Chapter 13 – Age 29
“Detective Wyble! It’s great to have you back.” Jule reached his hand out to Marcie.
“Stop with that detective bullshit and put your hand down.” She stood up, stepped around her desk, and circled her arms around Jule in a tight hug. “You saved my life, carrying me out of there and getting me to the hospital. We’re bonded now.”
“It was the least I could do after you saved both of our lives in there.” He gave her a squeeze and then clasped her biceps, leaned back, and looked her over. “Seriously, though, how are you?”
“I’m all better,” she said loudly. “I’m completely healed!” She lowered her voice and bent her head forward. “They need to let me back in the field. Desk duty is making me batty. Literally.”
Jule laughed. “You can probably use the rest.”
“Sure.” She rolled her eyes. “You’re good though?”
“I wasn’t the one who was shot.”
“No, you’re the civilian who dodged bullets, witnessed two people dying, and had to carry my bleeding ass out of there.
I’m assuming your office doesn’t require a psych eval before they put you back to work because I know you’ve been in trial over the last few months, but there’s no shame in getting help. ”
“I’ll keep that in mind.” He appreciated her concern, but she was wrong about what was still bothering him about that night, and he couldn’t talk to anyone about Tor. Not even Tor. He’d tried.
“Very convincing.” She shook her head. “Anyway, thanks for coming over here. I figured you’d want an update on the case, and I want to show you something.”
His client was no longer alive, so he wasn’t entitled to any information, but after everything that happened, he was invested and curious. “Sure.” He pulled out the chair in front of her desk.
“Actually, Jeffries is out and she said we could use her office. It’s more private.”
He followed her to the commander’s office, and they sat at a round table.
“Have you heard about Ariel?” Marcie asked.
“No.” He shook his head.
“He’s been arrested.”
“Detective Ariel was arrested? Why?”
“He set us up.”
Jule’s breath caught.
He must have looked as shocked as he felt, because Marcie nodded knowingly. “Took me off guard too. I mean, he was always a dick but so are lots of people so I didn’t think much of it.”
“What happened?”
“I don’t have every detail, the case is still being put together and it’s not being handled by this precinct, obviously, but Commander Jeffries told me she already had her eye on Ariel. Remember she took him off the DeLeroy case?”
Jule nodded.
“That’s why. Jeffries had an idea that something was wrong, not sure what tipped her off.
While she was looking into it, she reassigned the case to me.
Turned out Ariel was on the take. I wasn’t told exactly what he had planned or how they figured it out, but from what I understand, when they pulled him, he couldn’t make it happen anymore, so he had to pivot.
Eliminating Tommy Breuger was already in the works and Ariel thought if he took me down with him, he’d be assigned as lead again. You were collateral damage.”
“Holy fuck.”
“I know.” She gave him a minute to process. “There’s good news though.”
“Someone beat the shit out of Ariel in lockup?” he said hopefully.
She laughed. “I doubt he’s being put anywhere near other inmates.”
“Too bad. Maybe I can go pay him a visit.”
“Umm. You sounded a little scary there, Julian.”
“Did I?” He rolled his head from left to right, his joints crackling. “What’s the good news?”
“The warehouse has cameras,” she said.
His heart stopped. Cameras meant the truth of what happened would come out. The truth about Tor.
“They weren’t on when we were there, obviously,” she continued. “They had that planned so they turned them off.”
He let out a deep breath.
“But Franks Junior didn’t know about the cameras, so he didn’t turn them off the night of the party and Franks Senior isn’t great at technology, so he deleted the original footage but not the cloud backup.”
“You have the rape on tape?” Jule spoke his realization.
“Not sure how we got that tape, but yeah, we have all of it.” She cringed. “I’ve watched it and it’s as horrible as you’d imagine. I know we aren’t supposed to speak ill of the dead, but Tommy Breuger played a much bigger part than he told us.”
“Wish I could say I’m surprised. I always suspected that he was as big a piece of shit as his friends.”
“Yeah. The prosecutor’s confident that all four of those scumbags are going to take a plea deal, because if a jury sees that recording, they’ll each get the maximum.”
“Fuck ’em. That’s exactly what should happen. Why’re they offering them a deal?”
“A trial means DeLeroy has to testify,” Marcie reminded him, voice softer. “It means people watching the worst moments of her life. Pleading them out is better for her. It’s what she wants.”
“I understand.” He swallowed down the thickness in his throat. “That girl’s been through too much already.”
“She has.” They sat in silence for a few seconds.
“I’m assuming you guys are looking at Martin Franks Sr. for the ambush?”
“I’m officially walled off from that case, but yeah, that’s what I’ve heard.”
“Good.” Jule took a deep breath. “Thanks for filling me in. Please thank Commander Jeffries for me too.”
“You’re welcome.”
Jule started to get up.
“One more thing.”
He sat back down.
“I don’t remember parts of that night. I remember walking in.
I remember Tommy getting hit. I remember the two of us diving for cover.
I think I remember getting shot, but after that, it’s a complete blank.
I don’t have any recollection of firing at the shooter or hitting him or leaving the building.
The next thing I remember is waking up in the hospital. ”
Jule tried to look sympathetic as he nodded.
“I know how this is going to sound, but I was only partly kidding when I said desk duty is making me crazy. Staying cooped up in here is doing a number on my head and I keep thinking about that night, trying to remember everything and not being able to, and then today I came across something.”
“What’s that?”
She rubbed her lips together. “Narcotics is understaffed, as usual, and I have nothing but time so I’ve been helping them out, listening to recordings from bugs they haven’t had time to get to and today I heard something.
” She shrugged. “It’s probably nothing, but it was captured less than an hour before we got to the warehouse. ”
“The warehouse was bugged?”
“No.” She shook her head. “I shouldn’t be telling you this and you absolutely cannot tell anyone, okay?”
Jule nodded.
“No, seriously, Julian,” she whispered. “You have to promise. Like if a case goes to your office related to this place, you can’t tell whoever’s assigned. I could lose my job.”
“Marcie.” He reached out and put his hand on her shoulder. “I won’t tell anyone in my office. You have my word.”
She nodded. “I wouldn’t do this, but I can’t talk to people here because they’ll think I have PTSD or something and keep me on desk duty for longer.
You were the only other person there and you remember everything so…
” She sucked in a deep breath and pulled out her phone.
“I shouldn’t even have this on my personal phone.
It was taken at a place called Jimmy’s, which is a car wash that’s a front for a plug slash fence slash…
who knows. The point is, Narcotics has it bugged.
Like I said, this was recorded not too long before we got to the warehouse. Listen and tell me what you think.”
“Sure.” Brow furrowed, he leaned toward the phone and she hit play.
There was a moment of indistinct background noise and then a deep voice spoke in a hoarse rush.
“I heard some people talking and I think your boy’s in trouble.
Remember Roy? Where he worked. You need to hurry.
If I leave now, they’ll be suspicious, but if you can’t make it, I’ll go anyway. Hang up if you’re good.”
The recording stopped and Jule realized he had been holding his breath. He forced himself to let it out at a steady pace and keep his expression calm.
“Well?” Marcie asked.
“Is that all of it?” His mouth was dry.
“Yeah.” She sounded disappointed.
“I couldn’t hear the person on the other end.”
“I’ve listened to this a hundred times by now and I’m pretty sure they didn’t speak at all. There wasn’t time for them to get a word in with as fast as he was talking and did you notice he said to hang up if the listener was good? It’s like he knew they couldn’t respond.”
“Uh-huh,” Jule said. “Weird. Who’s Roy?”
“No idea.” She shook her head. “I looked into the employment records for the warehouse and there’s nobody named Roy.”
“The caller didn’t say much,” Jule pointed out, not mentioning that, to him, that recording said everything because it explained the only thing he actually cared about from that night: why Tor was there.
“I know.” She sighed.
“What about the conversation he says he overheard? Did you get that?”
She shook her head. “It could have happened outside or out of range from the surveillance equipment.”
“Got it.” It took all of Jule’s concentration to keep his demeanor neutral. “Have you identified the caller?”
“No.” She sighed. “I listened to everything from the days before and after and this is the only time I heard his voice. Or at least it’s the only time I think I heard it. He was whispering so it’s a little hard to tell.”
“Right.” Jule hoped his relief wasn’t evident. “Tell me again why you think this is related to what happened to us. Is it just the timing?”
Looking defeated, she nodded. “I sound like one of those weird conspiracy theorists, don’t I?”
He winced and shrugged.
“Sorry for wasting your time with this. I know the date doesn’t mean anything.
It’s not like the world stopped when we were…
” She swallowed hard. “Anyway, like I said, I’m going a little stir crazy, and I’m frustrated about my memory, and maybe I’m a little paranoid after what Ariel did, so I probably want to see something when there’s nothing there. ”