LOVE, LIKE HIS - Chapter 17 : Friday - The Captain - AN ORIGINAL STORY BY @papa-pepper
CHAPTER 17 : FRIDAY - THE CAPTAIN
Cromwell stops by the office after gassing up. Still puzzled over the video from the interrogation room, he begins to sort through the random papers left scattered on his desk.
“Cromwell, can I see you for a minute?”
Cromwell turns, it’s the Captain.
“What is it, Captain?”
The Captain nudges his head towards his office. Cromwell half shrugs before following the Captain into the room. The Captain sits and invites Cromwell to do the same.
Cromwell declines and repeats, “What is it Captain?”
“Who was that man you were talking to yesterday?”
Swier! What has he been up to? A fury of rage flies into the detective...
“A suspect in a case I’m working on.” Cromwell appears to be his normal, agitated self on the outside, but inside a thousand questions are jockeying for position in his mind. “Did that rat Sweir talk?” is the one that breaks through into the forefront.
‘Yeah, I kind of figured he was a suspect. Which case?”
“The murder of Julia Swier.” Cromwell answers.
“Swier? That doesn’t sound familiar.”
“Well it shouldn’t Captain. That was before your time.”
“Honestly Cromwell, you can quit treating me like the new kid at school. I’ve been here over seven years now.”
The Captain, looking disappointed with the Detective, shakes his head.
“Well the incident happed eleven years ago. I’ll let you do the math.” Cromwell grins.
The Captain doesn’t take the bait and maintains his composure. “Eleven years ago? What was the official ruling in the case?”
“Vehicular homicide.”
“Cromwell, do I need to start questioning how you are using your time here?”
Obviously annoyed by the implication, Cromwell sneers back, “Do I need to remind you that I have yet to waste any of my time or tax payer money?”
Cromwell pauses, then adds, “I just feel lead to investigate it.”
“So who exactly is the man you questioned yesterday?” the Captain inquires.
“Gregory Swier, Sir. The victim’s husband.”
Cromwell fears for the worst, but maintains his focus and composure.
“Didn’t you already talk to him earlier this week?”
“Yeah, I talked to him for a bit, and tailed him a little.”
“Who was the guilty party in the original ruling?”
“A kid named Ray Overton. A drunk seventeen year old at the time who collided with the Swiers’ vehicle. He got out Monday after serving 10 years of a 15 year sentence”
“Cromwell, don’t even tell me that was guy you had in here Tuesday morning.”
“Sure thing Captain, I won’t tell you.”
The Captain shakes his head again and looks down, “So you’re telling me that you brought Mr., Mr…”
“Swier, Sir.”
“Right. You brought Mr. Swier in here yesterday to tell him that you think he had something to do with his wife’s death a decade ago?”
“No.” Cromwell replies, “I told him that on Monday. Yesterday I was just sweating him a bit, trying to find out how much pressure it will take to break him.”
Cromwell’s actions yesterday now cause him to find humor in his response to the Captain.
If that was “sweating a suspect”, just imagine what “working him over” would look like!
That could prove to be a source of pleasure; working over a weasel like that.
“Did you talk to him back when it happened?”
“Not formally. I had no reason to at the time, Captain.”
“But now you’ve brought him in twice in the same week for a ten year old vehicular homicide case that was a dead issue a decade ago and that the guilty party has already paid the penalty for?”
The Captain stares up across the table at Cromwell, looking incredibly flabbergasted.
“Do I need to start personally assigning you to more recent cases? What’s wrong with you? This guy is a widower!”
“He’s not the only one!”
Cromwell snaps backs, then momentarily pauses and regains whatever composure he had before adding, “I do have some suggestions if you want to change the way you do your job, but, if you haven’t noticed, I do my job just fine. I wouldn’t worry about whatever I feel like looking into, Captain.”
“Cromwell, I am your supervisor. I know you didn’t like me when I started here seven years ago, and I realize that hasn’t changed, but you had your chance. They wanted to move you up, but you refused, so it’s your own fault that I’m your boss now.”
“Look! I am here for one reason and one reason only. I catch murderers. Near as I can tell, that is not your job, and as long as I am doing my job, and quite exceptionally well I might add, there is absolutely no supervision needed of any of my activities. Go supervise Charlie if you want something to do,” Cromwell yells at the Captain from behind his scowl.
“You did hear what happened on that traffic stop he interrupted, didn’t you? Just because the guy had the same name as one of the suspects in the Hutchenson case! The guy was a seventy year old Caucasian! Oh, you’ve got places to practice supervising all right!”
“I am working on that, Cromwell, but I do supervise all of you, and I need to know what you are up to. You know you are one of the best detectives I’ve got, but I need to make sure that we are using our resources wisely. Having you spend all your time this week on a case that’s a decade old may not be the best use of your time.”
“Look, it wasn’t all week. I broke the Davison Case on Monday too. You did hear that it was the brother? Plus, there is still the weekend. I’ve got some other things I’m working on too, but please understand, Captain, I’ve been at this long enough to know that I do not just get a hunch for no reason. There must be something there, something that was missed the first time around. Something is off. Something is calling me to dig, so I am digging.”
Cromwell is slowly calming down as he defends himself, and the Captain relaxes in his chair and is giving him honest attention.
“This has happened before, and I don’t know how or what or why, but I’m glad for it. Remember the Chang case? Aren’t you glad I didn’t stop investigating that? We were going to let him get away, and he still had three more kids in his custody. That could have been a disaster, but I figured it out. Same thing when the Mayor's niece went missing. You were glad that I was still looking into that, right? You were the one in the paper with him. ‘Case Solved’ Captain! And last year, the one down by the lake…”
“The couple?” The Captain interrupts.
“Yeah. No one thought we would ever figure it out, but I kept feeling driven to ask the neighbors. For three months I was asking questions. That would have been a great opportunity to waste time, but it paid off, didn’t it?”
Cromwell breathes deeply.
“Captain, I honestly don’t know what’s up, but something is. There’s just been too many times I needed to keep looking, and this is one of them. I’ve got plenty else going on, but I have a rare chance here, and I want to use my time right before I get my fingers slammed in the window of opportunity, and another murderer gets away. I hope you understand, but I’ve got work to do.”
Cromwell exits before the Captain can say anything one way or the other, but Cromwell’s ranting has put him at ease about the detective’s use of time.
“I forgot to ask him about parking on curbs and drug-dealing grandmas,” Captain smirks, and turns toward his computer.
Cromwell approaches one of the younger techs.
“I was wondering if you could give me a hand with something.”
The tech looks up and responds, “Sure, Detective, what’s up?”
Cromwell knows this guy sometimes reads the Bible during his breaks, and hopefully he will be able to give him some insight into this big Book full of Gary’s excuses.
“I’m working on a tough one right now, Kyle, and your expertise may be able to give me the insight I need to break the case.”
Kyle finally disengages his focus from the computer screen in front of him and looks up at Cromwell with a quizzical expression.
“How is gaining a better understanding of computer programs going to help you?”
Cromwell shakes his head and pats Kyle on the back.
“No, no, no. Not computers, Kyle, it was actually your understanding of the Bible that I was interested in. Unfortunately, I haven’t been up on my studies, and I couldn’t help but notice that you’re a believer too. I’m currently trying to pin this murder suspect down, but he keeps twisting around the Bible to make it seem like the whole thing is a misunderstanding and that he’s just following the commandments of God. I must admit, he’s pretty good at it too.”
“Exactly what did you have in mind?” Kyle asks.
“I guess it would be best for me to see what the Bible really says on a few different subjects.”
Cromwell stops, but quickly adds, “I’ve never really tried to look at the Bible from this point of view, you know? I think I know what it says, but I want to make sure, because this guy is one crafty snake, and I need to pin him down.”
“Uh, sure Detective, I have this online concordance I sometimes use.”
Kyle busily starts typing away.
“You just type in whatever word you think is in the verse you want, and it will pull up all of the possibilities. You can check it out for a while, I’ve got a few errands to run, but if you need any more help, just let me know when I get back. You got this, right?”
“Yeah, no problem. Thanks a lot,” Cromwell’s expressed gratitude is eerily absent from his voice as he slides into Kyle’s seat and dismisses the tech.
He thinks momentarily before typing “Death” into the concordance search engine.
The results are almost instantaneous. As hundreds of verses begin to scroll down the screen, a few catch the detective’s trained eyes. Cromwell begins to jot down some notes as he says to himself, “This will give me some ammunition.”
THE END OF CHAPTER 17
TO READ THE PREVIOUS CHAPTERS, CLICK BELOW:
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
CHAPTER 2: THE FUNERAL
CHAPTER 3: MONDAY, & FREEDOM
CHAPTER 4: TUESDAY
CHAPTER 5: INTERROGATION
CHAPTER 6: PROBATION
CHAPTER 7: RAY’S TURN
CHAPTER 8: ICE CREAM
CHAPTER 9: LATE NIGHT
CHAPTER 10: WRESTLING
CHAPTER 11: THURSDAY: MORE QUESTIONS
CHAPTER 12: WHAT HAPPENED?
CHAPTER 13: PHONE CALLS
CHAPTER 14: GAME OVER
CHAPTER 15: DRINKING & DARKNESS
CHAPTER 16: GOOD MORNING
MY NAME IN PEPPERS
(I didn't have any lights....)
Thank you, and stay tuned for LOVE, LIKE HIS : Chapter 18 - Coming soon to a steemit near you
Also, if you enjoyed this chapter, let me know by leaving a comment! Thanks
Awesome Handcrafted @papa-pepper logo kindly donated by @vlad - Thank you!
Well worth the wait. Thanks for sharing this chapter.
It is humorous to me that the timeline of the story has basically been 5 days, plus the setup.
Yet, it takes me months for me to publish it here.
Thanks for the encouragement.
Ch 17 was enjoyable. Finally no more tension besides a minor sense of static between a detective and his supervisor. I like the Introsuxtiib of Kyle and the reliance of Cromwell's curiosity about using the Word for his own agendas and studies. Now to see how twisted his interpretations will be when he most certainly will take God's wisdom out of context.
Thanks!
Chapter 5 just got crazy intense, definitely didn't see that plot unfolding. Nice twist so far. I'll make sure to write in a generalized sense so as to not give away any spoilers for others to come across if they are only checking the comments section and haven't begun to read A Love Like His yet. That investigator is very persistent indeed!
The story does have a lot of intensity and plot development.
Thanks for not spoiling anything!!!!
You're welcome. Chapter 6 I hope I can tackle today. I hate reading comments that give spoilers. Even I do not like to watch movie trailers because they also give pretty big spoilers just to promote the best parts of a movie then after watching the trailer you feel like you've seen the whole movie, or at least all the climatic and action packed parts
Just finished Ch 4, uh oh, the sunglasses finally makes their move. Story is getting interesting and I do enjoy your character development as well.
Yeah, some of it amazes me because I wrote portions of it so long ago.
Thanks for keeping me updated as you continue
I think I'll publish it once I'm done.
You're very welcome, I feel the same way about my story too, and that's a great idea, best of luck to you finalizing your story and then getting it published. If you want or need a creative editor, I'm right here. I'm well versed
Thanks, and thanks for the offer!
You're very welcome.
Beautiful story my friend, @papa-pepper congratulations
Thanks, I'm enjoying sharing it here, and I'm glad that others appreciate it.
Versão em português desse post:
LOVE LIKE HIS - Capítulo 17