Hi everyone!
Just wanted to mention that this will be the last update for a couple weeks. I have midterms coming up (yuck!) in all twelve of my classes starting friday. And because this is a shortened week with the MLK break, I don't see most of my teachers.
I'll be studying like crazy.
This chapter goes into why there was budget cuts and money problems in The Closer.
Enjoy!
"Hello," Sharon said with a smile as she approached the firemen. "I'm Detective Sharon Montgomery with the Los Angeles Police Department. I just wanted to make sure we were all set with co-operating."
"Yes, ma'am," One of the fire fighters replied with a nod of his head and a brush of a finger across his hard hat.
"Great. I believe Lieutenant Johnson says that this is much like a Jenga puzzle. We'll be going layer by layer from the top. Part of our task is to examine the wood and determine what made the structure fall. Although, it's pretty obvious that an Earthquake destroyed the building, are there any other factors that could have brought this house down?" Sharon asked, pulling out her notebook, ready to write down the factors.
The fireman scratched his forehead and sighed, "Well, Cali houses are built to shake with the P-waves and S-waves, this house could have had poor foundation. Um, there could have been a couple foreshocks, powerful quake, then almost equally powerful aftershocks." The fireman watched as Sharon scrawled everything he said into her notebook.
"Our Chief said that there were some dummies that represented humans under that rubble. Is there anyway that they could have survived?" Sharon asked.
"Erm, well, if they had stood in a doorframe. Door frames have two-by-fours to support them, if someone had stood in the doorframe and waited the Earthquake out, they might've lived. If the Earthquake was waited out in the basement or under a sting sturdy desk, they might've lived. Ah, that seems about it for Earthquake safety," The fireman said with a sly smile.
"Thank you, you may have just completed our task for us. Please have your men ready for removing these planks," Sharon said with a bright smile, closing her notebook and tucking it safely into her blazer's pocket. She turned carefully and took a step towards the group.
"Excuse me, Detective," The fireman called after her as he jogged to catch up to her. "I was, ah, wondering if you'd, um, like to go out one night this week?"
Sharon smiled again, "I'd like that."
The fireman smiled brightly and shuffled his feet. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a business card, "Call me when you get a chance, my cell is on the back."
Sharon took the card and headed back to the team with a genuine smile on her face. Carefully, Sharon slipped the number into her right blazer pocket. The motion did not go unnoticed by Flynn, but he knew this wasn't the appropriate time to mention it; he'd talk to her about it later.
"The fire fighters are ready when we are," Sharon announced watching a Brenda joined the group.
"Thank you, Detective," Brenda said with a smile. "I've got the coroner ready to receive these dummies. I see you men have grabbed the lights. Let's set those up and we'll get started."
Sharon shook her head in disgust but did as she was asked. She helped set up the lights and prepared for the rubble. Slowly, firefighters were elevated over the destroyed house and planks were passed to the tarp. Plank by plank, the whole house was studied by each Detective. Lieutenant Johnson walked around, monitoring the work. Brenda watched as photographs were taken and as marks in the wood were circled and catalogued.
…
An hour into it, the group had the routine down. Sharon was the first to examine a piece, when she had her view and marks on the wood, it was passed to Provenza, then from Provenza to Flynn, coming to an end at Tao who numbered and scanned the wood onto his laptop. Once he had all the pieces of wood, Tao would virtually reconstruct house.
"Lieutenant, would you like to help us or the firemen?" Provenza asked, frustrated. For one hour, the woman had been pacing in an intricate figure eight weave around the Detectives to examine their work. She hadn't placed a finger on a piece of wood.
"I'm watchin' y'all work. It seems Chief Pope did in deed chose the best of the best for this project. You know," Brenda started sitting on the end of the plastic table which held the scanned and marked wood. "This project has over three million dollars to its name. The Chiefs were hopin' this would bring in some big bucks, so they could pay back sponsors. The LAPD has a history of on time paybacks, it would terrible to their appearance if they didn't give money back on time."
"And if this project fails, and gains no money to payback the sponsors, what happens?" Tao asked, marking a five hundred fifty-one on the piece of wood at hand.
"Well, if this project were to fail, then there'd be big budget cuts within all departments. In the complex politician way, if this project fails, not only will it bring down Pope, and the Chief of Police, but also almost all departments. We'd dry up most divisions," Brenda said placing her hands by her hips to support her back. She crossed her ankles and swung her legs slowly.
"Why is this division more important that others? I mean three million, that's not a small number, and to have it all to one division?" Flynn questioned circling a little corner nick in the wood.
"Well, this division was meant to save the LAPD. Three million dollars of sponsor money. That went to buying desks, setting up these scenes, cars, softwares, and everything we'd ever need. If this division succeeds, the LAPD's credibility would never be questioned. Some cases have been questioned because of the lack of security around cases, and nonsense lawyers pick at. If the LAPD formed a credible team to solve all major crimes, then lawyers would have one last thing to poke fun at. Priority Homicide, another division established by the Chief of Police, was almost exactly like this, except they brought more havoc to the LAPD's doorsteps. With the Chief of Police's term comin' to an end, he needed to do somethin' to bring good attention to the LAPD: Major Crimes as we're livin' it was his doin'. He assigned Pope to keep track of this, while he brought up the good publicity of this department. That all make sense?" Brenda asked, tilting her head as the Detectives soaked up the new information. "I think the Chief of Police is making a public statement on television tonight. It's good to stay in the loop of everything— even if you hate politics."
"Basically we're the golden dream team? We need to solve cases, settle the LAPD's credibility, and keep the Chief of Police in business?" Provenza asked, understanding their job now.
"Exactly, Detective. And this division will do that, with me in charge at least," Brenda said with a smile.
Flynn snuck a glance at Sharon who scuffed and rolled her eyes. The glance didn't go unnoticed by Brenda. That woman, Brenda thought, is climbing up my last nerves.
…
At the five hour mark, the group stood on wobbly legs and looked over their work. The sun had set three hours ago, and the cold desert air filtered shortly after. Every single piece of wood (all two thousand eight hundred and seventy-six) had been marked, catalogued, and scanned. Tao's software had recreated the house and the size of the Earthquake. There were foreshocks, but they were hours ahead of the seven point two quake that had surprised the family and brought the house down. The dummies were extracted around the third hour. Tediously, they were removed and given to the coroner. Brenda had stood in during the 'autopsy' and brought back the report. She had read the report out loud while the Detectives continued their work.
Five hours of staring and marking wood later, they were free to go home. Tao, Provenza, Flynn, and Sharon had divided up the evidence and packed it away in their cars. They would stop at the police department and lock up the evidence before going home and crashing.
The drive back to Los Angeles was silent.
…
"Alright," Pope greeted the group of baggy eyed Detectives and the over perky Lieutenant. She was like the energizer bunny. "Pack away the evidence and you're free to go. Don't bother coming in before noon," Pope said with a gracious smile as all the planks were unloaded from the cars and locked properly away in the evidence locker. Pope knew this was a special investigations section's (SIS) job, but it would be good to have the Detectives know other division's routines.
Provenza logged the evidence and locked the door, which was checked by Chief Pope himself. Everything was safe and sound.
This Division was going to solve all credibility issues, Pope thought as the Detectives departed and he lead Brenda to his car. Pope drove Brenda to her apartment, after finding out that she had taken a bus and walked, and kissed her lightly on lips.
Pope caressed her cheek and smiled, "I'll see you tomorrow afternoon?"
"Yeah, you will," Brenda smiled and climbed out of the car.
Please review!
