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The Final Judgement
Cinnamon
"Did you ever get that home-cooked supper you was braggin' about last mornin', Munchkin?" Lewis squinted in the Sunday morning sunlight, even through his sunglasses.
Munch, however, scowled. "Yeah, Faith had it nice and warm when I got home at two o'clock this morning. No, Meldrick, I didn't get my dinner, what do you think?"
"I think you done woke up on the wrong side of the bed this mornin'."
Munch slammed his car door shut and scowled at Meldrick again. "You want to know why it was the wrong side of the bed? Huh? It's because there was no woman in the other side of it."
Lewis looked over the roof of his car at Munch for a moment, then started walking towards the front of the police building. "I don't know what the hell that woman sees in you."
***
"Y'all find your man yesterday?" Meldrick sat down at his desk and flipped through his messages.
Bayliss handed Meldrick a piece of paper. "You left this in the copy machine." It was an assorted form from the Laura Bray murder investigation.
"Oh, thanks, Bayliss."
"No luck yesterday. We took Merlin home last night when you and John were in the Box with that rapist." Tim sat in the chair next to Meldrick's desk.
"The magician?"
"What?"
"Who's Merlin?"
"Our shooting witness."
"That kid that was here?" Meldrick grabbed his football and held it in his lap.
Tim nodded.
"Damnedest thing I ever saw, the way Gee took to that kid. He give you any more info or somethin'?"
"All he knows is that the shooter is his brother."
Meldrick huffed. "So he don't know much, huh?"
Frank entered the room and immediately walked over to where Meldrick and Tim were seated.
"Want to go for a ride?" he asked.
"Do I have a choice?" Bayliss was already standing.
"I could go alone," Frank said.
"Bye, Meldrick."
***
"Is this the same car we had yesterday?"
Tim shrugged. "I don't know, Frank. Why do you ask?"
Frank loudly sniffed the air. "Because I can still smell that damn cologne sample."
"You have a nose like a bloodhound, you know that?"
"What?"
"That's why you are such a good homicide cop, Frank."
"Bayliss, what in the hell are you talking about?"
"You are a good cop, Frank, and that's because you have such a good nose."
Pembleton nodded. "Go ahead and tie that knot in your tie a little tighter, Bayliss. I think your brain is still getting some oxygen."
"Are you all right, Frank?"
It was the second time in 12 hours that Frank Pembleton had been asked that question. When Frank had finally gotten home the night before, he found that he couldn't sleep. In fact, Mary had woken up at 4 A.M. and discovered her husband sitting at the foot of their bed.
"Are you all right?" She said up and rubbed his back. "Are you sick?"
He shook his head. "Can't sleep."
Mary crawled to the edge of the bed and sat next to her husband. "Why?"
Frank looked at his wife. "It's nothing, Mary. Go back to sleep."
"Did something happen today at work?" Mary knew her husband wasn't like his partner, in that Frank rarely lost sleep over cases.
"Mary," he replied, annoyed. "I said I'm fine. Go back to sleep."
"You usually don't bring work home with you, Frank, not like this."
Pembleton didn't want to tell his wife that Merlin was weighing heavy on his mind, so he eventually made up a story about getting into a fight with Bayliss. Frank assured Mary that he would make up with his partner, and then he made love to her. Afterwards, as they lay together, Frank still didn't sleep.
"Frank," Bayliss repeated. "Are you listening to me?"
Pembleton pulled up in front of Merlin Dupri's rowhouse and turned off the engine. "No more than I have to, Tim. Come on."
Frank and Tim walked up the steps in front of the house and knocked on the door; there was no answer.
"Come on!" Pembleton shouted and pounded on the door again.
Finally, a short, heavyset black woman opened the door. "You want something?"
"Yes, ma'am, we're Baltimore Homicide."
"Y'all the fellows had my boy?"
"Are you Dawnnetta Dupri?" Bayliss asked and the woman nodded.
"We had your son yesterday, ma'am."
"When y'all gonna bring him home?" Dawnnetta rested against the door frame.
"We brought him home last night, ma'am," Frank said hesitantly. When Pembleton had carried the sleeping boy into his house last night, Merlin's mother was still not home.
"I got in from working at 3 this morning, and my baby wasn't here," Dawnnetta looked annoyed more than concerned.
"Are you sure?" Tim looked at Dawnnetta intently.
"Hey, I know when my baby's home." Both Frank and Tim knew that wasn't true, but they figured she knew what she was talking about this time.
"Is there anywhere he could be? Anywhere at all that you can think of?"
But Frank cut his partner off. "Son of a bitch."
"Frank?" Pembleton was halfway to the car.
"Scooter. Son of a bitch!"
"Frank!" Tim had no choice but to follow his partner again.
***
"Kellerman, Homicide...yeah...OK, got it." Mike hung up the phone and called to Stivers.
"Hey, Terri, wanna ride?"
Stivers looked up from the Sun and smiled. "What'd you get, Mikey?"
"Little dead kid in the park."
"Oh," she smiled again. "A dead kid? Never would have guessed."
***
"You fellas ever planning on getting an ID on that body of yours down in my office, or...?" Julianna, referring to Laura Bray, ambled into the coffee room and found Munch and Lewis reading the Sunday edition of the Sun.
John and Meldrick looked up from their papers and at each other.
"Have you made any plans, Meldrick?" Munch looked over the tops of his glasses at his partner.
"I ain't made no plan for that today, no."
"Ha ha ha. Cute, boys," Cox helped herself to the squad room sludge. "What do you want me to do with the body?"
"The sister's flying in from St. Louis sometime this morning."
Julianna nodded. "Just let me know before you come down so I can have it ready for viewing, all right?"
"Sure thing, Julie C," Meldrick made a big show out of unfolding the Sports page.
"Always a pleasure, boys," Julianna laughed and walked out of the room.
***
Frank Pembleton wove the issued Cavalier in and out of traffic, in desperate pursuit of the Dupri brothers, Scooter and Merlin. He would have preferred Merlin, but he'd take whomever he could get. In his urgency, Frank regularly blared the car's horn and cursed when other motorists weren't moving fast enough for him.
"Take it easy, Frank." Trying to lighten the mood, Bayliss added, "I feel like I'm riding with Lewis."
Pembleton didn't respond; instead, he drove faster.
Tim sighed and fell silent. Part of him almost hoped they didn't find Scooter, for fear of what Frank would do if Scooter had hurt Merlin.
Pembleton brought the car to an abrupt stop at the curb and hopped out.
"Hey, cornerboy!" He grabbed a man in a striped shirt by the neck and pushed him, face down, onto the hot metal hood of the Cavalier.
"Yo man, get off me!" The man's face contorted as Frank's grip tightened. "Get off me, motherfucker!"
Frank smiled and bent down so that his head was almost touching the other man's.
"You're Andre," Frank whispered.
"What you want, man?"
"We had a conversation yesterday, do you remember that? My partner and I talked to you about your pal Scooter Dupri." Pembleton spat out Scooter's name as if it tasted sour on his tongue.
Bayliss stood, leaning on a lamppost, just watching Frank and Andre.
"Did you talk to your pal Scooter last night?" Frank's voice was still barely above a whisper.
Andre seemed to nod.
"Is that an answer, bitch?" This time, Frank roared. "Is that a yes," he moved Andre's head up and down, and then side to side. "Or a no?"
"Yes, man! I told Scooter I talked to y'all." Andre finally stopped squirming under Pembleton's grip.
"What did you tell him?"
"I told him y'all came around askin' questions 'bout him, and 'bout some dude that got capped."
"And did we tell you not to do that?" Frank's box theatrics were in full effect, but this time, he was truly feeling every emotion he was projecting.
"Yes."
"And you went on ahead and did it anyway."
"Yeah, man," Andre kind of chuckled. "Did y'all really think I wouldn't?"
Frank eased his grip on Andre's neck, only to smash the man's face onto the hood once more when he tried to stand.
"Where is he now?" Pembleton was still yelling.
"Who?"
"Scooter!"
"I don't know, man." It seemed to Tim that Andre was struggling to breathe. "Last night, he done said somethin' 'bout affairs--that's his word, affairs--he done had to take care of."
"What affairs?" Frank demanded.
"I ain't know what they was, man, and I ain't know where he's at." Andre gasped. "Damn, motherfucker, let my ass up!"
Pembleton relented, and Andre coughed, rubbing his neck where Frank had held him. He glared briefly at Bayliss, then at Pembleton, before running down the block.
Tim slowly climbed into the Cavalier and shut the door. "Well," he finally spoke. "That went well."
***
"You're unusually quiet," Stivers remarked from behind the wheel.
Kellerman shrugged. "Am I?"
"Yeah," Terri tried to look at Mike and the road simultaneously. "Why? Don't like your company?"
This time, Mike laughed. "Yeah, it's such a bitch to work with you."
They fell silent again, and then Kellerman said, "If Gee finds out about us..."
"He won't."
Mike shook his head. "You don't know that, Terri."
"Mike," Stivers maneuvered the car though road construction and around a corner. "The only person who knows about us is Meldrick."
"Wait, you told Meldrick?" Mike was stunned.
"He can keep a secret, Kellerman; he's not Bayliss." Stivers had always been able to trust Meldrick, and she knew Meldrick meant it when he told her that he'd keep her affair with Kellerman under wraps.
Mike took a final drag from his cigarette and tossed it out the window. "I told Julianna."
"Julianna Cox?"
Kellerman nodded.
"Oh, Mikey..."
"It's not like she's tight with Giardello, Terri." Now Mike was the one sounding confident, and Terri, worried.
Stivers sighed deeply. "All right."
She stopped the Cavalier and started to step out, but Mike leaned over and kissed her on the cheek. "Why don't we not worry about anything until we have to?"
Terri still looked uneasy. "What's this with you being sensible?"
Mike laughed and they walked up to the crime scene together.
A uniformed officer met Mike and Terri in front of the convenience store and them that the dead child was out back. Then the uniform seemed to blush.
"I'm sorry," she said. "I don't remember your names. Detective Stivers and...Mickey something, right?"
"Yup," Mike winked at Terri. "Detective Mickey Kellermouse, that's me."
The uniform escorted the detectives around to the back of the building, where they found the body of a little boy lying in a pile of trash.
Mike saw the child and shut his eyes. "Jesus..."
"Mike?" Terri knew child murders were hard, but this one wasn't any more gruesome than the last one she'd worked.
"Remember that kid in the squad room yesterday?"
Stivers shook her head and held up her left hand. "I was at the hospital all day, remember?" She had cut her finger making breakfast, and ended up needing stitches.
Kellerman ran his own hand over his face. "I forgot...real sweet kid, witness of Frank's."
Terri's eyes widened. "This is him?"
"Yeah," Mike looked at the dead child again. "His name is Merlin."
***
After Stivers and Kellerman worked the Merlin Dupri crime scene, they went back to the station and told Giardello what they had found. Saddened, Gee paged Frank and Tim, who were now standing outside the Lieutenant's office door.
"This about the shooting yesterday?" Pembleton asked after knocking on the door.
Giardello nodded. "Come in, both of you. And shut the door."
Frank and Tim did as they were told; looking for places to sit, they saw Kellerman and Stivers.
"What are they doing in here?" Frank gestured towards his fellow detectives. "What's going on, Gee?"
"It's about Merlin Dupri."
Pembleton looked at Bayliss. "What? What about him, Gee?"
"We found him in a Dumpster today," Kellerman spoke up.
"In a Dumpster? Was he hiding?"
Terri Stivers cleared her throat. "He was dead."
A silence took hold in the room, as Giardello looked at his desk, Bayliss looked at the floor, Pembleton looked straight ahead, and Kellerman and Stivers looked at each other.
"Frank?"
Without a word, Pembleton stood and walked from Gee's office.
Bayliss ran his hand over his face. "What happened?"
"He was shot in the head, then stuffed in the Dumpster," Kellerman answered.
Tim stood. "Check on the bullets--I'd say the one from Merlin will match the ones from our guy yesterday." With that, Tim also turned and walked from the office, in search of his partner.
***
Bayliss found Pembleton on the roof, as expected.
"I'm sorry, Frank."
Frank, who was sitting on top of the bench by the fence, kept his back to Tim and said nothing.
Gingerly, as if he were literally walking on eggshells, Bayliss moved closer to the bench. "Do you want to talk about anything?"
Still facing away from his partner, Pembleton answered. "No."
"Okay," Tim sat down next to Frank on the bench, where he was greeted with a slight sneer and nothing more.
Bayliss took a deep breath, then exhaled loudly and slowly. Loosening his tie, he said, "It's getting warm out here, huh? Summer is coming, no doubt about it."
Pembleton once again remained silent. Upon hearing from Dawnnetta Dupri that her youngest son was missing, he'd known that the boy would be found dead. Frank could even maybe understand why Scooter Dupri thought he had to kill Merlin, but he couldn't fucking make peace with the death of that child.
"Are you hungry?" Tim's voice was becoming borderline shrill as he continued speaking. "It's way past lunchtime, and I know you didn't eat yet. Why don't we go down to Jimmy's or maybe even the Waterfront for an early dinner? I know the weather's not right for it, but I could thaw out some of Munch's meatloaf. You know, that jalapeno with the gravy. Or Jimmy's has those BLT's Kellerman is always talking about. What do you think?" Tim stepped from the bench and started walking backwards towards the stairs. "I'll just go tell Gee that we're talking off and--"
"Bayliss, I came up here to be alone, OK?"
"Oh. Yeah, of course. Well, do you just want me to bring something up for you to eat up here? I'll just run and get you a sandwich, my treat. How's that?"
"I'm not hungry, Tim. I don't want a sandwich, Tim. I want you to leave me alone, Tim." Pembleton's voice grew louder with each word he spoke.
Bayliss said nothing in response, and things became so quiet on the roof that Frank assumed that Tim had left. And then Bayliss spoke again.
"Adena Watson--"
Pembleton whipped around and finally looked at Tim. "Enough with Adena Watson! Damn it, Tim, I'm finished listening to you weep for Adena Watson!"
"Why is it OK for you to feel things, Frank, but I can't? Huh? Why is that?" Bayliss screamed back.
"There are some things that happen that don't have anything to do with you, Bayliss."
"I liked him, too, Frank. You know that, right?"
"What are you talking about?"
"Merlin." Tim advanced a few steps towards his partner. "He was a great kid."
Frank turned on the bench to face the fence again. "Doesn't matter now."
"What? You don't believe that, Frank." Bayliss raced around to the other side of the bench to look at Pembleton.
"How do you know that I don't believe that? You don't know me, Tim."
"I know that that boy meant something to you, more than you want to tell me." Bayliss maneuvered himself so that Frank was forced to look at him. "And I know that you are hiding up here so nobody sees you cry for him."
Bayliss and Pembleton held eye-contact until Frank spoke again, softly. "I want to be left alone. Will you just leave?"
Tim nodded, and walked away. "Yeah, Frank, I just left."
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