Green
A Jason Hamilton Mystery
By Stephen Brandt
Synopsis –
It's been six month since the fall out of Purple Haze, and there's one thing that is bugging Lt. Jason Hamilton. Why was Kansas Senator Samuel Hamilton murdered before the democratic national convention, and why does Marissa Coleman want back in his life.
Chapter 1 – What?
"Dad you going to teach the class today?" Scott said as we were walking into the squad room. Since Major Watts, and Lt. Webb were gone now, the Commissioner had taken drastic steps in changing the department and the look of the squad room. Gone were the gray walls, now we were sitting in a white, and pastel squad room. It was to boost morale, and get a higher clearance rate. As if the walls did anything to help that.
Other things had changed as well. I finally took the promotion to fill Joe's old job, and gave Mickey his proper police send off, even though he shot himself almost fifteen years ago. Stephen was off playing soccer in Europe, and Scott had joined the police. Scott was worried I'd object to him joining up, but I figured, it's his life, what can I do. Oh, and he was engaged to Genevieve. Emily was promoted to Sergeant against her wishes. Dad had finally announced his retirement, he was going to clean his case docket and then retire to the farm in Derby, Kansas.
"Probably, I'd love to get someone else to do it today," I said. "But since I'm the Loo now, I kinda have to."
"Detective Quinn, where are you at, with the Dave's murder?" I asked walking into the conference room.
"Not far from where I was when you asked the last time," Quinn said. After Joe's murder, I expedited her transfer into the squad. As much as I needed extra hands here, I needed people I was comfortable with. The one thing I didn't expect with her that was she was a little lazy. But after all, not all of us were as OCD as me.
"Sorry, I'm still getting used to having to ask that," I said.
"Em, what's on your plate for today?" I asked.
"Well, gotta be in court for the Negro League Hall of Fame Murder, then more administrative meetings with Major Watts Jr." Emily said. Yeah, none of knew that the guy replacing Milton Watts was going to be his son from his other marriage. Dave Watts Jr was everything his father wasn't. And he was from Detroit too.
"I don't miss those meetings, thank God, I passed those onto you," I said. We did have some red tape to clear when Emily took the promotion. The whole thing with her being married to the LT of the squad really didn't help. I thought of offering her to be the Sgt, of the Sex Crimes Unit. For some reason she only wanted to stay in the Major Case Squad.
I still had to deal with Joe's murder red tape too. The fact that he was murdered, meant that he did get a proper send off, but I had to clear everything all the way up the chain and back down. Kinda annoying, I see why Joe had put his papers in anyway.
"Now that you are the Loo, are you going to stop looking at your past?" Emily said joking with me.
"There's not much more to look at to be honest," I said. "I guess I could look into my Grandfather's murder, but anyone who was involved with that case is dead, so it's a moo point."
"Moo point?" Emily said. "You really have to stop watching Friends."
"We know that's not going to happen." I said smirking at Emily. You know, that looking into Grandpa Sam's murder probably was a good thing.
"Oh no, he's thinking again," Scott said. "This aint good, usually when he gets like this, we're looking into our family."
"Nah, it's a long shot at best," I said. Just then I got a call.
"Yeah this Lt. Hamilton," I said. "There's a woman asking for me downstairs, well, bring her up."
"Wait, what? She says she's my ex-wife?" I said. "No Jena is dead."
"Oh that's right, I have another one," I said. "Emily, be prepared, Marissa is here."
"What, she's here?" Scott said.
"Damit, Jay, I thought we got over that." Emily said.
"Babe, you know I've not thought or seen her in almost twenty years, for as much as I'm concerned, she's non-existent."
"Apparently, she's so non-existent, that she's here," Emily said walking away. Then Marissa sauntered into the room, and boy did she change. Now she was a redhead, had boobies, and looked like a million bucks.
"You bitch, leave my family alone," Emily said when she saw her. "It's not enough that Jena had to come back, but you crazy tart had too." Then Emily decked her.
"Sgt. Vann, away now, go home," I said angrily.
"No, no, it's fine, I disserved that one," Marissa said. "Hi Emily, nice to meet you finally."
"You know about me?" Emily said.
"Oh come on, you think I didn't obsess about you out in Malibu?" I said.
"Yeah, I should have expected that," Emily said.
"Well, I need your help Jason," Marissa said. "I need you to solve something for me."
"Does it involve Kansas City?" I said.
"Nope, Malibu." Marissa said.
"I'm not traveling anymore, I'm the Loo here, and that's good." I said.
"I need you to clear my name." She said.
"I'm sure there's good cops still out there, thought I wouldn't know, it's been almost a decade since I've been out there," I said.
"Your old squad is pretty much gone, I think Justin is still around," She said.
"Marrisa, Justin came after I left, and how do you know of him?" I said. "You left four years before I left."
"Who said I ever left LA?" Marissa said.
"Dad this is getting odd, what is she talking about?" Scott said.
"Marissa left us, the squad, and well you, to find herself, apparently I was a bad husband, didn't need to know that at the time, I just had a wife blow herself up." I said.
"Yeah, about that, Emily said Jena came back?" Marissa said.
"Long story, but Scott's Mom wasn't dead," I said, well not his mom but Marissa didn't need to know that Emily was actually the boys mom. "So what do you need?" Against my best wishes I asked that. At least I could do is ask and then pass it on to Malibu.
"You hear of the murder of Republican senator Brad Boyles?" Marissa said.
"No, I don't pay attention to the news, even you'd remember that." I said.
"Its true, Dad doesn't." Scott said. Not like he had any room to talk either, the boys only watched comedies or whatever flavor of the year subject was for these "teen dramas" ah the life of the television generation.
"Ok, I'll approach it at a different level here, what if I could tell you, that I'm partially responsible for it, and there's nothing tying me to it," Marissa said. "They have my brother in prison, and I may have put him in there.."
"Then why are you in Kansas, telling a cop, and wanting to go down for this?" I asked.
"Because, yes I said I want you to get me off of this, but I can give you dirt on some other crimes world wide, that would help the security of the country." Marissa said.
"Go to the FBI," I said. "There's a good office in LA."
"You don't understand, I want your help." Marissa said.
"You don't understand, I'm not helping you." I said, getting up to leave.
"Alright fine, what if I can tell you, that it can solve Governor Hamilton's murder," Marissa said.
"It was solved years ago, the man hung for it." I said.
"What if the wrong guy died?" She said.
"Ok, what you mean?" I said. Sending Emily home probably wasn't the smartest thing at this point.
"What if I could get you the guy that actually did it, he's near death, and knows about Boyles murder, and Governor Hamilton's murder?" Marissa said. Always the coy one, she could mess with a guy's mind.
"Ok, let's say I take this, you have to get out of my life, once again, when I have the information checked out." I said.
"No problem, Kansas was never one of my favorite states." Marissa said.
"Ok, spill the beans, I know Matt's history isn't stellar." I said.
"Yeah well, neither is mine, but Brad was my ex-husband, a couple after you," She said. "I figured I needed to set myself right, get a stable life for once."
"It's good to see you tried to settle down." I said.
"On one of Matt's day's home, he caught Brad sleeping with one of the campaign staffers." She said.
"Ah politics, where the dirty men go to play." I said.
"Anyway, obviously you don't bring a staffer home after one indiscretion, so I confronted Brad, and he of course said it was true, but we can't say anything because of the campaign." She said.
"I didn't take to well to that, I told him to leave, and Matt followed him," Marissa went onto say. "I couldn't find Matt for a couple days, and when I did, he said he killed Brad."