Germany
Day 8
05:15 hrs, Monday
"Roper." His mobile rang just as he drove into the limits of town.
"Where the hell are you?" Burns barked.
"I'm in town. What is it?" He tried to keep the anger out of his voice. He was tired, too tired to deal with Burns now.
"Get over to 2408 Fennstrausse. Its on the north side of town." Burns growled.
"What's happened?" Roper asked but Burns clicked his mobile off.
Roper took a side street. He knew where Fennstrausse was, a residential street near where he used to live when he first came here. The street was swamped with police cars, both marked and not, when he turned down. Roper parked near Burns' car.
"That was quick." Bruce murmured as he walked up to where he and Burns stood.
"What's happened? Whose house is this?" Officers were coming every which way. A coroner's van pulled up.
"One of our car thieves got himself murdered." Bruce told him when it became obvious that Burns was not going to.
"Who was it? Not Shane?" Roper asked, following them up to the front door where Thomas stood.
"No. Heidel." Bruce muttered.
"This way." Thomas did not greet them with his usual friendliness. He led them into the house.
The place had been completely tossed. Even Roper could tell that this was not a robbery. The total disarray was not the mark of someone searching for valuables. Most people did not hide anything in the throw pillows of their sofas and most burglars did not bother to split them open looking. Thomas led them into the kitchen.
"Bloody hell." Bruce muttered. Roper very nearly laughed at the overstatement. It was not funny though.
Every possible surface in the room was doused with blood, the walls, the appliances, even the shelves of the refrigerator whose door hung open. The two, Per Erik Heidel, and a female Roper did not know sat in chairs on either side of the table. They lay with their heads on the table; face down in pools of blood. The backs of their heads were gone. Their wrists were bound behind their backs, around the backs of the chairs.
"Executed." Thomas commented. That much was obvious. "Footprints lead out of the back door and across the yard."
"What is this?" Burns asked.
"Maybe Johnson didn't like his moonlighting." Roper theorized. "Heidel was a weak link if he got caught."
"Do we know Heidel is even involved with anything beyond the thefts?" Burns slapped him down.
"He worked for Johnson." Roper muttered. Burns did not even bother to look at him, surveying the carnage.
"Well, your theories have gotten us bugger all nowhere up to this point. Any reason I shouldn't stop listening to you?" Burns sent back. Thomas and Bruce just stood there, looking at them.
"They were both shot in the back of the head." Thomas stated the obvious again, as if trying to dispel the tension.
"Do we have anything on how Johnson deals with problems?" Roper asked him. Thomas shook his head.
"Nothing."
"Have you seen anything like this around here?" Bruce asked. Thomas shook his head.
A police officer came in, whispering something in Thomas' ear. Whatever it was got Thomas' attention. He turned to look behind them.
"Bloody hell." Bruce repeated himself.
"Quite." Roper said without thinking.
The officer brought Corporal Shane down the back stairs.
"What the hell is he doing here?" Burns blurted out.
"They found him hiding in the attic." Thomas told them.
Shane stood transfixed, staring at the two bodies. He had wet himself.
"Get him out of here." Burns bellowed, forgetting that the men going about their jobs were not soldiers. Even so, the officer snapped to attention, pulling Shane out to the living room. "Go talk to him. Find out what the hell is going on here." Burns barked at he and Bruce. Roper rolled his eyes but moved to obey.
Shane sat on the front stairs. A paramedic draped a blanket around him, checking him over.
"Well, well, well, looks like you've gotten yourself into a right mess now." Roper commented, shoving his hands into his pockets as he approached the soldier. Shane looked frightened.
"You've got to get me out of here." Shane burbled.
"Oh, you're getting out of here, all right. You're going right to a cell. Thought you were pretty clever, didn't you?" Roper smirked. "No less than twenty RMPs saw you take that last car. What was it that you needed the money for? Are you going to tell us now?" Shane blinked, peering up at him.
"I'll tell you anything you want to know just get me out of here." He looked around desperately. "They'll kill me, too, if you don't get me out of here." Shane sobbed.
The paramedic looked to Thomas, nodding. Burns came out of the kitchen.
"What has he got to say for himself?"
"He seems to think he's the one dictating terms." Bruce joked.
"He's mucking up my patch. He'll be lucky if I don't have him up on charges for that." Burns growled. "Not to mention getting me out of bed at this hour."
"Why would they want to kill you?" Roper asked Shane.
"I swear, get me out of here and I'll tell you anything, sir. I swear. I promise. Please." Shane blubbered.
"Who is the woman in the kitchen?" Roper pressed.
"Get me out of here." Shane screamed.
"She's Heidel's girlfriend." Thomas filled them in.
"Was she part of your little crime ring?" Roper asked.
"I don't know, I don't know. I swear just get me out of here." Shane jumped to his feet, a new stain flooding down the front of his pants.
"Why were they executed? Who's after you? Is it Danny Johnson?" Shane slumped to the floor, sobbing. "We're not going to get anything from him now, Boss." Roper forgot for a moment that Burns could not care less what he thought. Burns did not answer. He turned to Thomas.
"Well, Herr Strauss? How do you want to play this?" Thomas looked at him, perplexed. His face cleared as he figured it out.
"I can allow you to take him back to your base as long as we can speak with him once he is able."
"Of course." Burns turned to them. "Bruce, put him in the back of the car."
"Right, Boss." Bruce pulled Shane up from the floor by the arm. "Get on with it. Come on then."
"Put something down on the seat first!" Burns bellowed out after them. Roper smirked. "All right, Hippy," Burns said in his old conspiratorial whisper, "get him back to base and find out what is going on with this. I want a full report as soon as I get back."
"Right." Burns glared at him, as if suddenly remembering that he was furious with Roper. Roper turned and left before Burns could say something else.
"Well?" Bruce asked as he came out.
"Well, what?" Roper shot back. Bruce had all ready gotten Shane into the back of the car.
"That's not just Burns' normal morning sunniness."
"Put Shane in the back of my car." Roper said.
"Did you see her?" Roper looked at him. "Well?"
"Yeah." Roper admitted.
"How is she?" Roper did not know how to answer.
"She's awake," was all Roper said. "Get Shane into the back of my car. Burns wants me to take him back to base and get it all out of him."
"Right."
Shots rang out just as Bruce turned to grab Shane. Roper ducked as the back window of the car exploded. Another whistle sizzled through the air. Police scattered, rolling on the ground, running for cover any place there was any.
Roper popped his head up.
"Get down!" Bruce bellowed at him from under the car.
Roper looked over at the car. In the backseat, Shane slumped down. Blood had sprayed even to the front windshield.
Storming did not even begin to describe Burns present mood. Roper just stayed as much out of his way as possible as the team gathered in the incident room. Bruce still had the stains of Shane's blood drying on his jacket. He still looked a little shell-shocked from the whole scene. Gunfire was something to be expected in a war zone, not in a quiet little street in a quiet little town in Germany.
"Where does this leave us?" Burns finally asked quietly, too quietly. He did not even stop his pacing when Thomas walked in, flicking only a glance.
"No where, Boss." Bruce admitted, looking around uncomfortably. "With both Heidel and Shane dead, the theft case is closed."
"What about this Jesckle?"
"The news is not good, I'm afraid." Thomas spoke up. "He is dead, too. Stabbed last night. We had him in custody. Apparently one of the others stabbed him while on the way to dinner."
"What the bloody hell is going on?" Burns muttered, probably to himself.
"Johnson's cleaning house." Mike told him, unaware of Burns' mood swings. "Heidel was a weak link. If he got caught in the whole car scandal, he might talk about something more important to get himself out of the fire. Shane, too."
"So we really think Shane was Johnson's lad here?"
"Seems so, Boss." Roper cut in. "Johnson's the only one in this area with the wherewithal to try a stunt like this. He's trying to take over the whole drug trade over in Hamburg."
"And dropping bodies left and right over there, sir. It's not such a stretch that he'd drop a couple here. It isn't as surprising if you look at the big picture." Mike finished Roper's thought.
"Well, we bloody well can't have bodies dropping all over the place, now can we? So where do we go from here?"
"Well, with all due respect, sir, your section's interest in this case has pretty much run it's course, with Thomas' boys grabbing up the shooter from the club and your car ring sewn up." Mike stated frankly. "We'll stay on Johnson, to be sure. Time will be the tell if Shane really was the leak."
"How?"
"If the quantity on the street goes down, prices go up, we'll be able to tell if Johnson's having supply trouble."
Burns looked him over. He turned to Thomas.
"Well? Have you got anything to say about all this?" Thomas thought about it for a moment.
"I'd have to agree with Staff Sgt. Donnell." Thomas concurred.
"So that's it?"
"Looks like it, Boss." Roper spoke up.
"Bloody untidy is what it is." Burns remarked, slamming the door to his office.
"Roper." Burns popped his head out of his door as Roper was leaving. Roper stopped. "Can I talk to you?" Roper did not like his conciliatory tone. He hesitated. Burns waited. Roper gave in, following him in. "Drink?"
"No, thanks." Roper sat down in the chair in front of Burns' desk. Burns leaned back in his chair, avoiding looking at him.
"Heading home?" Roper rolled his eyes, readying for another assault.
"Out for a drink with Donnell." Burns nodded. He nodded some more, as if he could not quite get out what he wanted to say. Roper was not in the mood for another lecture about why he should not be with Jo. He still had to figure out a way to make her understand.
"There's something I wanted to talk to you about." Burns started and stopped.
"I figured that." Roper prompted him. Burns looked over at him.
"Right. Well." Burns pulled a bottle out of his desk, pouring himself a drink. He held out the bottle to Roper. Roper shook his head. "There's going to be some changes around here."
"What changes?"
"Well, it seems that I'm something of an old dog and its either time to move up or move out." Roper did not see where he was going. Burns watched him. "I've been accepted to officer training school." Roper just sat back, staring at him. Burns grinned half-heartedly. "It was either that or sink into oblivion of counting blankets."
"I had no idea." Roper murmured.
"Yeah, well." Roper did not even know how to respond.
"Who's going to be taking over?"
"That's what I wanted to talk to you about. Captain Howard has asked for my recommendations on who it should be."
"And?"
"I told him you." Roper just sat there still, digesting that. Burns watched him. "Nothing is official, of course. Howard still has to sign off on this but you'll be taking over when I leave."
"Well," was all Roper could come up with. "When's all this going to happen?"
"Probably not for a couple of weeks."
"Why are you telling me now?" Burns mused over it.
"I've given you a bit of a hard time lately. I wanted you to know why. Running a section like this takes a lot. The people under your command need to feel that their leader is solid, that they can rely on him no matter what is going on."
"Right." Roper could taste the bile coming up in his throat.
"You understand what I'm talking about then?" Burns asked. Roper stared at him.
"Yeah. I understand what you're saying." Roper did not but he was not going to tell Burns that. Keeping Sas around had nothing to do with him being a capable leader. If anything, it left him with a distinct disadvantage. The stress at home gave him no time to unwind, leaving only more stressed when he came in the morning. Sgt. Major or not, he was not going back on his decision to be done with her once and for all.
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