THE CLOSER SEASON 6 EPISODE 2
DRUG DANGER
Police officers taping off the end of a street, neighbors coming out to see what happened, officers questioning them too. The Los Angles Police Department investigating, so far it is not looking good, as Deputy Chief Brenda Leigh Johnson pulls up to the crime scene, and Sergeant Gabriel comes to greet her and fill her in on what happened.
"Morning Sergeant, what do we have here?" she asked.
"Last night, a worried mother called 911 because her sixteen year old son didn't come home, and early this morning, a paper boy found him buried in the bushes at the corner." The sergeant answered.
"Okay, and where does the boy live?" Brenda asked as she walked next to the body.
"He lives about 4 blocks away, down Hollywood Circle." Lieutenant Flynn answered.
"The boy was found carrying five grams of coke, and two packs of cigarettes." Sergeant Gabriel said.
"Where on earth would a teenage boy get five grams of coke?" she asked herself.
"We have the K9 team looking for more if he dropped some because it looks like he was holding on to something when we found him, but nothing in his hand." Lieutenant Tao added.
"Alright, I'm going to want to talk to the mother and father of this young boy, Sergeant Gabriel, will you and Lieutenant Flynn join me, Detective Sanchez, stay down here with the K9 crew, see if they find anything, Lieutenant Tao, see if you can figure out where this boy was last night and where he might have gotten all this coke, and Lt. Provenza, can you do the honors of doing the morgue please, thank you."
"Sure Chief, but I think you might want to see this before you go," Lt. Provenza said. Brenda walked over to the body. "Look at these dark circles around the boy's eyes. That shows sign of black eyes coming, so that would mean he was in a fight maybe, and he has massive cuts on the arms, maybe a struggle of some sort."
"It is possible, when you are done at the morgue see if you can track down some of the friends of this boy."
"Yes, ma'am." Lieutenant said as he walked away.
"Kevin was a good kid, he never got into fights or anything like that."
Brenda, Gabriel, Flynn were at the house of the young boy found dead, and now they are talking to the mother.
"Can you tell me a bit about him, please, or maybe can we see his room." Brenda suggested.
"Of course, his room is the second door upstairs on the left, I am going to call Luke, he's my husband." The mother answered.
She walked away and left them in the living room. They went upstairs and found his room. Inside were a bed, desk, laptop, and shelf of books.
"Well so far I see nothing linking him to drugs and pot." Sergeant Gabriel stated.
"Let's see what we can find in the closet, and under the bed," Brenda said as she walked over to a board with pictures on it. There was a picture that said, Lizzy and Kevin for life3 with a picture of a girl and Kevin together. "Lt. Flynn, see if you can find out anything about this girl from the mom."
"You got it." He answered, and then left the room.
"We need to find something linking him to coke, or pot, or something." Brenda said as she looked under the bed. Gabriel looked in the closet.
"Hey, chief, he may not have been doing pot but," Gabriel said as he took out a box. "He must have been selling." He said as he opened the box and right there were crisp one hundred bills.
"Well, I don't know a single job in LA that would pay a teenager that kind of money." Brenda said. "Anything else in that closet?"
"No, just clothes." Gabriel answered.
"Then we need to find out where he gets this coke and sells it, and lets grab the laptop, and does the boy have a car?"
Gabriel flipped through his pad.
"No, he borrows mom's, do you want to tow that to the garage?" he asked.
"No, not yet. Let's see what we can get from the autopsy report and the laptop. Maybe we can also hunt down this girl." Brenda said, and then walked out of the room.
"Okay, so what do we know? Lt. Tao?"
Brenda and the squad were back in the squad room finding out anything they could.
"Well, I found out that last night the boy had a date with a girl named Maria at the mall's food court, and they ate at a McDonalds. I also found out that he left the mall at around 9:30 with Maria, and the video tapes of security shows them leaving the parking lot at 10:00." Tao answered.
"I thought he was dating someone named Lizzy?" Brenda asked.
"The mom said that they had broken up two weeks ago." Lt. Flynn answered.
"So they left the mall at 9:30, but not the lot until 10:00, Lt, were they on foot or in a car?"
"They were in the car, and the girlfriend was driving a black Honda, and the plate numbers are 1K97RT." He answered.
"So he could have made a deal in the parking garage and bought or sold the coke there." Sanchez said.
"I can think of something else they were doing." Lt. Provenza said laughing with Flynn.
"Lets not share that though please," Brenda said. "Lt. Provenza, do we have a cause of death?"
"Yes, it looks like he was knocked out which would explain the black eyes, and then suffocated." He answered.
"So he is a mama's boy at home, but then outside school he is a drug dealer bitch." Flynn pointed out.
"Lt. Tao, keep going through the laptop, Detective Sanchez see of you can get phone records for the main line and the boy's phone, Lt. Flynn see if you can track down the Maria girl please, Lt. Provenza and Sergeant Gabriel, if you will come with me please." Brenda said as she picked up her jacket and purse and headed to the door.
"Where are we going chief?" Gabriel asked.
"We are going to the boy's school."
"Let's see, Kevin Burrell, yes here we are." The teacher said.
"This is his locker, you are sure?" Brenda asked the teacher.
"Yes, may I ask what this is about?" the teacher asked.
"We aren't allowed to say yet ma'am until we get the locker open." Sergeant Gabriel said.
The teacher opened the locker, and got a big shock.
"It is empty."
"Chief, I tracked down Maria, but not Lizzy. Maria is in interrogation room number 1." Lt. Flynn said.
"Okay, thank you. Detective Sanchez, with me please."
Brenda and Sanchez walked down to the interrogation room, walked in a sat down.
"Why the hell am I here?" Maria asked.
"We are here to talk to you about your boyfriend." Brenda answered.
"Why, what happened to Zack?" she asked.
"Zack? No we aren't here about Zack, we are here I guess about your other boyfriend."
"Oh no, Joey!" Maria said as her eyes started to water.
"How many boyfriends do you have?" Sanchez asked.
"Three, Bobby, Joey, and Zack." She answered.
"Well we are here to talk about Kevin." Brenda said.
"You mean my science partner? Oh, you heard partner and thought partner in a different way right? Well, no we aren't involved." Maria answered.
"Well mall video cameras disagree," Brenda said as she slid a picture towards Maria. "Want to tell me something about this because I don't think science partners held each other close like that."
"Okay, so we went on one date and that was it. It was a cheap date too. I mean he only had a ten-dollar bill and I paid for most of the night."
"And did you drive the car you were in?" Sanchez asked.
"Yes, yes I did. I drove to the mall, and then dropped him off at his house." She answered.
"What is his house number?"
"He said he lived on 123 Block Blvd. So I drove him there and he got out, and I drove away. Hey, if he is here, can you tell him he owes me twenty bucks." Maria said.
"Well, I am sorry to tell you this, but that is not his address, and he was found dead today right near the house you dropped him off at." Brenda stated.
"Oh my god!" she screamed.
"Settle down, now the tape's times show that you went into the garage and then didn't leave for a half an hour later. What were you doing? Selling drugs maybe, because he was found with drugs." Brenda said angrily.
"No, we weren't selling drugs, we were umm… well you know, I mean have you ever went out to eat, and then go home? No." she answered.
"I'm married and you just said it was a cheap date!" Brenda said.
"Well money wise. The rest was great, but it would never happen again."
"Okay, we are done here, Detective, can you baby-sit her for a few minutes please, thank you."
Brenda walked out of the room and back into the squad room.
"That girl has problems!" Brenda said worried.
"I'll say, chief, I was going through the laptop, and I found a website that our victim visits a lot, why, because he made it under a fake name," Lt. Tao stated. Brenda walked over. "It is a drug selling site, coke, pot, and all other kinds of drugs. The site has over 20,000 customers per week. This boy also has problems. Now, how would he ship the drugs off, and get the money?"
"I think we need to talk to the whole family of this boy. Sergeant Gabriel, does the boy have any brothers or sisters because they weren't home when we were over there."
"Yes, an 11 year old brother Mike, 8 year old sister Selena, and a 20 year old sister Macy." He answered.
"Alright then, Lt. Tao, keep going through the laptop please, Lt. Provenza, see if you can find a list of all his customers, Lt. Flynn, and Sergeant Gabriel, track down the whole family, I want everyone in here by 5 tonight, thank you."
Brenda walked into Chief Pope's office.
"Ah, Brenda, I have tracked down that Lizzy girl so I put her in an interrogation room. She is carrying."
"Lizzy? She is pregnant?" Brenda said. "Is Kevin the father?"
"Yes, so lets get going." Pope said.
"I'll have Provenza interview her with me." Brenda stated.
"Okay, just we need to get going before she lawyers up." He said.
Brenda raced down to the room and found Lizzy, and Provenza sitting in there, and in the other room was the rest of the team and Buzz.
"Hi, I am Deputy Chief, Brenda Johnson, and you are Lizzy right?"
"Yes." Lizzy answered.
"Okay, now I understand you are pregnant, is Kevin the father?" Brenda asked.
"Yes, the Lt. here told me what happened to him, is he really dead?" Lizzy asked.
"Yes, I'm sorry, but I know this will be hard, but why did you guys split up?" Brenda asked.
"I was mad at him, he was mad at me, it all happened so fast, I mean, have you ever found out you were pregnant at the wrong time in your life, or tell your daddy and he got really mad?" Lizzy asked.
"Umm, we aren't talking about me right now. When was the last time you saw Kevin?" Brenda asked.
"The last time I saw him is when we broke up."
"Okay, thank you, thank you so much, and if you would wait here for a moment. ".
Brenda and Provenza left her sitting there.
"Sergeant Gabriel, Lt. Flynn, find the family of Kevin, all of them, Detective Sanchez, find the parents of Lizzy please, Lt. Tao, go through Lizzy's phone records, home and main line, and Lt. Provenza, we still need a list of the people who have bought coke from Kevin, thank you." She said and then walked into her office and shut the door behind her.
Brenda sat in her office thinking of how she was going to find the killer, and then Provenza came in.
"Hey chief, I found one name that stands out from everyone else." He said.
Brenda came out of her office and walked into the squad room.
"Chief, I found something on Lizzy's home phone records." Tao said.
"Hey, wait your turn!" Provenza snapped. "Lizzy's father, Erik Hunt bought 5 grams of coke from Kevin the same night he was murdered."
"He was buying coke from his daughter's boyfriend. Nothing strange about that. Who is bringing him in?"
"Detective Sanchez and Sergeant Gabriel went to get him with a warrant," Tao answered. "Now, I went through the home line, and the house called Kevin's cell 10 times per day ever since Lizzy and Kevin broke up."
"Now I really want to talk to the family of Lizzy and Kevin, and I know the perfect way to make them crack." She said. Then she walked away.
"You want to put them all in the same room?" Pope said confused.
"Yes, well just the parents because I have a hunch, that they all planned and killed Kevin. His parents found out that he is a drug himself, knocked someone up, and were embarrassed to be his parents, so kill him."
"Well, you better be right about this." Pope said.
She walked fast down the hall, and entered the interrogation room.
"Hi, I am Brenda Johnson of the LAPD. I just have some questions." She said with a smile.
"Like what?" a woman asked.
"Well, if you knew that your daughter got knocked up by their son and then the son turns up dead. That kind of question."
"So we aren't being arrested for anything?" the mother of Kevin asked.
"No, now, let me get your names straight, okay, Mary, and David are Kevin's parents and Luke, and Annie are Lizzy's parents."
"Yes." Luke said.
"Now, Luke do you and your wife want to tell me where you were the night Kevin was murdered?" she asked.
"Okay, umm we were home watching TV." He answered.
"Really, are you sure about that, nobody came knocking at your door?" Brenda asked. "Because Kevin's science partner said that she dropped him off at your house? Are you sure Kevin didn't come over to talk Lizzy?"
"Okay, yes he did, but we didn't let him in, and Lizzy wasn't even home. She was at her friend's house." Annie answered.
"So what did he want?"
"He wanted to talk to Lizzy, but we said no. Then he left."
"But you left too, didn't you, Luke." Brenda said.
"No, what, how could you say that, I went to bed!" he yelled.
"No, I don't think you did, I think you followed him, told him to say away from Lizzy, and if he didn't, you would kill him." Brenda said.
"No, I…." Luke started to say when Brenda cut him off.
"I bet if we get a warrant for your house, we will find a bag of coke hidden somewhere, and believe me we will get the K9 crew to look up and down your house, and I mean everywhere."
"Luke, you didn't, did you?" Annie asked.
"When Kevin said he wouldn't stay away, you punched him in the eye, the left first, then when he fought back, you hit him again, and made so many marks on your hand." Then when you saw that you knocked him out, you took your jacket, and cut off the air that goes to his nose and mouth!"
"NO, that is not what happened. I didn't mean to punch him, but I didn't kill him!" Luke yelled.
Brenda smiled
"Mary, Annie, and David, you can leave now." Brenda said as she opened the door. Before any of them stood, Luke bolted out of the door. In the other room, Gabriel and Flynn ran after him. Brenda followed behind, but when they walked in the squad room, Luke had a gun in his hands pointed right at Tao.
"Nobody move, or I fire, and I don't tell you what happened." He said.
"Okay, nobody is moving," Brenda said. "Just what happened?"
"I'm not saying!" He said as he turned and pointed his gun at Brenda.
"That kid got my daughter pregnant! And he thought we would be happy! They are freakin kids! They can't raise a child," he said as he started crying. "I did my family a favor killing him, he was a drug himself."
"Did you take the coke from him?" Flynn asked.
"Shut up!" Luke yelled as he moved closer to Brenda.
"Okay, it is okay Luke, I know. You did what you thought was right, to protect your daughter and child, a jury will see that. Just lower your gun, and we can talk about this." She said.
"No, I don't want to talk about it! I want you to understand! You don't get it! She is sixteen!"
"Luke, lower your weapon." Flynn said with his gun pointed right at him.
"Never! You get your hands up now!" he yelled at Brenda.
Brenda put her hands up.
"Luke, last time, lower your weapon or your brains come out of your skull." Flynn ordered.
"My daughter almost made it through life being a good kid, and Kevin destroyed it! And now you too!"
Before he could fire his weapon at Brenda, another gunshot was fired. A bullet went right through Luke's head. Everyone looked at Flynn.
"Don't look at me. I didn't fire." He said.
Everyone looked behind Luke, standing there was Commander Taylor with his gun out.
"It is over." He said as he walked away.