Who guards the guardians Part 4
Natalie's viewpoint
An hour later we were standing around in the hotel's security office, drinking coffee and watching the surveillance tapes of the lobby. Tao stopped the tape and tapped the screen.
"There, this guy walks out, holding a mobile phone, but he's not looking at it, he's looking out at the street" Brenda looked up at Ana and I.
"Is that Paul Weatherly?" It was, D-Crypt's manager, the guy who'd tried to get us to party with them earlier in the evening. We both nodded.
As Brenda turned her attention back to the footage, Michael started the tape again, in slow motion.
"As you can see, he sees something, pushes a button on the phone and steps back out of the foyer into the corridor" There was a flash of light and a slow motion wave of shattered glass visible on the tape. "Then he turns and walks away" Brenda leaned in close to the screen.
"Well, that's enough to talk to him" Michael just grinned wider.
"Ah Chief, but it gets better" Brenda looked at him, raising one eyebrow. He got to the point.
"Ah sorry Chief, right. As you can see here, on this camera, you can see him walk back towards the restaurant, before turning into the men's room just outside the restaurant" Michael speeded the camera up, showing people streaming out of restaurant past the toilets, before slowing it again as Paul appeared again.
"He was in there around 90 seconds, before walking back into the restaurant" Sharon stood up from where she'd been leaning over watching the screen and looked at Brenda.
"Interesting, he showed no interest in what happened outside. Seems a bit strange don't you think, to not want to see what was going on?" Brenda smiled a cold smile, still looking at the screen, not her usual warm and lovely smile at all.
"Very strange indeed; Lieutenant Tao, can we get a team to search that men's room please?" His smile grew wider.
"Already on it Chief, Sanchez and Gabriel are on it now with a couple of uniforms" Brenda's smile turned genuine.
"You bucking for a raise Lieutenant? Sorry to tell y'all it's a bit late, I've already handed in your fitness report" Michael grinned.
"Never too early to start on the next one Chief" Brenda just gave him one of her saucy grins before leaning in.
"Good work there Lieutenant" She turned to Andy.
"Lieutenant Flynn, are our guests still here" He grimaced.
"Sure are Chief, they're not happy about it either" Brenda gave him a grin.
"Their happiness is no concern of mine Lieutenant" Andy just grinned in return.
Just then Jane's phone went off, causing all of us to turn to her. The ringtone was the theme from the old TV show 'Car 54, Where are you'. Jane loved personalised ringtones; I made a mental note to find out what mine was.
"Hi Liv, what you got" She listened for a moment. "OK, I'll pass you across to the Chief"
"Detective Benson, Chief Johnson here" Brenda listened for about two minutes, broken by the occasional 'uh huh' and 'ok'. Finally she spoke.
"Detective, thank you so very much for all your help; I truly appreciate you doing this for us, especially at whatever god forsaken time it is over there. If there are any issues arising from this, please get your boss to ring me direct, Detective Rizzoli can text you the numbers" She raised an eyebrow at Jane and got an answering nod.
"Once again, I'd like to thank you, your information's been a very big help and we really appreciate the speed with which you got back to us. Please also apologise to…Alex is it?" She paused. "Oh good, please apologise on our behalf to Alex for dragging you outta bed so late as well" Another pause. "I'll pass you back to Jane, thank you again Detective. Bye"
Brenda passed the cell back to Jane, who stepped away to finish up the conversation with her friend. Meanwhile Brenda brought us up to speed.
"It appears it's not likely to have been anyone from Hard Time Records, they're being pretty thoroughly investigated by the IRS for tax fraud, so I doubt they have any energy to spend on some pretty meaningless feud clear across the far side of the country" Ana nodded.
"What about G.B.H.?"
"Apparently he's in Europe right now, doing some big urban music festival in the Netherlands, so we can probably dismiss him directly. In addition there is no history whatsoever of any explosives use by anyone even remotely connected to Hard Time Records, so it looks like we can probably discount them unless any other information comes up" There were nods all around the room.
Jane walked back into the conversation, having ended the call with Olivia.
"What now Chief?" Brenda ran her hands through her hair, pushing it away from her face. She looked tired, we all did. It was well after 2 in the morning and we were all getting pretty ragged.
"Now we wait on whatever Sergeant Gabriel and Detective Sanchez turn up. In the meantime, I need another coffee" I looked into the dregs of my current cup and pulled a face.
At least I wasn't fronting the media anymore; the FBI had taken over that role. They were still talking in vague terms about pursuing investigations and possible terrorist implications, which was going to make them look silly if we closed this case and there were no terrorist implications.
I wandered over to Ana and pulled her to one side.
"Hey Tsarina, you ok?" Ana looked as tired as the rest of us.
"Yeah, be glad when this is over" I reached out and rubbed her arm, looking for the contact, before she caught my hand and we laced our fingers. She looked at my face, saw something was bothering me and drew me further to one side.
"Hey, what's up?" I shook my head, I never could keep anything from her; she could read me like a book.
"Just worried that if this turns out to be a murder investigation, like it appears, then the FBI is going to look silly; that means you might be in trouble for not keeping them in the loop" Ana paused for a moment, looking back at Brenda.
"Yeah, I'd thought of that, Brenda's got some past history of issues with the Bureau, so playing nice with them isn't her first priority. You're right though, I'll go talk to her" I squeezed her fingers.
"We'll go talk to her you mean" I got a lovely smile in return, as she pulled me in close to whisper in my ear.
"I think that's reason two million, eight hundred and twenty two thousand, four hundred and ninety six why I love you" I couldn't help it, I had to laugh.
"You think?" I got her cheeky grin in return.
"Well, I haven't been keeping exact score…"
We grabbed Brenda and Sharon, who was staying close and made our pitch to Brenda. She was reluctant at first, but Sharon convinced her that it wouldn't mess up our case, the Feds could investigate the terrorism angle and we could investigate it as a murder, we'd simply investigate in parallel. It took a bit of convincing, but she eventually agreed and Ana went off to grab Director Martinez and Chief Pope.
A few minutes later Brenda was laying out our case to them both. Pope was a bit miffed that Brenda had managed to back alley the information out of the NYPD, but agreed that we did have the semblance of a case.
Martinez was less than happy, he'd rolled out the full team to investigate the bombing, his techs were already combing over the remains of the Hummer under a battery of portable day maker flood lights. To be told it likely wasn't a terrorist attack did make it look like an overreaction but he did agree that it appeared we may have a case.
In the end they agreed we'd continue to investigate it as a murder and they would treat it as a potential terrorist attack unless proven otherwise.
As we were finishing up I saw Gabriel stride into the room, a baggie in his hand and a grin on his face.
What they'd found was a cell phone that had been hidden in the cistern of a toilet.
Ten minutes later Michael had it connected to a laptop in the command trailer and had a record of calls.
"It's a disposable prepaid Chief. One number programmed in, called twice. Friday at 2.23 in the afternoon, the second at 11.06 last night" We all shared a look, 11.06 was the time of the explosion.
Thirty seconds later, Brenda had Director Martinez briefed and the FBI forensic team were combing the wreck for any trace of a cell phone. It didn't take long.
According to the FBI's chief forensics tech, a balding guy with an air of the mad scientist about him, two shards of plastic and a piece of wire were enough to confirm that a cell phone had been part of the bomb.
"The plastic's quite thin and cheap, and the wiring's low grade, you're looking at a cheap disposable phone" Brenda pursed her lips.
'You're sure?" He nodded.
"No signs of the sort of glass you'd get from a decent smart phone, that'd be more likely to survive than the plastic. No glass suggests something cheap and disposable" We knew from a quick check with Bill and Carl that Tony Jefferson owned a top of the line smartphone, so the remains weren't from his. Sharon handed over the cell recovered from the men's room, still in its evidence baggie.
"Yeah, something like that, cheap ass phone, probably came out of the same factory in China" Brenda nodded.
"If we know the number it called, is there any way to work out where the phone that received it is?"
The FBI guy and Michael shared a look before Michael spoke.
"Not really Chief; you see, the phone needs to be active in the call for about 10 seconds for the phone system to run down the location" The FBI guy smiled a bit, he knew something.
"Not totally true, we may not get exact GPS coordinates, especially in a non-smart phone, but we should get a hit on the closest cell phone tower" Michael looked confused.
"I didn't know that was possible?" The FBI guy tapped the side of his nose theatrically.
"If we didn't have a few dark secrets, we wouldn't be the government, now would we"
A couple of minutes later we had the closest cell towers, the 11.06 call had been made and received by the same cell tower, ironically located on the roof of the hotel. The other call was made through a cell tower out near D-Crypts home. Brenda looked around.
"I think that's enough to get Mr Weatherly in for a chat, don't you?" There were nods all round.
Five minutes later we were back in the same room that we'd interviewed Bill Harakaia and Carl Walters as Paul Weatherly was ushered in. Brenda had given us all roles to play in tonight's theatre as required, all to put Weatherly under pressure.
Brenda smiled as Julio led him to the lone seat in the middle of the room, as we all stood around him some distance back from his chair. The rest of the Major Crimes team were leaning up against the walls, watching over the room and adding to the atmosphere. Sharon's iPhone was lying on a table next to him, recording everything.
"Good evening Mr Weatherly, I'm Chief Johnson with the LAPD" He peered at her for a moment before nodding.
"Hi, you obviously know who I am. Why am I here?" Brenda turned on the charm again.
"We're investigating the bombing of your car outside. Trying to find who was responsible" He frowned at her.
"Obviously it must have been that cocksucker G.B.H., Why aren't you arresting him for this, he's the one who made threats against D-Crypt" Brenda smiled.
"We have our associates with the NYPD conducting investigations as we speak. We just wanted to talk to you, you're D-Crypts manager and you apparently tried to end the feud with G.B.H. and Hard Time Records. Who better to talk to?" Weatherly looked around the room, taking us in. I wonder if he was going to underestimate us, given his track record with women there was a good chance of it. His sense of self-importance kicked in.
"Well yeah, I tried to cool it down, didn't want it to get outa hand y'know. Tried to, but they didn't wanna know. It's all their fault, not ours" Sharon walked a little closer, attracting his attention.
"I was under the impression that it started when your friend D-Crypt assaulted G.B.H.s girlfriend" Weatherly shook his head.
"It wasn't assault, she wanted it" Sharon crossed her arms.
"Was that before or after you pushed drugs and alcohol onto her?" He looked up at her, trying to play it cool.
"I don't know what you mean" Sharon arced an eyebrow.
"That is your job though, isn't it? Procure the girls for D-Crypt and the posse?" As he went to speak Brenda spoke up.
"Please Commander, Mr Weatherly is here to help us, let's give him the benefit of the doubt shall we" Sharon turned away, that way Weatherly couldn't see the wink she threw Brenda and I. Brenda looked across at Sharon for a moment.
"I'm not interested in what may or may not have happened to start this; my investigation is entirely concerned with tonight's bombing" She looked back to Weatherly. "Incidentally, do you have a cell phone?" He looked confused.
"Yeah, course I do"
"May I see it please?" He looked confused, before shrugging and pulling a high end smart phone out of his pocket and holding it up for Brenda to examine. "Is that your only phone?"
"Yeah, what's that got to do with things?"
"I expect you have a business card, may I have one please?"
"What?" Jane walked up and held her hand out.
"A business card Mr Weatherly, it's either the card or I confiscate your phone as evidence" Weatherly's face was a mix of anger and confusion, with something that might have been fear mixed in.
"Evidence? What the fuck?" Jane just snapped her fingers and held out her hand.
"The card or your phone, your choice"
"Fine" With poor grace he handed Jane a business card and she walked towards Michael who stepped forward, collecting the card from her and leaving the room, heading to check the call register for that number. Brenda returned her attention to our suspect, who looked confused.
"Mr Weatherly, the investigation into tonight's incident is now a joint investigation of the Federal Government and the LAPD. The Feds are treating this as a terrorist bombing and intend to charge the person responsible under terrorism statutes. That means life in a federal prison" She cocked her head as she regarded him.
"My investigation is looking at it as a non-terrorist crime. If I'm right it was a standard criminal case, not a terrorism matter. That means it's handled here under California law, no federal involvement"
"Of course it wasn't terrorism, there were been threats made against D-Crypt, that's why we had security. That's why one of them died, rather than us"
"Ah yes, the security personnel; I understand there were some tensions between them and some of your people, including you"
"Some of them weren't acting in an appropriate manner for hired help, we made a complaint"
"More than a complaint, you specifically asked for one member of the security team to be replaced, Tony Jefferson, the man who died tonight"
"I told you, he wasn't working out, upsetting people, so I asked for him to be replaced by someone less annoying"
"In what way was Tony Jefferson acting inappropriately Mr Weatherly?"
"I told you, upsetting people, getting all chummy with the boss, I could see he was trying to work his way into the posse, kissing ass to try and get a job with us. That's not what he was hired for, he was a meat head, hired to do a job and nothing more"
"So you felt he had to go?"
"Yeah, my job's to look after D-Crypt's interests and I didn't feel this Jefferson guy was particularly professional, his job was to catch a bullet, not try and be the boss's best bud"
"Funny, your employer didn't agree, when he heard about it he insisted that Tony Jefferson stay on the detail"
"Yeah well, apparently Jefferson went and bitched to him about being replaced and D-Crypt, well he's a sucker for a sob story, so he asked for him to stay"
The door opened and Michael walked through, taking his place against the wall next to Andy. At Brenda's look he shook his head.
"No calls or texts out for 38 minutes prior to the explosion or 21 minutes after"
"Thank you Lieutenant" She turned back to Weatherly, who was sitting uncomfortably. "No calls eh Mr Weatherly? What then were you doing then making a call at 11.06 last night? You obviously weren't using that phone"
"I don't know what you mean, I didn't make any calls, like he said" Brenda just shook her head sadly.
"Oh Mr Weatherly, please don't lie to me, we have security camera footage of you making a call at the time of the explosion. In fact, you looked out, saw the car turn into the driveway and made the call, before ducking out of line of sight of the explosion. Looks like you knew exactly what to expect"
Brenda gestured to where David leaned against the wall, staring at Weatherly with disdain on his face.
"As for the phone, you'll note the object Sergeant Gabriel has in his hand" David stood straighter and held up the disposable cell in its baggie.
"We have here a cell phone recovered from a toilet just outside the restaurant you'd been having dinner in. We've already confirmed it was used to set off the explosion, ringing another phone just like it to trigger the bomb"
"We also have you on tape walking in there right after the explosion, before leaving and returning to the restaurant" Weatherly looked at her for a moment, uncertainty on his face, before it hardened. He'd obviously decided to tough it out.
"That proves nothing. It means nothing" Brenda smiled.
"Perhaps it doesn't, not on its own, however I'd like to introduce you to Doctor Isles; the LAPDs Medical Examiner" Brenda gestured to where Maura stood, her arms crossed. She nodded politely at Weatherly. "The good Doctor handles the forensic evidence of cases, which includes fingerprints. Tell me Doctor Isles, can we recover fingerprints from the phone?" Maura, prepped by Brenda, nodded.
"There is a high probability we can. The phone was not immersed for too long and fresh water is less destructive to fingerprint impression than salt. I would suggest there is a very strong likelihood of recovering a set of usable prints" Brenda smiled.
"Thank you Doctor. We'll be getting a set of prints off you Mr Weatherly, just to compare against those we recover from the cell" Weatherly was looking a little stunned.
"In case you're wondering, the FBI recovered pieces of another mobile phone from the wreckage and will be checking them for fingerprints, as well as running down when and where it was sold" Brenda smiled pleasantly at him.
"Early tomorrow morning, once we get a court order signed, we'll be running down your financial records, looking for any interesting purchasing history. Just in case we find any links to purchases like mobile phones, fertiliser or diesel"
"I don't know what the hell you're talking about"
"Mr Weatherly, we're investigating a murder, the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security and people from a whole host of other Federal agencies with an alphabet soup of acronyms are out there treating this case as a terrorist bombing. Do you have any idea of how people convicted of terrorist offences get treated? No?"
I could tell Brenda was pushing hard, very hard. I could understand why though, to this point we didn't have a shred of evidence that could stand up in court, nothing concrete, it was all circumstantial, the sort of thing a defence lawyer could get tossed from court in a couple of minutes. Brenda needed Weatherly worried and uncertain.
"The Federal Government will want to prosecute the people responsible for this bombing to the full extent of the law. Special Agent Romanov here is from the FBI. Agent Romanov, could you please explain exactly what that would mean" Ana nodded and looked down at Weatherly.
"Sure thing Chief. It means life in a federal prison. Not the half-assed life sentence the state penal systems hand out, y'know 15, 20 or 25 years, it means stay there until you die" Ana frowned. "Given it's a terrorist attack I expect that the person responsible will end up in a six foot by ten foot cell in Guantanamo Bay for the rest of their life. They can spend their life sharing a prison with the worst of the 9/11 and Al Qaida terrorists. Never to be released" Weatherly was staring at Ana as she continued painting a pretty horrible picture.
"Life inside consists of two one hour exercise periods a day, the other 22 in the cell, in solitary" She shrugged. "That is unless the decision is execution. I believe that as Guantanamo's a military run prison the preferred form of execution is a firing squad. Tie the condemned to a pole and a firing squad of ten soldiers lined up in two rows of five and on an order, fire. At close range all ten will hit, so it's usually quick"
I could see the blood draining from Weatherly's face as he stared at the consequences of his actions. Brenda smiled down at him.
"Mind you, that's only an option if the person responsible is convicted by the federal government under terrorism charges. If I convict them under civil statutes it's completely different, no Guantanamo Bay, no life in solitary, no firing squad" Weatherly shook his head.
"I think I want a lawyer" Brenda looked sad.
"Are you quite sure about that Mr Weatherly?" Sharon stepped back into the exchange.
"Chief Johnson, if Mr Weatherly wishes to speak to a lawyer then we can no longer talk to him without a lawyer present, you know the rules as well as I do" A flash of irritation crossed Brenda's face before she sighed, a trifle theatrically.
"Damn it Commander; that means we have to hand him over to the Feds. None of us want that" Sharon ran her hand through her hair.
"I understand Chief, but that's the rules, we don't make them, we just enforce them"
"I s'pose you're right. Sorry Mr Weatherly, until a lawyer gets here, we can't talk to you anymore, so I have to hand you over to the Feds" Brenda turned her head to look at Ana. "Agent Romanov, would you let Director Martinez know that it's out of my hands and Mr Weatherly's now his to prosecute" Ana nodded and turned to walk to the door.
"Wait" Brenda turned.
"I beg your pardon Mr Weatherly"
"I want to talk to you, not them"
"I'm sorry Mr Weatherly, but as my colleague, Commander Raydor here pointed out, I can't talk to you until a lawyer gets here, and that means it becomes the Feds case, not mine"
"I don't want the Feds involved, I want to talk to you" Brenda gave him a sad smile.
"Sorry Paul, no can do, them's the rules" Sharon spoke up.
"Chief, there is one possibility here" Brenda turned.
"There is? What's that Commander?"
"If Mr Weatherly waives his rights to counsel right now, you can talk to him. He can always change his mind and call for legal counsel later if he chooses" Ana spoke up from where she was standing at the door.
"Chief, can't we just hand him over, it's late. I don't know about you but I'd just as soon go home" That was my cue.
"I don't think that's the correct attitude Special Agent. It may be late, but Mr Weatherly deserves a fair trial. If we hand him over to the Feds he'll hardly get that" I saw Ana's eyes narrow, oh she'd make me pay for that comment later, I could tell.
"Whatever" It was Jane. "It's after three in the morning, can't we hand him over to the Feds, they can rendition his ass to Guantanamo and we can wrap up and go home" Brenda looked at Weatherly.
"Not feeling the love here tonight people" She looked round the room. "All those in favour of handing Mr Weatherly over to the Federal authorities and going home, raise your hand.
"All the boys except Buzz raised their hand, as did Sharon, Jane and Ana.
"Sorry Mr Weatherly, looks like I'm outvoted"
"No!" Weatherly shot to his feet. "You can't just vote to send me to Guantanamo, this isn't Survivor, I have rights" Brenda took a step back.
"Of course you do, including the right to counsel, which you've invoked, so I can't help you anymore, you've tied my hands" She shrugged.
"Mr Weatherly…Paul, sit down" He returned to his seat. "It's late, my team wants to go home, I can't say I blame them; my pillow is calling me as well. Either you waive your right to counsel and we talk right now or Agent Romanov calls in Director Martinez and you get a quick trip to Federal custody, your choice"
Weatherly looked around the room, seeing no sympathy from most of the people there, before finally looking at Buzz, Maura, me and then Brenda, obviously the people he thought were trying to help. Brenda stared at him.
"Well?" The silence dragged out for about 15 seconds, although it felt longer to me and no doubt felt like an eternity to Weatherly, before he caved.
"Ok, I waive my right, is that what you want?" Sharon crossed her arms and glared down at him. I wouldn't want to be on the receiving end of that expression.
"The wording is I revoke my right to counsel"
"Uh, ok, I revoke my right to counsel" Brenda stared down at him.
"Mr Weatherly, tell me exactly what you did tonight"
""Um, I… er. I didn't…" Brenda sighed.
"Start with when and where you planted the bomb" Weatherly looked like he was rethinking what he was saying. Brenda's mouth twisted with annoyance.
"Well?"
"What do I get if I cooperate?"
"Mr Weatherly, here's the deal. You tell me everything starting right now and I prosecute you under the California criminal statutes. That means no Federal terrorism trial, no Guantanamo Bay, no firing squad" Weatherly chewed his lip, obviously thinking it over, which was what Brenda didn't want happening. She needed him rattled and talking, not thinking.
"Refuse to tell me what the hell you did and I walk out of here, hand you over to the Feds and wash my hands of you. As you can see, most of the people in this room seem to think I should turn you over to them so we can all go home. The longer you hold out on me the better that deal sounds"
Weatherly stared at Brenda for a good 20 seconds, before Brenda decided to turn the screws. She threw her hands up.
"Fine, thank you for wasting my time, enjoy Guantanamo Bay Mr Weatherly, you'll be there till you die, however way that comes, old age or firing squad" She turned and walked to the door, calling for the squad "C'mon people, we're out of here. Agent Romanov, he's all yours with my blessing" Brenda reached the door and grabbed for the handle.
"Wait, wait. Ok, I did it, I planted the bomb in a compartment in the back of the car, up against the driver's seat" Brenda stopped and with the rest of us, turned to look back at Weatherly.
Sighing, she turned and walked back towards him.
"Your last chance Mr Weatherly, do not try my patience again. If I think you're lying, withholding information or playing games, I walk out of here, I do not stop, I hand you over to the Feds and I go home to sleep. That's game over, go to Guantanamo, do not pass go, do not collect $200 dollars, do I make myself very, very clear Mr Weatherly?" Weatherly nodded slowly, numbly.
Brenda leaned in close and spoke in a low, harsh voice that carried throughout the utterly still room.
"Do I make myself clear Mr Weatherly, yes or no?" Weatherly wet his lips and stared down at the floor, defeat evident in his posture.
"Yes" Brenda leaned back.
"Now tell us all exactly what you did Mr Weatherly"
30 minutes later it was all over. Weatherly had confessed everything. He'd realised that his position as D-Crypts manager was under threat. Tony Jefferson was about to be made an offer to work directly for D-Crypt, which Weatherly saw as the first step in being replaced as D-Crypts confidant.
That meant not only was he likely to be replaced as D-Crypts manager, it would also mean his exposure, turned out he'd been skimming money out of his boss's finances to support a growing gambling habit, something that any competent audit would expose.
Weatherly thought he could keep it hidden, at least until he made a 'big score' and win enough back to replace what he'd stolen. As long as D-Crypt had enough money to keep him in wine, women, bling and blow, Weatherly had been safe, the finances were in his hands.
The whole feud thing with G.B.H. was just part of business, he hadn't really tried to get it called off, downloads of both artist's raps had gone through the roof in the wake of the feud as fans couldn't get enough of the trash talking, which meant more money rolling in.
It was when the studio insisted on security that things went pear shaped. Weatherly had gone along with it, thinking that the security would be the sort of rent-a-cops you saw in movies. He hadn't been prepared for the sort of people Walter's company employed; they were very smart, very good and very professional. All of which had caught D-Crypts eye, especially Tony Jefferson. D-Crypt liked him and made no secret that he was thinking of taking him on as security manager.
The likelihood that someone with half a brain might end up close to D-Crypt was a terrifying thought to Weatherly, one that had caused him to try and get him removed from the team.
When that blew up in his face, he'd seen the writing on the wall and moved to fix the problem permanently. He'd thought of hiring a ganger to kill Tony, but realised that would lead things straight back to him, so he'd hit upon the idea of making it look like a botched hit on D-Crypt, one that would lead back to G.B.H.
He hadn't actually thought it through far enough to realise that a bombing at a hotel would look like a terrorist attack, triggering a major response from both the LAPD and the Feds.
Searching the net he'd found a bunch of websites that described how to make a bomb from commonly available components then built one and stashed it in a box stowed in a compartment behind the driver's seat. With a push of a button he thought he'd fixed all his problems, instead he'd ended three lives and ruined over 50 more.
By the time he'd finished, we were all tired and a bit disgusted, but happy to wrap it up. Sharon retrieved her iPhone with his confession and placed it in her purse; as Julio directed uniformed officers to cuff him while Jane read him his rights. As he was led from the room Brenda stopped the officers and spoke.
"Book him please gentlemen, three counts of murder, 52 counts of attempted murder, they'll do for now, we'll work out the rest of the charges in the morning" Weatherly looked up.
"What happens now, you won't hand me over to the Feds, you promised?" Brenda stayed calm in the face of his pleading.
"Don't worry Mr Weatherly, I keep my word, the Feds don't get you" He nodded slowly, grateful. "Instead you'll be charged under California law and face the death penalty for multiple counts of murder and attempted murder" The shock on his face was a sight to behold.
"What!?" Brenda shrugged.
"I promised to keep you from Guantanamo and a firing squad. Instead you'll be convicted and spend your time on death row here in California, until your sentence is carried out via lethal injection"
"You can't, you can't, you lied. You can't do this"
"I can and I will Mr Weatherly" Brenda nodded to the grinning uniformed officers. "Get him out of here" They dragged him out of the room, none too gently, as he continued to scream protests at Brenda. I saw Sharon gently rest her hand on Brenda's arm, offering comfort and getting a tired, sad smile in return.
"I'm ok, I'm just glad we wrapped it up" They shared a quick look before Brenda looked around the room at everyone.
"Great job everyone, a major investigation wrapped up in less than five hours, probably a Major Crimes record" Andy nodded.
"For one this size, yeah probably" Brenda smiled.
"Let's go share the good news with Pope. There's one man who'll be ecstatic, think of all the overtime we've saved him"
Provenza chuckled a little bitterly.
"I'm not sure I can handle the thought of an ecstatic Pope at this time of the night, well morning actually" Sharon sniggered quietly.
"Or any other time truth be told" There was a wave of laughter across the team as we all smiled. Brenda looked around the room, gathering us all in with her eyes.
"I'd just like to thank you all for being here tonight. I mean not the bombing bit, but tonight. It was one of the best times I've ever had, here with my friends. It means a lot to share it with you all" There was a chorus of agreement; it'd been a damned good night.
I saw Brenda and Sharon smile, just for each other, just for a moment lost in each other's eyes. I made a mental note that next weekend had to be something special, something as good as they had deserved it.
Finally, with her warm brown eyes still lost in Sharon's green, Brenda spoke softly, but loud enough for all of us to hear.
"I wouldn't have missed it for anything"