Requite (14 page)

“They should be here any second. Let’s get the owner’s name on that business.”

Hank walked to the phone in the back of the room and called down to our records department. The door of the briefing room opened with Telwan, Henry, Jones and Donner piling in.

Jones slid out a chair at the front. He turned it backward and rested his giant arms on the backrest. “What’s the news, Boss? Where we headed?”

I filled them in on the details.

“Well, what are we waiting for? Let’s go,” Donner said.

“The captain is bringing us down a warrant for the business. Hank is on the phone with records now trying to get the business owner’s name.”

“You want us to assist?” Henry asked.

“Yes.”

Hank hung up the phone in the back of the room and walked back up. “Owner’s name is Tom Spearman.”

“Let’s get a home address and sheet on him?”

“I’ll go pull it.” Hank walked from the briefing room.

Captain Bostok came in with the warrant a few minutes later. “All set. Hot off the press.” He handed it over.

“Thanks, Cap.”

“Where’s Rawlings?”

“He’s getting a sheet on the business owner, Tom Spearman.”

“Tom Spearman? That name sounds familiar.”

“Familiar how?”

“I don’t know, just familiar.” The captain furrowed his brow in thought. “Let me think about it for a minute.”

Hank walked in holding a couple sheets of paper. “I got an address and a background. Driver’s license says he’s six three, weighs two ten and has red hair.”

“The description fits.”

“Get this. The guy was cited in a car accident a year back. There was a fatality. His wife died at the scene. There’s something else on here. Two 18 U.S.C. 111’s.”

“Assaulting an officer?” I asked.

“Yeah, but it looks like he just got off with some counseling though.”

“That’s how I recognized the name,” Captain Bostok said. “He attacked two of our patrol guys at Tampa General.”

Hank held up a finger. “That’s not the kicker. Care to venture a guess what his wife’s name was?”

Hank handed over the sheet to me. I flipped it around and took a look.
Claire Spearman
.

“Shit. That’s our guy. We need to get it across the wire. You said you have a house address, Hank?”

He nodded.

“You’re going to need to split up. Rawlings, Kane, take Telwan and Henry and go execute the search warrant on the warehouse. Jones, Donner, grab a couple of guys from Timmons and hang tight until I get you a warrant for the house.” The captain went to the phone to dial up District Attorney Welsch again.

Hank, Telwan, Henry and I headed out—warrant in hand.

We suited up in the police station’s parking structure. Vests were snugged tight, lapel radios were clipped on. Henry and Telwan each took a marked squad car. Hank and I loaded into an unmarked gray Charger. Hank’s shoulders sunk as we passed his crushed hybrid on the way out. I didn’t have the same remorse for the smashed cruiser that I had driven into work.

We pulled to the side of the road just in view of the warehouse. A plan was made for how we wanted to approach. The building was tan, metal pole shed with a three foot brick facade around its base. It stood alone in the center of small parking lot. I imagined it may have been an automotive service station or used car lot in a past life. A glass front door faced us under a small overhang. Two windows sat to the sides of the front door. Across the street was a gas station. Houses sat twenty feet off the warehouse’s side. A block up I spotted the sign for a Quigley’s supermarket.

Two additional units in marked squad cars caught our chatter over the radio and met us to assist. I laid out the plan. Hank and I would take the front with one of the patrol units as our backup, Telwan and Henry could take the back. The other two officers could back them up. It was simple and effective. We got back in the cars and rolled up to the property—no lights, no sirens.

I slid the Charger in park and Hank and I stepped out. The two officers providing our backup did the same. I watched as Telwan and Henry drove around the back of the building. He radioed us that there was a single closed garage door and a service entrance at the back. They had eyes on them and were in position. Hank and I moved to the entry of the building. Through the glass, I could see the lights were off. I pulled at the door handle—it was locked.

I banged on the glass. “Tampa Police! Search warrant!”

We waited. There was no response. I hit my lapel radio. “Any action back there, Henry?”

“Quiet as a church mouse.”

I banged the glass door again. There was still nothing. I cupped my hands over the glass and looked in. The back wall was a display of different sinks, faucets and fittings. Miscellaneous banners for plumbing companies and a small counter sat to the side. Beyond that I could see back into the warehouse where there were shelves to the ceiling filled with piping and bins.

“Hank, watch this door. I’m going to go see if Henry or Telwan can get us in the back.”

“OK.”

I rounded the side between the building and the neighboring house and found Henry and Telwan standing ready behind their car doors.

“No answer out front?” Telwan asked.

“Nope.”

I gave the back garage door a couple good raps. “Tampa Police! Search warrant!” There was no answer. I tried lifting the door, it didn’t budge. I went to the service door next. It was made of steel and locked up tight.

I got back on the radio. “You see any movement in there, Rawlings?”

“Negative.”

I walked over to Telwan and Henry and looked at the front of their cruiser. “One of you guys want to take a shot at getting us in back here?” I slapped the push bar bolted to the front of their car.

Telwan smiled. “Push in the garage door?” he asked.

I nodded. “Just push it in enough for us to get through and still have line of sight to cover each other. Don’t go blasting through like the movies.”

“I got it, Lieutenant.” He slid into his cruiser and fired the motor.

He drove over slow and put the edge of the push bar against the metal garage door. He looked at me for approval. I nodded. He stepped on the gas and the cruiser edged forward. The door crumpled and folded in. The nose of the car broke through into the building.

“That’s good, Telwan!” I shouted.

He stopped and clicked the car back into reverse—pulling out. He shut the car off and jumped back out. There was enough room to duck down under the door and get inside. I crouched next to the opening trying to get a view inside.

“Tampa Police! We have a warrant!” There was still no response. The lights were out but there was enough coming in from the front of the building to see. I pulled my service weapon from my shoulder holster and made my way in.

I stood as soon as I cleared the folded in door and looked left to right. There was no one. The service door sat to my left. My back pressed up against the wall and pistol ready, I slid along the wall to the door. I unlocked it, and pushed it open.

Telwan and Henry came into the building—shotguns in hand. I flipped on the lights for the warehouse located next to the doorway. We announced our presence again and then fanned out through the back of the building. Workbenches lined the base of the walls, above them were racks holding long stretches of pipe. The rear center, where I stood, was open allowing parking for a vehicle. To the sides of center were two shelving units that created a hallway and spanned to the ceiling. I could see Hank standing at the front door outside.

We cleared the back and made our way to the front. A square, enclosed office sat to our right. The door was standing half open. Officer Henry went to it and pushed the door the rest of the way open with his foot. “Clear.”

I watched the front through the doorway while Telwan checked the restroom beside me.

“It’s clear, Lieutenant,” he said.

We pushed on. The warehouse ended with a makeshift wall and doorway before leading into the front showroom area. I hit the radio on my shoulder. “We’re clear in the back. You see any movement in that showroom, Rawlings?”

I could see Hank looking through the door.

“Negative,” he said.

We approached the doorway. I crouched and poked through covering the right, Henry against the wall over my shoulder covered the left. “We clear?” I asked.

“Clear,” Henry said.

I stood and holstered my weapon. The building was empty. Telwan flipped on the lights in the front showroom and opened the glass door for Hank.

He walked through. “All good?”

“Yeah it’s empty.” I pulled my cell phone from my pocket. “You guys get started. I need to let Jones and the captain know that he isn’t here.” I walked outside and dialed up Jones first.

“Detective Jones.”

“It’s Kane. What’s your twenty?”

“10-51 to the address. I should be there in a couple minutes. We had to wait until the captain got us our warrant. What’s the scene over there?”

“Nobody home. Just giving you a heads up.”

“Alright. I’ll relay the message. We’ll be ready.”

“Call me with an update as soon as you can.”

“Will do.” Jones hung up.

I relieved the two additional patrolmen that showed to assist us and then dialed Captain Bostok.

“What did you find, Kane?”

“Building is unoccupied. We’re going to start looking through it now.”

“I just sent off Jones and Donner to the house with the warrant. Let them know that he was not present at the business.”

“Already did.”

“Good. I’m digging into this guy on my end—trying to get more details on the accident and his attack on our patrolmen.”

“OK. I’m heading back in.”

“Call me if there’s a development.”

“Alright.” I hung up and walked back inside the building.

Hank was looking over the showroom for any clues or evidence that may have been left behind. Telwan and Henry had gone back into the warehouse. I noticed paperwork hanging out from the back of the front counter.

“Hank, dig around in there and see what all that paperwork is. I’m heading back to go through the office.”

Hank knelt behind the front counter and started sliding out the papers.

Through the door to the back, I made a left for the office. Henry was already inside.

I stood at the doorway. Papers covered the top of the desk. A single roll-away chair sat behind it. A file cabinet made up the back wall along with a small table with shipping supplies. “You see anything, Henry?”

He pushed around the papers on the desk. “Part orders, receipts, old mail.”

I headed in to help him sort through it. I grabbed the desk chair by the seat back and rolled it out of the way. “What the hell?”

Officer Henry looked up from the papers. “What?”

“It’s wet.” I looked at my fingers. They were moist with a brown liquid. I tried smelling it, but couldn’t make it out.

“Why would it be wet?” Henry asked.

“I don’t know. Let’s roll it out into better light.” I wheeled the chair out of the office into the fluorescent lights of the warehouse. The entire chair was soaked like it had been doused in water, or some kind of liquid.

I put my face close and looked around the edges. At the top left corner I spotted something unsettling. “Shit. Henry, get on the radio and call a 10-98 back to the station. We’re going to need Forensics out here.”

“What do you got?”

I pointed to a blonde hair caught in between the plastic backing and cloth front of the chair. The bottom half of the hair was stained a rust color. It looked like blood.

Officer Henry radioed it in.

“I think we got blood back here, Hank!” I shouted.

Hank came through into the back. Telwan rushed over. I showed them what I had found and then called Bostok back to fill him in. He said he’d call down to Rick and be over as soon as he could.

We went to the office to look for any kind of blood spatter, drips, cast off or otherwise. Between the four of us, we found nothing.

“Where do you think it happened?” Hank asked.

“Not in here.”

We walked back out. It stared me straight in the face. A grate ran down the center of the concrete floor at the back of the warehouse. On the wall was a coiled house attached to a spigot. I pointed. “There.”

The four of us went to the back of the building and began to search for blood. It didn’t take long.

“I got some over here, I think,” Officer Henry said.

Telwan looked back over his shoulder. “Yeah, me too.”

I was five feet from the grate when I spotted blood droplets. I followed them out. They continued another five or six feet. I stopped and turned around. “Telwan, where is the blood you found?”

He walked a few steps away and stood. “Right here.”

“Jesus.” I looked over to him. He was at least fifteen feet away—maybe more.

“Looks like I got a couple drops here,” Hank said.

We stood in a twenty foot circle at the back of the building. I walked to the back of the garage door. Ten feet up, I spotted more spatter. My stomach turned into a knot. I didn’t want to imagine the brutality that would cause the size of the cast off.

“Alright guys, let’s step outside and wait for Forensics.”

We headed out the back through the service door and waited. It had been at least twenty minutes since I’d talked to Jones, I dialed him.

“Hey, Lieutenant. I was going to call you in a minute.”

“What’s the scene?”

“Just getting everything straightened out now. House is occupied by a husband and wife. They just closed on the house two days ago. They’re still moving stuff in.”

“Son of a bitch. The guy didn’t leave anything behind?”

“No. It looks like this place is a bust.”

“Alright. We have blood here. I have Forensics en-route. Looks like we’re just going to have to go over every scrap here and hope we get lucky.”

“What’s the address? We’ll come lend a hand.”

I rattled it off and hung up.

Within an hour the place was crawling with our guys from Forensics, the media and addition patrol units to keep the gawkers at bay. The captain had Sam James release a statement to the media with Spearman’s name and a photo. We were hoping that he’d be spotted by the public and called in.