Chapter 3: The Next Morning

Saturday, July 22, 2017

I was not happy about being back at the station Saturday morning. I had finished my shift at 0200 and not gotten home until 0300. It seemed like I had barely gotten to sleep when the alarm went off and I had to dress to go in. I was supposed to be off, but obviously that had changed. I had heard from Lieutenant Roscoe before I had gone off shift that I needed to be there early. I was betting that the Watch Commander had called Roscoe and given him a heads-up. Technically Lieutenant Roscoe wasn’t my boss, but he was Travis Hanover’s. Since I was TRT, I reported to Lieutenant Jenkins. From there we went up to Captain Bullfinch and then to Chief Crowley.

I learned all four of them were waiting in Crowley’s office when I arrived. Travis was in the waiting room when I got there, looking mulish, but I was just too tired to care. He said, “You’re late. We had to wait for you.”

I knocked on the door and pushed it open when Crowley called for us. “Good, Grim, come in and ask Patrolman Hanover to come in with you.”

I greeted the others. The Chief was in his chair behind his desk. The others had moved chairs in front of the desk, with space in front for me and Hanover to stand. We didn’t get chairs. I came to a position of parade rest and kept my mouth shut. Crowley started with, “I’m glad you gentlemen could join us today. I was called last night and informed that we had a riot on Deckard. I came in and discovered that, no, we didn’t have a riot, we had a block party. Channel Nine couldn’t figure it out either, so they reported both. They seemed very disappointed that they didn’t have any bloody bodies in the streets and no burning police cars. Now, would either of you care to enlighten me as to what the hell was going on on D-Street last night?”

I motioned for Hanover to respond. When he didn’t say anything immediately, I said, “Officer Hanover was the first on the scene. It would be best if he explained what happened first, and then I can finish up.” Then I resumed parade rest. I wondered if Travis had filled out a report for his night’s activities. I know I had, which is one reason I got home late.

Travis gave a bare bones recital of the evening’s festivities. He had received warrants for four persons of interest and gone to Deckard to bring them in. He was forced to enter the residence of one Montrose Johnson when the individual inside said he wasn’t there and refused to allow him entry. He had made entry anyway and was searching for Mister Johnson when I arrived. I had then improperly sent him away before he could take the individuals into custody. I was then invited to tell my side of the story.

It became very clear very early that nobody was buying Travis’ version. Bullfinch did most of the questioning, and most of those questions were to Travis. I mostly just stood there with my mouth shut. I had learned a long, long time ago that the more you talked the more trouble you got into. I think I learned it from my mother.

Bullfinch started with, “Let me make sure I understand this. You volunteered to go round up four of the D-Street Treys all on your own without any backup. Then you go over to the leader of the Treys’ grandmother’s place to grab him. And then you kick in her front door and ransack her house looking for him, on a failure-to-appear beef, all the while waving your weapon around, in the middle of a riot? Do I have that right?”