March 21
Tom watched as Maura got dressed. "Where are you going?" He asked. Propping up on one elbow.
"Church." She said as she put in pearl earrings.
"You still go to Mass? I can't remember the last time I went."
"You can come with me if you like." She said, "No pressure though."
"Sure, I'll go." He said getting out of bed. "Just give me a few minutes to get ready." He said and went into the bathroom to shave. "I think I stopped going sometime in college. It's funny how things can just stop being important."
"I never stopped," She said. She slipped on her heels and walked over to the bathroom door. "I figured with my family I needed all the help I could get."
"You don't need to go to confession because of your family." He said as he wiped the shaving cream from his face. "Light a few candles, maybe get a blessing or two-" He laughed as she swatted his arm good arm.
"You are such a brat." She said, laughing as well.
"Absolutely, but I'm not wrong," Tom said. He walked back out into the bedroom "Ah… my clothes are still in the other bedroom. I guess I should move them over here later." He went to get dressed in the suit he'd brought with him.
She watched him walk away, admiring his form. "I have to say, some things have definitely gotten better with age." She said, loud enough for him to hear.
He laughed, and blushed "Hey in my defense I was as much of a virgin as you were."
"I wasn't complaining. Just making an observation. Teenagers have no clue even when they think they do."
He came back into the parlor of the suite. "Yeah, I don't blame your dad for wanting to kill me. If I had a daughter I'd probably want to kill her boyfriend too." He straightened his tie and buttoned his suit coat. "He's probably going to have similar thoughts now that we're adults."
"So… does that mean that we're a couple again, or are we just friends with benefits? You said it was one of those things we needed to talk about."
"I did… and we do… along with some other things. I want to say that we're a couple. But I'm afraid of this being a rebound situation and I don't want to hurt you that way."
"Okay, so two options are going forward from that. Either we stop dating until you're sure or we see other people too."
Tom felt a white-hot rush of jealousy at even the thought of her dating, much less doing other things with someone else. "Okay… we're a couple." He said.
She laughed and grabbed her purse. "Well, that was resolved quickly."
"Just… if I propose in the first three months, tell me, no, to ask you later."
"I am guessing this has to do with the Virginia fiasco."
"And the Cassandra Fiasco." He said, "At least Cassie and I were able to be friends again eventually… for a while."
"Oh, I think she still wants to be friends. Probably more than friends from the looks she was giving me that night."
"You know you have nothing to worry about, right?"
"I have a fair number of insecurities, like everyone else on the planet." She said "You caught the brunt of one of them earlier. Other women aren't on the list. Just because she wants you doesn't automatically mean you want her."
"I don't think she wants me. I don't." He said, "She's had opportunities to make that happen."
"Did she know she had those opportunities?"
"Yeah, she knew." He said a little sadly. "Look, I'd be lying if I said I didn't still have feelings for her. I still had feelings for you." He shook his head "But you and I went away to college. We didn't hurt each other or end things badly. Cassie and I… only lasted 7 months once we got married. We couldn't figure out how to make things work and the divorce was ugly. So even if she did want me back, which she doesn't, I don't think I can go down that road again." Especially since she had in his mind abandoned him when he needed a friend, how could he trust that she'd be there if he needed her? He knew that wasn't entirely fair, but he couldn't help how he felt.
"Not jealous, I promise." She said. And it was mostly true. Currently. That could change if situations changed. But she wasn't going to speculate about that. She wasn't going to be THAT girlfriend.
They were the only people in the elevator going down, but she waited until they were settled into her car and she had it turned on and the AC running. "So, I am assuming that money is another of those things we need to talk about." She pulled out of their parking place and got onto the road.
" Yeah, we do. I'm enjoying this weekend. This trip isn't too much, I promise."
"Okay," She said, wondering where it was going. "But…"
"But… my life is a mess right now. I've lost just about all the self-respect I ever had. So I feel that if I let you try to rescue me from this, and I know you, you'll want to rescue me, I'll lose what little I have left."
"Is that why you don't want me to see your apartment?" She said
"There are many reasons for you not to see my apartment. One it's terrible. I don't think there is room for company. Two it's in the worst neighborhood in Palm Beach. Three I am absolutely ashamed of it." He said "And four I don't want you to rescue me from it. It's what I can afford right now and I need to pay my way."
"Okay." She said again "And what happens if we do eventually, much more than three months from now, decide to get married? Do we live on your income?"
"No, that wouldn't be reasonable … but I'll sign a prenup and if I have a job by then I will continue to work even if it's like a thimble full of income comparatively."
"I trust you, Tommy." She said, "You are the last person I would ever expect to marry me for my money."
"I know." He said, "I just would feel better if I signed a prenup, but we're getting way ahead of where we are."
"Alright. But I get to see this train wreck of an apartment." She said "I get to come to visit you in your home. I don't care if it's a park bench. If we are together, we're together. No secrets, nothing hidden from view."
"I hate the idea of you in that neighborhood." He said again.
"Tom. It's non-negotiable."
"Fine, but I pick you up and you dress in blue jeans and a tee shirt. I don't want any of the people I live near getting the idea that you're wealthy. I don't trust most of them, and the ones I do trust have relatives or friends that I don't trust."
"You're a cop. You don't trust anyone." She said as she pulled into the cathedral's parking lot.
"I trust you."
Will Adams sat in his car outside Cassie's home. In the passenger seat beside him was a fat file folder that had been given to him by his CI from his Organized Crime Task Force days. He wasn't sure what to do with it, but given who it involved he figured Cassie St John was the best place to start. He picked up the file and got out of the car. He laughed when she opened her front door while he was still walking up.
"I was beginning to think you weren't going to get out of the car." She said and stepped aside to let him into her house. "So what's up? You look worried."
He came inside. "I came on some information about a crooked cop, but I don't know if it's true or not."
"So hand it over to Internal Affairs." Her least favorite word pairing at the moment.
"Yeah well, that's the problem. The guy IS internal affairs." He said, "And I don't want to look into this on my own without some kind of backup."
"Okay show me what you have." She said leading the way to the dining room table. "Where did you get it?"
"Okay, hear me out "
She made a sound "That phrase never ends well."
"A woman I go to church with has been pressuring me to look into Patrick Galloway."
"Councilman Galloway. The guy on the tv talking about cracking down on graft in city government?"
"Yeah, Mrs. Andreason insists that he ripped off her husband and that he was involved in organized crime, she even thinks he was involved in the guy's death - anyway- to get her to shut up, " He said rolling his eyes " I started to do some digging and this is what I found first." He handed over several photographs of Patrick Galloway with Donnie Dogs DiBarto.
"Well meeting with a local crime boss isn't illegal in and of itself but it's certainly curious." She said sifting through the papers. "You didn't have a warrant for these financial records did you." It wasn't a question "if you had you'd have turned them over as evidence already."
"No, I didn't. I have a CI that was able to get into di Barto's records. See here's the problem I have…" He said, "Patrick Galloway is Sean Galloway's brother." He produced another set of papers "IAB is supposed to keep cops honest, who the hell polices IAB ?"
"The Chief." She said. "He'll take it to a review board. This isn't enough to put him in jail but it's enough to start an investigation and have him suspended during the review." Which would serve him right as far as she was concerned. "We'll take this to Harry in the morning. Take it up the chain of command properly." She said. "This isn't something we can afford to bungle. If this man is as dirty as he looks… our careers are over if we give him half a chance at wriggling free."
"Like your friend Tom Ryan." He said.
"Exactly like Tom."
March 22
Monday morning came around and Cassie was early to work for the first time since Tom had been suspended. She looked at her watch and fidgeted while waiting for her partner to arrive with the file folder of almost evidence. Will arrived 5 minutes late and she was up out of her seat before the door had even closed behind him. "Hurry up." She said tensely.
"Were you always wound this tight? Or am I just special?" He said as they entered Harry's office.
"Yes." Harry said "She was, and you are not special, Adams, no matter what your mommy may have told you this morning. What dubious pleasure do I owe this visit first thing in the morning? Because I'm not getting that we've solved the case vibe."
"Actually we're bringing you one," Cassie said taking the file from her partner and handing it over to Harry.
"So what's this?" He asked.
"Possible involvement between Sean Galloway and Donnie Di Barto," Adams said.
"Definite involvement, possible criminal involvement." Cassie corrected.
"Where did this come from," Harry asked.
"My CI from when I worked on the organized crime task force," Adams answered.
"I would investigate to make sure that this isn't a setup but I can't get anywhere near this, Harry. Not with Galloway being the officer in charge of Tom's investigation." Cassie said.
"For once, you're making sense," Harry said. "Leave this to me. I'll see what I can do. Not a word of this to anyone." Harry pointed a finger at both of them "I don't even want you to mention it to me. Do you understand what I am telling you?"
"Yes, Sir."
"Yes, Harry."
"Good, now get out of my office and clear those homicides on your desk." He looked between the two of them. "Now, children."
"Right," Cassandra said and got to her feet. She grabbed Will by the arm and pushed him out of the office in front of her.
Harry began to leaf through the file, "Wonderful." He said sarcastically and read a little further. He rubbed at his temples. A little further and he opened his drawer and pulled out a bottle of Pepto bismal. He broke the seal on it and drank a quarter of it in one go.
He picked up his phone and called the district attorney's office. After being on hold for what seemed an eternity, he was put through. "Craig, we have a problem. A very big problem."
"What has Ryan done this time."
"Don't start with me." He said "It has nothing to do with Tom directly. I'm not going to get into it on the phone. Do you have time for me to come up there? Preferably an hour ago."
"If it's that important, I guess you'd better come up."
"I will be there directly and if I were you, I'd take some ibuprofen. If you don't have a headache now you will shortly." He hung up the phone and grabbed his jacket, draping it over his arm, and the file.
Tom loaded the suitcases into the trunk of the car. "If I hadn't sworn I'd be back on pain of death I wouldn't want to leave." He said. He walked to the passenger's door and opened it for her.
She smiled, handed him her keys, and got into the car. "All vacations come to an end." She said. "I promise not to monopolize your time, but how about coming over for dinner tomorrow night."
"I'd like that." He said as he started the car.
"You're already tensing back up." She said gently. "I'm sorry I can't do more."
"It's why I want to drive," He pulled out of the parking lot and onto the road. "Back to the sword of Damocles."
"I know you said no rescuing… but would a good lawyer help?" She asked.
"If they press charges, yes. I'm not so proud that I'll slit my own throat. I just… it feels like spite. I know that makes no sense whatsoever. I'm not the first cop to wander off while being investigated. I've never known any of them to be put in limbo for months like this."
"Do you think they knew about us beforehand and were just waiting till they thought you were desperate enough to do what they wanted?"
"It's possible but unlikely. Not if they wanted to find Vittorio Rossi. He's a hitman. If he's in town it's for a job. They wouldn't wait. They'd want to find him to prevent the assassination. I think that we are more of an opportunity than an intentional setup. I don't know… maybe Galloway is the vindictive type. I hate limbo. That is what this feels like. Limbo. All this waiting to find out if I'm worthy or if I'm going to hell."
"Will you go back if they let you?" She asked.
"I don't know how to be anything but a cop." He said "I don't think they will, but I have to try if they do. The problem with AI is that once you've been investigated by them everyone thinks you're dirty whether you are or not. Even if you're exonerated."
"I understand what that's like… everyone thinking you're guilty whether you are or not. To a lesser degree anyway. I've been lucky. It hasn't affected school or work. I could walk away from it. Until now, it hasn't come up at all since I've been in Palm Springs."
"I'm sorry I got you caught up in that crap again," Tom told her.
"You didn't get me caught up in anything. They already had my name and connected the dots to Rossi through my father. It never occurred to them that I wasn't as much a criminal as Dad. If not you, it would be someone else. So no. You didn't bring anything down on my head."
"I'm not ready to accept that yet."
"They can't put me in jail for an accident of birth. I'm not miserable. Far from it. The only person being hurt by this situation is you and it pisses me off."
Harry, Craig Alexander, and Joseph Doyle sat in the District Attorney's office going over the file in front of them.
"Harry, this is a nightmare," Doyle said. "Every single cop Galloway has investigated … it's going to come under suspicion. Were they targeted because the cop was digging into the wrong things, were they exonerated because they were the right kind of crooked." He shook his head. "A bloody damned nightmare."
"So what do we do about that Joey?" He asked.
Craig shook his head "I have to review all the current cases and see which ones have any real evidence and which ones are a witch hunt."
"What about Tom Ryan?" Harry asked.
"Ryan? The cop involved in that shooting a few months back?" Doyle asked and shook his head. "Why hasn't that been put to bed yet? Is the boy guilty of murder or a questionable shooting? Every cop has drawn down on someone and found out later there wasn't a gun. Sometimes we were lucky enough to figure it out before we pulled the trigger."
"He fled the jurisdiction to investigate on his own." Alexander said, "That's why he's suspended."
"For two months," Harry added.
"This is the sort of crap we're going to be faced with isn't it." Doyle pushed. "Are you going to charge the man or not?" He pressed the district attorney. "I don't have to tell you what that could do to us if the press got hold of something like this."
"I'll need to review the case and get back to you on that."
"What have you been doing for the last two months?" He had to get Alexander to see it his way. He did not want Palmeri breathing down his neck. No one wanted Antony Palmeri breathing down their neck.
"He's a good cop, Craig. You know he is." Harry said.
"I will review the case and get back to you." He repeated firmly. "Meanwhile, I recommend that someone relieve Mr. Galloway from duty before he screws up any more of my cases."
Not every job Rossi took wound up being an obvious hit. It all depended on what they paid him to do. Most of the time they didn't care so long as it didn't come back on them. Originally this was one of those rare cases that it was supposed to be made obvious. Until of course, Tony Palmeri stuck his nose in. Now Di Barto wanted it made low-key instead of being a message.
The thing people didn't realize was that no one believed in accidents anymore. Not if there was a mob connection. Still, here he was breaking into the man's house and switching out his vitamins for capsules filled with powdered caffeine. Patrick Galloway had a heart condition. The amount of caffeine he'd be ingesting would kill someone with a healthy heart. Him it would do in double quick. It would bring on a heart attack.
Next stop, Sean Galloway's place for the frame-up.
Tom reluctantly drove back to his apartment. It always felt a little cramped, now it was downright claustrophobic. He changed into a pair of shorts and a tank top and pulled his bike down off of the hooks he'd installed to keep it out of the way.
He paused a moment, then decided to take a look around his apartment. This was why he never did deep-cover work. He just wasn't paranoid enough. He leaned the bike against the wall and started his search, looking for anywhere they might have planted a bug. By the end of his search, he'd found three. All the same make and model, he didn't know if they were planted by the cops or by Maura's father's people. So he decided to get rid of them.
"Nice try, guys." He said and dropped them into a glass of water.
Then he went for his bike ride. He would give the place another once over when he got back. Just in case he missed one. He didn't know why they bothered with three. In an apartment that size one bug could not only spy on him but the neighbors on either side.
It felt good to ride. It made him feel free, which he didn't know if he would ever be again, not really. As Craig said, there was no statute of limitations on homicide. Damn it he hadn't shot the guy for no reason. He shot him because he had a gun and was shooting at him. Sure people had concealed weapons permits, permits to carry in public. But usually, they kept it in the holster. You don't have a gun in your hand unless you intend to use it. Then the waters got muddied by Virginia. There was the big mistake. Virginia.
He peddled harder and faster as he thought of her. He had thought he was in love with her. Why did he always make the mistake of falling so hard and fast? Cassie hadn't been the mistake… falling in love wasn't the mistake. Wanting to get married so fast had been the mistake. Now he was falling all over again with Maura. He might not pop the question so quickly this time but he was falling as hard and fast.
He could only see two paths for his future. No matter how hard he tried he could only find two options. He was either going to jail, where he would stay until someone he had put there killed him, or he was going to spend the rest of his life with Maura Palmeri. Unless her father put a bullet in his head.
March 23
"You wanted to see me?" Cassie asked as she was let into Craig Alexander's office.
"Yes, have a seat, Sgt. St. John." He said and waited until she did. As he'd promised he had reviewed Tom's case, then he had reviewed some of Tom's cases. Some of them going back before he'd been working with Cassandra. "What do you know about Andreason construction and the murder of its owner?"
"Not much. Only what Tom told me when he was obsessing. That was one of his ongoing cases when we had been partnered again." She said. "David Andreason had been found murdered, a gunshot wound to the back of the head, and then someone had sloppily tried to cover it up by putting his body in concrete, but it wasn't completely covered. Ballistics found no match to the bullet."
"A gangland-style execution," Craig said.
"Tom didn't think so. He thought it was a little too pat and excuse the term, poorly executed. Like it was staged somehow. But he could never get a real foothold on the case. Every time he'd get something going, it would dry up. He kept the file on his desk. He'd take it out when things were slow. I always thought it was going to be That Case you know… the one every cop gets that they just can't let go of, no matter how cold it gets."
"I'd like to see Tom's notes on the case. Do you know if his notebooks are here or if he keeps them at home?"
"They're here. IAB confiscated all of them when he skipped town. They even got a warrant for his old apartment so anything he had at home would be here too I suppose."
"Thank You, Sgt, that will be all."
"Has there been a new break in the case?" She asked. That might be one of the few things to make Tom perk up, knowing that the case was open again.
"I said, that will be all." He told her again.
"Fine." She said and got up to leave. "You know… this whole mess with Tom stinks." She told him as she headed toward the door. "I had started to change my mind about you before that."
"As I recall Sgt. You're the one that called Internal Affairs and had officers arrest him." He said.
"I was doing my job. What else was I supposed to do?"
"And that is all I'm doing, Cassie. My job."
"I understand that's kind of what they said at Nuremberg. We just paraphrased it." She said and left the room.
"I know." He said when she was gone. "And I hate being someone's puppet." Sure Tom had screwed up. He had screwed up so badly that Craig didn't figure he deserved that badge any longer. Then again what investigator of any sort would just sit calmly and watch his life go down the drain? He should have been suspended for two weeks and then either fired or let back on the job until the DA's office had made up its mind about the shooting. But he wasn't. They were picking apart his entire life, every case he'd ever worked. And now, they were "Setting him up with a mob connection." He said out loud.
Even if it wasn't a connection. Not really. He'd gone over the girl's history with a fine-toothed comb when they'd started connecting her to Rossi. He'd known it was a slim connection at best. Her finances all made legitimate sense. She worked, she'd inherited a trust fund, not from her father but from her grandmother who had immigrated with a substantial fortune of her own before marrying into the Palmeri family. He wasn't going to investigate the source of that money since it would have been made before world war II. Her father was a notorious mafioso. No one could make anything stick no matter how hard they tried. In Boston. Not Palm Beach. There was no connection for Palmeri to Palm Beach other than his daughter lived here. There was no reason to figure the girl was connected to her father's dealings. Galloway had been convinced there was though and Craig had listened.
Now there was the Andreason case. Because of the evidence brought forward earlier, he could connect the dots and get to Councilman Galloway, Lt. Galloway's brother. Was he throwing Tom under the bus to keep him from making those same connections?
He picked up the phone and called a judge who owed him a favor or two. One who always fell on the side of law enforcement, even in those times he shouldn't. For once that was going to work for him instead of against him. It hadn't taken long for him to get the judge to agree to a warrant for Galloway's home as well as the internal affairs offices.
He made another call. "Harry, meet me in IAB will ya?"
"Sure," Harry said, hoping that Cassie hadn't gotten herself in trouble. She'd told him the DA had asked to see her. "Anything I need to worry about?"
"I don't think they've been giving me all the evidence in Tom's case. Once we're done there I'll tell you about it over lunch." He paused "And bring Adams and St John. I have something for them to do that just might make St. John's week."
"On my way." He didn't know if he should be hopeful or worried with that bit of information. Either way, his gut was not happy. He walked out into the squad room "Adam's, St. John, You're with me."
They looked at each other and said nothing. They followed him immediately. Harry looked… determined.
The district attorney was waiting outside IAB with two search warrants in hand. They were for anything involving Tom Ryan and/or the Andreason case.
He handed a second warrant over to Cassie. "I think this just might solve our Nuremberg dilemma." He told her.
She looked it over and smiled. "Yes, sir." She looked to Adams "We're going to need a few more officers to go with us." She handed him the warrant to look at as they walked away from Harry and Alexander.
The district attorney merely waited for several officers to join him, before handing the remaining search warrant over to Harry. "You want to do the honors?" He asked.
After a brief scan, "With pleasure." He said. They entered the offices of the Internal Affairs division, and this time, Harry had a smile on his face.
Rossi put a paper bag under the bathroom sink of Sean Galloway. In it were the powdered caffeine, empty gel capsules, and a box of latex gloves. That was to cover for the hit on his brother. Two birds, one stone. He had no idea that the police were on their way with a search warrant for something completely different. If he had, he would have laughed. Instead, he slipped out the back door, just as the detectives and 6 patrolmen were coming in the front.
Now he just needed to lay low until he got his orders from Palmeri. He decided that Miami was a better place to do that. It was only a little more than an hour away. He could make it back easily if he was needed.
Tom was tired when he got back to his apartment late that afternoon. Slipped under his door was an envelope, inside was a note from Harry that he was supposed to meet them at the District Attorney's office the following morning. "Well,l that didn't take long." He said.
He picked up the phone and called Maura.
"Hello?" She said.
"Hey, it's me." He said.
"Well, hello, Me." She said "You sound… tired." It wasn't quite the word but it was as close as she could come.
"That's probably the bike ride I just finished." He said "I ahm… came home just now and found a note that I need to be at the district attorney's office in the morning. I think I might need that lawyer after all. I hate asking it. I really do."
"I know." She said. "But a criminal defense attorney is different than saving you from an embarrassing apartment. This could be your life we're talking about. I would do this even if we weren't lovers. I'll make a couple of calls and see if we can't get someone to meet with you today and go with you tomorrow. Are you gonna be alright?"
"Yeah, I think so. Thank you. I appreciate this." It was a slippery slope but she was right this could be his life they were talking about.
