A Hot Mess - 4. Chapter 4 – A class act. Almost.

“Let’s do one thing,” Jason said. He, Mallory and Travis were in Jason’s office discussing the ‘night-club homicide’. “Let me see the footage myself before I try to resolve this argument.”

“I’ll get my laptop” Mallory said and left the room.

Travis had stuck to his word and shared his findings with Detective Smith, first. Instead of earning him brownie points, it had led to a huge argument that he was questioning the merit of her current investigation. Jason was asked to intervene as they were disagreeing vehemently about the way forward.

On the personal front, Travis had behaved himself throughout the day. In fact he had not said a word to Jason after greeting him in the morning, refusing to meet his Boss’s eye for any length of time. Same detached demeanor continued as they waited for Mallory to rejoin. In a minute she was back with her laptop and connected it to the large screen TV on the wall.

The footage began with a slightly out-of-focus street view of the night club, seen from atop an electric pole. Lighting was dark, coming from the street lamps. Still one could clearly make out the sign ‘The Heat’ above the club’s dark door. In some time it opened and a tall twenty something girl wearing a single piece short dress walked out in her high heels. Two young men followed right behind, the one in front attempted to grab her arm. She pulled herself free and started arguing with him while the other man stood and watched. Two girls walked past them. The man engaged in the argument put his hand together as if pleading. After doing that for some time and seemingly getting unfavorable response, he suddenly pulled out a gun from his back and pointed it at the girl. The girl stepped back and started moving to the bottom left corner of the screen. The second man got involved at that point and put his hand on the shoulder of the one holding the gun. They got into a scuffle; second man trying to snatch the weapon away. The girl was not in frame anymore as the two guys fought for control. Suddenly they stopped. The first man, still holding the gun remained rooted in his place, looking to be in shock. Second one rushed in the direction the girl had disappeared in. He came back on screen shortly after, seemingly shouting at the other man who had not changed his posture. The gun wielding man was pulled away, out of the picture.

After the footage ended Jason let out a long sigh. “So” he began, “Detective Smith, you think what happened was that the guy” here he looked at the paper in his hand, “Mike Baker tried to threaten the girl with a gun and fatally shot her. It makes for a possible second degree murder charge among other things”

Smith spoke up, “I do not only ‘think’ so, I have evidence to support it. The second man is the eye witness here. He turned himself in two days after the incident and confirmed what happened in his statement.”

“Who was the girl? What were they fighting about?” Jason asked.

“The boys, both seventeen at the time, had apparently gotten in with fake IDs. The deceased, her name was Tiffany Martin worked in Mike’s father’s office and identified him. She said she was going to tell Dayton, Mike’s father. Dayton by the way is on the board of ___.”

Jason raised his eyebrow. “So he threatened her with a gun?”

“Apparently.” She had nothing more to add.

Jason turned towards Travis who had held his tongue so far and seemed ready to burst due to the effort. The Sergeant put him out of his misery. “Officer Johnson, why do you think we shouldn’t build the case against him if Mike admits to this in interrogation?”

“Sir!” the word tumbled out with a huge release of breath. “First of all, I think all of the evidence so far is only circumstantial. The gun used to commit the crime has not been recovered. And I don't think it will tomorrow either. I am willing to bet Mike will not know its real whereabouts.”

Mallory spoke up, “But the bullet found in the girl’s body came from the same make of gun registered under Dayton Parker’s name, which is also missing.” She made air quotes on the last word.

“One again,” Travis interjected, “circumstantial.”

“But we have the statement from an eye witness and the CC TV footage.”

“Detective Smith, can you please let me state my case?” Travis bristled, “I showed you the same courtesy after all.”

Mallory seemed ready to slap the shit out of Travis. Jason spoke up, “Alright, alright! Calm down you guys. Smith, he’s right. Why don’t we hear Travis out?”

It was the first time Jason had used his first name the young officer did not miss the detail. Buoyed by his little triumph he restarted his explanation.

“So, as I was saying, we do not have the murder weapon. All we know is that the bullet came from a Glock 0.38. Mike’s father had given him the gun for self-protection. Their family had apparently been receiving extortion threats. Now two things have me doubt the obvious. A – Mike has an exemplary record in school, he plays baseball and is known as a levelheaded, upright guy. There’s no history of any kind of violence or mischief anywhere. He was apparently out celebrating acceptance from Princeton. This does not seem like a guy who’d simply run from a crime scene which could easily be contested as an accidental manslaughter. I don’t see this guy acting like an average stupid teenager. That’s what baffles me. We can also see that the friend egged him to run and then promptly turned himself in the next day, with a lawyer in tow. Why didn’t he bring Mike with him? For me, he is as much of a suspect as a witness.” Here Travis halted momentarily. After letting his point sink in, he continued.

“Now onto point B – let’s look at the footage again.” He played back the last scenes and paused right at the moment the two men stopped their struggle and noticed that the girl had been shot. “Do you notice the angle that gun is held in?” Jason noticed it was pointing somewhat to the ground, difficult to tell how much. “Tiffany died of a bullet entering her heart. In heels she was as tall as the guys. From the witness’ account, it is understood that she was running away. How did the shot go that high from that angle?”

Travis stopped here. Jason and Mallory were looking at him, the Sergeant’s expression thoughtful, Detective’s impatient.

“Now, can I speak?” she asked acerbically.

“Yes please.” Travis approved.

“This assessment is not only insubstantial; it’s based on pure psychological bull-shit. Should we trust a vague hypothesis over eye witness account?”

“I’m not saying that.” Travis flared up. “All I am saying is, we need to look beyond the obvious. My hunch is that somebody else has been advising the suspect here against his wellbeing. Who helped him hide these three months? Tomorrow in the interrogation room I bet he will be accompanied by a lawyer his dad sends and may admit to having shot the deceased and plead for accidental manslaughter. But what if he has been deceived as well? I would not base my case on his corroboration of the other witness’s account alone.”

“What would you do?” Jason asked.

“I would talk to Mike and ask him to describe in his own words what exactly happened on the day. Even if he says he killed the girl, I would assume that to be his point of view. I would still be paying attention to the reason he pulled his gun out. I don’t think it’s only the fear of his father. Did you notice that none of them looked drunk? What prompted him to behave so recklessly? We have based most of our case on the friend’s account. What if it was a set-up and the so-called friend was party to it? What kind of motivations are at play here? I would go in assuming there’s more going on than what meets the eye.”

Jason, for the first time, was looking at Travis as an investigator and not an immature boy put in his charge to be disciplined. Jason Scott had spent only half the time of what Mallory Smith had done in the department and yet he was ranked higher. There was a reason for it. He was thorough, helpful and unassuming and possessed the ability to think out of the box. He found angles that others missed. His technique was sharpened by how well he assessed people he worked with. It helped him cover their blind spots, many times diving into research others found too technical. He also mastered in discovering criminals' blind spots. In Travis, he saw similar thoroughness and aptitude to go deep, but there was something else in the rookie that was rare - objectivity. Investigators, if they identified someone as a suspect, treated the person as guilty until proven otherwise. Objectivity was lost beyond a point. It was difficult for them to give the benefit of doubt to someone they were building a case against. Jason admired Travis’s adamancy towards cold facts and the inclination to look at the ‘why’ as a rule. Despite seeing the point that Travis was making, Jason needed to make sure he respected Detective Smith.

“Here’s what we are going to do.” he declared. “The two of you should work on this case together, with your opposing points of view. Smith, I am OK with you going in with the assumption that Mike is indeed the culprit. Johnson, you’ll pursue these other threads you talked about. It’s a good enough way to ensure we cover all bases. You’ll interrogate him together, however. One more thing Travis, Detective Smith is your superior and in charge of the case. Remember that.”

Jason got to see the glint in Travis’s eyes for the first time in the day. Smith seemed unhappy but he knew she would get in line with his reasoning. After the door closed behind his warring subordinates, he allowed himself a smile. Commander Henderson had been right, he thought. ‘This guy’s good.’

As for Travis, he was floating on cloud nine. The previous night he had gone to his hotel and wallowed for an hour on phone to his one and only friend, his older sister Ally. She told him that he had been a fool to come on to the Hot Boss on the first day of work. Travis pleaded that he could not help it. ‘Do you even know he’s Gay?’ she had asked. It was a valid question, but Travis believed, regardless of his orientation Sergeant Scott wanted him. He agreed with his sister that he had to play it cool and get him hooked first, before reeling him in carefully. Patience was not his strong point, but this was a matter of a lifetime’s happiness, so Travis had resolved to man up and fight for it.

“What do you mean lifetime’s happiness?” Ally had confronted, “You’re planning to have his babies after one day?”

“Jason Scott is an upstanding citizen, an intelligent man, a damn good investigator and hot as a fucking furnace. “Travis explained. “He also seems like a very polite, reasonable man of principles. I would have his baby tomorrow if I can!” “

As he dived into his first case with renewed vigor, the new officer could not help thinking that he had achieved a minor breakthrough. No, he was not thinking about his career.

Do I have demanding readers or what?
Must say, better demanding than bored readers. Really thrilled by the response I am getting . Keep liking and sharing your opinions, please.
Sorry that I write short chapters but work is a b**** right now and writing is as much therapy as an escape. Unfortunately I am not able to give it more time than a snatched couple of hours. I am trying to push the story out as it comes to me.
Hope it holds the promise it has shown so far. Of course, every word of encouragement is fuel to my imagination.