stakeout chapter 9
Outside The Bronze
Sunnydale, CA
September 24, 1998
Thursday 8:05 PM
Tim Harris looked around the street, thinking fast. Gabriel Martin was standing besides him, absorbing the information they had just gotten from Scott Kelly. The intel that the teams had operated on had always assumed that there was only one Slayer. If there was more than one, it brought up doubts about their intel, not that they had a lot of confidence in it anyway.
Tim turned toward Scott. "Was the girl about this tall and wearing black leather?" Tim held his hand up to show height. Scott nodded. "She went back into the club with a bunch of teens, right?" Scott nodded again.
"She's with Xander and the others."
"Huh?" The deputy was puzzled by Tim's statement.
"We ran into Xander in the club, he came out just before we did." Tim paused for a moment, just as his commander spoke.
"Was Summers with him?" Gabriel asked, focusing on Tim.
Tim frowned for a moment, concentrating. "I saw a short blonde girl with him when they went back into the club, so probably yes."
"What I'd give to hear what they are talking about," Gabriel muttered, looking back at the entrance to the club, turning back as Scott began to quickly dig through his coat pockets.
Pulling out a cell phone with an attached hands-free earpiece, Scott gave to it his commander. "That's a modified parabolic mike with a transmitter. It won't make phone calls, but it'll relay what it picks up to a recorder."
"What's the range of the mike?" Gabriel asked, looking at the medium sized fixed-antenna cell phone. It looked grossly ordinary, even a little clunky.
"One hundred feet out in the open. The signal is transmitted up to 300 yards. You can also hear what is being transmitted only through the earpiece." Gabriel passed the phone to Tim.
"You have the recorder in the truck?" Tim asked. Scott nodded. "I'm going back in there." Tim looked over at Gabriel, who nodded his assent. "How's this thing work?"
"Hit 'power' to turn it on, 'talk' to transmit, 'end' to stop, volume is the same, point the antenna at the target." Scott pointed to the buttons as he spoke rapidly.
"OK then." Tim turned to leave as Scott continued.
"If it's someplace noisy like a club, you may have to get close for you to pick up anything."
"Great. See you in a bit." Tim walked quickly toward the club entrance, the two other men walking just as fast in the opposite direction toward the parked truck.
The Bronze
Sunnydale, CA,
September 24, 1998
Thursday 8:10 PM
Tim Harris stepped up to the railing of the balcony, looking around at the various groups in the club. He had looked around the club upon entry, but the crowd was too thick to pick out faces. Moving up to the balcony offered a better vantage point, which paid off almost immediately.
Seeing Xander and his friends sitting on couches around a low table, Tim plugged the earpiece in and turned on the 'cell phone', pointing it at the teens, not believing what he heard at first.
-God, I could eat a horse. Isn't it crazy how Slaying just always makes you hungry and horny?
Tim saw all the other teens turn from the dark haired girl scarfing down food from the table in front of her to the blond haired girl sitting off to the side, who was starting to look embarrassed.
-Well... Sometimes I crave a nonfat yogurt afterwards.
Tim looked down at the display screen of the 'cell phone' and saw the transmit icon, indicating that the signal was going out. Looking around to make sure he was not being observed, Tim concentrated on the conversation again, hearing Xander's voice come through the earpiece.
-So what was the story about that alligator? You, uh, said something... before.
The dark haired girl replied to his nephew's question.
-Oh, there's this big daddy vampire out of Missouri who used to keep them as pets. So he's got me rasslin' one of 'em, okay? The thing must have been twelve feet long and I'm...
-So was this, ahem, also naked?
-Well, the alligator was.
'Smooth, Xander,' Tim thought to himself, catching the glare that Cordelia directed toward her boyfriend.
Outside the Bronze
Sunnydale, CA
September 24, 1998
Thursday 8:30 PM
Tim shut the passenger door of the Yukon, looking over at Scott in the back seat. The tech flipped him a thumbs-up, indicating that everything was fine at his end.
"There weren't any problems inside the club, Tim?" Gabriel was sitting in the driver's seat, all strapped in and read to go.
"No, I waited until they had left before leaving myself, I didn't want for Xander to see me again." Tim pulled on his seat belt and clicked it into place. "You got everything off the mike, right?"
Gabriel started the engine of the truck and drove away from the club, glancing over at Tim. "We were able to get what you transmitted, but there wasn't that much hard info about the new girl. We just have her first name, and a possible hometown."
"Surely that's enough to get an ID, no?" Tim had a non-committal look on his face.
"On the computer? We'll probably get 200 hits on that name, assuming that it *is* her real given name and her real home town." Scott was packing up his surveillance gear in his gear bag as he spoke. "It's times like this that I knew I should have gone into accounting, like Dad wanted."
"You need to have faith, Scott." Tim smiled at the double entendre. "There is more to life than your ones and zeros."
"Oh yeah? How can you improve on technology, oh wise one?" Scott looked up to see that Tim was now grinning at him.
"By going back to basics, my young apprentice." Tim tossed something at Scott, who flinched but managed to catch the crumpled brown paper bag.
"What's this?" Scott could feel something in the bag, something bulky but very light. Opening the bag, the deputy saw an empty Sprite can.
"Good old fashioned detective work, young one." Tim turned and faced forward again. "One that doesn't involve more than a little dusting."
"This is Faith's soda can?" Scott's expression changed to that of admiration.
"Yep. I suggest running the prints on that can through Boston PD first, she mentioned an arrest there." Tim glanced over at Gabriel, who gave him a half smile and approving nod.
Scott put the bag aside and began to bow. "We're not worthy, we're not worthy," he chanted, eliciting laughs from both Gabriel and Tim as the truck headed down the street.
The Old Range Building
SCSD Academy
September 25, 1998
Monday 6:00 PM
Gabriel Martin loved his job, but he really hated certain aspects of it.
He loved arresting bad guys, but he hated seeing the results of their actions.
Beatings, rapes, murders - Gabriel had investigated almost every crime that people committed against one another.
Most police work was reactive, taking place after the harm had been done. That was the reason Stakeout had been established - to keep people from being hurt or killed by the monsters in this town.
For the most part, Gabriel got a lot of satisfaction from dusting vampires, knowing that every cloud of vampire dust he created was one less 'mugging' or 'gang-related attack' that would occur to a helpless citizen.
But now Gabriel was paying the price for all that good deeds he and the others on his teams had done.
...At the above date and time while on patrol in the area of Third Street and Collins Avenue, SEU Bravo came across a crime in progress...
Gabriel sat at his desk in Classroom 1, tapping away on his computer keyboard.
...This deputy observed a adult male attempting to open a parked automobile with a burglary tool...
Stakeout Team Blue had come across a guy trying to steal a car parked in an lot near downtown Sunnydale. Gabriel had given a half-serious thought to just scaring the guy off, knowing what would follow, but his sense of duty had overcome the brief impulse.
...The members of SEU Bravo approached on foot and took positions next to the driver's side of the car...
The wanna-be car thief had jimmied the door lock and was working on the ignition wires below the steering column after when he heard a tapping on the window glass. Looking up, he saw a sight that almost brought his heart to a screeching halt.
...The suspect was made aware of the deputies' presence...
A twelve-gauge shotgun, the muzzle gaping wider than a sewer drain pipe, was on the other side of the glass, only a foot away from his face.
...and with badges clearly visible, the deputies identified ourselves.
"Hi, we're from Triple A. Do you had a problem with your ignition ?" The voice on the other side of the scatter gun sounded a little amused, but the looks on the faces of the two men flanking him, pistols drawn and also aimed at him, negated the humor of the first guy.
The next line was from one of the other men. "Sunnydale Sheriffs. Put your hands up." He did not have to finish the sentence for the car thief to figure out what could happen if he did not comply
...The suspect got out of the vehicle and following the deputies' instructions assumed the prone felony arrest position and was taken into custody...
A male voice rasped, "Lie down on the ground, hands on your head, and don't do anything stupid." Rough hands quickly cuffed him, patted him down and dragged him to his feet
...The suspect was identified as one Adam Buford, and was booked on the charges of attempted grand theft auto and auto burglary...
Gabriel loved arresting criminals, but really hated the paperwork involved.
Finishing the report, Gabriel hit save and print, the document appearing on the feeder tray of the printer on the other side of the table. Standing up to retrieve the document, he saw Scott Kelly walking up to him, an amused look on his face.
"What's so funny, Scott?" Gabriel asked without rancor in his voice.
"We got the prints back from the lab, the ones on that Sprite can. I ran them through the computer, and got a hit. Problem was it was all juvie records, had to crack into the Boston computers to get at them." Scott had some papers in his hand. "You know that old cliché about criminal records being as long as your arm?"
"Yeah." Gabriel watched as Scott brought the papers in front of him, and then letting them drop, the computer printout sheets unfolding until they hit the floor.
Scott looked from the pages to his commander. "We finally got some who beat that." He handed over the top page, the pages trailing on the floor.
Gabriel read the first few lines out loud. "Faith Esther Donal." Looking up, Gabriel said incredulously, "Esther???" then continued. "Born South Boston, Massachusetts. Age 17. Father - Unknown. Mother - Mary Ruth Donal, incarcerated. Currently under guardianship, Department of Children Services."
Scott spoke as Gabriel paused in his reading. "Apparently, the mother stabbed a drug dealer that was under police surveillance. She was strung out, trying to jack some drugs from the dealer. She was lucky, the cops got to her before the dealer's friends did. She plead out to assault with a deadly weapon and is serving 2 to 10 years in prison."
"So what is the rest of this about?" Gabriel shook the printout.
"After the mother went to prison, the daughter started to act out, doing all the dumb things teens do, so she has multiple busts for drinking, fighting, stuff like that. She was cycling between Juvie Hall, foster homes and the streets when all of a sudden she got a new guardian and everything cooled off. Her last bust was three months ago for indecent exposure, but the charges were dropped and she was released to her guardian," reported Scott.
"Any word on the guardian? Faith is alone here in Sunnydale." Gabriel asked.
"Her name's in there, but except for that one mention in the club, Faith didn't say anything else about her." Scott replied. "I would have to make an official request for Boston PD to talk to her. That is pretty weird, this new girl showing up alone. She wasn't listed as a runaway in that report, but that might change in a day or two."
"OK, keeping looking into this. Anything else pops on her, let me know." Gabriel ordered. He was about to go back to his desk, then looked back at Scott. "One more thing. That girl mentioned a rocket launcher attack. Run a search on all unusual weapons used in crimes in Sunnydale. Let me know what comes up on that."
"No problem, boss." Scott walked back toward his computers. With a sigh, Gabriel sat down at his desk and started working on his next report.
end stakeout chapter 9