Hinesville: Case Closed (Part 10)

They all arrived about the same time, walking up as Cooper was pulling into the parking lot.


The group dove into the newly discovered information at the FBI building in Statesboro. They still didn’t have any shell casings, but were soon able to get something substantial from the videos. Reggie from the State Police Cyber Crimes division called Vivian, and told her of his finds. But there was a twist to this information, a certified, functioning copy was made of the original video, and that was the copy that was presented to a tech from Savannah at Midway.

“Lane,” Vivian called over to Sanchez. “Me, Coop, and Nate are headed over to Midway to check on the video from the dry cleaner.”

“Alright, let us know what you get.” Lane stepped back toward the pile of evidence. “We’re going to keep sifting through this evidence, and see what we really have, and the techs at the state police are going to analyze the video from the street cams.”

Nate stepped over to the small group of detectives. “Me and Ben are claiming the case, if it turns out how we think it will, there will be federal charges, in addition to the state charges, which State Troopers are going to take.”

Lane nodded and shook his head in disbelief. “I understand.”

The three left and started the hour drive back to Midway.

Vivian leaned forward from the back seat. “Hey, guys, I’ve been thinking, I might move to Richmond Hill.”

Cooper turned to look at her from the front passenger seat. “Why would you want to do that?”

“I’m going to see, but I'm guessing we are going to be working in Savannah pretty often, and it’s more centralized in our zone than Hinesville,” Vivian knew, since Savannah was the largest metro area, more than likely, they would be spending a great majority of their time up there. Plus the state police had offices all over Savannah.

Nate glanced at her in the mirror as he drove. “That’s not a bad idea. I might consider doing the same.”

“What about Gena?” Vivian knew that something was going on when he considered it so quickly.

“We split about a month ago.” Nate kept his focus on the road.

Vivian felt bad for asking and looked down at her phone in her hands. “I’m sorry Nate, I didn’t know.”

“It’s alright, it’s worked itself out.” Nate still seemed a bit somber by the situation.

Cooper turned to look at Vivian. “What about poker night?”

“You wouldn’t let me crash at your place every now and then?”

“Sure, I would.” he grinned at her and quickly turned back toward the road.

Vivian turned to see him blush a little. She laughed and couldn’t believe what she was seeing. “Are you blushing?”

Her comment made him turn redder.

Nate and Vivian both started laughing.

“Why are you blushing?” Vivian giggled as she considered the situation a bit odd.

“I don’t know.” He chuckled nervously, keeping his eyes on the road.

The crew continued to Midway chatting about everything, mostly catching the two up on office news.

They arrived at headquarters ready to hear the information about what they found on the video.

The video tech, who came over from Savannah, walked over to meet the three in the electronics lab.

“Hey, Deak,” Cooper said and shook his hand. “You got anything for us?”

Deak handed the video back to Cooper. “I don’t know what was wrong with the disk, but the information on it was corrupt.”

“You were the only one who had access to it?” Vivian looked over at Deak as Cooper handed her the disk.

Deak nodded and gave them a little shrug. “I don’t know what happened.”

“Oh, well,” Vivian sighed and stepped away.

“Thanks man.” Cooper waved as Deak stepped back toward the computers.

They walked back outside toward the unit when Nate stopped the two at the edge of the parking lot. “What do you know that I don’t. You surrendered way too quickly.”

“In the car.” Vivian left no room for debate.

They climbed up in the SUV, and turned to each other.

“Me, Viv, and Mason made a pit stop at the State Police office near Savannah, before we brought this video back,” Cooper began to recount their dealings from earlier in the day.

“What did you guys do?” Nate thought it was clever, and a bit sneaky.

“We caught another player.” Vivian looked at Nate, seriousness, and a hint of anger etched on her face.

Nate waited for further explanation.

“The video we gave him was a perfectly functioning copy of the original.” Cooper watched as the anger grew in Nate’s outward expression. “We stopped in Richmond Hill and played it on one of the PD computers, and also played it on one of the State Police computers before we left Savannah. The original is currently being analyzed by one of the State Police Cyber Crimes Unit forensic computer techs.”

"That's who called to say they had something,” Vivian mentioned as they still sat in the parking lot. “Lane watched it, too, when we went to talk to the victim. You know how the street cam is just out of range?” Vivian watched as Nate nodded in acknowledgment. “You could see the shots being fired from the car in the video from the cleaners.”

“And the license plate, in the hands of the right tech, would easily be readable,” Cooper mentioned as he thought about the events of that morning.

“There was something Lane said,” Vivian sighed as she looked at Nate. “The car the shots were coming from looked like a unit. I mean we knew this was a cop, but the bastard did it while on duty, or, well , at least from his unit.”

Nate understood what the detectives were doing, and didn’t like the results they were getting.

“Knowing there were techs from Savannah here, and more than likely they were friends with the detectives, they might attempt to corrupt the data,” Cooper sighed initially hoping it wouldn’t be the case. "Or be in on it."

“So, now, not only is there a good possibility there are bad cops, this might be a wide spread problem.” Nate considered the lengthy investigation that was going to follow this, the initial one.

“That’s what we were afraid of.” Vivian looked down, she, too, had been hopeful that she would still find some integrity in the bunch.  "We gave Deak every opportunity to do the right thing, and he didn't take it. And, to top it off, they are going to have to re-investigate every case handled by anyone involved in this homicide."

Nate turned back to face forward. “Do you know how many hundreds of cases that will be, and how many criminals could be let go on a technicality?”

Vivian and Cooper both silently nodded, and Nate fired up the engine. He left, on his way to Savannah, hoping they could finally put an end to all of this.

Vivian knocked lightly on Reggie’s computer lab door. “Reggie, what ya got for us?” Vivian asked as they walked in.

Nate looked around at the large computer lab. Every computer conceivable, or at least it seemed that way, sat in that room. The constant buzzing, and humming of the computers almost seemed to have a tune of their own. Parts and pieces of computers sat on racks all around the room, and it seemed to be a highly organized mess to him. Reggie rolled around in his desk chair, bouncing from station to station, collecting all of the information he needed.

“I have everything.” Reggie bounced off another station, pushing himself to the next one he needed. “I isolated the plate, printed off a screen capture and ran the plate.” He turned and grabbed a picture. “Here’s the screen capture, and this,” he said and grabbed a paper out of a bin on his main desk, and handed it to them. “This is the information on the plate.”

The three read the plate information, and were immediately disgusted.

“Have you told anyone?” Cooper looked over at Reggie, knowing the discretion they would need on this case.

“My Captain, Scott, down the hall, wanted to know what I was working on,” Reggie admitted as he stood with the rest of the group.

“I’m asking for your silence on this,” Nate requested of the officer. “It’s an FBI case now.”

“I thought it would be Nate. Just let me know if you need anything.” Reggie knew after he viewed the video, the feds were going to be investigating.

“Thanks, Reggie, I’m going to go talk to Scott and tell him the same.”

The trio passed by Scott’s office on the way out and he assured them nothing would be said. The three then took the time to update Ben and the crew in Statesboro.

They finally made it back to Statesboro and were greeted by Ben.

“I have something to show y’all.” Ben took the trio into a room in the back where they were joined by Agent Justin Phillips. “The video was analyzed, and this is what they found.” Ben played the video and they watched the incident happen, the police show up, and one of the uniforms started policing the brass from the shooting, only he was putting it in his pocket.

“What the hell,” Vivian gasped and turned to Ben.

Ben looked at his watch. “We had the warrants signed, and the ones in Midway were served by Agents from the Brunswick office, as well as the Georgia State Police, about ten minutes ago.”

“This office, sent agents to Savannah with the State Police to serve those warrants, and that should have gone down at the same time as Midway,” Agent Justin Phillips reported.

“How many arrest warrants?” Cooper looked disgusted.

“Five officers, two techs,” Ben sighed and looked up at the officers from a report laying on the table. “So far.”

“That many?” Vivian was speechless. This whole situation was just insane to her.

“Come see.” Nate motioned for the officers to follow him. They walked down the hall a little way and into another room. There they joined Lane and Mason along with three other agents.

Ben looked at the four officers. “Now, that we’re all together, we need you four to write your reports, but this is going to be an agency case.”

“Okay, that’s not all that surprising.” Vivian was a little confused,

Nate stepped to the front. “They sent this one to the Major Crimes Unit for a reason. The rumors that a police officer was involved reached the powers that be, they wanted to prove that they wouldn’t give anyone special treatment, and, with the clearance rate the four of you have, they wanted you to work it.”

Cooper, Vivian and Mason, visibly tensed when Nate made the statement.

“It’s not what y’all are thinking.” Ben looked over at the trio.

“We’ve been living paranoid since.” Vivian wiped a little sweat from her brow and looked up at the group of agents. “Why did they include the Savannah unit that was involved with the crime?”

Justin spoke up, “They wanted Lane on the case. It really was about the four of you, along with Ben and Nate, working the case. They couldn’t put Lane in your unit, they thought, without tipping anyone off.”

Mason, and Vivian glanced at each other knowingly. The three detectives figured there was more to it than they were being told.

The six of them left to head back to Midway after getting all of the evidence logged in with the Bureau locker. The four officers found out, on the way back, the feds and the state police served search warrants as well, finding more than enough evidence to link the people involved to the incident and an ongoing string of organized crime.

The group entered the building, ready to return to their stations and get their reports done. They were quickly met by the rest of the Savannah crew, four in all, in the large main hallway.

“Look at y’all proud as peacocks with what you did,” One of the Savannah detectives, Reed Tucker, hissed at the group. The four Savannah detectives stood between the poker crew and the squad room.

“What are you talking about?” Vivian wanted them to spell it out because she knew where the conversation was headed.

“Proud of what you did?  Turning on your fellow officer?” Tucker nudged Lane. “What about you Sanchez?”

“I didn't turn on him, he turned on us,” Lane barked at Tucker.

Vivian glared at Tucker. “Are you serious?” She questioned the four Savannah detectives angrily, looking at each one of them individually. “You’re really going to stand here and defend that piece of shit, who killed a five-year-old little boy.”

“Yes, you’re a bunch of traitors.” The detective then smirked at her, “Bitch.”

“Really? What are we twelve?” Vivian stepped closer to the group defying their attempt at intimidation. “Do you really think you’re the first person to call me that?” Mason reached over and put an arm in front of her because Tucker didn’t know what he was getting himself into.

“That’s not surprising,” Tucker laughed along with the other three detectives.

“You think you’re all that don’t ya’?” Vivian stepped even closer, and Mason grabbed her arm. “I’m good Mase,” she told him and he let go. “Why, Carson and Price were good for a laugh every now and again? I hope they were good for something, ‘cause they weren't shit for officers. And you would rather stand here and defend that piece of shit that was disguising himself as a cop, when you should be glad there’s someone with integrity to bring justice for the dead.” Vivian glared at him. “Fuck you and whatever high horse you think you rode in on.”

“Look, bitch.” Tucker shoved her.

That was his mistake, Vivian grabbed his hand brought it around behind his back, and Mason swept him off his feet. They both put him on the ground.

“Step the fuck off!” Cooper pointed at the other three as he yelled, and they immediately backed up.

“You are a waist of space here,” Vivian told Tucker gruffly.

“The best thing the four of you can do is turn your badges in and leave,” Mason added through gritted teeth.

“That’s a great idea,” Major Meyers said walking up on the crew. “I just got off the phone with your chief, Tucker.” Meyers said as he stopped and stood over Vivian, Cooper and Tucker. “Let him go, but if he flinches wrong you have my permission to do it again.”

Vivian and Mason let go, and both stood up.

Tucker rose to his feet and Meyers continued, “I talked to your chief, Tucker, you, Smith, Marshall, and Moore are removed from the major case unit effective immediately. Go clean out your desks and turn in all your equipment. I’ll arrange for the van to have you all dropped off at Savannah headquarters, so leave the keys to your unit in your box of equipment. You have ten minutes, and then you will be escorted from the building.” Meyers turned to four state troopers who walked up behind him. “These troopers will escort you back into the squad room to collect your things.” The four detectives turned and left to clean their desks followed by the uniformed troopers. Meyers turned to the Hinesville crew plus Sanchez. “You all did fantastic,” Meyers commented. “You certainly didn’t disappoint.” He thought for a moment wanting to defuse the situation, and looked over at them. “Go take a break out back, let them leave, then get to your reports.”

They all nodded and headed to the back of the building. They gathered around a picnic table under the back awning at the rear of the building.  Vivian sat back and lit a cigarette. The crew sat silently thinking about all that had happened. None of them liked the outcome of this case. They all silently hoped they would never have another one like it.

Meyers opened the back door and stepped out. “Thanks guys, they left.”

Everyone started walking back in, but Meyers stopped Mason and Vivian.

Cooper was angry with himself, he knew he should be the one standing with Vivian, not Mason. He huffed a little to himself and went in with the rest of the crew.



Meyers turned back to the pair. “How long have y’all been working together?” Meyers looked down at the two.

“Since we started, but we grew up together.” Vivian looked up at the burly man. “He works at the SO, and me the PD.”

“Why?” Mason wondered what their boss was getting at.

“If you two ever get separated go to the Governor himself.” Meyers held the door open for them, “I watched the video of you two taking down Reed Tucker, it would be a crime if you didn’t work with one another.”

“Yes, sir.” Vivian nodded and Mason followed her in.

The crew quickly got to work on their reports, and awaited their next case.