Chapter 7: Old Friends, New Leads

Copyright Notice: This chapter will feature names and references to teams and players that are the official property of Major League Baseball. As always, no infringement is intended by the use of these in my story.

Owl Motel
Parker Square
5:00 AM

Troy Harrison had gotten next to no sleep after his long shift at the CtOS Task Force. Now, the upbeat ring tone of his cell phone had startled him awake. He awoke in his comfortable but still shabby motel room at the Owl Motel in the Parker Square neighborhood and grabbed his phone off the nightstand, promptly answering it.

"Harrison", he answered.

"Hey Troy", Abby Asher said from the other side of the line, "It's Abby. Sorry if I woke you."

Harrison sat up in an easier position, moving to the foot of the bed and cradling his phone on his shoulder. "No worries, kid", he replied with a comforting tone, "What's up?"

Asher chuckled. "This is probably going to sound silly coming from me", she said, "As you know, I'm not exactly the world's biggest baseball fan, but I just won a pair of tickets to the Battle of the Sox baseball game tonight."

Harrison chuckled himself in response. "And you want me to go with you?" he asked under the assumption that he was putting two and two together.

"Yeah", Asher replied, "I mean, if you want to go."

Harrison smiled. "Well", he said, "I just so happen to have a Boston Red Sox shirt with David Ortiz's number on it. The Red Sox going up against the White Sox at May Stadium, that's definitely a 'yes'."

Asher laughed from her end of the line. "Cool", she replied, "I'll pick you up at seven tonight. The game starts at eight o' clock sharp. Where are you staying?"

"The Owl Motel in Parker Square", Harrison said, "The stadium's just a few blocks away. I'll meet you in the motel parking lot at seven."

"Okay", Asher said, "Are you coming into work?"

"Yeah", Harrison replied, "My shift starts in two hours. I was actually just going to get in the shower."

"I clock in about the same time", Asher said, "So I guess I'll see you at the district."

"Okay", Harrison replied, "I've got to go. I'll see you later, kiddo. I'm looking forward to tonight."

"Me too!" Asher replied with a thrilled tone in her voice, "Like I said, I'll see you at the district."

"You got it, kid", Harrison replied, "Bye for now, okay?"

"Bye bud", Asher replied. Harrison could tell his friend was smiling on her end of the line.

The two detectives hung up with each other, at which point Harrison set his phone down back on his nightstand, grabbed a clean outfit from his closet, and headed for the bathroom to shower.

Roughly 20 minutes later, Harrison emerged from his room dressed for work. As he walked toward his car, he noticed a tall man in a long brown leather trench coat, matching hat, and brown leather gloves struggling to work the soda machine. The man softly cursed under his breath.

"Excuse me", Harrison said as he walked over, "Do you need some help?"

The man looked up from his kneeling position at the bottom opening of the machine and sighed. He was a very rugged looking man appearing to be in his mid-thirties.

"Uh…sure", the man replied as he stood, "It's this damn machine. All I want is a cola to jump start my morning and my money got stuck in there without dispensing the soda."

Harrison examined the machine for a minute and lightly pressed on the coin and cash slots with the palm of his hand. "Which soda do you want, my friend?" he asked.

The very ominous-looking rugged man pointed to a particular cola. Noting the vending number, Harrison entered the number, at which point the cola dropped off its position inside the machine and out into the vending slot.

The man bent down, retrieved his soda, and stood up with a satisfied smile on his face and extended a hand to Harrison. "Thanks man", he said, "I'm actually your upstairs neighbor, I believe. I'm Aiden. Aiden Pearce."

Harrison shook the man's hand. "Troy Harrison", he said, "Nice to meet you."

Homicide Squad Room
CPD District 34
7:15 AM

Harrison, now dressed in a crisply clean white button-down polo shirt, khakis, and white sneakers, was busy working at his computer when Detective Sunny Tran came into the squad room. Tran was dressed in a gray cotton t-shirt, a matching suit jacket, gray jeans, and stylish flat heels.

"Hey Troy", Tran greeted warmly.

Harrison glanced up from his screen and smiled at his partner. "Hi Sunny", he replied, "How are you?"

Tran got seated at her desk opposite Harrison, setting her purse in her bottom drawer and setting her coffee down on the desktop. "I'm good, thanks", she said, "How was your first night at CtOS?"

Harrison grinned. "Pretty cool", he replied, "They've got a lot of interesting stuff going on over there. It was a long night, but we took down a gunrunning operation and found a dude with an open warrant."

Tran nodded. "Cool", she said before motioning to Harrison's computer, "What're you up to now?"

Harrison's gaze returned to his screen and he continued typing. "I came in a little early to see what progress you guys had made on the Maxwell King homicide while I was at the task force", he explained, I see here that you, Brooks, and Dobbs got stuck doing the neighborhood knock-and-talks without me, huh?"

"Yeah", Tran replied.

Harrison shrugged his shoulders. "Sorry", he said.

Tran put her hands up. "No worries, partner", she replied, "Duty called for you, after all. Not a whole lot of people wanted to talk to us anyway."

"Did you guys find anything promising after all that?" Harrison asked.

"Brooks and I went back to The Pawned Off Pawn Shop and showed Keith Harold a sequential photo array with Maurice Vega's picture in it", Tran explained, "He positively identified Vega as the sketchy dude who came into the shop with King that night and went upstairs with him."

Harrison nodded. "That sounds encouraging", he said, "Any luck finding Vega at his known addresses?"

"Brooks and Dobbs went to his only last known address", Tran replied, "It was a brick apartment building on the edge of The Wards. Turns out it's condemned and abandoned now. Officially, nobody's lived there in at least three years."

Harrison thought for a moment before clicking open another screen on his computer. "I think I might know someone who can give us a lead", he said with a very self-confident tone in his voice.

Just then, Detectives Brooks and Dobbs entered the squad room. "Morning guys", Brooks said, while Dobbs just reciprocated the gesture with a polite nod to Harrison and Tran.

"Good morning fellas", Harrison said, "Hey, do any of you know a guy named Monty Jones?"

Dobbs nodded. "Rings a bell", he replied, "I used to run into him occasionally when I worked Narcotics on the West Side. Last I knew, he was a petty thief and crack addict. Why do you ask?"

"Actually", Harrison corrected, "Monty was just a getaway driver for a robbery crew on the West Side for a few years, and while he was indeed a crack user back then, he never actually stole anything himself."

"I see", Tran said, "And why are you asking about this Monty Jones?"

Harrison leaned back in his chair. "Believe it or not", he said, "Monty used to be one of my Chicago informants when I was with the FBI. Every time my partner and I worked a case here and we needed to track down a particular person or location, we'd hit up Monty for info. Heaven only knows how he knew some of the shit that he knew, but every lead he ever gave us panned out."

"How'd you guys cross paths with him initially?" Brooks asked curiously.

"Three years ago," Harrison began to explain, "I was working a special task force with my cousin…"

"Your cousin was an FBI agent too?" Brooks asked, cutting him off.

A miffed Harrison put a hand up in response, silencing his colleague's inquiring nature. "Yes", he said, "Long story. We were working a case here in Chicago, trying to trace an organized crime operation being run out of a bootleg casino on the West Side. We heard through a wiretap about a possible heist being planned at the federal building Downtown later that same night."

"What would someone want to steal from the federal building?" Tran asked.

"Apparently", Harrison said, "a bunch of office computers from the Social Security office."

Harrison cleared his throat. "Anyway", he continued, "My cousin Bill and I notified CPD in accordance with proper procedure, but we somehow got to the federal building ahead of Patrol and SWAT. The building's security alarm was already going off when we pulled up and there was a suspicious car idling out front. I found Monty behind the wheel and detained him."

The detective then smirked. "Well actually", he said, "I handcuffed him to the steering wheel and left him for the cops. I followed Bill inside and we found a group of guys in ski masks and mechanic's coveralls in the process of stealing a bunch of computers from an office cubicle area. We made the bust just as the SWAT team was making their entry."

Detective Brooks sat back in his chair. "That's a cool story", he said, "But what makes you think Monty can help us find Maurice Vega?"

"With all due respect to every informant that you guys have on these streets", Harrison replied, "Nobody knows Chicago like my man Monty. If Vega's hiding out somewhere in the city, Monty knows people that can find him."

Tran sighed. "Okay Troy", she said, "Let's say that you're right. How do we even begin to find Monty?"

Harrison leaned forward and resumed working on his computer. "I just ran his Social Security number. He hasn't been arrested for anything in the last few years, which for him is very good. His Social Security records say that he's been working full-time at one of those news kiosk things in The Loop."

News Tech Newsstand
The Loop
45 Minutes Later

Monty Jones was a very thinly built black man in his late thirties. Unfortunately, his past addiction to crack cocaine was how he kept the weight off before, but more recently he had been clean from drugs for the last few years and had been living a more reasonable lifestyle. This was thanks mostly to the unconditional love and encouragement from his girlfriend, choosing to leave a life of crime behind him, and landing a legitimate job.

Today, Monty was working as an attendant at this small newsstand in The Loop, a subsection of the city's main Downtown area named for its very circular and rotary-like geographic layout. He had just finished selling a newspaper and a bottled water to a businessman when he spotted Harrison and Tran coming up to him.

"Agent Harrison?" Monty asked inquisitively after taking a moment to study Harrison's features to make sure that it was indeed him.

Harrison extended a hand as he strolled up to Monty's window. "Yeah it's me Monty", he said, "How've you been, my man?"

Monty gladly shook Harrison's hand. "I've been great, brother", he replied just before noticing the CPD Detective's badge Harrison had clipped to the waistband of his khakis, "You're a cop now, huh?"

Harrison smiled. "Yeah", he said, "So, it's actually 'Detective Harrison' now." He motioned to Sunny Tran. "This is my new partner, Detective Sunny Tran", he continued before motioning back to Monty, "Sunny, this is Monty. He helped me and my ex-partner with a lot of stuff back in the day."

Tran took her turn shaking Monty's hand. "Nice to meet you, Monty", she said.

"The pleasure's all mine, Detective", Monty replied before turning back to Harrison. "Hey", he said to him, "Whatever did happen to that FBI partner of yours? He was your cousin, right?"

"He retired from the Bureau right after I left", Harrison replied, "We both needed to make some changes in our lives, you know?"

Monty nodded. "I hear that, man", he said, "What brings you guys here to me today?"

Tran placed a mugshot picture of Maurice Vega onto the counter of the newsstand. "Do you still know people down in The Wards, Monty?" she asked.

Monty backed up a few steps and put both his hands up. "Hey now", he said with a very apprehensive tone, "I got my ass out of The Wards when I gave up hitting the crack pipe, man. I've been clean and sober off that shit for almost three years."

"That's wonderful, Monty", Harrison said, "I'm really happy for you, bud. It's just that we think the dude in this picture offed a dealer in The Wards the other night. We also think that this now-deceased dealer offed a nineteen-year-old kid who was just walking home from work last week."

Monty sighed and looked down at the picture to get a better look. "Alright", he said, "What exactly is it that you guys need?"

Tran pointed down to the picture. "The guy's name is Maurice Vega", she said, "We just need to know if you're still on speaking terms with anybody down in The Wards that could know where he's hiding."

Monty took a moment to think. "Like I said", he said, "I don't really associate with anybody down there these days, but there is a guy in my Narcotics Anonymous group that I think may be familiar with this Vega cat. You guys got a business card?"

Harrison produced one of his business cards from his pocket and wrote down his cellular number on the back before sliding it to Monty. "Given what you've said about being sober", he said, "We would never ask you to get into any wild shit. Just ask your buddy about Maurice Vega, and if he gives up anything, you call either the Thirty-Fourth District or my cell. Deal?" He extended a fist to Monty.

Monty smirked before bumping fists with Harrison. "Deal", he said.