Chapter 16

Detective Mike Saperstein rubbed his forehead feeling a headache developing. He looked around the parking lot of the motel. He glanced back up at the second floor at Sonny Daniels who was leaning against the railing watching the activity below. The young man looked more than a little irritated.

He turned back to the burnt out car in the parking lot and asked the patrolman, “What was the story again?”

“Witnesses say that the car was parked across the street with four people inside it. The driver started the car and drove into the parking lot. Three of the passengers hung out the windows of the car and started firing at the upstairs room in the corner. Then the car blew up,” the patrolman answered.

“It just blew up,” Detective Mike Saperstein repeated ... cars didn’t just blow up.

“That’s right. It blew up. As a result of the explosion it flipped over onto its side and started burning,” the patrolman answered.

“No one saw anyone throw something at it,” Mike said.

“No.”

Mike looked at the car. From the damage it was pretty obvious that the explosive was under the car.

He asked, “Did anyone notice anything lying on the parking lot?”

“No.”

Mike pointed up at Sonny and asked, “Did anyone see what he was doing?”

“The maid said that he must have just stepped out of his room right before the car headed over to the parking lot. He pushed her back into the room where she had been changing the linens right when the shots were fired. They were on the floor when the car exploded. His story agrees with hers,” the patrolman answered.

“Is there anything to indicate that he had anything to do with the explosion?” Mike asked.

“He was pretty busy with the maid. By her own admission, she was hitting him until she realized that someone was firing a gun. She practically crawled under him when the explosion went off,” the patrolman said.

“Damn,” Mike said. He looked up at Sonny convinced the man knew exactly what had happened here.

“Do you think he had something to do with the explosion?”

Mike answered, “I’d bet my first born on it.”

The patrolman smiled and said, “I know your son. I wouldn’t take that bet out of fear that I might win.”

“Very funny,” Mike said.

“Yes, Sir.”

Mike said, “I’ve got four more dead gang members. That brings us to sixteen gang members killed in the last ten days when you include the eight at the strip club, the one in front of the hospital, and the three inside the hospital. There are eleven still in the hospital as a result of the nails that tore them up.”

“It isn’t a very good time to be a gang member,” the patrolman said.

“Have them take the car down to the lab once the folks from the fire department finish up their examination of the car. I’m not going to discover anything new by looking at it,” Mike said.

“I’ll tell them,” the patrolman said. He walked off to complete the errand.

Mike went over to the stairs and climbed up to the second floor. He walked over to Sonny and looked down at the parking lot below without greeting the young man.

Sonny asked, “Are you here because someone fired some shots at me or because a car malfunctioned and blew up?”

Despite knowing that Sonny was pushing his buttons, Mike still couldn’t help getting irritated. Sonny’s continual comments about him not doing his job were getting under his skin. There were reasons why things were progressing so slowly but he wasn’t at liberty to discuss them.

Angry, he said, “You know that cars don’t blow up because they malfunction. Someone blew it up.”

“I would like to shake the hand of the man who did that,” Sonny said.

“There were four people in that car,” Mike said.

“It couldn’t have happened to a nicer bunch,” Sonny said sarcastically. Seeing the expression of anger flash over Mike’s face, Sonny added, “I’d like to remind you that at the time they blew up, they were shooting at me. There are bullet holes up here.”

Knowing just how bad this neighborhood was, Mike asked, “What are you doing staying here?”

“I had to drop the courses that I was registered in for the summer because I missed too many classes. As soon as I dropped the courses I had to leave the dorm. Since one of you cops told me that I couldn’t leave town until your investigation was finished I had to find a place to live so here I am,” Sonny answered holding up his arms to embrace his surroundings.

“You can leave town now. In fact, please leave town,” Mike said.

He had no idea who told him that he couldn’t leave town.

“Not so fast,” Sonny said. “There’s still a matter of you catching the two gang members who shot me.”

“Leave,” Mike said. “Go home and never come back.”

Sonny said, “Arrest the two men who shot me.”

“We’re trying,” Mike said.

Sonny said, “I don’t think so. It seems to me that you are spending more time trying to figure out why criminals are dying than in catching the folks you know are criminals.”

“Every crime has to be investigated,” Mike said.

“You never did answer my question,” Sonny said. “Are you here because they fired some shots at me or because their car blew up?”

“Both,” Mike answered.

Sonny said, “I don’t believe you. Every question that I’ve been asked has been about the car blowing up. No one has said much of anything about the fact that they were shooting at me!”

“You want me to say something about the fact that they were shooting at you at the time they blew up? I’ll say something. You’re my number one suspect in their deaths,” Mike shouted jabbing a finger at Sonny.

Sonny pointed down at the parking lot and said, “Look at that circus. There are ten police cars, four fire trucks, four ambulances, three news vans, and a bomb squad truck down there. The only reason the SWAT team isn’t there is because they already left.”

Sonny pointed up at the sky and said, “There are still two news helicopters hovering overhead.”

“I can see that,” Mike said. He didn’t want to admit it, but Sonny was right about it being a circus down there.

“If that car hadn’t blown up, I bet only one patrol car and the meat wagon would have come here to haul off my body,” Sonny said.

“At least two cars would have come here,” Mike replied. It sounded stupid even to him.

“Oh wow!” Sonny said, “A law abiding citizen gets killed and two police cars are sent. Four criminals die and that circus shows up.”

“It’s different,” Mike said.

Sonny leaned over and demanded, “Tell me what the difference is.”

“This is news; you getting killed is not,” Mike said.

“You deserve everything these gangs are going to do to you,” Sonny said shaking his head.

“What do you mean by that?” Mike asked.

Sonny answered, “One of these days, killing policemen will have stopped being news. That’s the day they’ll start driving by your house and shooting at you because you arrested one of them. You’ll live in fear because it will be open season on policemen and their families. Los Angeles will burn.”

“It’s not going to turn into that,” Mike said despite knowing better.

The sad fact of the matter was that news about an officer getting killed in the line of duty was now relegated to a small corner story on the front page of the newspaper. It was only a matter of time before it slipped off the front page for good.

Sonny shook his head and said, “Do you want to know the sad thing? You know that day is coming and you won’t do anything about it.”

“We can’t do anything about it,” Mike said.

Lawyers, citizen review boards, judges, juries, and politicians had bound their hands. It was getting more and more difficult to protect the public from violent criminals. Recent events had made it virtually impossible to arrest gang members.

“Do you really expect me to trust you to take care of me?” Sonny asked.

Mike said, “It’s the law.”

“It isn’t the law,” Donny said. “There is no law that says a woman who is getting raped has to lie there and take it until the police are notified and show up. There is no law that says a person has to stand around while getting shot at until the police come around to take care of the bad guys. There is no law that says a victim of assault can’t protect themselves. There is no law that says a person has to allow a criminal make them a defenseless victim. Anyone who thinks otherwise is a fool.”