by Bill Bernico
“Good idea,” Eddie said, snapping his fingers and pointing at Collier. “Let’s go.”
Sergeant Collier and Eddie walked down the hall toward the back of the police department and made it to the morgue just seconds ahead of a middle-aged couple. They stopped Eddie in the hall and told him that they were Mr. and Mrs. Stevens and asked for directions to the morgue. Eddie told them that he was going there and that they could follow him.
Before the four people walked through the morgue door, Eddie stopped them and turned to the father. “Are you sure you want to do this?” he said.
“We have to be sure,” Mr. Stevens said. “I have to see Chuckie with my own eyes.”
Eddie turned to Mrs. Stevens. “Your husband could do this,” he told her. “You don’t have to go in there.”
“Yes, I do,” she said, her eyes filled with tears. “He was my only son and I want to see him one more time.”
“Believe me,” Eddie said. “You don’t want to remember him this way. You’re better off to remember him the last way you saw him.”
Mr. Stevens wrapped his arm around his wife and then looked up at Eddie. “We’re going in,” he said and led his wife through the door.
Sergeant Collier began to follow the couple in but Eddie held up and arm. “Give them some privacy,” Eddie said. A few seconds later Eddie heard Mrs. Stevens wailing like a whipped puppy. “Let’s go,” Eddie said. “We don’t need to make this worse by being here when they come out.”
The two men walked back to Eddie office. Eddie turned to Sergeant Collier. “Would you take over for the rest of the day, Sergeant?” Eddie said. “I’ll be out until tomorrow.”
“Sure thing, Lieutenant,” Collier said. “Where will you be if I need to reach you?”
“I won’t be reachable,” Eddie said. “I’ll see you tomorrow morning.”
Eddie hurried out of the building and got into his car. He drove for several blocks before pulling into an alley and killing the motor. He looked at his reflection in the rear-view mirror and then broke down. He cried until he couldn’t cry anymore and then retrieved a tissue from the glove box and wiped his eyes. Nothing in all his sixteen years on the force had ever affected him like this before.
It had been three weeks since Eddie’s breakdown. He was relieved that no one in the department was there to witness it. Eddie had two nightmares in the past three weeks about the kid found hanging in the oak tree. The second time it happened Eddie sat upright in bed, drenched in sweat. In the dream it was Eddie who had climbed the tree and found the boy, only when he got close enough to see the boy’s face, it was Eddie’s own face that he saw. Then one night after that horrible dream, the nightmares stopped and Eddie was able to sleep though the night without incident.
Eddie waded through the next four years on automatic pilot. He’d lost his heart for the job but needed to get his twenty years in before he could collect his pension. With just a week until retirement, Eddie thought he’d take to the streets one last time. He couldn’t stand the thought of retiring from behind his desk. Eddie decided to walk a beat one day, drive a patrol car the next and maybe even direct traffic for an hour just so the experiences would be fresh in his mind after he’d left the department.
On this particular day, Eddie decided to take a new recruit with him on the walking beat and perhaps teach him a little of what he’d learned over the past twenty years. Eddie selected a patrolman named Vince Roberts, who was just twenty-two and fresh out of the academy. The two cops walked Hollywood Boulevard from Highland to Sunset and back. Patrolman Roberts seemed reluctant to ask the Lieutenant any questions, so Eddie decided to take the initiative.
“Do you mind if I call you Vince?” Eddie said to the patrolman.
“Not at all, sir,” Roberts said.
“Good,” Eddie said. “Then why don’t you call me Eddie for today?”
“That wouldn’t be according to protocol,” Roberts replied.
“To hell with protocol for one day,” Eddie said. “I’m your superior office and if I say you can call me Eddie, then you can call me Eddie. Do you understand, Vince?”
“Okay, Eddie,” Vince said. “If that’s an order.”
“That’s an order,” Eddie said. “Now, Vince, is there anything you’d like to ask me while you still can?”
“Sir?” Vince said. “What do you mean, while I still can?”
“Vince,” Eddie said, “You are aware that I am retiring next Monday, aren’t you?”
“I wasn’t aware,” Vince said. “Are you old enough to retire?”
“Monday I’ll have my twenty in and I’ve decided to see what else life has to offer,” Eddie told the young patrolman. So, ask away.”
Vince thought for a moment and then said, “I’ve only been on the job two weeks,” Vince said. “And sometimes I run across people who I need to talk to during my rounds. Well, some of them give me respect and some of them don’t. How do you deal with the ones who don’t?”
“Good question, Vince,” Eddie said. “Believe it or not, I was in your same position many years ago. I have always loved children very much but I have no tolerance or patience for children that are undisciplined and disrespectful to adults. I believe that this was the main reason why I was never happy working as a Lieutenant in the Juvenile Bureau for three years. When I had to deal with kids who were nothing but brats, I would have preferred kicking them in the ass instead of counseling them. Here’s a little story for you to make my point.”
“Juveniles?” Vince said. “Are they the ones who gave you the most trouble with disrespect?”
“When I was a motorcycle officer I was assigned to direct traffic at a busy intersection in our downtown area on Friday nights,” Eddie explained. “A young sixteen-year-old punk would keep driving his motorcycle around the block and through the intersection all evening. That was his right and I didn’t mind that, but every time he came through the intersection, he would rev up his engine and look at me as if to say, “What are you going to do about it.” His lips were also moving like he was saying some unchoice words to me.”
“I know the type,” Vince said. Sometimes I’d just like to kick their asses.”
“Anyway,” Eddie said, “This went on for a long time and one night I arrested him at a local restaurant for disorderly conduct. I called a squad to take him to the station and I followed on my motorcycle. When we got into the station yard, he took off running towards the downtown area with me in hot pursuit. I caught up with him in a dead end alley where he was hiding in the dark. I grabbed him by his jacket lapels and pulled him up to my face and said, “Okay you little son-of-a-bitch, you’ve been giving me a hard time for a long time now. Now’s your chance to do something about it.” Then I slammed him back against the wall as hard as I could.
“The kid seemed surprised at the way I was acting. He said, ‘No I don’t want to do anything.’ I said, ‘Come on, you think you’re a tough guy, show me how tough you are,’ and I slammed him into the wall again. After slamming him into the wall about six times, he begged me to stop and said, ‘I always thought you were a nice cop.’
“Oh, suddenly he thinks you’re a nice cop?” Vince said.
“That’s exactly what this little punk said,” Eddie said. “I told him, ‘If you think I’m a nice cop then you’re going to treat me like one. After we walk out of here, whenever you see me you’re going to address me as Sir, do you understand?’ Well, this kid just about messed himself but managed to utter, ‘Yes, Sir.’ I walked him back to the station, had him booked, and before I walked out, I leaned over and whispered in his ear, ‘Don’t forget that little talk we had back in the alley.’ And this kid replied, ‘No Sir.’ After that he never gave me any more trouble downtown, and when he would see me he would stop and talk to me like a young gentleman.
“That’s all it took?” Vince said. “A little strong arm action?”
“Well, Eddie said, “That and a stern talking to just to let him know who’s boss. Some y
ears later, he even stopped the car he was driving and introduced me to his girlfriend and told me they were getting married and asked me to come to their wedding.”
Vince laughed out loud. “He turned out to be a friend of yours?” he said.
“Not exactly a friend,” Eddie explained, “But we got along fine ever since and he never gave me any more trouble, or any other cop, from what I’d heard. So you see why I believe that some kids just need a good kick in the ass to straighten them out?”
“Are you suggesting I try that if some kid gets out of hand?” Vince said.
“It’s a call you’ll have to make on your own when the time comes,” Eddie said. “It might work and you might be able to straighten some kid out. Then again, an act like that could get you beat up or worse. Use your best judgment, Vince.”
The two cops got to the corner of Hollywood and Vine and crossed over to the other side of the street for their trip back. Vince was like a sponge, soaking up as much helpful information as he could from the veteran cop. As they crossed the intersection of Hollywood and Wilcox a Ford Coupe pulled up to the intersection and didn’t stop until his front tires were hanging over the yellow line that marked the crosswalk section. Eddie turned to Vince and said, “Watch and learn.”
Eddie stepped up to the driver’s side window and made a rolling motion with his forefinger and thumb, as if to tell the driver to roll his window down. As the window was coming down, Eddie glanced back at Vince and smiled before turning his attentions back to the driver. Eddie’s eyes got wide as saucers when he found himself staring down the barrel of a revolver. Before he could react, the driver fired once, hitting Eddie in the chest. Eddie fell backwards and landed a few feet away from Vince, who looked on in disbelief. Eddie’s visored cap flew off his head and landed in the gutter. The driver sped away before Vince could react.
Vince dropped to his knees and cradled Eddie’s head. Eddie was not breathing and his eyes had rolled back into his head. A crowd had begun to gather around the two cops. Vince looked into the crowd and screamed for someone to call an ambulance. He stayed at Eddie’s side until he heard the siren approaching. One of the ambulance attendants had to pull Vince away from Eddie’s body in order to look for vital signs. He found none.
In a matter of minutes, the ambulance had sped away with Eddie in the back. A black and white patrol car pulled up to the curb and found Vince sitting there with Eddie’s hat in his hands. The two officers in the patrol car pulled Vince to his feet and helped him into the back of the police car. They drove him to the precinct and took his statement. Vince was in shock, the doctor had told Captain Burke after he had examined Vince. When they had finished questioning Vince, one of the patrolmen drove him home.
Vince returned to the station the following morning wearing his civilian clothes. He held his folded uniform in his hands, his badge and gun lying on top of the pile. Vince walked right into Captain Burke’s office without knocking and laid the pile of the captain’s desk.
“What all this?” Burke said.
“This job is not for me,” Vince told the captain. “I’m quitting.”
“Why don’t you just take a few days off and think about it before you do something you may regret?” Burke said.
“I have thought about it,” Vince said. “I had all night to think about it, since I couldn’t sleep. And I don’t want any part of a job that could do something like this to a man like Lieutenant Heller. Thank you for the opportunity, Captain, but I’d rather wash dishes than go through anything like that again. Good bye, sir.”
Vince turned and walked out of the captain’s office and out through the front door. He never looked back.
109 - Rock Bottom
“Good morning, Daisy,” I said as I came into the office. “You wanna go outside, girl?”
The German Shepherd wagged her tail and sauntered up to my side, allowing me to stroke her head. I had acquired the retired police dog from a friend of mine on the L.A.P.D. last month. Her partner and handler was not able to keep her himself because, as it turned out, his wife and kids were allergic to dogs. Daisy has already proven herself to be a valuable addition to our extended family here at Cooper Investigations. Upon the birth of our daughter, Olivia, Gloria had decided to be a stay-at-home mom and raise the kids herself, rather than rely on a nanny. There was still too much work at the office for just one man, so I hired Bud, a retired cop to help me with the business until Olivia was in school and Gloria could return to her job at the desk across from mine.
I filled Daisy’s water dish from the sink in the corner of my office and I added another two cups of dog food to the other bowl. Daisy sniffed the food and moved over to the water bowl, lapping for a couple of seconds before turning around to face me again. She walked to the office door and turned back toward me as if to make sure I was still planning to take her outside.
“I’m coming,” I told her and found her leash and a plastic bag.
As I was leading her out of the office, Bud was coming in. “Morning, Elliott,” Bud said and then reached to pat Daisy’s head. “Hello, Daisy,” he said, and gave her a short pat on the head. Bud turned his attentions back to me. “When you get back I have something to talk to you about.”
“Is it serious?” I said.
“Not at all,” Bud assured me. “It’s not an emergency or anything like that. I just have an idea I want to run by you, that’s all. It can wait until you get back.”
“All right,” I said, and led Daisy down the hall to the elevator. Our morning walk usually involved one trip around the block, giving her time to do her thing before returning to the office. I had taken Daisy with me on cases in the past and she had earned her keep many times over. The police dog instinct in her had kept both Bud and me out of harm’s way more than once.
We had just rounded the final corner on our trip around the block when a black and white patrol car pulled to the curb alongside us. The passenger window rolled down and Adam Thurgood stuck his head out and called to the dog. “Daisy,” Adam called and the dog’s ears perked up at the sound of the familiar voice. She turned and saw Adam at the window and strained at the leash to get near him. I dropped her leash and she ran to the car, putting her front paws up on the window sill. Her tail wagged furiously as Adam patted her head and spoke in a soothing voice to his former partner. “How’s my Daisy?” Adam said, giving her head a thorough rubbing.
I stood next to Daisy and bent over to get to eye level with Adam. ‘What brings you to my neighborhood?” I said.
“I knew you walked Daisy around this time,” Adam said. “I just thought I’d drive by and say hi to an old friend...and to you, too, Elliott.”
“Well,” I said, “At least I know where I stand—second to a dog.”
Adam laughed and looked up at me. “How’s my old partner working out for you, Elliott? He said.
“She’s a perfect fit at the office,” I said. “Even Bud has grown to love her and that’s something for Bud to admit.”
“It’s a shame that Matt didn’t take to Daisy,” Adam said. “They’d have made great playmates.”
“Give him time,” I said. “He may still come around when he gets tired of playing with Lassie.”
“Lassie?” Adam said. “Do you get him another dog?”
I had to laugh. “No,” I said, “Lassie is what he named the Guinea Pig I bought him when I found out he was terrified of the dog.”
“Ain’t much he can do with a Guinea Pig,” Adam said. “Can’t take him with you to the old swimming hole. “Can’t hitch him up to your wagon to pull you around. And it damn sure won’t protect him against a vicious Guinea Pig attack.”
“I’ll try to get him used to Daisy a little at a time,” I said. “He’ll come around eventually.”
Adam glanced at his watch. “I’d better get moving,” he said. “Take care, Elliott.” He turned to the dog. “Bye, Daisy.”
Daisy wagged her tail and let her tongue wash Adam’s hand.
“Daisy, down,” Adam said.
Daisy backed away from the car as Adam drove away. I took hold of her leash again and walked her back to my building. Bud had has head buried in the morning paper when we came in.
“Enjoy your walk?” Bud said.
“Very much,” I told him.
“You bring me anything?” Bud said.
I held up the sagging plastic bag. “Sure did, pal,” I said.
“You shouldn’t have,” Bud said. “What’s the special occasion this time?”
“Just because you’re you,” I said. “I don’t need a special reason to think of my pal, do it, Pal?”
“Okay,” Bud said, “You got it. Now what are you going to do with it?”
I held the package up and looked at it. I had been so preoccupied with the conversation I’d just had with Adam that I’d forgotten to dispose of the plastic bag before I got on the elevator. “I’ll be right back,” I told Bud. In the parking lot I raised the lid to the dumpster and tossed the plastic bag in. I was about to lower the lid again when something unusual caught my eye. I lifted the lid again and noticed a man’s hand sticking out from under the debris. I spread some of the junk away, revealing a face. I closed the lid again and hurried back up to my office.
When I came back in Bud was waiting. “Now, about that idea I wanted to run by you,” he said.
I held up a hand. “Not now, Bud,” I said and picked up the phone on my desk. I dialed Lieutenant Eric Anderson at the twelfth precinct and waited. “Eric,” I said, when he answered. “It’s Elliott Cooper. Can you get over to my parking lot behind the building right away? And you might want to bring Andy with you.”
“What have you got?” Eric said, knowing that I had asked him to bring Andy Reynolds, the county medical examiner with him.
“Dead body in the dumpster behind the building,” I said. “Looks like an old man from what I could see. I didn’t want to disturb anything else.