Chapter 2: Search in Vain
"Tubbs, a word please." He looked up at Castillo looming over him with a serious expression over his face. Not that he really ever smiled anyway, of course. Tubbs casually walked over to the Lieutenant's office and sat down. "Tubbs I need you to keep Sonny away or distracted from the whole Auric Waters thing. If he snaps loose, we're looking at a blown case here and possible charges for obstruction of justice…" Tubbs nodded. "Hey, don't worry man…you know me, I'll keep him in check. Thanks Lieutenant." Castillo simply looked at him as he walked out. He knew Crockett was a good one, but hard to restrain on personal matters. This wouldn't be easy.
Down at the Anderson, a man in a pin stripe suit made his way over to the counter at the bar. He ordered a martini and nervously fumbled with his thumbs, seemingly waiting for someone to arrive. Well, someone did arrive after all. A man in a top hat and some interesting looking shades came dancing into the bar with a half black, half golden cain in his right hand. Jamming with the music towards the nervous dealer, he stopped. He thought he migh've seen some certain folks in a car across the street, but a little further away from them…then he dismissed the thought because he was getting distracted. Those two folks were Crockett and Tubbs on a stakeout with Switke and Zito.
"Cruz. Cruz..Cruz…Cruz….I should have known…it would be you to screw me over my deal, no?" Santano suddenly began denying the accusations furiously and fast, not wanting to be killed. "No, I-.I didn't mean for it to go down like that man, I didn't know they were heat man….really…" A silenced gunshot was heard only around the man standing in front of Cruz. Santano's eyes widened as he died, slowly and painfully in the man's arms. "It's too bad Cruz….it really is…." he dragged Cruz along, and when questioned he claimed he was just drunk and had passed out. He dumped his body in the trash outside and made a break for the car waiting for him.
Switek and Zito overheard the action through their distance hearing devices in the van, but the device's frequency range was cut short as the silenced gunshot's noise was the last thing they were able to pick up. They looked at each other. "Move. Now." Immediately hustling towards the bar Crockett made a run for the back and entrance with Switek, while Tubbs and Zito decided to take the front entrance. Tubbs ran in first, shoving his way through multiple people who weren't happy that they were being shoved off by two seemingly normal people. Crockett made a break for the back, hoping to catch the man going for the getaway car in time. He drew his Deagle out just in case there was any, uninvited action.
Switek looked to his left in the back alley and noticed the body thrown onto the overfilled dumpster. Not so pretty of a sight. "Hey Sonny…. might want to, look here…I think you'll find our man. Preserved too well", he remarked with a little distress. Crockett turned and looked. His face fell. "Oh no….no, no, no...this isn't what was supposed to happen….", he said while hustling towards Cruz's body. Tubbs and Zito caught up just as the other two got to the dumpster. Tubbs took one look at scene and the thought process was already going through his head.
Switek had already called for an ambulance and other PD officials were on their way to the crime scene. The day didn't seem very promising for them. Or did it?
Later that evening, Ballistics reports had come back, identifying the bullet used as a 9mm pistol, with a suppressor nozzle attached to silence the gun. "Did you get the car?" Castillo asked. "Well, I tried to but uh, my attention was drawn to Cruz's body after Switek told me." Castillo looked at Sonny, then Tubbs, and then Switek and Zito. "You're all responsible for the getaway of the drug dealer and the death of Cruz." They said nothing, acknowledging their grim reality. "Homicide called. They have something for us that could be of interest as evidence." With that, he slimmed his tie down in the wind and walked off to his car.
Crockett took off his sunglasses to admire a orange sunset, and a crime scene. "Can you believe it? This just keeps getting ridiculous and more stupid everyday….I'll be damned if Auric isn't the last one to be alive at this point…" Tubbs snickered a little. "Maybe if he drowns in his own waters, that'd be real nice Sonny, ha!" Sonny chuckled a little. Sure needed the humor at times like these. "Well, I guess that's a wrap for me. I'm out guys, see ya at the bureau", Zito said. Everyone waved him off and soon left for the bureau. Things just didn't seem to add up here and there. Hell.
Castillo asked for everyone to gather at the conference room. One of the homicide group members came in shortly after everyone had taken their seats. "This is Jim Mueller, a close friend at Homicide. He and his team think they found something of significant interest that could help us prove this case against Ortez." Jim went over to Castillo's desk and pulled out a bag labeled "EVIDENCE" with the respective warnings on it. He passed it around. "Hell is this? A tape recorder?" Switek had the nerve to pipe again. "So you're saying that he recorded everything we need? Awesome! Case closed." Castillo shot him a look again, causing Switek to zip his mouth for the rest of the session. "Yes, this is a tape recorder. But we have a slight problem on hand with it. It has Auric Water's confessions of murders and drug dealings from 5 years ago. But they're not all on this tape."
Everyone piped with confusion. "The tape cuts off half way through his confessions. We have reasonable cause to believe he may have split the tape up into several separate recordings for protection against himself." Tubbs piped up with a question. "Wait, Lieutenant, why would he do this? In the first place at all?..." "Ah Rico, it makes sense. I knew the guy and he was paranoid as hell about everything, everywhere. Man, you should've seen the stuff he used to take when we got out of Vietnam…", he said with a nostalgic chuckle. "How I ever put up with him…I don't know….I don't know man…."
"At most, it makes sense to the same way Nixon was paranoid about the Watergate scandal and related evidence. He was paranoid about losing the election, so he went ahead with the plan and taped his conversations with his members and employees at the White House…", Castillo said with pride. "So…now what?" Castillo looked at Zito once and then said, "Find them. Find the rest of the tapes."
Everyone looked at each other in a frenzy. The rest of the tapes? How the hell were they supposed to know where they were? This case fell hard on the team this time, for this would undoubtedly be a hard task for everyone. But if it meant bringing Waters down one way or the other, he was determined to find the rest of the tapes. How, was the question.