Good Cop/Bad Cop
It was an especially icy Christmas
Eve in
A frosty gust of air exploded upward from the subway
tracks below. The distant murmur of the computerized voice announced an
approaching train. “Please be her train,” he said aloud to himself. He stood up
and walked to the balcony overlooking the subway. He watched the two lanes of
people entering and exiting the train doors, searching for his partner. The
unmistakable glow of Relena’s red hair caught his eye. He walked to the
escalator gate to meet her.
“Sorry I’m late! The train was delayed,” Relena
called out as she rushed to Treize. She clutched a large, shiny black purse and
wore black leather gloves which complimented her grey vest and long black
overcoat. Her dark eyeliner contrasted her bright red lipstick and pale skin.
She looked brilliant Treize thought. Her lips seemed especially full and her
hair was shorter, now cut chin length and flipped out at the ends. He wondered
how she could look so different after just two weeks of separation. Treize still
wasn’t used to how elegant she looked out of her police uniform, which hid her
curvy features.
“No problemo
“Nobody has called me that for a while,” she replied
as she leaned over and kissed him on the lips.
“Oh?” he said with an eyebrow cocked. He wrapped his
arms around her lower back.
“It’s been ‘Ms. Relena’ or ‘Ms. Jordan’ for the last
couple of weeks,” she said with a big smile.
“You don’t need to rub it in. While you been basking
in the sun at your resort, I’ve been freezing my ass off running Johnson’s civil
service shifts, telling smashed high-schoolers to get there little asses home,”
Treize replied sarcastically.
“Aww, you poor
baby. Let’s get home and cook you up some hot co-co, okay boo-boo,” Relena
replied in a patronizing voice.
“Ha, ha, ha; you are so funny,” he moped as Relena
took his arm, heading for the exit.
Just as they began to walk, Treize heard a loud
commotion erupting from the subway platform. “Get down! Get down now! Put your
hands up over your head now!” Treize heard from below.
“You’ve got to be fuckin’ kidding me,” he said.
“Nothing like a good welcome home eh?” Relena
shrugged.
“Someone definitely needs something
bad for Christmas,” Treize chuckled
to himself as he moved toward the railing overlooking the platform. But before
he could get a good view of the confrontation, a distinctive loud clapping sound
filled the air.
“What the hell?” Relena yelled. The crowd of nearby
shoppers quickly joined Treize and Relena at the railing. An African American
male, in his late twenties, laid face down with a chunk knocked out of the back
of his mutilated head. A pool of blood quickly spread from the gaping crater. A
subway police officer stood directly behind with his automatic sidearm in hand.
His partner stood, jaw dropped, and frozen, as he stared at him.
“Holy hell! What did the man do?” Treize asked.
“He must have pulled something,” Relena replied.
“
“Geezus, I dunno.”
“I’m
goin’ down to see what the hell is going on,” Treize said as he headed for the
escalator. “No. Let’s get the hell out of here! I don’t need this in my head
right now,” she replied as she pulled him back.
“What?” Relena you must be kidding. We gotta go down
there.”
“No, Treize—baby. For me? Please? I just got home and
I really can’t deal with this right now.” Relena took his hands and headed for
the exit. Against his will, he reluctantly caved to her wishes and followed. As
he gazed back, he noticed the collection of cell phones drawn and aimed down to
the red platform.
Treize wiped
the sleep from his tired eyes. He turned
on his side and gazed at the bright red
“Some night, eh?” Relena asked in a soft voice as she
kissed the back of Treize’s neck. Treize noticed that her Canadian accent that
she tried to suppress snuck through.
“Umm hmm,” Treize replied while covering his face
with his hands.
“Welp, it’s time for work. Let’s go. We gotta be at
the station in half an hour,” she said as she jumped up revealing her naked body
and pulling the sheets off of Treize.
“Ugh,” he groaned as he forced himself up.
Over a bowl of sugar coated cereal, Treize watched
the morning news’ continued coverage of the “execution style” killing at the
subway station. “The news is sick,” he said aloud to himself as he picked up
another spoon full. Apparently, cell phones captured the murder. The victim, now
identified as Leroy Lewis, was shot in cold blood as he lay face down on the
station platform. The killer, Officer Hayden Campbell was now missing. Treize
shook his head and wondered what the hell kind of cops the subway system was
hiring. He didn’t want to join all of the hype over the killing, but Treize
couldn’t help wanting to look into the incident.
Relena and Treize arrived at the station in separate
cars to hide their relationship. The sun was finally out after a long rainy
spell. Treize barely got to his desk before Captain Isaac Paxton stopped him.
Treize worried that he had somehow found out about him and Relena’s less than
professional relationship. But his boss was smiling.
“You are getting a new assignment today, buddy,” he
told him in his big boomy voice. “You’re on the subway shooting that the news
has been salivating over. You are to find the sucker and figure out his motives.
It’s a heavy press investigation, so I don’t need to tell you to not to tell
them anything,” he continued.
“Uh, of course not. Wait, isn’t that Stephan’s
assignment?” Treize asked with a perplexed frown.
“Nope, he’s relocated to
“Very well then.”
“There’s a folder on your desk. Go get ‘em.”
Captain Paxton patted him on the shoulder and began
to walk off. “Oh and your partner on this assignment is Officer Jordan.”
Treize and
Relena got out of
his graphite BMW 540i. They were both in civilian clothes for the
investigation. Treize gazed up at the addresses along the street through dark
Aviators. They were at the home of Officer Campbell’s partner. It was a small,
off-white house that was obviously being refurbished. The yard was more weeds
than grass. Relena swung the corroded brass knocker against the wood door. “His
name is Lance Evans. He’s been serving with the subway police force for six
years. Good record,” Treize told Relena as they waited. “How did we end up on
this assignment together, Treize?” she asked. But before he could answer, the
door cracked open.
“Yes?” A white man in his early twenties with dark
wavy hair peered through the cracked door. He looked frightened.
“Is this the residence of Officer Lance Evans?”
Treize asked.
“Oh, yes that’s me.”
“SFPD. We’d like to ask a few questions regarding the
shooting on Christmas Eve,” Relena said in her stern police voice as she flashed
her badge.
“Uh, yes. Of course. Come in, come in.”
Wide open window shades thoroughly illuminated a
rather featureless room. Plain white walls enclosed a brand new wood floor with
two sofas, a coffee table, and a television set in one corner. Boxes lay
everywhere.
“Please excuse the rather boring state of things. I
just moved in and am fixing up the place a little,” Lance said as he led them to
the sofas.
“Don’t worry about it. Nice floor,” Relena replied
with a wide smile as she removed a pen and pad of paper from her back pocket.
“So, we have a couple of questions as I said before,”
Treize began.
“So, you were patrolling with Officer Campbell on
Christmas Eve correct?”
“Yes, we were assigned the
“Okay, and how long have you known Officer Campbell?”
Treize continued.
“Oh, uh, let’s see. I’ve been stationed with the
subway force for about five years and
“How well do you know him?” Relena asked this time.
“Not too well. He usually works the
“And what kind of officer is he? You know. What kind
of style?”
“Well if I understand your question correctly, he
seemed like a normal kind of guy. Not the type that would be shooting people at
random. He was a level headed kind of officer; tended to stick to the book.”
“Yes and that leads me to my next question,” Treize
said as he removed his shades for the first time. Treize didn’t trust Lances’
nervous demeanor. He kept blinking and fiddling with an old chewing-gum rapper
on the table. He guessed that he
was hiding something, but didn’t know how serious. “What actually happened on
that night? What caused Officer Campbell to fire his sidearm?” Relena glanced at
Treize and then looked back toward Lance.
“Well, we were on patrol and one of the officers, uh,
Officer Devin, called in reporting suspicious behavior from a passenger. He said
something about a passenger complaining about being watched or something.”
“Can you be a little bit more specific?”
“The call was to look for a passenger who fit the
description of Mr. Lewis. Another passenger apparently felt that they were being
followed. That’s all I know.”
“Okay, continue. What happened next?” Treize was sure he was hiding
something now. And he could tell Relena did as well as she gave Treize one of
her looks.
“So um, let’s see. We found Mr. Lewis on a
Relena took over questioning, “He just shot him? He didn’t reach for a
weapon or anything threatening?”
“No ma’am. I know it sounds crazy. I guess that’s why he took off.”
“Did he seem agitated afterwards? Did he say what he saw?”
“I didn’t really get a chance to talk to him after. Backup and medics
showed up.”
“I see,” Relena returned as she folded up her pad. “Well, I think we are
done here. Thank you very much Officer Evans,” she continued. Treize looked over
to Relena and frowned. They stood up and headed for the door. Lance gave his
first attempt at a smile as he stood up in relief, which he didn’t hide very
well. He showed them to the front porch.
Treize opened the door to his BMW. “Don’t you think we could have asked
him a few more questions?” he asked. “He was obviously full of shit.”
“We weren’t gunna get anywhere farther than we did with him. He I think
genuinely didn’t know much. And if he didn’t get to talk to Officer Campbell
about his motives, what more was there to ask? Oh shit, I left my cell phone
inside. I’ll be right back.”
She ran up to the door as Treize sat down and started the engine.
New Years
Came faster than Treize had remembered for
a long time. He had planned to take Relena to one of the numerous New Years
parties in downtown. But the torrential rain that day was trying its best to
destroy his plans. It was time for a much needed break from the continuous work
of the investigation. After questioning various witnesses, Treize and Relena
were essentially where they started. Nothing added up. Relena suspected that
Treize laid on his couch as the rain battered the
roof. He felt warm and cozy in his wool sweater that his grandmother had knitted
for him many years before. It was striped across with red and white which always
made him feel like “Where’s Waldo” from one of the picture books, but he loved
the warmth it provided on winter days.
Relena had left to gather a packet of test results
from evidence at the scene of the crime. He buried his face in his hands and
took a deep breath. It had been three days since they visited Officer Evans and
Treize felt like he never really finished with his questioning. A silver clock
on the wall displayed
Too lazy to clean it up, he continued with his phone
call and dialed the contact number for Lance Evans. No answer. He tried his cell
phone. Invalid number. Treize threw the phone down and headed for the door. He
grabbed a raincoat hanging from the coat-hanger by the front door and headed for
Lance’s house.
The rain pored down in sheets. He pulled up to the
small off-white house only to find a Zephyr Real Estate sign freshly mounted on
the weed lawn. Treize got out and ran up to the door. The windows looked
especially dark and the living room was empty. He stood under the awning and
whipped out his phone.
“Relena. It’s Treize.”
“Hey I’m almost done here. I’ll meet you at Lance’s”
“Good, but hey I’m here at Lance’s house right now,
and he’s gone.”
“What?”
“Yeah everything is gone. There’s a sale sign up.
Some weird shit is going down here. I want you to call the subway police station
to see where the hell he is and I’m gonna call the company who is selling the
hou-“
Suddenly the nearby mail box shattered with a loud
sharp bang. Another crack followed and the door window exploded behind Treize’s
head. He ran straight for his car nearly tripping over the three stairs down to
the pathway. Several bangs followed as weeds flew into the air. Bullets blended
into the rain. Treize jumped into the car and mashed the accelerator. A bullet
whirled by his head and straight through the windshield. He sped around the
corner. His phone was still in hand as he awkwardly clutched the steering wheel.
He looked at it to check if Relena was still on the line. A new text appeared on
the screen. It read, “Please do us all a
favor, and stop meddling where you have no business.” Then it began to ring.
It was Relena. He put it to his ear.
“Treize!”
“I’m here!”
“Oh my God! What happened?”
“I don’t know. Someone just started shooting at me!”
Treize was soaked and gasping for air.
“Christ! Are you okay? I’m going to your house now.
Let’s meet now. I’ll let Captain Paxton know what’s going on.”
“No, there’s no time! And don’t meet there. Someone
is watching us.”
“What?”
“Ill explain later, just don’t meet there. Name
somewhere else to go.”
“Uh, okay. Meet at the Embarcadero Station. It’s
relatively close to you.”
“Alright, and Relena, be careful.”
“I will. Love you.”
As Treize put the phone down he noticed a police car
in his rearview mirror. The blue insignia on the hood could only be that of a
subway cop. Treize changed lanes a few times to see if he was following him.
Suddenly his lights went on. “Shit,” he whispered to himself. He pulled off to
the side of the road, retrieved his firearm out of his glove box, and stuffed it
down his pants. The cop slowly
walked up to the window. Treize was surprised at how loud his boots were over
the rain.
“License and registration please.” A tall blonde man
with a beard stood at his door. The rain let up a little.
“What seems to be the problem officer?”
“License and registration please,” the officer said
again sternly.
“Detective Officer Treize Perry. I don’t you have
much jurisdiction on the streets of
“Step out of the vehicle.”
“I’m sorry. You need to expl-“
“Step out of the vehicle now!” the officer yelled as
he drew his gun.
“What the fuck is going on here!” Treize yelled as he
unbuckled his seatbelt. He knew that this wasn’t a traffic stop; this was going
to be an execution. Treize blasted the door open, slamming the officer backward,
but he caught his footing. Two loud bangs immediately followed, sending a deadly
puff of smoke into the damp air. The officer froze, and then dropped as a
lifeless heap. Blood spouted from his neck. Treize gazed at the frayed seat
behind him where the cop had narrowly missed him.
Treize stood motionless for a few seconds as he
processed the death of the man. Time seemed to solidify. He became dizzy as he
watched the blood continue to spew out of the tiny hole. He came to his senses
after a large rain drop smacked his nose. He quickly began to search through the
officer’s police vest. Besides a pack of cigarettes, a radio, and some change,
he found a crumbled piece of lined paper.
Officer Evan’s home.
Treize quickly closed the trunk and ran to his car.
The sound of sirens began to penetrate the now roaring rain. As he sped away he
dialed Relena’s number. The line was busy.
The
Embarcadero Station was eerily empty this
rainy, grey day. Electrical problems due to the harsh rain had closed down part
of the
“I’m sorry,” she cried out. “I’m so sorry.” Treize
put his hand up.
“Whoa, whoa. Baby, what’s going on? Put the gun
down.”
“I can’t! You don’t understand. You got to deep. I
had too…..”
“Relena, what the hell is going on? What are you
saying? Just put the gun down.” Treize’s voice quivered. He began to see his
whole relationship with Relena flash before his very eyes like an old projector.
“Don’t you get it? You can’t interfere! You can’t!”
she wept. Her face was now as red
as her hair, and her makeup streaked down her cheeks. The grey pistol shook.
“Interfere with what? What are talking about? Relena!
You can’t be serious! Relena, they are trafficking drugs through the subway! Why
are yo-,” Treize’s eyes opened wide and he leaned back, as if drifting through
space. “It was you,” he whispered. You sent the officer that note. You told
Evan’s to leave. You didn’t forget your cell phone. You set me u-“
“No! Stop it! Stop it!” Relena screamed.
“I loved you Relena,” Treize continued.
“Stop it!”
“I just want to know one thing; did you do it for the
money? Or do you-“
“No! No! Stop!”
“Then what the fuck is it? Why are you doing this?”
Answer me!” Treize felt a rage that was formed of sadness. It tore through his
entire body and ripped through his heart. He wasn’t afraid of death. He was
afraid of loosing Relena. And all he could see was here drifting away through a
black hole in which he could not follow.
“Relena just put the gun down. Baby. Please. I lov-“
“No! No!” Relena shrieked. A sharp crack filled the
platform. The air became heavy with silence. Treize stared at Relena, still
clutching the smoking pistol. Her eyes were wild and panicked. Treize was
surprised at how little it hurt. He felt cold, but no pain. He looked down only
to see thick red blood drip from his body. He fell to the ground. “No!” Relena
screeched as she ran towards him. She sat him upright, resting his head on her
lap. “Treize! Treize! I’m sorry! I’m sorry! I love you! Treize!”
Treize couldn’t speak. He could just hear Relena’s
voice echo through the empty grey station. Treize breathed slowly. He looked
into Relena’s sobbing eyes as she called out. He could no longer hear her, but
just see here mouth move. Suddenly her expression abruptly changed as a muted
thud barked from behind her. She looked straight ahead aimlessly as she coughed,
and then fell to the side. Behind her, stood a dark figure holding a silenced
sidearm. “Noooo!” Treize managed to call out. He took every once of strength
left in his body to lean over to Relena’s aid. She was dead.
“You just had to keep prying didn’t you? She
tried to protect you. She tried to
reason with Evans. She tried to get him to not tell me about you snooping around
my organization. But you were just too damn dense. And now look what happened,”
The dark figure said in a calm voice.
“Why? Why did you shoot her?” Treize whispered. His
vision blurred. He couldn’t tell if it was the tears inhibiting his vision or if
it was the loss of blood.
“She was a security risk. It’s a shame; she was one
of my more attractive associates. But she was always a little shaky. It was hard
for me to trust her,” the dark figure replied.
“But, but, wh-“
“Oh, come on. You should know better than that. You
know very well that this great country can’t function without these drugs. The
economy would be set off balance. Collapse. It’s funny when everyone thinks you
are the bad guy when you are the one actually keeping the stars and stripes on
the flag. Sometimes you even have to protect the country from itself. Poor old
Leroy Lewis had to learn that the hard way. Hopefully it sent a message to his
government bosses. They should know better than to send federal agents into
places they don’t belong. It’s America, home of the brave and land of the free.
Whatever it takes to keep Uncle Sam happy, or rather fabulously wealthy.”
“You son-of-a-bitch.”
“Oh, no but you mean you great patriot. That’s what
you meant to say. Don’t hate me Mr. Perry. I didn’t force people to buy these
drugs. I didn’t want it to be an
important part of America’s success. How do you think the government pays for
all those new services and new plans? Taxes?” The dark figure gave out a hallow
laugh. Treize began to loose focus. The dark figure’s voice came and went. “Stay
with me Mr. Perry. Oh Mr. Perry? Mr. Perry?”
And that was the end. Treize faded off. There he laid
by Relena’s side in the grey, damp, empty station. He died in the line of duty,
for his country; the land of the free, and the home of the brave.