Hinesville: Living Homicide Vic (part 9)

Vivian made a call right before Lane joined her. The two stepped out of the squad room, walked about ten feet and Vivian stopped Lane.

Vivian glared at him. "You seem to be cautious for a reason. I didn’t want to say anything in front of the others, but you need to tell me what’s going on."

"What do you mean?" Lane sighed, almost in defeat.

Ben and Nate soon walked out to meet the pair in the hallway.

"What's going on?" Lane questioned the three as they all looked at him.

"We were able to recover video from the dry cleaner about twenty yards from the incident." Vivian watched him as she relayed the information.

"So what?"

Nate looked put off as he thought about the evidence that was found, "It's from the date of the incident, and we were told no one had ever come to talk to them." They all turned to see Mason re-enter the building.

They could see the realization hit Lane, “You have to realize, I was not involved with this case until today, so most of this information is just as new to me as it is to you.”

Mason walked over to the group wondering how much information they were able to get from Lane.

"Whose case was this?" Ben turned to look as two detectives from unit 1 walked out of the squad room headed to the lab.

"Carson and Price," Lane sighed and glanced around.

Ben turned to Vivian. "Take the video to the annalists just like you planned, but list our unit as the only one privy to the information."Vivian Cooper and Mason told Ben and Nate they had made a copy of the Video at the State Police Cyber Crimes Unit just outside of Savannah.

She walked off with the copy of the video headed to the computer forensics lab down the hall.

"Tell us about your gut, what set it off?" Mason turned to Lane.

Lane's look turned to one of disgust. "I went to the same neighborhood about two weeks after this happened, nothing to do with this case. Well, me and Hank, my partner, get out of the car and the people in the neighborhood ran."

"So, a lot of people buck the police when we show up." Ben was surprised this even hit his radar just based on that one comment.

"No, this was different." Lane thought about that afternoon. "This was inordinate fear. They didn't want to be anywhere near us."

Nate was surprised by the revelation. "Why didn't you say anything before?"

"What was I going to say?" Lane shifted his stance and set his gear down on the floor, "Seriously I'm supposed to walk up to my captain and say my gut tells me a cop, a 15 year veteran, is out there threatening witnesses, possibly killing people. Besides, I did talk to a buddy of mine, who's a supervisor on patrol."

"What did he say or do?" Mason questioned as Vivian returned.

"He said he would talk to his snitches and see what they heard." Lane gave a quick glance up and down the hallway. "I had done the same with mine."

"And?" Nate pushed for an answer.

"Mine wouldn't even talk about it, they'd just walk away, cussing for the most part, my buddy told me the same." The anger was now obvious on Lane’s face.

"Ben and Nate," Vivian turned to the two agents hoping they would agree with her request. "We're going to talk to the intended victim, why don't you guys go to the transit authority, and, maybe by some miracle, see if they still have video of that day?"

"That sounds good," Ben agreed with a nod.

"Were they able to identify the guy on the phone?" Mason glanced over at Ben and Nate.

"We have a possible nickname, but that's it." Nate took a step toward the squad room to get his gear. “But that might be enough.”

Mason turned to Vivian, "Let's head over there and talk to the victim, he knew enough to leave when he saw the man on the phone, so chances are he knows who it is."

"I'll catch up with y'all at the unit," Vivian told Mason and Lane and hung back to talk to Ben and Nate.

Ben and Nate knew something was going on, and watched as the two detectives walked out of the building.

"What ya' got Viv." Nate looked concerned.

Vivian looked up at the men, "It's just a thought, I don't know who collected the evidence to present here, but why don't y'all swing by the evidence locker in Savannah."

"Just to make sure everything was collected." Ben nodded and understood what she was getting at.

"Being FBI will give us a little more clout, that’s a great idea.” Nate agreed.

"Right," Vivian sighed and glanced at the Savannah detectives in the squad room.

"Why didn’t you say anything in front of Lane?” Ben was concerned she was worried about Lane being involved in the investigation.

“It didn’t have anything to do with what I just asked you,” a look of concern flashed across her face as she thought about how to explain what she was feeling. “It’s just that, he doesn’t seem himself, since you all came over to Cooper’s. Is he doing alright?”

Nate sighed and him and Ben looked at each other. Wondering if they should tell Vivian what was going on.

“What is it?” This really concerned Vivian, surprised by their reaction.

“I know you guys go way back,” Ben started. “But don’t tell him we told you this.” Vivian nodded becoming more concerned. “All that stuff that happened to you, he took it kind of hard.”

Vivian sighed and looked as if a revelation had just hit her. “Damn.” She pushed back some hair out of her face. “Is he going to be alright? I mean I know how he feels, but I don’t know how to help him out with that.”

“Viv, don’t worry about it.” Nate tried to settle her before they left.

“I’ll talk to him.” Vivian looked at the men as they all started walking to the entrance of the building.

“Don’t tell him we told you anything,” Ben requested as they stepped outside.

“I won’t, I’ll just ask him how he’s doing,” Vivian assured them. “Thanks guys. We’ll probably meet up with y’all somewhere in Savannah.”

“We’ll see you then,” Nate told her and they all went to their respective vehicles.

Vivian climbed into Mason’s SUV, and Lane turned to her. “Is everything alright Viv?”

“Yeah, I just need to talk to them about something, and I suggested they go by the evidence locker in Savannah to make sure that they, whoever packed up the evidence, packed it all up.”

“That’s a great idea, Viv,” Mason nodded in agreement as he pulled out on to the highway.

“It is because I don’t think this is going to be exclusive to Carson,” Lane concurred, and turned around to look a Vivian.

With that the three headed over to Savannah to try to find the suspected target.

The three walked up on the apartment building the intended victim was reported to live at. It wasn't fancy but it wasn't a slum either, falling somewhere on the lower side of the middle. It was one of the nicer buildings in the neighborhood, that had rundown buildings, and vacant lots.

"There he is," Lane said as he walked up on a group of men standing on the corner, a fenced in vacant lot behind them. "Popcorn," Lane called out. All but one man in the group walked away.

"How can I help you Detective?" The man asked casually as he leaned against a fence.

"I think you know why we're here." Lane trotted up to him and shook his hand.

Vivian looked at the man, there was something familiar about him. "Franky?"

He turned quickly to her. "Miss Vivian?" He popped up off the fence and stepped over zealously to hug her. He hugged her and picked her up off her feet.

"How are you?" Vivian asked excitedly as he looked at the man that towered over her. "You're not my little buddy any more."

The men stood in shock, laughing slightly, as the two quickly caught up.

"No, I'll always be your little buddy," Franky told her with a smile. "I'm doing great!" He smiled as he set her down.

"Franky?" Lane asked with a grin.

"Hey," Franky said seriously, but chuckled. "Only Miss. Vivian calls me Franky."

"Trina and Jerome?" Vivian asked thinking about his brother and sister.

"Doing great."

"I've missed you guys," Vivian’s heart could have burst at that moment. "How's your mama?"

Franky's face turned a little sad. "She passed, a couple of years ago now."

"Oh, I'm so sorry," Vivian couldn’t believe she hadn’t heard. "She was a good lady."

"Thank you, Miss Vivian," Franky told her in earnest. He smiled at her and hugged her heartily again. "I can't believe it's you."

He set her down again, "What are you doing in Savannah?"

"I'm part of the Major Case squad, and we're looking into the case from last year, the one where they tried to kill you." Vivian looked over at him waiting on a reaction.

“I should have known you would figure it out,” Franky sighed and looked over at her.

The group ended up at a restaurant, in a private room, talking to him.

"A year and a half ago, the shooting that happened over here, seven people were killed," Vivian explained to Franky after they ordered their food. "You were the one they were trying to kill. Why?"

Franky sighed and looked over at Vivian. "I witnessed something." He glanced over at the men wondering if he should talk in front of them.

"These are good guys, I promise you that," Vivian assured him.

"I buy properties, fix them up and then sell them," Franky began to explain looking down at his drink and then back up at the officers. "One after noon I was in Eastside looking at an old building, and I saw a couple of cops making a deal with the devil himself."

"Who's that?" Lane knew that could be any number of people in Savannah.

"Rodrick Brown." Franky answered Lane and saw that look of acknowledgment.

They could all see Lane get angry, "What exactly did you see them do?"

"I saw them open their trunk to show Rodrick guns, and Rodrick's men took them out transferred them to his car. He then handed an envelope to the cop, and made some comment about seeing him that weekend." Franky knew this was going to cause a shit storm, but he was glad it was finally going to be over.

"Just playing devil's advocate, but could he have been working undercover," Vivian was hoping against all hope there could have been a rational explanation for the exchange.

"His badge and gun were completely visible." Franky knew what she was looking for, but there was no room for doubt. "I was three stories up and one lot over and could see them, if Rodrick and his thugs couldn't, then they're blind."

"Do you know the cop's names?" Lane could see the writing on the wall, but had to ask the questions.

"I didn't at the time, but I asked around, and eventually found out– Carson and Price."

"How did he find out you saw that?" Mason chimed in.

"A buddy of mine was with me, he's not a bad guy, he just talked too much," Franky continued, looking down at his hands. "He walked up as the cops were leaving and saw everyone involved, and put two and two together."

"What happened to him?" Mason figured he was one of the ones killed but wanted to confirm it.

"He was killed that day," Franky stopped for a moment recalling every painful memory. "Seven to the chest, three to the head."

The food arrived, but everyone wasn't much for eating at that point. They all got their food to go and walked outside.

"Franky, I'm going to introduce you to these guys," Vivian said and turned to her co-workers. Vivian proceeded to tell him who all was with her.

Lane and Mason walked back to the car, but Vivian stayed behind to talk to Franky.

"We saw when you noticed the man on the phone." Vivian could tell this bothered him. "Who was it?"

"Gary Marks," Franky responded, and looked at her. "Miss Vivian, I saw Gary and knew what he was doing, I told my buddy to leave, and figured if we left the area, just disappeared for a couple of days everything would blow over. I don't know why he hung around."

"Did you see who did the shooting?" Vivian inquired further, very cautiously questioning him.

"The cops were driving, but I couldn’t see who was doing the shooting," Franky sighed and turned away a little. "I'll testify if you need me to, but I would rather not."

"Right now, we're not going to even mention that we found you, you hear me?" Vivian looked over at him sternly. "I'm going to go this far, don't talk to any law enforcement unless me or one of those other two officers are there. Tell them you don’t have anything to say."

"I got it," Franky said and hugged her one more time.

"Give my love to your brother and sister." Vivian looked up at him and smiled. "I'll come to town and treat y'all to dinner one day soon."

"No, ma'am." Franky insisted, "It's our turn to treat you."

Vivian left him her cell number and made him promise that if he needed anything, no matter how trivial, he would call. She promised, in turn, to let him know when the case was completed.

The three agreed to say they couldn't find him, and decided to go even further and say they heard he left town. The only one that would be privy to the information, besides Unit 7, would be Sullivan. Vivian made a quick call to him and explained what was happening. He was going to brief Major Meyers, and promised they would keep it to themselves, while keeping an eye on the detectives from Savannah.

Mason quickly called Ben. “We need to meet somewhere here in Savannah.”

“Yes, we do,” Ben agreed as he looked over their stash. “Our day has been interesting.”

The six met up at the far end of a parking lot, and discussed what they had learned.

“He saw the detectives do the shooting?” Nate was floored as he thought about the accusations being made.

Vivian shook her head, “He saw a cop driving the car, but he couldn’t see who was doing the shooting.” Vivian was just as shocked as him, but not, too, surprised after what Lane had told them. “We are hoping the computer forensics unit and y’all came up with something, so we don’t have to use him.”

“Driving is just as bad as pulling the trigger.” the disgust was evident on Nate’s face.

“Did you guys find anything?” Mason looked over at the agents anticipating a big score after the phone conversation.

“We did find some big things,” Ben began as he thought about the afternoon him and Nate had. “We found a recording of the incident, twelve hours before the shooting, and twelve hours after.”

“You did?” Lane seemed shocked, especially after what Carson had said.

Nate nodded, with a seriousness about his expression, “A month before the shootings, they enacted a policy that any video involving a major crime would be stored indefinitely for certain, specified, crimes, obviously homicide is one of them.”

“Talk about an act of God,” Vivian breathed out.

“Yes.” Nate looked over at the three detectives and took a step toward him and Ben’s unit. “And y’all have to come see what we have in the back of our unit.”

The crew walked over to the back of the agent’s SUV.

Nate opened the rear doors. “The missing evidence.” They all could see, as he stepped aside, several boxes and brown bags filling the back cargo area of the unit.

“It had been scattered over the evidence room.” Ben stepped over to the open doors and gazed in at the mound of evidence.

“Agents are at the evidence locker in Savannah auditing everything as we speak.” Nate admired the work they had done. “And the officers involved have been kept away from any form of communication, so they don’t warn anyone.”

“All of you come with us to Statesboro, we are going to go to the office over there to go through this.” Ben turned from the evidence to the officers. “Call who you need to call, it’s going to be an all nighter. This is a bad cop situation; we need what we can to get them off the street.” Ben and Nate closed the doors to their unit. “We called Cooper and he’s on his way to Statesboro already, he may even beat us there.”