Double Crossed

[stillmanfan]

Rating: 14
Double Crossed
Characters: Everyone

Just an FYI, if you see this story on fan fiction.net, that is mine. My user name on that site is Sam Waterston Fan. I've had it for years and written many stories for Law & Order, 7th Heaven, Leave It To Beaver and now this first one for Cold Case...

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I do not own Cold Case or any of the characters on the show. This is set during the 6th season in February.
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Lilly Rush walked into the squad room to work on a case with her partners. She noticed John Stillman was not in his office when she sat down.

“Hey Scotty, anything more you find out about Carline?” she asked.

“Not much, other than having run-ins with the law and her parents are dead.”

Carline Branson was killed in 1972 when she went to meet her friends at the movies but never made it. She was 17 years old and had an on and off again relationship with a 20 year old man named Tom. Tom’s brother Richard killed himself after Carline’s death. The detectives did re-interviews that yielded leads that didn’t happen back in ’72.

“Looks like we need to talk to Tom Moskanlo and Brenda Dravers again,” Scotty said as he gave Lilly the paper that had the list of interviews as Stillman walked in and they noticed he seemed annoyed.

“Yeah, they sure forgot to tell us some things.”

“Know what’s going on with the boss?” Nick Vera asked.

“No, but we should give him time till we tell him what we are doing,” Will Jefferies said.

Jefferies and Vera went to Brenda’s home and brought her back to the station, Scotty Valens and Rush went to get Tom. Tom and Brenda were placed in adjoining rooms.

“Well Tom, we found out from Janet Conroy that you and Carline were dating, and she suggested you were in love with her.” Valens asked as they both looked at him.

“I was in love with Carline but since her parents have since passed, it was my brother, Richard who did it,” Tom said as he stifled tears.

“What happened?” Rush asked.

“Well, you see Richard didn’t like that I was going out with her.”

“Why?” Scotty asked.

“He was with me the day I went to see Carline and her dad was home. Boy, her father was upset that I was there with Richard and told us to get out while pointing a gun at us.”

“What kind of gun did he have?” Valens followed up.

“.38,” Tom said as Kat Miller who was in the viewing room, left to go find out about the .38 that was registered.

“Are you sure that he had a gun?” Rush asked.

“Yes, then the next day she was dead.”

“Now wait a minute, you just said Richard killed her and her father had the gun. Are you suggesting her father gave him the gun?” Valens asked.

“So, where is the gun now that both parents of hers are dead?” Scotty asked him.

“I don’t know.”

“How about Brenda, would she know?” Lilly asked him.

“I don’t know. I don’t think so.”

Miller opened the door and motioned for the two to come out then after they left the room, she closed the door.

“Her parents did have a .38 but Tom and Richard didn’t have one, neither did their parents,” she told them as Jefferies and Vera walked out of the other interview room.

“Brenda said Carline’s father did it and buried the gun in the front yard.”

“Brenda see this?” Valens asked confused.

“Yes and he told her that he was hiding the gun to keep his wife or him from using it again.” Will said.

“I’m going to get a search warrant,” Nick said as he walked away to make the call to the D.A..

“I think the father did it and the only one who had motive is conveniently dead.”

“I don’t know Scotty, I mean he was protecting his daughter from Tom.”

“But why? Tom has a clean record and Richard had been in and out of jail since a few months before she was killed. Richard was a bad boy who didn’t need to be around girls!!” Scotty replied as they started to raise their voices and everyone looked on but Stillman hadn’t noticed the yelling.

“Richard was 17 at the time of Carline’s death. And like Carline’s parents, Richard is conveniently dead because he killed himself,” Lilly said in a loud voice then Stillman happened to look up and saw his detectives arguing and walked out of his office.

“Yeah and maybe William knew that Richard was bad news and wanted to protect her,” Scotty shouted as everyone who was of earshot stopped and looked at them.

“Why would a father want his kid dead?” Lilly asked as John walked up.

“What’s going on?” Stillman asked them as they both quieted down and everyone in the room went back to work.

“Well, the doer in the Branson case could be the father or the brother, Richard. We know where the gun is.”

“Well, what were you guys arguing about?”

“Difference of an opinion, Boss. He thinks Carline’s father is the doer and I think it’s Richard who did it.”

“Didn’t she have some run ins with the law?”

“Yes, even though she was arrested by herself,” Lilly replied.

“Boss, if your daughter was going out with a guy who was bad news, what would you do?” Valens asked.

“Have him arrested.” Scotty, Lilly, and John gave a quiet laugh.

“Boss!” Lilly said as Will and Nick walked up.

“Got the search warrant,” Will said.

At the former home of Carline’s parents on Cobbs Creek Parkway—

Stillman went to the door to let the homeowner know they had a search warrant for the yard. The homeowner told them he would call his lawyer, even though Stillman told him it had nothing to do with him, but rather an occupant of the home in 1972.

A metal detector was used to find the gun. When it beeped rapidly, the area was marked with a stick so CSU could start digging. Just then the man’s lawyer showed up.

They pulled a metal box from the ground, then the agent walked over to a table that was a few yards from the hole, and faced Stillman. After he put it on the table, he looked on the side then realized it was upside down; he picked it up then flipped it over. Ashot suddenly rang out and everyone ducked.

“Boss!!” Valens and Rush yelled as they ran to him when they saw him lying on his back.

[stillmanfan]

Lilly called for an ambulance while she tended to an unconscious John. Scotty put on his rubber gloves, emptied the cylinder, then once the gun was unloaded, he set it in the evidence bag along with the box.

“Gun is clear!”

“Oh Boss!! Boss, wake up,” Lilly said worried as she checked to see if he was breathing and saw where he had been shot while a detective from the Violent Crimes Unit who had been visiting his mom, came to the scene.

“What happened?” The officer identified himself while he inquired. He looked around to see the lieutenant down and the detectives tending to him at the same time a CSU agent had given them a first aid kit.

“We were digging for a gun that was in a box, I guess the gun was hot and it fired when Tracy turned the box over,” Valens told the detective as the ambulance, Jeffries, and Vera arrived.

“What happened?” John groaned in pain.

“You got shot with the gun we were looking for, Boss,” Scotty said

“Boss, are you okay?” Nick asked as the stretcher arrived to take John, while Will looked at the gun and filed a report on the incident.

“I think so but my ribs hurt,” he said as he was put on the stretcher.

“I’ll go with you, Boss.”

“Thanks Lil’.”

“As soon as the lab work comes out on the gun, charge Brenda Dravers with tampering with evidence and you will have to be in charge for awhile,” John said to Will then he was wheeled into the ambulance.

“Okay John, will do.”

The other detectives finished out their reports and went to the hospital to check on their boss. A week later Stillman went back to work where he read the latest concerning Carline Branson in his office, while Vera, Jefferies, Rush, Miller, and Valens were out working on a different case. He read the note that was in the case file; the note was with the gun which was retrieved a week before:

‘I, William Branson killed my daughter to keep her from dating Richard and Tom Moskanlo and wanted to protect her for once. She had always disobeyed me, but I was still her father, and thought I could save her one last time. I hid my gun so no one will find out who killed her. I hoped my wife and I are long gone when this case is solved.

William Branson.’

Stillman put the note in the envelope, put everything relating to the case in the box, closed it, then left his office, kicking some chairs down on the way to putting the box in the Cold Case box room. He put it in empty space, on top of another closed case box then wrote the word ‘CLOSED’ on the side of the lid facing him. He paused for a few minutes and looked at the box while he thought about his daughter, Janie. He thought about how any father could want to kill their own kid in defense of her.

He walked up the steps to floor level; on the way to the squad room he went to get himself a cup of coffee then got in the elevator.

“Do we want to know what happened here?” Lilly asked Will before John walked in.

“No.”

After the chairs were put in their proper places and Stillman walked in, asked where Vera was. They told him they didn’t know, then Stillman went into his office and made a call.

“I wonder what Nick did,” Lilly asked while at her desk.

“I don’t know but John hasn’t been himself lately and Nick seems to be out of the office every time he asks for him,” Will said while at his desk.

A few hours later after Vera and Valens came in from doing interviews, they sat at their desks. Stillman was away. Miller had come back from a late lunch. She sat down and looked at Vera.

“I’m tired. I’m ready for bed,” Nick said as he leaned back and closed his eyes.

“Did you have a bad night or something?” Will asked as he smiled as if Nick might have had a girlfriend.

“No.”

“Oh I see,” Will said while Scotty picked up the ringing phone. John walked in to the squad room and saw Nick at his desk.Jefferies nudge his desk into Vera’s since he saw Stillman coming out of the elevator and didn’t want his friend to get in trouble. A loud noise was heard as Vera jumped in his seat and saw Jefferies still at his desk across from him.

“What the hell?” Nick asked quietly as he did not appreciate the rude awakening.

Jefferies nudged his desk into Vera’s since he saw Stillman coming out of the elevator and didn’t want his friend to get in trouble.

Stillman walked up to Vera. “Nick, I need to speak to you in my office,” John said as Nick looked at him. Will, Kat, Scotty and Lilly watched John and Nick with curiosity.

“Sure, Boss.”

As Stillman walked away, Vera looked at Miller, Jefferies, Valens, and Rush with irritation as he wondered who ratted him out, turned, and then followed Stillman to his office.

After the door was closed, Vera sat down and Stillman sat across from him.

“Nick, I’ve been asked by another squad to have you work undercover for a few months and I’ll tell the squad you are going on assignment.”

“Okay, Boss.”

“I should have told you this a few days ago, but I just didn’t want to lose one of my good detectives.”

“Thanks, Boss,” Nick said with a smile.

Vera stood up and left the office to return to the squad room. As he sat down, everyone looked at him with concern while John made a call.

“You okay?” Kat asked.

“Yeah,” he said while he looked at his friend and smiled. He looked at some papers he had read before getting interrupted.

“So, what did you do?” Scotty asked.

“Nothing. Lilly, here are the files you asked for,” Nick said as he walked over to her desk and handed her the files then continued, “Well, I’m off for the day, bye.”

“You can’t leave, the boss is gonna get mad,” Will said confused while Nick disappeared to the elevator and John walked up to them.

“I guess you all are wondering about Nick?” John asked.

“Yeah. Is everything okay with him?” Lilly asked concerned.

“Yes, he is going on assignment with another squad and will be gone for awhile. Will, he wants you to watch his house,” John said then continued, “You have his house key?”

“Yes I do, John.”

A week later a bearded Nick Vera showed up at the division where his new boss, Captain Wendell Skinner, gave him information about the undercover he would be doing. “They are told you are to meet them and that your name is Howard Jamison. You need to go to this address to see someone about a job they want done.” Wendell gave him a temporary cell phone for him to use to keep in contact with him, as well as send text if he was in a quiet situation.

“Will do.”

The next day, Richard Turner drove Howard to a home of a 40 year old man who held a long and angry grudge. The man was Roy Bush and waited with his friends, Cole Stanton and Randy Dixon for Howard to arrive. They had conspired to pull off a kidnapping on a critical scale, and were anxious to get going.

“This is Howard Jamison. He can get the person you want.”

“Good. I’m really mad at this asshole I saw on TV a few days ago and I remember him,” Roy Bush said.

Roy turned on his DVR and showed footage of the man Roy was mad at.

“Who is he?” Howard asked.

“He’s a lieutenant now but was once a detective on a case concerning my father. I want him kidnapped and taken out of the city until my dad’s case is solved. Do you think you can take him in the next few days?”

“You bet,” Howard, Richard and two other people said.

[stillmanfan]

Howard, Richard, and Cole tracked a lieutenant’s whereabouts, as well as decided on the best way to snatch him, and when.

Friday February 13th—

John took the closed case box in the storage room, then when he walked back up, he saw his detectives start to leave.

“Where are you all going?”

“Going to lunch Boss,” Scotty said as he, Will, Lilly, and Kat started to walk out.

“Want to come?” Lilly asked.

“Maybe I’ll join you later.”

“Okay, Boss,” Lilly said.

12:15 at the restaurant where the detectives are—

“So, do you know if Nick ever found out who took his last donut?” Will asked as he snickered.

“No, but I think when he gets back, he will find the person,” Scotty said.

“It wasn’t me!” Lilly said.

“Don’t look at me. It was the boss,” Kat said.

“NO!” Will, Scotty, and Lilly said in surprise as they laughed.

“Yes, after he finished the donut, he had a white crust on his lip,” Kat said, and then they laughed again.

After they ordered their meal, Stillman called Jefferies to find out their location then joined them as they chatted. Since Rush and Miller finished their lunch, Stillman was offered their leftover cheese fries which he accepted, then the waitress got him a drink. After ten minutes Rush and Miller left to go back to the office, so Stillman moved to sit where they sat and a few minutes later the check came.

“Who’s payin’?” Will asked with a smirk.

“You’re payin’, Boss?” Scotty said.

“Me? I just got here.”

“So, you’re the boss,” Scotty said as he and Will snickered while they left.

“Guess I am.”

He looked at the bill then paid it and after a few minutes he went back to the office.

Will and Kat were out of the room, Lilly and Scotty were at their desks working on a case file when John walked into his office. Twenty minutes later Kat and Will walked back into the office as they saw John take a file from his inbox.

“Did he say anything?” Will asked.

“Nope,” Scotty said.

“Ah, he does that to us so, we do it to him,” Lilly said as John walked out of his office, taking his jacket with him.

“I’m going to run some errands and be back later.”

“Okay, Boss. Thanks for lunch,” Scotty said as Lilly and Will scoffed and Kat snickered.

“Anytime.” He looked at them with a smile, walked away, and disappeared into the elevator.

4pm

After Stillman came back from errands, he talked with his detectives about a case they worked on, and directed Valens and Rush to interview a witness who lived in Germantown. They left while Jefferies and Miller looked over a file and re-read the interviews, then a half hour later, Miller and Jefferies went home for the day. Stillman was working quietly in his office when he heard his stomach grumble. He looked at the time and called Rush to tell her he was going home a bit early since he had a date.

5:10pm—

Rita Hart, who was once married to John, excitedly left her home to have dinner at a restaurant they used to go to. They had restarted their friendship five months ago; she was surprised he made a concerted effort to not be as busy. She thought he had regrets when he was married to her, and how absent he was for Janie growing up. After she arrived, a waiter took her to a table; she waited while drinking some water. She looked around to see people eating while there were a few empty tables. At 5:30 pm he didn’t call or show; she called his cell, got his voicemail, then started to worry.

Meanwhile at Central Headquarters 5:30—

“I’m going to call the boss and let him know we are back and having dinner,” Lilly said.

“I don’t think you should, his date might get mad,” Scotty snickered while Lilly dialed Stillman’s cell.

“Boss, we finished the interview, we’re eating takeout, then we’ll head home after. Bye.”

“Good job,” Scotty said as he winked.

“Thanks Scotty.”

6:00pm—

“Well, I’m going home for the day so I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Okay Scotty, night.”

“Night,” Scotty said as he put on his jacket, and walked out to the elevators just as Rita walked up to the desk.

“Hi. Is John still here?” Rita asked as Scotty walked over to her and Rush looked up.

“No, he’s out for the night, did you have a date with him?” Scotty asked as Rush got up and walked towards the desk.

“Yes. I waited then I called his home and cell but no answer. So after a while I called his home and cell again, but no answer. He did call me to say he was on his way about 5:00 or so.”

“Let me try calling him on his cell phone.” Lilly said then continued after she hung up a few seconds later, “It went back to voicemail.

“Let me call his home,” Scotty said just as his cell phone rang. He answered, “Valens. Hi Mom, I’ll do that. Bye,”

“I just got a bad feeling about something and I don’t know what,” Rita said as Valens dialed Stillman’s home number.

He hung up. “Just answering machine.”

“I asked them at the restaurant to call me if he did show up but they haven’t called me back yet.”

“Sorry, I gotta get home. I’m sure it’s nothing,” Scotty said even though he had a bad feeling in the pit of his stomach.

“I don’t know where he could be,” Lilly said.

“I’ll pop over to his house, see if maybe his car didn’t start or something,” Rita said.

“Okay,” Lilly said as Rita left. As she walked back to her desk, she also had a bad feeling.

Rita went to his home. She saw a few cars lined up along the one way street; so she parked a block away and headed for his place.

[stillmanfan]

Hope you are enjoying this story. I would like a review or two.
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Meanwhile on the Schuylkill Expressway at 5:40pm—

Stillman heard some music playing though he felt a lot of pain from the beating he took, since he tried to fight off his attackers. He slightly opened his eyes and saw the backs of the front seats that the two men sat on. They wore hooded sweatshirts and had gloves on. He looked down towards the window; he saw darkness and felt a piece of cloth dabbing his face while he wondered where he was going. The song ‘Streets of Philadelphia’ by Bruce Springsteen started to end.

“Can’t believe he fought back,” the man in the front passenger seat said.

‘The night has fallen, I’m lyin’ awake
I can feel myself fadin’ away….’

Then everything slowly went black.

At Stillman’s home 6:15pm—

Rita noticed his car wasn’t there. Since she didn’t have a key to his home, she called Lilly to let her know the situation. She was still worried about John.

Fifteen minutes later Scotty, Lilly, Will, and Kat went to John’s home with two police officers present; Will had a spare key and opened the door.

Once inside, they saw his dry cleaning slip on the table, remote control on an end table near his favorite worn out chair, and no dishes in the sink. In his room, his bed was unmade, a remote control was on the night stand, and his robe was laid on the edge of the bed.

“Oh, I’m glad Veronica isn’t here to see his bed not made, I will have to lecture him on that,” Kat said.

“I’d like to see his reaction when you do,” Lilly said with a slight laugh.

After rejoining each other in the living room, they made a missing persons report with his description, had an APB for his car, and the FBI was called. Within minutes of the report, a police officer and her partner came to his home since there was a 911 call about some disturbance on his street.

They stated once they arrived, there was nothing going on but went to see the person who made the 911 call; they were rebuffed by his father, since he thought his son was pulling a prank and he apologized. The officers did knock on Stillman’s door; he wasn’t home but other home owners didn’t see anything or weren’t home.

They called Rita and Janie to notify them that he was classified as a missing person and to have a phone line that would be tapped for any ransom call. They also checked other places where he frequented; the few places that saw him didn’t notice anything unusual.

They went back to the home of the 911 caller whose father still refused to allow the police to talk to his son, in fear he would be lying about the attack, even though police told him a crime was committed. Lilly went to see a judge for a material witness order; after she got it, she went back to the home and the detectives detained the father, and then went to find the boy who was in his room with his friend.

“Hi,” Sean Madura said as he saw two detectives walk in his room after knocking.

“Hi. I’m Detective Jefferies, this is Miller. Which one is Sean?”

“I am,” Sean said.

“Can you tell us what you saw?” Kat asked.

“Well, I was playing with my new video recorder and I recorded it as it was happening,” Sean said as his friend, Marcus Williams got his recorder.

“Thanks,” Will said.

“Can we take the memory card?” Kat asked.

“Yeah, I have an extra one. I didn’t see it start but two guys in masks, dressed in all black fought with him as he fought back, hard. Then they got startled when there was yelling down the street and a kid came out of the building and got in a car.” He got up and pointed to a building a few houses down then sat down and continued, “Then a van started down the street cutting off the car and stopped where the lieutenant and the two guys were at. That’s all I saw since my dad was up here yelling at me and there was honking while my dad was on the phone with the operator. The van turned while the car and lieutenant’s car went straight.”

“He didn’t use his gun,” Marcus said.

“I told you, they were unarmed so he couldn’t use his gun,” Sean reminded his friend.

“They were unarmed?” Will asked.

“Yeah,” both boys said.

“The person yelling from the car, did you recognize the voice?” she asked.

“No. By the time my dad came up and started hollering at me, the cars were honking at each other.”

“So your dad didn’t see anything?” Will asked.

“No. Hope you find him. He’s super cool and talks to me and stuff.”

“Okay, thank you.”

They both thanked the father then walked out to the car.

“We need to get to the station and watch the video, then maybe tomorrow go back and re-canvass the homes where no one answered the door the first time.”

The four detectives watched the video as they viewed the kidnapping of their boss.

“Wow, no weapons used. Oh, looks like here is when the woman was yelling and they sure picked up the pace. Boss is gone, but one of them takes his car and look, the van makes a left but the boss’ car is following the car that was honking,” Lilly said.

“I just timed it and this whole thing went down in like a minute to a minute and a half from the first punch,” Scotty said.

“Yeah, the nearest officer was like ten minutes away too,” Will said.

“You know, I listened to the 911 call again and you can hear the cars honking,” Lilly said.

“Well, we got the FBI on this and have taps to the phones for his office and home so hopefully they will call if there is a ransom demand. Also the FBI is tracking his cell phone and they will let us know,” Will stated.

“I wonder if they went after that car that was honking,” Kat asked wondrously.

“Good question, they are witnesses to a crime,” Scotty said.

“Rush. Yes, okay, where?” Lilly picked up the phone as the three detectives looked at her writing on her notepad.

“What’s up?” Will asked worried.

“They found the boss’ car at Darby Township.”

[stillmanfan]

8:00pm—

Lilly, Kat, Will, and Scotty arrived at Darby Township.

“Anything?” Scotty asked as he got out of the passenger side and Lilly got out of the driver’s side.

“Blood, fingerprints as well as fibers and his cell phone,” the CSU tech said.

“That would explain why he wasn’t answering. Where is his gun?” Lilly said then asked, while Kat took his cell phone and looked at the last call he made.

“Looks like the last call he made was to Joe’s Tavern at 5:00pm, and there is no gun,” Kat said.

“We know that he called the tavern since they told us,” Lilly said.

“And of course we and Rita had been calling him,” Scotty said.

“Get the blood and prints checked pronto,” Will said as the four detectives went back to the squad room.

Will told Janie and Rita his car was found, but no sign of him. The police and FBI were both searching for him, using flyers circulated from Philadelphia to other cities and states including New Jersey, Maryland, and even in West Virginia.

Meanwhile at a home on Dean St. in West Chester 7:20pm—

After they arrived, Howard and Cole helped a battered Stillman into the house, while Randy turned on the lights. They took Stillman into the master bedroom while Randy made dinner. Howard was given the duty to clean up Stillman’s wounds. He also had a dish towel ready to stop any bleeding that re-occurred, but it wasn’t needed.

Stillman sat on a chair when Cole gave Howard another first aid supply kit they bought on their way into West Chester.

“Here you go Howard,” Cole said then walked out of the room.

“Gonna get you fixed up,” Howard said as he put some bandages on John’s face and cleaned up some blood.

“Oh how nice!! I’m hungry too!!” he said angrily.

“I have to see if there is enough for all of us to eat the chili that Randy is making,” Howard said.

“That’s nice Randy is making chili, are you guys going to let me starve? My hand is killing me!! You think maybe you can take the cuffs off me cause I want to walk around and use the bathroom when I need to,” he said sarcastically as he stood up, but suddenly felt woozy, as Howard stood up to help him back to his seat. Randy walked in, put the bowl and a bottle of beer on the nightstand then left.

“There is enough chili for all of us. I’ve been instructed to keep the cuffs on you but you have a long chain to the lock on the pipe in the master bathroom and there is a reason why you have a master bedroom.”

“I swear, when Scotty gets his hands on you, you will be sorry,” John said while he sat back on the seat, grimaced in pain, and started to eat while Howard left to eat at the table.

Even though he ate the whole thing, he really didn’t feel like eating regardless of how his stomach felt. Howard cleaned the dishes in the kitchen, then changed John’s bandages on his face, arms, and hand.

“So how long are you going to keep me here?”

“There is a guy who wants to talk to you and he isn’t here.”

“Sure he won’t kill me later?” John asked in a sarcastic tone.

“He shouldn’t. You weren’t supposed to get hurt.”

“Like, I’m going to give up without a fight. Give me the remote, I want to watch TV.”

“Sure,” Howard said then left the room as he left the door ajar.

Howard brought his clothes with him to the bathroom where he took a shower, then changed into cleaner clothes so he can wash the blood stained shirt. Howard brought his clothes with him, he took a shower then changed into cleaner clothes so he can wash the blood stained shirt.

“My favorite shirt too,” he said quietly as he found a bucket and put the whole shirt in with water to let it soak overnight with soap.

“Howard!!” John yelled angrily.

“Yeah?”

“I want a drink.”

“What do you want?”

“Root beer,” John said. After he got his drink, he watched TV as he saw his detectives searching his car, Scotty looking angry, and Kat processing his phone. He felt sick that his detectives didn’t know where he was, and had to investigate his disappearance. He wondered when they found out-he didn’t show up for his date he had with Rita, or if Lilly called a few times and he didn’t answer then she got worried. He was glad they started looking for him instead of waiting until tomorrow. There was an interview with Will Jefferies.

“We don’t know what happened. We have interviewed witnesses who provided crucial details, and we will be following up on those leads. There is a person of interest we are keen to speak with who was picking up her child at the time of the kidnapping. If anyone has any information, please call the tipline. This is still under investigation, and authorities both in Philadelphia and the FBI are working the case,” Will said then John turned off the TV and Howard came in.

“Okay, here is some ice for your hand, water to drink, and some Tylenol. Also, here are toothbrush, toothpaste, and mouth wash,” Howard said.

“Fine. Get out of here, I want to rest,” he said then laid his head back as he groaned and rested.

Twenty minutes after dinner, the three men left for an hour, and came back with a camera they stole from a store, then Howard left for an hour. When Howard came back, everyone was asleep. He quietly walked into the master bedroom that had a cot in it. The room had some light because the TV was still on. He saw Stillman asleep, fixed his covers, then went into the bathroom to brush his teeth. He crawled on the cot and fell asleep in the clothes he was wearing.

Saturday February 14th-- 8am in West Chester—

Howard woke up and looked over at Stillman who sat at his chair watching the news. Reporters were still covering his kidnapping. John turned to see Howard looking at him.

“What are you doing in my room?” John asked, still grimacing in pain while upset about being kidnapped.

“Good morning to you too. We have our sleeping arrangements.”

“Oh, I see,” John said angrily then continued, “So are you supposed to take care of me then?”

“Yes, to a point. Well, I’m gonna see about breakfast,” Howard said then he walked out of the room

After breakfast, Howard went to John’s room to get his plate and utensils so he could do the dishes.

“How are you feeling?” Howard asked.

“Other than feeling like hell and still hurting, I don’t like being stuck in these dirty clothes and I am starting to itch.”

John told Howard his size, so Howard went to Target to buy some clothes for him. Once Richard, Randy, and Cole left for the day, Howard took the handcuffs off of John. He took a shower than put on his new clothes, happily discarding his old ones in a bucket. Howard had put a pad lock through the latch so John couldn’t get out.

Meanwhile at Philly headquarters at 9am—

“Not much evidence from the car. Since the attackers were covered, no prints from them but just fibers from their clothes. A little of John’s blood on the window as well as his prints all over the car; we also have some shoe prints on the dirt,” Will said.

Lilly, Scotty, Will, Kat, and several officers did a re-canvass of the neighborhood. This time only one homeowner didn’t answer, and Lilly left her card on the door.

February 16th Philly headquarters 8am—

Lilly was alone in the squad room since everyone else was in the field working on the kidnapping case.

“Detective Rush, these people are here to see you,” an officer told her, introducing the two men and woman next to her.

[stillmanfan]

“Hi, I’m Detective Rush,” she said then shook their hands. The officer went back to her station area and ADA Curtis Bell sat on Scotty’s seat, to look over some files.

“Hi. I’m Clarence Stabler. My client, Jeremiah Josephine, saw this on his door and notified me, and called me to let me know, so I’m here with my client, Jeremiah and his wife Brenda,” he said.

“Well, let’s go in the conference room,” Lilly said as she lead the way.

“Can Mr. Bell come too?” Stabler asked, since he had defended another client against Curtis.

“Sure,” Lilly said, and then Curtis followed them in the room.

Curtis and Lilly sat on one side of the table, Clarence sat at the end, and Brenda and Jeremiah sat across from Lilly and Curtis.

“Were you home the night of February 13th in the evening?” Lilly asked.

“Wait a minute, my client needs to get a deal first for his current trial,” Clarence said.

“We can tell the D.A. that you provided us with helpful information in another case, if it’s true, in exchange for a lesser sentence. I can’t promise the judge will do the same,” Curtis said.

“You can answer their questions,” Clarence said. Lilly quietly scoffed at the deal but needed the information.

“I was on my way home from eating at a restaurant with my lawyer,” Jeremiah said. Lilly gave him a pad and pen to write down the restaurant’s address and name. He wrote it down then gave it back to Lilly.

“I went to Atlantic City for the weekend with some friends. My 17 year old daughter, Jasmine was home that night,” Brenda said.

“Wait a minute, you mean to tell me that you had this information for two days and didn’t—“

“Lilly, Lilly. Calm down,” Curtis told her. Lilly calmed down, then gave Brenda her pad and pen.

“Did anyone come over to the house that night?” Lilly asked. Brenda gave Lilly her pad and pen back after writing the names of her friends and another friend of Jasmine’s.

“I found out that Jasmine’s friend did come over, but I don’t know what time they left,” Brenda said.

As Curtis and Lilly got up to leave after the interview room, Jeremiah, Clarence and Brenda got up as Curtis turned near the door.

“Oh. No deal,” he said then he turned towards the office and left.

“What the hell?!!” Jeremiah said angrily as his wife and lawyer looked stunned and angry.

After a few minutes the information was given to Detectives Betty Mitchell and Harvard Henning. They went to New Jersey to see the driver of the car, Melissa, and her daughter Claudia Brady.

In New Jersey—

“Hi, I’m Betty Mitchell and this is Harvard Henning. We are detectives from Philadelphia. Are you Melissa Brady?” They flashed their badges then were allowed in.

“Yes. What can I do for you?” she asked as she sat on the chair and they sat on the couch.

“Did your daughter, Claudia, visit Jasmine Josephine in Philadelphia on Friday?”

“Yes. I had to pick her up. She wasn’t supposed to go over there because she was grounded and I didn’t want her there while Jasmine’s father was on trial,” Melissa said.

“Why didn’t you want her there when her father was on trial?” Betty asked.

“I just didn’t want her talking to Jasmine’s father if he was there or his lawyers and just wanted to keep her out of that situation. Her mom knew that they had talked about going to her house, but I didn’t tell her that she was grounded.”

“Do you drive a blue Honda?” Harvard asked.

“Yeah, why?”

“Because it was inadvertently in the middle of a crime,” Betty said as she showed Claudia pictures of her car, the van, and Stillman’s car.

“I remember that van since it cut me off and stopped for some crazy reason but that car did follow me for a few blocks then it just turned off to a street,” Melissa said.

“When the van got in front of you, did you notice anything in the van?” Harvard asked.

“Yeah. It looked like a guy was bent over a seat but I couldn’t tell what he was doing.”

“Did you see the license plate number?” Betty asked.

“No. It was taped over,” Melissa said when her husband Frank and Claudia came home.

After the detectives talked to Claudia they returned to the car and headed back to Philadelphia. Betty called Lilly to update her.

At the squad room a few hours later —

Will and Scotty were at the station when Janie Stillman arrived. She was a sergeant in the Western Division, and since her father’s kidnapping had been put on desk duty for her protection.

“Are you going to look into all of my dad’s closed cases when he was a detective?”

“Not yet, Scotty is looking into the list of cases in John’s office first. I hope you understand that I can’t say anything more on an active investigation other than we found the driver of the car in New Jersey, safe, and had nothing to with the kidnapping.”

“Wrong time, wrong place? I know, I understand. Just wanted to come by but I’m going back to my station,” Janie suspected then said.

“Yes. Thank you for your understanding.”

“Let’s go down, get the three cases of boxes, and just look through them,” Will said. Once they decided on the three cases, Scotty, Lilly, and Kat went down to the box room and got the boxes then came back up.

They read the cases as they re-read the interviews to see who might have given him the most trouble or perhaps had a beef with him.

5pm Friday February 20th in West Chester—

Cole and Randy had stolen a car from Philadelphia and dumped the van. John’s cuts were healing, but some of the bruises were still present even though he started to feel better. John started think Howard looked familiar. His size and voice reminded him of someone, but he had blue eyes. Howard’s hair was blond as well as his beard, and John was trying to imagine him without the facial hair. His eyebrows were thinned near his nose, not helping John remember. The three men watched the news that didn’t give much new information on the Stillman kidnapping.

“We are still investigating the kidnapping. We still are getting some leads but we will find him,” Will said.

“How are the Lieutenant’s family members handling this?”

“They are hanging in there, obviously they are worried about him and are helping us as much as they can,” Will said as they showed a clip of Janie Stillman.

“Whoa baby!! What a hot mama!! Hey Howard, you think you can find her and bring her here?” Cole asked with his voice full of excitement. Richard sat next to Cole at the table while Randy sat next to Howard, and John sat next to him.

“Man, forget her,” Richard said then they watched more of the news. Howard turned towards John, who looked a bit worried, and gave him a pat on the shoulder.

“Wow, it’s been one weeks, they have forgotten you pal,” Cole laughed. Richard came in with some food, and they all ate.

News reports had him seen all over the country, even in Hawaii, which was discounted. The tips started to dwindle as well. He hated being held hostage. He watched shows that he hated, particularly NASCAR. Howard bought John a deck of cards which John used a lot. As well as some books from the store for John to read, which Howard returned when John was done. While there were DVD’s of shows that he did like which he was able to watch, he felt homesick and just wanted to be let free and return home.

Saturday February 21st 11pm in Philly at Will’s home—

Will was deep in a slumber; when he turned over, he heard some noises, got his cell phone to call for help, then he got his gun, and headed downstairs.

[stillmanfan]

Will had his gun out as he quietly and quickly looked for the intruder, and then he saw him.

“Freeze!! Police!!” Will yelled. The intruder looked at him, pointed to a table behind the couch, and ran to the door. He opened the door, locked the knob, then closed it, and locked a deadbolt with the key. He ran to his car which was a few houses down and got away.

Will, who was in a long sleeve sweatshirt, sweat pants, and dress shoes, ran out into the cold to the end of his driveway, when a police car showed up.

“Damn it,” Will said as the police officer got out and jogged over to Will.

“You okay?” the officer asked as he could see his breath.

“Yeah, just had an intruder in my house and I’m cold!!”

Both men went inside, as a few more officers and the detectives arrived to the scene.

“Are you alright, Will?” Betty asked, concerned.

“I heard water running downstairs, and I saw him come out of the hall bathroom, holding a bag, and then he pointed to the table. There is a five dollar bill on the table that wasn’t there earlier, I haven’t checked my cupboards yet; he was wearing gloves and was fully dressed. He also locked the knob and after he got outside I can hear that he locked the deadbolt so that’s why I couldn’t catch him,” Will said, while he used a piece of cloth to pick up and hold a CD case that fell on the floor.

After Lilly and Scotty arrived, they checked the scene and talked to Will about the incident.

“Did he say anything?” Lilly asked.

“No. Just pointed to the table and left.”

“Did he have a key?” Betty asked.

“Yes. We didn’t find the lieutenant’s keys when we found his car, but I hope they didn’t hurt John by getting an answer out of him for the right key,” Will said.

“Or the right house which house is the right one to go to,” Lilly said.

“I hope there will be prints,” Scotty said.

“I will have an officer posted at my door after this incident,” Will said.

Meanwhile in West Chester at 1am—

Howard arrived back at the house, and headed to John’s room to brush his teeth. He closed the door to change into sweat pants and a long sleeve shirt then laid on the recliner.

“So, what happened? Which home did you go to?” John asked since he was unable to sleep due to worry about his detective.

“It was the black detective. I forgot his name but I think he was on the news and gave interviews. I used the key, used the bathroom, dropped off the CD, then the detective came down.”

John laughed, “You mean you went to his house, took a piss, dropped off a CD, and then got out of there?”

“Yes. What is so funny?” Howard asked.

“I don’t think I’ve ever investigated a homicide where the killer took a piss but I guess anything can happen.”

“Hey, it was a long drive, I had a list of addresses and tried the keys. But after the second home, I really had to go and just decided to take the one that was closest out of town.”

“Wait a minute, what list? I didn’t tell you anything and I wouldn’t have anyways.”

“I don’t know, John. They said they had a list, and I did what they wanted me to do.”

“Let me--. Well, good night.”

“Night,” Howard said. He realized what John was going to say, but he also knew what John was thinking.

They both fell asleep a few minutes later, but Howard wondered if he was going to be running errands for these guys. He’d rather head out than them, in case they panicked and used a gun they had stolen a few days earlier.

8am in Philly headquarters—

The detectives were working on the kidnapping case when Will came in with the video, pictures, and some information.

“I just talked with the lieutenants from Major Crimes and other divisions, and so far they haven’t turned up any chatter about where he is but it seems the criminals know nothing. But John’s been a lieutenant for more than ten years so I don’t think there will be anything recent,” Will suggested.

“Any prints off that disc?” Lilly asked.

“Got prints from the disc and cover but no prints in the bathroom, or the five dollar bill, but the FBI is checking the serial numbers. And the prints belong to Roy Bush and Randy Dixon.”

“What? That’s four people if you include the intruder,” Kat said surprised.

“Well, I think there might be more because someone drove that van, someone else was tending to him to keep John from attacking the driver, even though he’d probably be in no shape to fight. And to take his car as well,” Will said.

“Randy Dixon has a rap sheet for armed robbery, assault, and kidnapping,” Lilly said.

“Not kidnapping?” Kat asked shocked.

“Yep, kidnapping.”

“When was he convicted?” Kat asked confused.

“Fifteen years ago but he has been out for about 4 years.” Lilly said then continued, “So we have an address on him, we haven’t gotten an answer but maybe we can get a search warrant for his and Bush’s homes.”

“Okay, I got some information on Roy Bush and his father was a police officer back in 1983. His name is Joe Bush, and he was killed in the line of duty,” Kat said as she walked in from retrieving the file.

“He was an officer?” Lilly asked.

“Yes, in fact, Joe Bush was killed when his friend Michael Scranton, was lieutenant. Wanna guess who the detective was trying to solve Joe’s murder?”

“No,” Scotty said as he realized who the detective was.

“Oh man. So John gets taken over a cold case?” Will said.

“That’s cold,” Scotty said.

“Yeah. Very cold,” Lilly said.

“Here is the video,” Will said, as Scotty played it.

The video showed Roy talking to John, who had some bruises and a homemade wooden splint Howard made him on his right hand.

“Do you remember me?”

“Come on man!! He isn’t going to remember you, what is your problem?” Randy, who was off camera, asked angrily.

“Do you remember the 1983 case?” Roy said.

“I worked on many cases, you will have to remind me,” he told him.

“Well, my parents were Joe and Misty Bush. After my dad was killed, you were doing the case then after two weeks you dropped it!!”

“I remember that one,” John said sadly. He looked down for a few seconds, then back at Roy.

“Well?” Roy asked angrily.

“I’m sorry that your father’s killer wasn’t brought to justice,” he said.

“Are you serious!!? We kidnapped this punk because of your father’s death?!” Richard yelled, as he took his gun from his waistband and pointed it at John.

“What are you doing?” Roy asked scared.

“What? Did you kill his father?” Richard asked angrily, snarling at John with the gun.to his head.

“No, I did not!”

“Let me tell you cops out there, I want my father’s case solved and he can go home,” Roy said.

“I thought he did something else to you and that’s why you wanted him kidnapped. Not because of your lousy father!!”

“Stop it right now!!” Roy said as he was pushed away.

“John, why didn’t you find my father’s killer?”

“Who cares?” Richard yelled.

“Shut up!!” Roy said.

Roy was knocked out cold by Richard’s punch.

“Whoa!!” the detectives said. The video ended after that, so they went back to their desks.

“Well, I’d say Roy just got double crossed,” Scotty said.

“Big time,” Kat said.

Will leaned forward, put his hand on his chin, looked across Nick’s empty desk and thought. A few minutes later Will got a package from Wendell who was still working with some undercover agents. He took the contents out of the envelope then read them.

“Oh man.”

[stillmanfan]

Will had the detectives follow him into a room adjacent to John's office then closed the door.

“I got some information from Cpt. Skinner. It appears the kidnapping was planned but no way to inform us since someone was near him. John has tried to escape and gotten beaten for it. He has a master bedroom, is chained to a bathroom sink, that’s the only reason he’s got the master bedroom. He’s treated badly by the kidnappers, especially Roy, but there is a guy there who is nice to him. He is led out of the room when the kidnappers are not there but doesn’t try to run. Request was made to have Janie secured since kidnappers saw a news clip of her and acted like she was in a bikini. John didn’t seem thrilled with their response,” Will said.

“Was this an inside job?” Lilly asked.

“We don’t know that,” Will said emphatically.

“Wait a minute, if this was an inside job, why would this guy give us the info?” Kat asked.

“Good question,” Scotty said.

“But we cannot mention this at all to the media, this is top secret.” Will said.

Saturday, February, 28th 4:45am outside of West Chester—

“Just gotta make sure to keep one step ahead of the cops,” Richard said as he sat in the passenger seat of the newly stolen car. Randy and Roy were in the second car they had stolen, neither of which had yet to be reported as stolen, though.

“Yeah, we do but we need to get out of Pennsylvania,” said Cole, who was driving.

“They won’t find us in Delaware,” Richard said.

“How do you know that?” Cole asked.

“They won’t suspect us going to Delaware,” Richard said.

John and Howard sat in the back seat, yawning and dozing off during the trip.

In Philadelphia, Saturday February, 28 9:30am at the squad room--

After most of the cold case boxes were put back, the squad got a search warrant for the homes of Randy Dixon and Roy Bush. Roy’s home had boxes of his dad’s stuff as a police officer and hadn’t really been lived in the last 2 months but it was well kept. Randy’s home had a video room where the detectives were able to see what was going on in the West Chester home.

“Wow, it’s nice to see him there. Hopefully this is recent,” Kat said.

“Yeah, but we gotta keep this video out of the media. But looks like there is a time delay because there is a timestamp of February 26,” Will said.

“Looks like it gets saved on a hard drive and there are dates on it,” Lilly said.

“We are going to put each day on a disk and look at it in the office,” Will said then the tech saved the information on each disk.

“I wonder if Randy ever came back to town after the kidnapping,” Kat asked.

“Well, it looks like he didn’t because everything looked like it hadn’t been used in a while. Milk was spoiled, food was moldy,” Scotty said.

Will watched the videos, even though he did fast forward through some days. He noticed a chubby looking guy being nice to John but the other guys weren’t, especially Roy. He recognized the voice and stature of the man as Nick, even though he had blond and facial hair.

A few hours later they regrouped, Will gave them more information that was on the tape and they started on the Bush case. They had to go to a special location for officers killed in the line of duty to get the boxes.

4:30 pm—

Everyone but Kat went to do interviews. She got a call as Sergeant Josh Briscoe walked in, with his lieutenant, and Janie.

“Miller. I see, where?” she said then wrote down the address.

“Hi. I’m Janie’s partner, Josh Briscoe. I was on vacation and I just came back.”

“Hi, I’m the lieutenant from Southern division. Since your boss’ kidnapping I put Janie on desk duty. I’ve decided to have her partner, Josh, help you out on anything you need. I understand you are short one detective.”

“Yes we are. Will did tell us that Josh would be helping us out when he got back from vacation.”

Josh and Kat shook hands then they chatted for a few minutes.

“Well, I just got a call to go up to West Chester, I would like you to come,” Kat said with a smile.

“Sure,” he said as he and Kat walked out to the car.

5:15 pm in West Chester—

“We missed them,” Miller said annoyed, as Briscoe went over the evidence that was starting to be collected.

“Detective, we have blood, fingerprints, and it looks like we missed by maybe 12 hours or so since everything is cold,” the CSU officer said.

“This must have been a staging area or something,” Briscoe said.

“Yeah but at least we have fingerprints and we can run them,” Miller said.

“I just realized something. We are very close to the Delaware border, we need to have people look out for these vehicles, thank goodness for nosy neighbors and we can get an APB,” Briscoe said.

“Hopefully they are dumb enough to keep the cars,” Miller said as she and Briscoe went back to the station.

Meanwhile back at the station—

Lilly, Will, and Scotty came back and noticed Kat was out, but went back to their work on the case.

“Wonder where Kat went,” Scotty wondered aloud.

“We missed them,” Miller said as everyone turned to see her and Briscoe walking in sadly.

“What?” Lilly asked.

“We went to West Chester since there was a tip, and they were gone when we got there. We got evidence that is already in a Philly lab as well as the van that was used in the kidnapping. Anything new?” Miller asked as she sat down.

Sunday morning March 1—

“Okay, I got a message again from Cpt. Skinner, and more info on last night’s raid in West Chester.”

[stillmanfan]

Those who were near Will paid attention to him, other officers who were not in earshot kept doing their job.

“Randy Dixon, Roy Bush, Richard Turner, a fourth and fifth person’s fingerprints were found in the home as well as John’s.”

“So, who was it that did the attack?” Lilly asked.

“Don’t really know. Fifth person must have been in the van cleaning up the boss,” Scotty said.

“When did Roy come into this?” Lilly said.

“When they got to West Chester maybe?” Kat asked as they continued on their case.

March 1st 6:30am at Holly Knoll Rd. in Hockessin, Delaware—

John woke up in his room, glad to have his room to himself in a big house on an isolated part of the road. Howard checked out a door that he noticed in his room. He opened it and saw that it adjoined John’s room. He saw John with the cuff on his wrist and a chain leading to the sink in the bathroom.

“Morning. How do you like having your own room?” Howard asked when he walked up to John who sat on his bed.

“Good, but I miss my bed,” John said sadly.

“I know.”

“Howard!!” Randy called him.

Howard walked over to Randy in the living room where he, Richard, Roy, and Cole were present.

“I have an extra car you can use and everything is legal,” Randy said.

“Okay.”

They led him to the garage where the car was; Randy showed him the registration and the tag on the car was up to date.

“Thanks,” Howard said as they both went back to the living room and they told him something else.

“Cole, Roy, Randy, and I are going to go see some friends so we will use both those cars. We will be back in a few hours and if you decide to leave, I think you should keep the hostage home. You have the handcuff key but here is the other one and have it hidden but make sure he doesn’t get to it.”

After the four men left, Howard went to a desk, found a piece of paper, then went to check on John who was watching TV news that gave snippets of his kidnapping.

“I’m going to leave for a few hours, okay.”

“Okay,” John said as he felt very apprehensive, while Howard went into the kitchen to get some water and brought it to him.

“See you in a few hours.”

“Bye,” John said as Howard left the room then the house.

Howard used the car with gloves on and a hooded sweatshirt to cover his head. After the car left, John continued watching the news even though it depressed him, but heknew that his detecives would keep searching for him, even if other departments had stopped looking for him. Then he fell asleep on the recliner.

Back in Philly—

Kat continued to look through the ’83 case of Joe Bush; she looked carefully at the notes written by John. After a few minutes she noticed something.

“Will, how heavy handed was the department back in ’83?”

“It depends on the case, why?” Will replied.

“It looks like the boss got some threat to drop the case from his superiors.”

“Interesting. Does it say who ordered the dropping of the case.” Will asked

“Yes, then Deputy Commissioner Robbie Janikowski.”

“What?” Lilly and Scotty looked at her surprised.

“Obviously someone in the department knew something about Bush’s murder and they didn’t want the case to be closed. Should be easier to track down now that Janikowski is near death. What does he have to lose?”

“He is?” Scotty asked.

“Yes. According to some higher ups who know him,” Will said. Kat gave him a stern look.

“What?” Lilly asked.

“Kat, I can’t see Janikowski asking for the boss’ kidnapping,” Will said.

“We can ask him tomorrow,” Scotty said.

“Why would the higher ups care so much about the Bush case to make the boss drop it?” Lilly asked.

“It doesn’t make sense the higher ups would care about this case, unless someone had Bush killed and that person was a cop. I mean the boss gets kidnapped now and not when he was investigating the case. Why?” Kat asked.

“I agree,” Lilly said as they started working hard on the case even though very few people were willing to talk.

9pm Thursday March 5th—

The gang went to Jones’ Tavern for their first Thursday’s ritual, as a few officers and Janie celebrated.

“Well, this night is for the boss,” Will said as he, Janie, Scotty, Kat, and Lilly raised their glasses and drank a few shots.

Monday March 9th 5:30pm--

John was holed up in his room. When he heard voices outside his door, he listened in.

“Listen, I don’t want you to let him out for any reason unless we are getting out of this place, alright?” Randy said sternly.

“What? He’s chained and he can’t run far anyway,” Howard said.

“Look, I’m tiffed that Roy double crossed us and I don’t care about his father. I’d rather just kill Roy and the lieutenant and dump their bodies in Philadelphia. I’m sick of this!!” Randy yelled again.

“Okay, I won’t let him out.”

“Thank you,” Randy said emphatically as he went to eat. Howard went into John’s room to give him his dinner.

“Here you go.”

“Thanks. I meant to ask you, where is my weapon?” John asked.

“Why?” Howard asked a bit worried.

“I don’t want them using it,” John said.

“I have it hidden.”

After dinner, he took John’s plate back to the kitchen, then walked over to watch TV with the guys in the living room. John also happened have the news on.

Howard was on the chair; Roy sat on one end of the couch next to Randy. Richard and Cole sat on the other end of the couch. Andrea Westimner had filed a report on the Stillman kidnapping case. The anchorman, Jeff Macks sat as he watched Andrea make her report.

“From Philadelphia, sources tell me that Lieutenant Stillman has been ill-treated, chained to the house like a dog, and one of his old cases is the reason for the kidnapping.”

Everyone turned to look at Roy. Howard noticed he was not being observed, but he looked at Roy as well.

[stillmanfan]

March 10 Tuesday 7am—

Will was alone in the office, when he heard the sounds of high heeled footsteps walking briskly towards him.

“Crap, here it comes,” Will whispered. He stood up and saw Janie standing beside him.

“I’m not happy to hear that my father is treated like crap by the kidnappers and mentioned on the 5pm news!! Treated like a dog they said and I don’t need my son to hear that!! I also heard that some departments have stopped looking for him.”

“Janie, we will find him. I can’t say anything else other than I don’t know where that source came from. But I will be more careful with what information I share, okay?” Will said sympathetically.

“I just don’t want some unnamed knucklehead saying something that might end up getting my father killed!!”

“I totally agree with you and I understand how you feel about this unnamed knucklehead,” Will said.

“Thank you,” Janie said then she walked briskly back to her car.

Will got a call then left to go to his car, when he saw an envelope that was on his windshield. He took it then went back to the office, and went into the interview room to read the message he got from Cpt. Skinner. The note inside read:

‘That was too close and everyone suspected Roy gave her the info. After the news last night, Roy went with Cole and Randy. Several hours later Cole and Randy came back without Roy. Homemade splint for John’s hand worked. His hand doesn’t hurt.”

After he finished reading, he left the room and put the envelope in his drawer and locked it then Kat and Scotty walked in, followed by Lilly.

“Will, got some bad news,” Kat said.

“What?” Will asked when he looked up.

“Guess whose body we found in DeShong Park off the Delaware expressway?” Kat asked.

“Not John?” Will said.

“No. It’s Roy.” Scotty said.

“The coroner is doing the autopsy but it seems he was submerged in water before being dumped.”

“So what are those guys going to do with Boss?” Lilly said.

“I don’t know, that’s what I’m afraid of. Got a tongue lashing from Janie earlier,” Will said.

“I can’t imagine she was happy to hear what the reporter said. I’d be furious too,” Kat said and Scotty nervously looked around.

In Darlington, Maryland 10am—

An hour later the kidnappers with John arrived in Darlington, Maryland, where they hoped they could stay for a few weeks.

“So why are we moving so much?” Cole asked.

“Because I want to and I noticed some people snooping around and didn’t want to take a chance,” Richard explained.

After they got into the house, they realized it was a nice big place.

“Put John in the master bedroom,” Richard said as Randy led John to the room and locked him in there.

“Hey!! I resent this!!”

“Shut up!!” Randy said as he walked away and checked to see what was in the fridge which needed to be filled.

Back in Philly—

“So who do we interview first?” Lilly asked.

“Maybe Jeff Scranton. His father, Michael, Lieutenant when Joe Bush was killed,” Scotty said.

“We know that Michael and his wife are dead,” Kat said.

“Anyone alive now that had anything to do with the case?” Kat asked.

“Yes. Not very many,” Lilly said.

“Maybe we should try to talk to Robbie Janikowski or his family?” Scotty suggested.

“Kat and I will go see him or his family. Lilly and Scotty you go see Jeff,” Will said as all four left.

Camden, New Jersey—

Jeff Scranton worked as a finance officer of a bank in Camden. Lilly and Scotty paid him a visit at work.

“Hi,” Jeff said as he shook their hands.

“Hi, Jeff. This is Lilly Rush, I’m Scotty Valens, we are from Philadelphia homicide,” Scotty said as they both sat down and Jeff sat at his chair.

“Before I heard about Roy being found, I was going to make a joke that maybe he sent you here on a suggestion that I killed his father but I can’t.”

They both looked at each other in confusion then Lilly said, “We have not talked to Roy at all but he is dead. We were hoping you could help us with how your father and Joe Bush got along?”

“They got along just great and helped each other a lot and Joe was really happy that my dad became lieutenant and things were great.”

“So did Joe want to be lieutenant?” Lilly asked.

“No. I wished that Roy would see that because, for some reason he felt his father was robbed of being lieutenant and was killed because of it. Also before your lieutenant was taken, Roy called me, but I only talked to him once. I recognized his number the next few times and didn’t pick up, and he stopped calling.”

“Do you recall about how long ago it was?” Scotty asked.

“I’m gonna guess at least a few weeks before your lieutenant was taken.”

“What did he say when you talked to him?” Lilly asked.

“Just some crazy stuff that then Detective Stillman knew who the killer was, and that he dropped the case and has the gun that killed Joe. I don’t believe for a minute that then Detective Stillman had anything to do with the murder and the hiding of the gun.”

“Did he say where the gun is exactly?” Scotty asked interested.

“Just that it was in the then detective’s home in boxes. I certainly hope you guys don’t really believe that.”

“No, we don’t believe the lieutenant had anything to do with the murder or the hiding of the gun. But we have to be meticulous about any information. Anything else Roy said?” Lilly asked.

“Yeah, Roy said he called then deputy commissioner Janikowski about his findings.”

“Was there anyone who made threats towards Joe that maybe your father had told you?” Scotty asked.

“Not that I know of. My father kept a journal and I’ll see if I can find some boxes of my dad’s to give to you.”

“Okay,” Lilly said.

“Did your father talk about having to speak with police after Joe’s murder?”

“Yeah. He told the detective who he thought did the murder, but the murderer is long since gone; the former deputy commissioner, who I heard is very sick, knows who committed the murder. I later found out that there was some heavy handedness with the case to getting it dropped. When the lieutenant went missing, I thought of Roy right away but didn’t have evidence and didn’t want to come off as an angry guy. Even though I am angry because I feel like he killed my parents with his badgering about my father killing his father.”

“Seemed like an angry guy,” Scotty said.

“He was after his father was killed,” Jeff said.

“We would really appreciate it when you do give us the journal and anything related to your father,” Lilly said.

“Yeah. I hope that your lieutenant comes home safely,” Jeff said.

“Thank you,” Lilly said.

When Lilly and Scotty arrived at the station, Will and Kat were working on the files. They were rebuffed by the lawyer and two family members who didn’t want the dying Robbie Janikowski to talk.

“Man knows something but he must be in such bad shape he can’t speak,” Kat said as she and Will sat down.

“What makes you say that?” Scotty asked.

“Family seemed angry that we were there. And that the family wanted us and Roy to leave him alone,” Will said.

“We told them that Roy is dead so he will leave them alone,” Kat said.

“We got the phone records for Janikowski and Roy and it seems he has called Roy quite a bit but stopped after John was taken. Scotty, go down to Delaware since the P.D. got a tip that one of the kidnappers was there,” Will said.

Scotty left; Lilly gave Will and Kat more information.

“Going to hate to get a sealed search warrant for his home but let’s do it now,” Will said.

A few hours later they got the results. John had no weapons pertaining to or any information on the murder of Joe Bush in his home. Will, Kat, and Lilly were happy with the results.

Later that night in Darlington—

While Randy was driving, a police car flashed its lights and sirens since they checked on the plates of the car that came out to have an APB on it.

“Aw damn!!” Randy said as he pulled over to stop.

[stillmanfan]

Wednesday March 11th 8am—

Will got some information from Cpt. Skinner; he went in the conference room to read it since the room was and he wanted to be careful with the information. The note read:

“We are now in Maryland. John has a bad flu which he has medicine for and no longer has the splint since his hand doesn’t hurt making a fist. John is asking for his gun which he won’t get. Cole left since Randy had car trouble but Richard left as well and they were gone for a long time. Something doesn’t feel right. Signing off.”

After Will left the room and returned to his desk, he locked up the information then a few minutes later the rest of the gang came in and Will gave them some information.

“The raid last night in Delaware gave very few clues, no new blood and the usual finger prints. Janie is coming down to look at the pictures since she really wants to see how the home is. The reporter’s story really upset her so I’m going to let her check out the pictures. News out of Maryland is that it appears the kidnappers are in the state since Randy’s car was stopped somewhere near Darlington. The police officer and his patrol car disappeared near there, and 15 miles away two cars were later found torched. They ran a VIN number on the car that was burnt and it had been reported stolen. Also, there were fingerprints from the kidnappers in our case. Cole drove the police car, Randy drove the stolen car and Richard’s prints were also found in the car Randy drove,” Will said.

“If the boss knows about this, he better be very careful,” Lilly said.

Janie, Sean, Rita, and John’s brother walked in and they went in the conference room where Will showed them the photos. They thanked Will then left the headquarters.

“So anything interesting in the files?” Will asked.

“Yeah, looks people didn’t want to talk,” Lilly said as she took some files from Kat.

“Or were paid to not talk, just like now,” Scotty said.

“What do we know about the murder?” Will asked.

“Joe was killed with a .38 and his wife Misty died of heart failure two years after Joe was killed.” Lilly said.

“The gun was never recovered,” Kat said.

“Sad that the friend of the victim’s son is the only one who is willing to talk,” Lilly said.

“Let’s check out the bank statements between Gates, Janikowski, friends of Joe’s, and those who refused to interview. Boss had listed a number of people who didn’t want to talk or were afraid to talk,” Kat said.

After they cross-referenced names, they realized Janikowski had paid off quite a number of people who knew something about Joe’s murder and even Gates received money even after he died, which went to his widow.

9am—

Jeff brought his father’s stuff in two boxes to the squad so they could look over the information. They thanked him for taking the time to bring the items; he left to go back to New Jersey while the gang read the journal.

“March 10, 1983— I signed paperwork to become lieutenant and told Joe, he is very happy for me. I asked him why he didn’t want to be lieutenant, he said because he felt it was too much work and sometimes too much heavy handedness by the bosses. I want to be the lieutenant of homicide so I can fix it,” Kat read.

“Sounds like a lame reason to become a lieutenant of homicide,” Scotty said.

“No, if homicide was a mess, I’m sure it needed cleaning,” Will responded.

“Backs up Jeff’s story,” Scotty said.

“Boss is mentioned in this one. March 14, 1983— Went to talk to Detective Stillman about him transferring out of homicide or putting him on the street. I think he is a very lazy detective and shouldn’t even be a police officer even though there are quite a few others who are worse than him. He was not happy with our discussion but wanted a chance to prove himself. So I obliged to give him 6 months to prove that he is a good detective.”

“Oh man,” Will said as they stifled their laughter.

“March 18, 1983— “I love being lieutenant, and being able to get rid of the bad apples. Stillman is starting to work hard. I might end up keeping him since after getting to know him, he’s actually a nice guy who loves his job.”

A few pages later there was a clue.

“April 6, 1983— A few weeks into being a lieutenant, I was wrong about Detective Stillman, being a bad detective and cop, and we have made amends. Roy is not happy I am lieutenant, Joe told Roy that he didn’t want to be in that position, but I guess he won’t listen. Joe told me that he found some information on Sergeant Brandon Gates who was real pals with Deputy Commissioner Janikowski. Deputy Commissioner Janikowski came to my office today. He looked at me across the desk and said I was doing a fine job. Then he leaned in and said if anyone was causing me any trouble, or if I needed anything, and he meant anything, to call him, and he would take care of it. The look in his eye made me wonder what he meant by ‘take care of it’. Not sure I want to find out what he meant.”

“That sounds like a threat,” Lilly said.

“Sure does,” Will said.

“Yeah. Perhaps Joe did find some information that got him killed and Janikowski forced Stillman to drop the case. But who would have that information?” Kat asked.

“I wonder how much Gates knew,” Scotty wondered.

“Can’t ask him. He died in a shoot out ten years after Joe was killed, but I know his sister is still alive,” Will said.

“Gates have kids?” Kat asked.

“Nope and his widow can’t help us either, she’s dead, too,” Will said.

“April 18, 1983— Just found out Joe was killed last night and now I am getting blamed for his death by Roy. I, Brandon and several officers have told him I did not kill his father since my wife and I were having dinner with the Stillmans at their home. Roy told me he didn’t care because he feels his father was robbed of the title that I should not have gotten.”

“That backs up Jeff’s story and Rita’s also,” Lilly asked.

“When did you talk to Rita?” Will asked.

“I called her after we got back from New Jersey,” Lilly said.

A few pages later--

“June 18, 1983— Being lieutenant is harder than I thought and I can see why Joe didn’t want the job. Detective Stillman is a nice man to have around and I feel I can confide in things with him. Roy is still harassing me and blames me for killing his dad. Tommy Greene and Brandon Gates have helped me out with Roy by telling him that I had nothing to do with his father’s death. Roy is so angry; I hope he doesn’t kill me.

“Sounds like one angry guy,” Scotty said.

“He may have ordered our lieutenant’s kidnapping,” Lilly said worried.

After a half hour of looking and reading over the journal they decided to do some more interviews as Will and Lilly went to go talk to Gates’ sister first.

“Hi, Detectives Rush, Jefferies. We are looking for Cathy Johnson?”

“My mom, Cathy, recently passed away. I am her son, Jarrod Johnson. How can I help you?” They walked in and sat on the couch as Jarrod sat on the chair.

“I’m sorry about your mom. We want to ask you about your uncle Brandon,” Will responded.

“Thanks. Well, I know there are boxes of his things in one of the rooms my mom told us to never look at. We also were not allowed to talk about him since he had been disowned, but I never knew why,” Jarrod responded.

“Did your mom ever talk about getting money from someone every month or maybe your aunt told your mom?” Lilly said.

“I haven’t heard anything like that, but just yesterday I looked through one of the boxes and saw an envelope with checks that were never cashed. But last minute family came to visit. I hid the boxes ‘cause I wanted to know about those.”

“Does your late aunt have any other family?” Will asked.

“She has a daughter, Marisa, who lives in town. There are other cousins who live outside of the state but I haven’t talked to them since my aunt’s passing. Here are their addresses, they sent me a condolence card,” Jarrod said as he gave them the address of Marisa and Jeff Tobin.

“Thank you,” Will said.

“Do you know anything about your uncle?” Lilly asked.

“Not really. Being the oldest, I was 10 when he died and my sister, Brenda, was 8. I’ve only heard little things like he was a close friend of former commissioner Janikowski and was killed in the line of duty. Once my Aunt Patricia died, I started to look into his past and found some things that I don’t know if they are true or not. Since my mom forbade me from looking in those boxes, I didn’t look in them since I didn’t want to upset her.”

“Do you ever remember meeting some of your uncle’s friends in the department?” Rush asked.

“No. But I know that when my uncle came to visit we weren’t allowed to be in the room alone with him.”

“How did he react to that?” Will asked.

“I think he knew that they knew he did something and didn’t want him around the kids. I couldn’t even ask him why we couldn’t go get ice cream with him when I was 8.”

“Did Roy Bush call here or send anything like a package?” Lilly asked.

“Roy did call here and just talked about information that then Deputy Commissioner Janikowski had his father killed and that my uncle supposedly had something to do with his death. But he didn’t send any,” Jarrod said.

“Can we take those boxes with us to do our investigations?” Jefferies asked.

“Sure, it’s only two boxes, and here is my sister’s address,” he said as he gave them the information. He led them to the room where the boxes were, and then they both left for the headquarters where Kat had some information.

“Guess what I found here?”

[stillmanfan]

Wednesday March 11th that evening—

“Cole Stanton had called Janikowski and two other people. Those people are the same ones unwilling or unable to talk,” Kat said as she gave the piece of paper to Will.

“Are you kidding?” Will asked. He read that Roy not only called several people but that Cole had also called an unidentified person.

Wednesday March 12th 9am--

Kat and Lilly went to work a bit early to look into some files from Brandon’s box, then Will and Scotty came in a few minutes later. They noticed a list of places that had addresses and that file contained two addresses in Delaware and West Chester.

“Let’s go see if Brenda is home,” Kat said as she and Lilly left.

They arrived on the street where Brenda Moran lived, who was Jarrod’s sister. They arrived at the home then knocked on the door, introduced themselves, and were let in by Brenda’s husband.

They sat down on the couch where some remaining family members of Gates’ siblings were present and wanted to know about their disowned relative. Brenda and her husband sat in the chairs across from the detectives.

“Did you know Roy Bush?” Kat asked.

“I don’t know him personally, but he did call at least once that I know of, and I talked to him for a few minutes,” Brenda said.

“What did he say?” Lilly asked.

“None of it made sense but he said something like he had evidence that then Deputy Commissioner Janikowski ordered Sergeant Gates to kill his father.”

“He said he had evidence?” Kat asked.

“Then we got the package a month ago,” Brenda said as she gave them the package.

“Did you get this before the 13th of February or after?” Lilly asked.

“After the 13th,” Brenda said.

“What about the second time he called?” Kat said as she gave them the date and time.

“Any of you guys take that call?” Brenda asked the cousins, who all said no, then she continued, “My mom, who recently died, may have been the one to talk to him a second time. I remember one day she was very upset and said she didn’t want to talk about it. She was the last person who knew Brandon but she wouldn’t talk about him.”

“I’m sorry about your mom,” Lilly said.

“Thanks,” Brenda said with a smile.

“So who is the oldest who knew Brandon?” Kat asked.

“Jarrod who went back to Atlanta was 10 years old when Brandon died, and I was 8.”

“Did Roy come over or anything?” Kat asked as she showed his picture and they all told her no.

“Thanks, we will look over the package,” Lilly said.

Lilly left her card with them to notify her if there was anything more they remembered and left for the station where Will working on the case.

Back in Darlington--

Howard was in the living room with the three men as they talked, while John took a nap in his room.

“Maybe we should just get out of here! Cops are going to be all over the place,” Richard said worried.

“No, we are in a rural area, there is no way they would think to look here. Besides we’ll be leaving in a week anyway and they are looking almost 15 miles south of us so they don’t know we are still here,” Cole said.

“Alright, as long as that traitor is gone,” Richard said as he looked at Cole, Randy, and Howard.

In John’s room—

John was under the covers sleeping off his flu. As his fever started to go down, he dreamt.

“Hi Rita. You look very beautiful this evening.”

“Thank you, John. You look handsome in that tux,” Rita said. They were at a commissioner’s ball in the mid ‘80’s.

“Glad we found a sitter for Janie and we can dance the night away,” John said as they both danced.

“Yeah. She’s going to start preschool soon and I’m going to be all alone.”

“Nonsense!! I will be here,” John said.

“You are a detective. You won’t be around forever; you missed our daughter’s birth.”

“Don’t start that, please,” John asked.

He dreamt about his family then Howard walked in and noticed he was tossing in his sleep. After twenty minutes of watching TV and seeing John toss and turn, Howard woke him up from his nap.

Meanwhile in Philadelphia—

Lilly and Kat looked over the contents of the package they got from Brenda when Scotty walked in.

“Were you able to talk to Stephen Janikowski?” Lilly asked as Kat started to look at some of the papers from the package.

“Yep. He and his dad aren’t on good terms but Roy never called or visited him. Calls do back him up,” Will said.

“I can’t see him call Janikowski and saying ‘I got evidence and will turn you in.’ He should have gone to the boss and said, ‘I got this’.” Lilly said.

“Yeah right. Roy was already angry at the boss so why would he even try?” Scotty said.

“But do the Janikowski’s know any of the three kidnappers? And if Roy had this evidence the whole time, then what took him so long to reveal it?” Kat asked.

“I’ve already cross referenced the names of the kidnappers to Janikowski and Cole Stanton is the only one who knows him,” Scotty said.

“How?” Lilly asked confused.

“Stanton was arrested in ’85, ’88, and ’91 and guess who bailed him out?”

“Janikowski?” Lilly asked.

“Yep. Janikowski is the godfather of Cole’s son,” Will said as he took out some pieces of papers from the box that Gates’ nephew had given them.

“Any chance for a phone tap warrant at Janikowski’s place?” Lilly asked.

“Should be enough,” Curtis said.

“Let’s get just a phone tap, for now, but who knows, we may need more later,” Will said.

“Okay, I’ll get right on it,” Bell said as he left.

The next two days Will, Kat, Scotty, and Lilly went to the small towns in Delaware and Maryland, they had uncovered, but found the homes that were on the list had been vacant for years or demolished.

They were working on the files they got from Gates’ nephew when Kat did a cross reference between Cole Stanton, Stanton’s son, and Robbie Janikowski.

“You guys are not going to believe this.”

“What?”

[stillmanfan]

“It looks like we have someone in the department who is related to Cole,” Kat explained.

“What? How did we miss that?” Scotty asked annoyed.

“Cole’s son, Dan, is using his stepfather’s name of Marshall. He works in the Northern Division. I got the phone logs and it looks like Dan was called by Cole, and Cole called him,” Kat said.

“I’m not so sure we should talk to him but maybe we should inquire about this to his lieutenant,” Lilly said.

“And say what, we noticed he is related to one of the kidnappers and might want to do a wiretap to find out if he is crooked,” Scotty said sarcastically, as the lieutenant from the Northern Division showed up.

“Hi. Can I talk to Detective Jefferies, please?” the man asked, acting like he didn’t hear what Scotty said, even though he did.

“I’m sorry for what I said, I didn’t mean to show disrespect,” Scotty quickly said.

“It’s okay,” the lieutenant said, with a smile as he and Will walked to a room to talk.

A few minutes later, Will walked out and the lieutenant left for his squad. Will approached his squad.

“There are going to be some stakeouts and only I’m allowed to go.”

“Will there be an arrest?” Kat asked.

“No, we have to let him go,” Will said.

“Why?” Kat asked annoyed.

“Because he might make bail and we can’t take that chance. Besides, Dan contacted his lieutenant when his father first contacted him and he is helping with the investigation.”

March, 14th, 9am—

Lilly and Scotty went to see Tommy Greene. He was a sergeant at the time of Bush’s death, and was paid off by Janikowski.

“Tommy Greene?” Lilly asked as they flashed their badges.

“Yeah?” Tommy said as opened the door.

“I’m Scotty Valens and this is Lilly Rush from Homicide. May we come in?”

“No. Here,” Tommy said as he gave them a card then closed the door.

“Lawyered up,” Scotty said.

“I bet once the boss went missing, Roy called Tommy and he decided to get a lawyer,” Lilly said.

After they got the car, a few minutes later, Lilly called Will for the results of the interview with Greene’s ex-wife, then she hung up.

“His ex remembers the checks Tommy got after Bush was killed. She asked him about it a few times and he’d get upset and change the subject. After a few years, she decided to divorce him since they didn’t get along after that and got custody of the kids.”

“He hasn’t been arrested, but something shook her up,” Scotty said, as they drove off to the station.

Kat and Will went to the home of Charlie Rogers, who also got money from Janikowski and when they arrived there was a police car there and another car.

“Wonder what’s going on there?” Will asked as they both went to the door, then were let in and they introduced themselves.

They noticed Officer Brandon DeSoto talking to an elderly woman, as another officer was on her cell phone then she turned around as she hung up.

“Janie?” Will asked shocked.

“Hi. What?” Janie asked as Roger’s lawyer, Jack Mauer walked up with Charlie’s son, Michael.

“Something wrong?” Jack asked.

“No. Just surprised to see Janie here,” Will said.

“Look, if the situation was reversed, you know my dad would be moving heaven and earth to find me,” Janie said.

“I know. Just don’t want anything to happen to you,” Will said.

“Thanks for looking out for me,” Janie said with a smile.

“What happened?” Kat asked.

“Well, it appears that they are being harassed by a man named Tommy Greene. Charlie is not doing too well with later stages of cancer. His wife is really getting upset with the calls, so we are going to wait till he calls again, then go and arrest him,” Brandon said.

“Brandon, can I talk to you privately?” Will asked and they left the room to talk. Janie sighed annoyed.

“My sister, Chelsea is here, I’ll let her in,” Michael said. He let her in.

The phone rang. Janie saw the caller ID that showed Tommy was calling again. She told the family to let the machine get it. Will and Brandon walked in, then listened to the me
message with Janie and Michael; while Chelsea was with her mom.

The message Tommy left was very disturbing and threatening. He said, “Charlie, you better not say anything about Robbie sending us checks even though we are retired. Roy called and he said he has evidence about his father’s murder. I wonder what made Roy do this now. He’s got that lieutenant who once worked on the case but I don’t know if the lieutenant is alive or not. I am not going to jail and neither are you. Robbie said he would take care of us if we said anything soon after Joe’s murder, remember that? Just watch yourself!”

After a few minutes, Janie and Brandon left to arrest Tommy for harassment and collusion, taking a bribe as a cop, and at Will’s request, put him in protective custody.

After a few minutes they went to see Charlie, who was in his bed, with his wife and daughter at his side. He was oblivious to what was going on. He had a single bed in the middle of the room so there would be room for his wife and children to be with him.

“You can try to ask him some questions,” Jack said.

“Mr. Rogers. I’m Detective Jefferies with Detective Miller from Philadelphia Homicide.”

“Homicide?” Rogers stammered.

“Yes. We’d like to ask you some questions if you want to answer them,” Will said apprehensively.

“What do you want to know?” Charlie stammered a bit as his daughter held his hand.

Kat’s cell phone rang, so she answered it and walked out of the room.

“Do you know who Joe Bush is?” Will asked.

“Yes. He’s dead.”

“Do you know who John Stillman is?”

“Yes. Homicide Detective who was on the Joe Bush case,” Charlie stammered a bit again then continued. “Good man who had to listen to his bosses.”

“Do you know who Brandon Gates is?”

[stillmanfan]

“Mur—Murderer.”

Everyone looked at him, then at the detectives.

“Did he kill Joe Bush?” Will asked.

“Yes.”

“Thank you Mr. Rogers,” Will said as he didn’t feel Charlie was up to answering any more questions. The detectives walked out to the living room, followed by Michael and Jack.

“I looked at my dad’s will and there is something that needs to be given to the police after he is gone, but I don’t know if that has anything to do with the Bush case,” Michael said.

“Okay,” Kat said.

“I’m going to have an officer outside your door for the next few days so you don’t have any more trouble. If anything comes up or you think of anything, here is my card,” Will said as he gave the card to Michael, who shook their hands and thanked them. Then Kat and Will left for their car to return to the squad room.

“What?” Kat asked.

“I can tell that Charlie is going to go and I wanted his family to be with him in peace.”

Back at the squad—

Tommy Greene and his lawyer Andrew Ling were in the conference room with Lilly, while Scotty watched from the adjacent observation room.

“We had a search warrant for your home after we arrested you. That’s really a nice touch, harassing a dying man and his family,” Lilly responded sarcastically.

“What do you need to talk to my client for?”

“We want to know about the payments Janikowski made to your client after April 17, 1983. And why are you still being paid? What for?” Lilly asked as she handed the lawyer bank statements that showed the payments.

“For the record, my client refuses to tell me anything. Is there an offer on the table?”

“No!! I am making no deals,” Tommy said as he folded his arms and leaned back.

“Can I have a moment alone with my client?” Andrew asked as Scotty turned off the speaker and Lilly walked to the observation room.

“What do you think?” Lilly asked as they noticed Tommy and Andrew were arguing.

“He’s not talking. But maybe I can give it a try?” Scotty asked as the lawyer knocked on the window and they both went in the conference room.

“My client refuses to listen and he will have to find himself representation because he fired me.”

“Oh well, that’s too bad because you are going to be held for 24 hours until we decide to charge you once you get a lawyer or you talk,” Scotty said as he sat next to Tommy.

“But maybe you know where our lieutenant is. If you have knowledge of his whereabouts, maybe we can help you,” Lilly said.

Tommy said nothing.

“Fine, let’s go to jail cause you are never going home,” Scotty said as he helped Tommy up and slowly put the cuffs on him.

Scotty gradually led Tommy away from the table while Lilly slowly opened the door. Tommy still said nothing. Scotty led him out at a snail’s pace.

“What the hell is wrong with you slowpoke, I’m not talking.”

Scotty then took him to a holding cell, took the cuffs off him, then closed the door.

“Think about this for awhile, ‘cause I’m serious. You won’t be getting out anytime soon.”

Will called Janie’s lieutenant to inquire about her safety. He found out she had a GPS function on her phone and had a uniform escort, which made Will feel better.

March 19th—

Earlier that day Will received a package from the family of Charlie Rogers, since he had passed away during the night and they wanted to help with the case.

Will looked through it, and saw lots of checks that were never cashed.

He pulled out a typed letter written by Janikowski, with checks tucked inside.

The letter read:

‘Thank you for not saying anything about Joe Bush’s death. He had found out that I made evidence go missing in key cases and he was going to blow the whistle. He also found out that we were letting certain key criminals off by failing to complete arrest reports. Here is your reward for your assistance.’

There was a letter by Rogers that Will read:

“When you read this, I will be gone. I am sorry for not doing anything about Joe’s murder and I know I am guilty of a crime. I love my family and don’t want them to know exactly what I didn’t do. Please, spare them the details if you can.”

Will folded the piece of paper then Scotty read another piece of paper that detailed the murder, who was there, and why.

Curtis Bell walked in to the squad room. He reported Tommy had just left a hearing to compel testimony from him, as Tommy’s son begged him to do. Since Tommy had fired his lawyers, he was given a court appointed one.

“That Tommy fella, he knows something,” Kat said as Curtis had given the information.

“What are you going to charge him with?” Lilly asked.

“So far harassment, covering up a crime, and taking bribes as a cop. The judge has already given the okay to hold him,” Curtis said.

“Have you offered a deal?” Scotty asked.

“Yes. Hopefully a few more hours in jail then he goes to court for an arraignment hearing and no bail should have him talking. I’d rather keep him incarcerated for his protection, as well as Janikowski’s,” Curtis said then left to go back to the DA’s office.

Friday March 20th 11am in Strasburg, Pennsylvania—

John’s captors went out to steal some older model cars which they hoped would be harder to trace. They moved locations again to a home near Strasburg, Pennsylvania. Over the last two weeks, the captors had neglected to feed John, since they had no material interest in him any longer, but Howard would sneak out of the room and bring him some food during the day while the captors were gone. After they settled in, John was in the master bedroom but Howard was bunked with him again even though the home was spacious.

Back in Philadelphia—

Scotty had gone to Darlington, Maryland where state troopers closed in on a home. There was a stolen car outside the home taken from West Chester a few days ago, and the police feared it had been done by John’s kidnappers.

[stillmanfan]

Saturday March 21th 6pm in Strasburg, Pennsylvania—

After the dinner dishes were done, Howard went to check on John.

“I meant to ask you, where is my gun?” John asked.

“Why?” Howard asked, knowing at times John seemed depressed.

“I don’t want the kidnappers and you to use it.”

“They can’t get to it. So don’t worry.”

“I want my gun,” he said sternly.

“I said no.”

“We gotta take a trip,” Cole said.

“Okay,” he said, then stood up and they both walked out. Howard had John’s gun in a holster at his hip as he closed the door behind him.

“I want my gun,” John said exasperated as he played cards.

Philly 9pm—

While Will was on a stake out, Lilly and Scotty were at the bar drinking when a man approached and tapped on Lilly’s shoulder.

“Both of you, don’t move, and don’t turn around,” the man said as he put his hands on their backs.

“Okay, I don’t want anyone hurt,” Lilly said.

She and Scotty were nervous and wondered if they were being robbed, but didn’t think it would happen in a bar with former and current cops in the room. They did what the man told them to do.

“Good. Just do as I say and you won’t get hurt. Just bring your hand on your shoulder, Miss,” the man said.

Scotty looked ahead, as did Lilly while she put her hand on her shoulder. Other patrons noticed but stood back and watched.

“Here. Don’t turn around,” the man said; he was wearing a mask and gloves. He handed Lilly the disc holder.

“Okay,” she said as the man backed away slowly, turned, and ran towards the door.

Scotty turned and ran after him as fast as he could. “Freeze!!”

“Why did I have to be the chubby one, I gotta exercise more,” the man said. He turned the corner as he looked back to see Scotty still far behind.

Scotty started to stop then his cellphone rang. He picked it up and answered, “Valens.”

“Where are you? I’m picking you up,” Lilly said as she drove to Scotty’s location.

“I’m three blocks east, I lost him.”

A few minutes later Scotty got picked up, and they talked on their way to the station.

“Lost him, huh?” Lilly said.

“Yeah, guy ran fast, for a chubby boy,” Scotty said with a laugh. They arrived a few minutes later to process and have the lab check out the disc.

“Sounded a lot like Nick.”

“Yeah, he did,” Scotty replied.

A few hours later, they got the results from the disc. It produced Cole’s prints and a video.

“Here is your lieutenant, sleeping.”

The video showed John sleeping one night, then it showed Cole talking with the camera in hand. John’s right hand was at his side, and his left hand was near the edge of the bed. His bruises and cuts were gone.

“So, you really want your lieutenant back huh? Well, you better just say goodbye to him because you will never get him back, alive. And if you want him home, you have until March 31st at 11:59pm to find him or he will be in the Delaware River.”

The video ended with Cole pointing a gun to the lieutenant, as Cole said goodbye to the camera.

“We gotta find him,” Lilly said worried.

“I had a feeling that once Roy was killed, they might double cross us, and they did,” Scotty said irritated.

“Yeah and the boss doesn’t look all that well either,” Lilly said.

“Well, being in captivity can do that.”

A few hours later Lilly went home for the night. She opened the door then closed it behind her and locked it. Suddenly she saw something.

“What the hell?” Lilly asked in shock.

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“Is that the boss’ gun?” Kat asked. Her eyes flew wide open while she looked at the gun and cartridge on the table, side by side.

“Looks like it,” Scotty said as a CSU tech put the gun in the plastic bag to have it checked for prints.

“Why? What the hell does this mean?” Kat asked.

“I have no idea,” Scotty said.

The next day the print results were of John’s and a set of prints belonging to a fourth man.

All the bullets were still in the cartridge, while the team tried to figure out why the gun was given to them, even though Will knew why.

Will talked to the team about the gun situation, and gave some information from Cpt. Skinner. He read the note:

“I guess we got a visit from the captor last night since John’s gun was dropped off. Because of the police presence at my house, the captor must have gone to other homes. Got a text from Cpt. Skinner, who said John isn’t doing all that well since he has asked for his gun. John told the captor he just didn’t want them using it.

“So maybe the boss is depressed and that’s why the gun was on Lilly’s table?” Kat suggested.

“Yeah and gave the disc to Lilly at the bar, if he was the same guy. Kat did you hear anything last night? Someone trying to open the door?” Will asked.

“No, I didn’t hear anything and we were watching TV. I know I would have if someone was trying to break in, since in the past I’ve heard my mom use the key when I am in the living room,” Kat replied.

“Well, on the disc, Cole has given a deadline of March 31st in finding the boss or uh, he’s gone,” Scotty said.

“Since we got the list of the summer homes, I’ve called other agencies to check them out and send information on it,” Will said.

Sunday, March 22nd 9am, in Strasburg, Penn.—

Cole Stanton and Richard Turner each had stolen new cars, then torched the previous ones they had after dumping them close to the Maryland/Pennsylvania border. They then returned to their hideout.

10pm in Strasburg that night—

Richard, Cole, and Randy decided to leave for West Chester that night. Howard packed up John’s and his things and put them in the car. He went to get John who was asleep.
“What!!?” John asked angrily as he woke up.

“Let’s go man, we gotta get out of here!!” Howard said.

“No man, I’m tired. Just leave me here,” John said as he started to fall back to sleep.

“No, I’m not going to leave you here. If you don’t come, they might kill you. Do you want that?” Howard said as he uncuffed the sink.

“No. I’m just too tired to be moving around and I hate this!! I wanna go home,” John said in a depressed state. Howard then forcibly took John from the bed and carried him over his shoulder.

“I know,” Howard said as they got in the car.

John yawned, then tilted his head on the side of the door and fell asleep. Then an hour later they were in West Chester, again, and they went in the house. John was taken in the master bedroom; the home was very spacious and in a rural area of West Chester. Howard slept on the recliner in John’s room, John slept on his bed, and Randy slept in his room while Cole and Richard were still in Strasburg.

Monday March 23th 8am in Philly—

The police department kept getting leads on the whereabouts of Lt. Stillman. There was one Lilly went to check out with the local department in Strasburg, even though John was no longer there.

An hour later, Will got a call from Lilly.

“Yeah. Oh, Cole’s body was found there? Okay, thanks,” Will said then hung up and spoke to the team, “Cross off Cole Stanton, his body has been found.”

“What?” Kat asked surprised as Scotty looked at Will.

“I don’t think they are in Philly, since I got a message from Capt. Skinner, who reported the undercover officer said they left last night. Also they are much closer to Philly than before and he noticed John is getting more depressed. He also said at the time Cole and Richard had stayed behind but didn’t know when Cole and Richard were coming to the house. The undercover officer also didn’t know when is a good time to try to make an escape and is getting tired of being John’s keeper and wants out of there too.”

“Does he ever give Capt. Skinner the addresses of where they are at?” Kat asked.

“I know that he tells the Captain the home they just left but I don’t know if he tells Wendell where they are at now,” Will said.

“Might be too dangerous anyway, those guys have weapons,” Kat said.

“So we have finished the boxes that were given to us by Jeff and Gates’ nephew. Lots of information,” Scotty said.

“Do we have enough evidence to have Janikowski arrested?” Kat asked.

“For the hit job in ’83, no. Even though Tommy Greene has changed his tune and started talking, I don’t think we can get Janikowski. I’ve been hearing from the higher ups that it seems Janikowski’s health is better and that he doesn’t seem as depressed as he was a few weeks ago,” Will said.

“Checking on those phone records shows that he got the first call from Roy two weeks before the lieutenant was taken and Janikowski’s son said that is the same time his father seemed to take a turn for the worst,” Scotty said.

“I’ve also heard that since about the time Roy was killed that’s when he started to get better,” Will said.

“Sounds like someone’s conscience was bothering them,” Scotty said as Lilly walked in.

“Not much evidence but it has been processed. Looks like Cole was killed during the night.” Lilly said as she sat down.

“Well, I think we should just take a chance, and go to these places at night and get them. I know they have guns but it’s our only chance,” Kat said.

“I agree,” Lilly said. Scotty and Kat nodded.

“Well, the other squads are checking out the other places in Philly and there are only 5 places in West Chester, so I was thinking we could go there,” Will said then continued, “We can go at night, so we can make sure we don’t go in the wrong house and we start tonight.”

Wednesday March 25th 8am in Philly—

Will gave the squad some information from Cpt. Skinner.

“It seems Richard and Randy found out Cole had gone to see his son, who was a police officer. They were worried Cole would double cross them and report them to police.”

Saturday March 28th 8:30am in West Chester--

The next morning Howard woke up to the quiet sounds of silence. He got up, got dressed, and checked to see if John was awake yet, which he was since he had just woken up.

He went in the living room, turned on the TV, and peered out the window to see the van was still gone. He listened to the news from Philadelphia.

“A major break in the case of the kidnapped Philadelphia homicide lieutenant, John Stillman....”

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March 28th—

“Two of the kidnappers, Randy Dixon and Richard Turner, were arrested in Philadelphia and are now in jail awaiting arraignment,” the news woman said.

John was also watching the news as he gave a big smile and pumped his fist, especially when they repeated the story about Cole’s body being found in Strasburg.

“Crap, I gotta make a call,” Howard said. He ran into the room to get his cell phone.

“Howard, you still out there?” John yelled.

“Yeah. You watchin’ the news? You hungry?” Howard asked near the door.

“Yes. I want a bagel and cream cheese. Did you hear about Cole?” John said happily as he wiped tears from his eyes.

“I sure did. Let me make you a bagel,” Howard said.

10:00am—

After breakfast was made, Howard went into John’s room and gave him some food and drinks since he had a small refrigerator in his room.

“What’s going on?” John asked.

“I’m going to a friend’s house and will be gone all day, I don’t know if I’ll be back till late tonight,” Howard said.

“What? Aren’t you going to call the Philadelphia P.D.? I wanna go home!”

“No, I’m not going to call them yet, but I gotta go see some friends first,” Howard said then he heard a car drive up.

“Okay,” John said a bit worried.

“Yeah. Good luck to you,” Howard said. He closed the door and locked it from the outside so John couldn’t get out.

Meanwhile in the Philadelphia holding cell—

Curtis had told the men there would be a deal for one of them, provided their information could be corroborated and the lieutenant was still alive, but after a half hour they both asked for lawyers.

After the lawyers showed up, Bell spoke to each defendant with the detectives nearby. Will’s cell phone rang; he got up to talk to the person.

“Jefferies. Nick? You know where the boss is, and you’re going to get him? Great! I see. Thank you. Let me know when you get into Philly,” Will said as the lawyers for the men, Curtis, and the detectives walked up to him.

“So is the lieutenant alive?” one of the lawyers asked.

“So far yes, but likely because your clients had an undercover police officer with them the whole time.

The lawyers then went to talk to their clients, who were shocked to learn they had been in collusion with an undercover police officer.

Back in West Chester 2:30pm—

A clean shaven Nick arrived at the home. He saw officers outside waiting for him

They started towards the door, and after three tries broke it down, then Nick went on ahead and started calling out. “Boss?!! Hey Boss!!”

The officers cleared rooms, one by one, but Nick headed to a back room, took the padlock off, opened the door, and saw John asleep on the recliner.

“Boss? Boss?” Nick asked as he shook him then John woke up.

“Nick! Hi,” John said with a smile as Nick and other officers stifled their laughter.

“Let’s go home, Boss,” Nick said.

“What about Howard?” John asked.

“Howard? No one here, Boss.”

“Detective Vera, CSU has just arrived,” one of the officers told him.

“Thanks,” Nick said.

“I knew you guys would find me,” John said with a smile as he took his handcuff, the key, and his badge with him.

After a few minutes of chatting, Nick drove John back to Philadelphia. Nick took him home where Janie, Rita, Sean, John’s brother Andrew, and the Cold Case team were waiting.

Once Randy and Richard found out Howard was an undercover police officer, they pleaded guilty to the crimes they committed, including the ones in Maryland.

March 31st 8am—

After a few minutes Nick went into John’s office and closed the door.

“Boss? Can you do me a favor?”

“Sure, Nick?” John asked as he looked at him.

“No more undercover jobs for me, maybe for 6 months?”

“Sure, Nick. Thank you for doing your job,” John said.

“No problem, Boss,” Nick said.

A few hours later, John held a press conference with Nick, Will, Lilly, Scotty, and Kat behind him.

“During the course of investigating my kidnapping, my detectives were also able to solve a 32 year old case. Sergeant Brandon Gates of Philadelphia Police wrote his confession soon after the murder, detailing why and how, and he also retained the murder weapon. There may be leads from this murder that will lead to additional charges in the future. As to the dedication of my team, they proved once again that they are the cream of the crop, and are passionate public servants. My safe return is further proof. No questions at this time, thank you.”

John and his detectives returned inside to the squad room and ordered pizza for lunch to gather together again and catch up with each other.

[stillmanfan]

Hope you all liked this story and the next time I post a story, it will be a bit more like Cold Case with flashbacks and music. ;D