Page 58 of Crosshairs
When the man stood up, I realized I had underestimated his height. He was more like six foot eight, and probably weighed three hundred pounds. The vast majority of it muscle. All the other firefighters seemed satisfied with the way this situation was being handled. It made sense. If this guy knocked the crap out of me and I filed a complaint, no one else would be in trouble. If I caused a scene here, not only would I have to deal with multiple firefighters, after it was all over, but also they could get their story straight and make it look like I was lying.
I went willingly with Russ. He didn’t grab me by the arm or shove me. He just pointed me through a side door, blocking my path back to the open engine bay where I’d entered.
As soon as I stepped outside, I realized exactly what Russ had planned for me. There was a little grassy area between the fire station and a furniture store. No one would notice the empty patch unless they walked around the building. That could be bad news for me.
I turned and faced Russ. All I could say was “You’re big.”
“I know.” He showed a little satisfaction with that statement.
I said, “I don’t want any trouble.”
“No one ever does.”
I said, “You know the old saying ‘The bigger they are, the harder they fall’?”
“Yep. Just more fake news.”
“I think it’d be better if you just sat down and avoided the fall altogether. Less chance of injury that way.”
Russ said, “I’m going to enjoy knocking out a few of your teeth. Why would I sit down?”
“So you don’t run into a wall or twist your ankle tripping over something when you can’t see.”
The giant man said, “What the hell are you talking about?”
That’s when I casually pulled my left hand out of my jacket pocket. The can of pepper spray was easily concealed in my palm. I sprayed Russ in the face and stepped back. I’d expected a shout of agony, but the low register and volume were surprising. I watched the giant firefighter stumble around in the grass. I stepped forward, holding his arm as I kicked his feet out from under him.
I said, “Easy does it, big fella,” as I eased him to the ground and left him whining and holding his eyes. I made sure he was safe in the grass. “Just sit here for a while and the stinging will go away.”
He managed to speak through the sniffles. “Really? How long till it stops?”
“An hour. Maybe less.”
Russ moaned as a long string of snot flooded from his nose.
I’ll admit I had to keep from smiling as I hustled around the building to my car.
CHAPTER 71
AFTER MY ENCOUNTER session with the giant firefighter on Staten Island, I raced directly to One Police Plaza. Essentially, the firefighters had confirmed the rumors. There’s no way they would have reacted like that if there wasn’t some fire behind the smoke. Their crude attempt at scaring me off only pushed me to find out exactly what the hell was going on.
Once inside headquarters, I didn’t make my usual rounds to say hello to my friends and check in with old partners. Instead, I went directly to a specific analyst who had helped me on cases a dozen times before. His name was Neil Placky, and he had one of those minds that could remember and interpret seemingly insignificant details. All good analysts have that same trait. But Neil had a University of Pennsylvania education to augment it. A fact that he worked into virtually every conversation.
As soon as I stepped into the main analytic room, severalheads turned to look at the door. Once they established that I wasn’t anyone of note, everyone went back to work. Everyone except Neil. He stood up from his desk at the front of the room and waved me over.
We shook hands and caught up. But I’ll admit I gave him the abbreviated version. Basically, “Everyone’s fine.” Then I laid out parts of the case I was working on. Mainly, the rumor FDNY firefighter Thomas Bannon had downloaded child pornography on a city computer.
I could tell by Neil’s silence that there was meat to this rumor.
After a quiet moment, I gave Neil a hard look and said, “I can’t tell you how important this is. Not only to a homicide investigation but for the NYPD as well.”
Neil let out a long sigh. He said, “C’mon, Mike. Don’t do this to me. I have very explicit instructions not to talk about this.”
“I already know Bannon was downloading child pornography. That fact was confirmed by other means. I just want to understand, if everyone knew about it, why wasn’t there an investigation? Could it lead to someone taking the law into their own hands?”
It looked like a light went on in Neil’s eyes. He now understood exactly what I was asking and why. He said, “We never talked about this, right?”
“I was never even here.”