The Protectors: Vigilante Justice (Vigilante Cops Book 1)

by Bernard Lee DeLeo

  “Well, looky here, if it ain’t the notorious Allendale Tagger.” Ellie covered the man as Connor slipped up behind Duane soundlessly from around the corner of the building.

  Duane bolted right into Connor’s chest and straight down to the sidewalk. Ellie moved in front of him. She aimed the Taser.

  “Don’t make me do it, Duane. It’ll hurt like hell,” Ellie warned. “Officer Bradwick will run your no account ass down anyway even if I miss. From this distance, that’s not likely to happen anyway.”

  “We’re tired of seeing these hard working folks have to spend money and time cleaning up your crappy tags, Mr. Culver,” Connor added. “We warned you not to tag in our area. Slip your coat off and get on your knees, hands laced behind your head.”

  “Damn Holmes!” Culver took off his coat with a dejected shrug of his shoulders. He knelt with his hands cupping the back of his head. “Why don’t you and Cleopatra Jones go fight some real crime?”

  “What’d you call me, Skippy?” Ellie yanked Duane’s hands behind his back roughly and cuffed him. “I’ll juice your ass in a second if you’re dissing me.”

  Connor chuckled. “It’s not an insult, El. I think Mr. Culver’s referring to an old movie of the same name with Tamara Dobson. I didn’t figure our tagger would be up on old movies.”

  “What’s more scary is you knowing what the hell he’s talking about.” Ellie helped Culver to his feet. “C’mon inside the store while we wait for your partners, Mr. Culver.

  “What partners, Cleo? I’m solo, baby.”

  “Yeah right.” Ellie removed Duane’s watch cap and looked at it with disgust. “Good lord, Skippy, when the hell did you wash this thing last? What’d you do, wipe your ass with it?”

  Connor laughed at Ellie’s remark, guiding Culver into the store after his partner, as she continued inspecting the cap with suspicion.

  “I’m afraid to shine a light on the damn thing.” Ellie held it up for Connor to see. “If I did, I might never put it on.”

  This bit of news made Duane perk up.

  “What the hell… that’s en…en-”

  “Entrapment?” Ellie finished for him, patting Culver’s cheek inside the darkened store. “You can’t even pronounce it. Don’t try making it into a legal defense. How many of your boys in the car tonight?”

  “I ain’t sayin’ shit, Cleo!”

  “I’ll put him in the squad car.” Connor dragged Duane along the store shelves toward the side door. “Sure you want to play it out, El?”

  “I’m as sick of the damn graffiti as you are. Besides, we’ll get them for more than taggin’ if we get their car stopped.” Ellie gingerly slipped on Culver’s coat. She donned his cap with her hair tucked up inside. “I’ll have to Mace my own head after we’re through just to be on the safe side though. Make sure you get the wheel boot on while I’m drawing their attention, Opie, or they’ll be long gone.”

  “No worries, Cleo, ten seconds to put the boot on,” Connor called out.

  “Man, Holmes, did Cleo just call you Opie?” Culver snickered, a split second before his head didn’t quite make it completely clear of the doorjamb on their way out.

  “Oops… sorry about that, Duane.” Connor steadied Culver as the man cried out in pain. Connor put Culver into the squad car parked around the back of the building and jogged out to the street with the wheel boot from the car’s trunk. He peeked around the corner of the building, and saw Ellie in position with Culver’s jacket and hat on. “I’m in position, Cleo.”

  Ellie lifted her left hand without looking toward Connor, signaling a single finger message acknowledgement. Connor waved back and the two waited. Only minutes passed before an old Cadillac sedan turned from a cross street two blocks down. The Cad approached them at slower than normal speed. The driver stopped in front of Ellie with a passenger leaning out the window calling for her. Staying low to the ground, Connor made it in front of the Cadillac while the occupants were distracted yelling at who they thought was Duane Culver.

  “Get in the fuckin’ car, D!” The driver shouted. Ellie ignored their first catcalls concerning how little graffiti had been done. Instead of approaching the car, Ellie did a slow striptease, swaying as she took off the coat and hat.

  “Oh shit, it’s five-oh!” The driver stomped on the accelerator, only to have the Cadillac bounce in place with a horrendous noise from the car’s underside.

  Connor popped up next to the driver. He reached in quickly through the open window to turn off the ignition. Ellie ran to the passenger side of the Cadillac and opened the door with her weapon in hand.

  “Keep your hands up where I can see them!”

  The young man on the passenger side, who had been reaching into his coat pocket, stopped all movement with Ellie’s 9mm automatic pointed at his head from two feet away. Connor opened the driver’s side door with his own weapon covering the two occupants from the other side.

  “Don’t do anything stupid! Hands behind the head!” Ellie saw grudging acceptance of their fate registering in the car’s interior light.

  The passenger slowly put his hands up and behind his head. The driver locked his own hands in the same position a moment later. Ellie waited while Connor directed the driver out of the vehicle and walked him to the sidewalk next to Ellie.

  “Kneel down slowly. I’ll help.” Connor put a hand on the driver’s interlaced hands, steadying the man as he knelt. Connor holstered his Ruger automatic and quickly cuffed the driver’s hands behind his back. Keeping out of Ellie’s line of fire, Connor put a hand on the passenger’s arm. “Your turn.”

  Minutes later, both men were handcuffed. Connor frisked them with thoroughness. His efforts turned up weapons as well as drugs. The young men endured the process in sullen silence.

  “Want to search the car?” Ellie asked.

  “We’ll impound it and record the search.”

  Ellie nodded in agreement at Connor’s counter suggestion. “Let’s get these clucks to the car and read ‘em their rights. I’ll do the video this time. My hair feels like something crawled into it and died. Are you getting tired of playing after hours cops and robbers yet?”

  Connor did a double take but saw the smile forming on Ellie’s face. After Donaldson pulled strings to keep them on the street following Ellie’s shooting incident, they had dived into their stepped up rolls all through the Thanksgiving weekend by mutual agreement. The two person crime fighting wave had quieted their patrol area in a way nothing had before. The Department was taking notice. Connor shrugged.

  “If you want to cut back, I won’t argue with you. They did give us two days in a row off as a reward.”

  “Yes but we’re already partway through one of them.” Ellie sighed. “Maybe… hey, here comes a car.”

  Connor turned. They watched a car approaching slowly from the downtown side of Foothill Blvd. He moved behind the Cadillac with Ellie following. They each dropped a hand onto their respective weapons. The silver Lexus slowed to a stop and double parked next to the Cadillac. A dark complexioned man in his thirties, slightly over six feet in height exited the Lexus and walked around to the trunk of his car. He shoved his hands into the pockets of his black cashmere overcoat, hunching his shoulders in the early December chill. The man cocked his head slightly, the dark gray Fedora he wore tilting toward Connor and Ellie.

  “Officers Bradwick and James… a word please,” the man’s baritone voice beckoned in more of a command than a request.

  “Oh boy.” Ellie recognized the well tailored figure. She reached inside one of her belt pockets while following Connor. Ellie removed her small Nikon digital camera and video recorder. Ellie switched it on to low light recording.

  “Councilman Stennis,” Connor acknowledged, walking over with Ellie next to him. “Rather an early start for you, isn’t it Sir?”

  “I received word you two were out again on this questionable new course of yours,” Stennis remarked with a weary tone of disapproval.

  “Questio
nable to whom, Sir, and how exactly did you find out we would be here?” Connor tallied silently the number of people who knew he and Ellie were planning this takedown.

  “That’s not important.” Stennis took a hand out of his pocket for the sole purpose of giving Connor a dismissive wave. “Surely you two can understand the waste of the city’s resources in this vendetta against what… street art?”

  “It wouldn’t seem like art to you if they were decorating your home or business,” Ellie inserted with enough venom to make Stennis straighten away from the Lexus trunk he’d been leaning on.

  “Listen, James, I don’t know who you think you’re talking to but-”

  “Councilman Stennis,” Connor interrupted. “These gangbangers are armed to the teeth, and holding enough drugs to be dealers rather than users. My partner and I are on our own dime with Sergeant Donaldson’s permission. What city resources exactly are we wasting in enforcing the law, Sir?”

  “If either you or James here were injured or killed, the city would be liable and this ludicrous comic book crime fighting binge would quickly turn into a fiasco of major proportions.”

  “Let me get this straight.” Ellie moved closer to Stennis. “Are you ordering us not to enforce the law?”

  “I’m advising you and your partner to focus on real crime. My constituents-”

  “What constituents?” Ellie fired back, trying to keep the Nikon camera tilted so as to record Stennis without him noticing it. “You mean like the gangbangers over there against the wall?”

  “They do live in this area, Officer James, with all the rights of anyone else in this city.” Stennis lowered his tone as he recognized the corner Ellie was painting him into. “Many others have started complaining about the methods you two have begun employing in this Quixotic endeavor of yours.”

  “Who exactly are these others?” Connor persisted. “You’re really getting me curious as to why a councilman would come out on our patrol at four in the morning to rebuke us about law enforcement. Why not see Sergeant Donaldson and complain to him?”

  “I was trying to give you and your partner the benefit of the doubt in this.” Stennis walked to his driver’s door. “I see now I was wasting my time. Rest assured my next complaint will be registered with your supervisor.”

  “Just a second, Sir. It wasn’t a complete waste of time.” Ellie held up her Nikon. “Want to see the neat movie I took of our little conference?”

  Shock and then rage streaked over Stennis’s features as Ellie hit playback. He lurched forward to grab the camera but Connor’s left hand closed around the councilman’s wrist as if he were caught in a force field. Stennis cringed painfully away from Ellie as Connor moved him with a slight twist.

  “I know you didn’t mean to attack an Oakland Police Officer, Councilman Stennis. I’m correct in assuming this was a misunderstanding on your part I hope. ” Connor released the man’s wrist.

  “This isn’t over, Bradwick!” Stennis yelled in Connor’s face before pointing a warning finger at Ellie. “If I were you, Officer James, I’d hit delete on your camera.”

  “Wow, Ellie.” Connor chuckled as the Lexus squealed away and they walked over to their squirming prisoners. “That was an interesting procedural touch.”

  “Looks like you two gettin’ pulled up short.” The gangbanger on Ellie’s right cackled with his companion joining in.

  “Repeat that!” Ellie drew and pointed her can of Mace instantly a foot from the gangbanger’s nose. “I love the smell of Mace in the morning.”

  “I’m done, Mrs., I’m done.” The gangbanger leaned away. Ellie straightened reluctantly.

  “You remember what I said about toning things down, Opie?”

  “Yeah, Cleo, I remember.”

  “Forget it.”

  * * *

  Sergeant Donaldson waved Connor and Ellie into his office, gesturing for them to sit down. He didn’t speak at first. Donaldson smiled. Connor looked at him with a politely curious expression while Ellie stared at him with ill concealed annoyance. The two officers represented to Donaldson how thin the line was between heroic police work and vigilante justice.

  “Well, well, well, if it isn’t Wyatt Earp and Calamity Jane. You two peace officers probably wonder why I called you both in on your day off after this latest valiant early morning graffiti sting.”

  Connor grinned. Ellie’s face remained unchanged with only a little less light shining from her pupils.

  “Sarg, I…” Connor began, only to be flagged to silence by Donaldson.

  “Please, I’d be honored if you’d call me Ben. After all, it isn’t every day a man in my position has the pleasure of working in the same department as two up and coming legends like yourselves. I’m afraid our venerable city councilman, Ray Stennis, doesn’t share my enthusiasm for your work. He only deigned to rip me a new one before hanging up. So incensed was he, I never managed to get any intelligible facts as to why your law enforcement careers are in danger. Before the Chief and the Mayor weigh in, I’d sure like to gather some background information. Care to share, Wyatt, or is it Opie?”

  “Now Ben,” Ellie chimed in with sickening sweet tone until the murderous glare Donaldson immediately cast on her shut Ellie up instantly.

  “If you ever use my first name again, Officer James, you’ll spend so much time in cavity searches you’ll be able to get years knocked off a proctology degree. What in hell makes you think the same slack I cut Opie here extends to your disrespectful ass? Now what’s this about blackmail? It’s the one word I could decipher being repeated through the councilman’s five minute diatribe before he slammed the phone down in my ear.”

  “Can I show you on your computer?” Ellie held up the memory disc from her camera.

  Donaldson took the disc from Ellie without further comment and popped it into the slot on his desk computer. He put on his computer earpiece rather than have the sound audible as he ran the media player to open the AVI movie file. Donaldson’s eyes widened and he hit replay twice. Ellie glanced over at Connor but her partner was studying Donaldson’s face with intensity. Donaldson finally ejected the disc and put away the earpiece.

  “Do you have copies of this, Officer James?”

  “Ah…” Ellie hesitated.

  “Good, I’ll take that as a yes.” Donaldson chuckled. “May I keep this?”

  “Sure, I figured you’d want it.”

  “I need to find out where the Chief and Mayor actually stand on cutting back on crime. How they react to this disc will tell me everything I want to know. Giuliani tamed New York City because he backed the police. It’s no secret our crime rate’s been spiking since they’ve adopted crime suppression tactics rather than enforcement. We only solved 86 out of 357 homicides from 2005 through 2007. I figure it’s because we keep trying to make this suppression crapolla work. The area you two patrol is rapidly becoming the quietest area in Oakland or the East Bay for that matter. One of the weapons you confiscated in last night’s bust has been linked to a murder/robbery in Hayward.”

  “Stennis knew we’d be there too. Just so you see Ellie wasn’t looking to blackmail Stennis,” Connor added. “She knew how Stennis would react. Ellie was only trying to cover our asses.”

  “Damn good thing you did too, Ellie.” Donaldson stood and extended his hand to Ellie. She popped up from her chair and shook it. “You two have the rest of the department fired up. It works out nice to have Ladd and Arvizo working overlapping areas. They’ve been following your lead on parolee releases and small crime enforcement. I’ll find out who tipped Stennis off.”

  “I’m surprised you didn’t kick this upstairs. I take it the hierarchy is reluctant to get involved in your experiment?” Connor remarked, standing up next to Ellie.

  Donaldson laughed. “What experiment? It doesn’t exist unless it works. You two, my little lab rats, are going to make it or break it. I wouldn’t be doing this at all if I didn’t believe you both are in for the long haul. Are you running out of gas ye
t?”

  “No… we filled up at the Stennis pump,” Ellie replied. “He lit my afterburners. It’s like he doesn’t realize there are real people living in those little hovels he passes through on his way to city hall. They’re just statistics to him. If the killings, burglaries, muggings, and graffiti stay within parameters, oh well then - but if they get out of control, he runs out and shakes his fist at the police while undermining us behind closed doors.”

  “I believe you have a rather jaundiced but absolutely right on the money view of things around here, Ellie,” Donaldson noted. “May I make a suggestion?”

  “Sure,” Connor agreed.

  “Round up the people happy with what you’re doing, like the guy that owned the business getting tagged every week. See if they’d be willing to go with you to a city council meeting.”

  “You know of course that will mean war,” Ellie replied excitedly, beginning to log in her mind a list of possible participants who weren’t afraid of either the gangs or the city.

  “I certainly do. Keep using the camera. Don’t go to war with an empty holster. Connor, the officer involved shooting investigation is formally over on the kidnapping case, and well on the way to being over on the burglary arrests for Ellie. If you two could manage to not discharge your weapons for a while, it would be a help.”

  “I’ll issue an edict right away on the criminal bulletin boards, Sarg,” Connor agreed right away.

  “Get out of my sight, smartass.” Donaldson waved them off and sat down.

  Connor saluted. He followed Ellie out Donaldson’s door, closing it behind him.

  * * *

  “That was better than I expected.” Ellie nudged into Connor. “I think I may have been wrong about Donaldson. He may actually be the stand up guy you’ve claimed he is.”