Brodricksburg Pt. 02

PART TWO

*****

Moving On

*****

In the morning I was sitting at my desk when Hanratty came in.

"Did somebody shoot your dog?" Hanratty asked.

"What?"

"You look kind of down this morning," he said. "Just thought that maybe someone shot your dog or something."

I really didn't want to talk about my problem but I knew I couldn't keep it a secret, not from Hanratty anyway.

"Carrie and I are separating," I said.

"What? You can't be serious."

"Unfortunately I am dead serious."

"What the fuck did you do?"

"Why do you assume I did something wrong?" I asked.

"Because I know Carrie wouldn't."

I was tempted to dispute Hanratty's opinion but decided to let it go.

"We're just having some problems and decided that maybe some time apart might help."

"Man, I am sorry to hear that," Hanratty said. "You guys were my image of what a marriage should be. Do you think you'll get back together?"

"I really don't know. I hope we can work it out," I said. "Can we not talk about this now?"

"Okay. But if you want to talk later, just let me know."

"Thanks, I appreciate that."

Hanratty went to talk to some of the other officers in the squad room and left me to my dark thoughts. My emotions were mixed between anger and sadness. I almost called Carrie to tell her I wanted a divorce but I knew that was not what I really wanted. I wanted things to be the way they were before I got that first phone call.

By 10:00 AM I realized I wasn't going to get any work done so I left the station. I signed out my unmarked car and drove home. I didn't go in, I just sat in the driveway staring at the front door. Carrie was at work so there was no reason for me not to go into the house but I just couldn't make myself get out of the car. It didn't feel like home anymore. I had slept in the guest room the previous night and I didn't want to do that again. I knew that I was going to have to find a place to live but I was having a hard time taking that first step.

My first thought was to go talk to Ted Brostek, an old friend from my high school days. Ted was the manager of the Riverview Apartments on Fort Street. Fort Street is another part of Route 32 where it passes through Brodricksburg. The Riverview Apartments are on the west side of the street and only the third floor apartments that face the east actually have a view of the river.

"Hey Brian, what's going on? You're not here to arrest me are you?" was the greeting I received when I walked into Ted Brostek's office.

"I should arrest you just for being so ugly," I said.

"Well, my wife might agree with that but my girlfriends wouldn't."

I actually laughed at that. It was the first time I had laughed in quite some time.

"How have you been, Ted?"

"I'm doing good. How bout you?"

"If I was doing any better I would have to shoot myself," I said.

"So, is this a social visit or business?"

"I guess it's business. I need to find an apartment," I said.

"Apartment? For you?"

"Yeah."

"What's up?"

"Carrie and I are separated."

"I'm sorry to hear that. You think you'll get back together?"

"Hope so, but who knows?" I said. "You got any openings?"

"I've got a couple of three bedroom apartments open right now but I don't really think you would want anything that big and you'd have to sign a one year lease," Ted said. "You might not want to sign a year's lease in case you and Carrie get back together. I'll have a two bedroom opening up in a couple of weeks and I can get you a 9 month lease on that one."

" I need something right away," I said. "I have to get out of the house today if possible."

"Oh shit, I almost forgot. I have one tenant that left for a temporary job assignment in Europe last week and he had asked me if I could help him find someone to sublet his apartment for the next six months. It's only a one bedroom but it's on the third floor and it is completely furnished. It would be perfect for you."

After looking at the apartment I quickly signed a sublet agreement. I then went back to the house and packed up as many of my clothes and personal items as I could carry and took them over to the apartment. I left Carrie a note telling her that I had found a place to live and that I would come over on the weekend to get the rest of my things. I don't know why but I didn't tell her where I was going to be living.

*****

The Stalker

*****

For the next couple of weeks I just went through the motions at work. Hanratty did his best to try and cheer me up but I just wasn't in the mood to be cheered up. I spent my days trying to tell myself that I didn't care what Carrie was doing but I knew it was a lie. I knew it because every night I found myself sitting in my car half a block from the house watching to see if Carrie went out or if she had any visitors. She didn't go out other than her normal nights out for meetings and she didn't have any visitors.

A few times I sat outside the law offices where Carrie worked and followed her to see where she was going when she left the office. By Wednesday of that first week I was calling Carrie three or four times a day. At first she was patient with me but by the second week I could tell my calls were making her angry. I knew I should stop but I couldn't. I really didn't think I was doing anything wrong. After all, she was my wife.

The following Monday as I returned to my apartment after work I was met at my door by a man I didn't recognize.

"Lt. Brian Hobbs?" he asked.

I said, "Yes."

He handed me a folded sheet of paper and said, "You have been served." Then he walked away.

I instantly felt sick to my stomach. I was sure I had just been served with divorce papers. I didn't look at them. I somehow believed that if I didn't look at them, they weren't real. I went into the apartment and dropped the papers on the dining table and went into the bedroom and sat down on the bed.

"What do I do now?" I asked myself, but there was no answer.

I don't know how long I sat there before I forced myself to get up. I went into the kitchen and poured myself two fingers of Scotch and then sat down at the dining table.

I stared at the folded paper while I took in a mouthful of Scotch and let it burn its way down to my stomach. I took a second swallow before I pick up the papers off the table and unfolded them.

It wasn't what I thought but it wasn't much better. Instead of divorce papers I had been served with a restraining order. The order basically said that I was to have no contact with Carrie. No phone calls, no e-mails, no stopping by her office or the house and I was not to come within fifty feet of her.

Once I got over the relief that they weren't divorce papers I felt my anger grow. How dare she take out a restraining order against me? I was no threat to her. She knew that I would never hurt her. My first impulse was to reach for the phone and call her. I wanted to tell her what I thought of her restraining order but then it hit me. If I called her I would be violating the order. For the next two hours I sat in anger as I tried to figure out how to handle the order. In the end I realized that I was going to have to obey the restraining order. Violating the order would not help me solve my problems with Carrie and I couldn't afford to get arrested for violating the order. I knew that I would not be put in jail for violating the order but it could end any hopes I had of ever becoming the Chief of Police in Brodricksburg or anywhere else.

In the end I decided that I would obey the restraining order and make no attempts to contact Carrie. I decided to carry that to the extreme. There were still some of my personal items in the house so I contacted a lawyer and had him contact the lawyer that wrote up Carrie's restraining order. My lawyer informed her lawyer, who was also her boss Richard Mitchell, that I needed access to the house to get my property and asked that she not be present while I was there.

In order to get on with my life I buried myself in my work.

*****

Back in the Saddle

*****

Monday morning, before Hanratty arrived, I dug out my notes from my investigation of Commissioner Buske. I read through everything I had and in the end all I had was a suspicion. I knew that I couldn't stake out his house again. Captain Ross had made that clear so I was going to have to follow a different tact.

That morning I went with Hanratty to Dunkin Donuts and then we checked out the school grounds. We then spent the rest of the day doing follow ups on some of the items I had seen on the OAR.

I asked Hanratty if he wanted to stop for a drink after work.

"Can't tonight. I have a date with Linda."

"How are things going for the two of you?" I asked.

"Great. I think she might be the one. I owe Carrie big time for that," he said.

I felt a pain in my chest when he said that but I let it go without comment.

"How about we stop tomorrow night?" Hanratty suggested.

"Sounds good," I said. "See you in the morning."

I sat at my desk for a few minutes after Hanratty left and Captain Ross stopped by.

"What are you still doing here after five?" he asked.

"Looking over my notes on something I've been working on."

"What's that?"

"I'd rather not say until I have enough evidence to go to the DA," I said.

Ross made a sound that was a kind of snort and said, "Good luck with that."

I wondered if I had pushed the right button. There was no possible way that Ross could know for sure that I was investigating the Commissioner and there should be no reason for him to suspect that I was. I just thought I would plant a seed of an idea in his head and see what happens. If he was somehow connected to the Commissioner, would he worry that I was investigating him and would he try to keep me away like he did the night I was staking out the Commissioner's house?

After Ross left I closed up my desk and headed out to do something that I found personally distasteful.

Half an hour after leaving the office I was parked across the street from Farlow Reality. Fifteen minutes after I arrived, Stephen Farlow exited the building and got in his silver Lexus. As he pulled away from the curb I pulled out and followed him. Since I didn't have any idea where he might be headed I just planned to follow and learn what I could about him.

Farlow drove about three blocks and then pulled into the parking lot at a small tavern. I waited till he was inside before I pulled into the parking lot. I was driving my personal car so I wouldn't be noticed. Through the front window I could just make out Farlow sitting at the bar. I waited long enough for him to have ordered his drink before I went in.

I ignored Farlow as I went to the bar and ordered a Yuengling draught. When the bartender set the glass in front of me I looked over at Farlow as if I had just noticed him sitting there.

"Hey, Stephen, how are you?"

"I'm good, Brian. How are you?"

"I haven't seen you in a while. How's the real estate business?"

"Good, why do you ask? You want to quit police work and become one of my agents."

"I am sure I could make more money doing that but I think I'll stick to busting heads with my night stick," I said.

"If you'd ever want to change jobs, let me know. I'd be glad to sponsor you through the real estate school."

"Thanks for the offer. I'll keep it in mind," I said.

"Please do," Farlow said. "Things are going to be heating up in the real estate business around here in the very near future. We are getting a lot of interest from developers who want to start building in the area."

I managed to keep Farlow talking and then bought him a drink and suggested we sit at a table. Farlow bought the next round of drinks and then I decided it was time to drop the hammer, but as gently as I could.

"It's kind of funny that I ran into you today," I said. "A couple of days ago I ran into George and Karen Murphy."

"Really? Where are they living now?"

"They live in Maryland. They were just passing through and I ran into them in the Cracker Barrel Restaurant out by the Hampton Inn," I lied. "They invited me to join them for breakfast."

"How are they?"

"They looked really good. The reason I brought this up is because they said that they saw you back in October. They were out in Las Vegas and they saw you with Glen Buske. They tried to get your attention but you didn't see them and they lost sight of you before they could get across the room."

Now I just waited to see if Farlow would lie about being in Vegas. I noticed that his face turned red but he didn't say anything right away. Finally Farlow asked, "Does anyone else know I was out there?"

"I don't know. I didn't mention it to anyone."

Farlow looked relieved but didn't seem ready to say anything more so I had to push it.

"Listen, Stephen, you don't need to feel uncomfortable about this. I could care less what you were doing out there. It's not like I was surprised when the Murphys told me you were there. Although, I don't think they understood the significance."

"You won't say anything, will you?" he asked. "I mean... The Commissioner is a married man and he has two kids. This would destroy his family."

"I would never say anything," I promised. "I'm just curious, how long have you and Glen been seeing each other?"

"For about three years," Farlow said, "but never in town. Glen takes me with him when he goes out of town for meetings. We are lovers but we are not in love. For business reasons, I don't want people to know I am gay so I don't have a lover here in Brodricksburg. Glen is a family man and he has an important job and his reputation to protect so he leads a straight life here and takes me with him when he travels. I have wondered how long it would take for anyone in Brodricksburg to catch on."

"Don't worry, nobody in Brodricksburg has caught on. I am the only one who knows and it was just by accident that I found out. And if I didn't know you as well as I do I wouldn't have thought anything of your being in Las Vegas with Glen. Your secret is safe with me."

I could see the relief in Farlow's face. I ordered another round of drinks and then went to work on getting information from him. I just kind of led him along so that he told me what I wanted to know without really having to ask a lot of questions.

When I got home that night I didn't feel very good about myself. It was just after nine o'clock so I called Chief Pasiak and said that I would like to talk to him in the morning.

*****

Meeting With the Chief

*****

"What have you got for me, Brian?"

"I need to handle this delicately to protect my source."

"Okay, understood," the Chief said.

"Commissioner Buske was not alone on his trip to Las Vegas last year. He is having an affair and he took his lover with him."

The Chief's eyes opened a little bigger, "Really?"

"I meet with his lover last night and managed to get some information."

"You didn't try to coerce or blackmail information from this person, did you?"

"No, sir. It just sort of came out in conversation," I said.

"I'll bet it did," the Chief said with a sly smile.

"From the expense report and receipts turned in by the Commissioner Buske for the Vegas trip, I was able to determine that the Commissioner had taken someone with him on the trip and I later discovered that it was not his wife. In examining his expense report, I found that everything he claimed was allowed and I noted that he had paid expenses that were not allowed out of his own pocket.

"What I found out last night was that his pockets were full of CSC money. My source let it slip that CSC gave the Commissioner ten thousand dollars to gamble with, got him two tickets each for three of the top shows in Vegas and paid to have his airline tickets upgraded to first class.

"Well, that is what I know. But I can't prove any of it at this time. I only have one witness that can corroborate this and I can't be sure that he would agree to testify."

"Did you say he?"

"Yes, sir. So you can see what a mess this would be if we tried to get an indictment based on the evidence we have. The whole thing would probably get thrown out of court."

The Chief said, "You're right. We don't want to stir up a mess like that if we have no hope of a conviction. I just worry that the FBI is watching us to see how we handle this. It probably looks to them as though we aren't doing anything."

"Well, I wonder what the FBI is doing," I said. "CSC is not just a Brodricksburg problem. By the way, you may want to keep an eye on Captain Ross too. I don't know how he ties into this but I get the impression that he is worried that I might be investigating the Commissioner but I don't know how he could know. I have been extremely careful. I have left no notes where he might have seen them and I haven't said a word to anyone about what I am doing, except you of course. One possibility I am considering is that my source mentioned our conversation to the commissioner and he may have said something to Ross, although I don't know why Ross would be involved with Commissioner Buske."

"You never mentioned any of this to Carrie?"

"No, sir. I would trust her but I would never have put her into a situation where she could compromise either my investigation or one of the law firm's clients. Buske happens to be a client of Richard Mitchell's."

"I'll keep an eye on Captain Ross. And you just keep digging."

*****

Phone Calls

*****

For two weeks I kept myself busy with my usual routines at work and managed to put in some time working on the CSC/Commissioner Buske conundrum. I tried to act as if I didn't notice that Captain Ross was dropping by my cubical more often than ever before but I was careful to make sure that he never saw me working on anything connected to my investigation of Commissioner Buske.

On Sunday, August 7, I was out playing volleyball with several of the other residents of the Riverview Apartments. We had four teams and we rotate games so that no team played more than two games in a row. During one of the breaks I went up to my apartment to use the bathroom and get a cold drink. I had just retrieved a bottle of water from the refrigerator when the phone rang. I looked at the caller ID and saw that it was Carrie.

I couldn't imagine what she would be calling about. She is the one who got a restraining order against me so that I wouldn't call her. I thought for a moment about not answering but I couldn't ignore the call.

"How are you, Brian?"

"I'm getting by," I said.

"How's work?"

"Okay."

I felt that she was trying to build up to something that she wanted to say but was afraid to say it. To me, that could only be bad news. Was she going to tell me she wanted a divorce or that she had met someone new?

"How are things at your job?" I asked because I didn't know what else to say.

"Very busy."

"Listen, Carrie, I know you didn't call to just ask me how I am. Whatever it is you want to say to me, it would be easier for both of us if you just said it."

"You're wrong. I did just call to see how you are. It's been more than two weeks since we last spoke to each other."

"Well, that was your choice. In case you have forgotten, it was you that took out a restraining order against me."

"I haven't forgotten. You didn't give me any choice. You were stalking me. I saw you watching the house and I saw you sitting outside my office. You were calling me all the time and I couldn't get you to stop. I didn't want to do that but I had to."

I felt the tension leave my body as I realized that the worst-case scenario didn't happen.

"It's nice to hear your voice again," I said.

"I didn't mean for the restraining order to end all contact between us," Carrie said. "I probably should have called you sooner but I knew you would be angry and I didn't want to deal with that."