AN - Hello! I won't say too much about this one, I just hope, you'll like it. Enjoy.
Once in a Blue Moon
Tuesday, 5 pm, Kips Bay
Jamie slid the squad car to a halt, close to the raging crowd on the sidewalk, outside the small bodega. The siren kept on wailing, but it seemed to have no effect on the dozen people standing in a tight circle around something… or someone. Most of the people were middle-aged and most of them men with their fists raised, promising a beating.
"Wasn't it reported to be robbery?" Eddie asked, confused, when both of them jumped out of their car.
"Robbery with a knife, yeah," Jamie muttered and grabbed his shoulder mike. "12-David to central, requesting backup for crowd control forthwith," he said and could barely hear the acknowledgment from dispatch over the shouts. "Police! Move back! Step away!" Jamie started to yell and pushed through the crowd. Eddie followed his lead and started mirroring his actions, pushing past people and trying to stay upright.
"Hey! Give us some room! Police, move. Move!" Eddie shouted on the top of her lungs when she stumbled out of the barrier and saw the three men before her. Jamie pushed out next to her and took in the scene.
"Thank God, you're here!" an older, eastern-European man exclaimed in his stubby English. He was kneeling on the sidewalk, his hands clamped tightly around the ankles of a young man who had given up struggling against the weight on his back. Another man had restrained the arms of the perp and was kneeling on both sides of the man's back, pinning his arms with all of his weight, like a hold, taught in the academy.
"Move away, let him go," Jamie said and reached for his cuffs around his back.
"He tried to rob my shop with a bread knife!" the man continued. The good Samaritan got to his feet, still holding the perps arms locked, but gave Jamie room to cuff him. Jamie leaned his knee on the top of the man's back, holding him down while slipping the cuffs on his wrists. The stranger straightened up and stepped back and Jamie glanced at the full figure of the man who was a good deal taller that Jamie.
"Step away, people, show's over! Get a move on," Eddie said with her arms out, trying to get the crowd to go home or at least give them some space. Breathing a relieved sigh when the two squad cars pulled up, she could return to Jamie and helped him pull up the cuffed perp.
"I don't know, what I would have done, if Mr. Michaels hadn't been here today," the shop owner praised and looked up at the younger, taller man. Jamie looked the two men over.
"You disarmed him?" he asked, surprised and felt the crowd being broken up behind him. The would-be-robber glowered at the two officers, each with a hold on his arms, and then at the stranger, who had stopped him. The taller man, Mr. Michaels, rubbed the back of his neck and almost blushed at all the attention.
"Ex-army ranger, Corporal Stan Michaels," he explained and introduced himself. Jamie nodded and Eddie almost looked impressed.
"And the weapon?" Jamie asked, referring to the mentioned bread knife, still with a firm hold on the perp. He couldn't have been more than twenty, Jamie decided. He was dressed in a dark blue, big hoodie, which made him look tougher than his face actually was, with blond hair, messy of course but clean.
"In there… it skidded under the chest freezer with the ice cream," Michaels replied with a nod towards the bodega and pointed over his shoulder with a thumb.
"Janko," Jamie said and looked to Eddie, who was already moving.
"Got it," she commented back over her shoulder when she moved into the bodega and dropped to her knees. She grabbed the baton from her belt and flicked it out, used it as an extension of her arm to fish out the knife. She walked back out, with the knife between two fingers and a smirk on her face. "Look at what I found," she said and held it up. "Let's bring him in for larceny," she continued. Another couple of officers stepped in to take statements from the shop owner and the ranger.
"What's your name, kid?" Jamie asked the cuffed man when he walked him to their car.
"Yeah, like I'm telling you that," he laughed and began trashing around. Jamie tightened his hold on his arm, trying to steady them both.
"Larceny is five years, if you're lucky," Eddie said and grabbed out for the other arm. The kid danced away from her but Jamie hauled him back around and kicked at the back of his knees, so he fell to the ground. The kid grunted and screamed.
"Add one more for resisting arrest, smart ass," Jamie huffed with a knee on the kid's back.
"Police brutality!" he yelled at the top of his lungs. "They're killing me!" he continued, unfazed. Jamie sighed and looked around on the people, looking at them, filming with their phones.
"Shut it, already," Eddie said and helped Jamie haul the kid to his feet again. They marched him to their squad car where Eddie placed him under arrest and Jamie padded him down and found nothing. Not even an ID. The kid kept yelling, but wasn't trashing around anymore, at least.
"Quiet down, kid," Jamie said patiently, when they were driving back to the precinct.
"I kind of feel sorry for the junkies he's going to sit with," Eddie said, purposefully loud enough to make the kid silent for a while. Jamie glanced at his partner and smiled, thankful for the silence. Back at the station, they hauled the kid out and led him up the stairs and inside.
"I'll bring the knife to evidence," Eddie said. No weapons were allowed in the booking area, they all had to be logged into the evidence room.
"Sure… we'll wait right here," Jamie said and directed the kid to face the wall in the hallway. He looked after Eddie when she walked around the corner and they were alone in the unusually quit precinct. Jamie had a hand on the kid's shoulder, ready for the renewed energy when the kid exploded, thinking he could deal with one cop alone.
"Police brutality!" the kid began screaming again and lashed out at Jamie with his feet.
"Cut it out!" Jamie hissed and managed to dance around the wildly kicking legs and pin the kid to the wall, a bit more roughly than intended. The kid went limp and slumped to the floor like a sack of potatoes, pulling Jamie down with him in an awkward fall. "Hey," Jamie scrambled to his knees and turned the kid around, feeling a chill running down his spine when he saw the lifeless face with open eyes and mouth. He felt for a pulse in the crook of the neck and looked around for help, when he found none. "Help!" he called and looked at the young kid before leaning in close to listen for breathing. He cursed and started to do compressions just as Eddie came around the corner, running, with Renzulli right beside her. Both of them almost stopped dead in their tracks at the scene and Jamie looked at them with wild eyes.
"Janko, call a bus," Renzulli barked as he knelt down, feeling for a pulse. Eddie reached for her shoulder mike and relayed the command. More officers came around the corner, all of them with a grim expression in their faces.
"No pulse, no breathing, I don't know what happened," Jamie said, surprising himself by sounding less frantic than he felt. The thought of him, actually having killed the kid was disturbing. "He just collapsed," he explained, a little bit out of breath.
"Where's the bus?" Renzulli yelled over his shoulder as Jamie kept up with the steady compressions.
"A minute out, Sarge," Eddie replied and ran to the door to open it.
Tuesday, 5.30 pm, One Police Plaza
Detective Baker walked into the corner office on the fourteenth floor and her superior looked up from his desk. Frank took one look at the detective's face and turned to his guest.
"Mr. Mayor, would you excuse us, please?" Frank said and got to his feet.
"Sure thing, Frank. I have to get back, anyway. Let me know, what you decide," Carter Poole said as he maneuvered his electric chair around and Baker opened the door for him.
"What happened?" Frank inquired, ready for some terrible news, maybe one of his officers had been shot, or ...
"Death in custody, 12th precinct. Victim was five days short of being eighteen years old," Baker said with a serious voice. Frank went silent and sat down in his chair.
"Oh, shit," he mumbled, and blew out a sigh between his teeth. "Has the family been notified?" he asked and looked at Baker again. She shook her head and clasped her hands together in front of her.
"Sir, the officers involved are Officers Reagan and Janko, they were transporting the victim to booking. Apparently Officer Reagan was alone with the victim when he collapsed during a scuffle," Baker reported and turned around when DCPI Garrett Moore crashed through the door, anxious and out of breath.
"You have to see this, Frank," Garrett said and rushed to the TV on the commissioner's left. He grabbed the remote and hit a button, showing a news channel.
"Less than an hour ago, a young man was detained by two NYPD officers…" the news reporter stated dramatically into the camera. "The officers were seen wrestling with the apprehended, who was already cuffed, and they threw him to the ground. Witnesses looked on in horror and one of them captured the shocking scene on tape. Warning; the tape does contain violence…" the reporter said and an image replaced her face on the screen. The trio watched as the cuffed man jerked sideways causing Jamie to stumble and Eddie groped for the arrestee's arm. Jamie had it covered and tackled the guy to the ground, resting his knee on his lower back, waiting for the kid to relax. "Police brutality!.. They're killing me!.." the kid yelled and Jamie looked around, his eyes locking on the camera for less than a second. After a few seconds, the two officers heaved the kid to his feet and walked him to the car. The reporters face popped back up on the screen, now looking even more serious. "According to our sources, a tragic death has occurred in the 12th precinct, just minutes ago. Unconfirmed rumors says the victim was a young man, who had just been arrested…" she said as a clip from outside the 12th precinct rolled over the screen next to a picture of Frank in his dress blues. "The police commissioner has not spoken on the tragedy yet, but it has been confirmed that the commissioner's youngest son, Harvard graduate and Officer Jamie Reagan, was involved in both episodes." The picture of Frank was replaced by one of Jamie and Frank heaved another sigh and rubbed his forehead when Garrett turned the TV off. Special Assistant to the Commissioner, Sidney Gormley, almost broke through the door, eyes wide open, just as breathless as Garrett had been five minutes earlier.
"Boss, have you seen it? They are showing off Jamie as a trophy, trying to get to you, those greedy bloodsucking journalists," Gormley exclaimed, clearly on edge by the news reports.
"Have the officers involved put on modified duty until further notice, and get all the reports on my desk, asap," Frank said, looking from the Lieutenant to his secretary. "And put a rush on the medical examiner, this has priority," Frank grumbled and took his glasses off when Baker retreated to her desk outside the door.
"We have to hold a press conference, Frank," Garrett said, already texting and mailing on his phone.
"I know," Frank commented and grabbed the back of his neck.
"This is a nightmare already, Boss. Have you talked with your son, yet?" Gormley acquired, still looking like a deer caught in the headlights.
"No, I haven't, and I'm not going to either," Frank answered. "I want this investigated completely by the book. And get someone to notify the parents, before they hear about it on the news," Frank said.
"I'll set up a conference at six and I'll see if I can find some shields for the rotten tomatoes and life threatening accusations they'll throw at you," Garrett said and trailed to the door, completely enveloped in his phone, getting the word out.
"But you can't just sit back and do nothing, Commissioner," Gormley continued in rage.
"I know, and I'm not. This is now a full blown investigation, but I'm not going to do something extra because one of the officers involved are my son, end of discussion," Frank said tensely. "Go do your job, Lieutenant," he continued after a break.
AN - What do you think? Spot on or is there anything I can correct. Let me know, how I did, please, so I can do better next time! /K.
