A Thin Blue Line

[Kislath]

"Okay, thanks.

Well, to Metro we go. Tally Ho!"

[D.KnightSpider]

"That's correct." I replied, easily enough. "Regardless of the past, Herman Rodrick was a cop. We're looking to help peg the ones who murdered him. Right now we're building a personality profile of Rodrick and I was hoping that, since you were his partner once upon a time, you might have some insight into what made him tick."

((Edit: I will excoriate these cell phone typos sooner or later.))

[Reltzik]

Metro HQ's a small skyscraper. Not counting four basement garage levels (including public parking, employee parking, and police vehicles) there's a massive lobby and a bank of elevators and a lot of people either going from various Point As to Point Bs or sitting in waiting chairs or standing around in clumps talking. Not many people getting busted here, this is the public entrance, the perps get taken up the elevators from the motor pool to a different floor for that. The receptionist at the desk recognizes Pinchy-eyes from Thad's description. "Yeah, I know him. Not his name, but I see him around a lot. He came in just a moment ago, almost running, and went straight for the elevators. I think he works on the 20th floor."

A quick glance at the directory next to the elevators says that the 20th floor houses Public Complaints and Internal Affairs.


*****

Concurrently, Lara is talking to Harding on the phone. "I could try," Harding says. "Herman was... well, he was the gentlest, sweetest, most caring man I've ever known. The only time he ever got angry was when he saw someone mistreating someone else. He..." she stops, sounds like she's having trouble speaking. She takes a moment and starts again. "I'm sorry, Detective. I shouldn't babble on at random like that. What are you looking for, specifically?"

[D.KnightSpider]

"It's alright, Officer Harding. I understand what it's like to lose someone. Now, I apologize for asking this question, all things considered, but it's one of those questions that I have to ask. How close were you to Herman Rodrick?"

Judging from her tone of voice, and the 'random blubbering', I had an inclination that they were a little bit more than partners. Part of me wondered what it was about Rodrick that made him such a ladies' man. The other part of me wished that he was still alive just so that I could personally break his streak with the ladies-- with great prejudice.

I also hoped that Harding would be able to remain somewhat professional and unbiased about who Rodrick really was. But if the first few moments of this call were any indication, the answer was 'no'.

[Reltzik]

"Pretty close," Harding answers. "We were... casually intimate, sometimes. But more important than that, he was a very good friend. Less-so since he went undercover, because we weren't partners any more and couldn't spend so much time together. We'd make arrangements to meet up outside of the Wolfpack's camera network, but half the time something would come up and one of us would have to cancel. So I guess we'd been drifting apart. But I still felt very close to him."

[Kislath]

"He's up on the 20th. The fact that he was in a big hurry suggests he wasn't just tying to hide himself, but to beat me to his office so he could hide something else.
You stay down here. If he tries to sneak out while I'm heading up, you can nail him. We have each other's numbers, right? First one to find him calls the other. Watch the stairwell door, too."

With that, I take the elevator to the 20th.

[Reltzik]

Thad came into the HQ lobby alone. Macabee had to get the squad car out of traffic, and Lawrence was winded. But sure, I'll say that Lawrence managed to catch up. He's short on breath and happy to take a breather.

Emerging on the 20th floor, Thad finds a big glass edifice labeled "Internal Affairs" sealing off a full half of the building. There's a reception area, and a maze of cubicles visible behind that, and corner and window offices behind those. There's a smaller edifice in the other direction labeled "Public Complaints", and some hallways leading to other offices not connected with either section. And, of course, the normal stairwells, bathrooms, break room, and the like.

[D.KnightSpider]

For once, my guess about the situation had turned out to be dead on the money. Now if I could only get that to happen more often, we'd have this case closed by lunch. Oh well, when life gave you lemons...

"If that's the case, perhaps you can help me clear up a few lingering issues. Did Rodrick ever mention his past before the Marines to you? Did he ever talk about close relatives or family?" I asked.

Another idea came to me. While I was talking to Harding, I fired up my computer again and accessed Rodrick's records. I was curious about whether I could find any sort of emergency contact, or even just contact information, in his file. People usually gave that role to close relatives. Maybe I'd get a bead on his family history that way.

[Reltzik]

"No," Harding says. She seems to be getting control of herself, emotionally. "It came up a few times. All he'd say is that he didn't have any family left, and didn't want to talk about it. But... there was that guy from Monty's. A couple of weeks ago, Herman and I were there, having drinks. That was the last time I saw him." That last sentence is a bit hard for her to say, but she pushes on. "I went to the bar for another round, and when I came back there Herman was arguing with a man who looked a lot like him. Then suddenly Herman shoves him and the guy punches him in the face and breaks Herman's nose. The weird thing is, Herman just let the guy go, said he wasn't going to waste the effort pressing charges over a bar fight. And then he spent the rest of the night getting really drunk. Even after I talked him into going to the hospital. That wasn't like him at all."

Herman has a single phone number listed as his "In Case of Emergency" contact, from back when he enrolled in the police. He did not list a relationship. The same number is listed for his next of kin. Again, no relationship mentioned.

[Kislath]

Well, I can either make some noise, or sneak around a bit. On the other hand, I guess I can just ask somebody.
Is there anyone around who is looking at me, that is, would have seen whatshisname come in through this door?

[Reltzik]

Both glass edifices have a few doors behind them. Each has a waiting area, tables with forms that people can fill out, and a couple of receptionists in cubicle-walled booths guarding access to the rest of Cubicle City. Both sets of receptionists can see the elevator bank clearly from where they're sitting, and Thad can probably ask them.

... of course, just because the guy works on this floor, doesn't mean he didn't, say, take the elevator down to the garage where his car is parked.

[D.KnightSpider]

I wasn't surprised to hear that Rodrick never mentioned his family. I was surprised, however, to learn that he might still have family in the local area. I also knew which tip from the tipline I had suddenly found very, very interesting. I made a note to track that down when I was done with Harding.

Of course, the big question was, with so many leads crawling out of the woodwork, when was I ever going to get the chance to shake down the 23rd some more?

Back in the computer, I changed windows and attempted a reverse look-up of Rodrick's emergency contact. Hopefully, it would be a listed number.

I continued the conversation: "Officer Harding, that last tidbit was very important. Can you tell me when, exactly, that barfight occurred? And can you describe the man that assaulted Rodrick?"

[Reltzik]

The contact number isn't listed per se, but police have access to more numbers than are just in the phone book. The area code is in the DC area, and the phone number itself belongs to the Pentagon. Along with probably a few thousand other phone numbers. Beyond that, the software doesn't know. It could be a number for the Veteran's Administration, or it could be the office number of a war buddy who's now on REMF duty, or anything else.

"Let's see," Harding says. "It was... on Friday, two and a half weeks ago. I made a note of the time. It was a few minutes before 9:30. PM. I could look up the exact minute when I get home. He was about 5'10", about 150 pounds. Lean. His facial structure was very much like Herman's. Light Hispanic, brown eyes, dark brown or black hair, back in a pony-tail, down to... oh, about halfway down the shoulder-blades. Pencil-thin mustache. Mid-twenties, I'd say. He had a tattoo on the side of his neck, his right side, some five-digit number, I've got that written down at home. It looked like a prison tat. There was a bit of scarring to it, not the sort of thing you see on a professional job with professional equipment. He was wearing business-casual without the jacket, blue tie, white shirt." You gotta love cops, they actually know what details to take note of.

[Kislath]

D'OH!

Well, I might as well see what I can dig up while I'm here, and start asking around the place. I'll start with the ones I see, describing the guy I'm looking for and asking if they know him, did they see him come in just a few minutes ago, what his name is, and where I can find his office. If they don't know, I'll keep pestering people until I find someone who does. I'll be nice, until some supervisor decides to throw his weight around and prevent me from getting anywhere, at which point I'll stop being nice.

Come to think of it, I wonder if that Neilsen chick would be interested in knowing that a Judge is deliberately blocking the investigation into the murder of a cop?

[Reltzik]

One of the receptionists in Public Complaints remembers Pinchy-Eyes coming out of the elevator just a couple of minutes ago, and heading into Internal Affairs. She's seen him around, exchanged a couple of random nothings with him in the break room from time to time, knows he works in Internal Affairs, but nothing more about him.

Internal Affairs is a bit.... less forthcoming. As in, a solid wall of officialdom. They may well have seen, heard, read, been told, uncovered, discovered, recovered, and put together every last thing you want to know, and they won't tell you a damn thing. "I'm sorry if it inconveniences you, Detective, but I'm sure you understand that ordinary police cannot be given too much access to the personnel involved in any ongoing internal investigations, much as the general public cannot be given immediate access to you or your notes in whatever investigation you are pursuing. If you wish to make an information request, please fill out form 5836-P, and we'll see to it in four working days."

It occurs to Thad that earning the ire of Internal Affairs by barging into their sanctum sanctorum might not be the best prescription for ease of life. Not that this will necessarily stop him.

[D.KnightSpider]

Tracking the emergency number turned out to be a dead end. Oh well, I paused those efforts in order to record and verify the information on Rodrick's assailant. This guy definitely gave off the vibe of someone who'd been in the slammer for a bit. Maybe there was more to Rodrick's family animosity than just the distant past of the Rodriguez case.

"That's tremendously helpful. If you could check that number later, and then give me a call with it, I would greatly appreciate it." Almost automatically, I start to give Harding my cell number, but I catch myself and provide the number to my desk line instead. I wanted to keep my cards close to my chest for the moment. "Do you remember anything that they said to each other during the argument?"

Guess who was going to have a bulletin put out on him as soon as I talked to the bartender?

[Reltzik]

"No," Harding answers. "The place was loud and I wasn't close enough to hear."

Spoiler

Show

OOC: I'm going to guess Thad. Because playing pranks on partners is fun!

[D.KnightSpider]

"Understandable." I said. "Let's shift gears for a moment. In your time together, did Rodrick ever display competency with computer hardware and software? Was he savvy with technology?"

[Reltzik]

"Yeah," Harding says. "He did. He had a soldering kit and bench in his unit, back when he was living in the Heights before he went undercover, and usually he had some really weird device or other he was working on... though he spent much more time drawing than on that. He was always trying to explain it to me, but I could never figure out what he was talking about. Most of it just did weird useless stuff, like one of those ... Rudgerburg machines? Whatever you call them. And he knew computers, he could figure out in five minutes how to get it to do something that it would take me an hour to find. And he was really good with tech manuals too, he could skim through them real quickly and understand them."

Reading between the lines, Lara's hearing signs that Rodrick knew how to get the most out of software, but not any indication that he was actually a programmer.

[Kislath]

*sigh* "Lady, this is a pursuit situation. Would you kindly point out which way my suspect fled before I have to waste time arresting you for Obstruction of a Murder Investigation?"

[Reltzik]

The receptionist draws up straight. She's not scared. If anything, she's offended by the upstart ordinary policeman trying to muscle into Internal Affairs' turf. "Sir. As you are no doubt aware, if there is, indeed a member of the police who is a suspect in one of your investigations... be they themselves a member of Internal Affairs or not... then your investigation itself becomes the purview of Internal Affairs. If this is the case, then I'll call out a case worker to begin the interview process to bring our detectives up to speed so that your investigation may be turned over to us. If not, then I suggest you leave."

Thad gets the sense that she was trying to fend him off earlier, but now she's switched into full-on adversarial mode. Whatever she was trying to do previously, that just took back seat to putting Thad in his place.

[D.KnightSpider]

It would make sense that Rodrick was more hardware-oriented due to his experience with bombs and whatnot. I wasn't entirely sure how qualified Harding was to answer this question. Especially given that she admitted she wasn't entirely sure what Rodrick was trying to tell her. Still, it was an interesting idea with which to play.

Still, let's assume for the moment that my gut feeling is right. If Harding wasn't a programmer, then the question became: who made that fancy little laptop lock-out program for him?

Granted, he might have bought it somewhere or had it done as a custom job. But, it was still a question worth pursuing.

"Did Rodrick ever work with anyone else on technological matters? Was there ever anyone else involved in his projects? Someone who worked with computer code or somesuch?" I asked.

Spoiler: OoC:

Show

Apologies for not responding to your OoC note, earlier. It took me waaaaaay too long to realize that you were responding to Lara's internal musing.

But, sorry. Thad's the wrong answer. Although the way he's going, IA might hit him with one.

[Reltzik]

"I don't know if he understood codes. He had a couple of buddies in the bomb squad," Harding answers. "I don't know who. Before he went undercover, they'd send each other these weird gizmos. Sort of fake bombs that they had to defuse before the red light turned on. The only time I ever understood what Herman was talking about, he'd built something where the red light wouldn't turn on unless someone messed with it, but was guaranteed to turn on then. I don't know HOW he did it, but what it did, that I could understand."

Harding apparently doesn't know the first thing about programming, having confused "code" and "codes". Herman's contacts sound like they know electronics, but she's given no evidence for or against them knowing how to program.

OOC: I'm going to throw something at Lara between this phone call and her next one, so don't immediately segue to the next call.

[Kislath]

"You know what? That would be dandy. By all means, bring me a caseworker. This'll be good for a laugh, and I could use one. Say... for extra kicks, can it be him? Watching him not investigate his own crime would HIL-arious, almost as funny as watching his best buddies not do it."

[D.KnightSpider]

((OoC: Ooooh. Foreboding.))

Yeah. Harding obviously wasn't the one with which to talk about Rodrick's computer skills. Still, it was something worth bearing in mind. I put a big question mark on my notepad next to the laptop entry and circled it back around to Rodrick's name. I wasn't overly worried about that, yet. I had several other leads to tackle.

"Alright. I just have a few more questions, then." Two, most likely, but I'd rather leave things as open-ended as possible. "I realize that this is an odd one, but did Rodrick ever talk to you about Internal Affairs or any sort of police misconduct?"

[Reltzik]

"If you wish, Detective. One moment."

The receptionist stands up and glances to the side. She's about to say something, but apparently someone else was listening in and didn't need to be told. The door to Cubicle City opens, and a young woman (some flavor of Asian or Pacific Islander) steps out. "This way to the interview room, Detective." She gestures into the maze of Cubicle City for Thad to enter. Thad gets the sense from her that she's got a terribly unpleasant experience planned for him, though she's projecting polite, professional courtesy.

*****

"Quite a lot, actually," Harding said. "What do you expect? Herman was a probie. Straight out of the Academy, except he didn't even spend a lot of the time at the Academy. He got most of his classwork done by correspondence course while he was still in Iraq, and other stuff like weapon qualifications he didn't need at all. Hell of a lot more mature than some 20-year-old, but he was still a rookie in some ways. He knew how to deal with people, but he was still learning the procedural ropes. Had to learn which theory worked well in practice and which didn't. The Academy sticks a lot of crap in rookies' heads, and it takes some time for them to learn what's actually what. That's what the probie year is for, really. So he had a lot of confusion about which rules it's okay to relax and which ones it isn't, but that wasn't unusual. Half the Surge was like that."

[D.KnightSpider]

I rolled my eyes-- grateful that she wasn't able to see what I thought of that response. I was starting to wonder if Harding was playing dumb or if she was just a natural blond.

Time to try again: "I'm fishing for something closer to the present time, actually. In recent weeks has Rodrick had any interest, or said anything, related to dirty cops or crooked inspectors in Internal Affairs? Did he, by any chance, say anything when he was rip-roaring drunk?"

[Reltzik]

"Oh," Harding says. "No. He just got really, really quiet when he was drunk. I could hardly get him to say anything. And the last time he mentioned anything about bad cops was... months ago. Maybe a year ago, I think. He'd found out that the Wolfpack was planting its people in the Academy. I don't know any details about that, it just came up briefly."

[D.KnightSpider]

The Academy had been compromised? The news rocked me back in my seat. How on earth were they able to pull off something like that? I checked my watch, glancing at the time. Where were those requested case notes from the 23rd? Didn't Adamson think we needed to know something like this?

I was silent for a long moment as I digested the news. All of those tips and tricks that had been used to sterilize the crime scene had convinced Thaddeus that we were dealing with a dirty cop. Maybe the truth was even more sinister. Maybe we had trained the Wolfpack on how to avoid detection.

Wait a moment... The 23rd's files had indicated that She-Wolf needed to make a move on the department soon. Was she trying to supplant enough of the force to take over that way-- a Trojan Horse play? It seemed too surreal a possibility to take seriously. I didn't want to panic over this news, but, holey canola, that was a bombshell to just casually drop on someone.

"That... that was not something of which I was aware." I said slowly. I had no other questions to ask (at least, none I trusted Harding to answer) so I decided to ask one more and then conclude the phone call. "But it's good to know. Let me ask you one more question, if you don't mind. Is there anything else you can think of that I should know? Was there anything that struck you as odd or unusual in any way?"

Barring any other rabbit trails that Harding's answer prompted, I had a sneaking suspicion that I was about done here.

[Reltzik]

"Yeah," Harding says. "We were..." she breaks off to yawn. "Sorry. I haven't been sleeping well since... We were going to meet up Sunday night. The night he was killed. But he called on Friday saying he had to cancel, because the Wolfpack wanted him for something. He didn't say what. Something about that call made me really start worrying that something was about to go wrong. I don't know why. Like I said, we had to cancel a lot. Maybe it was something in his voice, like he knew he was in trouble and was saying goodbye to me. Or maybe I'm making that up after the fact, I don't know. But I just had a hunch that something awful was going to happen. I did my best to ignore it, but it kept me up a lot. But I guess that hunch was right." She sounds like she's going to start crying, then stops herself. "Anyhow, that's what you should know. The Wolfpack wanted him for something Sunday night, something that would keep him from meeting me around 8 PM.

"Oh, and one more thing, Detective. A lot of the people at the 23rd think this should be their case, because it's personal. That they're in a race with you. I don't care. They get her or you get her, I don't care who gets her. So long as that b**** gets got. Good hunting."