The sun is high in the clear blue sky and the shards of sun light fracture off the windshields of the passing cars. Hot and frustrated people are dashing from sandwich bars back to the shackles of their air conned desk jobs. The police radio crackles with low level activity...a small traffic collision near the Tower Bridge...a report of a dog on the lose in a central park...and Joe's cell phone buzzes for his attention...
When are they going to get me off the street? Joe wonders, stupid politicians keeping beat underfunded. The cell phone is a welcome distraction. "This is detective O'Connel."
"Detective," says an unfamiliar male voice, "this is the Major. We met the other evening. Is it safe to talk?"
"Major, nice to hear from you. How can I help you."
Ahhhh damn, and now the crazy vet comes out.
Thankfully the crazy vet sounds calm and collected...hopefully he won't be launching into a rant about the Second Amendment or CIA conspiracies. "I have a possible lead on something for you...something you may find interesting. Did you wish to rendezvous to discuss, sir?"
Yup, off the deep end. Alright lets find a nice public place that won't play to his conspiracy theories.
"Sure, lets meet.." Joe thinks for a moment, discarding coffee shops, abandoned parks, his office, and several others, before arriving at a nice, safe choice. "at the downtown library."
"Downtown...library?" he repeats, slightly confused by that. He was thinking of a public park...with the ability to 'walk and talk'. "Affirmative. I can be there in the hour, sir."
"Excellent, I'll wait for you there." Joe hangs up, a little relieved. Enough to keep the guy off balance so that he would't feel in control of the situation, and thus start dictating terms like the shadow guy in the warehouse, but also safe enough that he should feel comfortable enough to answer questions. And besides a Friday afternoon on a hot fall day? Place would be near empty, in case the Major does have something real. Joe heads downtown to the library.
The traffic is backed up at several junctions by the usual problems of a city too small for its population. By the time Joe arrives at the library the streets have emptied of workers at lunch and are now lightly scattered with the idle or those on errands. Finding somewhere sensible to park was very easy.
Joe heads inside and picks up one of the journals of Criminal Justice and begins to read. He doesn't focus too hard on the material, despite its interest, he is keeping an eye open for his contact.
3 successes Perception
Once inside the cool and inviting building and having located the journal of transient interest he can spy, over by one of the photocopies, a tall man...he closely resembles the Major...dressed neatly in the sort of preppy 'sports casual' you might find on any suburban golf course. He seems to be vigilant too in between making copies of a large street map of the city.
Joe notices the man and nods, before finding a large work table. City maps. Fuck. This is going to be a while.
Nodding a subtle confirmation of greeting Major White gathers his maps and the copies thereof and makes his way over to the table Joe's selected. The Major is careful. Taking time to watch the entrance before seating himself near Joe and laying the maps down, as if he's about to inspect them for some pedantic reason. "Afternoon." he offers in a friendly and hushed tone. It's a library and most of the noise is from the tipper-tapper of laptop keyboards and the buzz-hum of photocopiers and printers. "Fancy seeing you here." he offers with a smile.
"Indeed." Joe goes along with the enigmatic discussion. "Interesting maps." Joe doesn't try making sense of them yet, waiting for the Major to explain his 'theory'.
"Affirmative." he agrees, nodding, "Lot of interest in this new planning application..." he begins quietly making a few marks on his still warm copy of the Elk Grove sheet of the city map. Marking out a few streets and circling a few street corners. "...but those planners don't know the first thing about what this city really needs." As he speaks he writes a note to Joe. It reads; 'I have some interesting photographs and notes to share. Did you come alone?'
Joe peruses the images, while also keeping in mind where the photographer would have to be to achieve them.
The photos seem to be a mix of hastily snapped shots of the outside of a suburban steak house and of various street corners. Joe can deduce that many are probably taken either from a moving vehicle or from a pedestrian walking by the steak house. As many of them are at night as during daylight and some are time-stamped going back several weeks. The street corner shots show a collection of youths in street gear looking as vigilant and menacing as they can and many of the steak house shots show various vehicles (cars and delivery scooters) parked up or moving off from the rear and side staff entrance of the building.
Joe looks at the pictures, the map, and tries to build an understanding of what the hell this guy is trying to "prove."
Joe can figure out that the street corners the guys marking on the maps probably link to the ones he's been taking shots of. The 'AS' on the map seems to be the steakhouse. As he studies the photos he can also recognize a few of faces of low level street kids who run with some of the gangs in Elk Grove and Rosemont. He also thinks he might recognize one of the cars parked up at the staff side door of the Alpha Steakhouse.
It's a car he's seen at the police station a few times. Not a regular cop on his beat, but no stranger to the deployment. An officer by the name of Eric Smith.
"Interesting pictures, but I'm not connecting A and B." Joe points to the AS on the map and one of the street corners.
The Major nods and whispers, "These..." he points to the street corners, "...are the OP's of the gang that runs it's field HQ from here..." he points to the AS on the map. "The Alpha Steakhouse. I think they use the cover of the scooter deliveries to move clandestine shipments of narcotics about the area."
"Hmmm, thank you for this. I will look into it."
Man, is this a stretch! But still, he didn't mention Eric, which he would have if he was well an truly grasping at straws. So maybe 5% chance its real. Worth a look at least.
"Thank you. That's reassuring." he nods again. Clearly sincere. He slides the maps over to Joe with subtle motion. "I've marked the OP's down." Privately worried that Joe might stumble into some ungodly ambush.
"Though, what is an OP?"
"Ah, Observation Post. The gangs think they're being subtle. But the small groups aren't really vigilant...they end up acting more as sentries and guards than observers." he shrugs. Clearly dismissive of the poor skills the street kids clearly show.
"Aha. Thank you for that. I'll hang on to these. Thank you Major."
"Glad to help, Officer." Robert smiles. Nodding a fraternal nod to Joe.
End Chat scene ~ with thanks to S'bad
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