Holding up the police tape, Nolan waited until Bishop ducked under it, before ducking under it himself. Allowing the tape to drop back into place, he followed her across the cordoned off parking lot to where several officers from the Pacific division stood, huddled around the open dumpster as a forensic officer dusted the dumpster for fingerprints. One of the officers turned and watched them as they approached.
"Talia." The officer acknowledged Bishop as he took a small step towards her.
"Matt." Bishop replied before slightly tilting her head towards Nolan and introducing him, "This is my boot, John Nolan."
"Nolan." The Pacific division officer glanced across and nodded in greeting, before suddenly pausing and frowning, "Your boot? Bit old for a boot, isn't he, Talia?"
"I get that a lot," John started, "but…" His voice trailed as he caught a sideward look from Bishop before he added softly, "Never mind …"
Returning his attention back to Talia, Matt continued, "My Commander has already told us that Mid-Wilshire will be taking the lead on this."
"Yeah, Tim is one of our guys and a very good friend." Talia answered.
"How is he?" Matt asked as they turned and began to walk towards the dumpster as he added softly. "The guys who attended the initial call said he was in a bad way."
"Critical and in surgery," Talia sighed as she looked around before looking back at the Pacific division officer and frowned, "So what have we got?"
The officer shrugged, "Statements from the couple who found him."
"They were having some sort of a romantic breakfast or something, weren't they?" Talia asked.
"Yeah, a romantic breakfast of greasy takeaway while watching the sunrise on the beach." Matt nodded before adding quietly, "We also ran a background check, wife's clean. Not even a parking ticket."
"And the husband?" John asked, frowning.
"He has a couple of misdemeanors for solicitation." An amused grin slipped onto Matt's face as he added softly, "He begged us not to mention them to his wife, their romantic breakfast was an apology and an attempt to save their marriage after she found out about the three affairs that he had."
"Wow!" John murmured.
"Yeah," Matt agreed. "I'm surprised that they even have a marriage to save." Returning his full attention back to Talia and the case, Matt continued with his report, "There is no evidence that this was where your officer was attacked but we did find some blood smudges on the lid and the lip of the dumpster. Probably got there when whoever grabbed Bradford dumped his body. Forensics have promised to rush the DNA tests on the blood, maybe we will get lucky, and the DNA from the blood won't be all Bradford's, I'm hoping that he managed to injure one of his attackers. I don't hold much hope of getting anything useful from any prints from the dumpster, given the number of people who use the playground and the parking lot."
"What about the security cameras?"
Pointing at the camera that covered the nearest entrance/exit and then at a second camera that covered the far end of the parking lot, the Pacific division officer sighed as he answered his Mid-Wilshire colleague's question, "Those two are broken, waiting for the city to repair them." Redirecting John's and Talia's attention back to a third camera that covered the entrance/ exit at the far end of the parking lot and then the fourth camera at their end of the parking lot that appeared to be pointing more towards the area where the cars would be parked rather than where the dumpster was located, he continued, "Hopefully one of those two caught something we can use. I'm waiting for the city to send us the security video. I already have some of my guys canvasing the businesses across the road."
Turning back to her boot, Talia began to order, "Nolan -"
"Ah, I'll go and…umm… help with the canvassing." He finished for her as he pointed in the general direction of the businesses on the opposite side of the road.
Talia nodded as he turned and hurried away. Turning back to Matt, she found him staring after Nolan.
"Isn't he a bit old to be a -" Matt frowned before he was cut off mid-question by the sound of a ding from the tablet he held in his hand. Quickly glancing down at the screen before looking back up at Talia, he announced, "The city has just through the security video."
Stepping closer to the Pacific division officer, Talia looked over his shoulder as his finger slid over the play button on the video and video began to play. The time recorded on the video showed 3.27 am when a grainy image of a dark blue pickup entered the video and pulled up almost against the dumpster. The two officers watched silently as two men, dressed in dark clothing, climbed out but the angle of the cameras made it impossible to clearly see the men's faces or the license plates of the pickup. They watched the driver follow the passenger out of the passenger's door as the passenger ran around the pickup to open the lid of the dumpster. Climbing into the back tray of pick-up truck, the driver quickly removed and tossed aside what appeared to be a tarp that had been covering or hiding something.
Talia felt her breath catch as she watched the passenger join the driver in the back of the truck. Reaching down, he helped his partner lift up Tim's limp body before tossing it unceremoniously into the dumpster. She winced in sympathy as she saw Tim's head bounce off the lip of the dumpster before his body disappear inside. The two officers watched as the passenger jumped down and slammed the dumpster lid closed while the driver jumped off the pickup tray and scrambled back into the truck.
"Pause it!" Talia ordered excitedly as Matt's finger hit the pause symbol capturing a still picture of the passenger and his face as he rounded the back of the pickup truck and scurried around to the driver's door. "Can we zoom in a little closer?" Talia asked as she studied the man and his face as Matt zoomed in on the man. She felt her heart begin to thump in her chest as she recognized the grainy figure now enlarged on the screen. "Ghost Head!" she murmured.
"You know him?" Matt asked.
"Carson Miller, goes by the street name of Ghost Head, most likely got the name because he has nothing of any real substance between his ears. He's a low-level dealer with lofty dreams of one day being the Mister Big in the drug world."
"Looks like he might be starting to graduate to the big boys." Matt observed before adding softly, "Carrying out the order of the killing a cop would definitely help move him up the ladder."
Talia nodded her agreement as Matt hit play on the screen and they watched the pick-up pull away from the dumpster before turning left at the closest exit. Disappointed that the license plates were again unable to be read, Talia sighed as she looked back at Matt and asked. "Can you send us over a copy of the video?"
"Already have and the forensic guys will send you their report as soon as it's ready." Matt assured her.
"Sarge!" Matt turned around as one of his officers hurried towards him, with John close on the officer's heels. "We hit paydirt! One of the security cameras across the street captured a blue pickup truck that pulled into the parking lot at 3.27 this morning and parked next to the dumpster. Although the image isn't clear because of the distance, the camera did capture two men getting out and climbing onto the tray of the truck before throwing what looked to be a body into the dumpster. The pickup left the parking lot a few minutes later. It was the only vehicle to park anywhere near the dumpster over night or this morning before officer Bradford was discovered in the dumpster this morning."
"We couldn't make out our two suspects, but we were able to pull the license plates of the truck as it pulled into the parking lot. California plates – 2BQC189. We ran them and got a hit." John sighed before he continued , "The pickup is registered to Raymond Thomas, a sixty-nine-year-old gentleman who lives in West Hollywood. It was stolen from his address in Rampart early this morning. Mr Thomas told the investigating officers that the pickup was parked in his driveway when he went to bed at 10pm last night but when he got up this morning at 5 am, it was gone."
"I'm laying bets that we find the pickup burned out later this morning. As dumb as Miller might be, even he is not dumb enough not to know that any DNA evidence in that pickup would link him to the kidnapping and possible murder of a cop. With his record, he would be looking at a minimum sentence of life in jail. So, odds are, he's going to want to get rid of any DNA evidence as fast as he can." Talia sighed, aware that any evidence that might be collected from the pickup was probably already destroyed.
"Miller?" John frowned.
"Carson Miller, a low-level drug dealer. He's better known on the streets with the street name of Ghost Head. The parking lot security camera got a nice shot of his face after he and his pal dumped Tim's body into the dumpster." Talia told her rookie before she turned back to Matt and asked, "Can you wrap things up here? I have a suspect I want to question."
"Can do," The Pacific division officer assured her.
"Thanks," Talia gave a single wave of her hand as she turned and led her rookie back to their shop.
John's frown deepened as they reached the shop and climbed inside, "Did you say Miller's street name is Ghost Head?"
Talia nodded, a little confused as to how her rookie would even recognize the drug dealer's name as she frowned and asked, "Yeah, why, do you know him?"
"No, I don't… but Lucy does." John answered, "I remember her telling me that on her first day of training, Tim wanted to see how she would handle a non-co-operative suspect during an arrest."
Talia's own frown deepened with more confusion, her hand stopping in mid-air as she was about to put the key into the shop's ignition. Turning, she looked across at John questioningly. "I don't remember Tim and Lucy arresting Miller on her first day."
"That's because they didn't." John told her, "Lucy said that after she managed to handcuff Ghost Head and was about to put him in the back of the shop, Tim told her to uncuff him and let him go."
"Did Lucy tell you why?"
"No." John shook his head before asking, "Do you think that maybe it could have something that happened today?"
"I don't know," Talia answered as she inserted the key into the ignition before reaching into her pocket for her phone. Hitting the speed dial number for Lucy's phone, she placed her phone up to her ear as she finished her sentence, "but hopefully Lucy can tell us just why Tim decided to let Miller go that day."