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The Final Judgement
Cinnamon
"So what is it today?" Meldrick Lewis crossed his ankles on top of the coffee room table.
John Munch didn't look from behind his newspaper. "What?"
"Your--your fact, your little tidbit. Another ice floe broken from the glacier Munch. You always come in tellin' me or Bayliss or somebody one of your funny little facts." Meldrick crossed his arms this time and set his eyes firmly on his partner. "So out with it."
"Scorpions," Munch replied as he turned the page in his newspaper. "They glow under black light."
"Now who the hell goes around stickin' a black light on a scorpion?"
Munch sighed and finally folded his newspaper. "When scorpions are hunted, for their venom, they are hunted at night. The "hunters", who are truly men of science, take the black lights with them so they can see the scorpions as they skitter across the sand. All right, Meldrick?"
"Yeah, OK. Scorpions, black light. Got it." Lewis rolled his eyes and looked at his watch. "Where the hell's that sister?"
Lisa Bray was supposed to fly in that morning to identify the body of her sister, Laura. It was now 5:30 in the afternoon, and Munch and Lewis had still no official ID.
At that moment, Naomi stuck her head into the coffee room, and said in her perpetually bored voice, "There's a woman out here asking for a Detective Lewis."
Meldrick chuckled. "That's what I like to hear...it had best be a pretty lady, that's all there is to it." Walking into the squadroom, Lewis saw a woman with long blonde hair sitting in the chair next to his desk.
"Can I help you?"
"Detective Lewis?" Meldrick nodded and the woman stood. "I'm Lisa Bray."
Meldrick went to call Dr. Cox after he introduced Lisa to Munch, who asked her why she was late in arriving to Baltimore.
"There was weather trouble," she offered apologetically.
"Julie C's ready and waiting," Meldrick put his jacket on and took Lisa Bray to identify the body of her little sister.
***
"Why do you think Pembleton and Bayliss had such a hard time finding this one?" Mike gestured towards the backseat where Scooter Dupri was handcuffed and scowling.
"It's too bad they didn't find him before he killed his brother," Stivers turned in her seat to face Scooter and accentuated the final three words of her statement.
"I told y'all I didn't kill my brother," Scooter whined. "I ain't seen the boy in months."
"You'll have plenty of opportunities to lie to us when we get you in the Box, Scooter. Why don't you just conserve your energy?" Stivers turned in her seat again and silently faced forward until they arrived at the station.
Mike tossed Scooter in the Box, handcuffed him to the table, and
followed Stivers to Gee's office.
"We got him, Gee," Terri told her Lieutenant. "Where's Pembleton?"
"Tim went after him; I haven't seen either of them since."
Howard stuck her head in Gee's office to hear Stivers say, "We thought Frank and Tim might want to listen in from the observation room."
"You got Scooter in the Box?" Howard asked.
Kellerman nodded. "Yeah, Sarge."
"You guys go talk to him; I'll see if I can't find Frank, hmm?"
Giardello nodded, and addressed Kellerman and Stivers. "In the meantime, you two get in there and see what you can get from him on the boy's death. If he confesses to that, he has to confess to the first shooting at the grocery store."
"Got it, Gee," Terri answered, then noticed that Mike was already gone.
"Scooter," Kellerman sat at the table across from Dupri. "Is Scooter your real name?"
The man, who was barely 19, shook his head. "Nah, it's Sheffield."
"Brother like you named Sheffield?" Stivers shut the Box door and shot Scooter Dupri a disbelieving stare.
"Hey, don't look at me like that, lady. I didn't pick it out."
"OK, but how do you get from Sheffield to Scooter?" Kellerman asked.
"How they get from Richard to Dick, man? I ain't know, all right?" Scooter looked around uncomfortably.
"So there was Sheffield and Merlin running around the Dupri home. Any other kids?" Stivers noticed the way Dupri's face hardened at the mention of his brother's name.
"Got a sister, Fatima. She lives down the street from my moms."
Stivers opened her mouth to ask another question when she heard the Box door open behind her and slam against the wall.
"Scooter Dupri."
For the first time, Scooter chuckled. "You the one been messin' with my friends."
"I am," Pembleton kept his eyes only on Dupri, not seeming to notice Kellerman's perplexed gaze.
"Frank, what are yo--" Bayliss ran yelling after his partner and stopped abruptly when he realized he had stepped into the middle of an interrogation.
"I'm going to have a chat with my good buddy Scooter." The two mens' eyes never left each other.
"Uh, Frank," Mike stood very close to his fellow detective and spoke softly into his ear. "This is my interrogation."
Pembleton finally broke his gaze with Scooter, and shot daggers at Kellerman. "I'm staying."
After stepping out of the Box, Frank and Mike engaged in a brief but heated discussion with Sergeant Howard, and she decided that Kellerman and Pembleton would both interrogate Scooter Dupri; Stivers and Bayliss would watch from the observation room with Gee.
"How are you feeling?" Frank walked back into the Box.
Scooter shrugged. "OK."
"OK?" Kellerman asked. "You mean you don't feel guilty?"
"After all," Pembleton interjected. "You killed two people. I would imagine that would weigh heavy on the mind of a man."
Scooter shrugged again. "It probably would. But I didn't kill no two people."
"Oh, did you kill somebody else we don't know about?" Kellerman chuckled.
"Here's what happened. You tell me if this is about right." Frank leaned across the table to closely face Dupri. "You killed Ardnow Leonard over drugs, or money, or a girl, as far as I can guess. It doesn't really matter why you killed him, I suppose. The point is that you did. So you saw your brother there in the parking lot, and you knew he saw you commit the crime. Did you think he wouldn't finger you, son? Because he did. He did finger you, and you found out, and BAM!" Frank made two fingers into the shape of a gun and pretended to fire it at Scooter. "You killed him, too!"
Scooter's facial expression remained unchanged, but he jumped slightly at Frank's gun gesture. "And how would I do that?"
"With the gun we found on you," Mike answered. It was true--when Scooter had been arrested that afternoon, Stivers found what would turn out to be the murder weapon in Scooter's pants.
"Just 'cause I got a gun ain't mean I killed no one."
"But we know you did," Pembleton and Kellerman were working well together. "We have an eyewitness statement naming you as the man who shot Ardnow Leonard."
"Who's the eyewitness?" Dupri asked.
"Your brother signed a statement yesterday," Mike supplied.
"A witness statement from a dead kid." Scooter half-laughed, and his demeanor changed. "That ain't gonna fly."
In the Box, Frank picked up his chair and moved it so he could sit inches from Dupri.
"Did the 'dead kid' beg?"
"Excuse me?"
"Did he beg?" Frank repeated in the same tone. He spoke very softly.
Scooter was handcuffed to the table, but nevertheless tried to maneuver away from Frank. Seeing this, Kellerman placed a firm hand on the back of Scooter's chair.
"Answer him," Mike said.
"He cried," Scooter offered.
Frank and Mike locked eyes; Scooter was confessing.
"Tell us."
"I hid in the bushes and waited for Blackie here and that other dude to bring him home."
Frank was stunned. He had been so damn close to Scooter. If only he had checked, if only he had kept watch on the house like he should have, that little boy would still be drawing breath.
Kellerman could see in Pembleton what Bayliss saw--that Frank was on the verge of a breakdown--so he spoke before Pembleton had the chance to.
"What else?"
"I broke a window to get in the house, and woke Merlin up. I said we was goin' for ice cream, but I took him to the gas station. I parked around the back, next to a dumpster, and made him get in it."
"What else?"
"I took out my gun and told him he had done something wrong. He started to cry, sayin' he was sorry, and that he'd tell y'all it was a mistake that he saw me. He started cryin' more, and screaming for his mama." Scooter looked at Frank. "He didn't give me no choice."
Frank had tears in his eyes, but he would be damned if he let them fall. "Say it."
Scooter seemed to revel in Pembleton's palpable pain, and said very slowly and with a grin on his face, "I shot him."
Giardello saw Frank begin to rise from his chair. "Go, Bayliss."
By the time Tim got into the Box, Mike was holding a thrashing Frank back from attacking Dupri. "Come on, Frank," Bayliss guided his partner from the room. "It's all right."
The two barely made it out the door before Pembleton fell to his knees. "Son of a bitch," he wailed with his head in his hands. "Son of a bitch."
***
Mike Kellerman stood over the sink in the men's restroom, trying to wash his hands in the absence of soap and water. The best the faucet could muster was a thin stream that one would call lukewarm only when feeling generous. Scanning the walls for a paper towel dispenser that actually had paper towels in it, Mike found none, and cursed as he dried his hands on his pants legs.
"I'm going to have to talk to Gee about this," he said aloud, though he had no intention of taking the issue up with his Lieutenant.
Kellerman studied his reflection in the mirror, and thought of Stivers. He wanted to take her away somewhere. Nothing extravagant, maybe just sailing over a long weekend, or going for a drive and spending a few days at the beach. Terri had some vacation time coming, and Mike was due his, too. He would definitely mention that to Gee.
Mike heard the door open and saw Bayliss gently leading Pembleton into the bathroom. Kellerman averted his eyes from Frank's weary and tear-streaked face and stepped out of their way. As he left the bathroom, he heard Tim speak.
"Here, rinse off your face," Bayliss said softly. "It'll make you feel better, Frank."
Detective Kellerman made his way to the coffee room; his stomach was calling for a late-in-the-shift snack in the form of a burrito. Upon his coffee room arrival, he found Howard and Lewis sitting at the table.
"Hey, Mikey."
Kellerman popped his burrito into the microwave. "How are you guys faring on this drama-filled night?"
"We're gettin' by." Meldrick took a bite of a chocolate snack cake and wiped his mouth. "I'm educatin' Sergeant Howard here on the finer points of the Moon Pie."
"Moon Pie?" Kellerman repeated, incredulous.
"Yeah, Mikey, you know. Marshmallow filling and delectable graham cookieness, all coated with chocolate. The Sarge here ain't never had one before, can you believe that?"
Kay smiled. "What can I say, huh? I've lived a sheltered life." She licked her fingers.
Kellerman and Lewis chuckled lightly, then fell silent. The three sat wordlessly around the table until the microwave emitted a high-decibel beep.
"Who's up?" Howard said dryly.
"Smells dead to me." Meldrick watched as Mike removed the burrito from the microwave and eagerly dug in. After three forkfuls, however, Kellerman made a face, spit into his napkin and shook his head.
"Hot on the ends," he said. "Cold in the middle."
***
Bayliss abandoned the idea of helping Frank wash his face after he tried to turn on the faucet.
"The roof," he said, with another guiding hand on Pembleton's back. "We just need some fresh air, huh? What do you think?"
Frank either didn't mind going up onto the roof, or he didn't care enough to protest; either way, he didn't speak until he and Bayliss were outside.
"The night's clear."
Tim nodded, and curled his fingers into the openings in the fence. A faint cool breeze blew for just an instant, but long enough to ruffle Bayliss' hair.
"Did you see that?" Tim opened his eyes to see Frank pointing off to the distance.
"See what?"
Frank slowly lowered his arm. "It--it was a shooting star."
"I missed it."
Pembleton sighed, almost imperceptibly, but Tim heard it.
"Do you think they mean anything?" Tim asked. "Shooting stars?"
"Shooting stars are actually meteors. There really is no such thing as a shooting star."
"OK, so what do you think the 'meteors' mean?"
"I don't think they mean a thing, Tim." Pembleton drew quiet again, then shivered. "I'm cold."
"Frank, it's at least 75 degrees out here."
"Well, I'm still cold." He shivered again. "I'm going home."
Bayliss watched his partner cross the roof, gait sadder than usual but still very much Frank Pembleton.
"Want me to drive you, Frank?''
"I'm fine."
"'Cause I need to be leaving soon anyway, so I could just go now."
"I don't need a baby-sitter, Bayliss." Frank shook a hand in Tim's direction, waving without actually turning around. His step grew faster and stronger, returning to normal just before he vanished from Bayliss' sight.
***
Tim stayed up on the roof, waiting to feel another breeze or catch sight of a shooting star, until the sun rose. The sunrise was a sorry one, one that barely brightened the sky before rainclouds chased it away. Bayliss heard the strong crack of thunder and ran for shelter, but not before getting thoroughly soaked. On his way back to the squadroom, he ran into Colonel Barnfather.
"Detective Bayliss, I'd like to speak with you and Detective Pembleton about the Ardnow Leonard case."
Tim ran his hands through his wet hair and flicked the beads of water from his fingers onto the floor. "Frank went home."
"Well, it's an important matter, and it needs to be discussed." Barnfather paused. "Especially the involvement of Merlin Dupri."
"I don't know what I can tell you about him. He's dead."
Barnfather looked sharply at Tim. "Yes, Detective Bayliss, that's the point."
Tim stood a little straighter. "We did our best to keep that boy safe... sir."
"That remains to be seen, Detective. You and Detective Pembleton are expected to be in Lieutenant Giardello's office at 10 AM for a meeting with myself and Captain Gaffney. Make sure both of you are there." Barnfather looked disapprovingly at Tim and his wet suit, then continued down the corridor.
Bayliss sighed as he entered the squadroom, realizing suddenly that he was very tired. He headed for his desk to call Frank, and noticed that Munch and Lewis were still there.
"Rough night, Timmy?" Meldrick chuckled.
"Getting rougher," Tim plopped down in his desk chair. "I have been summoned by Barnfather."
"We saw the Doublemint twins down here with Gee," Munch spoke from the typewriter.
Bayliss yawned and looked at his watch. "What are you guys still doing here?"
"What are you talking about, Bayliss? This here is my life." Munch continued typing.
"Munchkin here is jus' riled up 'cause he missed another dinner with his lady friend." Meldrick tried to toss his football at Bayliss, but Tim shook his head. "Woman killed her husband, we had to go. Dunker, dunker, dunker."
Abruptly, Tim stood. "I have to go home and change." He stretched out the muscles in his arms by holding them tight above his head, and cracked his neck.
"Take it easy, Bayliss."
Munch ripped his report out of the typewriter and signed it quickly. "Slap your John Hancock on this and take it to Gee, will you? I'm going home."
"Will do. What's up with you?"
"Dining with Faith," John said. "I'll surprise her, breakfast in bed. French toast, orange juice, coffee...." Munch continued talking, about flowers, lingerie, and a hand-made breakfast tray, as he walked away.
Meldrick looked around the squadroom and saw that he was the only one there. He put his feet on his desk and threw his football in the air, making a perfect spiral.
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