| Casey woke the next morning to the sound of a soft ballad playing on her alarm clock. At first she didn't recognize her surroundings but then remembered that she was in her new temporary home. After dressing and making a cup of coffee, she took a few minutes to read over the directions to the station that Capt. Jameson had given to her. The drive to the station was quite scenic and she made mental notes of several places that she would like to visit. It was all so beautiful and she hoped to be able to get in some sightseeing soon. Upon arrival at the station, she was directed to the conference room where Captain Jameson was waiting with several other officers. Casey: Good morning. I hope I'm not late. Capt. Jameson: Good morning, Inspector Reed. I take it you found your way here with little trouble? If you would all take a seat, we'll begin this meeting. I would like to introduce Inspector Cassandra Reed from the Amarillo PD. As most of you know, she will be working with us on the Gonzales/Bastille case. The officers were given files containing all pertinent information regarding the case and Casey filled everyone in on the Gonzales case from Amarillo. Jameson finished the briefing and then introduced the officers that would be assisting with the case. Capt. Jameson: Detective Oscar Hart will be playing the lead guitar. He's a classically trained guitarist but promises to play with a twang for this assignment. Officer Toby Clark is a bass guitarist who has played with several bands around the bay area. Officer Brooks Hardin is a part-time music teacher and he will be playing the drums and finally, Detective Christine Anderson will be playing the keyboards. You all have a list of the songs that Inspector Reed provided and you have permission to begin rehearsals this afternoon. The first show is scheduled for tomorrow night. Are there any questions or comments? Casey: I would like to know just how involved The Tanner's are in this case. They're old friends which makes this case even more important to me. Jameson: Chuck and Jen Tanner have been fully briefed about what will be happening as far as surveilence in the club. There will be extra security placed throughout the crowd and an officer will be assigned to them nightly. Chuck Tanner has identified a few people who have been seen associating with the Bastille gang at the club and he is co-operating with us all the way. We will take whatever steps are necessary to protect them while this investigation is on, so there's no need to worry about that. Anything else? Ok then, we meet at the club later this afternoon. Dismissed. The officers gathered around to introduce themselves after the meeting was adjourned. "Please, just call me Casey" she told them. There was no need for formality...they could be working together for a long time. * The morning had started early at the Special Investigations Unit. Captain Nash Bridges had been awakened at 3 am by his partner Joe Dominguez. Nash(answers phone sleepily): Bridges. Joe: Nashman, I'm at S.F. General. You'd better get over here. Dominguez had been summoned to the hospital by Dr. Mark Greene. It seems that two men had been brought in to the E.R. earlier with one of the men suffering convulsions and severe abdominal pain. Tests revealed four condoms filled with cocaine in his stomach. Apparently, stomach acid had dissolved one of the condoms enough to release the cocaine into his system and the amount was enough to produce symptoms of an overdose. Doctor Greene's concern was the three remaining bags that were still in his stomach. Should they dissolved, the man would be dead within minutes a matter of minutes. Nash strolled calmly into the emergency room and was joined by Joe Dominguez as they walked towards the private treatment area to meet with Dr. Greene. As they passed by the waiting area, Nash noticed that the other man had been placed under arrest and was sitting quietly while under the watchful eye of Officer Ronnie Russell. Nash: Dr. Greene? Captain Bridges, SIU. How's the patient doing? Greene: For now, he's stable but I'm concerned about those other packs of cocaine in his stomach. I really don't like the idea of performing surgery to remove them but time is of the essence now and if one more dissolves, he could be dead within 3 minutes. Nurse(yelling): Dr. Greene...he's convulsing again. Mark Greene rushed into the treatment room while Nash and Joe stood outside in the hall and watched. The medical team did everything possible but the man could not be saved. Too much cocaine had been released into his system and they could not resuscitate him. Dr. Greene(walking back to Nash and Joe, looking defeated): He's gone. I can not understand why these people would risk their lives to smuggle that stuff into the country by ingesting it. In the past two years, I have worked on about twenty cases involving drug overdoses or related problems caused by smuggling drugs inside of the body. Out of those twenty cases, we may have saved less than half of those peoples lives. (shakes his head in disbelief) I hope that you guys have more luck figuring this thing out because I haven't. Nash(shaking Greene's hand): I can't make any promises Doc, but we're gonna try our best. Thanks for you help. Joe: I hope that guy was paid upfront for his services. I wonder how much money it takes to get someone to swallow a condom filled with cocaine just to get it through customs? Nash: Probably not much. You offer some poor, down-on-his-luck soul a few bucks and a free trip south of the border and bam! there's your mule. The trouble with that deal is like the good doctor said, a majority of those people don't live to enjoy the benefits of that money. (stopping to talk with Officer Ronnie) Ronnie...take this guy to the SIU and book him. We'll be in shortly to have a little chat with our friend. (points to the suspect) Oh, and you might want to think about the fact that your friend just died from an overdose. Let's see how that sets with your conscience for a while. Nash and Joe climbed into the yellow 1972 Cuda and squealed the tires as they left the hospital parking lot. This was the second death of a drug mule in less than a month's time. Nash's sixth sense told him that something big was going down and one name came to his mind quickly. Ramone Bastille, a widely known and feared drug kingpin. He was somehow connected to the Golden Triad in Chinatown and there was also a Las Vegas connection. He didn't have all of the details yet but the SIU would now make this case their number one priority. * Casey had followed the large black surveillance truck from the North Beach Station to the Haight-Asbury section of town where the Tanner's club was located. She climbed out of the mustang and surveyed the outside of the building. It was not large, holding maybe a capacity of 150 people tops. The big neon sign simply read "CJ's", no doubt named for Chuck and Jen. When the group entered the building, Casey was greeted with a bear hug from Chuck Tanner. He picked her up, swinging her around until she was dizzy. Casey(laughing): Mr. T. put me down. You know I hate heights. Chuck Tanner: I was so glad to hear that you were the one coming from Amarillo to help us out. We really have missed you sweetie. How've you been? Casey: I'm good. So where is Miss Jen? Chuck: She'll be in later today. I prefer that she stay away from here as much possible until this thing is settled. Chuck's big smile momentarily left his face when he spoke. Casey looked up into those sweet brown eyes and assured him, "We'll take care of everything, I promise. The crew went about setting up the surveillance equipment throughout the club and Chuck showed them the table that the Bastille associates used for conducting business. Casey had been sitting at the bar listening as the members of the band warmed up. "They're really good" she thought to herself and suddenly felt extremely nervous about joining them onstage. Thirteen years had passed since she was a 22 year old who sang with some college buddies in a local coffee shop for kicks. Now, here she was 35 years old and this was no coffee shop. She was expected to sound like a professional. Oscar motioned for Casey to join them onstage as they began playing the music to Wild Angels, a song that reminded her of Tommy, Evan and herself as kids. While she sang, Casey watched as Chuck began taking chairs off of the tables, setting up for the evening crowd. When he realized that he was being watched, Chuck began dancing along to the music and she had to laugh. Casey was willing to lay her life on the line for Chuck and Jen Tanner to keep them safe. She could only pray that it wouldn't come to that. The equipment was set up throughout the club and most of the officers had left with the exception of Casey, Christine and Oscar. They were sitting on the edge of the stage, talking with Chuck and had not noticed the young boy who had entered the club and was hiding inside of a storage closet. He was talking on a cell phone and relaying information to an unidentified party. Boy: Yeah...it's me. Thought you might want to know that this Tanner guy has hired a band to play at the club. What you want me to do? * * * |
| CJ Chapter 4 |
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