SACRIFICES (42 page)

              Brad leans back and smiles. “Yeah, all of that’s possible isn‘t it?”

              Lyle reaches for his coffee. “Like I said, I didn’t read it. But let’s say I had, but I didn‘t so I’d have no idea what it said. My opinion,” Brad nods his head slowly as Lyle glances at the picture of his daughter. “Shred it. Burn it. Make it disappear,” Lyle smiles. “...Let it go Brad. I know what you’re thinking, I know you. Let the courts decide the outcome of that trial with what they have. Don’t give them anything else to look at. Like I said earlier that’s just between you me and that plant in the corner.”

              Brad stands up and says. “So you’re saying the envelope was empty.”

Lyle stands up and nods his head. “The envelope was empty, probably some practical joke.”

              Brad reaches over and shakes his hand. “Thanks Lyle.”

              “No problem.”

              Brad heads back to Todd’s office. He walks past Stacey and says. “Hi.” He stops smiles and makes sure she hears him feeling bad for not acknowledging her the first time. She smiles and he continues. When he opens the door he sees Todd with a cigarette hanging from his mouth and the letter sitting on the desk in front of him. Brad sits down and says. “What do you think?”

              Todd nods his head. “I don’t know. What do you think?”

              Brad gets up and closes the door and locks it. He sits back down in front of Todd and says as he leans his elbows onto the desk. “I just got back from the lab. No one has seen the contents of that letter besides your eyes and mine...” Todd frowns. ‘What about Lyle?’ Brad smiles. “...Lyle said to me. The envelope he got was empty.”

              Todd raises his eyebrows. “Oh yeah,” He looks away and then smiles. “Oh yeah, your right, it was empty, probably a joke.”

              Brad says. “What should we do with the empty envelope?”

              Todd takes the pages and puts them into the envelope. “Probably the same thing we always do around here with garbage papers and envelopes.”

              Brad walks over and takes the envelope from Todd he walks over to the shredder next to his filling cabinet and tears the envelope in half with the contents inside and sticks one half into the mouth of the shredder. He waits until it shreds to the bottom and he places the remainder in there. He looks toward Todd. “Well it appears that the letter on the chief’s window was just a practical joke, nothing there, probably someone in the media trying to create a headline or something.”

              “It’s almost lunch. Where did you park?”

              Brad smiles. “I parked a few cars down from the chief. Why don’t we take my Jeep to lunch?” Brad shakes his head and says. “Oh shit I just remembered. Were having that banquet for the chief today up on the fifth floor.”

              Todd nods his head. “You’re right.”

              Brad feels his shirt pocket. “You know. I think I left something in my car. I’ll go out there and get it before the banquet.”

              Todd smiles, “That’s a good idea,” Brad starts to walk out. “Hey, when you get back lets take a look at the videotape from this morning.”

              Brad agrees. “Good idea.”

BRAD COMES STROLLING INTO TODD’S OFFICE WITH A SMILE

             
Brad and Todd walk to the monitoring room on the first floor by the security check in. Todd pats Sam on the back and asks. “Did you get the tape from this morning?”

              Sam’s a new officer getting some on the job training. He’s still wet behind the ears. The precinct likes to give the young rookies some training in different areas at the station before throwing them right onto the streets. Sam’s a big boy. Twenty-one years old, six-foot-two inches tall and built like a linebacker. He sports the new popular style in haircuts, a buzz. Sam reaches over and places the tape into a VCR. He pushes play and explains. “Here we go. I got it all ready for you to see. It’s pretty bizarre.” Sam starts to move a joystick to control the video equipment.

              “Why’s that?” Brad wonders as he leans over the back of Sam while he gets to the spot.

              “Ok, here it is. You see right there,” He points to what appears to be a shadow of someone walking to the chief’s car. “Ok watch. This person is wearing all dark clothing. Watch this,” He fast forwards just a touch and says. “Here you go. Now watch. They appear to open the passenger door. I can’t make out what they’re doing in there. I can’t increase the size of the picture with this equipment its tape, not live. If we watched it when it happened we could have zoomed in. The lens is set to watch this portion of the lot only. The camera is stationary. As you can tell there’s no real way to see their face. And the closer I looked it appears that they are wearing a black ski mask anyway. So I guess it wouldn’t matter,” He fast forward to the part where they place the envelope. “Ok guys this is the weird part. You can see them placing the envelope under the wiper and here it comes. Watch, you might want to lean closer. See that?” He points with his index finger at the screen. “It looks like they are bowing. And look now. This person appears to be blowing the camera a kiss. Do you see that?”

              Brad smiles. “That is strange. Is there anyway to get a positive ID from that?”

              Sam shakes his head from side to side and says. “I doubt it. If we could enhance the picture it would still show them wearing a ski mask and dark clothes. They came in from the area over there,” He places his finger on the screen. “I watched the tape from beginning to end and I didn’t see a vehicle coming or going. So there’s no telling what they drove. If we seen that maybe we’d know more. Sorry I couldn’t do better. I guess this tape gives us nothing.”

              Todd pats him on the back. “I wouldn’t say that Sammy, You did good.”

              Brad adds. “Yeah good work kid, It’s not your fault they had on a mask.”

              Sam smiles and says. “This person was definitely playing to the camera, bowing like that and blowing kisses. They acted like they wanted us to see them.”

              Todd rubs the young officer’s neck. “Probably some practical joker.”

              Sam turns to look at Brad. “What was he doing in the car? And what did the note say?”

              Brad smiles and tries to explain the story. “The envelope was empty. And I personally went down to check the chiefs car myself...there was nothing in there at all.”

              Todd and Brad start to walk away and Sam asks. “What should I do with this tape?”

              Brad shrugs his shoulders. “I don’t know. What do you normally do with tapes?”

              Sam explains. “We keep them for a week. After that we get rid of them or tape over it. So what should I do with this one?” Sam turns and shrugs wondering.

              Todd tilts his head and says. “Why don’t you just tape over it? I don’t see why not. It’s useless to us.”

              “Alright guys. Sorry I couldn’t do more.” Sam sighs feeling disappointed he couldn’t help out two of the force most respected officers.

              Brad smiles and says. “You did good son. Thanks.”

THEY GET READY TO SAY THEIR OFFICIAL GOODBYES TO THE CHIEF

             
The get together starts and there’s a lot of laughing and crying. Most people at the fifth think of the chief as not only a boss but also a friend. He’s a father figure to a lot of the younger staff and officers. He’s always been first to complement and first to jump them if they make a mistake. Just like a good father would do. The veterans also have a lot of admiration and respect for the chief. He’ll be missed for several reasons, each reason being equal.

              They cleared out a conference room upstairs and hired a local caterer to supply the food. Today at the fifth no one is thinking about work. Everyone tries to get their moment with the chief as he stands over by the table with gifts and cards. He tries to talk to everyone a least for a minute to thank them for making his job easy. Brad and Todd remain back. They know they’ll see the chief in life after work so they try to not occupy a lot of this time. Many of the people here might never see the chief again after he leaves today.

              There’s lots of handshaking and even more hugs. The women here will miss the chief probably most of all. Sometimes mean and gruff he always, no matter the circumstance, addressed the female officers and staff with a smile and respect. The men on the other hand saw the flip side. The chief wasn’t shy when it came to getting his point across. He was blessed with good vocal cords and on more than a few occasions some of the men were witness to it.

Chief Jason Carlin is extraordinarily intimidating, but also kind and generous. He’s the kind of guy to give a fellow officer the shirt off his back. There will never be another Chief Jason Carlin.

              The get together starts to dwindle down, just a few people remain; mostly top brass and some public officials. The officers and staff have all returned to duty. Of course, Brad and Todd are they’re waiting for their turn for what will most likely be an emotional good-bye.

              Brad starts to walk with Todd to the table where the chief is shaking hands with the mayor. The governor is also standing there. The public officials smile at the two and shake hands. The mayor pats the chief on the back and says.

“Good luck Jason in your retirement.” He smiles and says. “See you later gentlemen.” He walks away.

              The governor never being at a loss for speech making grabs the chief’s hand and pats him on the back with his other hand. “The city today is losing a great man guys,”

Brad and Todd smile. “They don’t come any better than this guy. Jason, I respect you, I admire what you’ve done with your people and your job. I say
that
as governor of the state of Illinois,” He grins and continues to hold his hand with the other on his shoulder. “As a friend, I’ll sure miss you buddy. Now don’t you be a stranger. We’ll have to go out and do some more fishing real soon, Alright.” The governor releases his hand and pats his back.

              “I’m looking forward to it James. Thanks for coming.”

The chief smiles as he glances at Brad and Todd and looks away.

              “See you guys later.” The governor walks out shaking a few hands as he does.

              The chief takes a deep breath and says. “You guys better go
now
.”

              They look at each other and Brad says. “Why, we just want to say good-bye.”

              “That’s why, I haven’t cried all
god-damn-day
and I don’t want to now. So you guys just go ahead and go.” The chief coughs into his hand.

              Todd smiles and says. “Well, I don’t know if that’s going to happen. I know I speak for Brad and we aren’t leaving until we tell you what you mean to us. You have no choice.” Todd grins. “You’re a civilian now, you can’t tell us what to do anymore.”

              The chief looks away and then down. “Alright then get it over with.”

              Brad walks over takes his hand. “I feel like you do boss. I know this is going to be tough. So I’ll make this quick. I
can’t
imagine being where I am today if it wasn’t for you. I don’t think it’s possible for me to ever in my life respect another man the same way I do you for what you’ve taught me,” Brad clears his throat. “I’m going to miss you very much,” Brad looks away. “...I love you chief.”

              The chief starts to swallow as he holds Brad’s hand. He clears his throat and nods his head. “The feelings are mutual kid.” He looks toward the floor trying with everything he has to make it through this without shedding a tear.

              Todd walks over and takes a hold of his other hand. “I’m going to miss you chief. Besides my dad, who died when I was young, you’re the only other man I ever worked hard to impress. Thanks for being the kind of man I wanted to impress, I’ve always thought of you as a father, thanks.” Todd fights back the tears. He also looks away.

              The chief nods his head as he holds their hands and struggles with getting the words out. But he does. “You two have been like sons to me,” He clears his throat. “I’ll miss you two more than you’ll ever know. So you better be good and do a good job or I’ll come back and beat the piss out of you. Understood?” The chief forces a smile.

              Brad and Todd smile. They let go of his hand and the chief says. “Now would you guys please leave me now?” He looks toward the floor still finding it hard to hold back.

              Both men at the same time give him a hug. They squeeze him tight and wipe the few tears
they
couldn’t hold back.

The chief places his arms around them both and swallows.

“Since you boys won’t leave then I will.” The chief sniffles and wipes the corner of his eye and starts to walk away.

              When the chief exits the room with the guys still standing in the same spot he takes a deep breath and walks into the first empty room he sees. He closes the door, takes out his hanky and cries into it fighting to not be heard.