Chapter 10
When Mac and Don got to The Vine, Mac wondered why they even called it that. It certainly did not look like anything like a vine could even grow around it anywhere. It seemed to be in the darkest part of Brooklyn, and since it was dark outside, it was really dark there. However, there were lights on the building that gave a little hope piercing through the dungeon feeling.
Mac could hear music thundering before they got to the building. "How is he going to hear us, or us him, in there?" he asked just to be a nuisance.
"It's not that bad," Don said just as he opened the door and almost cringed at the loudness of the music, but he tried to keep a straight face as Mac raised his eyebrows.
"I'm sure my ears are going to be ringing after this."
"Come on."
Don thought Mac was just trying to make it seem worse, or he just wanted to make light of a dire situation. They had to find that flash drive so that they could get the target off Mac's back.
They walked into the bar and it was dark inside, although there were some small lamps around giving a little light in the gloom, and there was a loud band on a stage beating and blaring out a rock tune. Mac thought they certainly had the loud part of being a band down pat.
Mac had a t-shirt and jeans on, and Don did too. They looked like they could be a couple of guys just going to a bar. Don looked at Mac. "Don't look at anybody," he said.
Mac scowled at that. "Why?" he asked.
"They'll know you're a cop."
"They might know you're one."
They went over to the game room in the bar, and Don saw Russell Bennett. Mac did not know Bennett, but the man had red hair and a slight beard, and he had green eyes, a drawn face that looked like he did not eat much, and a slim frame too.
Bennett was nervous as they approached him, but no one seemed to be paying them any attention. "Come out here," he whispered.
Mac and Don followed him out of the room to the back hallway. "So what have you got to tell us?" Don asked.
"I thought you were coming alone," Bennett replied.
"This is my boss."
"That Mac Taylor? I hear plenty about him."
Mac scowled. "And just what do you hear?" he asked.
"I've heard people say that you had that flash drive, and I've heard people say how much they'd like to…well, that's not important." Bennett looked at Don. "You got any money?"
"I didn't come to pay you for information," Don said.
"You can't spare a twenty?"
Mac frowned. He reached in his pocket and took out a twenty dollar bill. "Tell us what you know," he said.
"The person who has that flash drive is Robert Dunbrook."
Mac scowled harder then. "Dunbrook? You expect us to believe that?"
"Why don't you look through his papers? He has several you know."
Mac just stared at the man a moment but then he gave him the twenty. "Thanks."
Bennett went down the alley, and Mac and Don looked at each other. "You believe him?" Don asked.
Mac considered that a moment. "If Dunbrook is behind this, he just bailed this city out so he could control it," he said with one of his angry looks.
"You thought that all along, didn't you?" Don asked.
Mac looked at him, and Don could see that look in his eyes that let him know that he thought it. If there was one thing Mac could not stand, it was corruption. He had fought against it plenty of times, but it existed. It existed up to the top. Of course, he did not believe the commissioner was corrupt, but he knew how many strings a man like Robert Dunbrook could pull.
"Let's go," Mac said.
They went back out to Don's car, and then his phone rang. "Flack," he answered.
"Don," Stella said. "Is Mac with you?"
"Yeah."
"I've been trying to call him."
"We haven't heard the phone ring."
Mac looked at his phone. "Battery's low," he said.
"His phone is about dead," Don told Stella.
"Okay. Did you find out what your snitch had to say?"
"Yeah. I'll let Mac tell you that."
"Okay."
Don ended that call and headed back to the precinct. "So, what are you going to do first?" he asked.
Mac thought about that a moment. He was not sure what to do. He knew Chief Sinclair would not want to hear anything against Robert Dunbrook after he had bailed the city out, especially anything that came from a known criminal. "I don't know," he said. "I expected him to say anyone but Robert Dunbrook."
"You think the chief is going to have your badge this time if you tell him that?"
Mac smiled sarcastically. "If the commissioner or the mayor don't get it first."
Don shook his head. "So we have to get hard evidence."
Mac nodded. "Bennett said to look at Dunbrook's publications," he said thoughtfully. "Why don't we just do that?"
"All of them?"
"Gotta start somewhere."
Don dropped Mac off at his apartment and then headed home himself. Mac went into his apartment and stood in the living room a moment. He felt better now that he had been doing something all day but he was tired, and his hand ached. He thought he would just take some Tylenol. It would help, and it was not a narcotic.
Mac went into his room and took some Tylenol and got undressed and got into bed. He grimaced as his hand seemed to hurt worse now that he was lying down. He sighed as he relaxed on the bed. He hoped he would not have any trouble sleeping tonight…
Mac woke up and was startled to see someone standing next to his bed. He realized it was Claire. No, it could not be Claire. She looked as though her hair was blowing in the wind. "Claire?" he said.
Claire just smiled…
Mac sat straight up in the bed. He felt like he was panicking and he was sweating. He realized he had a nightmare. He lay back down and blew out a nervous breath. Oh, how his arm ached! He did not want to have nightmares tonight. That was why he never wanted to come home and sleep. He always had nightmares. He always hoped that one day they would end but that day had not come yet.
Mac drifted back to sleep but he would not have a peaceful night's sleep…
The next morning, Mac got up at six, and he did not feel rested, and his arm seemed to ache even worse now. He got a shower and then stood in his closet. He did not want to wear a suit because he figured he was going to stir up trouble today, but he figured if he looked dressed up, maybe people would not think so negatively about him. He would take some extra clothes though in case he got so disgusted that he did not care what they thought.
Mac walked into the lab and there was no one there yet. He had gotten himself some breakfast so he could avoid Stella's criticism today. Although she meant well, he did not like it. He went to his office and turned the lights on and his computer. Then he turned the lights on in the rest of the lab.
Just as Mac sat down, Don came from the elevator with an arm load of magazines and newspapers. "I got one of all of them," he said as he came into Mac's office.
"Just put them down here," Mac said referring to his desk.
Don put the stack on Mac's desk and they slid over almost off the edge. "Those things are heavy," Don said.
"We're going to study them all and find out if Dunbrook knows something the rest of us don't know," Mac replied.
"Me?"
Mac looked at him. "No, not you. The less you know about this, the better. Just go on back to your business, and I'll let you know what to do."
"I'll be waiting."
Don left, and Mac grabbed a magazine to look at the articles. Then he thought maybe he should look at the ones that had a gossip column. He put all the newspapers and magazines into a basket and carried them to the conference room. He would just sort them out before he tried to go through the whole stack.
Stella came into the lab, and noticed that Mac was not in his office. She had thought he would be there today. She went to her office and noticed that the light was on in the conference room so she went to see who was in there. "Mac, what are you doing?" she asked.
"I'm checking out the news," Mac said.
"What are you looking for? Something about that flash drive?"
"Yes, and the only one who can help me is Sheldon because I'm not going to involve anyone else with what's on that flash drive."
Stella nodded. "Okay, Mac."
Stella left the conference room, and Mac began sorting the papers. He only wanted to see the publications that had gossip in them because that was where all the dirt would be. Then again, some of it might be in the others too if it was important enough and if there was enough evidence to back it up as truth.
When he was done sorting the papers, Mac sat down to looked through them. He had his list of names from the flash drive as well so that he could compare them to anything he found. There was so much information on that flash drive, it could keep Dunbrook in juicy stories for no telling how long.
Mac looked through several publications, and when Sheldon came in, he had him go online and see if he could find anything in the online publications. They searched for the rest of the morning and found seven articles that matched what was on the flash drive.
"That's enough to point a finger at Dunbrook," Mac said. "There's no way that is coincidence."
"I agree," Sheldon replied. "But how do you go after a guy like Dunbrook, especially after he bailed the city out."
Mac considered that. "It was all a fluke. He thinks he's untouchable. If he was associated with Ann Steele, she must have fixed some problems for him too."
"But what kind of problems?"
"If he has someone like her on it, it has to be something serious."
"You're speculating, Mac. You don't have any proof."
Mac looked at him. "Whose side are you on?" he asked.
"I'm just saying, we only have these stories," Sheldon said. "I don't think anyone is going to listen to us with just this."
"I don't either, but it's a start. It has to create some doubt."
Sheldon nodded. "It creates a lot of doubt for me, but you know how it is."
"Yeah. You know someone did something but you can't prove it." Mac thought a moment. "If he paid Kevin Cross for the flash drive, he must have killed him because he asked for more money. Or he had someone else kill him. And now everyone thinks I did it."
"He's probably not worried at all. He has you for a fall guy."
"And if I start accusing him, it's going to make me look even worse."
Mac grimaced as his hand seemed to hurt worse with that thought. "How's your arm?" Sheldon asked.
"It'll be alright," Mac said. "I have some pain sometimes."
"You're not taking anything for it at all?"
"I don't want to. I'm sure you know why."
Mac left Sheldon's office and went to his own. He had to figure out what to do about Dunbrook. He supposed he could go to his office and ruffle his feathers and get into more trouble. He thought it would be worth it just to let Dunbrook know that he knew he was involved in this situation. He thought maybe he would wait until that evening when everything was settled down more.
That evening, Mac left the lab and took some copies of the papers he had that proved to him that Dunbrook was in possession of that flash drive. He had a hard time driving, but he drove himself so that the others would not know where he was. He did not want them involved in this if he got into more trouble.
Mac got out of his truck and started toward the building and then he heard someone screaming. He looked around and then looked up just as someone was falling down to the pavement, landing on a grate in front of the building. Mac looked up to see that the window was broken out in Dunbrook's office, which had a picture of his face on the window that showed up at night when the lights were on inside. Mac could also see Dunbrook looking down. He looked at the man lying on the grate, but he knew the man had to be dead after falling twenty stories.
Mac turned toward the building and took out his phone. He called and reported the incident. "I'm pretty sure he's dead," he said as he was talking to Don Flack. "He fell out the window up there at Dunbrook's office."
"Mac, what are you doing there?" Don asked.
"I was going in to talk to Dunbrook about something."
Mac turned back around toward the body…and it was gone. He walked over there closer. "The body's gone!" he said into the phone. He looked around him but he did not see anyone.
"Gone?" Don asked.
Mac stood there with his mouth open. "Yes, gone! There's no way he got up and walked away."
Don wondered what was going on and he was on his way there. Mac looked up toward Dunbrook's office again, but he was not in the window now. He wanted to go up there, but he would have to stay at that crime scene until Don arrived.
Soon, Mac heard sirens. When Don arrived, Mac told him what happened and left him with the "secondary" crime scene. Mac was sure there was a crime scene up there in that office as well, that would be the "primary" crime scene. He could not see Dunbrook as innocent.
Mac got his forensics kit and went up to Dunbrook's office. "Well, Detective Taylor," Dunbrook said. "What brings you here?"
"I'm always at possible murders," Mac replied.
"Murder? That guy broke into my office, attacked me, and…well, it ended badly."
"Why would someone break into your office? Did you know the guy? How did he break in?"
"I don't know. I didn't know him."
"He didn't ask you anything?"
"No. He was the silent, violent type."
"Did he take anything?"
"Not that I know of."
"So you don't know if he got anything?"
"NO. To my knowledge, he didn't get anything."
Mac was not sure he was getting the whole truth. "How did he get in? I don't see any sign that someone broke in."
"I don't know how he got in. He was in here when I came in. I asked him what he was doing here, and he attacked me."
"I don't think you're telling me the whole story. You're leaving something out. Now, what was he after? He must have said something if he didn't find what he was after."
"I told you I don't know. What are you doing here anyway? This is just a breaking and entering. What are you going to do next, write parking tickets?"
Mac frowned at him. He wondered if he knew about that for real. "I know when someone is hiding something," he said. "I'm going to figure it out too."
Danny was arriving to search the crime scene. "Be thorough," Mac said as he was going back out the door.
Mac went back down to the street where Don was, and where Stella and Sheldon were now. "What do you think?" Mac asked.
"Well, we found what looks like brain matter," Sheldon said. "There's no sign of anyone running, walking, limping, or even crawling away from this scene. I don't see how they could with part of their brain gone though."
Mac looked down the grate that the person had fallen on. "Maybe something fell through this grate," he said. "There's a subway tunnel through here, right?"
"Yes," Stella answered.
Mac went over to Don. "Get in touch with the subway line and stop the trains coming through here," Mac said. "We're going down there."
Don got on the phone. Mac looked at the grate. He just hoped he could find some sort of explanation for what happened here because he knew Dunbrook was not telling the whole story. He had not trusted that man since he donated 20 million dollars to the city to bail it out of its problems and get the police back to work. Mac knew it was just so he could be "above the law". After all, who is going to go after someone who bailed out the city with such a large donation? If there was one thing Mac hated, it was corruption.
When the subway was stopped, Mac and Don went down into the tunnel. "Wow," Don said. "It looks like people even throw out trash while riding on the subway."
Mac shook his head at that sarcasm. He had to admit it was a mess down there. He made his way over to the grate where the victim had fallen. There was definitely a subway rail there in the tunnel. He shined his flashlight around the area, and then he saw something shine. He squatted and his smirky smile spread across his face as he saw what was there.