The Room Where It Happened

by Jason Letts

  “I thought we were going to be watching more House of Cards,” she said, forcing a smile. “I really just need to stretch my legs a bit. I’ll be back in a bit.”

  He had that look in his eyes again, and Tera hated needing to find a way to let him down.

  “Alright, not a problem. I’ll be here.”

  As Johnny started to get back in the squad car, Tera turned away with a pang of regret. The roads were mostly empty again on another weeknight, and she weighed whether or not he was someone she could trust with her special investigation. If he was interested in her, he’d probably go along with it, but as soon as she stopped leading him on or he figured out they were going nowhere she’d be at risk of retaliation. By the time she made it to Kim’s apartment building, she was confident he was best off where he was.

  What Tera was less confident about though was her ability to successfully dust the apartment for prints and pinpoint those of her killer. She’d seen it done plenty of times, but mostly it was on small handheld objects, not entire rooms with vast amounts of surface space. Gloves on and powder ready, she began dusting some of the surfaces.

  As she did so and prints began to appear, she wondered if she’d actually be good enough to differentiate Kim’s prints from anyone else’s. She could’ve had friends over, her parents, neighbors, anybody in addition to a killer who may have only come in once and not touched much of anything. How was she going to sort out who killed Kim from everything she’d find?

  Well, that was police work.

  She wondered how she’d manage to convince someone to run the prints she found without telling them what it was for, or if the prints would produce a suspect at all. Maybe her interviews would lead her somewhere, and then her she’d be able to cross-check a suspect found that way with these prints, solidifying his presence at the scene of the crime.

  At some point she’d taken about a dozen seemingly different prints and began to wonder how much time she’d spent. One thing was for sure, she’d barely gotten started analyzing the surfaces that the killer might’ve touched.

  A faint sound hit her ear that prevented her from diving back in for more. She didn’t have to guess to know that it was a gunshot, and she figured she’d better get back to the patrol car in case they got called in to follow up. The rest of the bedroom would have to wait.

  Outside on the street, there weren’t any signs of commotion. The radio she had on was quiet, but that could change at any moment. Mostly Tera worried that there was a shooting victim somewhere in need of assistance or a larger conflict about to break out.

  Hustling on, she rounded the corner to the street the patrol car was parked beside and closed in on the alley. Some of the light from the nearest streetlight reflected against glittery bits on the ground in a way she didn’t remember, and it took her a second to realize it was broken glass.

  It wasn’t until she entered the alley and came around the vehicle that she could tell the driver’s side window had been shattered and Johnny was slumped against the seat in an awkward, unnatural way. The monitor inside the vehicle had been snapped off and stolen.

  Coming closer, Tera had to pull out her flashlight to get a glimpse of her partner, who received a gunshot to the head, likely straight through the glass, that wasn’t at all neat and clean like Kim’s. Blood and brains had been blown against the passenger seat and door, and Johnny’s head had a massive crater in it. No wonder she had been able to hear the shot from so far away and inside.

  Recoiling, Tera started glancing around the alley to see if she was in danger, but there wasn’t a trace of anyone. She wondered if Johnny had even been able to tear his eyes away from the screen long enough to see his killer coming. She breathed erratically, realizing how unsafe she was.

  Her next move was to her radio.

  “I’ve got a code 999. Officer down. I repeat, code 999. In need of immediate assistance.”

  Her partner had been shot dead.

  CHAPTER 3

  Tera stood about anxiously in the alley next to the patrol car and her deceased partner while waiting for help to arrive. The whole point of having partners, especially in an area like this, was to keep each other safe, and she had unequivocally failed to do that.

  Some people walked by, saw the scene, and laughed before shuffling on. Where was their humanity? It wasn’t enough to distract Tera from her searing sense of guilt about what happened. What loomed was what she would do next. Come clean about everything? Or try to cover herself?

  She imagined herself claiming she’d been here the entire time and managed to get out of the way, requiring her to invent a story and description about the attackers, which would possibly get someone in deep trouble who didn’t deserve it. The prospect of that level of falsehood made her sick to her stomach. She felt helpless and lost.

  In moments she went from being alone to being surrounded as a number of patrol cars, trucks, and an ambulance converged on the area, filling the street and ensuring that no one within miles wasn’t aware that a major situation was happening. They taped off the alleyway and erected floodlights, rushing around without paying her more than passing attention.

  That changed when she saw someone emerge from a black sedan. Things were happening so fast that she didn’t have much of a chance to register that the detective coming toward her was Brady Lance. For all she knew he may have just been with Olivia, but he looked as serious as a heart attack and she would have to match it.

  “Officer…”

  “Caldera.”

  “Right. There have been a lot of names. What happened here?”

  Tera took a deep breath and another glance at the grisly scene next to her. She wanted to help, and the loss of her partner was hitting her hard.

  “We were just finishing up our rounds and next thing I knew I hear a gunshot and a crash. I came right over and found him exactly as you see him now. Hadn’t even drawn his gun. We had no idea it was coming,” she said, figuring saying that he’d gone out on their beat at all was for Johnny’s benefit, not hers.

  She expected Brady to grill her about any number of things related to what she’d just said, but instead he started looking around the vehicle, glancing up and down the alley, and taking a flashlight to the body and interior of the squad car. He was methodical and focused as he went through everything.

  “How many times have you parked here before?” he asked all of a sudden. It took Tera a second considering she’d been expecting a different line of questioning.

  “A handful of times,” she said.

  “And recently?”

  “Yes.”

  Brady chewed his lip and hunched down to pick up a piece of glass from the window. From a groove along the side, it may well have been a section that the bullet passed through, which was impressive to find in all this. He shook his head and dropped it like it was nothing. He stood up and came closer to her, his movements continually unexpected.

  “That was the mistake. When you put on that uniform, you put a target on your back, and then when you engage in the same behavior over and over, you’re creating a pattern that criminals can exploit. The key to your safety is constant reinvention. Never walk the same route twice. Never park in the same place twice. As soon as you become predictable, you become vulnerable,” he said.

  Tera blinked but kept her eyes fixed on him, rising to his level.

  “It was a brazen attack. There are some around here who don’t need a second look to take a shot at the police. Some are completely unconcerned about the circumstances that put them in position to get the jump on a cop or what might happen immediately after.”

  She felt like she’d become part of the crime scene when Brady started looking her over in much the same way that he’d examined the door or the body. The only difference was that he did so with carefully measured intrigue.

  “That could be right, but even then the assailants are relying on patterns. Think about it like this. Everyone knows there are only so many police officers, and at an
y one time they’re spread out throughout the city. It’s easy to make the assumption that whatever officers are visible are the only police presence around, and that if they were taken out there’d then be a temporary police vacuum in a fairly substantial area, giving them space to get away.

  “That’s why in many cases attacking police officers is literally the safest thing they can do, assuming that they’re able to successfully execute the move. Then there’s no one left to respond, unlike when people engage in criminal behavior with each other. It took us at least ten minutes to get here, and the culprit could be anywhere in the city by now,” he said.

  Tera remained expressionless, but she was listening closely. There was some wisdom in there, more than she would’ve expected.

  “Are you saying we don’t have any hope of finding out who’s responsible for this?”

  Brady turned his eyes to the thick, dark clouds rolling over the sky before shifting suddenly and moving toward the rear of the vehicle and setting his hands on the trunk. The flashing red and blue lights flickered over his face.

  “And where were you when this happened?”

  “I was a short distance away.”

  “Why?”

  Tera looked at Brady, drawing a blank. He looked at her and pursed his lips, which said it all. The new detective had called her out on it, which was unusual because she basically always had enough pull with guys to get them to go along with whatever she said. It felt strange to be in a conversation where the power kept shifting away from her.

  “Being partners doesn’t mean you’re chained at the hip,” Brady went on. “And judging from the missing screen there was something going on with it that made it an attractive prize that the perpetrators wanted. Unless it turns up somewhere or whoever did this gets caught doing something else and confesses, we’ll never find out who did this. Let me guess. You’re feeling guilty and afraid that you’ll end up with the blame.”

  Tera’s eyes widened. Maybe it was obvious that someone in her position would be feeling like this, but it still stung to her it said aloud.

  “Getting the blame is nothing compared to getting killed, but yes,” she said.

  “Well, don’t,” he said with an emphatic nod of the head in her direction. “The only ones responsible are the person or persons who came up along the squad car from behind in the shadows and then pulled a gun on this officer without any provocation. The last thing we need to do is shoot ourselves in the foot by throwing you under the bus for it. Now, come on. Let’s get out of here and let the rest of these guys clean up the scene.”

  The surprising support gave Tera a warm feeling and a sense of relief as she accompanied Brady out of the alley and back to his car. The detective had a few things to say to another officer managing the situation, during which Tera silently stood there bizarrely feeling pretty good despite nearly being a murder victim. What if she’d gone back to the squad car a little earlier?

  In the car with the streetlights passing by one after another, Tera didn’t have much to do other than watch Brady drive with one strong hand set on the top of the steering wheel. He noticed her staring, proving once again that he was too observant for his own good, and she felt obligated to say something.

  “So Yale, huh?”

  He smirked and glanced at her out of the corner of his eye. She tried to relax and act like she was perfectly at ease and he was just another coworker.

  “Don’t get any ideas. I’m a Chicago native, born and raised.”

  “Oh yeah? Where?”

  “Garfield Park.”

  “Oh, an uptown boy,” she said, and he laughed.

  “That’s only uptown to people who’ve never been north of the Village. But don’t be fooled. My mom was only a dental hygienist, nothing fancy.”

  “Fancy enough to get into Yale.”

  “I’m paying for it,” he said in sort of a sad way.

  “And your dad?”

  Brady hit the directional and took a right turn. They were back at the precinct.

  “What about you? What’s the most important thing I need to know about the life of Tera Caldera?”

  It was conspicuous how he dodged her question, and so was his use of her name. It made her think he’d only pretended to forget it earlier.

  “I’m not sure what there is to say. A lot of people don’t understand why I wanted to become a police officer. Those are the ones who’ve lost hope. I’m just trying to do the best I can for the people around me.”

  “We all are,” Brady said as the car came to a stop.

  Putting the conversation behind her, she returned to her desk and found that she had an exciting message from Perry about the results of Kim’s forensic analysis, but Tera would have to wait until the next day to find him and talk about it. She rode out her remaining time on the clock filling out reports about the incident and staring at the desk Johnny wouldn’t be returning to.

  It was another tragedy to add to the stack of open cases collecting dust.

  When she woke up, she reveled in the appreciation that it was her last day on at work before a few days off, but considering she got right up and went in to find Perry even though her fridge was empty she had a feeling the case would find a way to eat up her three-day weekend as well.

  The Chicago PD’s forensic lab was at a different precinct farther up town, and Tera had to bring her badge so the people there didn’t think she was just some random chick in tight jeans and a tank top sneaking in to mess with the corpses. When she arrived at Perry’s lab, he and another technician were performing another investigation on what appeared to be an obese man. Nodding at her knock, he joined her in the hall.

  The way Perry looked at her through those glasses made her feel like she had the best body he’d seen in a while, but perhaps that wasn’t saying much.

  “Hey, I got your message. Looks like you’ve got your hands full in there,” she said.

  Perry shivered.

  “The extra weight makes it so much harder to get to anything and quadruple as messy,” he said.

  “I’ll do my best to save you that trouble when I die,” she said.

  “Shouldn’t be a problem as long as you aren’t shot in the rear,” he said, shutting his mouth and blinking rapidly as though the comment had slipped out accidentally.

  “What are you saying about my rear?” Tera asked, teasing him with an indignant hand on her hip. This was why she was able to trust him with her endeavor, and it was amusing how flustered he got with the direction of the conversation.

  Clearing his throat, he appeared to take special care to meet her line of sight and look nowhere else.

  “But about your DOA though, we’ve completed our investigation and I’ve released the body so that the family can hold the funeral this weekend. I’ve also gotten a death certificate issued and filed some basic paperwork with the department about the victim and the case,” he said. “I know you wanted this case to get some special attention, but I’m not sure I have anything that’s going to make this enough of a slam dunk to be a priority. If you keep looking into it, there’s a good chance you’ll end up in some trouble.

  “The irony is that for all the ways some cops do their own thing when nobody is looking, sneaking in extra police work that’s above your grade is more dangerous than any of the rest of them. If Internal Affairs or even a rival cop you’ve ticked off gets wind of this, they could cause you a lot of problems.”

  “Thank you,” Tera said, appreciating his attempt to honestly help her. She supposed she’d have to live with it, because letting Kim go without doing more would be something she’d always regret. “What did you find anyway?”

  Perry looked back through the window and held up a finger to ward off his peer for a little while longer. He then turned back to Tera and spoke in a whisper.

  “I’m afraid I don’t have too much for you that wasn’t evident beforehand. There wasn’t any trace of semen…”

  “No semen?” Tera howled in disbelief, loudl
y enough to startle him. She covered her mouth with her hand as her shoulders slumped.

  “In fact, I’m not convinced there was any sexual activity at all, certainly nothing rough. Maybe a condom was worn, but there still weren’t any skin cells or hair follicles from anyone else around the pubis,” he said.

  Tera shook her head, feeling like a big crack had formed in her understanding of what happened.

  “But how did Kim end up naked before she was shot if there was no sex involved? Did someone just pop into her bedroom while she was lying on her bed without any clothes on so he could hold her head to the mattress and fire a shot through it?”

  “Maybe the issue was that she wouldn’t go through with sex,” Perry said, shrugging.

  “Maybe.”

  Tera would have to keep mulling that over. The nudity, the drugs, the money, it seemed like she was farther away from answers about any of them and only had the names of a couple of boyfriends to go on. She hoped she’d be able to make inroads with Lawrence Asper or Wayne Chechy and match them with the fingerprints she’d taken.

  “If I can think of anything else that would help you, I’ll let you know, and a copy of the paperwork with this is on its way over to you, but I think this is all I’m going to have.”

  Although she’d hoped for more, she had to suck it up and accept that Perry had done a tremendous amount for her and deserved her appreciation for it.

  “I just want to say thank you for coming through for me like you did. It really means a lot. You’re one of the good guys,” she said, opening her arms and leaning forward for a hug until she began to recognize that his technician’s smock probably had a thin layer of gore and guts coating it.

  Perry nodded with a rueful smile.

  “The irony never stops,” he said. “The job that gets me in close with you also keeps you away.”

  “Thank you,” she said again, turning away and starting down the hall. Building professional relationships with talented people like Perry was part of why she wanted to join the police in the first place. There were a lot of good people wearing blue who were doing their best to get victims the justice they deserved, and she loved being a part of that.