“I swear of my mother’s head Captain,” Patsy swore raising his hand. “I didn’t lay a finger on either those mooks until I slapped a pair of iron bracelets on each.”
“Did they say in this confession what happened to them,” Robinson asked not completely convinced of his officers’ innocence.
“From what they told us, apparently they had been sent there by an individual named Vega. We are assuming it’s the same Vega mentioned in the kid’s journal. Captain, along with the unusual name, their description of the size of this Vega character definitely matches our suspect for both the murder of Professor Stone and the attempted assassination of Mayor Editar,” Joe started to report.
“I’ll assume that you’re talking about the big guy who attacked you on the porch?” Robinson asked back.
“Yes sir,” Joe replied. “Apparently those two had been sent by this Vega guy to abduct Kate because of her involvement with the journal in our case. Not finding her at the University the two made their way to my neighborhood before they were approached… and accosted before they could get into my house.”
“Accosted…Accosted by whom?” Robinson asked.
“Apparently by the Grey Ghost sir,” Joe finished trying desperately not to smile.
He could see Kate grin and cover her mouth feinting shock at this news trying to avoid having to look directly at the Captain. Patsy, not as smooth, dropped quickly to his knee finding this to be a great opportunity to tie his shoe.
“So this Grey Ghost character again,” Robinson slowly said thankfully turning away from the terrible scene of subterfuge as he rolled every word of the name around in his mouth as if trying to taste it. “Well, either way Miss Stone I am terribly sorry for getting you involved in this. I never would have allowed you to assist us if I knew I would be putting you in these men’s crosshairs.”
“Captain, you know me… it would’ve been a lot harder for you to try to keep me away,” Kate replied flashing a grin at the man.
“Well you’re here now…” Robinson started before stopping and asking. “Bevine why is she here now?”
“I brought her here in case Bishop wasn’t the only problem we have here in the station,” Joe replied nodding to the exit where the rest of the police force was milling around outside. “I wanted her to be seen with us here so if there is still any interest in bothering Kate whoever they are will stay away from my neighborhood. There are just too many people back there that could get hurt in the crossfire.”
“I see…” Robinson replied looking down slightly. It pained him to think there could be yet another bought badge here in his department, however, the realist in him couldn’t argue with Bevine’s logic, especially not after Bishop. “Alright so what’s our next play here?”
“Well those two in there sang all the notes they had,” Patsy piped in referring to K.C. and Rigs. “They were simple hired muscle for the job; the ring leader in this little circus is that Vega mook.”
“Maybe…but I’m starting to seriously doubt Vega is the head of this snake,” Joe said scratching his head. “Think about it, this guy has been getting his hands pretty dirty out there for the fella that has been calling all of the shots.”
“Either way, I still can’t wrap my head around how everything this big lug’s been mixed up with all works together,” Patsy added.
“How do we connect the dots from Jason, his journal, and then later my dad’s murder, to an attempt on the mayor?” Kate spoke up from behind Joe.
“I’m not sure,” Joe said mulling over the situation.
“Well I think the best lead is Rosán,” Patsy said. “That mook keeps popping up, especially how the kid called him out in his journal. I think it’s time we put his feet to the fire a little.”
“It’s definitely time we pay the dear Doctor a visit, but first I want to check on something. Kate, I might need your help on this if you don’t mind tagging along,” Joe said.
“Like you were going to be able to stop me hon,” Kate replied grabbing her purse and following them out of the tent.
Captain Robinson watched as his officers and Kate left to follow their leads from the front of the makeshift command center. Looking about at the assembled crowd of his other officers, Robinson grimaced as he heard in the distance a low rumble of thunder echoing in the sky.
“Great, that’s all we need,” the Captain moaned to himself as he returned back into the tent not yet realizing the true danger of the slowly approaching storm.
Patsy eased through mid-day traffic as he drove the cruiser to City Hall. Merging to the right side of the street, he came upon the intersection directly in front of the City Hall complex and rolled to a stop at the red traffic signal. Looking over at Joe who had not spoken a word to anyone on the drive over, Patsy leaned over and asked, “You sure about this detour bud? There’s no telling how much time we might have to make it to the university before the Doc vanishes if he’s really mixed up in this.”
“I’m sure,” Joe replied looking back at his partner. “I hope I’m wrong on this but something the Captain said about the Records Department back there is eating at me.”
They were interrupted by a loud honk from the car behind them; apparently, the light had turned green and someone was in a hurry.
“Hold your horses!” Patsy cursed out the open window as he shifted the car into gear and took the right headed down the alley next to City Hall.
Parking in the deserted alley, the three piled out of the cruiser and headed to the other side of the building where the attack had happened. Seeing the rubble still littering parts of the alley, Joe elected to use his crutches leaving his wheelchair back in the trunk of the cruiser. As they got closer to the corner where the attack on the Mayor had taken place, they were stopped by the patrolman guarding the crime scene. A quick flash of badges gained the three entrance to the cordoned off area still surrounded by yellow police tape.
As they made their way down the side alley still littered in debris, Joe made it almost half way before looking at the intact wall of the warehouse building next to him. This was the same warehouse he ducked into with the explosives the day of the attack. Looking farther down the alley Joe could make out the gaping hole in the brick wall of the warehouse directly across from a matching explosion hole in the brick exterior of City Hall.
“That’s not right,” Joe whispered to himself looking back to the untouched wall before making his way to the explosion sight.
Looking into the damaged wall of the government building, Joe asked, “Patsy, have they moved the records office in City Hall since I left or is it still I guess about here…”
Spreading his hands outward as best as he could; Joe tried to signify the rough area that the Record’s Office should have taken up behind the exterior wall.
“They haven’t moved anything as far as I know,” Patsy answered looking at his partner still not understanding why they were in alley.
Making his way over to the tarp-covered hole in the City Hall exterior wall, Joe pulled back the useless attempt to keep the elements out of the exposed room and scanned the edges of the cracked brick along the hole. Tracing it with his fingers Joe slowly made his way across the alley to the large hole in the warehouse wall and looked at the debris littering the edge of the still intact parts of the wall near the street.
Calling Kate over to where he was standing, Joe started to speak to her quietly pointing to the alley floor and then the large breach in the exterior walls. From where Patsy was he could see Joe explaining something about the debris on the ground before Kate, looking at the scene, started nodding quickly. Patsy could tell she was becoming excited as she started trekking back and forth between the destroyed walls carefully avoiding each large piece of debris on the alley ground. Confused with the sudden interest the two seemed to have in the crime scene, Patsy finally made his way over to the couple asking, “So what’s up you two?”
“Patsy let me ask you, did we get a copy of the initial investigation r
eport on this attack?” Joe asked ignoring his partner’s question. “Do you think it might be back in our files?”
“I remember picking up a copy of the report earlier this week. I didn’t read it though,” Patsy answered.
“You didn’t read it?” Joe asked.
“Buddy I lived it. Why would I waste my time reading about it again?” Patsy asked shrugging. “It’s probably in the trunk somewhere.”
“Can you run and get it?” Joe asked.
“First you tell me what in the world is going on here,” Patsy demanded deciding not to move until he received an explanation, his patience in Joe’s sudden covertness had worn its course.
“OK, I’ll bet you lunch for a week that I think I know who might have written that report,” Joe said turning to point at the destroyed warehouse wall before lowering his voice slightly. “Patsy, this explosion should have never happened here. It should not have happened anywhere near here.”
“OK here you go Sherlock,” Patsy huffed running back to the alley a few moments later, file in hand. “It took me a few seconds to find it with all of that junk in there. The Captain isn’t going to be happy that we forgot to give all of those to Judy before we left. So what is the big mystery?”
“I hope you didn’t mess up my system in there,” Joe replied taking the file from his partner.
“If you mean scattered all over in no particular order, then don’t worry about it, it is just as you left it,” Patsy replied rolling his eyes.
Scanning the report, Joe flipped through the first two pages until he came to the summary finding exactly what he was expecting to see.
“Blast originating from exterior wall of Decker Storage facility…radiating through alley…excessive damage caused to neighboring government building…” Joe started mumbling out loud, as he read quickly through the page.
“We knew all of this Joe. That’s exactly what the Captain told us back at the station,” Patsy said annoyed with having to still wait to find out what Joe was getting at.
“Patsy, take a look at the signature of the lead investigating officer,” Joe replied handing the file back.
Grabbing the file back, Patsy jumped to the bottom of the last page reading the name of the investigator. Joe could see his friend’s face slowly redden as a scowl started to drag at his mouth.
“That rat…”
“Exactly, amazing coincidence that Bishop was the lead investigator on this?” Joe replied. “I thought it was funny when the Captain mentioned the Records Department being destroyed by the blast when it shouldn’t have been.”
“Why do you keep saying that,” Patsy asked. “What don’t I know here?”
“Well there is no way you could’ve known bud. Not even Bishop could’ve known so don’t feel bad about it,” Joe answered. Again lowering his voice almost to a whisper, Joe said, “When I ran into that building with the bomb I threw it to the left before I ran out the back of the building.”
Patsy looked, facing the end of the alley. He looked to his left in the direction that Joe said he threw the explosive. Patsy looked back to his partner replying, “If it went to the left the explosion should’ve been on the opposite side of the building. That doesn’t make a lick of sense.”
“It does if you try to think of it happening exactly the opposite way that Officer Bishop wrote it,” Kate said stepping out the hole in the warehouse wall. “The damage to the City Records Office wasn’t caused by an explosion emanating from this building Patsy. If Joe is right, and I think he is, the explosion originated from within the Records Department. Look at the darkened areas on the alley street. See how it’s actually lighter the farther away it is from the hole in City Hall?”
Looking down at the street floor Patsy could see what Kate was referring to; it was almost as if there was a blast zone on the ground made of scorched pavement that was definitely darker closer to the exterior wall of the City Hall building. The scorched alley floor seemed to travel up the wall slightly toward the damaged bricks.
“I know it is hard to tell by the debris since both buildings have the same colored brick, but look at the edge of both buildings right where they connect to the street,” Kate continued pointing first to the warehouse wall and then over to the bottom exterior of the City Hall wall. “Can you see the large amount of small rocks and gravel piled up against the warehouse wall? I’m not an expert in explosives but common sense tells me that if the explosion started here all of this small debris would be littering the part of the alley near City Hall, not the warehouse.”
“So you are saying that the explosion blew outward from City Hall toward the warehouse?” Patsy asked studying the facts laid out by the engineer.
“Exactly,” Kate smiled back. “The bombing seems to be a cover for this, that’s the only thing that makes sense with Bishop completely falsifying his report.”
“OK, but what happened to the bomb that went into the warehouse?” Patsy asked looking over the abandoned warehouse.
“Oh you mean this thing?” Kate replied reaching into the hole in the warehouse wall pulling out the same explosive device that Joe had earlier risked his life trying to dispose of to protect the crowd at the rally. Looking at the explosive, Joe and Patsy were suddenly horrified to the see a small clock timer connected to the top of the device in Kate’s hand suddenly start to move, only seconds away from zero!
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
5… tick… 4… tick… 3....
“Wait!” Kate cried out, just as the two looked as if they were going to pounce and tackle her.
Surprised by Kate’s sudden outburst, both Joe and Patsy hesitated, left only to watch in horror as they saw the second hand of the clock timer countdown:
2… tick… 1… tick… 0… tick… 59… tick… 58… tick… 57...
“What…what…what is going on?” Joe questioned slowly bringing his arms down from his face.
“It is not a real bomb so you two boy wonders can relax a bit,” Kate reassured them. “This is just a spinning clock attached to painted cardboard tubes.”
“It’s a fake?” Patsy asked reaching over to take the contraption from Kate.
“As phony as you can get. Joe, do you think this is the device you saw the Grey Ghost run off with during the attack?” Kate asked winking at Joe.
Smiling at her veiled attempt to hide his duel persona even here in this empty alley, Joe nodded in agreement looking over the cardboard mockup.
“It definitely looks like it, but why would they throw a dud at us? I mean all of the others were real enough.”
“Were they?” Kate asked raising her eyebrow at the detective. “Take a look at the bottom here. See this wrapper still glued on, look familiar?”
Looking at the section of the fake that Kate was referring to, Joe found a scrap of wax paper still partially glued down. Pulling at the scrap slowly, it finally gave way revealing the bold black lettering of “AT” on the red background.
“I can’t read the whole thing but… Patsy, doesn’t this design look familiar?” Joe asked showing the red remains to his partner. “That looks just like the outer shell of…”
“A BLACK CAT firecracker,” Patsy finished for him. “Bud, we’ve thrown more of those around over the years than I can remember. I’d know it anywhere.”
“OK, so where is the rest of it?” Joe asked looking back at Kate.
“I’m going to assume back there in the warehouse,” Kate answered. “When Patsy went for the report, I took a walk in there. That’s where I found both this and a small scorch mark in the concrete a few feet away. I think when it was thrown in there the firecracker broke off before it blew. It would not have taken a lot to blow this mockup to smithereens and probably burn most of it away. I mean look at it. It’s more paper and cardboard than anything.”
“So the attack on the Mayor was a set-up?” Patsy said trying to connect the dots of what they were finding. “All those mooks were throwing at us were loud and flashy duds pulling our attention aw
ay from the action back here? A little creative police work here and there from Bishop and who would think twice of a little extra damage to City Hall during all of that.”
“And here I’ve been thanking the Big Guy upstairs ever since for the fact there had been no causalities with all of those going off around us,” Joe added.
“It could’ve still gone bad bud,” Patsy said. “What those two mooks did was akin to yelling fire in a crowded theater. People still could have been trampled in that ruckus.”
“Small favors I guess,” Joe replied nodding. “So we think they covered the explosion here with the fake attack on the Mayor, the big question is why?”
“How about what the Captain said earlier?” Patsy reminded them. “There are files in the Old Courthouse that we aren’t allowed to see what used to be stored here. Those, whatever they are, are secret enough that the whole department is working in tents until they are moved out.”
“And… remember that Captain Robinson let on they were panicking because some of those files are unaccounted for,” Kate interjected. “What if this whole charade was a setup to get at those files?”
“You might be onto something Kate,” Joe commended. “But we are just waving in the dark here unless we can find out what was such a big secret. If it is, why in the world would they house it in the city’s Records Department? I mean, this place really isn’t Fort Knox.”
“Fat chance of those pencil pushers helping us out on that,” Patsy huffed. “The way the Captain got chewed out earlier I doubt we will be feeling any inter-agency love on this.”
“Hmm…we’ll see…” Joe trailed off. “Let’s call this in and see what the Captain can do to properly motivate some cooperation from those guys.”
“Well, I hope you brought a couple of tin cans and a string,” Patsy scoffed turning to start back toward the car.
“2-way still on the fritz?” Joe asked.
The Grey Ghost Page 19