A Day in the Life Ch. 01

"I'm sure. Why didn't he call the Police?" I asked.

"He said he was told not to by one of the people in the parking lot. He said he feared for his life." said Teddy Parker.

"Uh huh." I said. I wanted to say he might be fearing a red crowbar soon, but I didn't utter that out loud with Alison and Chris in the room. "Anyone look in the parking lot for any bullets?"

"Yes sir, but nothing found." said Parker.

"What about the nightclub next door? To the east of the gas station? Any cameras there?"

"We got their footage of the parking lot." said Myron. "One camera got a bit of it, which you can see in the left edge of the frame." He showed me that footage, which was also distant and vague.

Myron said "We're still processing other street cameras in the area, hoping to get a plate of the van or car that fled the scene. Captain Thompson of Precinct Two has officers canvassing the area, and will have more tonight to see if anyone saw anything."

"Captain Ross?" I asked. "Gang activity? Drugs?"

"Hispanics have been trying to move in and gain a foothold in Town." said Cindy. "Teresa-- er, Lt. Croyle has been monitoring their activity. They haven't had much luck getting into the predominantly Black areas of the Tenderloin District, but they've set up a couple of clubs on the lower West Side of Town, right around the area of this shooting. This is the first we're seeing of any potential criminal activity or drugs at this particular intersection, though."

"No female bodies found anywhere?" I asked.

"No sir." said Parker. "Precinct Captain Thompson did alert his officers and all the other Precincts' Duty Desks to be on watch for a body, but nothing so far.

"They may have it on ice somewhere." said Cindy. "They thought enough to take it with them, so they might destroy it."

"How would they do that?" asked Chris King.

"Several ways." I said. "I won't get into the details, but they could put the body in a barrel and use strong acids. We recently had such a case. Or... and get ready for some squeamish stuff... they could dismember the body into many parts, and dispose of them in a lot of ways. Leaves a mess at the place they do that, though. Ross, put out word to all the Precincts to be on the lookout and make calls to industrial places to watch out for large pools of blood and such stuff."

"Wilco." Cindy replied. Chris and Alison looked at each other in shock. Welcome to my police world, I thought to myself.

"Ross, who did Perlman put in charge of this case?" I asked.

"Washington and Parker." replied Captain Ross. "She doesn't know that yet, since she's been working with Nash on the other case."

"First of all, I thought I heard Perlman say that Torres should be on this case also, since she speaks Spanish." I said, giving Cindy a big hint. "Also, tell Perlman she has two cases to manage, and to not get too absorbed in one or the other."

I looked at Chris and Alison, then said "Two lessons in leadership here, guys. One is delegation, the other is not to get tunnel-vision in one place and not see your overall arena. I'm delegating to Captain Ross to administer that lesson to her subordinates, and I'm also overwatching the whole situation."

"If I may ask," said Chris, "how do you guys juggle all this stuff in your head?"

Cindy piped up: "For me, I don't try too hard to know all the little details. If I have a question, I ask my Lieutenants and they can ask their Detectives, and so on. General Officers don't need to know where every squad is digging every foxhole. However, the Commander here never forgets a darn thing and can keep track of every little thing. But he's the exception, not the rule."

"Kissing up to the boss." I said with a dash of humor. "Another managerial skill that Captain Ross is applying a bit too freely, here. Okay, Ross, let these journalists follow you around while I go do part of my job, which is to keep the Police Chief informed of what's going on in his jurisdictions..."

Part 4 - Working the Cases

"Sorry to bother you, Detective Nash," said Alison as she came up to Martin Nash's desk, "but how will you start your investigation of this unknown person case?"

"Have a seat." Nash said. As Alison sat down by his desk he said "Right now I'm going over the Duty Desk logs for last night, to see if anything strange was reported. Maybe some kind of fight being called in, even reports of dogs barking. I'm also touching base with the FBI's Missing Person's Bureau, to make sure they don't have anyone missing that might be this body. We'll be getting video footage of the Park and the area around it, and I'll be checking the vehicles on that video and seeing if anything looks suspicious."

"Wow, there are a lot of cameras recording everything." Alison said.

"Not as many as I'd like." said Nash. "I do understand the balance between privacy and surveillance, and why some people are worried about it. But on the other hand, it can and does help us get murderers off the streets." Alison made notes of that as Tanya Perlman came up.

"Guys, the autopsy is going to start in thirty minutes." she said. "Alison, you should see one of these. It'll help you understand how we get evidence." Alison could not know that Tanya's smile was just a wee bit malicious in its nature.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

The autopsy was being performed in the 'new' Morgue, which was in the basement of the Crime Lab building. Martha the M.E. was performing it. Watching from the side room through the glass were myself, Tanya, Martin, Alison and Chris. Chris looked fascinated. Alison looked sickish.

When it was over, Martha reported: "Male, black haired from what's left of the eyebrows as well as some hair follicles. Youngish, early 20s. Five feet six inches tall, about 135 pounds. One .22 Long Rifle bullet recovered from the chest. The fatal wound was a severing of the carotid artery in the neck, but that bullet passed through. No powder burns, so he may have been clothed when he was shot or the perp shot him from a distance of at least a couple of feet."

"Time of death?" I asked.

"Between 10:00pm and 4:00am last night. The body being in the water is making it more difficult to narrow down. I'm having some tests run to try to get you a better time." said Martha.

She then continued: "The hair on his head was shaved after he died: there are some scrapes on the head that didn't bleed. But the rest of his hair, all of his body hair, was previously shaved off."

"What about his male anatomy being cut off and stuffed in his mouth?" Tanya asked.

Martha replied. "That was done after death, also."

"How can you tell that, as opposed to him being alive when it happened?" asked Chris King. Martha explained how blood flows don't happen after death, and injured tissue reacts differently when alive than when dead. Tanya looked fascinated; Alison looked squeamish again.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

"Well, what do you guys think, so far?" I asked Chris and Alison as we sat in my office after lunch, my treat, at the Cop Bar. Cindy was with us, sitting on the sofa behind the students.

"It's been... eye opening." said Alison. She had not eaten much lunch after having seen the autopsy. Tanya and Chris's appetites had been unaffected.

"My question is: how are you going to solve the case?" asked Chris. "You don't even have an I.D. of the guy. Where do you even start?"

"Well," I said, " we have a fairly standard and methodical process that we've become very used to going through. It's pretty slow and tedious, though. This is not television, where they don't show the behind-the-scenes, painstaking and detailed work that leads to seeming magical results on the screen."

I continued: "What we are going to need is time. We need to see the Crime Lab's results. I am hoping someone will call in a missing person's report. We'll contact Confidential Informants, see if they've heard any rumors. I'm hoping we'll get a break, as well."

"Commander," Cindy said, "Lt. Croyle assigned Geiger to liaison with Parker and Torres on the gas station killing, and also with Nash on our 'John Doe'. If it's drug-gang-related, Geiger will help look into that."

"And that, guys," I said to the students, "is where MCD and Vice work together."

"Commander," said Alison, "why... why did they cut of that guy's..." She did not finish the sentence, nor did she need to.

"Oh, that." I said. "I'm not sure. Gangs sometimes do things like that to someone who betrays their gang, or as a warning to others--"

Just then I got a call from the Duty Desk.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Christina Cho and J.R. Barnes were excited as Cindy, the students, and I walked up to them at Ronald Reagan Park. It was about 100 yards north of where the body had been found, and was in the main grassy park.

"Sir," said J.R., holding a videocamera, "the walking path comes closest to the River at this point, so a car could be driven in. And going towards the River, we have some deep footprints, two parallel sets."

"Kids," I said to the students as we looked at the footprints of shoes in the soft earth, "what does that mean?" They didn't know, so I said "The deep footprints suggest either they were heavy or were carrying something heavy. Two parallel sets suggests they were carrying something between them. A dead body suggests itself to my police mind."

"A regular Sherlock Holmes, he is." said Cindy. Alison giggled. We followed J.R. and Christina to the riverbank.

"Watch this, sir." Christina said. She had a blow up balloon that simulated a human body, weighted down with sandbags. She let it go about six feet in the River, where the current would catch it.

We all watched as it slowly made its way down with the fast-flowing current. A number of minutes later it came to shore, alongside another dummy... and within three feet of where the dead body had been found.

"Excellent work, guys!" I said. "You videotaped this?" J.R. confirmed that he had. "Put it into evidence with the other Crime Lab findings. Good job!"

And then my police cellphone rang.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

"I cannot believe they did this." said Cindy as we came into Classroom 'E'. Perlman, Nash, Parker and Geiger were already there.

"They did." said Martin Nash. "Sandra saw it and called me." Sandra Speer of the FBI was also Martin Nash's live-in girlfriend.

"You need to marry that woman, Martin." I said gruffly, in my best 'Chief Griswold' imitation voice. Cindy laughed. Martin's cheeks got a bit rosy, but he continued unabated.

"This was loaded to Facebook and Youtube this morning." Nash said.

The video showed the altercation at the gas station, shot by someone with their cellphone from the Club parking lot, at the edge of the gas station's parking lot. It showed several Hispanics. A muscular young man was behind the van with a woman, making out with her. Then another young man came to the guy, had him come to the side of the van near the driver door, and said something to him.

At that point, the young man began screaming and gesticulating at the woman he'd just been kissing, in English and Spanish, and she was trying to calm him down. Several people were around them. Then he pulled out a small revolver that had been tucked inside his belt and shot the woman. As she fell, he shot her twice more.

"Put the body in the van!" he shouted. This was done, then the van and a car hurtled out of the lots onto Riverside Avenue, going south.

"Do I even need to ask?" I said.

"No sir." said Nash. "We've run the plates on the van. Belongs to a company called 'Domingo Shipping' on MLK Drive. Precinct Captain Thompson is putting together a group to escort our Detectives down there."

"And the car?"

"Registered to a Carlos Domingo, address the same as the company." said Nash.

"And do I need to ask if the video is downloaded into our evidence servers?"

"No sir." said Parker. "Mary Milton got that and also a backup."

"Geiger, is this Domingo Shipping involved with drugs?" I asked.

"Not that we know of, sir." said Geiger. "But we're looking into it now... after seeing this, of course."

I turned to the students. "This, guys, is what we call 'our first break in the case'. Okay, guys, get with Mary Milton and run some facial recognition software on the woman that was shot. If Mary doesn't get anything, Martin, ask the FBI in your nicest voice if they can help us with that."

"Yes sir." said Nash.

Part 5 - Shipping and Handling

The white man in a loose-fitting sportscoat and slacks and Hispanic woman in a better-fitting and matching jacket and slacks entered the door marked "Office" at the first warehouse of Domingo Shipping. A security guard was there.

"I smell pork." he said in English.

"That's right." said Parker. "Can we speak with the manager please.

"I don't speak English." the guy said in Spanish.

"Too bad," said Detective Diana Torres, also in Spanish. "Your manager, where is he?"

The language barrier defeated, the security guard yelled out for a man holding a clipboard. When the man came over, the guard told him in Spanish that the officers wanted to speak to the manager.

"Thanks, Dog. I'll handle this." said the man (in English). "I'm the building supervisor. The manager is not here. What can I do for you officers?"

"What's the manager's name?" asked Parker.

"Mr. Domingo. Manuel Domingo." said the supervisor. "He's the owner. He's out of town at one of his other locations."

"How many locations does he have?" asked Torres.

"Four." said the supervisor. "Here, Midtown, Rocky Ridge in the State south of this one, and a new location in Southport. He's there trying to get it set up right. But that's not why you guys are here, is it?"

"No." said Parker. "Is there a Carlos Domingo here?"

"Ah, he's the boss's son." said the supervisor. "He's the regional supervisor for this office and Midtown. He's in Midtown now."

"Got a number where we can reach him?" asked Parker.

"I'd have to get it from the office." said the Supervisor evasively.

"Are all your vans here?" asked Torres.

"We ship in trucks." said the super. "Half of the big rigs pulled out this morning to make deliveries. The other half have come in and are being offloaded into the smaller trucks. But we don't have any vans."

"That's curious." said Parker. "We ran some plates on a van last night. Says it's owned by Domingo Shipping, with this address. Are you sure you don't have any vans?"

"I'm telling you, man, we don't use vans." said the super. "If we have any, I don't know about them. You ever seen a van with our logo on it?"

"This one was unmarked." said Parker.

"You don't have any service vehicles to go out if your trucks break down?" asked Torres.

"Our drivers have a number to call to get towed if that happens." said the super.

"Mind if we look around the place?" asked Parker.

"I can't give you that permission." said the supervisor. "Only the manager can, and you'd have to have a warrant anyway."

"Oh we got that." said Parker, pulling out the folded piece of paper from within his sportscoat pocket. "We're authorized to search these premises for a van, a car matching the description of one seen last night belonging to Carlos Domingo, and to bring Carlos in for questioning. Sure he's not here?"

The super frowned. "Naw, he's not here. And you ain't searching this place, either. Dog! Get everyone up here."

The guard was moving to obey when a worker ran up. "Police are coming onto the grounds. Six cars!" A few seconds later, a Police SUV barreled right into the truck entrance of the facility. Precinct Captain Damien Thompson, a large black man, popped out. Other SUVs were outside, officers pouring out in tactical assault gear, ready for combat action.

"Is there a problem here, Detective?" Thompson asked.

"There sure is." said Parker. "We've got a warrant to search this facility, and the supervisor here is not being cooperative."

"I'll put a call in to Headquarters and get two more squads down here." said Thompson. Just then his radio crackled to life.


"Runner! We got a runner!" the radio said.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

The young Hispanic man tore out of the office areas and out the back door. He was running at the top of his speed towards the back of the lot, running between trucks, trying to get to a breach in the fence which would lead to another property and to a busy street where he could try to hide amongst the milling people...

*WHAM!*

The black police officer had been an athlete in high school and was also fast. He had hurtled into the running perp at full speed, tackling him hard to the ground and landing on him. The force of the violent collision of bodies knocked the breath out of the perp, and he barely felt his arm being violently wrenched behind his back.

"This is Davis!" shouted the policeman into his radio. "I've got the runner, but I need backup, others approaching." Several workers, Hispanic men, were running to where Davis had the would-be escapee on the ground.

Two TCPD police cars rushed up, tires screeching as they braked and stopped between Davis and the other workers. Seeing the police backup, the other man scattered and ran in several directions as Davis applied handcuffs to his catch..

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

5:30pm, still Tuesday, September 8th. I was sitting in my office with Alison and Chris. I'd told Helena to leave for the day, so it was a knock on the door that first announced a visitor. It was ADA Paulina Patterson.

"Come on in," I said to the drop-dead-gorgeous black woman. "Paulina, this is Alison and Chris, who are aspiring journalists following me around. Guys, this is Assistant District Attorney Paulina Patterson."

"Hi guys." Paulina said. "Commander, I need to talk to you."

"If it's about this case, you can talk in front of Alison and Chris." I said. "They're following the case, so it'd be good that they see everything we do."

"Okay." said Paulina, sitting down next to Alison. "And I'll give more details than I normally would for their sakes. This afternoon we got a warrant to go to Domingo Shipping and find the van on the tapes last night, the car, and also Carlos Domingo if he was there. Our Detectives went in with Uniformed Police waiting outside as backup if needed. They were needed, and moved in when the supervisor at the scene became threatening. A man we think is Carlos Domingo attempted to flee the scene, and was taken down by Patrolman Davis."

"That you think is Carlos Domingo?" asked Chris skeptically.

I said "He had no ID on him, refused to give his name, and no one else would identify him out loud. We'll get him identified in due time, though."

"Yes." said Paulina. "The Police made sixteen arrests: every man who tried to run, the supervisor, the guard at the front door, and the two women in the office. Some of those that tried to run were Illegals; we've called ICE about them. They all yelled 'Fifth Amendment!' immediately, so we won't get anything from them. The supervisor and guard clammed up, demanded lawyers. The two women also demanded lawyers."

Paulina continued: "Everyone else was questioned at the scene. Citizens and legal immigrants were ultimately allowed to leave; we really don't have anything on which we can hold them. Captain Thompson was supervising at the scene. He said they found several black vans in the employees' parking lot, and one of them had been washed out pretty thoroughly. It had no license plate on it, either. All the vans were empty."

Another knock on the door, and Captain Cindy Ross came in without invitation, as was her privilege to do. "Oh, sorry to interrupt." she said.

"Come on in." I said. "Paulina's telling me about the arrests."