Deadly Waters Pt. 05

When Sean arrived at the station the next morning, the mood was subdued. Nobody wanted to see a fellow officer suspended, and the rest of the officers probably weren't sure how the new chief would react to having to do it. No one asked what happened. He was sure they all knew, at least Danny's version, and he wasn't going to defend his decision. If the mayor fired him... he gave a mental shrug. He was looking for a job when he found this one. He sat down in his office, picked up his phone, and dialed the number he'd memorized over the past couple of weeks.

"Maggie, Sean. I'd like to talk with Kevin Harbaugh, today if possible, about the Thacker case. What time would be the least disruptive to your operation?"

"Either now, around lunch, or just before he leaves for the day. Why?"

He thought about it. "I'll be there in fifteen minutes." He stood up, and having not bothered to remove his jacket, immediately started out the door.

"Chief!" Kim called, speaking to him through the lobby speaker.

"Yeah?"

"I brought in some homemade chocolate chip cookies. Want one before you go?" she asked, holding a cookie up and giving it an enticing waggle, her voice pitched to sell the idea.

He smiled, appreciating the gesture. "A little early for me, but if you put one or two back, I won't complain."

She grinned. "I'll hide a couple so these chowhounds don't eat them all."

Sean pulled to a stop in front of the admin building of the wastewater plant and stepped out of his cruiser. He thought for a moment and then decided to clip his badge to his belt. He stepped into the building, signed the visitor's log, and then walked down the hall to Maggie's office. Harbaugh was in the office with her and he looked distinctly nervous.

"Maggie. Kevin," he said with a nod.

Kevin Harbaugh was a thin, wiry man of about fifty. He had big, sad looking dark eyes, a nose that appeared to have been broken at least once, and his thick black hair was shot through with silver. He was wearing the bright blue shirt all the wastewater employees wore, along with heavy cotton work pants and battered steel-toed boots.

"Should I get a lawyer?" Kevin asked. He was sitting bolt upright in the chair, clearly on edge.

Sean shook his head. "I just want to ask you some questions. I'm not here to arrest you, and I'm not accusing you of anything."

Kevin relaxed slightly. "Okay, good. I already talked to Deputy Fisher and told him everything I know."

"I've seen his report." He shifted his gaze to Maggie. "Is there someplace private where Kevin and I can talk?"

"Right here," she said as she rose. She gave Kevin a pat on the shoulder and a smile as she stepped past. "You can sit at my desk if you need to."

"Thanks. This won't take long."

As she exited the room, she pulled the door closed. Sean thought about sitting behind her desk, but decided it'd be better if he took the other guest chair.

"I know you went over this with Officer Fisher, but I want you to go over it with me," Sean said as he pulled out his notepad with notes from Fish's interview of Harbaugh.

Kevin swallowed hard. "Where should I start?"

"Start with finding the body."

Kevin shrugged. "Nothing much to tell. I was out at the Dalton Street lift station when the call came in saying they needed help getting a body out of the ditch. I was close so I came to help. Doyle too. The four of us pulled him out while Maggie called 9-1-1."

"So, you weren't here when the body was found?"

"No. Me and the other three maintenance guys spend most of our time working at the lift stations. They require more heavy maintenance than this place does."

"Why's that?"

"Because they work a lot harder and have a rougher life. Gravity does a lot of the work here so there isn't as much pumping and, more importantly, the water has had all the trash removed before it starts working its way through the plant. There are a lot of probes and the like that need tending, and a lot more electronic headaches to deal with, but overall, the plant doesn't take the beating day to day that a lift station does. Storms, that's what kicks the plant's butt. Storms with lots of lighting. Aye yai yai," Kevin moaned dramatically.

Sean grinned briefly. "Okay, I guess I can see that."

"The lift stations are different. They aren't as sensitive, but they really take a beating. All the lines for an area lead to a lift station. The sewage accumulates in a well until it reaches a certain point, and then the pump or pumps kick on and pump the well out. Gravity then carries it to the next station, or the plant. Anything that goes into a sewer line ends up in those wells, and the pumps have to handle it. Sometimes they can't. For example, baby wipes are a pain. On the smaller pumps, they get wrapped around the impellers, and when they do, the pump runs but nothing happens. Then the well backs up and we get a high wet well alarm." He grinned. "A lift station isn't a nice place to be."

Sean nodded. "No, I imagine not. Did you know Boyd Thacker?"

"Know him? No. Know of him? Yes. All of us here at the plant did."

"What did you think of him?"

"I didn't like him... especially after what he did to Maggie."

"What'd he do?"

"As she was leaving one day he was pounding on the windows of her car. She said it scared the crap out of her. Good thing I wasn't there when he was doing that."

"Why's that?"

"He and I would have had, what my dad used to call, a 'come to Jesus' meeting. Attacking someone who was just trying to get home, and a woman to boot? That's not cotton in my book."

Sean's squinted as he tried to figure out the reference. "I think I got that, but I'm not sure. What's 'that's not cotton in my book' mean?"

Kevin grinned. "I forgot you're not from around here. It just means it wasn't right and I didn't like it. There was no call for him going on like he was. I told her she should have run over him. It would have served him right. Her car isn't very big, but it's big enough to make a mess outa ya. Anyway, after that happened, one of us guys made sure to go out right behind her and Alex. I don't know if it was because the police started chasing them off, or us being right there, but whatever it was, he didn't do it again."

"You like Maggie?"

Kevin grinned. "Yeah. Best boss I've ever had."

"And you didn't care for how Thacker was treating her?"

"No I didn't." He paused as his smile slowly disappeared. "Wait a minute. That doesn't mean I killed him though."

Sean gave his head a small shake. "I'm not saying you did. Did he ever give you any problems?"

"No. The only time I ever saw him was when he was prancing around outside the gate making a fool of himself."

"Why were you at the oxidation ditch?"

"Before the body was found?" Kevin asked.

"Yeah."

"Preventive maintenance. We have a program that spits out what PM's we have to do, along with all the parts required to do it. We get a list each week. Two of the things on the list were to grease the bearings on the screen and check the oil level in the gear boxes on the aerators."

"And you did that?"

"Yep."

"And you didn't see the body?"

"No. I wasn't looking, but even if I were, I probably wouldn't have seen it. He was at the opposite end of the ditches from where I was. I doubt he was there anyway. The operators do rounds every three or four hours. Surely, if he was there when I was, someone would have seen him before they did."

"How many days after your maintenance check was the body found?"

"I had to look it up for Officer Fisher because I couldn't remember when I actually did the maintenance. It was three."

Sean rubbed his chin. "Twenty-four sets of rounds, more or less," he said as if speaking to himself.

Kevin counted on his fingers. "Yeah, something like that. If he came up during the night, you'd never see him. The light isn't that good at night, and you could barely see the body when you were standing right there during the day." He paused. "What I don't understand is, why was he floating? I know he was weighted, but it seems like it would have been safer to put more weight on the body so it would sink."

"It probably did sink, at first," Sean explained. "But as he began to decompose, gasses filled his body and he floated up, even with the weights on. My understanding is a dead body will lift a lot of weight. Considerably more than just the twenty pounds that was on him."

Kevin scratched his head. "I guess. Seems to me, though, if you were going to weight the body down, you'd put some serious weight on it. Like five hundred pounds, or something like that."

"How would you get him over the wall? Thacker already weighed around two hundred pounds. Two-twenty with the weights on him. That's seven hundred pounds you're talking about. You'd need a forklift for something that heavy."

Kevin grinned. "Good point. I didn't think about that. It's not like you can lay him on the wall while you hook weights to him either. That'd be hard to explain. 'Uh, no officer. He's not dead. He's just... napping.'"

Sean chuckled. "Yeah. Anything else you can tell me? Anything I should have asked but didn't?"

Kevin shrugged. "I'd sure like to help you, chief, but I swear, I didn't do it, and I don't know anyone who could have."

"You married?"

Kevin smiled, his face slightly sad. "No."

"Can you account for your whereabouts between February sixth and February thirteenth?"

"Same place as always. Here and home."

"Anyone at home that can confirm that?"

"My mother. She lives with me. She's getting on up there and needs help."

Sean knew that from Fish's notes, and Fish had confirmed it. Like all the questions he'd asked, he was trying to see if any part of Harbaugh's story changed. It hadn't. It was obvious to him, Kevin was a little bit sweet on Maggie, and he wondered if that was enough reason for him to have killed Thacker. It hardly seemed likely. Maybe the day Thacker was attacking Maggie's car, or immediately after, but after four months? That was a long time to nurse such a virulent grudge over something so minor. As Fish said early on, Harbaugh didn't seem to be hiding anything.

"Thank you for talking with me, Kevin," Sean said as he rose.

Kevin stood as well. "If you have any other questions, just let me know. I'll answer them as best I can."

Sean opened the door and ushered Kevin out. He spotted Maggie at the far end of the hallway in the lab. He walked down the hall and paused at the door. "Have a minute?" he asked when she turned.

"Sure. Be right there." She finished talking to Ted, and then led Sean back to her office. "Did you arrest him?" she asked with a small smile.

"No."

"Kevin's a good guy... as nice and as helpful as the day is long. He comes in, does his job, and never complains. He'd give you the shirt off his back if you asked for it."

"You like him?"

"Yeah. I wish I had ten more just like him."

"You don't think it could be him?"

Maggie gave him a sideways grin. "Of all the people who work here, he'd be the last person I'd suspect. He's been taking care of his family since he was old enough to work. His dad had a stroke years ago and he moved in with them to help his mom. After his dad passed, he stayed because his mother had never worked outside the home. She would have been on government assistance, and he wanted to do better for her than that. The world needs more men like Kevin Harbaugh."

Sean nodded. Kevin hardly seemed like the kind of man to kill someone in cold blood. "Do you think he could do it if he thought he was protecting someone else?"

She glared at him. "Don't even go there," she said, her voice cold and deadly.

"What do you mean?"

"You damn well know what I mean. I know where you're going with this, and I'm telling you not to. He didn't do it, okay? Not for me, not for anyone."

"So, you know he's...?"

"I know, but he's never said one word or done one inappropriate thing. He's a good man."

He held up his hands in surrender. "Okay. I have to follow every lead."

"Well, you did, so now you can drop it."

"Why are you so touchy?"

"I'm not touchy. I just don't want to see him dragged through the mud over this. If that's all you have to suspect him, I'm telling you, you don't have anything."

"You and he...?"

"No, and we're not going to either. Even if he were to ask, which I don't think he ever will, the answer would still be no. That's a dangerous game, and I'm not playing it. Understand?"

"Okay. Fair enough. I had to ask. Sorry if I offended you."

"I'm not offended, but I don't want any rumors to get started either. It's not fair to me or Kevin."

"This is part of an official investigation, Maggie. I'm not trying to collect gossip."

She sighed as the hardness drained out of her face. "Okay. Sorry I came across so hard ass. It took a while to earn the respect of the crew when I took over the plant, and I don't want to do anything to jeopardize that."

"How long have you been the plant manager?" he asked, changing the subject and trying to smooth things over.

"I've been the manager and ORC for six years."

"ORC?"

"Operator in Responsible Charge," she explained.

"How's that different than being the plant manager?"

"Normally they're the same, but they don't have to be. The ORC is responsible for making sure the plant stays in compliance with its permits and has to sign off on all the paperwork that gets submitted to the state. It's the ORC's neck that's on the line, and the one that will go to jail if the paperwork is falsified. I was the backup ORC for ten years prior to that, when I was the lab manager."

"You didn't have the respect from being the lab manager?"

She gave him a slight smile. "That's a whole different world from operations."

"Okay. I'll take your word for it." He paused as he thought, but then realized he didn't have anything else. "I guess I'm done here. Sorry I upset you."

"It's okay. I'm not upset. I just don't want any rumors to get started."

"As I said, this is part of an official investigation. What you tell me is kept in the strictest confidence."

"Sean, Kevin didn't do it. I know him well enough to know that."

"I'm not saying he did."

"But you're thinking it. I can see it in your eyes. If you're going to run with this, be careful. I don't want to see a good man ruined for something he didn't do."

"You're that sure it wasn't him."

She nodded. "I'm that sure."

Sean was returning from his meeting with Kevin when his phone rang. He was only five minutes from the station, so he didn't bother to answer. He pulled into the parking lot and switched the cruiser off before pulling his phone from his pocket. He glanced at the missed call and sighed as he pressed the button to return the call. "You wanted to speak to me?"

"Sean, I just got off the phone with Danny Brady. He's threatening to sue the city," Rudy said.

Even through the tiny speaker of his phone, Sean could hear the stress in the mayor's voice. "On what grounds?"

"According to city policy, any disputes over pay are to be resolved by the Human Resources Director."

"Okay, so?"

"You didn't give him that chance."

Sean sucked on his teeth a moment. "Are you kidding me?"

"This is serious business."

"What do you suggest I do?"

"Put him on paid administrative leave."

"I see. Doing what?"

"I don't know! Find something for him to do!"

"So anytime an officer doesn't want to work the three to eleven shift, or the eleven to seven shift, all they have to do is take a quick nap, and they're on days for a couple of weeks with some busy work. Is that what you're telling me?"

"No! I'm not saying that at all!"

"What are you saying then?"

"What I'm saying is, put Danny on administrative leave until we can sort this out."

"I have another suggestion. Why don't you have the HR Director rule on his complaint? This is pretty cut and dried in my opinion. If she says I can't suspend him the way I did, then I'll find out what I have to do to get him suspended."

"It's not that simple. According to policy, that should have been done before you suspended him. Sean, I don't see--"

"What I don't see, mayor, is why you're not willing to do what you know is right," Sean replied firmly, cutting Rudy off. "Let him sue. I have photos of him sleeping in his car. We'll see how well he likes it when that comes out in court."

"He said he wasn't asleep and he'd just closed his eyes for a minute."

"Funny. Didn't he tell you he was on cold medicine? That's what he told me. And it was for a hell of a lot longer than a minute."

"How can you be sure?" Rudy asked.

"Because I have two photos of him taken twenty minutes apart. He hadn't moved."

Rudy was quiet for a moment. "How do you know they were taken twenty minutes apart?"

"Time stamp on the photo."

"Can't that be faked, or changed?"

"It could be. The thing is, mayor, the shadows moved. It may not have been twenty minutes, but it wasn't only one or two, either. Why are you letting Officer Brady threaten you like this?"

"I'm just trying to find a compromise everyone can live with."

"No compromise, not on this," Sean said. "Officer Brady was caught sleeping in his patrol car, and that undermines the trust people have in my department. Without trust, and respect, our jobs become much more difficult. Officer Brady is suspended, without pay, for two weeks."

"Sean, be reasonable!"

"I am being reasonable. I'm not taking it personally that Officer Brady is trying to circumvent my authority."

There was another long pause. It was an old cop trick... the mayor was using silence to make Sean uncomfortable, but Sean waited him out. "Chief, I want Officer Daniel Brady placed on administrative leave, with full pay, effective immediately," Rudy said, his voice firm.

"Very well, mayor. I want that in writing. I want it clearly stated I informed you of the nature of Officer Brady's misconduct and you are ordering me to remove him from suspension and to place him on paid administrative leave. Once I have the letter, I will attach it to the notice of reprimand in his personnel file and remove Officer Brady from suspension."

Rudy sighed. "Thank you, Sean."

"My pleasure, mayor. If anyone asks why Officer Brady is still on duty, I'll show them a copy of your letter so you can take full credit for it."

There was a long pause. Sean knew Rudy was weighing his options. With his reelection coming up, he probably didn't want it getting out that he prevented Sean from suspending Danny.

"I don't understand why you're stirring up so much trouble!"

"Sounds like it's time someone did."

There was another long pause. "I'll talk to Amy," Rudy said, and then was gone.

Sean sat in his cruiser a moment. Amy Drote was the HR director, and with the few dealings he'd had with her, she seemed like a reasonable person. He couldn't believe Rudy's lack of backbone and that he was backing Danny.

"Fuck..." he muttered before opening the door and stepping out, wondering to himself if one of Kim's cookies would improve his mood.

Sean sat down at his desk with another cup of coffee. He normally wasn't much of a coffee drinker, especially in the afternoon, but covering Danny's shift was killing him. Danny was in the middle of his two weeks working the three to eleven shift, and then he was rotating to the eleven to seven shift for the two weeks after that. He wasn't going to force his officers to cover for someone he suspended, especially the shift everyone hated, the eleven to seven graveyard shift. Sean was working his normal seven to whenever he got done, and then went on patrol until eleven. Next week, he would patrol from eleven until seven, and then work in the office before going home to sleep. He was four days into the suspension, and he only had a little over a week to go. He could hold it together that long. Maybe.