As a sixty-three year old retired detective, I often get asked to narrate my
adventurous tales of my crime fighting days. Almost all the children in our
family seem to love the adventure and suspense that I create in all my stories. I
do not reveal everything of course, as I am well aware that crime is not child
friendly, and at times I also add things to make the story even more interesting
and fun. One day, my youngest son, who was recently promoted to the
position of detective in the NYPD police department, fetched a beer from the
fridge and asked me to do something he never did since he was twelve years
old. He sat down in front of me and said, “The department loves talking about
you and your tales of adventure in the good old days, and our oldest officer,
Officer Michael Spears, keeps telling me to ask you about the ‘Aced’ case”. “Ah
that one, that was a long time ago, and why ask me when you can just look
through the case file and find out for yourself”, I said as I sipped the cold beer
while enjoying the heat from our fireplace. “Because according to Spears, the
story is much more thrilling and enjoyable when said by the lead detective of
the case himself, and honestly I really want to know what went down”, said my
son as he sat back waiting for me to begin. I adjusted my chair, relaxed, took
another sip and then told him, “Ok then son, here is the story of the most
unforgettable case of my career called ‘Aced’.” “It was the summer of 1991,
the sun was bright, the birds were singing, and the weather was pleasant and
beautiful. I was finishing the last of my paperwork in order to leave the
precinct as fast as I could as I was starving and wanted to have dinner early
that day. As soon as I finally put a paperclip to the thick report and packed my
things to leave, my partner rushed up to me and told that going was not an
option as they had just received word of a high profile case in the Bronx. The
chief wanted me and my partner to investigate. As my partner, Detective
Sherman O’Neal absolutely loved bothering me, I thought my partner was
trying to be funny and started to leave anyways. That was when I got a call
from Sergeant Muller, my supervisor at the time, telling me that I had to report
to a crime scene at 2-22 Garland Street. I avoided the ‘I told you so look’ that
O’Neal had great pleasure giving me before we left to investigate the crime
scene.”
It was a short drive to the area and as I walked towards the lawn from the
road, I was met by a group of people from the media asking me for information
regarding the case and what was known at that time. Due to the increased
presence of the media, I knew the victim in question must have had a good
public career and I knew this was going to be one of those high profile cases.
However the astonishing thing was that the reporters were more interested in
me than the news of the incident. Questions such as ‘How long do you reckon
will it take for you to solve the mystery”, made it sound so weird to me. As I
stepped into the crime scene, I noticed the lack of blood around the body and
started looking for other clues on what could have gone down. Believe me son,
I had not had a crime scene this clean in all my years as an officer of the law. I
turned to my good friend, Dr. Peter, who was the coroner at that time. He
informed me that the COD was blunt force trauma to the neck causing the
larynx and oesophagus to be crushed. Being the senior officer, I told my
partner to interview the people at the scene along with the victim’s tennis
buddies and his friends to find any motive that could lead to this case being
solved. Dr. Peter refused to speculate the reason of the lack of blood or
lacerations had no idea either and wanted to examine further. I was still
deliberating on the aspects of the case after almost two hours of assumptions,
reading through the information given by witnesses, friends and family of the
late pro tennis player, I realised that I had nothing. It was incredibly frustrating
as I had no facts to go on and was basically stuck at this point.
Everything about this case seemed really strange and I couldn’t quite place the
pieces of the puzzle together. I know that having a high profile case means a
lot things, the media keeping their eyes pinned on the detectives and officers
on the case and maybe the most important of them all, the pressure of coming
up with important and case solving leads. All of this was playing on my mind
and I knew I had to take a greater look at the case, which in my book means
another sleepless night. I dozed off at my desk which was the effect of another
all-nighter.
As soon as I woke up, I felt my eyes betraying me as I saw a completely empty
police station before me. I naturally assumed that many had gone home. I
went into my sergeant’s office to explain my progress so far, which wasn’t
much so I knew that I would have to ask him for more time. As soon as I
opened the door, my partner and another officer jumped in front of me and
yelled ‘Surprise’, bursting two party poppers right in front me. As everyone
wished me, Sergeant Muller came up to me and said,” I might have to demote
you for not being able to connect the dots as the fake case that was meant to
throw you off”. That became the only case I was never able to solve.
And though we had a good laugh at the end, it was put on record in all our
memory of the time I was aced”.