We relied on electricity power for almost everything from the lights to the internet withs some cases the hybrid car needs the power up too. All was fine as we expected it well into our life until the day someone shut down the source to downtown. It all started at the start of dusk when everyone was o the way home, or for a drink, or maybe even a dash to the automated machines for cash. The power went off on the grid ad the city was fried an hour later. Traffic was piled up from corners to corners and shops were forced to close. It was not bad as the train was still running, but the opportunist came into the darkened area soon enough. Then the calls came in when we were already stretched to the limits with all the uniformed out there directing the traffic.
It was Frank who was manning the front desk when a man walked in with blood over his clothes. He told Frank'; "I killed someone, but I can't recalled where or why. I am totally blanked out in my mind."
Frank hollered out to me as I was walking from my desk.
"Hey, sunshine. You got a case now." I was hoping to skipped for home when I heard they got certain streets going. I was thinking of blaring my siren and clearing the traffic there, but now Frank have dumped me an assumed killer who does not remember.
"Frank, I got two kids who needs me to feed them milk?" I threw in my excuse but Frank was crude on his reply.
"No, Jim. You got two teats that does not feed you any more milk. So take up the case and worked on it." Frank smiled at me as he referred me to my sex life with Jenny for the last few weeks. That was the price of men's gossip at times; they haunt you later.
Frank was made Acting Head since the Captain went on medical for check up for two days. I should had taken up the offer but I passed it on to Frank yesterday. Now he was crowing his ego off at me as he was pissed to be given that post. It meant longer hours and more forms to sign.
"Sargeant, I got this gun with me...." The bloodied man had drawn a gun in his hand in the Precinct. That's a no no for all; as we are touchy on guns drawn by others besides ourselves. The few of us all reached for our guns including Frank as a drawn instinct while I spoke to the man.
"Sir, please lower the gun. I am sure you do not want to be shot by it." I approached the man for his gun. It was then the f******g lights went off leaving all his in the semi darkness. I crouched down immediately on reflex and had my gun out. I was sure Frank was doing the same. And so was everyone who ever wore a badge. The lights came on when the generators kicked back on power. It happened often and just needed a crank up its pipes and it would worked again.
I looked up to see the man still holding onto the gun. He was waving it all around and then Officer Brian walked in at the front door.
"What the...." Brian was a good officer, but rash action counts for his mouth and reflexes. He had his gun drawn like a gunslinger and shot the bloodied man in the chest. It was all over in seconds, and our would be self confessed killer had died there. Brian aka the Gunfighter was all cool about it.
"You guys okay?" Brian sounded out as he held his gun on the dead man. No one replied to him but we were all relieved we ain't the one who shot the man. Now Brian have a longer weekend than us with the reports to filled out.
The power came back at an hour later and we had the Coroner to cleared the body.
"F*****d! Can't you guys don't add anymore numbers to my list on this evening?" Dan the Coroner was upset as he had three more this evening from misc shooting to nobody cares why shooting that caused them to be piled up at Dan'. I briefed Dan on the victim and then went off to checked on the radio for any fatal shooting reported.
"Jim, we got enough shootings and stabbing to last us a week, and you expect me to find a stiff for you. Screwed you, Detective." Those were my drinking pals and now calling on my rank as I added on to their tasks. It was close to midnight when I went back. Jenny was awake there and had my supper on the table; defrosted from the fridge.
"I thought you liked them that way, thawed for your desire." She was mad at me for not being back earlier. Jenny feared the dark alone and more so when they was a blackout but our home was not affected. Who ever listens to reasoning when they are scorned up like her. I took my supper in silence and crawled into bed next to her.
The next morning I was at the Morgue and trusted Dan was there too. He came in earlier to start and had opened up my suspect.
"Died of a gun shot to the heart; pierced it and gave a new ventilation hole at the back." Dan told me as he removed the innards parts taken out to the deep frost compartment. "There were some knife wounds, and bruises which accounted for the blood on him, but he could had fought harder. Blood on his clothes may not all be his; probably his victim too."
"I am still trying to established the DNA but his name was in his wallet. Untouched by the fighting." Dan pulled out the ID from the wallet he had recovered. "Barry Mans, aged ...fifty nine and ....."
"Enforcer for the bookies. I knew him." I should had recognised him as I booked him before, but that was like five years ago. I heard Barry retired after someone broke his left knee. "Dan, checked his left knee please?"
Dan did and confirmed my identification. But why was Barry back in the city; but he was no squeak with the gun. He used it before but the one I saw yesterday was uncomfortable with it. He was not like the old Barry, who used to cracked other jaw on late payments. I left back for the Precinct and pulled out the file on Barry.
Soon I was at Di Angelo suffocating on his coffee and hot dogs, but someone got to keep him floating with the business. He had piled on extra sauces on my doggie so I let it out onto him.
"Jim, the thing was going to go bad with the fridge not working last night, so I decided to capped it on for the morning serve. Considered it on the house." I looked at the runneth of sauces that was drooling off my my doggie. Its not a turn on but a bad vision of Mona Lisa displaying her ....never mind, we would stick to the original painting.
"I can see you are reading Barry' folder." It was Frank who sat himself next to me. He placed his order and asked for extra sauce. I would had cautioned him but after what he did to me, I am applying the Miranda Rights to myself.
"Barry was a good man; loner but devoted." Frank continued on as if I had asked him for the update. "He worked hard, played hard and we worked him over more than twice. I was his nemesis then; the one who would pushed his face to the flush when he was at the Precinct. Those were the days."
I ignored the Sargeant as I was still upset with him but I can't helped hearing his views.
"The bosses liked him until he reached the age where his hands trembled. Then they kicked him off on a retirement package, but Barry was not your porch sitter. He was the enforcer, but times caught up with him. Soon he was diagnosed with Alzheimer. Damned! That almost caused him to take his own life."
That was new. It was not on the file.
"But Barry fought on to get back, until the day the bosses told him to forget it all. He did as far as I knew; he suffered memory loss. They sent him to the Medical High for a long stay."
"Frank, how did you know so much of Barry?" I had to asked.
"You keep this to yourself. I broke Barry' knee; not intentionally but by mistake. We met on the street and he started thrashing me, so I retaliated back. I got mad and stepped on the knee. But we held a truce since then." Frank looked at his doggies and pushed it away. Told you that if there was another version of Mona Lisa, you would not come back to see her anymore.
"You could have told me, that it was Barry last night." I told Frank.
"I did not recognised then. He had aged since we last met four years ago. Or was it five?" Frank shook his head. "I could be having Alzheimer too."
I left Frank there and walked back to the Precinct. I bumped into Micheal "Gorilla" Dudley; the successor to Barry the profession, outside the Precinct. Micheal was a small framed man but with his square shoulders and longer arms, he was an ape in any fight. His favorite was the head slammed onto your jaw followed by his foot stamping your face.
"Jimmy, I heard you offed my mentor, Barry." Micheal was trying to impressed me with his threat but I was passed taking threats from any one standing below my chin. I grabbed Micheal by the lapel of his cheap suit, and slammed him to the wall.
"Squeak wrong on me. Pal. I did not shoot your mentor. Someone else did. So get the facts right or be f*****g right to accuse me." I glared into the enforcer's face. "I did not shoot him."
"Not what I heard." Micheal mumbled back. "I am just ..."
"Don't threaten me, Gorilla." I disliked to be targeted. "I carry an Elephant rifle big to give you more than one back hole. So minced it back."
I left Micheal standing there smoothing his suit while I stepped back in to the Precinct. I bumped into Dusty, the other detective in the Precinct. He used to work on the bookies setup before. Dusty told me. Barry was a loner, but he was seen patronizing a flower shop before. Dusty passed me the address.
It was one of those half shops shared with a news agent. It was named Patricia Place. I could not believed my eyes; there was Mathew 'Mad Digger' Landon with his two goons there. Geez, it was a day of meeting so many of the bookies and their bosses, I was wondering was it my lucky day. I walked in and saw Mathew consoling the lady behind the counter. His goons saw me and tapped the boss. Mathew turned to looked at me.
"Detective, backed off. We don't need your condolences. Save it for your own." Mathew told me off. "Barry was my good man. Ever be in my heart."
The lady behind the counter cried out and rushed to the rear of the shop. I approached the man but the goons held me out of reach.
"Mathew, I did not shoot Barry. It was...." I could not say the name. It would mean squealing and that could led to death for Brian. "Barry drew on me, and some one shot him."
"Who, Jimmy? You can cleared your name." Mathew replied to me as he reached to picked up a stalk of rose. "No names means you are lying."
"Don't worry, we won't get you yet. But one day, when you least expected it, we would." Mathew left the shop with his goons. I stood there and waited for the lady to come back but she did not. So I left the place and got a call from Frank.
"Meet me at the Sub Relay Station on Bannon Hill." I disliked that as that was an hour drive out out of the city to the hill, where there was this station which managed the power grid to some part of the city. It was out my jurisdiction but if Frank called, it had to be a good reason.
Soon I was there, with some patrol cars and cleaning crew. There was another Coroner there pulling out a body in the bag. I met Frank who took me to the Controller Office. I met the Grid Controller who asked me to be seated. I was treated to a cam recording.
It showed Barry walking in and approaching the Technician who was checking the panels. The Technician was Terrence Stamp; an elderly person and freelance enforcer for Mathew. Barry accused the other of harassing his girl, Pat.
"Barry, are you cracked? I have not approached Pat in years..... Since you told me to backed off." Terrence was seen in the clip backing against the consoles behind him. "For old time sakes, please put away the gun."
Barry did have a gun pointed at Terrence; who then shook his head.
"Terry, I told you backed off. She's my girl and you still coming on to her. I won't tolerate that." Barry picked up the wrench from the nearby tool box. "You are like those pesky borrowers. You needed to be taught a lesson."
Barry threw the wrench at Terence. It hit the other man in the chest, who keeled over in pain. Barry then picked up the screwdriver and slammed it onto the back of Terrence. He pulled and thrusted it a few times. All those times, he kept on shouting; 'You do not f*****d with me."
Barry then shot the man who was on the flooring before he shot the consoles too. The time on the clip was 1800hrs; half an hour after the start of the blackout.
"Detective, at that time, Terrence; our Technician was alone here while the rest of the team was checking on the grid lines in the field. We are under staffed and we make to do with what we could. He was discovered only later when we traced the last of the few connections that was not working. We only fully restored power at 0800hrs this morning to all of the affected areas. Your shooter hampered our works."
"How come the body was only attended to now?" I asked of the Controller on seeing the body bag that was taken just now.
"That's not Terrence. During our works, we had another incident; one other Technician got electrocuted. He died at 0600hrs. Terrence was discovered at 2100hrs by the returning team. Its unfortunate we have two incidents in one stretch of 12 hours."
Two days later, I sat down to write the full report on the death of Barry Mans. Apparently, due to his inflicted disease, he thought he was younger and went over to visit his girl, Patricia but she did not want to see him. She told him off that she was seeing Terence instead. I got that from Patricia yesterday when she had sorted out her emotions. Somehow during then, Barry' mind triggered off the time when he warned Terence to back off from his love interest. He decided to show Terence he meant what he said. His ego them was then younger Barry with the knack of knocking out people. He killed Terence whom he found out was at the Relay Station. After the murder, Barry' mind triggered back and he was looking at himself with blood. He then out of concerned came to report the crime. The rest was already known.
"Do you think they would buy the story?" I looked up at Frank who stood there.
"I don't care. We all have lapses in our memory, Maybe one day they would forget too." I smiled at Frank before I filed the report. The last two days. I have checked my car for any tampering as Mathew may still hold a grudge against me. I noticed Brian avoiding me and that was good as I was spared of his silly jokes.
I marked my calendar for the day that we had the black out. It could be also a day to remember Barry Man's. It was not a day I want to forget.
Black Monday it was.
No comments:
Post a Comment