Steve reached for the walkie-talkie then hesitated. He was too close, the low cloud cover too oppressive. Any noise from the talkie would echo up and down the street and the jig would be up before it even began. So he froze, backing further into the shadows, and watched.
Standing perfectly still, Yudong and Han continued to scan the street, their eyes taking in every nook and cranny before finally settling on the man in the business suit who was staggering down the sidewalk a few yards away, one hand on the buildings to keep himself upright.
As Steve watched, the two young men nodded at each other then split up, Yudong moving into the street as Han hugged the storefronts. Silently, they slowly gained ground on the drunken stranger.
As Han approached the recessed doorway where the black clad young man was loitering, Steve held his breath. Han, suddenly aware he wasn't alone, spun silently towards the other man when he sensed the presence, and Steve saw Han take something from his pocket. The other man, who he could see only as a faintly-lit shadow, threw his hands up and backed quickly into the black of the unlit storefront entrance.
Seemingly satisfied, Han shoved his hand back into his pocket and resumed stalking the inebriated businessman. Yudong, still in the street, had continued to trail their quarry. Just before he got to the corner, they sprang. Silently sprinting the few feet he now needed to close the distance, Yudong reached the older man first and pushed him hard against the wall. The drunk's head seemed to bounce off the wall and he fell back into his attacker, who caught him awkwardly; in the blink of an eye, Han was standing over both of them, and the streetlight glinted off what could only be the barrel of a gun.
Steve pushed himself away from the storefront and started to sprint across the street, pulling out his .38 as he ran. But the young Asian man who had been hovering in the darkened entrance beat him to it, and the loud shout of "Freeze! Police!" filled the thick, moist air. Surprisingly, Yudong and Han immediately did as they were told, the drunk falling to the sidewalk as Yudong released his hold.
His revolver aimed at Han's head, Steve stepped up onto the sidewalk and slowly approached the scene, catching the undercover cop's eye and nodding. The Asian cop, a Robbery inspector named Tommy Chong ("No, not that one," was a phrase he used a lot) nodded back and smiled as Steve approached Han and reached up to grab the .22 that was now pointing in the air. Han resisted but Steve managed to tear the gun from his fingers and slip it into his coat pocket.
The drunk, on his knees, shook his head violently and got to his feet, turning to look at Yudong and Han with a wry smile. "You okay, Benny?" Chong asked quickly and the middle-aged Chinese man chuckled.
"Yeah, I was ready for him." Vice Sergeant Benjamin Lee looked at Steve and grinned. "Tell Mike that was fun."
Steve stared at him in surprise for a second before he grinned and shook his head. Chong had pushed Yudong against the storefront and was cuffing him. While Steve kept his .38 trained on Han, Lee stepped behind the suspected murderer, reached behind himself to snap his cuffs off his belt, pulled Han's left arm down and cuffed him. When he grabbed the right arm, Steve slipped the walkie-talkie out of his pocket and brought it to his mouth.
He pushed the button. "Mike?"
"Yeah?"
"It's all over. We got 'em."
"Great."
Almost immediately the sound of sirens could be heard and within seconds two black-and-whites, one from either end of the street, peeled around the corners and slammed to a stop near the little group, four uniformed officers rapidly exiting with their guns drawn. A few beats later the tan LTD squealed around the corner, sliding to an abrupt halt at the far curb.
The door flew open at the same moment the engine was thrown into Park and Mike bailed out quickly, crossing to his partner, who was just now holstering his revolver. The older man looked pleased as he took in the scene. "Is everybody okay?" he asked quickly, his eyes settling on Lee, who he knew had the most potentially volatile role in their little scenario.
Lee, who was propelling Han towards one of the patrol cars, glanced at the lieutenant with a huge grin. "That little punk," he nodded over his shoulder at Yudong, "thought he could push me into the wall but I was ready for him. I sold it well, though," he laughed.
As he took a plastic evidence bag out of his pocket and carefully slipped Han's gun into it, Steve looked at Mike with a chuckle and shake of his head. "Oscar winning performance, no doubt about it."
Mike grinned and laughed. "I always knew you had it in you, Benny."
Steve hefted the small revolver, now safely secured in the evidence bag. "It's a .22," he said with a nod, holding it up so Mike could see it in the dim streetlight before putting it back in his pocket.
The Homicide detectives watched as Lee and Chong put Yudong and Han into the two cruisers. As Han was getting into the back seat, he yelled, "This is entrapment!"
Mike chuckled. "Not if your gun turns out to be a murder weapon," he shot back and they saw Han's eyes widen and a brief look of fear cross his hardened features before he disappeared into the car. The lieutenant exhaled loudly. "Well, that went a lot better than I thought it was going to. I thought we'd be at this for a couple of nights."
"Yeah, me too," Steve agreed as they watched the two black-and-whites head off and they started across the street to the LTD.
As Mike circled the car, he glanced back at the younger man. "So how does it feel to be back on the street again?"
Steve stopped at the driver's side door and grinned. "Feels like home."
Laughing, Mike opened the passenger side door. As he started to get in, he paused and looked up at the windows above a Chinese restaurant halfway down the street. Silhouetted against one of the lit windows was the figure of a young woman. Steve, who had seen his partner hesitate and look up, followed the older man's gaze.
They both knew it was Judy.
Steve looked over the roof of the car and Mike met his eyes sadly. They both got in the car.
# # # # #
"I thought I told you both that you weren't supposed to be on the streets until I gave you the okay?" Olsen grumbled at the two detectives sitting in his guest chairs the next morning.
Mike stared at him with a slightly perturbed frown. "Rudy, how many times do I have to tell you, we weren't in on the takedown. Steve was just… supervising the operation and I was sitting in our car two blocks away. It was all hands-off, I swear."
Steve was nodding along as his partner pleaded their case, his face a mask of innocence.
Frowning skeptically, Olsen looked from the lieutenant to the inspector. "Is that right?"
Still nodding, Steve smiled. "That's exactly how it happened."
Growling, Olsen leaned over his desk, his eyes scanning the report once more. Mike shot Steve a quick glance and flashed a Cheshire Cat-like grin.
"So you got the gun you think was used in that Chinatown murder?" Olsen asked without looking up.
"It's with Ballistics. We'll know shortly," Steve answered, nodding.
Olsen continued to read the report then closed the file, sitting back and studying his two detectives. He finally settled on Mike. "So how did you know this little scheme of yours was going to work so fast?"
"I didn't," the lieutenant laughed. "I thought we were going to have to chum the waters for a few nights in a row before they struck - I had a bunch of decoys ready to go if we needed to come back. I, ah, I guess they were hungrier than we thought."
"Well, if it turns out this is the right gun, then you've gotten a very bad man off our streets." He smiled finally. "Good work."
With a laugh, Mike started to get to his feet. "So… can we get back to that work now?"
Scowling, Olsen shook his head in frustration as both detectives paused at the closed door, Mike's hand on the knob. "So when do you finally get that thing off?" he asked, nodding towards the cast barely visible under Mike's jacket sleeve.
Grinning, Mike raised his left forearm and wiggled his fingers. "Tomorrow!"
"It's been six weeks already?" Olsen mused with a congenial smile.
"Time flies," Steve laughed as he followed his partner out the door.
# # # # #
"It happened again," the shirt-sleeved inspector chuckled as he stepped into the small office, dropping into one of the guest chairs.
"What happened again?" Mike asked, looking overtop of his reading glasses.
"One of the uniforms who works Chinatown stopped me in the lobby and told me how thrilled the merchants are that we got Chin Han off the streets."
The gun had been a match; Han had been charged with murder and assault on a police officer for starters; more charges were pending. And, unfortunately, Bo Yudong had been charged with assault on a police officer; he would be going to jail. Though both detectives felt sorry for Judy Yudong, the fate of her brother was out of their hands.
"Glad we could be of help," Mike chuckled as he returned to the report he was reading.
"Oh, before I forget," Steve began as he started to roll up his sleeves, "Linda and I want to invite you to dinner at my place on Saturday night. She's going to cook," he raised a forefinger quickly and pointedly, "not Chinese. She says she cooks a mean lasagna and I told her you are a lasagna fanatic so she told me to invite you. How does that sound?"
Mike was staring at him with a soft, warm smile. Linda was obviously a very positive influence on the charming but hitherto unlucky young man and it warmed his heart.
"Lasagna? You better believe it. And I even know what wine to bring this time."
# # # # #
Steve was down in R&I and the bullpen was almost empty late on the Thursday afternoon when a uniformed officer Mike didn't recognize knocked on his glass-paned door. He nodded and the young Chinese officer opened the door almost apologetically. "Lieutenant…"
"Come on in," Mike gestured, watching in curiosity as the young cop silently closed the door behind him then stood with his cap in his hands. "What can I do for you?"
"I'm, ah, I'm Officer Yi Jiang, Lieutenant, but everybody calls me Lee. I work foot patrol in Chinatown." He hesitated, turning his hat nervously. "My shift just ended… and something happened today that I think you need to know about."
Frowning, Mike took off his reading glasses and tossed them on the desk, then gestured for the young officer to take a seat. "What is it?"
"Well, sir, it's about that traffic accident you and your partner were in awhile ago, on the corner of Grant and Sacramento…?" he said, continuing to stand.
Mike smiled slightly. "Yes, I remember it well," he chuckled, then held up his left wrist. "I just got the cast off a couple of days ago."
Jiang smiled almost perfunctorily and swallowed heavily.
"What about it?"
"Well, there's an old woman who sits outside her son's store all day every day, talking to customers and watching the world go by. Everyone in the neighbourhood knows her. Her son's store is on Sacramento, three doors away from the intersection where…" His voice trailed off and he shrugged slightly. "She told me today she saw the accident, the whole thing. The dog and everything…" He hesitated again.
"And…?" Mike prompted.
"And she said it wasn't really an accident."
