44. S'mores

The next day Kent got two calls; one from Corporal Louise Kwiatkowski, the forensic specialist. "DNA matches on Michael Guzman."

"Shit." Kent closed his eyes and clenched his jaw.

"It was easy. Place Chart B on top of Chart A and it's all one chart."

Kent thought of Jamie. "Thanks for gettin' back to me. Good job, Louise. Enjoyed workin' with ya."

She could tell he took it hard. "Go catch 'em, detective."

"Plannin' to. You got an affadvit ready?"

"Twenty minutes."

"Fax it for me. I need it for the judge."

She did so, and Kent phoned the judge's secretary in Benton County. "He'll be free in 30 minutes, maybe 45."

"I'll be there."

Kent drove to Fowler, the county seat, learned the name of the special prosecutor, a retired judge in Howard County, and left a message for that guy; within an hour Kent walked out of the courthouse with what he wanted, signed murder warrants for Grandma and Fat Eddie.

***

An hour later Sgt. Rankowski of Hammond P.D. phoned. "Spotted Fat Eddie. He showed up at a stakeout we were doin' at a capo's house. Drivin' that white Buick you mentioned."

"Did you record him?" A listening device in the unmarked police car allowed Hammond P.D. to hear what was said indoors. They had a warrant on their own suspects, so what they heard would be admissible in court; it wasn't Hammond's fault that Eddie Guzman happened to show up and start giving evidence on additional crimes.

"Yeah, it's gonna be usable far as your meth lab goes. He's up here braggin', man. Outsmarted the cops again."

"No doubt. Did he say anything at all about the boy?"

"Not that we heard. And we couldn't leave our stakeout, so we had to let him go. I'm sorry, man."

"I understand, you were on your own mission. What's a good plan, now that you know this place he frequents? Can you add a car to tail him? If you need any help there's our post in Lowell, I can get somebody on it right away."

"Yeah, we're gonna need your personnel. The capo's part of a big bust we got in mind. I don't really have anyone to spare."

"Let me call my captain. Your department's our leader."

"We've got to be, man. We want to help you with Eddie and that kid, but we've got our own investigation and he's just walking into it."

"DNA at Eddie's house down here matched the boy. This is a murder case now. When we get Eddie's location, does your department want to help? We'd be happy to share the credit. But if you're too thin, that's okay too."

"Let me find out what my lieutenant wants. It'll probably depend on the day and time."

"You know your streets. We're not gonna barge in there. We'd love to have you but if you can't, you can't. I'm really grateful for your work, Tom. Give you credit either way."

"Just make sure Lowell doesn't interfere with this one we've got going, we'll be fine."

"Wear your vest, man."

"Always."

Kent called his captain of detectives, arranged for assignments in Lowell, then stopped in to see his post commander. "I want to be there."

"They can do it without you."

"I want to be there."

"It will probably come down at night."

"I'm free at night."

"I'm not paying overtime for an open-ended stakeout."

"How about the shift where we get him?"

"Okay. The rest of the time you're on your own."

"Deal. I'm bringin' him back here with me. The old lady too."

"Might as well."

"I want 'em in Lafayette. I want 'em in our district. I want the courthouse jammed for their preliminary appearance."

"So you can get the glory?"

"No," Kent spat. "So they start to be accountable to Mud Pine, Indiana and a coupla kids I know."

The commander dismissed him, and Kent started thinking about Randy Weishaar, Michael's next of kin.

The mother, too, Debbie in West Virginia, but most of all Michael's next of kin.


***

The next night—Date Night, in Jamie's world—Kent got to watch Eddie Guzman drive that white Buick up to a bungalow in Hammond, park and head up the side stairs to the capo's apartment.

Kent put on the headphones to listen. The other officers on the stakeout were quiet in the dark old van, listening to the conversation in Puerto Rican Spanish. Kent thought of Carlita back in Poncé, how she helped him that winter learn the differences between textbook Castilian and Caribbean dialect and vocabulary.

After some ritual chit-chat, Eddie and his supplier got down to business, trading money for reefer, crack, heroin and pills. Nothing was said about Michael, but Eddie did mention his mother waiting for him, impatient about something. When it sounded like Eddie was getting ready to leave, Kent took off his headphones, handed them to someone else and quietly exited the van for the unmarked state police car a little way up the street. "Here's our man," he told the Lowell troopers, then phoned their backup car around the corner.

Eddie got into his vehicle and started north towards Lake Michigan. His destination would be critical to their operation. If he crossed into Illinois, the state troopers would lose their police powers. If they tried to arrest Eddie before he got there, they risked losing Grandma again, when they wanted him to lead them to her. Kent didn't want to have to rely on Calumet City or one of the other Illinois towns if he could help it. He had the Illinois cities' cooperation but an arrest there would involve the Illinois legal system, then waiting for a judge and extradition. He told himself that if it happened that way it would be all right, the important thing was getting them both behind bars; but he really hoped Eddie didn't cross into Illinois.

As soon as Kent saw Eddie turn west on 165th Street his heart sank. Hammond had erected a traffic barrier down the middle of State Line Road south of 165th, supposedly to protect its residential streets from unwanted cross-state traffic; 165th was unimpeded.

Eddie cruised on into Calumet City and quickly parked, one block from the state of Indiana.

All Kent could do was take down the address; Cal City P.D. would have to make the arrests, and they'd do it on their own schedule. He called his contact on the interagency task force, an officer named Sherwood, but couldn't reach him. He called Tom Rankowski of Hammond P.D., who asked, "Have you got a murder warrant or is it just the meth lab?"

"Two murder warrants. High risk, armed and dangerous."

"Damn, I'd like to be there. But it's better if we're not. That other case, man."

"I understand. Just get me Cal City."

"You need SSERT, the south suburban emergency response team. They've got an armored vehicle, lots of firepower. Looks like something you'd see in Iraq. Perfect for high-risk warrants."

"Sounds great, get me to 'em."

"Meet you there at the Cal City headquarters, Pulaski Road. I've got Sherwood's home number, maybe we can all have a party."

From there events moved quickly; SSERT squad members were ready at a moment's notice, even though they came from several different departments. They were the responders in hostage situations, snipers, anything dangerous where deadly force might be needed. The four Indiana troopers could only back them up, but the SSERT commander was glad to have them and their weapons. Kent was assigned a forward position, part of the perimeter team, with the other three Hoosiers on backup. He strapped on his protective gear and checked his weapon.

He didn't bring a shield, and the other guys made fun of him for that, then found him a spare.

They arrived at the house and deployed quietly and quickly. There was only one exit from the upstairs apartment, an exterior staircase. Kent was assigned to secure those stairs.

The SSERT commander gave a signal, then it started: "Police, search warrant! Police, search warrant!" Pound-pound-pound on the door.

Upstairs, dark curtains parted, and Kent locked eyes with Jenny Ferguson. Instantly he raised his rifle and aimed it at her face.

Ten seconds later she opened the front door and put her hands up. Police burst in and went looking for Eddie as other officers secured her.

They found Eddie in the kitchen, unwrapping an ice cream sandwich. He managed to take one big chomp before his hands were cuffed behind his back. He dropped his ice cream and they left it lay.

No one else was present in the home.

In less than a minute Ms. Ferguson was escorted down the stairs. She eyed Kent as she descended. He didn't relax.

She looked at the armored personnel carrier, then said, "I never thought about that signed permission slip from the Scouts."

He answered, "Don't worry. Where you're goin' they won't be makin' no s'mores."


***

Ten minutes later, after thanking everyone from Lowell to Hammond to Cal City, he started driving home. He thought about Jamie and suddenly remembered he forgot to tell him he was working overtime that night. He felt really guilty but dug out his phone and called.

"Hey, mister," Jamie said.

"Hey, baby. We got 'em."

"Oh, Kent. Fantastic! How did it go?"

"Clockwork really. Over in 52 seconds."

"That's all it takes."

"Tell you about it when I get there. I'm a couple hours away."

"You didn't get brave on me, did you?"

"Well, just a little," Kent laughed. "But it didn't amount to nothin'. Eddie was in the kitchen eatin'."

"That's what he's good at. Congratulations, Kent. I'm very proud of you."

"I toldja I'd get 'em, baby."

"Yes. Did you eat dinner?"

"Just a bag of Fritos and a Diet Sprite."

Jamie groaned. "Do you want to stop and get something, or wait till you get home?"

"I want to be with you right now."

"I can make some decent food."

"It's Friday night, baby, the kitchen's closed."

"The chef makes an exception for conquering heroes."

"Know what I feel? I kinda want to party a little. Almost wish we were goin' out like we're s'posed to."

Jamie glanced at the clock. "I could call Joey and Cher. Maybe your Mom could come by."

"This'd be a time to open up that cocktail place you had in Dublin. I wish we had somethin' like that."

"Do you want to go out? We still could."

"Nah, if we went to some bar in Crawfordsville everybody'd come up and want to talk. I don't feel like no crowds tonight. One or two family members'd be nice, though."

"Maybe Cher and Joey could put the kids to bed upstairs."

"Yeah, they could. Give 'em a call, see if they feel like comin' over."

"I'm glad you want to celebrate."

"It's more a relief than anything."

"But you did what you said you would do." Kent teared up momentarily. Jamie said, "Leave it to me, buddy."

"Don't be goin' to no trouble."

"Oh, it's not much trouble to get naked. One way or another, we're having a party tonight."

Kent grinned, told him he loved him, and drove home.++

© 2011 Josh Thomas, All Rights Reserved.