Chapter 9: November 22nd – New York – Evening

 New Chapter. Gonna just start writing the next one after a short break. Should be up tomorrow!

Chapter 9: November 22nd – New York – Evening

                Michael Morrow is a perfect example of failed expectations. He started his career as the protégé of Paul O’Healy in the NYPD and quickly became detective. During the September 11^th attacks, he made headlines by rushing into the world trade center buildings before the south tower collapsed, he managed to save nearly a half-dozen people. He became a local celebrity, and the NYPD began to condition him as the new breed of police in the city, charming, intuitive, and most of all, a shining example of a person who came from New York’s shadiest neighbourhoods. Pressure suddenly got to Michael which led him to organizing a deal with the Gillis family for help busting another crime family that Paul O’Healy was close to closing himself. In the end, Michael got credit for arresting the Dolce family, and Paul’s work on the case wasn’t recognized which helped forced his retirement.  Michael’s days as a good and straight cop ended when he made the deal with the Gillis family.

                Despite all the bad decisions Michael made in his professional career, he is enjoying the Angel case. It’s the first case he’s worked on in a few years where he doesn’t have to check in with the Gillis family to ensure he isn’t stepping on their toes. When Michael had the assignment to check the Harlem Community Center for Troubled Teens, he didn’t wait for backup before taking off to the community center alone in his police cruiser.

                The Harlem community center is located a few blocks from God’s Divinity United, and is currently under renovations for the winter season. The Horizon Church was able to use the community center for their meetings because it was in one of the seminar rooms and they’ve booked the place before the restoration was planned. Other areas in the community center included a small art gallery for local talent, basketball court, batting cages, and a bingo hall, all of which has been closed down due to the renovations. Michael’s police cruiser pulls into the Community Center’s large and nearly empty parking lot.

                Michael exited the police cruiser, lighting a cigarette he pulled from one of his jacket pockets. Michael didn’t wear a uniform despite walking out of a police cruiser, instead he wore a black waist jacket, dress pants, and a black work shirt with a red tie. He walked around the parking lot enjoying his smoke before he walked inside, he noticed a few familiar looking cars in the parking lot, one is a new Ford focus and the other one is a beat up blue rabbit junker. A large construction trash bin and compactor is located on the side of the building, and small areas taped off in the parking lot so pot holes can be fixed. Michael took note of everything inside the parking lot, and assumed that a few people may be inside the community center despite it supposedly being closed and a Friday night, too late of construction workers to be still working. 

                Michael walked up to the main entrance of the community center. From looking into the glass front of the large complex, the lights are off, and a note on the front door saying Closed till renovations are done unless specifically listed below, groups such as Horizon Church, AA, and hobbies are listed on the pieces of paper along with the telephone number of the care keeper to let them inside. Michael pulled on the door, surprised that it’s unlocked. He walked inside the darken community center, his hand hovering over his Glock 19, his assigned firearm. Carefully he walks through the large open lobby of the community center passed the front desk and heads towards the concession area. Booths belonging to a hotdog/hamburger/salad vendor are along the walls, metallic tables and chairs are placed on the floor stretching out from the front lobby/entrance to the large windows overseeing the batting cages and basketball courts. It didn’t take long before Michael made his way pass the concession area. When he reaches the window overlooking the Basketball courts, he noticed to his left down the darken hallway where all the seminar rooms are, a light is on in one of the rooms.

                Michael walks down the hallway slowly, careful not to let his shoes make too much noise on the ceramic flooring. His hand on his holstered gun he creeps along the wall. The closer he got to the room he started hearing voices and swishing of water as if something is being plunged into a bucket. When Michael is beside the door he tilts his head in, peeking inside the partially opened door. He couldn’t see, only an open space as all the furniture has been moved to the side, the voices he previously heard are also to the side and they can be heard perfectly well.

                “C’mon, let’s go. We gotta hurry up.” A familiar female voice urges on. That’s when Michael opened the door and walked in.

                “So, what’s going on guys?” Michael asked. To the side cleaning up a corner of the room with a mop bucket and bleach are three NYPD officers, Jane a young redhead officer nicknamed “Lil’ Deadly” who often gets into street fights with suspects and wins, Drew an older beat cop, and Peter a man Michael’s age who has a promising career and is on his way to being a detective. All of the officers in the room weren’t in uniform. Jane froze with a mop in her hand, the two other officers look at Michael as if they were all caught for murder. Michael looked passed them, and didn’t see anything too incriminating, the officers cleaned up what they were trying to hide.

                “Detective Morrow… uh… just checking on the scene from the big meeting.” Drew the Beat cop answered quickly. Morrow is suspicious, he knew none of these officers are on the case and the fact they were out of uniform indicates that they’re off duty. Michael knows most of these people from other cops, friends of friends. He walks into the room looking around, it looked like a classroom with a white board, tables and chairs, all of which are pushed to the side and the floor is still wet from the bleach.

                “Off duty? Saw a few of your cars, but no police vehicles. I’m not a dumbass because I sit at a desk all day. Tell me what the fuck happened. Because I think it looks like a cover up.” Michael accused them. The cops look at each other, trying to see if they were confident in their cleaning that they can deny everything. Jane is the first one to speak up.

                “Just doing some community cleaning. Think we’re about done. “ Jane said, dropping the mop stretching. The two other cops follow her lead putting stuff down. Jane walks up to Michael with a smile, her casual t-shirt is stained from the bleach and water, with her tight jeans. “Hey, perhaps you should just walk away.”

                Michael shakes his head, this is exactly the type of pressure he feels on regularl cases from the Gillis family. Now his own officers, his comrades in justice are telling him to look away. He grew tired of it, “Why. What did you do?”

                Drew the beat cop who’s only a handful of years away before claiming retirement answers, he has the most to risk if things go wrong with Michael and he’s only protecting his own interest. Drew is dressed in a large sweater with bleach stained jeans. “We… we’re cleaning up evidence from…”

                Michael didn’t need Drew to finish his confession, he knew when he walked in what he walked into. Officers of the NYPD heard that Carl Henderson, suspect of being the Angel Shooter and affiliated with the most hated Church in America Horizon is holding a meeting only blocks away from the God’s Divinity United Church shooting and bombings decided to take justice into their hands. “Yeah… I figured.”

                Jane is the first one to justify their actions. “Michael, it’s not like they didn’t deserve it is it? They all deserved it, regardless if Carl is the Angel or not. They protested the crime scene saying he is a god send. They deserved it.”

                Silence fills the room after Jane justifies what they’ve done. Michael stood in the center of the room careful not to let the three officers surround him if they attempted anything. The two male officers stood behind a few feet from Jane as she’s the one who approached Michael. Michael didn’t know what to do, was it just them? Or is there more who are connected in this? After all there were thirteen bodies. Michael sighs, he heads towards the door. “I wasn’t here. I was never here. Clean this shit up, and tell whoever else is responsible to fucking stay quiet to. Got that? If anyone asks about what happened here, say nothing. I’m going to say when I showed up it looked spotless and the community center was closed, and by the time I got in nothing looked out of place.”

                Michael shut the door as he left, leaving the three off duty officers to do as they wish. He headed towards his car, getting in and turning the engine. His chest hurts as if he’s just been through a bad break up, and his eyes are burning partly in anger but mostly in self-defeat. He backed up from the car and drove back to the police station.

                The police station is practically empty, most of the officers both FBI and NYPD went home for the weekend only a skeleton crew remained to take on emergency calls. Morrow walks into the station that looks more like an office building than an actual police station at times and headed towards his office. The reason for such few officers is because they believe the case is pretty much close, their only suspect is murdered and the horizon killings were suspected of being revenge against Carl Henderson made to look like the angel killed them, which is true, Michael just didn’t think it was police officers who would’ve killed them. Now the big question is if the Angel is dead or not? No sighting of a large winged man in the city has occurred since the shootings and bombings.  

                Michael’s phone rings but he doesn’t answer it. It’s from an unknown number, he spends his time browsing the internet and news sites in regard to the case at hand. Most of the news articles say the police are still baffled about the mystery of the angel and have no leads. Others are more critical of the police force saying they rather just sit around and do nothing. All of the stories weren’t true the public just doesn’t know how hard the police are working on so few clues. At the start there was a rush of information that didn’t lead into anything, and now there’s just so many bodies working on the case they’re all just going in circles it seems.

                Michael grabbed his cell after the phone finished ringing to call Agent Mach to check up on his and Kwok’s missing guns in Baltimore.

                “Hey” Michael said once Agent Mach answered his phone.

                “Morrow? What can I do for you?” Mach responds over the telephone.

                “Just checking in, have you made it to Baltimore yet?”

                “Just about, we had to grab a few things and call a few people before we left. We should be back on Monday. How did the community center go?” Agent Mach asked.

                “Nothing… dead end.” Michael managed to lie, he felt his tongue tied up afterwards. Even though this isn’t the first time he lied to a cop or a superior, it is a first time he lied about a series of revenge murders.

                “Oh well. Did Joseph find what he’s looking for? He just said he had to visit someone that may know more.”

                “No, haven’t heard from him.” Michael said. He forgot that Joseph Pierre is still on the case, he’s the main person who pushed that the killings are for revenge and wasn’t done by the angel. Michael didn’t know what he was going to say to him if he asked. “I should go check up on him. Take it easy.” Michael said, ending the call as soon as Mach said his goodbyes.

                 Michael then checked his voicemail, the one that was left on the phone and it was by Joseph. The voicemail said that he has footage of Paul O’Healy’s granddaughter murder, it didn’t say who killed her either just that there is footage. This could be good or bad, because if the Angel did kill the grand daughter and it turns out not to be Carl then he just gave his blessings to three officers who committed murder because the Horizon group expressed their freedom of expression.  Not only that but Michael still needs a solid story for the Horizon slayings, all he has so far is that when he arrived the place looked clean.

                These are the type of cases that make a hero or not, Michael has everything to lose. If the case isn’t solved or more complications like the Horizon Slayings come up he may be demoted because he isn’t able to control a group of officers in a single case, and if he gets demoted then the Gillis family has no used for him which leads Michael to an early grave. Michael sighed, unlike the other two main officers in this case Mack and Pierre, he isn’t going to take the weekend off.