Friday 10:22 AM Portland, Oregon
The desk phone bleeped at him, and he gave it a sour look as he yawned
again. After last night, don't be a request for help on another
all night mess. Portland was chronically understaffed and he
seemed to spend an awful lot of time switching units.
"Sonny, you've got a long distance call from Miami on line 6."
"Thanks Cindy." He smiled wondering who'd decided to call
from the old crew. Punching the number,
"Sonny, here. Who've I got?"
"Sonny It's me, Gina." The smile faded from his face, he
could hear it in her voice in those few words. Something really bad
had happened.
"Gina, what's wrong?"
7:30 AM, New York City
Ricardo
Tubbs hummed cheerfully to himself as he entered the building. A
bitter ice filled wind howled through the New York streets, a great day
to stay indoors and do paper trailing. He'd begun to spend a
religious amount of time at the gym making sure he didn't turn into mush
at some really inconvenient moment on the job. But there were times
when just sitting behind a desk could be nice. As he waited for the
elevator Rico stared out through the lobby glass at the dark morning
sleet flailing the tall windows. Well...there were still times when
he missed Miami sunshine. As time passed he remembered the sunshine
more than the pain, and as nice as that was, he did not want to forget
the darkness just behind all that bright landscape. Rico wondered
how Sonny was today, he'd laughed when he heard Sonny had gone north to
Oregon, he really couldn't believe it until Sonny actually called
him. But he understood, in the end Sonny just had to get away from
it completely. Four floors up, Rico got off and headed for his
office. He always felt a distinct pride when he said that.
My office. My name on the door. Ricardo Tubbs Private
Investigator. It had a nice ring to it, and it was a nice
business. He had not had to draw a gun in more than a year.
Everybody back in Vice had thought it hilarious when he started going to
night school. But it had paid off big time. He found that he
liked computers and LOVED what he could do with them when it came to
embezzlement investigations. It had become one of his
specialties. He rapped on the door twice, hesitated and hit it once
more before opening it. It made Martha feel better to have that
slight code.
Martha was
a very sweet looking Grandmother who could easily kill him with her
Karate and the fact that she kept a loaded weapon hidden and pointed at
the door at all times had made him nervous until he understood that just
because she had retired as a police woman didn't mean she was going to
stop being careful. She was the one who ragged HIM to keep up
target practice even in the face of their mostly very nonviolent
cases.
"Good
morning Mrs. Murphy."
"Good
morning Mr. Tubbs, I've got three messages for you from Mr. Stevens, and
one from Miami. You are late."
Tubbs
smiled, "Yes Mom." That always got him a frosty
eye. "Who called from
Miami?"
"Stan
Switek, I wrote it down."
She handed a slip of paper to him, and he was a little surprised by the
emotion he caught for a second in her eyes. Sympathy?
-Something bad happened to Castillo, call ASAP - A list of phone
numbers followed- Rico literally felt the blood leave his
face. He looked at Mrs. Murphy a little desperately. Her face
was calm. "I booked a ticket for you to Miami." Her
mouth tightened in an almost smile, "Maureen at Global got you a
special standby, it's cheap. It'll be dropped off before 10.
You can take care of Stevens papers before you go."
Rico was
at a loss. Not sure what to think. "Thank you Mrs.
Murphy." He stood there for a very long minute feeling truly
cold. Then he took a deep breath. 'Put everything off till I
get back." He went into his own office and stood still, staring at
the note. It didn't say Castillo was dead, it didn't give any clue
to what had happened. Bad had a lot of possibilities he
didn't even want to imagine.
Ricardo
Tubbs picked up the phone, he still knew the main number by heart, and
the time changes wouldn't make any difference. He wondered if
anyone he knew would answer the phone in Miami. The other numbers
were personal ones, some he remembered, he'd start at the top.
11:47 AM Portland, Oregon
Sonny Crockett's eyes studied the gray wet morning outside the window
without seeing it. Captain Steadman had been sympathetic and more
helpful then he had any right to expect.
"You won't have to use vacation time, I pulled some
strings."
Eyebrows quirked up in surprise, he turned to look at his Captain,
"You're going there as a temporary transfer to learn from their
undercover vice unit. It gives you a good excuse to be
there." Sonny managed a travesty of a smile,
"Thanks Jim, I'm sorry to leave you short handed."
"Don't worry, D'andro gets back next week. Robbery can make it
for a few weeks. Just try and come back in one piece, OK? I
hear people get shot at in Miami.." Sonny almost laughed,
"It's been known to happen."
Captain Steadman looked at Sonny's stark face and tried to lighten the
moment, "Yeah, and I hear they used to have some pretty hot vice
cops there, maybe you can pick up some pointers." Sonny
appreciated the attempt, the corner of his mouth quirked up in spite of
himself.
"Thanks for pushing this through, I owe you."
"I'll collect when you get back. You better get going, you've
only got about 12 hours before your plane leaves. Just do me a
favor, don't act like a tourist. Carry your weapon."
10:10 PM Portland
Sandy's auburn hair caught sparks of red in the lamplight. Her
voice was matter-of-fact and calm. She had a trust in things
turning out right, a trust Sonny had never been able to understand.
Yet it was one of the things that he loved most about her. Sandy
always seemed to be able to find a way around a problem. The
daughter of a rare successful Police marriage, she'd always taken
everything about police work matter-of-factly.
Even this had only made her look at him with a thoughtful smile and say,
"Of course you need to go."
He'd told
her that something had happened to a friend back in Miami, and they
needed help. And as much as he knew he had to go, part of him just
wanted to run away. He fought with that even as he searched for
warm weather clothes to pack. He didn't need much in Oregon and
couldn't even remember where anything was. Sandy had come into the
room without a word and found some of his few hot weather garments,
watched as he put them in the bag, aware of the diffidence that troubled
him.
He was
terribly conscious of an urge to rediscover the adrenaline shot thrill of
being young with no concept of mortality.
Now...Now
he had a much more personal understanding of the costs. The
losses...Sonny had stopped packing and was staring into the bag, lost for
a moment in a brief lifetimes worth the memories. Sandy's husky
voice brought him back.
"Sonny, I understand there are things you just have to
do." She smiled into his troubled eyes. "I'm not
going to tell you not to go. I know it's important." All
I ask is one thing."
"What?"
"Do your best to come back to me, Okay?"
"Oh Yes, God yes." Sonny held her tight for a long time
then. He did not want to leave her. But there was a debt owed
that he could never truly repay.
10:33 PM Gulf of Mexico
The
space had some of the ambience of an operating room. Cold bluish
lights around the equipment. Medical smells, and equipment were in
evidence. Monitors blinked silently with racks of IV's and
drugs. Some equipment would be recognizable to any medieval
torturer. Here also was some of the most advanced sound equipment
possible combined with goggles that could display to the eyes what ever
was programed to appear.
Martin lay
on a padded rack, secured by reinforced leather restraints. Each
cuff and strap thickly padded to prevent obvious marks to the skin.
Sweat
sheeted off his naked body, stung his eyes beneath the goggles and bite
into scrapes in his skin like angry fire ants. It was hardly
noticeable with the other pain. His body trembled and jerked in an
endless furnace of chemically produced pain. The endless hours of
almost unbearable pain slowly crushing his mind and will. Far
worse, the real fear came with the release. Knowing that it would
come, that it was destroying him. That he could not hold onto any
conscious will much longer, and might not even be aware when it was
gone.
He'd
screamed with horror and rage the first time Emil stood by the rack
smiling as he loaded the syringe.
"There
is irony in this, don't you agree? You have dedicated yourself to
fighting the drug traffic, now you will become an addict. You will
learn to love this release from pain. Only I can give you this, soon you
will do anything to get it, you will need to do anything I ask.
When you are ready, you will not even remember why."
Even with
the restraints, it had taken two people to steady his arm enough for the
first injection. The wrenching struggle had gone on until they
throttled him nearly unconscious. The burst of euphoric warmth
spreading through pain racked cells was more horrible than any anguish he
had ever known. Soon after that they bandaged the goggles over his
eyes and headphones over his ears. And the voice, the voice was
always there.
Friday 4:36 PM Miami
The
quiet in the OCB offices was tense, no one was talking very much. Switek
scratched away quickly on a pad of paper,
"Thanks Brad, I owe you." and hung up his phone. Arnie
looked at him with raised eyebrows.
"They found five different DNA groups, including
Castillo's. Three of them're hot"
Gina, sitting with a phone clamped to her ear, put a hand over the
receiver and spoke first.
"Do we know them?"
"John Marttuci, freelance muscle. Assault charges back to
kindergarten. Louie Smith. Used to muscle for Salvo's
gang. Ronnie 'the pearl' Rococo, did a dime for multiple assault
and battery when he was working for that loan shark Tegro, he just got
out about six weeks ago, and it looks like he couldn't find a new line of
work."
Trudy
stood up with her hand out for the note,
" Gimme that. I'm gonna see if any of them worked together on
anything."
Grabbing
the note, Trudy vanished out the doors.
Arnie
Sharpe, Switek's new partner, also had a phone glued to his ear.
Easy going Arnie had accepted that he would always be the 'Kid' to the
others. He could pass for a skinny, geeky, twenty-something with
his frizzy hair and glasses. But Arnie had an advanced degree in
surveillance hardware that would have surprised most people who only
noticed how young and awkward he seemed.
"Thanks
Amigo, there's a fifty in it if you hear anything I can use." The others
were looking expectantly at him when he hung up, "Nothing so far.
No notes, No street talk, nada. It'd be nice to know if it's ranso=
m
or revenge."
Switek
said darkly,
"Somebody wanted him alive, let's hope it's not revenge."
No one left until well after midnight that night.
9:15 AM, OCB Offices, Miami
Paper
coffee cups still littered most of the desks from the night before.
Gina spoke
sweetly into her phone, a voice that could have seduced money out of
Scrooge McDuck.
"Your're
a peach George, I won't forget this...Bye bye."
She continued holding the phone until the dialtone came back.
Throwing the phone at the receiver with a curse. Faces turned to
her with some surprise, Gina was seldom angry. "Someone's coming in
to take over."
"What?!"
"Until the situation is cleared up, they're putting Mckinnin in
charge."
"Mckinnin ? That new guy at Metro? I heard he's an
Elliot Ness wannabe. I heard Mr. Ex-marine's got a stick up his
butt the size of a flagpole. This doesn't make sense. Who's
running the investigation?"
"I asked that. All I can get is 'Don't worry it's being taken
care of.'"
Switek's eyes narrowed, "How soon is this turkey coming down?"
"From what Brad understood, any minute."
"I think we need cover people."
There was a pause of about three thoughtful seconds, and then a fury of
sudden activity to rearrange desks and paper to exhibit nothing but the
current cases. Gina noticed the sympathy cards and gag cup on
Ding's desk and swept them all into a drawer. She had a feeling
they might need to pretend Ding was still around just out of touch, not
confined to a hospital bed.
Trudy
hadn't paid any attention other then to move a few items into a
drawer. Her fingers continued to dance over the keyboard while her
eyes remained glued to the screen. Only pausing at times to write a
note on a pad.
9:44 AM, Miami
Even
though they were all surreptitiously expecting the man, it was still a
shock when he came through the doors. Loud was the only way to
describe him. Even dressed in a ridiculous three piece grey
suit
A very
stiff overweight Elliot Ness. He looked at everyone with a mixture
of distrust and dislike.
"I'm
Mel McKinnin, I'll be taking over this unit until the situation is
cleared up. You can all get back to work now."
Without
another word, Mckinnin headed toward Castillo's office. Everyone
stared at his back in dead silence, not noticing the next person to enter
the room. The tall ash blonde found a half smile pulling up the
side of his face at the sight of everyone watching Mckinnin
retreat. He couldn't resist speaking up in that brooding
silence.
"Hi,
I'm from Portland Oregon, here on a temp assignment to learn about Vice
work from real pro's."
