The patrol officer on duty who answered the call was Tom Hicks. And that’s where the pattern emerged. Of the cases that had gone orphaned—or, like the Taylors, the victims never called again—nine out of ten of them had been promptly answered by Tom and/or one other person.
His partner, Officer Frank Morris.
She looked at internal investigations—the ones she could get to—and saw one with both Tom and Frank’s names and connected to one of the recent dispensary robberies, accusing the officers of being dismissive, telling the owner that he had caused his own crime by being careless, and then they failed to follow up. The verdict of the internal investigation was ‘unfounded’ meaning that there was not enough evidence to sustain the complaint. So, she looked up the dispensary, intending to go and talk to the owner. It was now under new management. A little more digging in the news found that the original owner had been mugged in Denver, beaten, and sustained a traumatic brain injury that led to a fatal stroke. The new management never followed up on the investigation and it was dropped.
Sylvie rubbed her eyes as she whispered, “Frank, no.”
This couldn’t be right. Frank was a good cop—honest, hardworking, a family man—widower, actually, God rest Amy’s soul. Not a cop who would take bribes from drug dealers to look the other way—which was how this was shaping up. Or worse, a cop who would workfora gang as an enforcer.
Basically, the same rumor that was going around about Watchdog. Was it being spread on purpose to cover the real culprits?
What should I do?
She could believe Tom might do this. He’d always struck her as a bit sketchy, the way he flirted with Carla after she told him to leave her alone, some of the jokes he told that made her cringe at their nastiness more often than they made her laugh. Tom had a friendly façade when he needed it, but underneath, she’d always suspected he was just plain mean.
But not Frank. She’d actually seen him act as a counterweight to Tom—reassuring where Tom was overbearing, kind when he was cruel.
They’ve been partners forever though, right? Maybe he’s getting dragged into it.Frank was a big believer in the brotherhood and saw the Internal Affairs Bureau as the enemy. He was hardly unique in that, but still.
Do I talk to Robert?
He’d increased festival security. Did he suspect anything? Then why did he brushheroff while assigning Tom and Frank shifts at the festival?
She scrubbed her face with her hands.
That’s it. I’m talking to Robert.
“Hey, Sylvie.”
Frank’s voice behind her made her jump.
She minimized the tab as quickly as she could. How long had he been standing there? What did he see?
“Frank, I—”
He looked haggard as he held his hand up to stop her. “I guess congratulations are in order.” He smiled softly. “Stan told me they’re going to extend the job offer to you.”
“I’ll take congratulations from anybody but you. This sucks. It should have been both of us.”
“Well, that’s life, rookie.” He shrugged. “It’s okay. You have a longer career in front of you than I do at this point and you’re gonna do a great job. I’m proud of you. Always saw your potential, even from day one.” Then he chuckled and she couldn’t help but laugh, too.
“Yeah, day one was great. You guys made me look for the I-D-10-T form. I had to write it down to realize it spelled outidiot. I still can’t believe I fell for that prank.”
“Everyone does, on their first day. The difference is, some rooks go looking for hours before they figure it out. You knew right away what was happening and you had a good attitude about it. Turned the tables, even.”
“That part was fun. You guys didn’t know what to say when I came back and told you I’d found a whole stack of them. And when I set it down on the desk—”
“Photocopied pictures of all of us withidiotwritten across the top.” Frank laughed again. “It was a good move, and it earned you respect. Showed you could play along.” He extended his hand for her to shake. “So, congratulations. Let me know if there’s anything I can do to help you out.”
She shook his hand. “Thanks. And hey, you’ll be next up, right?”
“Right.” He started to walk away.
“Frank, wait.”
He stopped and tilted his head. “Yeah, Madden?”
“Is everything all right? You look a little rough around the edges today. You can talk to me about anything, you know?”Please, Frank. Let me keep my faith in you.
