ANSWERS AND QUESTIONS – CHAPTER 4
I guess what bothers me the most about Hobson is how everyone seems to like him. Winslow, Brigatti, Crumb, all the officers, and hell even the desk Sergeant likes him; and I thought that man wasn't capable of liking anyone. Sure, everyone knows he's a flake, and Hobson comes up with some of the wildest explanations that you've ever heard, but they treat him like some harmless eccentric uncle. No one seems to be capable of looking past what they see and wonder why he's always involved in shady stuff. I refuse to believe that I'm the only one here who is curious about his ties to, and involvement in, crime. Unfortunately the alternative is to believe that he has somehow compromised all of the police that he has come into contact with. Neither option really appeals, but I can see no other. The same goes for his friends. Reporters like Molly Green and Miguel Diaz don't give anyone a break, but they cut Hobson plenty of slack. The staff at his bar thinks he's the greatest thing since sliced bread, and his partner, Marissa Clark, would lay down her life for him. Again, either she's the greatest actress that's ever lived or he's doing a number on her. It can't be romantic, she's engaged; but what other hold could he have. Hobson has an ex wife, maybe she saw through him. They say people were fanatically loyal to Hitler; I wonder what that kind of magnetism must feel like.
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Gary and Meredith walked back to the bar; talking as though the last five years had just been a long weekend. Touching on subjects like the Cubs and the city, politics and pizza, the kind of things that never changed. They got back and sat down at Gary's table.
"I'm flattered that you think so highly of me, to trust me with your life; but" he held up the paper "you know this thing isn't perfect."
"Yeah, I know, but its close enough for me."
"You're probably better off staying with me than in a hotel, but I'll warn you, I do snore."
"I remember" she said. And Gary realized that she would indeed remember; that and quite a few other details about his life. This caused him to blush, something that Meredith had known would happen.
Suddenly uncomfortable, he looked at his watch; it was nearly five in the afternoon, they had been talking for nearly an hour and he hadn't noticed. He stood and said "there's something I really need to take care of; just order what you want off the menu and I'll be up later; don't wait up for me."
Meredith looked a bit confused but really wasn't in a position to argue.
Gary made his way towards Marissa. "I need to talk for a second." Marissa had heard about Gary talking with a woman who was definitely not Brigatti, and was actually quite curious as to what was going on. Silently they made their way back to the office; fortunately Abby was still at the Library.
"So, who is she?"
"Meredith Carson, you remember, the reporter."
"The one that knows about the paper, right?"
"That's her. Two days ago I read that she was gonna be shot, so I called to warn her, I guess she's in some kind of trouble because she ran all the way here, and now she wants me to protect her."
"From what?"
"I don't know, but what am I gonna do, leave her on the street? I mean, I do know that someone's trying to kill her."
"So you're letting her stay in the loft?"
"Unless you have a better idea."
"Not at the moment, but you better figure out how to tell Brigatti that you've got a former girlfriend staying at your place. I mean figure out how to tell her so that she doesn't just kill you."
"Yeah, this I know; any ideas?"
"Sorry, you're on your own Romeo."
"Funny, real funny Marissa."
"So have you got anything else to do tonight?"
"No, the paper work is all done so I was gonna pick up some dinner for me and Brigatti, she's working late tonight."
"Hmmmm, romantic and practical; there's hope for you yet."
"Thanks Marissa, just keep an eye on Meredith, OK."
"OK, and have fun."
"I'll do my best, but no guarantees."
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Toni Brigatti had been working a huge amount of overtime lately. She had four open investigations, two of which were very high profile and another one that the brass wanted labeled a suicide, but she was balking because it didn't feel right. She knew that she tended to bite off too much, but she just didn't know how to say no when she saw the kind of dirt-bags she was after. She gave a huge sigh and looked at all the paperwork on her desk, wondering which case would benefit the most from a little work. She heard a knock on her door and groaning at the interruption looked up to see Gary Hobson standing in her doorway. "I thought you'd be needing some dinner."
Belatedly she saw the Chinese take out in his hand. "You're a lifesaver Hobson" she said with a grin. He set up the food on a low filing cabinet near her desk, while she just sat back and looked at him.
He looked around and noticed her staring at him; "what" he asked.
"Nothing" she answered, shaking herself out of her romantic reverie. "What've ya got there?"
"Empress Chicken and fried rice; I hope that's OK."
"Sounds great, so, you have a good day?"
"Oh the usual" he answered while he dished up the chicken and rice; "almost burned up in a fire, had to keep a mob from killing an idiot, and fought with a mugger, you?"
"Weird case, young lady and a lot of pills; it looks like suicide, but it doesn't feel right, you know what I mean? Oh, and your name popped up in the mugging case; the officers may contact you for a formal statement."
"Why?"
"Probably because it's you. Armstrong has something going about you, so he runs every one of your 'involvements' through the ringer."
They ate in silence for a while, then Gary began looking at the crime scene photos from the 'suicide'. "Hey Brigatti, had anything been moved when this picture was taken?"
"No, why?"
"How many pills did she take?"
"Over fifty, again why?"
"Could you dry swallow that many pills?"
"No way, what are you getting at Hobson?"
"Well, there's no glass, no bottle, no liquid of any kind around her; what did she wash the pills down with?"
Brigatti looked at the photos again. Hobson was right; there was nothing to wash the pills down, nothing at all. "I'll be damned, good catch Hobson. You realize though, that you just made more work for me; one more homicide to deal with."
"Sorry Brigatti, I was just looking."
"Don't be, it's better than having some creep running around out there free." They were reading their fortunes when Toni changed the subject. "In this mugging report, it says that there was some woman you were meeting in the park, what's that all about?" She hoped it didn't show, but there was more than a little jealousy working on her right now.
"Her name is Meredith Carson, she's a reporter for the Washington Post; she used to be with the Sun-Times but got a better job out east. About five years ago she found out about the paper and tried to use it to help her career, it didn't quite work out. We were an item for a bit, but then she left. She's back because someone wants her dead and she thinks that I'm the perfect guy to protect her."
"Is that her story or did you see something in that?" Toni waved at the paper in Gary's pocket.
"I read about her getting killed and warned her; coming out here was all her idea."
"So, where is she now?"
"McGinty's" Gary answered with a bit of trepidation.
Brigatti knew she should be mad, but surprisingly she wasn't. She knew that Hobson could no more turn his back on someone in trouble that the sun could stop rising in the east. Sure it bothered her that some girl from his past was in town, but she did trust him. Of course if he abused that trust, she would definitely make him regret it, but she figured he already knew that. "Come on Hobson, let's get over to your place and see Nancy Drew. Maybe we can figure out why someone wants her dead."
"Are you serious?"
"Yeah, if I prevent a murder, that's less work for me. Besides, some of those pesky morals of yours are starting to rub off."
Gary gave a lopsided grin, "well then, let's go see Nancy."
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Meredith had been shooting the occasional game of pool and talking with Crumb since dinner. She really wasn't sure what to do or whether or not she should even be here. She heard the door, and looked up to see Gary walk in; this lifted her spirits until she saw him escort a short, very pretty brunet in as well. He smiled and waved her over. They gathered at Gary's table and he made the introductions; "Meredith Carson, meet detective Toni Brigatti, one of Chicago's finest and formerly with the U.S. Marshall's. Toni, meet Meredith Carson, Pulitzer prize winning reporter from the Washington Post."
Both women greeted each other a bit warily. Toni knew who Meredith was and what she had been to Gary, and Meredith was intelligent and insightful enough to figure out that Brigatti wasn't simply the first detective he had run across; there was some obvious chemistry.
Gary ordered the women coffee and a desert (he knew enough to make sure it was chocolate) while he grabbed a beer for himself and sat at the bar to see if the Bulls would do any better against the Pistons tonight.
"So, who would top the list of folks that would like to see you dead?"
"Not much for beating around the bush, are you; let's see, colleagues, senators, congressmen, lobbyists, and the odd judge or two."
"Those are just possibilities; I mean who's most likely to be willing to carry it out. I doubt a colleague of yours would actually try to kill you; screw you up maybe, but murder is quite a leap."
"The top two would be a senator from Iowa, and a group of Bio-Tech lobbyists. The senator is about to be nailed for rigging an election for some friends and the lobbyists are about to have their pet funding evaporate. Both thanks to me and my stories."
"If you went away, would both those things still happen?"
"Yeah, the wheels are already in motion."
"So, they're not so likely."
"What do you mean?"
"Well the damage has already been done; the only thing they gain from bumping you off is revenge and notoriety. No, we're looking for someone who you haven't yet gone to press about, but fears that you will soon. Killing you will stop their exposure, and that's a much better motive than revenge."
"Crap, I've got at least a dozen that I've done some work on, in all branches of the government and private areas."
"OK, so let's look at the people that dropped off your net, were they killed, did they disappear, did someone lean on them, any ideas what happened?"
"No, I was just starting to check it out when Gary called and told me about getting killed. Made it hard to care about anything else."
"So you still got their numbers, any way to check out what's happened. I know DC's got quite the murder rate, but a bunch of bodies would generate some talk."
"Yeah, I held onto a couple, and here's the names of some of them, maybe you could check them out quietly and at least see if they're dead or missing."
"Thanks, I'll try that. Any way someone could have gotten a hold of your informants list?"
"Of course, but it would have to be someone very smart of very lucky."
"Why's that?"
"I use an encryption system that was used during the Revolutionary War called the fence rail cipher. It uses two lines of text and you alternate letters from each line. Now traditionally the lines were on top of each other, but I vary it so that you really can't predict which lines go together. I even have some red herrings in there that will give fake information. So if anyone broke it, they'd have to either have to be very lucky or a cryptologist."
"That or just have a hell of a lot of time on their hands."
"Good point."
"So any of the guys you're aiming those new stories at fall into one of those categories?"
"Not really, but some of them could easily hire people like that."
"So we're back to everyone is a suspect."
"Yeah, with the information we have now, if we find anyone missing or dead, it'll narrow the field down a lot."
"Great, we have to wait until someone dies to figure out who wants to kill you; as options that one kind of sucks."
"You're right, but at the moment, I'm out of ideas."
"Me too, so; why'd you become a reporter?"
Business aside for the moment, the two women just started getting to know each other. Despite their different appearances and backgrounds, they soon discovered in each other kindred spirits. Both excelled in careers dominated by men, both enjoyed the challenge of their jobs and both took zero crap from anyone.
As she listened to the reporter, Brigatti realized something, if she could pick her family, Meredith would be her sister. Whatever she was doing got every bit of her effort, she knew the possible consequences of what she did for a living and didn't let it stop her. She was tough, funny, and she had that old school attitude that also set Brigatti apart from her colleagues.
For her part, Meredith was impressed by Brigatti's competence and fire. She too recognized someone who excelled at a man's job in a man's world. Like Toni she found herself wishing she and the other woman had time to become friends. In the petite Italian, the lanky WASP from Missouri had found a similar soul.
They were winding down, shooting a rack of pool; "OK Carson, let's shake some trees and see who drops out" Brigatti said, while fixing Meredith with a bit of a glare. Then encompassing Gary in her instructions said "let me know if you remember or hear anything, either of you, OK."
Meredith just smiled and said "thanks, I will". Gary looked a bit flummoxed and said nothing but got up and walked Brigatti to McGinty's door. "Thanks for everything Toni" he said giving her a quick kiss on the cheek.
"Thank you for dinner and everything else" she replied; "and I'll see you tomorrow Hobson." Being uncommonly bold, she leaned up and kissed him right there in front of everyone. Needless to say there was a lot of hooting and some applause from both the regulars and staff, which made Gary blush so bad he was almost turning scarlet. Brigatti left, and amidst the good natured razzing Gary made his way back to Meredith's table only to find her laughing as well. "She's great Gary, for the sake of your jaw, you better not screw it up" she managed to get this out between giggles.
"You're not jealous?"
"A bit. I'd be lying if I told you it didn't sting a little and I'd really be lying if I said I hadn't wondered 'what if' a time or two about us. But you two are great together and I'm not gonna screw that up, I couldn't stand it if I did. Not to mention the fact that Toni would bust my ass."
"She does have a bit of a temper ant a pretty good right cross."
"All the more reason to behave."
After Meredith had gone to bed and Gary was crashed out on the sofa, he gazed up at the ceiling and wondered how he had gotten so lucky. Toni and Meredith liked each other, he wasn't going to question the how's and why's of such a stroke of fortune.