Over Ride

As if this baffling  double homicide couldn't get any murkier..Detective Angie Belton sat with Carlotta and me and waited for everybody to return...

"I'm so glad I ran into you guys...Jimmy has been telling me about his case..." said Angie....

By now, everyone had returned and everyone was tired...I had had some uniformed officers go out and fetch dinner orders from Mabel Jenkins Soul Food Restaurant for Sissy, Duke,Tyriq, Jimmy,Sirena, Hop,Carlotta ,Angie and Sharon....We sat at a conference table in the communications room...While we ate...Angie began to tell us a story...a story that would wind up tying this whole thing together...

"Watch this 55 inch monitor in the middle guys....We have video cameras in place all over this building...Especially in evidence control....but if you remember, two years ago...we had a breach of security and a theft of some evidence in a major case...When the FBI moved over here, they established a back up system just in case someone tried to over-ride our system again...and it paid off in spades...

''Look at the monitor...." she said....

On the monitor we saw Uniformed Police officer, Barry Gold...Who was on duty in evidence control...A sexy, very buxum young woman walked down in the basement....They exchange conversation...Within minutes...She is feeling his crotch and unzippering his pants...fondling him.....Pretty soon ,they are kissing and he is trying his best to suck the largest pair of breasts he 's more than likely ever seen...

His pants are down around his ankles and the two are going to town when he is tasered....He falls to the ground unconscious....

"Okay folks...Take a look at the girl" says Angie....

It was our murder victim, Freda Harlan!!!!

"That's Freda Harlan" said Jimmy.

"Now look what she does...She opens the back door...She does this because this guy coming in the door, your second murder victim, Vick Peters and that guy behind him...the guy you guys are looking for...Claude
Hopper.... have over rid our system and thus disabled the alarm and our cameras.....What they didn't know is that they didn't over-ride the FBI's back up system and we still caught this entire robbery on video..." said
Angie...

"Look...They have a list and they are stealing my case files..." said Carlotta...

"Yup, they knew exactly where to go...They stole the case files of Jessica Edgerly, Wilma Whetstone, Allison Johnson and Ruth Richardson...All victims of serial killer, Haywood Coley Jr. The guy Carlotta,Duke and Rico put away last year..." she said.

"Our first case together as a unit....That was before...many of you ,Jimmy, Sirena, Hop, Sharon were apart of this unit..." said Sissy...

"Okay, so they stole Coley's victim case files, but what good would that do him? He's been convicted and he's serving life?" said Tyriq...

''Wrong Rico Suave..He escaped with the help of some corrupt prison officials who were bribed...They were paid big money by the Frazier Holding Company out of the Cayman Islands...I started looking into it and I discovered that Carlotta, Jimmy,you and Hop were looking into it as part of a seperate murder investigation...So then I got curious...After I got the film back and realized what was stolen...I immediately called the M.E.'s office and told them to box up all of those DNA and Fingerprint evidence files from those cases and turn them over to Internal Affairs...I have them now...and Sharon and I have put a safeguard on all of the electronic files pertinent to those cases so that they can't be hacked. This was about a week ago...I didn't know who these people were or the connection...I meant to tell you guys sooner, but you all were deeply involved with that other serial killing case....Ricky Beavers." she said.

Duke smiled and hugged Angie....

''Good job...Girl when you gonna stop playing IAB and come back to Homicide?" he joked.

''Be glad I am where I am." said Angie.
II-

"Okay...so somebody with a lot of cash to spend is throwing around money to bribe prison officials so that this guy, Haywood Coley Jr. can escape from prison....They hire this motley crew from Florida...A serial killer, a master thief and a pro...who come up here and steal his case files...Then when their job is done...The serial killer cleans up by killing both of them....I don't get it." said Jimmy...

''I think I am starting to get it... If his case files are gone....It will be very hard to follow him, to determine his psychological make up....He in effect has a clean slate.....They were planning to steal his files from the M.E.'s office and erase all electronic files...Angie and Sharon kept us from being further embarrassed ,thank God." said Carlotta.

"But who is spending all of this cash and why on this jumolk???" asked Hop...

"I can answer that?   Dr. Natalie Tucker....That's who?" said Sirena...


''WHAT? " said Sissy and I..

"After she left out of here the other day,I did some digging into her background...She has loved this guy since they were in prep school together...He comes from money ,but she comes from more...Her mother is Latina, Her father was a very wealthy white man....Her mother was originally Mr. Tucker's maid...They had a torrid affair and he divorced his first wife and married her...Natalie Rodriguez was born out of their illicit union....before the father married the mother. It's all in the divorce precedings.

Neither one of Natalie's parents ever cared for Haywood Coley Jr...But she has been carrying a torch for him since they were about 12 years old... She married another man ,Daniel Tucker....also a Plastic Surgeon and appeared to be happy for years...but she never really was...They divorced quietly and she began an almost obsessive quest to win the love of Haywood Coley Jr..  He didn't pay her much mind until he suddenly found himself serving life in prison...She has the money to pull this off...She was in Miami last year...This is where she recruited this motley crew to pull this off...These letters were amongst his personal items seized from the prison." said Sirena...

"That's my baby, what found that out."joked Tyriq...

''Awwww" said Sirena ,who gave Tyriq a very sensual kiss in the lips.

We all laughed heartily...

II-

The next day, Carlotta and Jimmy walked into Sissy's office with a bag full of love letters...

"Boss Lady...This is worse than we thought..." said Carlotta.....

''What is this?" asked Sissy.

"It's love letters...From Natalie Tucker to Haywood Coley Jr......in which she is telling him she has a plan to get him out of prison...and to be patient...but it's worse...Carlotta and I went up to the prison yesterday....Coley's cell is filled with photos and news clippings about ADA Wallace....It seems he was obsessed with him." said Jimmy...

"That would make sense...I'm the one who put him away for life...My unit is the unit that out smarted him...That explains why he had that girl move into my old loft...This whole thing was orchestrated from day one...This is his way of getting his revenge, of screwing with me...It all fits." I said.

Just then, FBI Special Agent, Sharon Hopkins came in....

"Guess what guys...Good news...Our cameras picked up a plate number off of the van they used...when they stole those files...We got a call from some alert patrol cops...I think we've found it!!! The van...and a warehouse!!!...You Guys want in?" she said smiling...

"You know the answer to that." laughed Sissy.
III-

Sharon and about ten FBI agents surrounded the van, located at a warehouse near the Northeast Airport...They broke open the door...

''Jackpot..."they said....

Inside the van was the case files  Jessica Edgerly, Wilma Whetstone, Allison Johnson and Ruth Richardson.

Armed with a riot pump shotguns and wearing  kevlar vests, My wife, Detective Carlotta Rodriguez-Wallace,Detective James ''Jimmy" Barlow  ,Detective Edwin "Duke " Baylor, Detective Tyriq Pile, His wife, Detective Sirena Pile, and Detective Antonio Hopkins kicked in the front door of the warehouse and charged in...They were backed by 11 shotgun toting uniformed Philadelphia policemen...and 10 shotgun toting FBI Agents!!

''FBI, PHILADELPHIA POLICE!!!...FREEEZE!" They yelled...

From the back...Lt.Sissy Van Buren, Detective Angie Belton, FBI Special Agent Sharon Hopkins and six uniformed  Philadelphia Policemen and five FBI Agents also kicked in the back door and entered.. Guns drawn!!!

''PHILADELPHIA POLICE....FBI!!! FREEZE!!" They yelled...but they would find no one....

"Clear!...Clear!!!" both sides yelled...

They found, newspapers...clothing, toiletries...food and a back pack with fishing hook wire...bolt cutters and gloves....It was all confiscated....

''Get this to Hazel ...this is definitely where Hopper was laying his head" I said.

"Well, we foiled Coley Jr.'s plans to erase his past....and the fact that Claude Hopper isn't here means either we got lucky and caught him unaware...or he is already dead,like the others...He is after all, no longer needed." I said.

''And you used to be such an optimist papi" said my wife Carlotta, who hugged me as everyone else cracked up laughing..

It was a nice victory...but we still didn't have our key murder suspect, Claude Hopper in custody, assuming he was still alive ...and Haywood Coley Jr., the architect of this cold blooded and elaborate  scheme was still out there in the wind...More than anything ,I wanted to put that bastard back in jail and wipe that smirk off of his face that I knew must still be there....

The fact that these detectives and federal agents had gotten this far gave me hope.

(CONCLUSION NEXT!)