In the Line of Duty: The Ezekiel Code

CHAPTER ONE

Melissa sat in the back seat of Detective Earl Solano’s car and directed him to where David lived. She was worried about him and so was Earl. She had approached Detectives Solano and Derek about him because he was going through almost the same thing she had gone through. David’s father was a user and he was violent.

David had been sporting bruises lately and she had only found out by accident. David had made her promise not to tell. But David didn’t come to school today and his dad wasn’t letting him talk on the phone. Melissa and David talked on the phone all the time. They were best friends.

Melissa, are you sure that this is David’s block? asked Det. Paul Derek who was sitting beside her. They had gone past the same row of houses three times now but Melissa couldn’t point out David’s house.

Yes I’m sure. It’s just too dark to see the house clearly. David and I talk on the phone but I’ve never been to his house because he isn’t allowed to have visitors. My Mom dropped him off a couple of weeks ago and this is the block we came to. He didn’t exactly point out his house and he had gotten out at the corner, she explained.

Okay, Earl said and pulled out the roster of children enrolled in the affected program from the clipboard attached to the dashboard to look up the addresses.

There wasn’t an address listed for David and they only had his phone number. At the beginning of the program, Earl remembered that David had promised to submit his new address because he was moving. It looks like he didn’t and no one had followed up.

Earl had Paul call the number in to the precinct and it turned out that Melissa was wrong. David lived two blocks over. Earl didn’t like that the boy lied about where he lived especially to his friend. To him, David was starting to look like a classic case of a child in crisis. They’d been watching him ever since Melissa confided in them about her friend a week ago.

They had observed how quiet David was and how he didn’t participate in most of the activities provided in the program. He dressed conservatively and ate more than his share of the food provided indicating that he wasn’t getting enough at home.

He was thirteen years old and small for his age. This was the time where boys his age started acting out but David didn’t. He didn’t do anything to draw attention to himself. It was as though he was trying to be invisible. They didn’t know how long had he been living in whatever his situation was, but one thing was for sure it was about to come to an end.

Earl slowed down when they reached the house. It was only a few blocks from the program. Every light was on in the house and the upstairs windows had bars on them.

What was unusual with the bars was that the ones on the windows were more security bars than the child safety ones authorized by law. The downstairs windows sported shades and they were drawn. The outside of the house appeared run down and uncared for. It was early fall and most of the homes in the area still had green lawns but what passed for a lawn in front of this house was bald in some spots and littered with rotting garbage.

This is where he lives? Melissa asked incredulously. She wrinkled her nose in disgust because the stench of garbage was strong. Paul turned to her and smiled reassuringly. It was decided by the detectives that they were going to take Melissa home and that she didn’t need to see anymore.

Okay Melissa, we are going to take you home now and you are not to call David. If you want us to help him, he can’t know that we are coming. I know you are worried for him but you must trust us to help him, he told the young girl.

You won’t let him get hurt will you? she asked with a determined expression on her face.

No Melissa we won’t, Earl assured her. He only hoped that David wasn’t hurt before they got to him. The way the situation looked, it wasn’t promising.

After driving Melissa home they drove away promising the young girl once again that her friend would be fine. Paul called for back up as they returned to the house. Everything looked the same as they had left it. They agreed that if they waited for backup the sirens would alert the neighborhood and whoever and whatever was going on in the house, and since they weren’t exactly sure what they were walking in to, the detectives wanted to be extra cautious.

There wasn’t a doorbell so Paul pounded on the door and waited.

A few minutes later, he pounded again. Just when he was about to do it once more the door opened and a huge surly looking man peered at them. What do you want? he asked with a defensive posture to his frame.

The resemblance David had to this man was uncanny. The man standing before them had hardened while David was gentle still. There could be no mistaking that this man was David’s father.

We’re friends of David’s, is he home? Paul asked and both detectives flashed their badges.

David’s father’s eyes widened and he tried to shut the door but Earl was prepared, he had put his foot in the threshold to prevent it from closing. When David’s father realized that he wasn’t going to be able to shut the door, he bolted. Paul who was also shoving at the door pushed harder and the door banged open violently against the wall behind it.

From the doorway, the detectives burst into what should have been a living room. There was very little furniture in the dimly lit room and the mattress on the floor in one corner was a dead giveaway. David lived in a drug den. As the detectives carefully made their way further into the house, a woman came out of a room off to the right. She was so high that she didn’t resist when Earl cuffed her to a chair along the hallway. She giggled instead.

Where was David’s father? They could hear other people in the house so the detectives pulled out their guns and went on high alert. The odor of marijuana was overwhelming as they neared another bedroom along the hallway. A scuffling sound alerted them and Paul and Earl took off running to the back of the house. When they entered the kitchen, they found their guy fiddling with the four locks on the back door. Earl trained his gun on David’s father while Paul went around the table to cuff him. He didn’t put up a fight and sat at the table after he was cuffed.

Backup had arrived and they conducted a room by room search of the downstairs. In one of the two bedrooms they found three adults, two men and one woman engaged in sexual activity. In the room the giggling woman had come out of they found another man who was unconscious.

Upstairs, were three other bedrooms and one bathroom, of which were immaculate. Apparently, this was where the family lived and downstairs was for business. They found David in his room with his little sister. They were bound and gagged in his bed.

David’s eyes almost popped out of his head when he recognized Paul and Earl. He fell into Paul’s arms crying hysterically after they were untied while Earl comforted the little girl who sobbed just as hard as her brother. David had a black eye and several old and new bruises on his small body. The little girl appeared to be okay but that was to be determined by the hospital.

It was hours before the partners could go home. Apart from David’s father, the other people in the house had been customers. David’s mother had died years earlier of a drug overdose and his father felt that selling drugs and opening his house to dealers and addicts was the best way to provide for his family. He explained this very calmly to the detectives when they questioned him.

David’s father beat him to keep him quiet and his dad threatening to hurt his little sister kept David compliant most of the time. But when his sister started school, he saw his chance of trying to get them away from their father’s cruelty and tyranny. David got the beating of his life when his dad found the suitcase David had packed the other night.

When the ambulance came for them, David and his sister Theresa begged the detectives to go to the hospital with them. David wore a defiant expression on his face when was he was being examined, almost as if he was daring someone to say something about his bruises. An x-ray confirmed a cracked rib explaining David’s labored breathing. His sister was fine when examined.

I didn’t want him to hurt Theresa, David said as if that explained why his body was marred by the bruises.

When Social Services showed up David freaked out. Don’t let them take my sister. Please don’t let them take her. My aunt will take us in just call her! he shrieked.

It took some time for the detectives to locate her but once they had, she had come to the hospital right away. She had been oblivious to what her brother was doing to her niece and nephew. Social services talked with her and assured David that his sister would be able to go home with their aunt and he would join them as soon as he was better. David was being kept for observation.

As weary and heartbroken as the partners were, they stopped at Melissa’s house to assure her that David would be okay and that he was safe and they praised her on her intuition.

Melissa wanted to know if she could visit David at the hospital and the partners promised her that she would be able to see her friend as soon as he was settled.

Man I’m going home and hug my boys so hard their wives are gonna feel it. Paul said as they parted ways in the precincts’ parking lot.

Give them a little squeeze for me too. Goodnight dude. Earl said tiredly.

Yeah, goodnight, Paul answered with a weak wave.

When Earl entered his home it was almost two in the morning. He needed to drive around to clear his head because he couldn’t go home in the condition that he was in. He had a heavy heart and his mind was still reeling in shock.

As hard as he worked against this brick wall that was drugs, he sometimes felt that he wasn’t making even a small dent in it. It never really bothered him busting adults and the things they did to obtain drugs hardly shocked him.

Children were what bothered him. He couldn’t count the many times he’d come from a bust that involved children when he didn’t feel like he was shot in the gut.

Starting the Affected Program was his way of trying to stem the flow of young lives being destroyed by drugs. And since the program’s inception, he and Paul had seen a significant difference to make it worth while.

The Affected Program was a program that involved at risk children in an informative media to steer clear of drugs and violence. The children involved were enthusiastic about what they were doing and they felt that they were making a difference in their schools and community.

He stood over his son’s crib watching him for a long time before he entered the bathroom to undress. In the shower was where he could he let go and grieve. He cried for David who was such a brave young man, putting his life on the line for his little sister. He even shed a tear for Melissa who had gone through something similar. She wasn’t battered but ignored. Her parents were both users and for a child that was devastating.

Earl’s wife Emma was sitting at the foot of their bed when he came out of the shower. She went to him and held him close. Paul had called her. His partner knew him well, Earl was devastated.

Are you okay? she asked noting his red rimmed eyes.

Yes luv, I’m better now. Earl held his wife tightly. The world was okay again. He lowered his mouth to hers and kissed her deeply and felt that the sun would rise in the morning. She was the universe to him and he was so lucky to have her and their children in his life. She pulled away and led him to their bed and continued to hold him close.

Can you talk about it? she asked. It had been a long time since she’d seen her husband this low. He hadn’t mentioned a case so this was something that probably just came up. Paul didn’t tell her what it was about either he only said that Earl might be coming home in a bad way.

That poison almost destroyed a young boy and his sister. He is going to need a lot of therapy and hopefully it will fade away in his young sister’s mind. She is only six and he is thirteen. He’s been protecting her all her life. I’m supposed to be detached but sometimes it catches you unawares. And that bastard of a father didn’t even care. He beat his own son to keep him quiet. It was absolutely ghastly in there. Earl told her. The more he spoke remembering the scene he’d just left, the more pronounced his English accent became.

You’ve done well tonight baby, you saved a boy and his sister and that’s all that matters. Emma tightened her hold on him trying to absorb some of his pain. Earl was a good man and a very good policeman. He cared about people and that was a quality most cops these days lacked. And because he cared, he sometimes hurt.

Yes luv, in the end that’s all that matters. He kissed her once more and turned over to sleep. Although he knew that it would take a long time before he did he knew that his wife had a busy day tomorrow first with school and then with the meetings with his sister for her wedding, so he pretended to sleep.

Kevin Brooks, Emma’s best friend’s husband came to mind with his offer for Earl to join the CIA to work with him. If it hadn’t been for his promise to his wife, Earl would have taken Kevin up on it.

Dora Dade sat back in her recliner enjoying the rest of her evening. She had just returned home from babysitting her grandson and was taking a minute to relax before going to bed. She smiled to herself as she recalled the wonderful afternoon she’d spent with her family. Her daughter Lindora and her son-in-law Kevin had brought such joy into her life. As a result of their love, Dora was blessed with Awan, the most beautiful grandson ever and very soon there was to be another grandchild. She hoped that it would be a girl this time.

She wasn’t surprised that Lin had gotten pregnant again so soon either. Kevin was a good man and he loved Lindora very much. Dora thought that it was a good thing that she had done when she arranged for them to meet. Neither knew that she had been instrumental in getting them together.

She had kept in touch with her biker friends from her younger days, and every year they would go to the Motorcycle Expo that was held at Madison Square Garden.

Kevin was working as security at the Expo that year and she liked him on sight. But he had that look about him and she thought that the security detail was probably a side job for him, or maybe he was on a case. He hadn’t fooled her. Dora prided herself on the ability to spot cops no matter how disguised they were and she had spotted him right away.

She had been very careful not to bring any attention to herself afterwards. She didn’t want him remembering her. So she had kept her distance and had concentrated on catching up with her friends. She and her friends had gotten older and didn’t even ride anymore, but they enjoyed the show because it brought back old memories.

She had discreetly inquired about him from the ‘real’ security guards and had learned his name. She had gone home after the show and found that Kevin Brooks was listed in the phone book. She waited two weeks before she started following him and when she was sure that she knew his routine and where he hung out at, Dora had asked Lin to join her one evening. She had felt in her bones that they would be good for each other.

That evening Kevin had just arrived and was standing by the door when Lin entered. Cleo’s Bar and Grill on Astoria Boulevard was unusually packed that evening, and Lin had stood right beside him searching the crowd, looking for her mother. Dora had slipped out the back just as Lin entered and kept herself hidden enjoying the suspense. It was perfect just like in the movies. She watched as Kevin turned to Lin and smiled. He said something to her and she answered him.

Lindora however, wasn’t cooperating. She turned from him and was still searching the sea of people to find her mother. From her hiding spot, Dora watched as Kevin tried again to speak with Lin. Lindora spoke back gesturing at the crowd.

Dora deduced that she was telling him about finding her mother in the crowd. They spoke some more and then he took her arm and led her to the bar.

Dora took that moment to go call Lin on her cell phone. She told Lin that she had gotten sick and wouldn’t be able to make it. She urged her to have a good time if she was already there. Lin told her that she was and thought she might hang around for a few minutes and then go on home.

When she thought that it was safe, she had left the bar and went home. She was sure that Lin was in good hands.

Lin had called her hours later to ask how she was feeling. Dora had told her that she was feeling a little bit better and changed the subject. She remembered asking her daughter if she had taken her advice and stayed for a while and Lin had assured her that she had. She went on to tell her that she had met a very nice man at the bar. Dora had cautioned her to be careful and Lin told her that she would.

From that time on, Lindora and Kevin had become an item. When Lin had brought him to meet her, Dora had grinned at him from ear to ear.