Gladys watched as both officers paced back and forth in front of her desk. The scene in the outer office would have been funny if it wasn't caused by the knowledge that Wells was in the Captain's office. He wasn't due to make his statement to the Captain until 11 am. It was definitely a bad omen, but the question was: who was the omen for?
"I suppose it's too much to expect that Ed is in there resigning." Pete asked Mac when he came along side; the two had been pacing in opposite directions. MacDonald shook his head and kept walking away from Pete. The office wasn't very big, so it only took five seconds for them to reach a wall, turn around and come back together.
"You know as well as I do what Ed is doing in there." It seemed to Gladys as if both officers were bracing themselves for more trouble. She didn't know all that had happened, but knew enough to know that Ed was most likely in there pleading his case.
"I can hope, can't I?" The question might have been seen as optimistic, but Pete's tone of voice was more one of resignation. He knew the odds that Wells would "man-up" and take responsibility for his actions were the same odds that the Earth would stop suddenly and start rotating the other way.
Pete and Mac were on opposite sides of the office when the door opened and Sgt. Jerry Miller entered. Malloy was somewhat confused at Miller's appearance, but Mac seemed to have expected it. Miller asked both men to take a seat so they could talk before entering the Captain's office.
"I spoke to both of the women whose names you gave me. I also had a conversation with Pete's landlady, a Mrs. O'Brian." Mac blanched at the name, causing Pete to laugh. MacDonald and Mrs. O'Brian had a brief, but memorable history together. Still, he wondered why Miller would be talking to his neighbors so soon after the incident. They hadn't reported it yet.
"You were right Mac; all three women told me similar versions of what happened last night. They agree that Ed confronted Pete and two said they would have hit Wells a lot sooner than Pete did. I think he's in the clear." Pete thanked Miller and MacDonald for their help. Their intervention before the meeting with the captain should make things easier. It was nice to know that he had backup for his story, yet, he couldn't relax. Who knows what Ed was saying and did he have someone willing to back up his side of things?
All four looked up as the door to the inner office opened. Ed Wells strutted out and smirked at Pete. This was not good. No one spoke while they waited for clearance to talk to Captain Moore.
Finally, Gladys sent them in. At the Captain's direction Mac and Pete took the seats in front of the desk. He was about to ask about Miller's attendance at the meeting when MacDonald stated that he asked Miller to come. The Captain watched all three men for a minute before he spoke.
"Pete, did you hit Ed Wells yesterday?" The bluntness of the question caught Pete off-guard. Moore was eye to eye with Pete, waiting for the answer.
"Yes, I didn't have a choice." He paused a moment before continuing. "Did Ed tell you that I hit him in self-defense or is what happened yesterday all my fault?" Pete had been dealing with Wells for years; he knew better than the Captain did about how twisted Ed's perspective on things could be.
"He says that he waited outside your apartment to try and reason with you. That you told him to leave and hit him when he refused to go." Pete sat there speechless; this went way past Wells' habit of exaggerating the facts. He was out and out lying.
"Captain?" MacDonald spoke up while Pete let that accusation sink in. He wanted to put a stop to this lie before things got worse. "Pete told me what happened last night. I called Miller in to speak to Pete's neighbors, in case we could find a witness. Someone had called in a 415, but the squad that responded didn't find any problems."
Captain Moore nodded. He would listen to Sgt. Miller before asking any more questions. While he listened to Miller's report, the Captain kept looking between a piece of paper on his desk and Pete. Malloy kept his attention on the Captain; if he wanted to judge Pete's response to the story, let him. The story ended with Ed pounding on the door until a neighbor yelled at him. MacDonald and Miller handed in their reports and the statement Pete had signed the night before. No one spoke as the Captain read all the statements. The Captain's attention was now fully on one piece of paper.
"Wells' statement, besides the part about Pete telling him to leave, presents a very different picture of what occurred last night." Moore glanced up at Pete's forehead. "He says that he never laid a hand on you, but that cut over your eye suggests that he did. Ordinarily, this would be a question of one officer's word over another."
Captain Moore leaned forward, elbows on his desk, staring at Pete as he asked.
"Why did you hit him? Shouldn't you have tried to subdue him first?" Again, Captain Moore was being blunter than was his usual style.
"Normally, I would have, Sir. As you know, I am already on light duty from the bar fight Friday night. When Ed slammed me from behind, I hit my head on the door frame and caught a door knob in the stomach. I was in too much pain to try and wrestle with him and he was still swinging a fist at me. So, I hit him…once."
Pete knew the regulations as well as Moore did. It would be up to the Captain to decide if he had a valid reason to hit another officer. Moore didn't speak for a few minutes; he seemed to be weighing the evidence and the way in which it was presented. When Ed made the accusation against Pete, he couldn't sit still. He got up and paced as he told Moore about Pete hitting him. On the other hand, Pete sat in front of him, not fidgeting and keeping eye contact the whole time he spoke.
"Pete, do you want to press charges for assault?" Apparently, the captain had made up his mind but Pete couldn't stop worrying until he knew for sure.
"No Sir. I would just as soon forget it happened, if that's okay with you." Pete didn't see the point in pressing possible criminal charges against Wells. It wouldn't accomplish anything.
"Alright, if you change your mind let me know before tomorrow morning." Pete assured the captain that he wouldn't be bringing charges. While the Captain gathered up all the papers, Pete got up and walked over to Sgt. Miller. He wanted to thank him again for taking care of the "Ed" problem for him. Jerry patted Pete on the shoulder and told him to try to relax. Pete couldn't, not yet.
When Miller opened the door to leave, a very nervous young man in the outer office jumped up. Pete felt sorry for the kid, but he would have to wait a few more minutes. Captain Moore had some questions about Ed's behavior since the incident with Eli.
"How unstable is Wells I'm worried that he might do something worse than what he did last night." Pete and Mac looked at each other. Neither one was sure how to answer that question. Ed's actions the night before were abnormal even for him. Still, Moore wasn't asking a rhetorical question
"There's no way to know. I didn't think he would go so far as to attack Pete." MacDonald's answer was the same one that Pete would have given. Ed was under so much pressure and they understood that, but it didn't excuse what he'd done since yesterday afternoon. Whether they liked it or not, Wells seems to have decided that all his problems were Pete's fault.
"I don't want Pete alone until this business is over." Moore, at least, had decided that Ed was a danger to Pete. Mac agreed with the Captain, but Pete wanted no part of it; arguing that he was perfectly capable of protecting himself. It was two against one, however, Pete could out stubborn both of them. The problem was that Captain Moore couldn't order Pete to have protection when there was no concrete threat. The three of them would still be arguing if it weren't time for Fraser to make his statement. The issue was tabled, for now.
When Pete went to let Fraser in, he saw Jim sitting in there waiting with the rookie. He signaled to Pete that he needed to speak to him. Pete excused himself and went out to see what Jim wanted.
"I forgot to tell you something. Last night, I answered your phone while you were sleeping. It was a woman. I didn't recognize the voice and she wouldn't leave a message." Pete wasn't sure why Jim was bothering to tell him about a no message, phone call. It's not like he hasn't been getting weird calls lately.
"Thanks, Jim. No offense, but why aren't you home sleeping?" Jim, who worked the AM shift, had left over two hours ago.
"I did go home. Jean made me breakfast and while we were eating a woman called our house looking for you. I recognized the voice. It was the same woman who called your apartment last night." Now that set off alarms bells. People, outside of those they worked with, didn't usually call Jim's house looking for him. Jim added that the woman wouldn't leave her name or number today either. He thanked Jim and went back into the office.
Moore and MacDonald were already discussing the rookie's statement with him, so Pete went to lean against the bookcase. He didn't tell Jim, but he was more bothered by the phone calls than he was about Ed. Who would be trying to track him down? Why not leave a name or number so he could call them back? Fraser's statement was almost identical to the one he had given the night it happened. Pete was only half listening; he wasn't supposed to be asking questions.
"Pete? Ahem. Pete? Are you with us?" Mac had apparently been speaking to Pete.
"Sorry, Mac. I got distracted by something Jim told me. What did you want to know?" Pete was trying to shake off the bad feelings the message from Jim caused. He knew without them asking that he would have to tell them about the phone calls.
"When you rode with Officer Fraser, did you have to tell him to secure his weapon?" Pete could see it in the kid's eyes; he didn't want Pete to say that he had warned the rookie. Nor did he want Pete to tell them the reason he didn't have his holster buckled.
"Yes. I had to tell him twice. I thought the first time was a mistake, but after I saw his weapon unsecured again, I asked him why." Pete paused; he didn't want to add to the Wells problem. "He said that Wells told him not to buckle up his weapon." He didn't feel the need, right then, to share the fact that he had to keep telling Ed to secure his weapon.
"Did he tell you why?" This time the question came from Captain Moore. Pete couldn't shake the feeling that he was setting Ed up for an execution. He was torn between his duty and some sympathy he felt towards the rookie. It wasn't much of a choice, really. Pete wouldn't cover for him or Ed.
"He said that Wells told him to keep his holster unbuckled because securing it would slow him down when he needed to pull his weapon." That seemed to be the only question they had for Pete. Ten minutes later, Fraser was told that he would be notified of the Captain's decision in two days. Part of Pete wanted to reassure the young cop that he wouldn't lose his job over this; the other part thought it wouldn't hurt to have Fraser sweating it out.
After Fraser left, Pete filled his superior officers in on the strange phone calls he had received from the unknown woman. He shouldn't have done that. The debate over whether or not Pete needed a body guard had to tabled once again. Gladys buzzed the Captain with a message.
Ed was waiting.
