by Rick Polad
She started to lose her composure again as her lips started to quiver.
I continued. “She had been a loyal secretary and then suddenly didn’t show up for work one day. Do you know anything about that?”
“Yes. Walters told me to call her and tell her she didn’t have a job anymore. He would pay her to stay home as long as she said nothing to anyone.” She gave me a forlorn look. “She asked why. I didn’t know, but I told her not to worry about it since she would be paid to do nothing. She agreed.”
“You seem upset, Belva.”
She lowered her head and said very quietly. “I figured it had something to do with what was going on, but it was a good deal for Gertrude.” Tears started to run down her cheeks. “I didn’t think any more about it until Walters told me to call again and tell her she had to leave town. I called her in the middle of the night. And then… I…” She sobbed through the rest. “I read about her in the paper. I…”
“Do you know who did it, Belva?”
She shook her head. “Not for sure. Probably Marcel.”
I thought about the cheerful barker enticing people into the Freak Show. He was the biggest freak of them all.
“Okay, Belva,” Stosh said. “Thanks for answering our questions.”
“Am I under arrest?”
“No, but we’re going to hold you until we can talk to the District Attorney in the morning.”
She looked like she was going to cry. Stosh didn’t look too happy either.
“I’ll get a matron to take care of you.”
“Can I call my son?”
“Certainly.”
I told Stosh I needed to hit the head. He told me we weren’t done talking. I already knew that.
On my way back to the room I ran into Sadie and thanked her for her help.
“I couldn’t have imagined, Spencer. Remember when I said I wanted to get the bastard and I wanted to be there when it happened?”
“Sure.”
“If this happens again, I don’t want to be there.”
“I don’t blame you.”
“I hope you get the kids back.”
“We will.”
We said goodbye and I headed back to the interview room, not knowing what to expect.
Chapter 42
I sat down next to Rosie. It was awfully quiet in Stosh’s office. I joined in the uncomfortable silence until I couldn’t stand it.
“I’d like to know how much trouble I’m in,” I said.
“Cumulatively, or for each of the twelve things?”
I didn’t answer.
Stosh stood up and sat on the corner of his desk. “Things were done wrong. We’ll let Internal Affairs tell us which. The biggest is me. I never should have let Steele anywhere near that case.”
“But he…” I started.
“No buts. It’s on me. He was very convincing… enough so that I didn’t see the problem. The police shrink will probably tell me why my judgement was bad.”
I tried again. “If I hadn’t…”
“Nope. Me. I green-lighted him and you didn’t question that.” He folded his hands in his lap. “However, I do note that you called him and not me. I would wonder why if I didn’t already know. I wouldn’t have let you do it. Then there was that restraining order. And I still would love to know what happened in that basement last year and who the mystery man was.”
“There wasn’t any myst…”
He held up his hand. “Right. I’ll never find out. And now the only other person who knew is dead. But you got Pitcher back and the bad guy ended up dead. Again we have dead bad guys and some answers.”
“Then there’s Steele,” Rosie said.
“Yeah, sad as hell. But maybe he’s better off. I can’t imagine what he’s been carrying around inside all these years that made him do that. Must have been awful.”
“I wonder how he got through the psych evals,” I said.
“Aw, what the hell do those guys know?” said Stosh. “Anybody with half a brain can give them what they want to hear and be back on the street. And Steele had more than half a brain.”
He stood up and stretched. “I’m beat.”
“We all could use a good night’s sleep,” Rosie said, stifling a yawn.
I glanced at my watch. Almost one.
Stosh sat back in his chair. “So, where do we go from here? We have an address for the house and none for the factory.”
“Want my two cents?” I asked.
“Of course.”
“We could pick up the kids and whoever is running the house now. But that doesn’t get us the guys at the factory.”
“The people at the house might tell us,” Rosie said.
“Might. And might not. And they might not even know. I say we wait for the van to show up in the morning and follow it to the factory. We can make a better decision on how to proceed once we have more information.”
“And we have no idea how many kids and guards are inside that house and what weapons they have,” Rosie added.
“We’ll put surveillance on the house,” Stosh said.
“Better to get the kids from the van than the house,” I said. “More control. And we have another problem. This is going to be all over the news in the morning.”
“How about if we get the press to say there was some kind of big accident at the park?” Rosie asked.
Stosh picked up the phone and called the desk sergeant. “Powolski. Find Walsh and get him up here.”
“I have another question,” Stosh said. “Meyers said it was just an ordinary house… no bars or fences. So how come none of those kids escaped?”
“Not too hard,” Rosie said. “Keep them locked in their rooms and have several people in the house to control them.”
Stosh nodded.
“Or,” I said. “Walters had a rag in his pocket that smelled of chloroform. I’m guessing he used it to put the kids out. Remember Meyers said she saw a kid unconscious in a chair? And she saw white powder at the factory. Not hard to figure this is about drugs. So maybe they’ve got the kids drugged. Maybe they don’t even know they’re prisoners.”
“Lots of maybes, Spencer.”
“You have a different explanation?”
Stosh shook his head. “Not that makes any more sense.”
There was a knock on the door and Walsh came in.
“Walsh, can you get the news people to sit on this for a day, maybe two?”
“How do I do that? That neighborhood was lit up with red lights.”
“Gotta be some kind of security issue.”
I chimed in. “How about a bomb scare? And we’ve had more threats.”
Stosh nodded. “Walsh?”
Walsh shrugged. “I can try.”
“Try real hard. We need to buy some time.”
“Okay, lieutenant.”
“You two get some sleep. I’ll arrange for a couple unmarked cars to watch the house in the morning. Be back here at ten.”
Rosie stood up.
“I have one more thing,” I said.
“Can it wait till morning?”
“It could, but I’d rather it didn’t.”
“Go home and get some sleep, Rosie.”
She sat back down. “I’ll wait.”
“Suit yourself. What’s so important, Spencer?”
“I remembered where there might be a print from my mysterious secretary.”
That got his attention. “Where?”
I told him about the mirror she had adjusted.
He picked up the phone again and asked for a print man to meet me in the parking lot.
“Now get outta here before you think of something else.”
I followed Rosie out.
***
Rosie waited with me in the parking lot and introduced me to the print guy. I showed him the mirror and ten minutes later he had two nice prints. He said he’d see how fast Lieutenant Powolski wanted them run. They were backed up for several days. I told him it wouldn’t
be a problem.
“Well, that was a helluva night,” I said.
Rosie put her arm around my waist and suggested I walk her to her car. She leaned against the door.
“Rosie, I wanted to call you, but…”
“It’s okay, Spencer. Let’s just get some sleep and talk about it when we’re…” Her lips quivered and tears streamed down her face.
I pulled her to me and put my arms around her as she started to sob.
With her head buried in my chest, she said, “I’m going to miss him so much, Spencer.”
“Me too.” I could barely hear her. Her words in between sobs were muffled in my shirt.
“Rosie, do you remember when you transferred up here and you got Steele for a partner?”
I could feel her nod. “I forget who his partner was before you, but they told you the new person in the department got Steele because he was such a pain in the ass.”
“Sure… I remember.” She pulled away a bit but kept her arms around me. “And I soon found out that the new person didn’t get Steele because he was a pain in the ass. They got him because he was the best. If somebody new was going to learn the job, Steele was the guy to teach them.”
“He taught me a lot too, Rosie.”
She smiled briefly through her tears. “But he was a pain in the ass.”
I returned the smile. “Yes, he certainly was.”
She started to cry again. “And I loved him.”
I pulled her back to me.
When she moved away she said, “Spencer, would you have…?” She slowly shook her head with a confused and sad look on her face. “I’m sorry—I don’t know how to say…”
I put my arm around her shoulders. “It’s okay. I know. Would I have done what Steele did?”
She just nodded.
I took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “I’ve thought about that. I really don’t know. Dad and Stosh have said that we’re not judge and jury. You guys just arrest someone and let someone else make the tough decisions. But Steele had a lot more to deal with because of his son. We can’t put ourselves in his shoes.”
We were silent for a bit.
“What actually happened in there?” she asked.
“It was almost like it was happening in slow motion. Walters was lying on the floor on his back. Steele then slowly walked up to him and put the barrel of his gun on his forehead. He was calm and seemed to know exactly what he was doing. I thought he was just trying to scare Walters.”
“Did he?”
“I don’t think so. There was a smirk on Walters’ face… like he knew a cop wouldn’t pull the trigger. Maybe that’s what got him killed. Maybe if he had shown fear Steele wouldn’t have done it.”
More silence.
“I tried to talk him out of it… pointed out that it was cold-blooded murder and that he would end up in court and I’d have to testify against him. He said not to worry, that wouldn’t happen. I took that to mean he wasn’t going to shoot, and relaxed. Then he pulled the trigger. I hadn’t considered the other meaning to his ‘that wouldn’t happen’.”
“That must have been awful, Spencer.”
“I think I was in shock, but I didn’t have time to think about it at the moment with Marcel showing up.”
A squad pulled into the lot and parked two spaces away.
“You haven’t answered my question,” she said.
“I know. I don’t think there’s an answer. The easy answer is no, I don’t think I’d do it. But if my son had disappeared and I had those emotions to deal with… I just don’t know. How about you?”
“I don’t think I’d pull the trigger, but you’re right… you just don’t know.”
She got out her keys. “I can’t believe he’s gone, Spencer.”
I stepped over to her and put my arms around her.
“And when I think about his son and what he has lived with all these years, I feel so…”
“I know. Sometimes life really sucks.”
I don’t remember what time it was when we finally let go of each other and headed home. It seemed like hours had passed.
Chapter 43
There wasn’t much time for sleep between three and nine, even if I had been able to. I knew we were taking a chance by not getting the kids out of there right away, but there were probably more kids and guards than we knew about. We could use more knowledge about conditions inside the house. Part of my not being able to sleep was anxiety over what the police would find in the morning.
When I got to the lieutenant’s office it was empty. I sat and closed my eyes and fell asleep. When I opened them Stosh was working at his desk.
I yawned and stretched.
“Have a nice nap?”
“Nicer than the sleep I got last night. Why didn’t you wake me?”
“Figured I’d let you sleep till Rosie got here.”
I looked at my watch. “She’s late.”
“She’s getting coffee for you. And Tanner, from this morning’s surveillance, is going to join us.”
“Did you get anything?”
“Yup.”
That was all I was going to get so I closed my eyes and was almost asleep again when Rosie came in and handed me a cup of coffee. Stosh already had his.
“Morning, Spencer.”
“Hi, Rosie. Thanks.”
“What about the prints, Stosh?” I asked.
“They’re working on it.”
Tanner walked in and took a seat. I hadn’t seen him since the last case. We nodded at each other.
Just the aroma of the coffee helped to wake me up. I turned to Stosh.
“So?”
“First, the news people are going along with the story, but that won’t last long. Give us a review, Tanner.”
He straightened in the chair. “A plain white van pulled up to the house a few minutes past eight with a driver and passenger. Six kids came out a few minutes later with three men. They walked straight to the van and got in. My partner said they looked like robots.”
“Did they look okay?” Rosie asked.
“Other than the robot thing, they looked fine.”
“What happened to the men?” I asked.
“They went back into the house. We followed the van to a building on Adams, about ten blocks to the west. The van pulled into the alley behind the building and after a series of honks an overhead door opened and the van drove in.”
“Series of honks?” I said.
“Yes. Short, long, short.”
“A signal.”
“Yes.”
“Did you look for cameras?” Rosie asked.
“We did. Nothing. And there’s no bell outside the overhead door.”
“So,” I said, “the honk was the doorbell. What about other buildings?”
“Except for gangways and recessed rear doors, solid buildings down the alley.”
“Other doors besides the overhead?” Stosh asked.
“Just regular entry doors in the alley and the front.”
“Did you see anyone?”
“Nope.”
“Was there a name on the building?” I asked.
“Sign on the front says Metco.”
“Windows?” Rosie asked.
“None in the alley. Several in the front.”
Something was niggling at me. “Stosh, can I get the folder on the Simmons Gallery case last year?”
“Why?”
“I want to check something.”
He picked up the phone, and a few minutes later an officer came in with the file. I leafed through and found what I was looking for.
“What is it?” Stosh asked.
In the folder was a list of businesses owned by Larry Maggio, the crime boss in Chicago. Metco was on the list.
“Metco is owned by Larry Maggio.”
“Well there’s a surprise,” Stosh said sarcastically.
“Agreed. If it’s a drug operation, Maggio’s involved. But I bet he doesn’t know about the kids.�
�
“Why do you say that?”
“I got the impression from something Maggio said last year that he doesn’t mess with kids and doesn’t like people who do. Neither does Joey, who gives out free ice cream.” I told them about the kid at the park.
“Salt of the earth,” Stosh grumbled with a frown.
“I’m not defending them. Just saying I bet this was Walters’ doing.”
“Why?” asked Rosie.
“Belva said there was a lot of money changing hands. Certainly enough to buy a diamond bracelet. Illegal or not, you have to pay employees. If you can get them for free it cuts down on your overhead. And these kids are free. You pick on kids without families and no one notices. If he’s running the operation and giving Torrio a cut, less overhead means more profit.”
“Except Martin has a family,” Stosh said. “How do you explain that?”
“You’ve said many times that we’re lucky criminals are so dumb. They screwed up.”
He nodded. “So?”
“So, maybe this leads to Maggio.”
Stosh humphed. “It might lead there, but based on past trails it’ll be a dead end. If we ever get him it’ll be because of something dumb, like tax evasion. Did you follow the conversation while you were looking through the folder?”
“I did. You decided to go in tomorrow morning, but you hadn’t figured how to do it yet.”
We all talked for another thirty minutes and decided on a plan. The police would intercept the van after it left the house with the kids and have several ambulances nearby to take the kids to a hospital. I’d stay with the kids along with other officers. I wasn’t happy about that, but now wasn’t the time to bring it up. Stosh would alert the nearest hospital and the feds. Another team would address the house.
Stosh’s people and the feds would man the van and two more vehicles. Since we had no idea how many people were inside the building, they hoped that fourteen people would be plenty… four in each car and six in the van. Men from the cars would take up positions on foot against the back wall and follow the van in.
Stosh pushed back in his chair. “Okay, let’s meet back here at two. I’ll make some phone calls and have a chat with the captain.”
***
I walked out with Rosie.
“Well, you do know how to stir things up, Mr. Manning,” she said.
“I guess I do. I’ve lost a lot of sleep lately… and some of that was because of you. I’ve done a lot of thinking and the truth is I’m not sure what I want.”