ANSWERS AND QUESTIONS – CHAPTER 9
Prone to deception. That was the result of the polygraph that Hobson took. He has a secret life, a life that others don't know about. I guess what scares me the most is the idea that I might be turning into something like Hobson. Here I am, a cop, an officer of the law, but I have this dark and hidden side that I cannot share or express. I see myself changing, my views, my priorities, hell my personality; but I have to pursue this, consequences be damned. But then I wonder what it will cost me, is it truly worth my family, my sanity, everything I hold dear. I remember another line from a movie 'when you dance with the devil, the devil doesn't change the devil changes you'. I lie in my bed at night and wonder what I am changing into because of Gary Hobson.
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Meow . . . . . . Thump
"And in other news." Gary hit his alarm and then tried to sink back into bed. He had been up most of the night; first escaping with Meredith and then talking to the cops about the break-in. He figured he'd gotten about 3 hours of sleep all together, and was in no mood for the paper today. Unfortunately, Cat just sat and yowled. Apparently Gary taking time to collect the paper was not allowed. He shuffled to the door, feeling more dead than alive and opened it up. Cat stopped yowling, but shot Gary a nasty glance. Gary figured that Cat was still pissed off about getting flung across the room last night. Cat sauntered into the room; almost daring Gary to look and see what was in store today. Reluctantly he picked up the paper. One look made him wish that he was still in bed. There was a lot to do this morning ending with some nut beating up a store full of people at ll:45. The good news was that there was only one save in the afternoon and it wasn't until 3:30. Quickly dressing himself and checking the paper one last time, he went sprinting out his loft carrying his baseball mitt.
Marissa had heard Gary rush out this morning, but without Meredith there to tell her what was going on, she just went to the office. Gary had left a message on her machine telling her of the break-in and that he had found a temporary place for 'his cat'. Marissa picked up on the meaning immediately. Now all she could do was wait, it was a good thing that Melanie/Teressa was scheduled to help open this morning, it would allow them time to clear the air. Marissa had talked the situation over the night before with Emmet and they had reached several possible courses of action. Now it was up to Marissa to present and Teressa to decide. After stowing her purse, she got up and went to the front room. "Brent, is Melanie here yet?"
"No Ms. Clark, should I tell her you want to see her when she gets here?"
"Yes please, I'll just be back in the office. Thanks Brent."
"No problem Ms. Clark."
She tried in vain to get something done, but the combination of worrying about Gary, and anticipating the confrontation with the young girl, her mind just wasn't into it. She had gotten another call the night before, from a detective firm that Crumb had recommended in Memphis. She had called them up as soon as Brigatti had given her the name and city and offered the entire ten thousand if they could provide some answers in under twelve hours. They had answered in six. It was clear to Marissa, and the man that had called her, that Teressa's father was a real piece of work. While there was no evidence of physical abuse, it was pretty clear that emotional abuse had been a favorite pass time of his, and it oozed from between every line of his statement and testimony. It disgusted Marissa that there were people like that in the world, people that could only boost themselves by tearing someone else down. She was just sitting there seething when Melanie/Teressa walked into the bar. She could hear Brent inform the girl that Marissa wanted to see her. She heard a knock on the door and it slowly opened.
"Ms. Clark, Brent said you wanted to see me?"
"Yes Melanie, come in please and have a seat."
The girl sat down warily, Marissa had listened to make sure that the door was closed. "Is there a problem Ms. Clark?"
"No Teressa, no problem at all."
The girl froze when she heard her real name, "what did you call me?"
"I called you by your correct name; now what we need to do is figure out what your future is gonna hold."
Marissa could hear the breakdown start, the girl sobbing and repeating, "I wont go back" over and over.
Marissa carefully moved around the desk and put her hand on the sobbing girls arm; "no one here is gonna make you go back, and other than Mr. Hobson, no one needs to know that your name is not Melaine, now dry your eyes and lets look at what options you have."
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It had been weird for Brigatti, having someone else in her house. That hadn't happened since her sister came to visit 8 months ago. It was strange, but she had never been close to her family. She loved them, but they were a lot easier to take at arms length. Both Toni and Meredith were late risers so there was a minimum of talking going on around breakfast because both women were wishing that they were still in bed.
"You still love him, don't you?" The words were out of Brigatti's mouth before she even realized she was speaking out loud.
Meredith jumped as the silence was broken. "Yeah, I still do" she said, reluctant to speak at all on the subject, but unwilling to lie.
"So why did ya leave him in the first place, I mean I can see that there's a lot of chemistry there."
"The simple answer would be to avoid temptation. Being the type of person I am, I wouldn't be able to stay away from that paper of his and try to use it for my career. I know he'd forgive a lot, but I'm not sure he'd forgive that; and there's no way I could deal with that wounded look he'd get every time I let him down. So, I left rather than change. I think it was the single worst decision of my life. Leaving him, leaving Chicago, professionally my life is great, but in every other way it's a train wreck."
Brigatti just stood there and stared at the cup in her hands "I was scared of you, did you know that? You, the history you had with him, it scared the hell out of me. I could see finally realizing what I had just in time for a past love to come in and sweep him out from under me. When I met you that day, I really wanted to hate you, but I didn't and then I couldn't even make myself dislike you, then I really got afraid because I knew that if he went back to you I wouldn't fight him about it because I like you too much. I've never felt like that; just being adrift, unable to push, to fight, to influence because anything I did had such dire consequences."
"You've had him all along; he wouldn't leave you now, not unless it was something you both wanted. You should know Gary better than that."
"My head knows your right, but my gut is having a bit of difficulty believing that."
"I never would have figured you for low self esteem."
"When I was a lot younger, I was where you are now, but with a guy that wasn't nearly as nice. He used me, then tossed me; and I guess part of me will never get over that. I was in college, and changed my major to law enforcement just so I could have a chance at shooting him. Silly, I know; but once I got into it I found that I really loved it, and that I was good at it. So I stuck with it, and here I am. Professionally great, I've just been missing life in my life, at least until lately."
"Well" Meredith quipped "look at me as incentive to not screw it up, cause you know I'm waiting in the wings."
Brigatti laughed dissipating the heavy emotions that had built up. The two women got dressed and Toni drove Meredith over to the Sun-Times. They chatted on the way; their friendship had grown and deepened that morning, they had exchanged fears.
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Another day of running. Gary had been on the go since he left McGinty's, but fortunately there was a light at the end of the tunnel. Unfortunately he had a crazy 300 pound tattoo artist to get through before that happened. But first he had to stop the old lady from gassing herself with a balky space heater. He did, but the lonely old woman nearly talked his ear off, and Gary was too polite to just run out of her apartment. He had been just in time to catch the baseball that some kid would have followed into the street. Unfortunately all the kids wanted him to show them how to catch a pop up the right way, and being Gary, he couldn't say no. Consequently he nearly missed the kid that was going to fall into the half empty pool and drown. Gary saved him, but then had to fend off the screaming mother that thought he was attacking her son. He had escaped with his skin intact, but now he was almost running flat out to stop an art student from being crushed by a falling statue. There she was, 'Ruth Camden, student at the Art Institute of Chicago was killed when the rigging on a piece of statuary broke' she was standing near the corner of LaSalle and Monroe sketching the building in front of her. It was in the process of being renovated and the new statues were going on a ledge that was about 5 stories up. She was sketching the ones already in place and oblivious to the newest one that was being lifted right above her. Gary started sprinting towards her and yelling, but she wasn't paying attention to anything except her sketch. Both Gary and the girl heard the rigging starting to tear, and this finally got the girls attention. She looked up with a horrified expression just as the last strap let go. Gary hit her with a beautiful flying tackle and knocked her out of the way as the chunk of stone hit the ground right where they had been. Gary just lay there catching his breath when he heard a voice speak up "Did anyone get the license of the truck that just hit me?"
Gary looked up to see the girl sitting on the sidewalk with her head in her hands; all he could see were legs and a mass of brown curls. "You OK kid?"
"No, but I think I will be, that was gonna kill me, wasn't it?"
Gary looked back at the remains of the statue "probably."
She raised her head and looked into his eyes "thanks; are you alright?"
That surprised Gary; most people were too worried about themselves to care about him. "Yeah, I'm OK." He got up and tried to give her a hand up, but she didn't accept it. "Are you gonna be OK getting wherever you need to be."
The girl stood and seemed to evaluate herself "a little shaky, but I'll be fine." Seeing Gary was already moving away she yelled "thanks again."
"You're welcome" Gary said as he jogged off. He was looking for a phone because he still had a crazed tattoo artist to deal with.
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"Chicago PD, how can I help you?"
"Winslow, I need to talk to Armstrong."
Logan recognized Hobson's voice but was shocked that he wanted to talk to Paul and not Toni; "did you say you want to talk to Armstrong?"
"Yeah, if he's in."
"He's here, I'll put you through." This should be interesting he thought.
"Armstrong"
"Paul, its Gary, Gary Hobson."
"What can I do for you Hobson?"
"I need to talk to you about something and I was wondering if I could buy you lunch?"
"Where and what do you need to talk about?"
"There's a deli named Lou's one block down and one block over from the precinct, about 11:30; and I wanted to talk about your partner."
"Brigatti, is something wrong?" Armstrong was playing for time; he was trying to figure out what Hobson was really after.
"No, nothings wrong, I just needed some information and I didn't want her overhearing us."
"Whatever Hobson, you mind if Winslow tags along?" He was hoping that having Winslow as a witness would keep the conversation on the level.
"Nah, in fact he could probably help out."
"OK, 11:30; see you there." His interest was piqued and the line about Winslow helping had him speculating like mad.
"See ya Armstrong."
Well that was set, now all he had to do was get to the deli before the two detectives so he could pick the right seat.
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It was almost a celebratory atmosphere at the Sun-Times. Despite the gunfire yesterday, or maybe because of it, everyone seemed stoked about the story that Meredith and Molly were putting together. Diaz had provided some great pictures of the tribe members at their homes, if you could call them that; which put next to a picture of the money room at their tribal casino made quite an image. Some rash soul had already started kicking around the 'P' word (Pulitzer), but Meredith didn't want to speculate that far ahead. She would just be happy getting the goons off her back and being able to get back to her life, such as it was.
"Any chance you'll decide to come back permanently?" It was Norris, the investigative editor.
"Sorry, if I came back here it would ruffle everyone's feathers. I wouldn't want to chisel someone out of their spot; they've worked too hard for it."
"Who says I want you back as a reporter, how would you like my job?"
"Sorry, my brain stopped functioning for a second; I thought you just offered me an editor's spot."
"I did. I'm gonna be moving up to EIC and we're gonna need someone here who's smart and knows the way to sniff out a story, and even more important, can teach others how to sniff them out."
"You're serious?"
"Absolutely, I can't think of anyone better for the spot."
"Can I have 24 hours to think about it?"
"Take 48, but I expect a firm answer then. I know we're not quite as exciting as DC, but I honestly think you'd be a great editor." He patted her on the back "let me know, and enjoy the moment."
"I will." Editor, she thought to herself. In Chicago, managing all the investigative reporting for a major paper in a city she loved. Try as she might she couldn't find a downside, and because she wouldn't be a reporter, Hobson's paper was safe from her temptation. Not to mention the fact that she would be in a position to kill any story that threatened him. Maybe she could finally make up for her betrayal.
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Lou's was a bit upscale from McGinty's and it was fairly popular, but Gary had gotten there in time to get a seat that afforded him a view of the place next door. In about twenty minutes a guy that had been fired was going to come back and punctuate his displeasure with a lot of cursing and hitting. Gary had called the tattoo parlor, but they had assured him that Steve would never hurt anyone. No, not anyone except the ten people he was going to put in the hospital two of which would be in critical condition; Oh yeah, harmless as a lamb. He had hung up the phone, disgusted with people's short sightedness. At 11:35 Gary saw Armstrong and Winslow walk in. He waved them over, Winslow looked happy but Armstrong looked wary.
"So what's the big deal Hobson, why the cloak and dagger?"
"I had to ask you something and I wanted to make sure Toni didn't hear about it. You know we've been dating, anyway I was just wondering if she had ever mentioned somewhere she wanted to see or go too. I was wanting to surprise her and that's tough to do if I ask her first; so, any ideas?"
"She's always talking about the Bahamas" Winslow shot out at once.
Armstrong just glared at him "yeah Logan, like a joke 'that'll happen when I vacation in the Bahamas' don't you understand sarcasm?"
Winslow started to answer Paul, but thought better of it "nothing that I've ever heard, other than the Bahamas comment." Paul agreed that he had never heard Brigatti express any interest in any vacation spot, or in vacations for that matter.
"Well you guys think about it, we've got all lunch." Gary buried his head in the menu and studied the paper in his lap; the headline hadn't changed, five minutes to go.
"So what's good here Hobson?"
"The Pastrami, they're supposed to spice it here so it has a unique flavor."
The three men ordered and began just chatting. It turned out that Armstrong was originally from Chicago and was almost as big a Cubs fan as Gary. They were speculating on the possibilities for the upcoming season, when Gary noticed someone yelling. "Uhm, guys. There's a really huge guy outside, and he looks pissed off about something."
The two cops turned and saw the irate tattoo artist, he was screaming about getting even so loud they could hear it through the window. With a sigh Armstrong turned to Winslow "come on Logan, we might as well go shut him up before we need to arrest him."
"You want me along" Gary piped up.
"Sure Hobson, just act official."
"By the way Winslow his name is Steve, in case you need to know."
"Thanks Gary" Winslow replied. Armstrong gave him an odd look "how the heck do you know that?"
"About three years ago there were a bunch of bikers in McGinty's talking about beating up some guy named Steve who was a tattoo artist. I had Marissa keep em there with cheap beer and warned him so he could get away."
"And you remember his name after all this time?"
"What can I say, names just stick with me."
They turned back to see Winslow trying to talk the huge guy down, he wasn't doing a very good job. It was looking like Steve was going to take his anger out on Winslow instead of everyone else when Gary decided to intervene.
"Uhhhh, Steve; you're really in a no win situation here. If you attack this guy who just happens to be a cop, then his partner here might shoot you. If you attack his partner, then he might shoot you. If you ignore them and go for the people in the store, they'll probably taser you, so that you would be paralyzed on the pavement and that would be embarrassing. So anything other than stopping right now and walking away is gonna end badly. Do you really want your wife to have to come down and bail you out or ID your body at the morgue?"
He stopped and thought about what Gary had just said: "these two guys are really cops?"
"Yeah, detectives Armstrong and Winslow, the three of us just happened to be eating next door when we heard you."
"So can I just walk away?"
Gary looked at Armstrong and Winslow "what do you say, can he walk?"
Winslow looked non-committal, but Paul just said "our sandwiches are probably up, and we don't have that long for lunch, let's go Logan, Moriarty."
The three of them walked back into the deli as big Steve gladly walked away. When they sat down the waitress walked up with their order "nice job officers, this lunch is on the house."
Gary looked over at the two detectives, especially at Armstrong; wondering why he had called Gary 'Moriarty' "now where were we, Ahhh yes, places other than the Bahamas' that Brigatti might want to go; so anything else come to mind?"
They finished lunch and left. Gary indeed had a few more ideas for places to visit. He made his way back to McGinty's hoping that everyone else was having a good day and wondering what was going on with Armstrong.
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Teressa couldn't believe the situation that she had fallen into. Instead of being turned in as a runaway, Ms. Clark had filed a restraining order against her father and agreed to custodial duties until she was 18. This meant that she had to live with Ms. Clark, but considering where she was staying right now; a cardboard box would be a step up. So, in three months; she would be free of her father. With all that she had been through in the last couple of years, it was hard for her to believe that people like Marissa actually existed. She wasn't so happy that the Memphis police, and her father had to be informed of her whereabouts, but that was unavoidable. Rather than send one of their own officers up to Chicago, they had asked Chicago PD to take her statement. She was waiting for the officer to show up; when she noticed that the bar seemed awfully crowded for an early afternoon. There were a lot of happy people here celebrating something, well that was appropriate, she was celebrating too.
Marissa noticed the extra crowd as well, but unlike Teressa, she knew what it was about. Meredith, Molly and the crew from the Sun-Times had wandered in and were making quite a bit of noise. As Marissa listened she noticed something odd, there was a part of the bar that wasn't generating noise, like a dead spot. She knew that there were tables in that direction, and she knew that they were nearly full, so for some reason the people over there were not happy. She turned to the day bartender "Brent, who's sitting over by Mr. Hobson's table, describe them for me."
When he wasn't tending bar, Brent was an actor, or at least he was trying to be; consequently he had a gift for colorful but accurate descriptions. He took a look at the crew that Ms. Clark was interested in. They sure were a gloomy bunch. "I'd say they looked like some low-rent commodities brokers that have had a real bad day. Cheap suits, sour expressions and they keep glaring at the folks from the paper."
Marissa's alarms were going off "thank you Brent" was all she said, but immediately she went back to the office and called Crumb. "Do you think you could come in early today? I think the guys that broke in last night are back."
Upon hearing this, Crumb was on his way. He checked the streets when he arrived and noticed two cars that stood out to him, both of which were looked like 'government undistinguished'. When he came in, he immediately noticed the cheap suits and the sour demeanor of the corner crew. Brent was happy to have him there because the newspaper people were really tying it on. Everyone in that party was really getting pickled and starting to get a bit rowdy.
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Gary walked into McGinty's at about 1:15. He was surprised at the noise level in the place. Usually the bar was pretty tame after one, but there seemed to be a lot of happy people there. He was even more surprised to notice Crumb behind the bar with Brent. Marissa must have called him in early and she only did that when she thought there might be trouble. He was just standing there thinking when Molly Green came up to him "so Hobson, anything going on today, where ya been?"
"Just running some errands Molly, what the occasion?"
"The story is gonna come out tomorrow, it's looking real good."
"That's great, but shouldn't you all be back at work, it is after one and all."
She looked around "Yeah, we probably should, by the way; nice place Hobson."
Molly proceeded to round up the newspaper gang and herd them out the door and back in the direction of the Sun-Times. Meredith stayed behind. "Hey Gary, can we talk a second?"
"Sure Meredith, just head on back to the office and I'll be there in a second." He walked over to Marissa, "anything wrong?"
She turned to him with a bright smile on her face, "nope, nothing at all" but on the order sheet in front of her Gary read the words 'the crew in the corner'.
"Well, as long as everything's OK, I'll be back in the office."
As he headed back, he checked the paper and saw a new headline 'Government Agents arrested in Bar'. He saw that the arresting officer was Logan Winslow and wondered why Winslow was gonna be at McGinty's. By the time he made it to the office he decided to call Brigatti and maybe that would push Winslow into coming over.
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Winslow had just gotten back from lunch when the request came in from the Memphis PD. They needed someone to go interview this runaway and make sure she wasn't being coerced or harmed in any way. Before he made detective Logan had worked in both 'street gang' and 'child crime' units; he liked working with kids and had a good feel for them, and an almost sixth sense for when they were lying. He was a lot surprised to see that her day address was McGinty's, but maybe not as surprised as he could have been. He knew that Paul didn't like Hobson at all, but Logan thought Gary was a good guy, and he had kept his mouth shut about the whole raccoon thing. He showed up at McGinty's just as the last of the newspaper crew were headed back to work. He recognized Crumb behind the bar and walked over. "Is Ms. Walters in?"
"Yeah, wait here a second."
The old detective walked to the back and found Marissa "there's some yutz looking for Melanie, you expecting this?"
"Yeah Crumb, tell him we'll be there in a second."
He just nodded and relayed the message to the younger man. Pretty soon Marissa came out of the back accompanied by Melanie/Teressa. Marissa turned to her, "this is detective Winslow, do you want to talk to him here in the restaurant or somewhere private?"
"Right out here is OK; but how did you know it was detective Winslow?"
"I recognize his cologne and his voice, but mostly his cologne; not many people wear 'High Karate' anymore."
The two of them sat down at a table and Logan started asking questions. He apologized to the girl for some of the things he was required to ask her, because it embarrassed him a bit, and because it made the girl uncomfortable. He also knew that Marissa Clark was only about ten feet away and there was no way she wasn't going to hear what was said. He got through with the prepared questions and just started talking to the girl, what she liked, where she had been, what she wanted to do with her life. In the middle of this part of the interview the phone rang, Marissa picked it up and after a moment or two said "phone for you detective."
Logan excused himself and took the phone from Marissa "Winslow". He listened for a few moments, clearly startled but doing his best to not show it. He made a couple of notes and said "I'll take care of it". He hung up the phone and went back to the table with the girl. "Sorry about that, official business and all." He talked to the girl for another ten minutes or so, then got up. "I'll pass my findings on to Memphis, but I doubt they'll do anything. You're in a home and you haven't been kidnapped or coerced so it should be no problem." He turned and handed Marissa a card "my sister is with Social Services, here's her number in case you have any questions or need anything".
Marissa was floored; she had not expected anything approaching a reaction like this, "thank you Logan, you're a good person."
Winslow just blushed and headed out the door. He was gone about ten minutes when he came back into the bar, he looked fairly nervous. "Sorry about this, but I forgot something I'm required to do." He walked over to the bar and muttered 'back me up' to Crumb. He then turned, drawing his pistol and yelling "don't move, you're all under arrest" to the gloomy crew in the corner.
A bit shocked, they put their hands up with remarkable speed; of course Crumb pulling a double barrel ten gauge from behind the bar might have sped their compliance. Winslow pulled his walkie-talkie and said "clear". Immediately eight uniforms moved in and cuffed and escorted the men out of the bar. He holstered his gun and turned back to the bar "thanks for the back-up. It looks like they may have been involved in the shooting yesterday, and we also found some stuff in their cars that linked them to the break-in here last night. Sorry to frighten you" he said, speaking to Marissa, Teressa and Brent "but I've got to go. I'll keep you informed of what happens" he said to Marissa and left.
"I don't know about you guys" Crumb said, putting the shotgun away "but I've had about as much fun as I can stand in one day." The other three just nodded in agreement.
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A/N – For those who are curious, yes Ruth Camden is Ruthie from 7th Heaven. I'm setting up a possible crossover story which I may or may not do; I'm still turning it over in my mind. But if I do go with it, this will be part of the background. POE1911