Disclaimer: I do not own any rights to Third Watch or any of it's characters or any other shows and characters.
Author's note: Thanks for the reviews. Mattycakes...I added this chapter for you because you suggested it and you're such a faithful reviewer.
Chapter 8 Boy In The Bubble In Brooklyn
Lieu is manning the front desk as usual, and he is hoping for an easier night than he had the night before. He takes a call, jots down the information and as he hangs up he spots Cruz and Monroe walking by. "Sergeant, I got a job for you to take. It's a missing kid." He hands her a piece of paper. "Go to this hotel. These people are tourists so be as helpful as you can."
Sully and Bosco have walked in and approached the desk. "You wanted to see us lieu?"
"Yah. I have a job for you, too. It seems that some big shot stars are in town to appear on Letterman and the studio called for an extra car for crowd control. I need you to go over there."
"Who's in town, did they say?" Sully asks.
"The stars of American Idol. The three judges from the show."
"Oh no. Don't make us do crowd control. Why can't we take the missing kid?" Bosco moans.
"Are you crazy? I'd love to do 'that' crowd control. I grew up watching Paula Abdul." Monroe interjects as she rolls her hands and sways at the hips. "I learned all my best dance moves from her. I'd love to meet her and show her my stuff. And Randy Jackson, since he lost all that weight, well let me say, that 'dog's' best in show."
"Then why don't you go with Sully. I'll help Cruz on the missing kid."
Sasha lets out a shrill scream of excitement. "Really? You'll switch with me?"
"If the boss don't mind." Bosco says diplomatically, as all eyes fall on Lieu.
Lieu rolls his eyes up at Bosco. "Seeing as how you shot the last star you had to deal with, I guess it's a good idea. Go ahead."
Bosco and Cruz arrive at the hotel to meet with the parents of the missing kid. They enter the lobby and are met by a distraught blonde woman, who is trying to hold herself together, as a well dressed man with dark curly hair and a nice tan is trying to calm her down. She seems annoyed with him and very relieved to see the police officers walk in to the lobby.
"Thank God you're here. My son has been lost on the streets of New York all day. I need you to go out and find him or get a search party going or whatever it is you do."
The man with her stands close but does not put his arm around her as he offers comfort. "Sharona...please...you need to stay calm. It will be alright." His voice is very sad and his speech very slow but rather than sounding soothing, it sounds more like he is distressed.
The woman turns on him. "Don't you tell me to stay calm. You lost my son in the busiest, toughest and most crime riddled city in the world! Don't you even talk to me!"
He cowers back from her and says softly, "I'm sorry." Then his eyes roam mournfully around the lobby as if he is searching his mind for the right thing to say to her then he just watches timidly as the woman turns her attention back to the officers.
"I'm sergeant Cruz and this is officer Boscorelli. Why don't you tell me your name and give me a description of your son."
"My name is Sharona Fleming, my son, Benjy, is ten years old. He has light brown hair and beautiful brown eyes. He's wearing jeans and an "I Love New York" Tee-shirt that I bought him yesterday." She gets choked up and tries to keep from sobbing.
"Umm...he's not wearing that shirt." The man says softly.
"Yes he is. I saw him in it before I left the hotel this morning."
"No...he's wearing a powder blue polo shirt with a dark collar and it is accented nicely with a navy blue windbreaker." He keeps looking nervously at the floor and glances up only briefly to make eye contact.
"Are you sure? Coz it's important." Bosco says. He's getting an odd feeling from this man.
"Yes. The T-shirt was wrinkled and one sleeve was a little longer than the other." He says. His words are staggered as he pauses a second longer than normal between sentences. "I couldn't have him walking around like that all day."
"Where did you last see him?"
"Uh...at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. We were on a tour bus." The man says.
Bosco calls the information in over the radio then asks. "Are you his father?"
"No. This is Adrian Monk, a friend and my former boss." Sharona offers.
"Have you two known each other long?" Cruz asks suspiciously.
"Several years...but how is this helping to find my son?"
"We put his description out, officers are looking for him as we speak. Now I need to ask you some questions for my report. How long have you been in New York and where are you from?"
Sharona goes on to explain to Cruz that she worked for Monk for several years in San Francisco. She recently reunited with her ex-husband, and she and her son are moving to New Jersey to live with him. Since the moving van won't be arriving for three days, she decided to stay in New York for a few days because her son had never been here before. And because Monk has never seen New York either, he decided to come with them. The plan was that Monk would tour the city with Benjy while she got to go clothes shopping.
Cruz turns her questions to Adrian. "So you were with him last. How did you two get separated"
"The tour bus driver said he was going to leave the museum at eleven o'clock sharp. He was very adamant about that."
"And Benjy wasn't there when the bus left?"
"Umm...not exactly." He looks up embarrassed and every one is waiting for him to continue. "I...wasn't there when the bus left."
"So he got on the bus alone?" Bosco asks.
"I believe so. He continued on the tour when I got...um...when the...uh...when the security guard detained me." He says regretfully.
Bosco and Cruz share a glance. "Why did he detain you?"
"They really don't like it very much when you touch the paintings. But...but...it was very crooked. Every one could see that. I was only trying to straighten it out. And they were very rude when I tried to explain."
"Oh Adrian. You promised you would keep that in check." Sharona snaps at him.
"I tried...I really did. I just stepped over the rope to tip the picture a little bit to the right, that's all, and they dragged me away and questioned me. They actually put their hands on me. It was awful. As they led me away, I told Benjy that I would meet him back on the bus, and I warned him to just stay with the tour. But by the time they released me, it was past eleven. I tried to get a cab so I could catch up with the tour bus but it took me over three hours to get a cab."
"In New York...you couldn't find a cab?" Bosco says with a tone that implies he doesn't believe him.
"Oh I found them...they were everywhere. Many of them stopped...one after the other...each one filthier than the last. There was no way I could climb into any of those germ infested Petri dishes on wheels. One of them was so dirty that I could smell the inside before I opened the door with my hankie. It smelled like rancid food. Then I had to throw my hankie away and buy another..."
Cruz has heard enough. "Ok. Bosco, contact the tour company. See if they found the boy." Then she tells Sharona. "I'm confident we'll locate him. If he stays with the tour group, he'll be fine. I'd like to take a look at your room before we leave."
"I'd like to see your room too." Monk says. "Maybe there is some clue as to where he may have gone after the tour."
"You just let us do our job. I suggest you go to your own room and stay there." Cruz tells him. They all walk to the elevator and punch the up button before they realize that Monk hasn't followed them out of the lobby.
"C'mon Adrian." Sharona calls to him.
His eyes look panicked. "I'm coming." He looks down at is feet and then all around the lobby and calls out. "It's ok...I'm coming."
"I'm going to recommend that you don't let Mr. Monk go out alone." Cruz says.
"Yah...and when we find your kid, I wouldn't let a guy like 'him' watch him anymore, either." Bosco adds pointing to Monk.
"No, you've got it wrong. I assure you, Adrian is a good guy. I trust him with Benjy."
"Yah but he's a little..." Cruz pauses looking for the right word, and as she says, "slow." Bosco says "retarded."
"Adrian is not retarded." Sharona snaps back
"He's not?" Bosco asks sarcastically. "Then what the hell is he doen?"
They turn to look at Monk in the lobby. The floor is white, but Monk is standing on a black tile pattern of a circle. Each circle on the floor is about five feet in diameter and about four feet away from the next one. There is also a one foot wide black border along each wall. They watch as Monk leaps from the circle he is standing on, to the next one. He walks along that circle until he comes to a large table with a giant vase on it and he can't get close enough to jump to the next circle, but he can't step off the black tiles.
Adrian backtracks and hops to the original circle and leaps to one closer to the wall. He then hops to the black border and with his hands out to his side, he leaps at the wall, hugging it to keep himself on the black tile. He sidesteps along towards the elevators, climbing up onto a couch, stepping over the lady sitting on it and back onto the border until he can leap to another black circle. He walks the circle until he reaches the carpet and then walks casually past everyone to the stairs. "I'll see you up there." He says as he passes.
Bosco and Cruz give Sharona a look. "He also can't ride elevators." She tells them. "I know he seems...a little odd, but he has an obsessive-compulsive disorder complicated with a variety of phobias."
"He's a nut." Bosco quips.
"Adrian Monk is a brilliant detective." Sharona says in his defense. "He was practically famous for his crime solving abilities...until the onset of his emotional problems."
"Yah? Well now he can't solve his way out of a garbage bag." She gives him an angry look so he adds, "I mean because of the germ thing."
Meanwhile, Sully and Monroe are keeping the crowd at bay
Sully and Monroe are standing near the door to the studio and about ten feet away a limousine pulls up and the crowd goes crazy as the three stars of American Idol step out. They are waving and signing autographs as they slowly make their way to the door. They reach Sully when suddenly a large woman splits the crowd by pushing people out of the way as she shouts threats at Simon Cowel.
She hollers out that he ruined her singing career as she wields a large knife over her head and swings it down at him. Sully grabs his shirt and pulls him forward out of the range of the weapon, then grabs the woman's wrist with both hands and pulls her to the ground with all his weight. Sasha leaps onto the woman and together they disarm her and place her in cuffs.
After the commotion calms down, the head of security for the studio works his way through the crowd, and after talking to several of his people he approaches Sully and Sasha. "Were you the ones who disarmed the vic with the weapon?"
"Yah, that was us." Sully states.
"Good job. Would you come with me please?"
He leads them inside and heads to the security office. On their way they pass the three stars from the show talking to the media about their ordeal.
Randy tells the reporter, "Dog...that was unbelievable. She started out kinda slow and quiet, but then she built up momentum. She totally took control of the crowd and I thought for sure she was gonna bring it home with that knife, but man, she just came up short at the end."
Paula says, "I have to agree with Randy. That was unbelievable. When she started to swing, my feet began to dance towards the door. She knew what she wanted to do and she made the whole scene her own. I have to say, her outfit was perfect for concealing the weapon...and I am so very happy with how it all ended."
Simon says in his British accent, "I thought that was absolutely appalling. That was a disgusting display. Honestly, I don't know why I'm here...these people don't want to hear the truth about themselves, and that's what I'm giving them. I'm just keeping it real. I really hope she is good at making license plates, because she'll never make a career out of singing or for that matter...as a hired killer."
back to Bosco and Cruz
Within minutes they are in Sharona's hotel room and looking through Benjy's things. There is a knock at the door and she runs to answer it hoping it is her son, but she finds Monk standing there looking flushed and out of breath.
"Adrian, are you alright?"
"Yes. We're only on the seventh floor."
"Are you kidding me?" Bosco chuckles. "You musta climbed a hundred steps."
"A hundred...and five." Monk says trying to catch his breath.
"He also has to count things." Sharona explains as she shuts the door. "You better sit down and rest Adrian."
"No, I am starting to perspire. I need to wash up." He walks into the bathroom and yells out, "Oh dear God...Sharona...come quickly."
They all hurry over as he backs out of the room, his face is pale and he looks as though he is going to faint. "What is it Adrian? What did you find?"
"There is a hair in the sink and the paper strip on the toilet is not straight. And look at how they left the towels. Call the desk and report this to them immediately."
Cruz says, "Oh this guys like a bad movie of the week."
Bosco adds. "Yah, escape of the boy in the bubble."
At that moment the phone rings and Sharona rushes to answer it. She lets out a sob of relief when the voice on the other end says, "Mom? I'm just calling to check in. I'm having a blast."
"Benjy, where are you? I've been so worried. I thought you were lost."
"I'm still on the tour. We're going to ride the ferry to Liberty Island next. I met the nicest people. They let me hang with them since I was all alone. Oh...I think Monk got arrested."
"No he's right here honey. He's fine. We've been trying to find you."
"I gotta go ma...they're boarding the ferry."
"I'll be at the pier to pick you up when the ferry ride is over. You stay there and wait for me, you understand?"
"Kay ma. Gotta go."
She hangs up the phone and through tears of relief she explains everything to Cruz.
"We'll drive you there. We need to make sure that he gets back to you safely."
As they walk out the door Adrian calls out. "Wait. I still need to wash before I go. Could you..." he points towards the bathroom. "uh...the hair."
"Look Mr. Clean...I think it's best you stay here." Bosco steps into the hall and closes the door.
back to the crowd control
The head of security leads Sully and Sasha into an office where a young man with blonde hair is waiting for them. He is wearing a blazer over a tee shirt and jeans. He holds his hand out to shake and glances at Sully's name tag as he says, "Officer Sullivan, I'm Ryan Seacrest. It's a pleasure to meet you."
"Yah? What do ya need?"
"Nothing, I just wanted to shake your hand. You're a real hero. I want to interview you about what happened out there."
"Oh. No...I shouldn't talk to the press. I'm sure the studio has someone to give a press release."
The man chuckles like Sully has amused him. "I'm not with the press, I'm the MC for the show."
"Letterman?" Sully asks confused.
"No, for American Idol. I take it you don't watch the show."
"No I don't. Sorry."
"That's ok. I want to tape an interview of you explaining how you just risked your own life to save Simon. Have you ever been on TV?"
"Oh...no. No...forget it. I really wouldn't know what to say."
Sasha jumps in, "You could start by introducing your talented partner." She turns so Ryan can't see her face and mouths to him, "Please, please, please."
Ryan tries to persuade him again. "C'mon. Your partner is willing."
"Then just interview her."
"And what am I gonna say...my brave partner was too scared to appear with me?"
"You don't even want to be on TV." Sully barks at her. "You just want to meet that girl and show her your dance moves."
"You're a dancer?" Ryan asks Sasha.
"I can cut a mean rug. I learned from watching Paula when I was growing up."
"Well, I think I can arrange for you to meet her and show her what you can do."
She lets out a loud squeal. "Really? Oh my God, that would be a dream come true."
two hours later
Cruz and Bosco are sitting on the pier with Sharona waiting for the return of the ferry. As they wait, two men walk by laughing about something and they overhear one man say to the other, "Now I've seen it all. A grown man, afraid to step on a crack."
Bosco and Cruz give each other a pondering look as Sharona leaps to her feet and calls to the men. "Excuse me. I couldn't help overhearing you. Did you say that you saw a man who couldn't step on a crack?"
"Yah. It was hysterical. He was tippy-toeing all the way down the pier." They laugh as they put their hands up like bunny paws in front of them and imitate him.
"Did he have dark curly hair, and was he wearing a brown suit?"
"Yah, that's the guy. Said he was looking to catch a ferry."
"Can you tell me where he is?"
They share a grin and one guy says, "Yah...we directed him to a ferry. That one." He points.
Sharona looks to where he is pointing and spots Monk pacing in a panic on the rear deck of a ferry that has pulled away from the pier.
"Oh my God."
"What is it?" Cruz asks her.
"It's Adrian. He's on that ferry. He isn't good on water and he isn't good at being confined in something like that with strangers."
"Oh he won't meet many strangers on that ferry." Bosco grins. "It's going to Potter's Field."
"What's that?" Sharona asks.
"Potters Field? That's the island where New York buries the dead who die indigent and unbefriended." Cruz tells her.
"I don't understand."
Bosco explains. "That ferry is full of John Doe's. You know...dead junkies and transients on their way to be buried. That ride will either kill him or cure him."