Chapter 4: November 19th – New York – Afternoon

May feel like a shovelware/filler chapter, I wasn't really feeling it but feel like it has to be done. Sorry for the grammar mistakes as I just wanted to finish this. Ummm I didn't know until googling 27th that it's the same police Station Law and Order is from... so ya not intentionally a nod to them.

Chapter 4: November 19th – New York – Afternoon

                Joseph didn’t get any sleep last night. He didn’t find a hotel until 2am, and even then when he was in bed he didn’t get any sleep. It wasn’t because of the upstairs bed scratching the floor when it moves, shakes, and thumps, its New York in general. Normally Joseph rarely gets. Back in Canada, nightmares often plagues his dreams from what he’s experienced. New York is a source of those nightmares, and they seem to have gotten worse like his nightmare on the plane.

                A shower and a shave didn’t really help Joseph out much. He got rid of the lingering travel stench and the four day scruff growing on his face. Other than keeping himself alert, it didn’t do much. Heavy bags can be seen underneath his eyes, his hands still cut and bruised from fighting the Vampire suspect, and his mouth is often open yawning while he walks. New York is the type of town where you need a police siren to actually get anywhere in a timely matter, so when it came for him to choose a hotel he went with one within walking distance of the 27^th precinct. The walk to the station is less than fifteen minutes.

                The way people walk in New York is like driving, which is different than Canadian cities. In New York people walk on the right side of the sidewalk so they’re not always blocking other people’s foot traffic, where as in Canada people will stop anywhere on the sidewalk to answer their phones or stop and chat with someone they bumped into on the street. As Joseph walks to the station his phone started to vibrate, he pulls it from his pocket and raises it to his ear, answering the phone.

                “Hello, Joseph here.” Joseph greets. 

                “Oh, now you answer.” Cassandra says.

                “Hey Cass, how are you?”

                “What the fuck do you think?”

                Joseph pauses, holding the phone tightly as he crosses the street. He’s a block away from the police precinct. “Probably not that well, so what ended up happening to the suspect.”

                “You know what? Fuck you. I hope she was worth it.” Cassandra hangs up leaving Joseph confused. He put his phone back making a mental note to check up what happened with the suspect in Vancouver as soon as he has an internet connection that won’t charge him for roaming, phone calls are bad enough on his next bill.

                The 27^th police precinct is one of the quietest police stations in all of New York. The place houses detectives who work on major and corporate crimes, so the usual gangster and drunken tourist riff raff doesn’t frequent the station. The surrounding area is covered with businesses to major corporations, few tourist traps, and of course one of New York’s oldest courts. It is very much white collar/1% kind of area. Which surprises Joseph when he walks in; the lobby is jammed with people in the front office waiting to see an officer. It is like looking at a walk in clinic in Canada, jammed with people and so few professional able to help them.

                The lobby itself looks clean, indicating it may be an unusual occurrence for the place to be so busy. The lobby is big with a secretary at a desk, behind the desk is a wall with doors on both side of them where police officers come in and out. The front didn’t smell too bad considering the amount of people, but there is no room to sit. Each person is holding a ticket waiting for their number to be called on the television screen above the secretary’s desk. Joseph didn’t take a number and went up as soon as the woman is done with the current person.

                “93?” She asks, looking up at Joseph. Joseph hands her his ID and badge from the RCMP.

                “Here to see Michael Morrow, I’m the consultant for the Angel case.”

                “And which consultant is that? We already have tons of people inside. Not to mention half the people in here want to help. Just give me a moment to check the list.” She says looking at her computer screen, Michael turns around looking at people in the waiting room. A few people in the waiting room look like private detectives, wearing cheap suits like Joseph, a few more look like crack addicts who think they may have information to exchange for cash, and a lot more normal looking people.

                “Are they all here to give information out about the angel shooter?” Joseph asks, the secretary nods.

                “Yup, there’s a reward for any information leading to his capture. It’s been like this since the announcement of a reward yesterday.” She scrolls on the mouse and looks up at Joseph. “I see you on the list, you can go in now.”

                Joseph thanks her but didn’t go inside. He turns around looking at the group of people. He flips open his wallet to show his RCMP badge to the group, to most of them it looks like a normal police badge. “I’m Joseph Pierre, I’m on the Angel Shooter case. If you have any information please come see me.” He says, walking outside of the police precinct. About half the people in the station went with him.

                Joseph spent two hours outside on the steps of the police station talking to the people who were inside waiting to actually see a detective. He recorded everything on his phone, just short two question interviews about the Angel. Some people didn’t want to answer the questions without reassurances of getting a reward, but the answers Joseph is able to get gave him a very good description of what the angel looks like. The news describes the Angel as a naked blonde hair, blue eyed, Caucasian male standing roughly about 6’2 with a harness holding two large metallic wings. The media description of the angel seems very PG considering what other people have told him.

                Joseph’s idea of the shooter is exactly how the media describes him but with a few minor details like the shooter being castrated of his sexual organ, scars covers the body, and the metals wings are not part of a harness but attached to the man’s back. Most of the useful information given to him was by African Americans, who made up the large membership of God’s Divinity Unity Church based out in Harlem. He couldn’t listen to everyone’s story and description of the shooter, but in those two hours he had an idea and a possible suspect.

                The back of the police station is just as busy as the front. People are crowded in such a small space as regular cops and FBI agents are in the back all working on one case. Joseph walks in, following the directions to Morrow’s office given to him by the secretary upfront. Along with cops and agents, everyday people are in the back giving their take on the Angel shooter attacks, most of them are witnesses from the Harlem attack that the police have yet to record fully. Joseph moves to Morrow’s office far off in the back.

                Michael Morrow could’ve been a captain to his own force, but likes field work way too much. He’s the type of cop that let his work take over his life which explains his lack of personal life such as kids, wife, or good personal friends. Michael Morrow now entering his 40’s is older than Joseph by a little more than a decade, and the way Joseph is heading Morrow could be an older version of him just dressed in a black suit, bright red tie, and a sharp looking business haircut. Also in his office is two Asian FBI agents Kwok & Mach. Agent Kwok is twice the size of partner, four years older at the age of 32, and is much nicer than Mach. Mach who is not only shorter than Kwok at 5’5, but has a mean streak in him. They’re both casually dressed with Mach coming up to Steve’s chest, all of them look at Joseph who walks into the office.

                The small police office would normal fit just Morrow and one other person. But with the two FBI agents and a map of Harlem spread out on his already cluttered desk it made the place seem very pack. The map on the desk has x marks in felt pen all over the map. Morrow is the first to greet Joseph into his office, knowing how he looks based on the photo in his records that Morrow obtained earlier yesterday.

                “Joseph I take it? Bout time you decided to show up. How’s your trip?” Joseph shrugs, he assumed Morrow was expecting him a bit earlier than four pm in the afternoon.

                “Eh, it was interesting.” He said, he extended his hand to Mach shaking his head and exchanging names and did the same for Kwok. He also attempted to shake Morrow’s hand, but morrow declined the offer.

                “I’m sorry, but some of us are busy working instead of sleeping in and pretending to be a celebrity.” Morrow said. Already Joseph feels like this is going to be more difficult with Morrow seem hell bent on making his stay worse.

                “I’m sorry, I literally just found out that I was coming here yesterday. Travel is hell and I needed the sleep.” Joseph commented.

                “So what’s with the map?” Joseph asks, looking down at the felt tip X’s placed everywhere around the church. Mach is the one that answers Joseph’s question.

                “Places where people have claimed to see the Angel during and after the shooting, it looks like he’s everywhere.” Joseph looks around the map, some of the X’s made no sense because they were blocks away from the church.

                “Well this is impossible, he’s literally been seen everywhere in Harlem after the shooting…” Joseph said. Morrow nodded.

                “Which is why we’re here trying to figure this out.” Morrow snarkingly replies back.

                “Well any data on the explosives? Suspects? Groups?” Joseph asks, wondering what information is actually available besides just a description.

                “Explosives are still being tested, we’re not sure what they are exactly but maybe low-end which is why none of the actual carnival rides were actually damaged. As for suspects? Other than being white? None. We don’t think this is a group attack though as it’s only one shooter.” Kwok chimed in, giving down some details Joseph asked for.

                “Well… I think this group might be worth looking into.” Joseph says digging a Horizon pamphlet from his pocket that he got from the airport last night throwing it on the map. “It’s too convenient how fast they got here after the shooting, I saw them on the news the same night. Not only that but I’m sure most of them are white supremacist, and the angel attacking a Harlem church? Sounds like a racial driven attack to me.”

                “Just because a person of a different race dies doesn’t mean it’s a hate crime.” Kwok said, looking at the pamphlet.  

                “Yeah, but… it’s something odd. Their church is a three hour drive from New York and they happen to have a lot of supporters protesting the crime scene within hours of the attack?”

                “We’ve looked into them before, they’re harmless. They’re weird but harmless. Really.” Mach said. Morrow shakes his head.

                “If this is the type of consulting we get from the RCMP then I honestly wondered why Paul tried? But you know what, look into it. I highly doubt anything will come out of it but look into it. You have reasonable doubt like you said, but while you’re in the middle of nowhere and we catch him, you’re not gonna get credit for it.” Morrow says.

                “That’s fine. Some of us isn’t in this job for just credit. Would any of you fine fellows wish to join me?” Joseph asks Kwok and Mach.

                “I’ll go.” Kwok said. Kwok then gives Joseph his card. “We’ll meet here when you’re ready to go. Give me a call letting me know when.”

                “Great, we’ll leave tomorrow morning. I gotta get some more sleep and a bit of research to do.” Joseph says turning around and exiting Morrow’s office. While he left Morrow complained about how little time Joseph spent in the office today unknowing that he spent a good portion of his time talking with eye witnesses and researching.

                As soon as he got into the hotel he connected to the Wifi on his mobile. He looked up the Vancouver Vampire killer, finding out that he’s been arrested and booked with no trial announced yet. The investigation is still pending but the credit for the arrest went to Cassandra Harris and two RCMP officers. Joseph smiles, realizing he made the right choice in catching the criminal.

                The rest of the night is spent Joseph looking at the Horizon church website, checking names of people in the church and cross checking them in a criminal database. A few names came out of his research, Carl Henderson and Hal Lenthe, ex-military and discharged for torturing Iraqi prisoners. They have the knowledge and the ability to get high grade equipment that could blow up a church and automatic weapons, it seems more than grasping at straws to Joseph.