Page 19 of This Is Law 3
“Crawford, cut it out! Allow my men to work. What’s going on?” chief Andrew’s voice came from the back, as he was walking over, heading in my direction.
I didn’t know Andrews on a personal level, but our careers were kind of in the same path, so we’ve crossed paths plenty of times over the years. Five years ago, he was a detective, but he moved up to chief. Back when he was a detective, some of my biggest wins were against some of his investigations, so he probably didn’t like my ass either, but he tolerated me.
Chief Andrews was one of those guys where it was kind of hard to miss him. He was super tall, looking like he needed to be on someone’s NBA team, instead of here in office, fighting to keep bad guys off the street. He was a white guy, mid- forties, and looked to have been in the best shape of his life. He was a bigMiami Dolphin’sfan because damn near every time that I’ve come here in the past, he would always have on his teal, and orange. Today was no different, as he approached me in a freshMaimi dolphinspolo shirt, with the matching hat. He wore khaki slacks, and white sneakers, as if the second he got off work, he would be headed to the Hardrock stadium to catch the game.
“What’s good chief? No disrespect to you, but I need to talk to the big boss. I’m not trying to go through no middlemen. I needtop dawgs. Give me the bully,” I responded, crossing my arms, with a smirk on my face.
I could tell that I offended him by telling him to go get his boss. I’m sure that him, and every other nigga in here wanted to beat the shit out of me right now, but they didn’t bust a move. One thing for sure, I never sat and worried why people in my career field didn’t like me. I knew why they didn’t like me. I said whatever came to mind, never fearing any kind of consequences, and that cocky word that they liked to throw out, I could be a little bit of that at times too.
“What do you have to talk to the captain about? He’s in the back on a call,” he said.
“I’ll wait. I don’t have anything to do. My guys, that’s on desk duty, does that come with any perks? Like, are they bringing in donuts or anything like that? Coffee? Anything? I just kicked ass in court this morning, and I can use a little something while I wait for the captain,” I kept going.
Chief Andrews just shook his head, and he pointed with his finger, showing me the back room, where the donuts and shit were.
Like I worked here, I found my way to the back, where there was a small room, and it held all kinds of finger foods. I picked up a napkin, where I put a couple of donuts on it, and I grabbed a cup, making my coffee, using their condiments and shit, putting it to my liking.
As I was walking out of the room with my things, I could see Captain Roy coming from the back. He was another white guy, and I had history with him, just like I did with Chief Andrews. Again, we weren’t friends or anything like that, but being in this field, we’ve crossed paths plenty of times before in the past.
“I hear you’re down here messing with my officers. What’s going on, Crawford?” Chief Roy asked me.
“You got a minute? I got something I want to show you,” I asked.
“Follow me to the back,” he said, and I did just that, picking up the powdered donut from my napkin, and I took a bite out of it.
We had to walk past the desk duty detectives on the way to the back, and of course they were mugging me, looking me up, and down. I didn’t even pay them niggas any attention, as I greedily chewed down this donut, that I’m sure they were probably in charge of purchasing.
We made it to the back, where captain Roy opened his office door, allowing me to walk in first, and I took the seat that was in front of his desk. He came over, and he went and sat at the seat that was behind it. Looking around his office, you could see all his accomplishments that was in big frames, along with the family that he had in nice picture frames as well.
Roy had to have been in his sixties, so that shit was wild to sit here, and see a picture of him as a rookie cop, where he didn’t look any older than twenty. He’s been in the criminal justice field for well over forty years, and I knew about the hard work that he’s put in, so I did have a great deal of respect for him. When that shit went down with my son, he was out of town. The second that man got back on Florida’s sand, he called me, personally reaching out to me, and apologizing for the way his officers mishandled my son. It was because of him that they were put on desk duty, and that shit felt good to come down here and see that the punishment was still going on.
“Andrews said that you have something for me. What is it?” he wanted to know, getting right to the point, like I expected him to. Roy didn’t play that shit. He was tough, and sharp, and I couldn’t do anything but respect it.
All that playful shit that I had been on when I got here, that quickly went out the window. I was serious now. This shit wasimportant to me. It was important to see the way things were going to play out, once I put it all on the line. I knew that Edward Sterling was cool with a lot of officers. Him, and those detectives that I had on desk duty, they were the kind of cool where they would have football Sunday watch parties at each other’s houses, or their kids were close friends, and the couples would vacation together, and have date night.
I say all of that to say that when it came to them, there was some level of favoritism, and protection. What I can say is that I didn’t know of chief Roy to be close with Edward Sterling. I didn’t know if he would try and protect him by sweeping this shit under the rug. I could only pray that he would do the right thing because he knew the way that I would nut up and show my ass if I needed to.
I had the recording device in my pocket, so it was easy to pull out and sit on the table. It was already cued up, so all I had to do was press play. I did just that, and the audio started. I sat back in my chair, with my arms crossed, as I listened intensely, while Roy sat up in his chair, one of his elbows on the desk, with his head on it, focused, wanting to hear what was going to come out.
“How much do you want? I’ll pay you off. I was desperate at the time, and I was angry. That’s why I paid the money to have you killed. Man, if I could go back in time, I swear I wouldn’t have done it. I have too much to lose, man. My children. My wife. Everything that I’ve worked for will go down the drain if you expose this”that part of the audio had finally come on, after about five minutes of listening, and once it was done, chief Roy shot up from his chair, put his hands over his head, and he started pacing back and forth.
“No! No! Was Edwards behind that shit? It was him that paid someone to run you, and your wife off the road? What the fuck!” he roared, picking up his hands, and swinging his fist.
“You heard the same shit that I heard, man” was my response, my energy aggressive as fuck because I didn’t know what he was going to do to resolve this yet, and until he said the things that I wanted to hear, this was going to be the energy that he got from me.
“I was hearing little rumors that he was adamant about taking your son down, but I never thought that it would come to this. How did you know that it was him? Did you get some kind of tip or something?” he wanted to know.
“I don’t care to reveal my sources. What next?” I asked, jumping over the question that he’d asked me, and asking what I felt was more important.
“You know what’s next, Crawford. This is not someBad Boyzmovie where I can just listen to the audio, and round up my officers, and we go find Sterling, kick his door down, and arrest him. You know as well as I do that this kind of stuff is a process. I need to get a copy of that recording, so that I can have it logged into evidence, and have it sent over for a forensic audio specialist to listen to it. Once they can verify that the audio hasn’t been tampered with, then we can make our move. Please, don’t be offended by anything that I’m saying. This would be the process if it were anyone else,” he let me know, and I respected it because I already knew that it would be a process. That’s the only thing that I wanted to hear. If this man had sat here, and told me anything else, accused me of the audio being fake or something along those lines, then I would have turned up in this bitch.
“How long we thinking? I want his ass in cuffs by the weekend. Cap, you know this shit is personal to me. My boy was put in cuffs and accused of some shit that he didn’t do. Ima pull the mental card like everybody else likes to do and say that that shit really did fuck with his mental. Don’t slap this shit on the back burner. It’s still early in the day, so this can get in the hands of someone in the forensic department by the end of theday. Once it checks out because the audio is legit, it should move fast getting to the DA. When it goes before a judge, I don’t see why it wouldn’t get approved for a warrant, and an arrest. Move this process along like someone had did this to your son,” I said, pushing up from the chair.
I had copies of the audio, so I was going to leave him with the one that was left on the table.
“You know that when it comes to my position, that I always play a fair game, so I’ll move this process right along. Me, and Sterling aren’t buddies. I could give two fucks if he’s a free man, or what. I only reacted to the audio the way I did because I wasn’t expecting this, and I instantly thought about his wife, and children,” he said, and I nodded.
“I’ll continue getting the same amount of rest each night that I always do. I say that to let you know that you don’t have to worry about any funny business happening on my end. Before you go though, I do want to ask you something. Excuse me if I’m stepping out of line, but it’s been rumors going around that after all these years, they finally have a suspect on who killed your father. Was it really Dutch Thorne that’s responsible for that murder?” he shocked me with that being his next question.
