The Lady Killer (29 page)

Rutledge looked thoughtful. “Well, I think those were trumped up charges and you were certainly treated unfairly. I can’t take back what happened to you while you were there, but maybe I can make up for it in some way. How would you like to head up my Special Victims Unit as Lead Detective?”

Michael couldn’t believe his ears. “I would be honored to do that, Sir. When you asked me in here, I thought I was going to get fired using some lame excuse the department came up with to get rid of gays.”

“Son, being black, I have had my share of prejudice thrown at me over the years! You can legislate laws, but you can’t legislate minds and hearts. When I first started as a beat cop, blacks sure didn’t have it easy. So, I can relate to how you feel. I don’t care about your personal life, but I’ll tell you what I do care about. From looking at your success rate, you seem to do a great job around here. You care what happens to the victims. I will get you some more help down there in a few days. I’ve never had a whole department wiped out like this before.”

“Thanks, Sir, I will do a good job for you, I promise. I truly care about what happens to domestic violence victims. People don’t realize how many men are victims also.”

“You’re right about that, Michael. I’m sorry we got our signals screwed up and thought that you were the psycho. Preconceived notions can be a dangerous thing. If I had pulled all of the transfers, and not just men, we might have gotten on to Della sooner.”

“I guess the important thing is that we did get her, Sir.”

Rutledge walked him out and asked Dan to come into his office. “The first thing I want to do, Detective Murphy, is put your mind at ease. Internal Affairs has signed off on the death of Della Warren, and both you and Detective Peterson are getting Commendations.”

“That is good news, Sir. I was wondering about it. You never know how these things are going to turn out, until you get the final word.”

“Now, I understand that you want to leave Homicide. Is that correct?”

Dan looked down at the floor and then back at Rutledge. “Yes, Sir. I know that you gave me a great opportunity here, and I don’t want to seem ungrateful. But I’m just not cut out for these brutal crime scenes.”

“I can certainly relate to that, Detective, and I respect your decision. We have an interesting proposition for you. Each precinct in this city has its own little missing person section, with boxes of files that take hours to go through when we are looking for someone. I’m sure that many people have slipped through the cracks due to our inefficiency. The Commissioner would like to have it all based under one roof, right here, and I have recommended you to head up that department. You would be the Lead Detective and have a staff helping you. Everything needs to be coordinated in a computer data base. Eventually, every new report would go directly to your department. It would be extremely time consuming at first, but I think that you would be very good for the position, if you’re interested.”

Dan was taken aback by this proposal. “Wow, Sir, this is an honor! I would love to do that. When do I get started?”

Rutledge laughed at Dan’s eagerness. “As soon as all the paperwork is done and filed on this Warren case. So, you can head back up there and help your former partners finish up. And tell them that after work, drinks at Murphy’s Bar are on me. We are all going to celebrate tonight!”

A NOTE FROM
THE AUTHOR

F
irst of all, as a disclaimer, I want to say that I am not a doctor and have no medical training. My experience comes from having researched and lived with this disease for twelve years now. On that note, I’m just offering some friendly advice.

HIV and AIDS are very much alive and well in the United States. Probably, the reason you don’t hear much about it in the news, is because of the advances in medicine. With all the anti-viral drugs being dispensed now people aren’t dying like they used to, therefore not making it news worthy. Also, with the anonymity surrounding these diseases, if someone dies of cancer, they will not say that it is an HIV related illness.

The truth is that no one really dies of AIDS. The virus weakens your immune system to the point that an opportunistic disease, such as cancer, takes over and is the final cause of death. So, even though it isn’t making news on a daily basis, it is still a threat to everyone. Diagnosis is still on the rise, but especially in groups like senior citizens and young people.

I understand the senior citizens, because our generation only used condoms to prevent pregnancy. Now that we don’t have to worry about that, it seems like all sex should be safe. In my case, like Laura Peterson, my husband was bi-sexual and I didn’t know it. He had been having unprotected sex with men since he was a teenager. I found out when he got diagnosed with an opportunistic disease, which was AIDS related. I gave Laura a much happier ending than I got. I’ll spend the rest of my life alone, because I would never risk giving this disease to anyone else.

To me, the saddest group is the young people, who should have the rest of their lives to look forward to. For heterosexuals, finding someone who wants to marry you when you have HIV or AIDS is going to be difficult. If you want to have children, only about one in four are born
without
HIV. Those are terrible odds in my book and not worth the risk. If you want to adopt, you risk agencies asking if you have HIV, and then turning you down because of it. You run that same risk with health insurance. Even if you are gay, relationships will be harder to find if you are infected. Also, this is a very expensive disease. Granted there are programs to help out with medications (mine are $2200.00 per month), but there are constant doctor visits and blood tests. The average young person starting out will have a hard time affording medical care.

I hear all the excuses. People don’t like condoms, they are expensive or they felt the urge and just didn’t have one handy. It only takes one time, under the right conditions, to get infected. Believe me, as inconvenient as you might think condoms are, it’s nothing compared to having to take medication twice a day, fit in lab tests once every three months and follow up doctor’s visits for the rest of your life. Not to mention living with the fear of people finding out. My own sister won’t even let me in her house. She thinks she can get infected by association.

HIV really isn’t that easy to get, unless you are being stupid! There are only three ways to get infected. One is breast milk. If a woman who has the HIV virus is lucky enough to give birth to a child who tests negative, she can infect the baby by breast feeding. Another way is blood. Don’t share needles and if someone is bleeding use gloves to handle their wounds and clean up, and then properly dispose of anything the blood has touched. The good news is that the virus doesn’t like oxygen and will die after being exposed to air for a certain interval. With all the testing that is done by blood banks these days it is very rare to have something slip through.

The only other way to get infected is sexual fluids. Here is where you can be really stupid. At the risk of sounding like a lecture, have safe sex people! If you are in a new relationship and thinking about having sex, both of you need to go get tested. There are clinics in every city that will do an anonymous test for free. All you have to do is make an appointment and then wait for the results.

I have decided to step out at this point in time and get on my band wagon, because I feel that the media is being too quiet about this disease and I want to help prevent a disaster. If people are not hearing about it, they may just think it has gone away and there is nothing to worry about. I am here to tell you that this is the wrong assumption. If you doubt my word, just Google the subject and do some reading. No one is safe any more. It is not a disease confined to gay men, intravenous drug users and prostitutes. Every group is seeing a rise in the percentage of infected members, including American Indians. And these are just the reported cases. It is estimated that one fifth or more of the people infected do not even know they have it. That means that they are out there having sex, and their next partner could be you.

Now, I’m not suggesting that you go into a panic mode. I am just saying that you really need to be careful out there. The fact that teen pregnancy is on the rise, tells me that even people who should be worried about getting pregnant aren’t using condoms. And don’t use that “it’s against my religion” excuse! I am sure that having sex without being married is against that same religion! Everyone should be getting tested before they get married. It’s one thing to get infected because you were consciously being careless. It is a whole different thing to bring an innocent child into this world who had no choice in the matter.

This is a very manageable disease. It’s not that easy to become infected. If it was, it would be spreading like the flu. All I’m asking is that you use common sense, get yourself tested and be careful. I care about all of you and want you to live long and productive lives. Be safe out there.

Yours truly,

Paizley