Detective John Livingston Harvard looked across his desk at his best friend, Detective Nick Giovanni. Sheets of paper containing reports, witness statements and crime scene photographs, took up nearly every square inch of desk space. “It’s him, Nick,“ he snarled uncharacteristically. “I know it’s the contractor and you know it’s him.”
Nick shook his head slowly in response. “I don’t know John. I know he’s in the vicinity of every one of the missing boys and none of his alibis stand up, but still, I…”
“NICK,” John roared, cutting his friend off in mid-sentence. “he’s snatching up boys at the rate of one a week and the week is almost up. We know that a kid on the baseball team he coaches reported that he felt him up after practice. The first victim was from the same team he coaches. In fact, that’s the one link we have, all the missing boys are on Little League baseball teams. The guy’s own wife says that he loves boys and she says even she’s suspicious about his actions sometimes. What more do you want, another missing kid? We need to do it now Nick. We need to snatch him up.”
Giovanni calmly stared at his partner. “I know, I know, but I question the motives of the kid that claims the coach felt him up. As the coach says, he did release him from the team and the kid was pretty pissed about it. On the other hand, we’ve also got a line of people saying the guy’s a saint. None of em believe he would do something like this,” his hand waved over the pictures lying on the desk while his face twisted into a grimace. “His own wife not withstanding.” He began shaking his head again. “What’s with you buddy? Why are you so focused on this guy? It’s not like you.”
John stared up at the ceiling as he responded, his temper cooling rapidly. “I know how these contractors are. They are low life’s that got lucky and make a ton of money. They don’t have any class to go with it and they think they’re better than everyone else, smarter, untouchable.” He returned his gaze to Nick. “My best friend in junior high school was abducted. He disappeared after Little League practice. They found his body buried in the gravel of a foundation they were about to pour. The site manager decided that the floor wasn’t ready. For some reason, it turned out to not be level even though it was perfect when they left it the night before. He had a couple of his guys check it and while they were moving gravel around, they found my friend. The cops determined pretty quickly that it was the general contractor for the job that did it, but his attorneys got him off. He walked scot-free, walked out of that court room with the biggest, cockiest smile you ever saw.”
“I’m sorry about your friend John. I really am and now your attitude makes sense. But what happened before doesn’t change the facts on what we have now, on this case. Look, you’ve got an arrest record that most cops can only dream about. Your instincts are always right on, to the point where it’s just plain spooky at times.” Nick’s face took on a sad, imploring look. “But I’m telling ya, I think that you’re letting your past override your judgement this time. You know that no one here will argue with you. You go to the State’s Attorney and he’ll tell you to snatch him up, trusting your judgement. Maybe you are right, but I think we need to look at some of these other suspects a little closer first, especially that electrician.”
John shot to a standing position, his temper rising once more. “No! I know I’m right and we don’t have the time to be dickin’ around with anyone else.” He began go to cram the contents of his desk into a huge spandex file. When he was finished, he stopped and looked at Nick. “You coming?” It came out as more of a demand than a question.
Nick sighed and stood up. “Yeah, I’ll come but I’m doing it under protest.” He shook his head as he prepared to leave. “I’m your friend and I’m your partner and I go where you go.” He looked straight at John as he slowly, loudly, let out a huge breath. “But I s