When Sully and Davis arrived at the crime scene the detectives and
forensics people were still busy going over the area. They were told that
Lt. Swersky was downstairs so they made their way down to the basement
while trying to stay out of the way.
As they stepped into the basement they could see Swersky talking with some of the detectives in a far corner. From the blackened look of the ground Sully figured that it was the place that the fire had been burning. One detective was pointing things out as he was talking to Swersky probably explaining to him what they had found out already.
Sully and Davis hung out in the middle of the basement until Swersky was done talking to the detectives. As soon as he was done, Swersky, who had noticed that Sully and Davis had arrived, walked over to where they were standing.
"The detectives haven't been able to figure out much yet. They have determined for sure that the fire both down here and on the floor above was set deliberately which we were already assuming. They located a metal pipe over there near the steps which they dusted for fingerprints. Maybe we can get a match with one of the prints pulled off of Boscorelli's gun. Whatever went on down here was well planned. Finding clues here is proving to be difficult," Swersky told them. Sully and Davis could both hear the frustration in Swersky's voice. "Please tell me you were able to figure out something."
"Actually we do have a lead. Doherty remembered hearing Bosco murmur the name Mikey while they were down here. Davis and I started searching Bosco's arrest reports looking for the name or a variation of the name Mikey. Davis found a drug arrest for a Mikey Boscorelli. Forensics was able to match the finger prints taken at the time of the arrest to the fourth set of finger prints on Bosco's gun."
"Michael is the name of Boscorelli's brother," Davis commented. "We checked with Faith. But that doesn't definitely place Mikey here, at the crime site. He could have handled Bosco's gun at some other time and the gun still might have fallen out during the struggle."
"I'll tell forensics to cross check the prints on the metal pipe found here. If his finger prints are on the pipe we've at least got him placed at the crime site. It would be enough to bring him in for questioning."
Before the officers could say anything else Serwsky's cell phone rang. He quickly answered it and Sully and Davis half listened to Swersky's end of the conversation. Without hearing the other half of the conversation they couldn't make much sense out of it. A few minutes later Swersky hung up and put his cell phone away.
"That was the Captain. The hospital called. Officer Boscorelli is awake and there doesn't appear to be any ill effects from the concussion he suffered. Sully, I want you to head over to the hospital and talk to Boscorelli. See what he recalls about what happened. This case might just have gotten a whole lot easier."
"Why me?" Sully asked. He had assumed that seeing as Swersky was leading the investigation he would question Bosco.
"Because the doctors don't want anyone who would be an authority figure in to see Bosco yet. They think it would place to much stress on him. They've agreed to let you ask him a few questions because you're not an authority figure. You work with Boscorelli on a regular basis. Yokas will probably be there too. I doubt you're going to get her out of the room."
"Alright."
Sully wasn't exactly comfortable with having to be the one to question Bosco. He had his doubts as to how willing Bosco would be to talk to him. While they did work together, he wouldn't exactly consider Bosco a friend. He was pretty sure that Bosco would feel the same way.
"I'll be waiting out here," Davis told Sully as they stood out in the hallway in front of Bosco's hospital room. Two officers from the 55th were still stationed on either side of the door.
"Thanks," Sully said sarcastically. He envied his partner being able to take the easy way out of this task.
Sully took a deep breath and opened the door to the room. Faith and Angela Boscorelli were both seated in chairs close to Bosco's bedside chatting with Bosco.
Sully had to admit that despite the bruises Bosco looked better than the last time he had seen him. Some color had returned to his face. Sully noticed the oxygen mask sitting on the bedside table. He had a feeling that Bosco was refusing to use it despite what the doctors wanted.
"Hey Bosco, how are you feeling?"
"I've definitely have been better."
"Are you up to answering a few questions?"
"Yeah sure. Ma could you leave us alone for a little while?"
To Sully, Angela looked hurt by her son's request. She evidently wanted to be there for her son.
"She doesn't..." Sully started to say but was cut off by Bosco.
"Sully," he said wearyingly. Sully took the hint and kept and quit talking. "Please ma," Bosco said again.
"Okay,"Angela told him reluctantly. Since she had come back into the room since she got the report that her son was awake he had refused to talk about what had happened with her. She had a feeling he may have told Faith something but was hiding something from her. It hurt that her son wasn't willing to share it with her. She wanted to be there for him. To help him and he wasn't letting her.
"Bosco you know she didn't have to leave," Sully told him.
"Yes she did. You want to know what happened right. Well I'm not ready to tell her and when I do tell her I'm not going to have you in the audience."
"Okay, sorry. Look, why don't you just relate to me what you remember about what happened when you arrived at 232 56th street. It'll be easier than me asking you a whole bunch of questions."
"Well when I got on the scene I noticed the quiet right away. For report of an unknown dispute it was too quiet. I entered the building cautiously. A search of the first floor didn't reveal anything so I headed down to the basement. Walking down the stairs I still hadn't heard anything. I was getting ready to call a false alarm into Central when I was pushed from behind. I fell down the last few steps and before I could get up someone was on top of me pinning me down."
"Next thing I know I was being dragged to my feet by two guys. I couldn't see the face of either of them but I did see who the third person was." By this time Bosco was crying once again. Faith moved closer to her partner and carefully put a comforting arm around his shoulders.
Sully said nothing. He had a pretty good idea already who the third guy was. He had already decided he was going to let Bosco control the pace and length of this session. If Bosco told him to leave he was leaving even if nothing much got answered.
"The third guy was my brother, Mikey."
Sully noticed that Faith did not seem surprised by this. He had a feeling Faith already knew about Bosco's brother being involved.
"He had a metal pipe in his hands. I don't know how many times he hit me with that pipe. I was struggling to get air into my lungs. Then Mikey tossed the pipe to one side. When the two guys let go of me I fell to my knees still trying to get air. It was Mikey who dragged me over to the pipe in the corner of the basement. He took my handcuffs and handcuffed me to the pipe. I tried to fight back but I couldn't. I was helpless. One of the other guys tied my ankles with a piece of rope."
"When Mikey grabbed my gun I thought it was over. I thought for sure he was going to shoot me."
Bosco trailed off. He was now crying too hard now to talk. Faith just sat next to him, trying to comfort him. Sully didn't know what to do. He had never seen Bosco even close to tears.
"I think that's enough for now," Sully said wanting to get out of the room. He was uncomfortable seeing Bosco like this. "We can finish this later."
"No," Bosco said through his tears. "I want to finish this now."
"Bos, Sully might be right. This may be too much for you right now."
"Please let me finish," Bosco said finally looking back up at Sully.
"Okay," Sully said seeing in his eyes how important it was to Bosco to get this out now. There was another few moments of silence before Bosco started speaking again.
"When Mikey said that shooting me would be too easy I opened my eyes just in time to see the handle of the gun coming through the air toward my head," Bosco told them. "After that it was a struggle to keep my eyes opened. One of the guys, who now had a gas can in his hands, left my sight of vision. When he came back into my line of vision I could see that he was pouring the gasoline on the floor. Mikey gagged me," Bosco hesitated. He thought about telling them Mikey's words as he left but he couldn't bring himself to repeat them. "As Mikey left he lighted a match and tossed it on the floor. I don't know how much longer I was conscious but then the next thing I remember is waking up here."
Sully could tell that there were still things that Bosco remembered that he wasn't saying. Sully had a feeling though that they were just minor details though and they had enough information from Bosco now to go along with the evidence that they had been able to uncover. There was just one last question he needed to ask Bosco.
"Bosco, did you recognize the two guys that were with your brother."
"No. And I really didn't get a good look at either of them. When I did see them they were in the shadows."
"Okay," Sully said closing the notebook he had been writing things down in. "Get some rest," he told his fellow officer as he left the room.
"I'll be right back," Faith told Bosco quietly and then followed Sully out of the room. She joined Sully and Davis in the hall and they had a whispered conversation.
"Did he remember what happened?"
"Yeah, Davis he did. We definitely have enough to arrest his brother on assault charges. All we have to do now is locate him. Any ideas Faith?"
"No. I don't know where his brother would be. His mother is the only family member that Bosco talks about at all. Do they have any evidence to back up Bosco's statement?"
"Yeah, we found Mikey's fingerprints on Bosco's gun. A metal pipe was also found at the crime scene. After hearing Bosco's story I have no doubt they'll find Mikey's finger prints on that too which will place him at the scene of the crime. What I'm concerned about it the other two guys. Unless Mikey gives them up when we get him we might not be able to bring them in."
"There is one other thing Sully. How did they know for sure that Bosco was going to take that call."
"Maybe they didn't," Sully said. "Maybe if Bosco hadn't been the one to respond they never would have showed their face. It would have been called in by the officer responding as a false alarm."
"But Sully remember what Swersky told us, that the whole thing was well planned. Seems like if it were that well planned out they would have been fairly sure that it was going to be Bosco who responded to that call. What if they had help from inside the department?"
"That is a serious charge Davis," Sully told his partner.
"It is," Faith agreed. "But can we really afford to not mention it to Swersky and let him decide if it should be looked into."
"You're right. Come on Davis lets go find Swersky. He isn't going to like this."
Faith watched as her two friends walked down the hallway. She didn't envy them their task. She turned around and headed back into Bosco's room.
By this time Bosco had drifted off to sleep. Faith reached over and put the oxygen mask on him. The doctors still wanted him to use it but Bosco was being his normal stubborn self about the whole thing. She then sat down in one of the chairs next to his bed. Shortly Angela Boscorelli came back into the room to join her.
Angela wanted to ask Faith what her son had said but she knew Faith wouldn't tell her. It wasn't Faith's place to tell her. She was just going to have to wait for her son to tell her what was going on. Inside she knew he was trying to protect her from something but she couldn't imagine what it could be.
When Sully and Davis got back to the station house they found out that Swersky was in conference with the Captain. They had the officer covering the desk inform Swersky that they were waiting to talk to him.
"Go ahead in," the officer informed them after getting off the phone with the Captain.
Sully and Davis walked to the Captaian's office and knocked on the door.
"Come in," they heard the Captain reply.
"Did you get a statement from Boscorelli?" asked Swersky.
"Yes. He confirmed that his brother Mikey was behind the attack," Sully told him. He was still finding it hard to deal with that concept. He couldn't imagine what could've happened to make someone want to kill their own brother. "There were also two other guys involved but Bosco wasn't able to id them. Bosco was ambushed going down the steps, the two guys held him while Mikey hit him with the pipe so we should find Mikey's prints on the pipe."
"Forensics has confirmed that Mikey's finger prints are on the pipe," Swersky informed him.
"Mikey also handled the gun when he hit Bosco on the side of the head with it." Sully paused and then continued, "there is also something else that we thought should be looked into," Sully ventured. He looked to Davis seeing as it was his idea originally.
"Well, I was just thinking about how you were saying that the detectives were having a hard time finding evidence because it was so well planned. Well, if it was that well planned then they were probably relatively sure that Bosco was going to respond to that call."
"And if they had help from inside the department it would have been easy to make sure that Boscorelli answered that call," said the Captain catching on to Davis' train of thought.
"I can't believe that anyone in this department would be involved in something like this," Swersky said. "Yeah, Boscorelli isn't exactly the most popular officer but I don't think he's disliked enough that anyone would be involved in a plot to kill him."
"I tend to agree with you," the Captain said. "However, I don't think we can afford to not look into the matter. If we have a corrupt cop in the department than we need to find them. I'm going to pull the tape of radio calls from yesterday and meet you all in the role call room. I want to try reconstructing we're all units in the 5-5 were located yesterday, especially around the time of Bocorelli's call."
"We're in for a long night," Sully told Davis as they followed Swersky out of the Captain's office. He wasn't looking forward to the task ahead.
Angela Boscorelli was alone with her son in his hospital room. Faith had gone home about a half hour earlier at Bosco's insistence. There hadn't been much conversation between the two of them since Faith had left. Finally, Angela just decided to ask her son the question that was on her mind.
"Maurice, who did this to you? I want to know."
"I'm not sure you do ma."
"What are you trying to protect me from?"
"It was Mikey, Ma," Bosco said softly not able to look at his mother when he said it.
Angela was silent. She didn't know what to say. She knew Mikey had his problems but she loved both of her sons. She found it hard to believe that Mikey would do this to his own brother.
"That can't be," she whispered without realizing that she was saying it out loud.
"Okay fine don't believe me," Bosco said defensively. "He is your baby after all. You always were willing to protect him no matter what he did."
"I never said I didn't believe you," Angela said quickly. "This is just hard for me, Maurice. I love you both."
"I know Ma. I'm sorry."
"You have nothing to be sorry for Maurice," she told him. Her older son had been hurt enough already. She didn't want him hurting anymore.
As they stepped into the basement they could see Swersky talking with some of the detectives in a far corner. From the blackened look of the ground Sully figured that it was the place that the fire had been burning. One detective was pointing things out as he was talking to Swersky probably explaining to him what they had found out already.
Sully and Davis hung out in the middle of the basement until Swersky was done talking to the detectives. As soon as he was done, Swersky, who had noticed that Sully and Davis had arrived, walked over to where they were standing.
"The detectives haven't been able to figure out much yet. They have determined for sure that the fire both down here and on the floor above was set deliberately which we were already assuming. They located a metal pipe over there near the steps which they dusted for fingerprints. Maybe we can get a match with one of the prints pulled off of Boscorelli's gun. Whatever went on down here was well planned. Finding clues here is proving to be difficult," Swersky told them. Sully and Davis could both hear the frustration in Swersky's voice. "Please tell me you were able to figure out something."
"Actually we do have a lead. Doherty remembered hearing Bosco murmur the name Mikey while they were down here. Davis and I started searching Bosco's arrest reports looking for the name or a variation of the name Mikey. Davis found a drug arrest for a Mikey Boscorelli. Forensics was able to match the finger prints taken at the time of the arrest to the fourth set of finger prints on Bosco's gun."
"Michael is the name of Boscorelli's brother," Davis commented. "We checked with Faith. But that doesn't definitely place Mikey here, at the crime site. He could have handled Bosco's gun at some other time and the gun still might have fallen out during the struggle."
"I'll tell forensics to cross check the prints on the metal pipe found here. If his finger prints are on the pipe we've at least got him placed at the crime site. It would be enough to bring him in for questioning."
Before the officers could say anything else Serwsky's cell phone rang. He quickly answered it and Sully and Davis half listened to Swersky's end of the conversation. Without hearing the other half of the conversation they couldn't make much sense out of it. A few minutes later Swersky hung up and put his cell phone away.
"That was the Captain. The hospital called. Officer Boscorelli is awake and there doesn't appear to be any ill effects from the concussion he suffered. Sully, I want you to head over to the hospital and talk to Boscorelli. See what he recalls about what happened. This case might just have gotten a whole lot easier."
"Why me?" Sully asked. He had assumed that seeing as Swersky was leading the investigation he would question Bosco.
"Because the doctors don't want anyone who would be an authority figure in to see Bosco yet. They think it would place to much stress on him. They've agreed to let you ask him a few questions because you're not an authority figure. You work with Boscorelli on a regular basis. Yokas will probably be there too. I doubt you're going to get her out of the room."
"Alright."
Sully wasn't exactly comfortable with having to be the one to question Bosco. He had his doubts as to how willing Bosco would be to talk to him. While they did work together, he wouldn't exactly consider Bosco a friend. He was pretty sure that Bosco would feel the same way.
"I'll be waiting out here," Davis told Sully as they stood out in the hallway in front of Bosco's hospital room. Two officers from the 55th were still stationed on either side of the door.
"Thanks," Sully said sarcastically. He envied his partner being able to take the easy way out of this task.
Sully took a deep breath and opened the door to the room. Faith and Angela Boscorelli were both seated in chairs close to Bosco's bedside chatting with Bosco.
Sully had to admit that despite the bruises Bosco looked better than the last time he had seen him. Some color had returned to his face. Sully noticed the oxygen mask sitting on the bedside table. He had a feeling that Bosco was refusing to use it despite what the doctors wanted.
"Hey Bosco, how are you feeling?"
"I've definitely have been better."
"Are you up to answering a few questions?"
"Yeah sure. Ma could you leave us alone for a little while?"
To Sully, Angela looked hurt by her son's request. She evidently wanted to be there for her son.
"She doesn't..." Sully started to say but was cut off by Bosco.
"Sully," he said wearyingly. Sully took the hint and kept and quit talking. "Please ma," Bosco said again.
"Okay,"Angela told him reluctantly. Since she had come back into the room since she got the report that her son was awake he had refused to talk about what had happened with her. She had a feeling he may have told Faith something but was hiding something from her. It hurt that her son wasn't willing to share it with her. She wanted to be there for him. To help him and he wasn't letting her.
"Bosco you know she didn't have to leave," Sully told him.
"Yes she did. You want to know what happened right. Well I'm not ready to tell her and when I do tell her I'm not going to have you in the audience."
"Okay, sorry. Look, why don't you just relate to me what you remember about what happened when you arrived at 232 56th street. It'll be easier than me asking you a whole bunch of questions."
"Well when I got on the scene I noticed the quiet right away. For report of an unknown dispute it was too quiet. I entered the building cautiously. A search of the first floor didn't reveal anything so I headed down to the basement. Walking down the stairs I still hadn't heard anything. I was getting ready to call a false alarm into Central when I was pushed from behind. I fell down the last few steps and before I could get up someone was on top of me pinning me down."
"Next thing I know I was being dragged to my feet by two guys. I couldn't see the face of either of them but I did see who the third person was." By this time Bosco was crying once again. Faith moved closer to her partner and carefully put a comforting arm around his shoulders.
Sully said nothing. He had a pretty good idea already who the third guy was. He had already decided he was going to let Bosco control the pace and length of this session. If Bosco told him to leave he was leaving even if nothing much got answered.
"The third guy was my brother, Mikey."
Sully noticed that Faith did not seem surprised by this. He had a feeling Faith already knew about Bosco's brother being involved.
"He had a metal pipe in his hands. I don't know how many times he hit me with that pipe. I was struggling to get air into my lungs. Then Mikey tossed the pipe to one side. When the two guys let go of me I fell to my knees still trying to get air. It was Mikey who dragged me over to the pipe in the corner of the basement. He took my handcuffs and handcuffed me to the pipe. I tried to fight back but I couldn't. I was helpless. One of the other guys tied my ankles with a piece of rope."
"When Mikey grabbed my gun I thought it was over. I thought for sure he was going to shoot me."
Bosco trailed off. He was now crying too hard now to talk. Faith just sat next to him, trying to comfort him. Sully didn't know what to do. He had never seen Bosco even close to tears.
"I think that's enough for now," Sully said wanting to get out of the room. He was uncomfortable seeing Bosco like this. "We can finish this later."
"No," Bosco said through his tears. "I want to finish this now."
"Bos, Sully might be right. This may be too much for you right now."
"Please let me finish," Bosco said finally looking back up at Sully.
"Okay," Sully said seeing in his eyes how important it was to Bosco to get this out now. There was another few moments of silence before Bosco started speaking again.
"When Mikey said that shooting me would be too easy I opened my eyes just in time to see the handle of the gun coming through the air toward my head," Bosco told them. "After that it was a struggle to keep my eyes opened. One of the guys, who now had a gas can in his hands, left my sight of vision. When he came back into my line of vision I could see that he was pouring the gasoline on the floor. Mikey gagged me," Bosco hesitated. He thought about telling them Mikey's words as he left but he couldn't bring himself to repeat them. "As Mikey left he lighted a match and tossed it on the floor. I don't know how much longer I was conscious but then the next thing I remember is waking up here."
Sully could tell that there were still things that Bosco remembered that he wasn't saying. Sully had a feeling though that they were just minor details though and they had enough information from Bosco now to go along with the evidence that they had been able to uncover. There was just one last question he needed to ask Bosco.
"Bosco, did you recognize the two guys that were with your brother."
"No. And I really didn't get a good look at either of them. When I did see them they were in the shadows."
"Okay," Sully said closing the notebook he had been writing things down in. "Get some rest," he told his fellow officer as he left the room.
"I'll be right back," Faith told Bosco quietly and then followed Sully out of the room. She joined Sully and Davis in the hall and they had a whispered conversation.
"Did he remember what happened?"
"Yeah, Davis he did. We definitely have enough to arrest his brother on assault charges. All we have to do now is locate him. Any ideas Faith?"
"No. I don't know where his brother would be. His mother is the only family member that Bosco talks about at all. Do they have any evidence to back up Bosco's statement?"
"Yeah, we found Mikey's fingerprints on Bosco's gun. A metal pipe was also found at the crime scene. After hearing Bosco's story I have no doubt they'll find Mikey's finger prints on that too which will place him at the scene of the crime. What I'm concerned about it the other two guys. Unless Mikey gives them up when we get him we might not be able to bring them in."
"There is one other thing Sully. How did they know for sure that Bosco was going to take that call."
"Maybe they didn't," Sully said. "Maybe if Bosco hadn't been the one to respond they never would have showed their face. It would have been called in by the officer responding as a false alarm."
"But Sully remember what Swersky told us, that the whole thing was well planned. Seems like if it were that well planned out they would have been fairly sure that it was going to be Bosco who responded to that call. What if they had help from inside the department?"
"That is a serious charge Davis," Sully told his partner.
"It is," Faith agreed. "But can we really afford to not mention it to Swersky and let him decide if it should be looked into."
"You're right. Come on Davis lets go find Swersky. He isn't going to like this."
Faith watched as her two friends walked down the hallway. She didn't envy them their task. She turned around and headed back into Bosco's room.
By this time Bosco had drifted off to sleep. Faith reached over and put the oxygen mask on him. The doctors still wanted him to use it but Bosco was being his normal stubborn self about the whole thing. She then sat down in one of the chairs next to his bed. Shortly Angela Boscorelli came back into the room to join her.
Angela wanted to ask Faith what her son had said but she knew Faith wouldn't tell her. It wasn't Faith's place to tell her. She was just going to have to wait for her son to tell her what was going on. Inside she knew he was trying to protect her from something but she couldn't imagine what it could be.
When Sully and Davis got back to the station house they found out that Swersky was in conference with the Captain. They had the officer covering the desk inform Swersky that they were waiting to talk to him.
"Go ahead in," the officer informed them after getting off the phone with the Captain.
Sully and Davis walked to the Captaian's office and knocked on the door.
"Come in," they heard the Captain reply.
"Did you get a statement from Boscorelli?" asked Swersky.
"Yes. He confirmed that his brother Mikey was behind the attack," Sully told him. He was still finding it hard to deal with that concept. He couldn't imagine what could've happened to make someone want to kill their own brother. "There were also two other guys involved but Bosco wasn't able to id them. Bosco was ambushed going down the steps, the two guys held him while Mikey hit him with the pipe so we should find Mikey's prints on the pipe."
"Forensics has confirmed that Mikey's finger prints are on the pipe," Swersky informed him.
"Mikey also handled the gun when he hit Bosco on the side of the head with it." Sully paused and then continued, "there is also something else that we thought should be looked into," Sully ventured. He looked to Davis seeing as it was his idea originally.
"Well, I was just thinking about how you were saying that the detectives were having a hard time finding evidence because it was so well planned. Well, if it was that well planned then they were probably relatively sure that Bosco was going to respond to that call."
"And if they had help from inside the department it would have been easy to make sure that Boscorelli answered that call," said the Captain catching on to Davis' train of thought.
"I can't believe that anyone in this department would be involved in something like this," Swersky said. "Yeah, Boscorelli isn't exactly the most popular officer but I don't think he's disliked enough that anyone would be involved in a plot to kill him."
"I tend to agree with you," the Captain said. "However, I don't think we can afford to not look into the matter. If we have a corrupt cop in the department than we need to find them. I'm going to pull the tape of radio calls from yesterday and meet you all in the role call room. I want to try reconstructing we're all units in the 5-5 were located yesterday, especially around the time of Bocorelli's call."
"We're in for a long night," Sully told Davis as they followed Swersky out of the Captain's office. He wasn't looking forward to the task ahead.
Angela Boscorelli was alone with her son in his hospital room. Faith had gone home about a half hour earlier at Bosco's insistence. There hadn't been much conversation between the two of them since Faith had left. Finally, Angela just decided to ask her son the question that was on her mind.
"Maurice, who did this to you? I want to know."
"I'm not sure you do ma."
"What are you trying to protect me from?"
"It was Mikey, Ma," Bosco said softly not able to look at his mother when he said it.
Angela was silent. She didn't know what to say. She knew Mikey had his problems but she loved both of her sons. She found it hard to believe that Mikey would do this to his own brother.
"That can't be," she whispered without realizing that she was saying it out loud.
"Okay fine don't believe me," Bosco said defensively. "He is your baby after all. You always were willing to protect him no matter what he did."
"I never said I didn't believe you," Angela said quickly. "This is just hard for me, Maurice. I love you both."
"I know Ma. I'm sorry."
"You have nothing to be sorry for Maurice," she told him. Her older son had been hurt enough already. She didn't want him hurting anymore.