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Standard disclaimer. I don't own any of the FAKE characters. I do enjoy manipulating them though. They have so much potential. My original characters are Walter Carrington, Derrick Williams, and Mr. Watson. I use Ms. Matoh's spelling of JJ's full name - Jemy Addams.
Chapter 5
To Bait a Trap
Berkeley Rose was extremely aggravated. That son-of-a-bitch Carrington was trying to ruin a good man's career; a man who was both one of his best detectives and the force's best sharpshooters. He was almost angry enough to give Addams his sniper rifle and tell him to go have a nice afternoon. Almost.
Another envelope had arrived that morning, this time with his name on it. He handed it over to Addams without even opening it. He didn't care about the photographs, only if there was any evidence clinging somewhere to the envelope to make that fucking bastard legally accountable for all this.
JJ hadn't returned with any results yet and it had been almost two hours, so Rose decided to check if maybe there had been a breakthrough. Hopefully they would find something this time. He decided to cut through the secretarial pool office, an area he rarely visited, to get to the elevators. As he walked down the side aisle beside one of the secretary's desks he overheard two of them speaking. Although he only caught a few words, they were enough: "fag". "Addams". "disgrace". He stopped dead in his tracks and spun around.
"WHAT DID YOU SAY?" Half the office jumped at the vehemence in his voice. Commissioner Rose never raised his voice outside his office. Glaring at the two secretaries he asked again, in much the same tone.
The two women hadn't noticed the Commissioner walking through the office. Their faces drained to white as they stammered and stuttered, nothing sensible coming out of their mouths, as they tried desperately to undo what couldn't be undone. They knew the Commissioner tolerated no hearsay about any of his officers. The fear radiating from their eyes was equal to the anger and rage glaring through the Commissioner's glasses.
"IF", Rose started loudly, then catching himself dropped to a lower tone, "if I EVER hear either of you speak of anyone like that again you will be looking for new employment, do you understand? I SHOULD fire you both right now. I will NOT have defamatory talk like that about ANY of my officers, in ANY of my precincts. You may not be police officers but you have NO right to discuss anyone's personal life in public, especially fellow workers. Put yourself in his place – would you want someone gossiping about you, especially when they have no personal knowledge of you? Take some time and reflect on it. You both have been warned, there will be no second chances."
At that Rose turned toward the stunned and silent audience of workers and addressed them. "This pertains to all of you. I will not condone malicious gossiping or hateful rumor-mongering here. If you are caught doing such you will be fired. If you are caught discussing any case with someone who has no involvement with it, you BOTH will be fired. No exceptions. This stops NOW." After a visual sweep of the shocked but attentive faces in the room he continued toward the elevators.
Vicious old biddies! That memo will definitely go out this morning!
#=#=#=#=#
Rose spotted JJ in one of the smaller work areas off the main lab, where he was working with Jim on the envelope. There was no sign of the photographs, but unless there had been something that specifically stood out he didn't expect Jim to ever see them. Rose knocked lightly on the glass of the open door, then entered the small room. "Addams, did you find something?"
"I was hoping so but it seems to be a bit of manufacturing residue and nothing we can use. Sorry." There was a lot of stress showing in JJ's manner; Rose didn't think he was sleeping too well, even with Drake on the couch and the surveillance teams watching the entrances from the street. He had only seen the first of the pictures to be sent but that was enough to understand his ill ease.
Jim looked up and greeted the Commissioner. "I've got the samples running right now in the centrifuge but I'm not hopeful at this point either. From what JJ tells me I wouldn't be surprised if this jerk put something in here just to get us worked up." Jim glanced at the timer clipped to his belt. "Hm, in fact, the samples are about due to finish. Want to come along Commish? JJ's busy here finishing up on some possible print work so I'll give you the results."
JJ gave a half-hearted smile and a mechanical wave as they left the room, returning quickly to the materials he was examining. Jim quickly steered the Commissioner to his private office.
He motioned to Rose to be seated, and he sat on the corner of his desk. "Commissioner Rose, I know that whatever is going on is linked a highly classified case and I should really mind my business, but is everything OK? All JJ told me is that this is a blackmail case, but JJ is really stressed about whatever is happening, and I get the feeling this is centered around him. If there is anything I can do to help please let me know. JJ is a friend, and if he's in trouble he needs every bit of support he can get."
Rose offered one of his rare, heart-felt smiles. "That's why you're the best lab guy in the city. You don't miss much, do you? You're right, the crisis is centered on JJ. He's a victim of a hate crime and is being blackmailed. There really isn't anything that you can do other than be a friend. That's what he needs most of all. Just don't let on that I told you. We're trying to keep this as quiet as possible."
Jim nodded in agreement then started to say something as his timer sounded. Rose motioned him away, telling him to give the results to JJ, then returned to the elevators. He had a few other things to do and people to talk with before heading up the special meeting.
Dee and Ryo were surprised when the Commissioner personally came into their office, closing the door behind himself and requesting their presence at a special meeting at 2PM. They were to give whatever they were working on to one of the other teams, but not to Addams and Parker. Both men were surprised by the comment and looked questioningly toward the Commissioner.
Rose looked at the detectives, concern etched deeply on his face, "I need my most reliable people for a special investigation. One of our own is being blackmailed and it has all the earmarks of a hate crime." Rose paused, "Addams is the target." With that he left their office, leaving the two men stunned by what he had implied.
Both Dee and Ryo spent the next two hours filling in the new team on all the nuances of the cases they were working. Having a few minutes extra they headed toward the meeting room. Rose was already there and briefed them on the generalities of the case right before the meeting started– one of their own was being blackmailed and the objective of the blackmail wasn't money – the blackmailer wanted his body. They weren't shown any of the pictures, just told that they were sent and to whom.
#=#=#=#=#
The six men had gathered in a small conference room that had no windows and was lockable from inside. The only link to the outside was a phone on a corner table and each man's personal cell phone. There was no way to be seen or overheard. A small assortment of light foods had been set up on the sideboard, but for now the men only seemed interested in the coffee.
Rose looked at the men gathered here. He had the precinct's police chief at the other end of the table and his two best detective teams, even possibly the best teams in the city, seated on either side of the table.
"I think we all know why each of us is on this case so I am not going to complicate things by stating the obvious. Extreme discretion is necessary and we are the best to handle this. This is something that the press is NOT to get wind of. None of us would appreciate being in this situation, much less being under the scrutiny of those rabid reporters. And I feel we need to get him soon because I believe his next choice for receiving the pictures will be the press. Understood?"
Heads nodded and murmurs of agreement came from around the table.
"Good. The surveillance teams on Carrington and Williams know nothing of Detective Addams role in all this. I have been very careful not to include his name in any of the dealings with these officers. I hand-picked all of them for their reliability and discretion. Those on surveillance duty for Detective Addams have been told an escaped convict has threatened his life for putting him away. The Chief and I have handled compiling all the information in these folders to avoid bringing an outsider. MacLean and Laytner will assist now that they have been added to the team"
Rose stood and picked up the stack of folders before him. There were three folders handed to each man: one contained the information gathered on Carrington, another on Williams, and the third contained a collation of their whereabouts listed hourly by each day. "Here's the information we have so far. We can figure out what we need to do after studying these reports. I want them both behind bars; so make no mistakes, no omissions, no loopholes this time, and I'm sure you will agree after reading these….", said Rose as he handed out the folders.
Silence blanketed the room for the next hour, only broken by the turning of pages and casual movements to the side table for refilling of coffee cups. Even Rose and Smith were reading the reports again, just in case something had escaped their notice. Full reports of Walter Carrington's activities for the past 6 days were detailed by the minute. The same detail was recorded for Derrick Williams.
The pages of the third report gave details that Carrington had spent Tuesday night with what looked to be a businessman. The surveillance team had affirmed that the drapes had remained open in the apartment while seemingly consensual sexual acts were performed between the two men.
Williams had been followed to another high-rise in the area, where he was spotted on the building exterior. He had set up a camera with what looked like a very high-powered telephoto lens. When the time frames had been compared between the two surveillance teams, Williams had been on the fire escape with an excellent view of Carrington's apartment the whole time Carrington and his new friend were entertaining each other.
Both Dee and Ryo looked up at the same time to catch the look of embarrassment on JJ's face as he continued to read through the report. If they hadn't guessed before, there was no doubt now as to what Carrington was putting JJ through. Dee knew he would make Carrington pay. He may not like JJ following him around and ambushing him, but no one deserved to be made a fool of like that. And one look at Ryo's set jaw and clenched fist showed that he had the same feeling.
The report continued with all the details of the previous week. Wednesday night Williams had met with Carrington in a bar after the day's shoot. Williams handed a manila envelope to Carrington which he opened to expose what looked like photographs. The surveillance team was not close enough to see any of the photos but Carrington seemed quite pleased with whatever they were, and handed them back to Williams.
Both men had spent Thursday night together in Carrington's apartment, alone, with the drapes drawn. They left together to go to the day's shoot, returning together and not leaving again until the next morning. Seems they had their own private entertainment going on. Saturday Williams returned to his apartment long enough to gather the photographic equipment he would need to 'watch' while Carrington entertained another businessman. The Sunday reports had both men spending their time in their own apartments.
When the tape of Carrington's comments about Drake was played all faces turned toward Drake who, of course, was red as a beet, muttering something about how he was only protecting his partner. A ripple of stifled laughter from most of them filled the air, breaking the tension that had built from reading the surveillance reports. JJ, in an unexpected move, patted Drake on the shoulder. "Yes I know dear, and I do thank you.", then planted a noisy kiss on his cheek. Even the normally stoic Rose was fighting a losing battle to keep his laughter under control. If possible Drake got redder. Rose cleared his throat before calling them back to order.
"All right gentlemen, back to business. We know that Carrington has Williams watching Addams. We've gone to great pains to make sure that we don't scare him off. I think he can be useful in our plans. We need to coordinate our efforts on these two and get them off the street and into prison where they belong. So, what are we going to do?"
The six men deliberated, offering several scenarios to trap these two men that seemed to be at the root of JJ's troubles. The plans were discussed, dissected, and discarded until eventually all but two remained. They would use a two-pronged attack, coordinated to go into action at the same time.
"Alright, to sum up: I don't believe there will be a problem getting a search warrant for Williams' apartment, not with what we've gathered on him so far. Chief, you and MacLean can handle that." Both men nodded and Rose continued. "Good, I'll leave all the little details for the two of you to hash out."
"The real danger lies with Addams; we need the most coverage on him. Addams, once you're with Carrington you have to make sure he doesn't contact Williams. We will have visual surveillance of the apartment from other vantage points, and the phone lines for the two of them will be routed to busy signals until we inform the phone companies otherwise. But that doesn't mean he won't have other ways of contacting him that we don't know about. You will be fully wired and Parker, Laytner, and I will handle the truck. There will be additional officers waiting with us for an emergency raid should it be necessary. Addams, are you sure you can handle this? You know we have to catch him forcing you to do something against your will."
JJ nodded. "I'm going to have to. It's the only way to stop him. And I know he won't stop until he's gotten what he wants. He's proved that by his actions over the past few days. I can handle it. Just stick close; I don't know how violent he'll get."
A few assorted questions were asked but most of the afternoon was spent detailing the raid on Williams apartment and making sure Addams was safe while being alone with Carrington. They had sketched out a plan to make JJ look vulnerable enough for Carrington to act.
And evidently Carrington was very interested in keeping tabs on what JJ was doing, possibly waiting for a reaction from the pictures. Over the past few days Williams had been spotted near JJ when he left the precinct, always in an advantageous place where he could move quickly to eavesdrop unseen on any conversations he was having with Drake or whomever he was with.
Once they had confirmation of Williams' presence near the precinct JJ and Drake would stage an argument of some sort where Williams would have a good chance to overhear what they were saying. There was a small park nearby when they knew they could be watched. If Williams contacted Carrington JJ would then advance the plan and call Carrington to arrange a meeting at Carrington's apartment. There he would initiate an attempt to get Carrington to stop the pictures. He would use the rouse that he was suspended without pay during the inquiry, and was being investigated as a drug supplier for Carrington. They hoped that he would incriminate himself and allow his warranted arrest.
Rose also let MacLean and Laytner know that they would be taking over the surveillance on both Carrington's and Williams phone taps. The sting information they would be using would most likely would be transferred between Carrington and Williams, and he wanted Addams to know that he needn't fear any retribution from their own people.
The false bravado that JJ exhibited previously was fading to a very shaky hold on his emotions. He didn't want to think about being alone with Walter; he knew he only wanted to hurt him. Even though the best friends he had would be there, watching and listening for trouble, he wasn't sure they would be enough. He didn't put anything past Walter; he'd had a taste of his 'fun' before.
