Chapter 6
Burke
Burke was on time for ride along number two. Early actually. He’d been sitting on the bench in front of the Salem Police Department’s main office when Eli walked into the building.
“Well, this is a surprise.” Eli looked like he was trying hard not to smile at his lover.
Burke understood. Gossip was everywhere. The less Eli’s co-workers knew about their relationship, the better. “I didn’t want us having to sit in the front row again. This time we can sit in the back.”
Nodding, Eli waved to the officer manning the desk who buzzed them in. “Head down to the briefing room. I have a couple of things to do. I’ll be there in a minute.
“Okay.” Burke did what he was asked. As he passed the squad room, he could hear a buzz of conversation coming from a group of officers standing together.
They all stopped talking when one of the men spotted him.
Burke understood that too. He might have been Eli’s ride along partner, but he was still a civilian.
One day soon, he’d be in the middle of that group of officers.
After hearing Eli’s story last night about Jensen and knowing he needed to find a place to work with a gay chief of police, Burke knew Salem was where he belonged.
He’d thought about applying to the Boston Police Department or maybe even somewhere as far west as Worcester, but after learning a bit more about Cisco Jackson, he wanted to spend his career here.
When he walked into the briefing room, he nodded at the other officers already gathered.
They had a grim look on their faces. Burke took a seat in the back and waited for Eli.
More officers filtered in as the minutes ticked past, but none of them were Eli.
Finally, at five minutes to ten, Eli walked into the room with Chief Cisco Jackson on his heels.
Eli wore an equally grim look on his face, matching the other officers.
Something must be up. Whatever it was, it didn’t look good.
“Okay, everyone.” Cisco stood behind the podium.
“This is an all hands on deck situation. As most of you know there was a shooting this afternoon at the 99 Restaurant in the area of Bridge Street near the Beverly town line. The suspect is still at large. The witness reports we’ve collected say the shooter is a white man, approximately six feet tall.
He was seen wearing jeans and a Red Sox tee. ”
“He looks like everyone else then,” Burke whispered.
“Share with the class, Mr. Sampson.” Cisco wore a stern look on his face.
Color rose up Burke’s neck. “If he’s dressed in jeans and a Sox shirt, he’s going to look like everyone else.”
“That’s right. In fact, Bravo shift thinks that’s how he was able to get away from the scene.
He blended in with everyone else in the parking lot at the restaurant.
The shooting appears to be random. We have officers at North Shore Medical Center waiting for the opportunity to speak to the victim.
If I get more information on the shooter, we’ll get it out to you ASAP.
I want you all in your vests tonight. No exceptions.
Be safe out there, everyone.” Cisco was silent as officers started filing out of the room. “Dixon, a word.”
Burke had a feeling this chat was coming. He knew Cisco was going to insist he not go on the ride along tonight. It was too dangerous with a shooter at large. Burke knew he probably had a point, but wanted to be out there with Eli even if there were ten shooters at large.
“What’s up, Cisco?” Eli rocked back on his heels.
“Take Burke into the tactical room. If there’s a vest in there that fits him properly, he can go with you. If not, I’m sorry, kid, but you’ll have to ride the bench tonight.” Cisco squeezed Burke’s shoulder.
“You got it.” Eli headed toward the door.
It wasn’t as bad as Burke feared. “Yes, thank you, Chief Jackson.” The hand on his shoulder held fast.
“You know, Burke, it’s your job as Eli’s partner to watch his back and help keep him safe.”
“Yes, sir.” Burke was going to do everything in his limited power to protect Eli from harm.
“That applies on duty, as well as off.” Cisco shot a pointed stare at each of them before turning and walking out of the room.
“I guess that means the cat’s out of the bag.” Burke shook his head.
“Cisco met his future husband on the job.” Eli wore a wistful look.
“Is he a cop too?” Burke wore a curious look.
Eli snorted. “No, Luca was breaking the law at the time. Cisco had been the responding officer on scene.”
“The situation with me and Luca sounds pretty similar.” Well, but for the fact that he was Cisco’s fiancée and not some ride along partner/lover.
“Yeah, just like. Luca was drinking too when Cisco caught him.” Eli started to laugh.
“What’s funny about that?” Burke wore a curious look.
“Ask me that question again someday.” Eli shook his head. “Come on. Let’s go find you a vest.”
Twenty minutes later, wearing a bulletproof vest that fit far better than the one Eli strapped on him last night, Burke was keeping a sharp lookout for the shooter as they patrolled their assigned grid.
“I’m not exactly a student of crime. Unless it counts to know every episode of Forensic Files by heart.” Burke turned to Eli. “Why do you think the shooter did what he did?”
“Could be a lot of reasons. The shooter could be suffering some kind of mental illness. He could have been broken up with or was served divorce papers and the woman he shot reminded him of that ex. He could be an attention seeker, wanting his name and face all over the news so that no one would ever forget his name.”
Burke pondered what Eli said. All of those reasons made sense, as disturbing as they were. Unfortunately, until they had a name to track down, none of those potential triggers did them any good.
“Why are you set on becoming a cop?” Eli asked the question out of the blue.
After the way Eli spilled his guts last night about his ruined wedding and his best friend, Burke knew it was his turn to share.
“My parents fought all the time. Usually, they’d get drunk and yell at each other until one or the other passed out.
One Friday night when I was ten years old, their fighting went beyond just yelling at each other.
I was hiding in my room when I heard a thump coming from the kitchen.
My mother stopped yelling stopped after that.
Instead, I could hear my father repeating the same words over and over, ‘Oh, fuck! She’s dead!
She’s fucking dead!’ He must have said it twenty times before I tiptoed out of my room to see what he meant. ”
“Jesus, Burke. Was your mother okay?”
“I didn’t know at the time. She was lying face down on the kitchen floor with blood pooling around her face.
I ran for the phone and dialed 911. My father had stopped shouting when he heard me on the phone with the cops.
The officer who came to the house, John Rodriguez, was so good to me.
Gave me a fake badge and a pep talk I’ve never forgotten. ”
“What did he say?” Eli sounded genuinely curious.
“He told me the standard stuff about staying in school and respecting my parents. But just as they were rolling the gurney with my mother strapped to it out of the house and frog-marching my father out in cuffs behind her, he knelt down in front of me and told me that I had the power to rise above my raising. That the life my parents had chosen for themselves didn’t have to be my own. ”
“Damn, that’s a pretty heady discussion for a ten-year-old.”
Burke nodded. I never forgot those words.
It wasn’t too long after my mother got out of the hospital that the fights started up again.
Dad had thought he’d killed her. She ended up with twenty-five stitches on the side of her head.
” Burke drew a line down the side of his face with his finger.
“But nothing had changed. I decided that I would be the change. I’d break the cycle.
Until the night you stopped me for drunk driving. ”
“What are you saying?”
“I knew booze was the root of my parents’ issues. Maybe they still would have fought if they weren’t drunk, but it was my guess the fights wouldn’t have been as frequent or as violent. I decided I wasn’t ever going to touch the stuff.”
“But you did.” Eli’s voice was gentle.
“A beer here or there over the years, mostly to fit in with the other guys. Being gay was bad enough, I didn’t want to look like an even bigger pussy by not drinking with them too.” Burke shook his head.
“Peer pressure is a bitch.” Eli sounded as if he spoke from experience.
“I thought it would end when I graduated from high school, but it didn’t. It carried on to college too. I didn’t want to drink the other night, but I did and look what happened to me. I nearly got arrested and almost lost my chance at being a police officer.”
“Here’s some bad news for you, Burke.” Eli was grinning. “Peer pressure never ends. Hell, it was someone’s birthday last week and I didn’t want a piece of the cake. The birthday boy bullied me into have a piece.”
Burke snorted. “Let me guess, the birthday boy was the chief?”
“Yeah. Cisco wanted me to loosen up a bit.” Eli shrugged. “I guess that’s what we both did. You had a couple beers and drove drunk, while I had piece of cake and decided that a handsome young man deserved a second chance.”
“Come on, Eli. I’m not that much younger than you are. You act like you’re an old man who’s going to scream at kids to get off his lawn and turn down their music. You can’t be much more than five years or so older than me.”
Eli raised an eyebrow. “I’m thirty and you’re twenty-one.”
“You don’t think that’s a problem, do you?” Burke hoped to God it wasn’t. He wasn’t ready to let Eli go. Not yet. Maybe not ever.
Eli opened his mouth to respond when the radio crackled to life.
“All units respond to The Witch Museum. Shots fired. Multiple casualties.” Kendall announced.
Hitting the lights and sirens, Eli stepped on the gas.
Jesus Christ. Not another shooting. Burke whispered a silent prayer that no one was seriously hurt.