"So gentlemen, that should address a few of your concerns at least, I don't really understand how they made lieutenant in the first place, but it's behind us now."
"Mike, you mentioned a few ideas for possible replacement personnel," Scott queried.
"Well my first choice is Herb Talbert, he'd be a great Lieutenant and I was thinking three might be enough if we add sergeants and distribute the people amongst them. We could reduce the size of the group an individual sergeant has to manage and make life better for our detectives in the bargain. I figure anything we can do to reduce the strain for the guys pulling the freight will result in a higher case solved rate," Mike suggested.
"I agree Scott, the team has had it rough the last couple of years and it's time to get these guys the support they deserve," Frank concurred.
"What about Harris and Hall, do you want someone to fill those positions?" Scott asked.
"Eventually, they weren't all that effective and with my move to bring in retirees I think we can take our time and pick out a few good people. My thought is to make it a mix of raw talent and experienced officers. Perhaps even a lateral or two from other departments. We have a few looking at retirement and we might need to try a little retention, make the idea more appealing. How does that sound?"
"Once this serial case is wrapped up, I say let's do it. We can grow our own with the talent we have on hand. A few new people and like you say a few laterals would probably get us back up to fighting weight," Scott agreed.
"Well we can argue about it later, I should get back, Herb's going to give me an update and I'll relay the details to you personally," Mike grinned.
They talked over a few more details and then Frank and Mike headed back to the Bureau.
"Good Morning Bob, while I've got you here, do you have any plans for tomorrow afternoon?" Mike asked casually.
"No, none at all. Why do you ask?"
"I'd like you to go over to the Castle with me and get you sworn in. Does that meet with your approval?" Mike teased.
"Yes, absolutely Mike, I'll be here. I'll even wear clean undies." Bob grinned back.
Mike laughed and went on about his business. The new clerical people were beginning to arrive. Shirley Mason was shown to Mike's office where Frank joined them.
"Good morning Ms. Mason, you're probably wondering what the heck you're doing here but I'm about to fill you in. We have what will become a high profile case in the works. We need someone to process all the needs of the detectives assigned to that case. Scott Somers tells me that you hold a Homeland clearance as well as being Senior administrative assistant to Captain Reyes' predecessor," Mike began. "Scott also told me that you were one of the most discrete individuals he had ever met. We will need that sort of discretion for the case at hand. We will also want to swear you in as a special deputy because of the secure nature of your duties. Is this agreeable to you?" Mike asked.
"During Major William's time here I was a special deputy. It went with my duties as his Admin. And I would welcome a return to that status if only to rub it in Reyes face. He and I did not get along. But when you consider what he was up to, I can understand why he didn't want me around," Shirley shared.
"Well his stink is what we're trying to remove, along with his two cronies Alvarez and Miller, reports of their arrest should be in the news very soon. I will of course refer all press and media inquiries to the Under Sheriff's office," Mike smiled.
"I think I can be of use here and I'd love to return to the Bureau and make a contribution. When do you need me to report?"
"ASAP of course, let's have a look at offices, once you choose one we'll get the card lock installed. Access will be limited to senior staff and yourself. I was thinking of a title, how about Senior Case Coordinator. It makes it clear your duties are not primarily clerical and you'll have your own Admin."
Frank, who had been silent up to this point spoke up.
"Shirley, I'm glad to see you back here where you belong. You were a great help to the Major and I know you'll do a good job now. With Mike's leadership we'll put this outfit back in shape and regain the respect of the department and the community, Frank enthused.
"I wasn't sure if you were happy about this or not Frank, I'm pleased to know that you welcome me back," Shirley smiled.
"I always thought you got a raw deal when Reyes took over. The Admin he brought over was worse than useless. Fortunately the old Sheriff pulled all the seniors into the Castle so none of them were available to interfere with daily operations. But that's all in the past and it's time to move forward. So welcome back Shirley," Declared Frank.
The trio chatted as they inspected vacant offices and picked two. One for Shirley and one for her choice of Admin.
****
"Hi Hiro, please come in, it's good to see you again," I welcomed. "This is my mom, you can call her Minnie.
"Nice to meet you Minnie," Hiro greeted.
"And you Hiro, Etienne tells me you have a very good eye and that you are a very nice person."
"You can call me Jem if you like Hiro, please have a seat and I will bring in the tea."
"You have a beautiful home Minnie, and excellent taste in furniture. That's a nice Stickley settle under the bay window," Hiro observed.
"Thank you, that was a gift from my husband, He found it on a trip to Illinois, we have a few more pieces that you might appreciate, this table and chairs is from a Greene and Greene house that was torn down to build apartments. We have another Greene and Greene set that came from the Blacker House we have photos of its original placement within the house. That was a sad episode in architectural history. Are you familiar with the story? Mom asked Hiro.
"Yes, the last of the original owners died in 1946 and contrary to her specific instructions in her will, the entire house was gutted of original furniture and fixtures which were sold at auctions and art sales. The estate was subdivided and the house was heavily modified, ruining its character."
"It's a beautiful table, I bought it at an estate sale for a tiny portion of its value," Mom chuckled.
"Ah yes, greedy survivors liquidating what they don't understand," Hiro conspired.
"Yes, otherwise I'd feel guilty," Mom agreed.
After looking at the Roycroft Lawyers bookcases and other pieces we adjourned to the dining room where Hiro rolled out three design drawings for a desk that I had requested. One was larger than I needed and another too small. I opted for the middle sized desk not tremendously unlike the beautiful showroom piece that I had seen at Hiro's place.
"Would you like a deposit Hiro?" I asked.
"Not necessary, but perhaps you can come by and pick out a slab for the top. I have many pieces of Mahogany from various locations," Hiro suggested.
"I'd be happy to do that, Chase and I weren't able to ride the wheel or do all the exploring we wanted to do on our last visit," I replied.
"So you're beginning to enjoy the city?" Hiro ventured.
"I'd say so, yes. There's much more character to this city and I find it interesting the more I read," I agreed.
"Which school will you be attending? Will you join Chase at Rainier or another school?" Hiro asked.
"Oh definitely Rainier, I just had the tour and it's a wonderful campus. The teachers seem quite committed to maintaining a high academic standard without being rigid."
"Chase has always spoken highly of his school and I suspect you'll fit in well there," Hiro concluded.
"We hope it's a good match for him. There were too many unmotivated students at his last school and he wasn't interested in moving to any of the other schools because of the elitist attitudes some of them seemed to harbor," Mom informed Hiro.
Lucky escape for Jem and good news for Chase. You boys have become quite close in the short time you've been here," Hiro observed.
"Chase has been an absolute prize for Jem and I don't think he'd argue with me about that," Mom agreed.
"Well Jem, when would you like to come and have a look at the selection of woods for your desk?" Hiro asked.
"Would Thursday be okay? I'll need to clear it with Jeff and Chase. I can call you once I know for sure," I supplied.
"Thursday or Friday would be wonderful, I will await your call. And now I'm off to meet one of Jeff's clients about an office suite. I like to see the space that my furniture will occupy. That way I can provide a comprehensive design that will interact with the space."
"Okay Hiro, I'll give you a call once I have a time," I agreed.
"Thank you for the tour of your home, it's quite lovely and I can see where Jem gets his excellent taste from. I look forward to seeing you again Minnie, I will give some thought to your requirements and supply a few designs that might compliment your older pieces," Hiro promised.
"That would be lovely Hiro, I will wait to hear from you on that score," Mom approved.
****
"Well Frank, it's starting to shape up. I think we could get this bureau turned around if we keep at it."
"I'm with you Mike, If we can get the right people in the right places I think we have a pretty good chance," Frank replied.
"Do you have prospects to come up from Patrol or other divisions Frank?"
'Well yes, there's a sergeant that works Tukwilla in patrol and he does an excellent job of investigating cases before turning them over to the bureau, Jens Ericson. I think he'd be a good one and I know of an officer in West Seattle that would like to lateral to the S.O. and get in to plainclothes. Amanda Peterson has a great record and she's worked with children quite a bit and she's an expert on sex offenders. She's a qualified psychologist and pretty easy to work with. SPD is missing a bet by not getting her into the detective division."
"I trust your judgement Frank so why don't you see if they would each take an interview with us to discuss career advancement possibilities. Do we have enough people that are potential sergeants in our group?"
"Not really, there may be a couple that haven't declared an interest but I think laterals will have to fill the bill for now. You know long range I think we should consider assigning Detectives to outlying stations based on demand. It can be two hours to reach Federal way or Tukwila on a bad day. Maybe you could sell the Sheriff on a south county bureau?" Frank suggested.
"Great minds think alike, I've been working on a proposal for long range development of this bureau and forensics, I'll send you a copy and you can make suggestions, with your hands-on knowledge I think we could make a pretty good case for something like that. It would save the department money in the long run," Mike agreed.
"It's the obvious solution, we've just never had the support to get it done before. Plus the south end of the county has been largely rural until recently," Frank agreed.
"Placement would be the biggest issue. I was thinking Auburn or perhaps Maple valley. Sea Tac has its own detective bureau although they lean on us for forensics apparently. It will take quite a bit of thought before it comes to anything," Mike concluded.
"Well obviously you've been doing some homework. Have you approached Bruce about having a few forensic people on hand? I would guess print and evidence techs would be enough, at least initially," Frank asked.
"Not yet, but I will be asking him for input, I think it's in his best interests budget wise and he's anxious to mend some fences between our respective bureaus," Mike supplied.
"Okay, send me a copy when you're ready and I'll go over it and see if I can contribute anything," Frank replied.
Herb tapped on the door and Mike waved him in.
"Take a seat, I presume you're here to give us an update," Mike invited.
"Yes, a couple of things have taken place that are worth mentioning. First off Det. Carr has made a survey of vans of the type last used by our subject. There are nine locations that have a lot-full overnight. They aren't fenced and none of them are difficult to start without a key," Herb reported.
"Did you make contact with the business owners?" Frank asked.
"Not yet, I wanted to run it by you two and get your feel for how to proceed. The surveillance crew did the trick with the power tools last night, they made a lot of noise late into the evening. They'll go around this evening apologizing to their neighbors. The excuse is that in Australia it gets dark around five and of course at the moment sunset here is nearly nine o'clock. Hopefully this will result in a face to face with our suspect. Also our Techies arrived in a City Light truck and mounted cameras on the utility poles behind the suspects property and along the path in both directions. So now we have her covered all the way around. Unless she has a tunnel we'll see her anytime she tries to go anywhere," Herb concluded. Plus they did a drone survey with video the entire length of the easement. The cover was checking out the poles on both sides of the street. There are a couple of paths that run along fence lines to the next street over
"That's great, let's go ahead and contact all the business owners with vans and see if they had any tampering or caught anyone on video snooping around," Mike suggested. "And give them the hotline number so they can call directly and report a theft or someone casing the parking area."
"Has there been any progress locating the husband's whereabouts? Any activity on his cards or bank account?" Herb inquired.
"Nothing so far, we've done a check on all his credit cards and bank account. All the cards are delinquent and the bank balance is near zero. There has been no activity since the date your witness mentioned as his departure. I think you called it earlier, he was probably the first victim but he and his truck are not to be found," Frank replied.
"Yeah, I'm pretty sure that's the case. I just hope we can contain her until we can get enough to link her to the deaths. And nail her before she pulls of another one. A couple of days is all we have before she goes hunting again if we're right," Mike speculated.
"One last thing, Mike, Casey Rasmussen is ready to jump in when needed. She's had an application in to the bureau for quite a while but Alvarez wasn't interested in bringing on more women. I'm forwarding her number to you and you can walk her through the plan," Herb informed Mike.
While Mike, Frank and Herb were talking, Toni and Vince were walking house to house making apologies for the noise the previous evening. They caught Marina Hobart arriving home and did the same with her but Marina indicated she had heard nothing because she was listening to music on headphones. Toni tried to draw out Marina but she was quite closed off, abruptly she said goodnight and walked into her house, closing the door behind her.
But their stroll through the neighborhood wasn't completely fruitless. After accepting their apologies a neighbor of Marina's filled in a few details. Donna Parker told them that she heard Marina and Louis Hobart arguing loudly. It had ended with Louis throwing a suitcase in the truck, loading a bunch of tools from the garage and driving off in a trail of smoking tires. "He just chucked his shovels and pick in the back and peeled out of the drive way, I haven't seen him since," Donna related.
"So he was a contractor then?" Toni asked.
"Yes, general stuff, concrete, block work and some framing. My late husband used to do the same thing. Luis always seemed like a nice person but Marina has always been cold. Like she was jealous of every woman that even spoke to Louis. Even an old lady like me wasn't exempt from her suspicions," Donna finished.
Toni and Vince wished her a pleasant evening and returned to the O.P. Donna was one of many that considered Marina a bit odd. One woman they spoke to told them that she had called the police on her because she was using abusive language towards her kids and their friends just for being boisterous while riding bikes along the path under the utility poles. Toni reported to Herb about what they had learned.
Herb relayed the information to Mike and Frank before leaving the station.
"By the way Frank, would you mind joining me for Bob's swearing in?" Mike asked.
"Not at all, He's a good guy and he's done a lot to keep this outfit running while things were going south," Frank allowed.
"Good deal, I'm going to ask Herb to join us and Shirley too. I think Bob will be integral to the success of the retiree program. All that tribal knowledge has to count for something. Getting him back in harness as a peace officer will send a message to others that they might have a second chance to contribute. You know that it's a small percentage of cops that retire and can just walk away and be happy. Most of us have the job burned in and it's a life sentence," Mike hazarded.
"I think you're right, Mike, if we can retrieve some of the retirees and get them back to work, they can take a huge load off the detectives and pass on the fruits of their experience," Frank agreed.
"I'm glad you're on board for this Frank. I feel pretty strongly about it."
****
"Hi Chase, you missed seeing Hiro, he came by to show me the designs he came up with. It's really cool and he wants me to come by his place to pick out the mahogany slab for the top," I told him.
"When will you be doing that?" Chase inquired.
"How about Friday morning, then we can hit the Great wheel once we're done and we can take our time exploring. Mom or Art will run us down to Spokane street so we can catch the bus to Hiro's if you're interested," I explained.
"It sounds good to me, I hope the wind is calm Friday, they close the wheel if it gets too strong. Dad won't mind and Janisse is already planning on having Carter and John over there. She'll take them to Skipper's or some other kiddy friendly place for lunch. I was going to suggest we grab a bus with bike racks and check out Columbia City, there's a lot of stuff I'd like to show you there," Chase expanded.
"We could do that Saturday when the food trucks are there and we can check out the art show and craft fairs. I read about them online and the weather is supposed to be good this weekend," I lobbied.
"That sounds nice, Carter and John are pretty much consumed with each other and that gives me a lot more time to be with you without feeling guilty for leaving Carter behind."
"I'll give Hiro a call and set the time. How are you feeling today?"
"Better, I spoke with my doctor today and I think I can let go of some of the stuff that's been bothering me. Thanks for being here with me and helping me see what was wrong," Chase whispered.
I took his hand and led him upstairs to my room.