Hampered in His Plans Ch. 05

"Yep. Where to now?" Cindy asked.

"Headquarters." I said. "We've got to pick up our badges and guns." Cindy drove there, and Rudistan let us in without question. We got our I.D.s and went inside.

"Wow, don't tell me you've trusted Rudistan with this." Cindy quietly said. "I mean, he's a good guy and all, but..." She did not finish the sentence.

"I only told him we were on an undercover mission." I replied. "He tends to understand these things without being told. And I might as well trust him because he was in the room with me when we arrested Bryan Thatcher, so I'm not really in any worse shape as far as Rudistan having stuff on me."

Cindy got her stuff out of her office and came to mine.

"All right," I said, "let's go." We went back outside, now that we had IDs, badges and guns back on, and drove in my Police SUV towards the Saskia Warehouse. I parked in an obscured place where we could watch, then took out a burner phone and sent a text.

"What's happening?" Cindy asked.

"A good Citizen is about to call the Duty Desk with an anonymous tip that a man with black curly hair was seen at the Saskia Warehouse. Our guys already know that the bombed out Lamborghini is his; I heard the radio chatter as we were driving. I estimate... oh, about ten minutes..."

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

A Police cruiser pulled up to the Saskia Warehouse. Sergeant Irwin was driving, and Lt. Teresa Croyle came out of the passenger seat. There were already three other Police cruisers there, blue lights blazing.

"He's around back, behind the warehouse." said Patrolman Culver as they went through the opening in the fence. Memories were flooding Teresa's mind as they walked to the building.

"Lieutenant Croyle," said Sergeant Irwin, "we'll stay here if you want to go back there alone. And if he tries to make a run for it or attacks you, we'll understand whatever happens.

Teresa stood there, feeling as if nothing else existed in the world. The bastard that had stolen the organ meant for Amy was now around the corner. The temptation was enormous, and the desire to act out of her pain and fury was almost overwhelming. She remembered what she thought Alexis had whispered to her at Amy's deathbed.

And then, again seeing nothing else, she saw what looked like not one, but two ethereal forms in the distance, watching her, waiting for her. And she heard in her mind Amy's words to forgive the perp.

Exhaling, she made her choice. And suddenly she was seeing everything again, the warehouse eerily lit up by the blue lightbars of the Police cruisers, the Officers standing near her.

"Thank you, but I'll do this right." she said. "Come around with me. Videocamera, too." She led the way around the corner, seeing Moschel tied up. "Untie him." Officers rushed to do so.

"Would you like to borrow a crowbar, ma'am?" asked another officer, who had not heard Sgt. Irwin's offer.

"Those are for the amateurs." Teresa said. "I don't need one." She walked up to Moschel, who was still on his knees. She went behind him and pushed him to the ground, but only to pull his arms behind him and handcuff him.

"Steven Moschel, you are under arrest." Teresa said. "You have the right to remain silent..." She recited the rights to him, then followed as Officers walked him to a Police cruiser. Someone had put down plastic on the backseat; their noses had told them that Moschel had soiled himself.

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

As Cindy and I watched from a distance away, I felt very proud of Teresa. She had withstood the test. I had gone to the Dark Side, but she had risen above it. I would not have blamed her if she'd done something to Moschel, beaten the shit out of him as she beat down Dean Allen... or even killed Moschel. No one would've said a word, and the Thin Blue Line would've covered it up. But she didn't. She rose above it.

"She's a better person than I am." I said.

"No, not necessarily." Cindy said. "Maybe tonight, though..."

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

We went back to Headquarters. Moschel was cleaned up and given an orange jumpsuit, and then was taken through booking. Cindy and I tried to sneak in the other side, through the employee's entrance.

It did not take long before the Duty Desk Sergeant was at my door. "Commander! Captain!" he exclaimed. "We've been trying to get in touch with you!"

"Yeah, I left my cellphone here by accident." I said, holding it up. "We went to the City, just got back. So what's going on?"

"I'll tell him, Sergeant." said a voice behind him. The voice belonged to Lt. Tanya Perlman. She came in, a strange look on her face.

"Sir, ma'am," she said as she sat down in the chair besides Cindy, "tonight a car was blown up at the Hospital with military plastique and detcord. Extremely expensive car, belonging to one Steven Moschel. He'd just bought it. He also had just delivered a heart for Robert Brownlee. By the way, that operation is still going on, last I checked."

Tanya continued: "We started searching for Mr. Moschel, and we found him... tied up behind the Saskia Warehouse. I might add that this warehouse is where Lt. Croyle found Amy, twice, including once on Christmas Eve."

"Yes, I know." I said. "Discipline still to follow. But go on." I pretended to ignore the shocked look on Cindy's face.

"Moschel was a mess." said Tanya. "He still is. He's acting drunk and out of it. We're going to let him sleep it off overnight, then begin questioning him in the morning. Jack Muscone is coming over; he wants to be a part of that."

"By all means." I said. "With what is Moschel being charged?"

"We seem to have plenty to take him down for stealing the organ meant for Amy." said Tanya. "We'll see what we get tomorrow, well, later today, I should say. The sad part of this, is that you two missed all of the fun. And so did Sergeant Rudistan. Now why in the world is he doing guard duty of the parking lot tonight?"

"No idea, you'll have to ask him. I'm sure that whatever he tells you will be correct." I said, my face impassive. "But you didn't need us here, you handled it, and well. Am I right?"

Tanya just stared at me a second, then turned to Cindy and said "Ma'am, please remind me to never, ever, play poker with this man."

"Harrumph, 'no shit Sherlock' on that!" Cindy said. "And you should never bet a hundred dollars against him, either. FBI humiliation to follow."

"I would've bet that he would never, ever, leave his Police cellphone behind." Tanya said meaningfully. "He never forgets it. Ever."

"First time for everything." I said. "So, is the SBI already here to look into the exploding car at University Hospital?"

"Not yet." said Tanya. "Do you want to call in the FBI to stop the SBI from coming in?"

"That would be fun." I said. "But the SBI could not even figure out who stole morphine from the Hospital some months ago. So I have my doubts they'll be able to find anything on this."

"In other words: by all means, Lieutenant," said Cindy, "call the SBI in."

"Not me." said Tanya. "Jack would never speak to me again if I did."

"Folks, let's wrap this up and go home." I said. "We'll burn those bridges, pun not intended, in the morning."

"Where's Teresa?" asked Cindy.

"She's the Vice Lieutenant." Tanya said. "Why would she be here?" I realized what Tanya was doing. I kept my face impassive, but could not help Cindy...

"She made the arrest, didn't she?" Cindy asked.

"How'd you know that?" Tanya asked. "No one's said a word about it, just to keep her out of any trouble over it. It wasn't on Police radio."

Well, Cindy was trapped. But her recovery was about as good as any I'd ever heard:

"I'm psychic. Like my father before me... Lieutenant." Cindy said, her eyes boring into Tanya's. The matter was closed.

To be continued.