by Brad Cooper
“Yeah, they arrested a guy for it but…”
The “but” in her sentence prompted Aliff to start from the beginning, hoping to get every bit of information he could. “Hold on just a second,” he interrupted. “Let’s start from the beginning. Okay?”—a deep breath—“What’s your name, honey?”
“My name’s Lisa.”
“Okay, Lisa. Do you live in Spring Creek or…?”
“Yeah, I live here. Not too far from where it happened.”
Aliff shifted in his seat and asked, “Why don’t you tell me whatever it is that you called about and we’ll take it from there?”
Lisa inhaled deeply and said, “They didn’t arrest the right person. He didn’t do it.”
“May I ask how you know that?”
“I saw what happened. I live right behind the station, across the creek, and there wasn’t one guy there. There were three of them plus the Kessler guy. They started fighting and…”
Aliff shifted in his chair again, this time leaning forward resting his elbows on his desk. What few words Lisa had spoken brought him to the edge of his seat both literally and figuratively. “Three of them? Okay…” he said, writing down as much as he could for future reference. “And they started to fight and then what?”
“Then I heard a gunshot and one of them just slumped down.”
“Okay, um, well, did you happen to see any of the other three? Did you recognize any of them or see their faces or anything?”
“Kind of, yeah, but I saw what they were wearing too.”
“Wearing?”
“Yeah, they had police uniforms on.”
Aliff felt as if time stopped for a moment. What this girl had seen was not vague or disjointed or harmless. It was potentially disastrous. “Police uniforms, you say? What are you getting at? Are you saying he was shot by another officer?”
“More than one, sir. I’m sorry, I just don’t know what to do or who to talk to about it.”
At least I’m the one who got the call, Aliff thought. “You did the right thing, Lisa. I’m going to, uh, see what I can find out. I’ll look into it but I need for you to stay reachable okay? I may need to ask you a few things later on or something,” he said.
“Okay, I’ll stay here for now. I’m just scared, you know? I’m not sure what to do.”
“You did the right thing. How can I reach you if I need to do so?” he asked with a pen in his hand.
Lisa read Aliff her phone number and informed him that she had a cell phone but the battery wasn’t charged.
“Thank you very much, Lisa. I promise you I’ll look into this as soon as I can. We’ll certainly find out what is going on, okay? There’s no reason to be frightened. Have you discussed this with anyone else?” Aliff asked.
“No, sir,” Lisa quickly replied.
“Okay, good. Do not say anything to anyone until we’ve spoken again, alright? We need to keep this between us. It’s much safer that way.”
“Alright.”
“You’ve done well, Lisa. You’re doing the right thing. I’ll talk to you soon,” he said before hanging up the phone. Something was not adding up. He’d been told that there was no one around when the shooting took place and now there is a witness with a conflicting report coming to the surface?
Aliff closed his eyes and wondered what he’d gotten himself into. His role was relatively, mostly inactive, but that was on the verge of changing. He hadn’t even been present that night and yet, if the girl was telling the truth, he could still be in danger. There was a phone call to make. The snowball needed to be stopped before it grew any larger.
The phone had been ringing almost nonstop for several days and it was a sound of which Darrell Sparks had grown tired. The sound was incessant and seemed to develop the ability to pierce his brain. There were different callers but it was always the same subject, with no end in sight. Sparks answered the call and was momentarily glad to hear a different voice and, hopefully, a different topic.
“Darrell? Ron Aliff here.”
“How’s it goin’, Ron?” Same topic, he thought.
“We’ll see in a few minutes. We may have a bit of a problem.”
Sparks groaned and said, “Great. What kind of problem?”
“Had a girl call today and tell me that the guys down in Spring Creek arrested the wrong guy. Young girl, sounded like. Probably early twenties or something. Sounded pretty shook up. I don’t know how reliable her story is but she sounded awfully sure of herself. ‘Course I haven’t heard what all went down from you either so…”
“What did she say, Ron?” Sparks cracked.
“She said she saw four people in the parking lot, they fought, and she heard a gunshot. One of them fell.”
“Anything else?”
“She said they were wearing police uniforms, Darrell. If there’s something you need to tell me, you need to do it now,” Aliff said.
Sparks paused and closed his eyes. After a moment to gather his thoughts, he said, “Yeah, I do. Things went bad down here, Ron. Ray started feeling a little guilty and said he wanted out. He knew everything that was going on and wouldn’t listen to reason. Things got out of hand, he started for his gun, and one of our guns went off. It wasn’t mine though. Hit him right below the heart.”
“You could have told me all this a little sooner, Darrell. When you called before you said you were going to make a quick arrest but not to think anything about it. You didn’t say that it was your people that shot him!” Aliff caught himself raising his voice. “When she called I knew something was up but I didn’t expect this. This is a disaster.”
“I know. I should have given you the rundown on everything sooner,” Sparks said apologetically. “Things have been crazy down here and I haven’t had time to breathe, okay?”
“Yeah, I get that, Darrell, but you’re forgetting that my ass is on the line here, too!” Aliff said forcefully. “I was okay with adding some cash to my budget but I didn’t sign up for murder.”
“I know, Ron. I know. Okay? How could this happen?” He tapped the eraser end of his pencil on the desk and asked, “Did she say anything else?”
“Not really. That was about it.”
“Where did she see all this from? Did she say?”
Aliff reviewed his notes and said, “Yeah, she said she saw it from her yard or something. She lives across the creek.”
Sparks’ mind went back to the night of the shooting. They had heard a sound that did not belong at that time of night. Now he knew the source. “Across the creek, huh? Great. That’s great. So now we have an eyewitness to this mess.”
“I knew something was up,” Aliff said, “so I told her not to talk to anyone about this, that it was in her best interest, the usual rap. She said she hadn’t told anyone about it. I told her I’d call her back later on and we’d talk about things again and all that. Anything in particular you want me to find out?”
“Yeah, how about if she’s got any proof of what she saw. One girl’s word against three cops ain’t gonna fly so at least we got that working for us here, right?”
“I guess. Anything else?” he asked.
“No, just find out everything you can. I mean everything. Get every detail. She give you a name?”
“Yeah. Lisa. No last name yet but I’ll get that too. You know who it is?”
“I think so but I’m not sure. I’ll keep you posted. Get back to me soon.”
Sparks sat the receiver back in its cradle and ended the call. The situation had just gone from bad to worse and there was no end in sight.
Amick pecked on the door and walked in. Looking at Sparks with a smile he said, “You know that cute little blonde that lives out behind the station?”
Sparks looked up abruptly, his eyes wide with interest. “Yeah, what about her?” he asked.
“That boyfriend of hers just left again. I swear if he’s not over there, she’s over at his place. You know, the Clark kid’s house?” He chuckled and continued, “I don’t
know why that’s so funny. Life in a small town, huh?”
“He just left? Just now?” Sparks asked.
“Yeah. He pulled out as I was driving in. So?”
“Son of a bitch!” he yelled, slamming his open palms on the desktop with the last word.
Amick looked around the room and looking at Sparks said, “Did I miss something?”
“That’s one way to put it. Sit down.”
“Well, boss, I was about to…”
“Sit down, Frank,” Sparks said impatiently. “We need to talk. I just got a phone call from Ron.”
“Ron? Aliff? The trooper? What about?”
Sparks let out a sigh. “Plenty.”
CHAPTER
15
Amick listened keenly as Sparks relayed the details of his conversation with Ron Aliff from only minutes before. The details were not inspirational. Around every turn was another complication, or so it seemed to Frank Amick. “What have I gotten myself into?” he murmured to himself as the chief continued.
“So, that’s where we are now,” Sparks said, concluding his review.
Amick slouched in his chair, picking a piece of something from between his teeth with his fingernail. “Fine. Now what? We supposed to go deal with her now?” He stood and began to pace what little walking space was to be had in the small office, which was also the largest office in the building. “Darrell, I know you,”—he caught himself—“we didn’t see any of this coming but we can’t just expect everything to blow over.”
“Would you sit down? You’re making me nervous pacing around like that!” Sparks snarled. “We’ll figure something out, okay? Ron don’t even know if she’s got anything on us. Her word against three cops, four with Ron, ain’t gonna stand up much in any court, Frank. Kevin wasn’t even around so he’s no problem. We’ll be fine.”
“Is he sure?” Amick asked. “He doesn’t know if she’s got anything on us or whatever. But what if she does? We’ve got to think about that, just in case. Plus we know she’s done told somebody about what she saw.”
“You’re as paranoid as a lab rat. You know that? Just calm down and take it one step at a time. We just all need to stick together on this thing.” Sparks gestured toward the chair in front of the desk and said, “Now sit down. I’m calling Ron back. We’ll get this straightened out. The girl doesn’t know that Ron’s working with us so she’ll lead us to whatever she’s got. Right?”
Amick nodded in agreement and said, “Whatever you say.” He folded his hands, brought the index fingers to a point, and rested the weight of his head there. His eyes stared downward toward nothing in particular.
Sparks picked up the phone and dialed the number to reach Ron Aliff, who answered after the call was directed to him by the operator.
“Ron? It’s Darrell. We got a problem.”
“And that is?”
“She lied to you. She outright lied to you.”
“Who lied? The girl? About what?” Aliff said, asking three questions at once.
“That guy she’s always with left her house about ten minutes ago and I bet not more than five minutes after you hung up the friggin’ phone! You said she hadn’t talked to anyone about things but you can bet your left nut that if he was there while she was talking to you, he knows everything she does. That’s if she hadn’t already told him!” Sparks said angrily. “Your little informant lied to you, plain and simple.”
“You gotta be kidding me. Why would the girl lie about that?” Aliff said after a pause, speaking more to himself than Sparks.
“She was telling you what you wanted to hear, Ron. Obviously.” Sparks lowered his voice and continued. “You need to get back with her and see if she’s got anything solid. If not, we can fix something up and blow her off. She won’t know the difference. But if she has something solid we got a problem on our hands.”
“So the guy’s gone?”
“Yeah. Local kid. She’s been hanging around with him ever since she got here a few months back.”
“Good. I’ll call her back in a minute since he’s not there. She probably had him there for support and all that. If she’s alone she’ll be easier to crack, I bet.”
“Sure. Whatever. Just get on it. Call me back when you got something. Not too hard on her though, Ron. We don’t need her suspicious of everybody, you know.”
“Right.”
The line clicked and Sparks hung up the receiver. Sure there were going to be complications but this? Things were out of hand, and needed to be slowed down before it was too big to handle for everyone involved.
Ron Aliff’s body cried out for a cigarette or at least a cigar. Over the years, nicotine became the only tension relief for a career lawman who chose not to drink. His father had been a borderline alcoholic, although he had never admitted having a problem. For the last five years of his life, Tom Aliff was rarely seen without a bottle in his hand. His father’s death, which was almost certainly accelerated by alcohol, coupled with a single incident in which a close friend was nearly killed while driving drunk, was all that was needed for Ron Aliff to be driven away permanently from alcohol. As a result, he’d taken on smoking as his only vice. Another filthy habit, he often thought to himself.
The tension of the last two weeks was mounting but had reached its apex in the last seventy-two hours. Murphy’s Law was rearing its ugly head in extreme fashion.
Didn’t those idiots by the creek think of anything before diving right in? This is what happens when greed drives the bus.
He slammed his hands on the desk in front of him, nearly toppling the half-full mug of cold coffee into his lap.
“Root of all evil,” he grumbled into the empty room.
One girl’s tall tale of what she saw or heard from a distance in the middle of the night surely wouldn’t be thought of as damning evidence against the word of four veteran officers but it would be credible enough to garner an investigation.
At least it better not be, he thought.
The seasonal heat was starting to dwindle but not yet enough to provide comfort for very long. Air conditioning in the building kept the temperature at a cool seventy-two but that could do nothing to stifle the biological reaction resulting from increasing stress. Aliff wiped the sweat from his forehead and took a long drink from his bottle of water. His mind was working overtime. Originally a mere role player, he was now being forced into the starting lineup of this unmitigated disaster. This was not the kind of responsibility for which he had signed up after a series of meetings with the police chief in his hometown.
After closing his eyes and taking another deep breath, Aliff reached for the phone and dialed the number of the girl who could hold the freedom of several men, himself included, in her hands. After three rings, she answered.
“Hello?” Lisa said.
“Lisa? This is Lieutenant Aliff again.”
“Okay…” she said uneasily.
“I know we just talked a little while ago but I thought I’d check back in, see if everything was okay, and maybe ask you a couple more questions. You know, a few I didn’t get to before. We were kind of rushed, after all.” Aliff grew nervous during the short pause, but was relieved when she agreed.
“Alright, I guess so.”
Aliff sensed the reticence in her voice. “First of all, are you certain you haven’t talked to anyone about what we’ve talked about?”
“Well…” she started to say.
Aliff interrupted her answer in order to continue. “Because I need to know the truth, Lisa. It’s all about your safety. I want you to know that. If what you’ve been telling me is true, then you may not be safe if it gets around so you have to be completely honest with me.”
After several seconds of silence, Aliff heard Lisa beginning to sniffle, first quietly then more pronounced. Finally she said, “Okay, okay, I’ll be honest. I told one person, but only one. I promise it was only one and he won’t tell anybody.”
“Okay, Lisa, thank you for being honest. Now we k
now we can trust each other. Don’t we?”
“Right,” Lisa said, regaining her composure. “I had to tell him. We’re kind of together and I was just scared and…”
Aliff cut off her rambling mid-sentence. “I understand all that. It’s okay but it goes no further. Can I ask you a few things?”
“Sure,” she said after another sniff.
“First of all, I have to be completely sure of something. Are you a hundred percent sure you saw and heard what you say you did? These are some serious things you’re alleging here.”
“I’m totally sure. It was real quiet and all and real clear. I know what I saw. I’ve dreamed about it the last couple of nights. The dreams were pretty vivid, too.”
The next question would be one of the most important questions that Lieutenant Ronald Aliff had ever asked anyone, as a law enforcement officer or as a private citizen. The answer, regardless of what it was, would impact his life and several others.
“Uh, Lisa, I know that you’re sure about everything but I need to know something else. You realize that it’s your word against four police officers, right? Now I believe you, honey, I really do, but it might take something a little more solid to get them. You understand?” Aliff said.
“Yeah, I understand what you mean. Wait, four officers? There were only three, besides the Kessler guy,” Lisa said suspiciously.
Aliff felt a chill go down his spine. He’d been careless. “I’m sorry. That’s my mistake. I meant three. My fault. It’s been a long day already,” he chuckled nervously.
“That’s okay.”
“Well, do you have anything else? Did you see anyone else around that may have seen or heard something or anything like that?”
For ten seconds the line was silent.
“Lisa? Are you there?”
“Yes sir, I’m here. It’s just that…”
“Lisa, we agreed to trust each other. Isn’t that right? We need to do that.”
“I do have something,” Lisa admitted. “It’s just…”