left and we will take the right with the dog. Keeps your ears and eyes open. There’s no radio signal or cell signal down here so you’re going to have to yell loudly if you want to share information. Anything, and I mean ANYTHING that looks suspicious, you holler? Ok?”

  The K9 officer hefted his dog onto his shoulders and descended the ladder into the darkness. Camden followed next. Jumping the last few rungs to the concrete floor below, Camden turned on his flashlight in an attempt to pierce the bitter blackness. Piles of garbage cluttered the vast area and he spied the blinking of eyes of wharf rats mixed in with the refuse. A few piles of rags signified that homeless people were sleeping here. Camden pointed in their direction, “Wake these guys up. Let’s see if anyone saw or heard anything”

  One of the other team members hollered loudly, “Camden, over here!” A flashlight blinked off and on rapidly, signaling the officers location. Camden reached the officers location and found them standing over a bedraggled homeless man, mumbling about ghosts. The man had a fresh black eye.

  “What do you have?”

  “Tell the boss what you told me, Barney.”

  “I didn’t do nothing.”

  “I know you didn’t do nothing but what did you see?”

  “Two guys. They were smoking and making a mess on my living room floor.”

  “What did they look like?”

  “I don’t know. It was dark.”

  “So, you wouldn’t recognize them if you saw them again?”

  “Man, what part of ‘it was dark’ didn’t you understand?”

  Camden held back his irritation. “What were they talking about?”

  “I don’t know. They were just talking and then some trespasser hassled me. She practically stomped on my head!”

  Camden’s heart leapt. “She? The trespasser was a woman?”

  “Yeah, a woman.”

  “What did she say?”

  “Nothing. She just hid over there behind my cart.”

  “How could you tell she was a woman if she didn’t speak to you?”

  “I could tell because she smelled like perfume.”

  “Was she another homeless woman?”

  “What street lady wears perfume? Besides, I know because after the guys left she slipped something in my pocket. No one leaves money for me. Definitely not another homeless person. “

  “Show me what she gave you.”

  Barney held his fist to his chest tightly. “NO! You can’t have it!”

  Camden knelt down closer to Barney. “Look, Barney, I don’t want to steal anything from you. Can you just show me?”

  Barney opened his grimy hand and showed Camden the crumpled ten dollar bill held in his sweaty grip. “You can’t have it”

  “Look here, Barney,” Camden took a twenty out of his own wallet. “I’ll trade you. You give me the present and I’ll give you this one.”

  Barney grinned a toothless grin of glee and happily exchanged his prize for the one offered.

  Camden pulled a latex glove from his pocket and dropped the sweaty money inside it. He had to try and preserve whatever DNA he could. Shaw could have been here but he was curious about why and who the other two men were.

  “Now Barney, where were the other men that you saw? Where were they standing?”

  Barney pointed into the dark. He pointed to an area. Camden stare
d off into the dark and directed his officers. “Get all his details. Name, date of birth, whatever you can get, get it.”

  Camden walked in the direction barney had pointed and found a pile of fresh cigarette butts. Menthols. He took out another latex glove and collected the butts the same way he had the money. After fifteen more minutes of fruitless searching, Camden realized he wasn’t getting any closer to finding out what happened to Shaw.

  Once topside he handed the evidence to the Angie and told her he needed her to pull whatever strings possible to get a DNA match or prints off the money and butts.

  Angie looked at the potential evidence grimly, “What you’re asking for usually takes months! You know that.”

  “Ang, tell them you have an officer missing and they will pick up the pace. We have to do this.”

  “Do you need me to go down and process the scene?”

  “No. There’s nothing but garbage and homeless people down there. There could be millions of prints and DNA down there. It wouldn’t help. We did make a friend down there. Barney. He said there were two men and a woman in there with him not too long ago.”

  “Shaw?”

  “Possibly. All he knew was the two men talked and smoked, hence the butts. He told me the woman was hiding and watching. When she left she tucked this money in his coat pocket. If we can get DNA off it then maybe, just maybe, we will have our first clue as to what happened to her.”

  “I’ll do my best.”

  “That’s all I’m asking, Ang.” He patted her on the shoulder. She sure was a weepy one. It was best to make sure she had lots to do even though that didn’t seem to stem the flow of tears she was constantly producing.

  The tears weren’t a complete surprise. Ang was notorious for springing waterworks at all types of scenes and on all types of occasions. It was just her personality to have emotional diarrhea. The trick was to get out at the first sign of tears or you’d be stuck consoling her for hours.

  And aint nobody got time for that…at least not today.

  Chapter Eighty-Nine

  Sergeant O’Connell pushed his way to the briefing room. Officers normally off duty as well as officers from surrounding cities crowded the hallways. When an officer goes down or in this case goes missing, everyone banded together and arrived to assist in any way they could.

  Shaking hands and exchanging nods He finally squeezed through the door into the briefing room. The room is packed wall to wall with officers ready to help and the room hushed as he stepped up to the front. He didn’t bother to take his usual seat. There was no time for sitting

  “I’d like to thank you all for showing up for us. Roland PD is facing one of our worst fears. One of our own has gone missing. We don’t have a whole lot of information on the inciting event but here’s what we do have.

  Sergeant Shaw came to work her scheduled graveyard shift. After several calls for service she radioed in that she would be on her way to the station for a break. Her last transmission came in at 0255 hours.

  At approximately 0330 hours dispatch attempted to contact her for a call and received no response. We sent out the tones and when she still didn’t respond we set about a grid search. County was kind enough to send us their helicopter and at approximately 0400 Sergeant Shaw’s police car was located abandoned at the wharf. When our officers arrived we found evidence that Sergeant had met with foul play.”

  A grizzly officer from a neighboring city raised his hand. “Sarge, we heard that she may have jumped. Is that a possibility?”

  O’Connell bristled at the question. “I’ve known Shaw her entire career. I have serious doubts that she would have taken her own life. Of course, anything is possible but we have no evidence she jumped. We are working on the assumption that she has been kidnapped. Until we find her we will continue to work on that assumption.”

  O’Connell continued, “I have officer Janson passing out radios that will keep you in contact with us and our dispatch center. All RPD officers will be engaged in the search while all other officers will be handling calls for service in the city. A mobile command center has been set up at the wharf and it will be the center for all information. Speaking of information, no one talks to the press. Am I understood?”

  O’Connell waited for nods of consent from everyone before continuing. “Only the PIO is authorized to talk to the pres. Any shared information regarding this situation could put Shaw’s life in danger. If I hear of anyone violating this directive, my department or otherwise, they will have me to answer to.”

  O’Connell scanned the room and took a breath, “Last but not least, we are all a part of this investigation so I am asking you to reach out to any informants or avenues of information you possibly can. Things like this don’t go down without someone on the street hearing about it. We need as many ears to the ground as possible.

  Thank you all for coming in and helping us in our time of need. At this time I am going to ask all RPD officers to get suited up and meet me in the south parking lot.”

  O’Connell turned and nodded to two supervisors from the neighboring city, “Sergeant’s the room is yours.”

  O’Connell squeezed out of the briefing room as the two sergeants took over. They were going to assign their officers duties and he didn’t need to be here to see this. His job in the station was done.

  O’Connell made a beeline for his office. He needed a moment to himself. He could hardly believe Shaw was really missing. How in the hell did something like this happen? She was one of his kids. She came up under him and just like every parent everywhere, he felt responsible.

  O’Connell sat at his desk he looked up at a picture framed and posted on the wall predominantly at eye sight. His first patrol team as a sergeant. There she was, standing tall amongst all the men, smiling all fresh faced and brave. She had always been one of his favorites but damn if she hadn’t always had a mind of her own.

  O’Connell pushed his chair back, sending it spinning across the room. I’m coming kid.

  Chapter Ninety

  O’Connell arrived at the wharf just as daylight was breaking. He had sent his officers out with assignment’s and areas to search and then headed to the wharf alone to check in.

  O’Connell nodded at the officer standing in front of the crime scene tape which roped off the road in to the dock. Dock workers lined the road as they weren’t allowed in. The officer lifted the tape and O’Connell drove underneath it. He drove slowly towards the command center which afforded him a few minutes to survey the surrounding area. This was the last place she was and maybe he can get a sense of what happened to her.

  O’Connell pulled up behind the large command van. Command staff and support staff stood out in front of the large trailer. Tables were set up with coffee and pastries and easel’s are decorated with drawings of the surrounding areas. A whiteboard listed all of the officers and their current assignments. Large red x’s on a topographical map, mark areas that searches have already been accomplished. The trailer itself held the tactical dispatchers and all other personnel specific to this incident.

  O’Connell approached the command center and bumped shoulders with Anderson, “Hey brother.”

  Forgoing greetings, Anderson turned a grim face to O’Connell, “Can you believe this shit?”

  O’Connell looked around at some of the officers waiting for him to decide where to search next. Despite the hour and being awakened in the middle of the night, the concern on their faces told him they were ready to go. This readiness was one thing he always loved about a police family. They all banded together when it counted most and nowhere was too far for them to go for one of their own.

  Chapter Ninety-One

  Lizzie sipped her coffee as she waited for Camden to finish checking in with O’Connell. This whole scene was so crazy. Her stomach churned at the thought of what may have happened to Shaw.

  Lizzie had been called in early this morning for her shift and hadn’t had time for breakfast. The array of bagels and donuts held lit
tle appeal though as she considered that Shaw may never have a meal again.

  Lizzie looked out over the vast expanse of ocean, icy water slapping against the piers. It was deep and had turned choppy now that daylight had broken. The ocean was an uncaring opponent and if Shaw had fallen in, injured or otherwise, Lizzie doubted she had survived. What could possibly make someone so put together, make decision to end her own life? Yes, the job was extremely hard emotionally and from what she had heard, Shaw had seen some really tough cases.

  That was one thing Lizzie hated about this whole situation. Other officers speculating about what happened to her. All the rumors swirling and dirty rumors being spread. It seemed everyone had something to say about Shaw and some of it wasn’t very pleasant.

  It was true that officers banded together to help their own but it was apparent that they didn’t do it without a lot of tongue wagging and disparaging conjecture. It made her, already queasy, stomach turn.

  Camden walked up next to Lizzie and sighed heavily as he found a coffee cup and poured himself a half cup.

  “You look absolutely exhausted.” Lizzie observed.

  “I’m fine.”

  “Are you?”

  “No, I’m not fine. I’m worried sick. But there’s not really a lot of time for worry. We have a lot to do to find her.”

  “Jason, what if we don’t find her? How long will this search continue? Does there ever come a point when command staff says enough is enough and they move on?”

  “Nope. We never get to that point. We don’t stop until we find her, dead or alive.”

  “But if she drowned we may never find her body. You know that the currents can take her out or sharks and corrosion…”