"What are we doing here?", Chris asked as Gail pulled to a stop around the block from the apartment she led Frankie to the night before.
"1505, leaving the vehicle. There's a citizen flagging us down," Gail radioed to dispatch. Without answering Chris, she got out and expected him to follow suit. He did, of course.
"What's happening? There's nobody flagging us, Gail," Chris said as he caught up to her on the sidewalk.
"There isn't? I could have sworn that lady down there was." She pointed up the street.
Chris looked at a woman getting into a cab. "She's hailing a cab."
"Oh, well, in any case we might as well take a look around."
"Okay. For what."
"Wow, where's your sense of adventure?"
Chris stopped in front of her. "Gail, listen. I'll go through any door with you, not knowing what's on the other side. But if you know something, you need to tell me."
Gail sighed. "Okay, truth. Remember the drug dealing roommates and the guy Swarek shot?"
"Yeah, the guy that stabbed your rookie."
"That's the one. It turns out it all ties back to a guy that lives in this building."
"Wait, I thought Drug Squad took this. Why aren't we passing this along to them."
"It's complicated."
"Try me."
Gail looked around and thought for a moment. "Fine, but if you let it slip that I told you-"
"I won't," Chris interrupted whatever threat she was about to level. He had no doubts she meant whatever it would have been.
"Blackstone. It all ties back to him."
"Detective Blackstone. That's who lives here?"
"Unofficially."
"Well, at least I get why you are keeping this from the Drug Squad. So, what are we looking for?"
"Anything that may give cause to enter his apartment."
"Whoa, Whoa. Is this really something you want to step in. Entering a superior's place on some weak excuse for cause?"
"Chris! His name isn't on this place. He has a house on the other side of the city. Nobody can prove we know it's his."
"If he's dirty, I see why he'd have another place. But how do you know all of this?"
"That's a longer story. One I will maybe tell you about later. Depending on how much tequila I have. Right now, either follow me or go wait at the car. Because two cops arguing on a busy downtown street is going to draw attention. And we need to avid that, right now."
"Gail, I'm with you."
"Then let's go have a look." They walked up the steps to the door of the apartment building. After a short wait, somebody eft and Chris caught the door. The resident looked back after not hearing the door close but saw the two officers and paid it no thought. Chris held the door for Gail and followed her in. Gail led them to a door on the back wall of the ground floor. They listened outside the door but heard no signs of life from inside. They could detect a smell, however. They've both experienced enough dead bodies before.
"Well, you've got your cause," Chris remarked and the both drew their guns. He pounded on the door and identified himself as police purely as a formality. When, as expected nobody answered he stepped back and prepare to kick in the door. Gail, gun raised was ready to spring through. Before he could kick, though, a door behind them opened. Instinctively, they both turned, guns up and aimed at the noise. The neighbor was a young man, 20's and he threw his hands up.
"Don't shoot. Please, don't shoot."
Gail and Chris both lowered their weapons but didn't holster them. "Relax sir," Chis said, "we won't shoot you. We were just checking on the resident of this apartment."
The man caught his breath and composed himself. "Yeah, I heard you out here. I was just going to tell you that I haven't seen him in a while. And I was going to comment on the smell."
"You smell that too, huh?" Gail asked.
"Yeah, we all have. Can't imagine what it is."
"Have you seen any suspicious people or vehicles around here the last few days or so?" Chris asked.
"Here's the thing. Most of the people that went in there were what I'd call suspicious. And they were always like different people. But…" He paused thinking of something. "You know, I don't think I even know his name. The guy that lives there. Anyway, he'd let them in and they never caused a problem so I didn't read much into it."
"Can you describe the man who lives here?", Gail asked. "It's just that we want to know who supposed to be on the other side. Make sure we're not in the wrong place."
"Yeah, yeah, no problem. He was shorter, dark hair. Older than us too. Late 30s, 40s. Like that. Oh, and he like to wear those hats. I can't remember what they're called, but they are those old-timey gold hats. You know what I'm talking about?"
Gail and Chris shared a look. "We do," Gail responded. "Thank you, sir, you've been a great help. Can you just step back inside for now?"
"Yeah, sure thing."
"And, sorry about the scare." Chris said.
Raising their guns again they got back in position and Chris kicked in the door. Gail went in and immediately located the body in the middle of the living room floor. The two cleared the rest of the apartment, finding nobody and nothing of significance. Returning to the body they stayed a distance back, not wanting to contaminate anything further. The body was certainly Jacob Blackstone.
Gail grabbed her radio ad gave their location. "We have a dead body. P.O. Looks like he's been here a while."
"How do we report this?", Chris asked.
"What do you mean?"
Finding ourselves outside that door, by chance and their just happens to be a dead cop on the other side."
"What? Don't you remember? That citizen that flagged us down reported a strange smell and we investigated."
Chris gauged her for a minute, "Right, it just slipped me for a moment."
"Well, I'll leave that out of my report, just so we're on the same page," Gail said with a look conveying her hidden meaning.
"We are," Chris said without hesitation.
"Good, besides, I highly doubt the focus of this will be how we found him."
Frankie walked under the police tape and into the apartment. She gave Gail and Chris a one-eyebrow-raised look and Gail nodded. Frankie nodded back and examined the body. Forensics and other officers were also gathered in the living space. "Peck and Diaz? You two were first here?"
"Uh, yeah," Chris said. "We discovered the body."
"How did you know he was one of us?"
"We've had dealings before. I recognized him," Gail said.
"I see. Well join the others collect witness statements. Give your own if you haven't and I'll read the rest in your reports."
She went over to the lead tech on scene who acknowledged her. "Detective Anderson, I'm going to guess what you're going to ask me and just skip to the answers. C.O.D. is a close-range gunshot to the back of the head, looks like a .22. Maybe silenced, judging from the fact nobody heard anything and that this whole thing looks professional. I'd say he's been dead for at least 60 hours or so. I'll get the exacts after the tests at the lab."
Frankie thanked him then asked if they recovered anything on the body.
"Nothing, picked clean."
"Figures. Well, I better notify next of kin." She pulled out her phone and made a call to get the next of kin details. With that information, she arranged with the service chaplain to meet her at Blackstone's mother's house.
She lived in a WWII ear house in a decent part of town. Upper middle-class neighborhood. Old, but taken care of. Frankie got there first and had to wait a few minutes for the chaplain to pull up. When he did, he parked behind her. He had already been briefed and asked no questions other than if she was ready. Frankie nodded and led him up the porch and knocked on the door.
When Mrs. Blackstone came to the door, she immediately knew something was wrong as soon as she saw the chaplain. As he delivered the message she collapsed in to him and sobbed. Frankie couldn't help but feel bad. Even if she felt Blackstone was dirty and wanted to take him down, no parent should ever have to get this news. When the chaplain was finished Frankie identified herself. "Mrs. Blackstone. I'm very sorry for your loss. I'm Detective Anderson and I promise you I won't stop, the whole service, won't stop until we get to the bottom of this. I never really worked with your son but his record showed a great cop. Your son was a hero, ma'am."
The chaplain spoke up. "We'll give you some time to grieve in peace."
They both turned to walk down the porch expecting the door to close but instead a meek voice spoke up. "Wait." They both turned to find Mrs. Blackstone holding up one finger and then disappearing back in the house. They waited right outside the door and she returned a minute later clutching something in her hand. She held it out to Frankie who accepted it. "Jacob gave this to me a couple days ago. He said if anything happened to him to make sure this got delivered."
Frankie looked down to her hand. It was a flash-drive. 'For Swarek' was scrawled across the back.
"He said Swarek was another cop. A good one. The first person he'd want to handle what's on that."
Frankie cupped Mrs. Blackstone's hands in hers. "Ma'am, you have my word. I'll personally deliver this to Detective Swarek right now and make sure he does just that."