Miami Vice – Shadow Play

Chapter One

Darkness before Light

Sonny yelped as the speed boat slammed him against the pier. His vision swam for a moment while the last ounce of air seemed to be pushed out of him. Then the pressure over his chest disappeared and he was free falling, only to end up in the drink a second later. He was dragged under and involuntarily swallowed a mouthful of water as his lungs struggled to compensate for the loss of oxygen the minute before. Unable to tell which was up and down he tried to clear the haze of his mind. Strong arms grabbed him from behind and began to haul him, in what he felt was the wrong direction. He flailed his arms in panic as he thought he was pushed further down but his energy was rapidly fading.

'This was not how life was supposed to end,' he thought bitterly. 'Pinned down in a gunfight between some crooks, in the middle of the night, in a shady port.'

Rico pushed with all his might, willing for his partner to be all right. He breathed a sigh of relief as they broke the surface and then he began to swim toward the pier with Sonny in a firm but gentle grip. "Come on, buddy," he whispered. "Hang in there, Sonny."

Without unnecessary words Castillo reached down to help Tubbs bring his partner up on dry land. Together they lay him down on the dock as Gina came running toward them.

"Pina and his partners got away," she said between shallow breaths as she cast a worried glance down at Crockett. "Some of the boys are chasing them down the alley."

"Forget about that, they're not calling any shots. Call an ambulance," Castillo ordered.

"No," Sonny croaked faintly as Rico knelt down beside him. "No ambulance."

"Look, you took a nasty fall and you're bleeding," his partner reasoned as he gently reached up to place two fingers under his chin to take the pulse. "You might have broken something."

"Come on, Sonny," Gina said softly as she knelt next to him, worry evident in her beautiful face.

"No ambulance, no hospital," Sonny persisted as he wiped the blood away from the corner of his mouth with a trembling hand. "Just take me home."

Castillo, Tubbs and Calabrese shared a look of concern before the lieutenant nodded at him and then focused at Rico. "Take him home and stay with him tonight. I don't want him to be on his own."

"You're all heart, lieutenant," Sonny drawled as he extended his arm upwards for someone to haul him up.

Surprisingly it was Castillo who reached out for him and Crockett gritted his teeth as he was on his feet in one swift motion. He would have fallen if his partner hadn't steadied him from behind.

"Fine," Rico said. It was clear he didn't like the decision as he stabbed a finger at Crockett's chest. "But you aren't driving. Where's the key to the Ferrari?"

Sonny glanced at him with an enigmatic yet innocent expression. "Go fish," he said sarcastically.

"Great," Rico complained in annoyance.

OOOOOO

Lieutenant Castillo glanced up from the papers he'd been skimming as the team began to fill into the conference room for the early morning briefing.

Zito and Switek plucked down in the seats opposite each other, next to Castillo who was seated at the end of the table. Both carried a folder of papers relevant to the ongoing investigation and both seemed weary from last night's events.

Castillo didn't blame them one bit, he still had a hard time not to see Sonny clinging to the side of the speedboat and then slam into the pier when he closed his eyes for some shut eye. It had been a close call yesterday and he hated close calls. Martin cursed himself and sighed. He'd started to get too close to the men and women under his command. After Vietnam he'd promised himself to keep a certain distance in order to keep his sanity intact. He'd seen too many friends die for no reason.

"Lieutenant," Gina Calabrese acknowledged softly as she and Trudy came into the room.

Martin nodded and took a moment to study them. Contrary to Stan and Larry they looked fresh and rested, ready for a new day. However, looks could be deceiving. He knew that deep down they were still shocked by what had happened to Sonny. The lieutenant pursed his lips into a thin line and his eyes hardened, he was just about to start briefing the four of them, telling them of the progress made during the small hours, when Tubbs sauntered in.

The detective ran a tired hand through his short black hair, slumped down in a chair next to Trudy and gazed at the vacant chair opposite him as if he expected Sonny to already have been there.

"Rico," Castillo called calmly with an undertone of concern in his steady voice. "How are you doing?"

He snorted and then chuckled ruefully. "I can't seem to get the image of my partner smashing into the pier from my mind," he let on. "Other than that, and too little sleep, I'm just fine."

"How is he?" Gina asked in concern.

Rico met her worried gaze for a moment and shrugged. "He's going to read me the riot for taking his car this morning and for not awaking him up and ask him to come along," he finished with an amused grin.

Stan gave a low whistle. "You've brought it upon yourself man," he cautioned.

Castillo's lips curled slightly upwards in a cautious wry smirk. It was the only outward sign he would allow the rest of them to see.

Rico sighed and reached up to scratch the back of his head. "I made him take a few aspirin last night, fed Elvis and made myself comfortable not too far away. I heard him hitch on a breath a few times so I guess those vivid bruises that are spreading over his side are quite painful. But you heard him last night – no hospital," he said.

A worried glance was shared among the colleagues around the table and for a moment no one spoke.

"Well," the lieutenant began seriously. "As you all know, last night Torres' associates got away with a large stash of cocaine, Torres himself was killed in the raid."

"At least there is one more idiot off the street," Switek mused.

"The problem is-," Castillo added, ignoring the remark. "-that Torres wasn't the top dog in the operation. With him gone, we might never get a chance at finding out who the boss is."

The five team members raised their head in confusion.

"Come again?" Rico asked. "It was always him during my visits. He was the one who told Pina what to do and where to stash the merchandize, where to set up the deals-"

"-It was a ploy," Castillo interrupted as he straightened in his chair and carefully clasped his hands together in front of him. He turned toward the senior detective and focused his attention solely on him, his dark eyes narrowing as he studied him. Had not Rico been used to Castillo's personality and methods he would have been uncomfortable by the scrutiny, instead he crossed his arms over his chest and shrugged.

"What do you mean?" he questioned.

"The directions came from elsewhere," Castillo replied calmly. "I only realized this last night as I got a call from an agent at the DEA. It seems they are eager to cooperate with us."

"DEA, huh?" Stan mumbled skeptically as he leaned forward in his chair unconsciously mimicking Castillo's stance. "Are they sitting on information that we need again? Like the last time when Zito was almost killed infiltrating the cartel?"

"Yeah, when it turned out the place was crawling with agents and that we were risking their high-stake operation by our investigation," Larry muttered sarcastically. "That Agent –what's his name? – Marks. He would not have hesitated to kill me had Sonny not intervened."

"Who were the party crashers?" Trudy asked casually, steering the conversation back on track. "They took a shot at Barossa too and he's not happy at the moment. He's probably mobilizing his men as we speak in preparation for the revenge."

"Is he still imprisoned?" Stan asked in surprise. "I thought he'd been bailed out already. Must be a record for him."

Trudy smirked. "He's upset at having lost his merchandise," she replied.

Larry made a face. "He shouldn't be. This way we can't prosecute him," he reasoned.

Rico sighed and reached up to rub his tired eyes. "This isn't fair. We've been working for months to infiltrate his organization and bust him and now he walks," he complained. "And this because some idiot decides to jump in and grab the shipment right under our noses."

"I really hope that wasn't the DEA," Gina whispered suddenly.

Martin shook his head. "It wasn't. They can't take over or interfere with our operation without informing us first," he explained.

"You mean, like they didn't the last time?" Zito spoke up laconically.

"Agent Marks was detained and brought into custody, the agency wanted nothing to do with him and blamed the mess entirely on him," Castillo admonished. "The investigation is still pending. It is not my place, or yours, to question a federal agency or accuse it of misconduct."

An awkward silence settled over the room for a few minutes before Gina finally spoke up. "You're right, lieutenant, it's not our place," she concurred.

Castillo stapled his fingers on the thick folder before him and turned his focus on Tubbs. "You'll stay close to Barossa. Your 'Cooper' persona would want revenge and will seek to find out who's responsible for the operation going awry. You now have a common goal," he deduced.

Rico nodded. "And in the meantime Barossa's goons will help us do our work by finding out who our mysterious shooters were," said.

"Lieutenant," Gina called. "What happened to Pina? Did we catch him?"

Martin Castillo shook his head regrettably. "He got into a car, shot the pursuing officer and sped down the lane. Two patrol cars gave chase and followed him half across the town, his limo then crashed into a semitrailer at an intersection," he explained.

"So he's dead?" Stan asked in surprise.

Castillo shook his head. "No, the rest of them are, those who travelled in the car. There is no sign of the guy other than the trail of blood leading away from the accident."

"We'll search the hospitals for him and circulate his description along the patrolling officers," Trudy volunteered. "I doubt we'll find him though, he's probably gone home to lick his wounds."

"He's a wannabe," Larry protested. "Trying to nestle into something big. He's been licking Barossa's boots for quite some time now."

"Even a small fish can be dangerous," Castillo replied enigmatically as he leaned back in the chair.

"Can they be a 'friend of a friend'?" Gina asked curiously. "The party-crashers, I mean."

Castillo cocked an eyebrow at her.

"I mean, you say Torres' associates got away with the stash. Do we know for sure Barossa didn't set Torres up and sent Pina to take the money?" She asked carefully.

"If that's the case," Rico mused. "Do we know for a fact that Pina didn't work alone on this one?"

"Why would Pina shoot at Barossa?" Zito countered. "That would like sentencing himself to death and not to mention what it would do to his career."

Stan sighed and ran a tired hand through his unruly hair. "This mess makes my head ache," he complained. "We've been on this bunch for two months. It seemed pretty straightforward for once. We we're going to bring Barossa down. Sonny was playing accomplice and associate to Barossa as Mr. Burnett. He was going to bring the merchandize in a portfolio to Rico who entered the stage as Mr. Cooper together with Torres. He was to take the merchandize from Sonny and hand over the money."

"I think that rattled Pina's cage a little, having to take a step back to allow Mr. Burnett some space, he looked kind of jealous the last time I saw him," Trudy added.

"I bet it was that sucker who threw Sonny off the side of the boat," Rico said darkly.

"Gina and Trudy. See if you can find Mr. Pina and then get over the tapes again and see if there is something we've missed that can shed some light as to whom the –" he trailed off and threw a glare around the table and then as if in lack for better words – party-crashers are," Castillo ordered. "Stan and Larry. See if you can hone in on the signal of the tracker Sonny placed in the portfolio with the money."

"It might have fallen in the drink in the commotion," Switek replied. "If it did, I'm not sure our electrical bug still works."

"Give it a shot. If we're lucky it was the portfolio the unknowns grabbed, if not, it was the one Pina managed to grab. Either way, it'll lead us in the right direction," the lieutenant said and then nodded at Rico. "The DA will soon release Barossa and then it's time for Cooper to pay a visit."

OOOOOO

To be continued