BLUE BLOODS: RETURN TO DUTY
CHAPTER 2
54TH PRECINCT DETECTIVE SQUAD:
Wednesday, April 6, 2016: 12:45 p.m. EDT
"Five victims, all executed in the same manner, none of whom seem to have any relation to one another or to anything we can put our finger on." Danny recapped out of frustration to Baez and Lt. Carver.
"Nothing over the wires from OCCB either." Carver informed him.
"Meaning that either the wise guys aren't behind this, or that they are careful about being monitored." Danny replied.
"Yeah, but none of the victims seems to fit the type they would be doing business with." Maria noted.
Two more bodies had popped up in the last three days and the only common denominator is that all five were executed in the same manner, with the same .22 weapon.
"Let's look at the vics again." Carver suggested.
Danny began:
"Victim number 1: Latino Male, 55 years old, immigrated 22 years ago from the Dominican Republic. Naturalized Citizen 16 years ago. Owns a bodega and lives in Washington Heights. No record, and there appears to be no problems with the store.
"Victim number 2: Hispanic Female, 24 years old, parents immigrated here from Spain before she was born. Grad student at Columbia, working on her master's degree in psychology. From all reports, everyone loved her. No boyfriend, no issues with stalkers. Nothing in her background regarding drugs, alcohol, or anything that would bring her into orbit with a criminal element such as this.
"Victim number 3: African American Male, 41 years old, Mechanical Engineer, lives in Harlem, works for an engineering firm in lower Manhattan. Clean as a whistle, no debts. Wife and one 16-year-old daughter."
"Victim number 4: Caucasian Female, 34, bartender. Works and lives in SOHO. Has a record for marijuana possession, less than one ounce 13 years ago and one disturbing the peace when she was 19, but has been clean since. Co-workers and family both described her in a good way. Boyfriend is devastated."
"Victim number 5: Asian Male, 19, software engineer, works out of his home in the East Village. Apparently, the guy is a workaholic designing video games. The people that know him best are his housekeeper and the local food delivery guys. M.E. said he had been cooped up inside so long he had severe Vitamin D deficiency from lack of sunlight." Danny concluded.
"And this was the only one killed in his home?" Carver inquired.
"Housekeeper found him. She came by three times a week so that the place didn't get too pigged up. Apparently, he just left things where he finished with them." Baez replied.
"We can at least answer one question." Danny remarked.
"And that is?" Carver inquired.
"We initially believed the first four victims were all targeted randomly, because none were taken from their homes or places of employment and there seemed to be no relation between them. We had thought it to be random, but the fifth victim changes all that. Someone went looking for this guy and found him where they knew he would be. These people were targeted. Now we have to figure out why and what their relationship was to one another and that should lead us to the killer." Danny answered.
SAN FRANCISCO INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT (KSFO)
OPERATIONS CENTER:
Wednesday, April 6, 2016: 9:45 a.m. PDT (12:45 p.m. EDT)
At the same time Danny Reagan was briefing his lieutenant, The Big Man was entering the Operations Center at San Francisco International Airport, where he was greeted by the Deputy Director for Operations.
"Sir, you can monitor the incoming traffic on the console in front of you. We've assigned all other traffic other frequencies." Frequency is 125.450.
The big man nodded his thanks and pulled up a chair, before dialing in OAKLAND CENTER at 125.450.
Oakland Center was one of the 22 Air Route Traffic Control Centers (ARTCC) throughout the United States, used to direct traffic once they left an airport's immediate and surrounding airspace.
Traffic arriving from another region entering the territory covered by Oakland Center, would check in and be directed through the upper airspace until eventually the aircraft was directed to the approach facility for the airport in question, and finally, the aircraft would be turned over to the airport's tower which would direct it onto the runway, with the final stage being the airport's ground control which would direct the plane to a gate.
Oakland Center was one of two ARTCC's handling the airspace in California, the other being Los Angeles Center.
A particular individual was inbound to the United States from the Jakarta, Indonesia via Tokyo Japan and The Big Man as he was known, wanted to be there when he arrived.
Suddenly, the speakers came to life.
"All Nippon 8 Heavy, Oakland Center. Squawk 5456. Descend and maintain Flight Level Two Niner Zero." Came the directive.
"Oakland Center, All Nippon 8 Heavy, Descending to Flight Level Two Niner Zero. Squawking 5456." Came the reply.
All Nippon Airways Flight 8 popped up on the screen. The information told him Flight 8 was a Boeing 777-300 aircraft, traveling at 475 Knots on a heading of 120 degrees towards San Francisco, and that it was descending from 33,000 feet towards its assigned altitude of 29,000 feet above sea level.
He checked his watch. The aircraft was due into the gate at 10:35 a.m. PDT, which was 50 minutes from now.
After a few more directives and replies, All Nippon 8 Heavy was directed to contact NORCAL Approach.
The Big Man changed to frequency 128.325.
"Norcal Approach, All Nippon 8 Heavy out of Flight Level Two Two Zero for One Five Zero."
"All Nippon 8 Heavy, Norcal Approach, slow speed to Two Five Zero, expect vectors for the Big Sur transition, ILS Runway Two Eight Left approach, Squawk 8249."
"Norcal Approach, All Nippon 8 Heavy. Slowing to Two Five Zero, Vectors for Big Sur transition ILS Runway Two Eight Left approach, Squawking 8249."
The Big Man was a himself a pilot, so he could easily visualize the procedures the aircrew of All Nippon 8 was going through in preparing to land the behemoth airliner.
Finally, came the part The Big Man had been waiting for.
"All Nippon 8 Heavy, contact Norcal Approach on 121.35"
"Contacting Norcal Approach two one decimal three five, All Nippon 8 Heavy, good bye." Came the reply.
The Big Man changed frequencies again.
"Norcal Approach, good morning, All Nippon 8 Heavy with you out of Flight Level One Niner Five for One Five Zero."
"All Nippon 8 Heavy, good morning, squawk 8006. Turn Left heading Zero Eight Zero for the Big Sur Transition. Descend and maintain Flight Level One Two Zero."
All Nippon Flight 8 acknowledged the instructions and began its descent into the Bay area.
After another few minutes, came the final handoff.
"All Nippon 8 Heavy, Norcal Approach, contact San Francisco Tower on 120.5."
"Contacting San Francisco Tower Two Zero Decimal Five." Came the reply, followed by the frequency change.
"San Francisco Tower, All Nippon 8 Heavy with Foxtrot for the ILS Runway 28 Left Approach."
"All Nippon 8 Heavy, Squawk 3394, slow to one eight zero, come left to three three zero until established on the localizer, descend and maintain five thousand until established on glideslope runway Two Eight Left." The controller instructed.
The big man got up and began to head over to meet the incoming arrival.
He had almost reached the door when the speakers went off again.
"San Francisco Tower, All Nippon 8 Heavy, we are declaring an emergency, our indicators say we have no brakes."
"All Nippon 8 Heavy, San Francisco Tower, state your intentions." Came the controller's reply.
"San Francisco, All Nippon 8 Heavy is aborting the approach."
"All Nippon 8 Heavy, turn left heading two one zero, climb and maintain eight thousand, state your preferred intentions."
"All Nippon 8 Heavy. We have two and a half hours of fuel remaining. We are too heavy to land San Francisco or anywhere in the Bay area with present weight and available runway length. Prefer to divert to Las Vegas McCarran. Requesting Runway Two Five Right approach."
The longest runway at San Francisco was 11,870 feet, where McCarran's was 14,512 feet, about ½ mile more length to stop the heavy jet plus, the 75-minute flight would burn off the excess weight created by the remaining fuel load.
The big man tensed as he knew that his quarry had found some way to disable the aircraft's brake system in order to force the intended diversion.
"All Nippon 8 Heavy, San Francisco Tower. Your diversion to Las Vegas McCarran is approved. Contact Norcal Departure on 120.9. Good luck."
The big man pulled out his phone and hit a preset number. "Get the jet ready to go, and notify the Las Vegas field office to scramble. Get FBI and locals over there as well. All Nippon Flight 8 just diverted from San Francisco to McCarran."
He chuckled as he placed his phone back into his pocket and existed the Operation's Center before boarding a government Citation jet to Las Vegas.
He had expected this diversion and had a pretty good idea how it would be pulled off and where his quarry would head.
If nothing else, his formative years had taught him to always be prepared because you never knew what life was going to throw at you.
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY
NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK:
Wednesday, April 6, 2016: 9:45 p.m. EDT
Nicole Reagan Boyle, or "Nicky" as she liked to be known as, looked over at her roommate Sarah and shook her head.
"If you take any longer to get ready, we'll miss the party." She stated.
"Can you believe it, only 26 more days and we have completed our freshman year." Her roommate eagerly replied, pulling on her jacket and checking her hair one last time.
"Which means that we have a limited amount of time to find suitable boyfriends for the summer." Nicky reminded Sarah as she grabbed her arm and began pulling her out of their apartment.
Sarah's father owned an apartment building off W. 110th Street and Broadway which was six blocks south and one block west of Columbia's main campus, so it was nothing for the two girls to transition between Columbia and their apartment at all hours of the day or night.
The area was well lit and well patrolled by both the NYPD, and campus security, both of whom knew they had a member of the NYPD's royal family living and attending classes in the area.
Tonight, they were heading to a party hosted by some friends at W. 113th between Broadway and Riverside Drive, so the short three block walk was no effort or concern.
From the time she had been old enough to attend kindergarten, her three uncles had drilled into her the importance of maintaining a vigilant situational awareness because you never knew who planned to do what. Her uncles Danny and Joe in particular hammered into her, to never trust anyone coming near you who you do not personally know and trust, not even if he's wearing NYPD blue, or FDNY red, because people can steal uniforms, shields, badges, and flat out lie to put you into a compromising position. Furthermore, they made it clear that nobody should ever enter her personal space or get close enough to grab her, but if they did, all three of her uncles taught her what to do.
It was this muscle memory that kicked in not two minutes after she and Sarah left their apartment, when a seemingly innocent guy on a skateboard was heading southbound on Broadway towards them. Instinctively, Nicky pushed Sarah towards the east side of the sidewalk so that the guy had plenty of room to go past but then she noticed him begin angling towards them and her Spider senses began tingling.
As soon as he past them, the man jumped off his skateboard and grabbed Nicky from behind. Sarah began screaming, but Nicky calmed herself as she remembered the many times one of her uncles would blindside her with an attack, just to test her response. In fact, Danny had not two weeks earlier ambushed her after Church just to be sure his precious niece could protect herself at Columbia.
Some women of Nicky's stature may have been self-conscious regarding their height and worn stiletto heels to gain lift, but Nicky wasn't one of those girls however, she did have a sense of fashion combined with practicality so it was to her immediate advantage that she was wearing knee high leather biker boots equipped with steel toes.
As soon as she mentally assessed the situation, she lifted up her right foot and kicked back with the boot's solid wide heel landing on the inside of her attacker's right knee. She heard the clear sound of a snap and scream and his grip loosened enough that she moved away from him at which point she turned to face her attacker, who was doubled over gripping his knee. She aimed a solid kick into his balls and when he bent further over from that, she reared back and put her entire weight behind a steel toed kick to the underside of his chin. Game over, match and set to Nicole Reagan-Boyle.
She took out her phone and dialed 911 and within two minutes, two NYPD sector cars and one Columbia University unit responded, along with an EMS unit for the unlucky victim of Nicky's self-defense training.
The first officer who arrived was from the 28th precinct. He took in Nicky's account of the attack, and then asked her name. When she told him he almost dropped his pen.
"Nicole Reagan-Boyle as in.." He began to say.
"My grandfather is the P.C., and my uncles are also on the job. In fact, I think my uncle is on patrol tonight in the 12th. Please have him meet me here." She stated as she began to shake.
"His name?" The officer asked.
"Jamison Reagan." Nicky responded.
"Two Eight Charlie to Central, K" He spoke into his shoulder mic.
"Central to Two Eight Charlie, K" came the response.
"Contact the One Two and see if officer Reagan is on patrol this evening. If so, have him contact this unit forthwith, K."
Two minutes later came the response.
"12-David to Two Eight Charlie, K." Nicky heard her uncle's voice.
"12-David, Two Eight Charlie, proceed forthwith to W. 111th and Broadway, family matter requiring your attention. No need for Code 3, K" He replied.
"12-David, responding, K" Jamie replied.
Eddie looked over to Jamie. "What kind of a family matter could require you to respond to up there?
"Columbia University. Must be something with Nicky." He stated as he towards their destination.
Fifteen minutes later, they arrived to find units from the Two Six, the Two Eight and Columbia.
Jamie got out of his cruiser and went over to the car from the Two Eight to find Nicky and Sarah in the back seat.
"What happened? He asked.
"Your niece was attacked, but she gave a whole lot better than she got." The other officer replied before explaining.
After Jamie and Eddie assured themselves that the two girls were unharmed, and that they could afford to miss their classes the following day, it was decided 12-David would return them to their apartment to collect what they needed before delivering each girl back home to her parents.
While Eddie was supervising Sarah and Nicky, Jamie called Danny and informed him as to what happened.
"You need me to come up there?" Danny asked, furious that anyone would dare attack his niece.
"No, she's good. I'll take her home to Erin, give her the weekend to unwind and allow us to follow up on this." Jamie replied.
"Okay, but if you need me for anything, you call me." Danny ordered.
"Yes Sir." Jamie chuckled.
"Don't "Sir" me, I work for a living." Danny replied before hanging up, where upon Jamie made the more difficult call he had been dreading.
"Hi Jamie, what has you calling so late?" his big sister inquired.
"About that." Jamie replied as he took a deep breath before he began to explain just what had happened.
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