'rabbi' as his advocate. And three, he knew that Halley was deeply religious, with a highly developed sense of morals and ethics. Underneath all the police bullshit, he was a stand-up guy. If Halley could be made to believe Shane's story, he would come aboard, regardless of the consequences.
Shane had started his DFAR talking about the kidnapping of Chooch and Longboard, finally convincing Halley that they had been hit over the head, tied up, videotaped, and abducted from his Third Street apartment. They had then been taken to Logan Hunter's mansion in Arrowhead and held there for two days by current and former LAPD officers.
Shane, Alexa, Chooch, and Longboard all volunteered to take lie-detector tests, and after Halley agreed, Conklyn rolled a big, new Star Mark polygraph machine into the FI room. One by one they were given the test, and one by one they passed.
Shane could see the building frustration in Bud Halley's hazel-green eyes as night turned to day.
By ten o'clock the helicopter had been pulled out of the Little Bear River. Inside were the remains of the pilot, as well as Logan Hunter and Joe Church. Kris Kono had been found in the shallows with Alexa's 9mm slug buried deep in the Hawaiian officer's chest.
It was all exculpatory evidence, further sustaining Shane's statement.
Alexa and Shane described the events that occurred in Miami, starting with their attempt to rescue Sandy Sandoval and ending with the attack by Drucker, Love, and Calvin Sheets. Alexa handled their escape from Elton John's Biscayne Bay estate, then Shane explained about Ray's Arrowhead house and how Molar had been blackmailing the Long Beach City Council so Los Angeles could get control of the naval yard. Halley listened, took notes, and groaned as the scope of the corruption grew larger, reaching all the way up through the chief of police to the mayor's office.
Halley kept the startling events under wraps as best he could, but of course Logan Hunter's death had leaked out. News crews from L. A. were arriving in vans and helicopters. The newsies were already picking up other shreds of the story, sharking for details, sensing that much more was at stake.
'I don't know what to do with this,' Halley admitted to Shane and Alexa after he'd heard it all. They were no longer being kept in holding cells and were seated in Sheriff Conklyn's office. He had promoted them from suspects to witnesses.
Out the window they could see a small TV uplink antenna farm being constructed on the vacant property across from the police station.
'I'm gonna call in Erwin Epps,' Halley finally said, referring to the Baptist minister and political activist who had just been elected head of the L. A. Police Commission. 'Under Section 78 of the city charter, the board of commissioners has the power and responsibility to supervise, control, and regulate the department.' Halley quoted the section from memory.
'Good idea,' Shane said.
Shane asked for and was given a chance to talk to Chooch. The boy was staying in the Arrowhead Motel with a sheriff's matron. Shane was driven over and let himself in.
Chooch was watching the news, his legs stretched out on the bed. He snapped off the television as Shane came through the door.
'Man… can you believe the coverage this is getting?'
'Chooch… I wanna talk to you about your mom.'
'I know about Sandy… it's on the TV.' His voice was guarded.
'I'm sorry you had to hear it that way. I wanted to tell you, but they wouldn't give me a chance until now.'
Chooch nodded, his black eyes showing little. 'I'm sorry she's dead,' he said. 'I didn't want that to happen… I just wanted her to…' He stopped, then shook his head in frustration. 'You know what I mean.' He looked up. 'You and me are the same, Shane. I got nobody, same as you.' The way he said it, Shane couldn't tell what he was thinking. Chooch, like Shane, had become good at hiding his emotions.
'I want you to know something something important about your mother.'
'That she loved me?' the boy said, but his tone said he found it hard to believe.
'Yeah, she loved you, and she died trying to save you. She gave herself up for you, Chooch.'
Chooch got up off the bed and moved to the window, his muscular body silhouetted in the morning sunlight streaming past him into the room.
'You were the one who saved me,' he said softly.
'I never would have known where to look if your mother hadn't gotten that information for me. She gave up her life to get it.'
There was a long moment, then finally Chooch turned and faced Shane. 'I want to cry for herIt seems like I should.
Am I being an asshole?'
'No, Chooch. I just wanted you to know. Whatever you feel about Sandy, in the end, when it counted, she was there for you.'
Chooch nodded; suddenly his eyes filled, and he moved quickly to the bathroom and closed the door.
At two that afternoon, Chooch was picked up by the Child Protection Section of the Social Services Department and whisked away. Shane was back at Sheriff Conklyn's office and found out about it an hour after it happened. They said that since Chooch had no mother or father, he was being remanded to Juvenile Hall.
Shane knew he couldn't claim Chooch without a DNA test, and that would take time. Besides, the more he thought about it, the more he was beginning to suspect that Sandy had lied about his being Chooch's father. It was just what she would do just like her to say that to get Shane to look after Chooch once she was gone. Either way, he couldn't get a DNA analysis up in Arrowhead, so it would have to wait until he got back to L. A.
Three hours later, Reverend Epp arrived and conferred with Bud Halley. He was a tall, dignified African American in his fifties who had tremendous credibility in the black community and had been put on the L. A. Police Commission to help deal with the charges of racism that had plagued the post-Daryl Gates department.
The two devout Christians listened all over again as Shane, Alexa, and Longboard Kelly retold their story.
Slowly, over a period of hours, it became distressingly clear to both Captain Halley and Reverend Epps that much of what Shane and Alexa had been describing was undoubtedly true.
The two tired sergeants were finally allowed to move into the Arrowhead Motel to get some sleep. They had rooms right next to each other but were too exhausted to even say good night.
One by one, other members of the L. A. Police Commission quietly arrived in town. They had decided to hold their meeting in the Arrowhead Lodge, away from the sheriff's department and the hovering press corps.
At the end of their first meeting, after Shane, Alexa, and Long-board had retold their stories, Sheriff Conklyn got a district judge to issue a search warrant.
On Monday evening they broke the front-door lock and entered Logan Hunter's lakeside mansion. What they found in his office files pretty much confirmed everything Shane and Alexa had been saying.
At ten o'clock on Tuesday morning, Reverend Erwin Epps chaired a meeting in his Arrowhead Lodge hotel room. Shane and Alexa were both present, along with Captain Halley, Sheriff Conklyn, and the entire seven-member L. A. Police Commission.
'I think we now have to consider Section 79 of the L. A. city charter,' Epps said gravely. Then he took that bound document out of his briefcase and opened it to a paper clip marking the section.
'Let me read this to refresh you: 'A simple majority of the Police Commission is necessary to enact the provision of Section 79, which grants the commission the right to appoint, as well as to remove, the general manager of the department. However, the chief of police shall only be removed under the terms and conditions in city charter, Section 202.' ' He flipped to that section and read the paragraph pertaining to the removal, suspension, or demotion of sworn police officers, then:
'I think we need to instruct the head of the Internal Affairs Division to draft a resolution to suspend the duties of Chief Brewer and bring him up on administrative charges. The head of IAD should further notify the district attorney of the possibility of criminal misconduct.'
Shane couldn't help a small smile thinking of the panic that 'resolution' would bring to the vanilla features of Commander Warren Zell.
