The Wright One

WILLIAM

I don’t want to sound like an ass, but finally there is a crime in this town that the assholes in charge can’t handle. When I got the call I was fucking excited. I am so sick of the Captain pushing me down and making me do beat cop shit.

When I pull up to the scene I look around to see what is going on. There are more cops here than ever at a crime scene. To be honest the town doesn’t have a whole hell of a lot of bad crimes. We do have crimes that are pretty bad, but nothing that is going to cause this many officers to respond. This is a small bank branch. Our town isn’t that big and we have two banks, the big one that most people use and this one. It’s a small branch, usually about four tellers who also handle any loans and paperwork. That includes the branch manager as well.

I quickly found my lieutenant. He was talking with a few other officers telling them where to go to keep crowd control. My Lieutenant sees me and quickly shoos the men off. “Well, Wright, you ready to work?”

“No offense, but I have been waiting for you all to catch up to me. What’s going on?” I pull out my notebook so I can note anything that would be important.

“It looks like an inside job.” He points to the front entrance. “The perps entered through the front door, it wasn’t locked. No forced entry. They were able to walk right in and take whatever they wanted. Then the vault was locked but they bypassed that with all the time in the world because the alarm never went off. The security system has been on the fritz for a week. The main suspect is Mia Ashbluff. She was supposed to be the one to lock up last night.”

“Are you sure she wasn’t held at gunpoint or something? What is security like?”

He groans. “Well, we haven’t been able to find the guy that was supposed to be here last night. Ms. Ashbluff is in the wind. We are thinking they worked together and did the job.”

I nod. “And his name.” Taking note of everything that he is saying. Something isn’t adding up to me.

“Gus Stanford. The rest is up to you. Honestly we want you to bring them both in. We’re pretty sure they both just took off. Maybe together. Case seems pretty cut and dry to me. They knocked off the bank that they work at and left town. But we want you to track them down.”

“A few things don’t make sense. I mean if they did the job, why leave the door unlocked so we would know exactly how they left.”

“I didn’t say they were the brightest lights on the sign. I just said that it is obvious.”

I’m still not sold. “They were smart enough to make sure they had everything open for them to get the money out, but they weren’t smart enough to cover their tracks. It sounds like there are a lot of holes in your theory.” I am probably going to get scolded for that remark but I hate when he does this. He thinks he is the only one that knows what is going on.

“Look, just do your fucking job. Bring in the culprits. We will handle the rest.”

“Isn’t my job to actually find out what the hell happened and bring in the right people.”

“Your job is to do what you are told.” He glares at me. I’m not exactly intimidated. He is a chunky man who hardly ever leaves the office, let alone stays in shape. He could try to get me fired, but it would be a long road. What can I say the city likes a Wright on the force. What is the worst he can do, put me back on beat duty. That’s most of what I do anyway. I guess the best he can do is put me on desk duty, but let’s be honest we don’t have enough cops for him to keep me there.

“I don’t think that is exactly what my job description says. I’m going to do my job and I am going to do it right. If Mia and Gus are your guys then I’ll bring them in. If not then you will have the right guys in the end.”

One of the beat guys runs up to us. “Lieutenant, we found Gus Stanford, he’s in the hospital. Turns out he was shot on his way to work. He never made it to the bank.”

I smile. “Looks like Gus is off the list. Wonder if this is still as cut and dry as you think it is.”

“Shut up Wright, do your job. Bring in Mia Ashbluff.”

“Yes, sir.” I leave him to check the bank itself. I am sure there is stuff that was missed by these guys. They don’t pay much attention to shit. They think no one has brains but them.

When I enter it is clear that there is no way I can get all that much evidence. No one is even looking for the right thing. I mean There are a few cops that know what to look for, they are just as pissed as me. Dex is standing back watching the shit show with a groan. He is from a bigger city so he was ready for this. Only he is a beat cop, so he isn’t ranked high enough to make them behave.

Deciding that Dex is my best bet to have an ally here, I approach him. “What do you think?”

He nods his head towards me. “This is fucked. I am not sure who trained these people but there is no way you will find credible evidence. I mean they haven’t even checked finger prints on anything besides the vault. It looks like they wore gloves anyway. There are only three officers in here but they are trampling all over everything. I don’t see that they can actually get a single piece of credible evidence.”

“Do you know about the security system?”

He nods. “Yeah, it was on the fritz, much like half this bank. I would say that it was run with the minimal amount possible. I think your best chance of any evidence is to see if any of the surrounding businesses have security cameras that are facing this way. If not, you might be working from scratch. With only testimony. It isn’t going to be a great case for the DA that’s for sure.” He doesn’t look pleased.

“I am sure that was the robber’s plan to begin with.” He still seems a little more disgruntled than I would have thought. “What else is eating you?”

“Nothing much. Some rich asshole is trying to take my family from me. He thinks that because he has money that he can just get Mia to run away with him and my son.” Mia is his ex that had his son while he was gone for training. When he came back to town is when he found out about it. Mia, a different Mia just to be clear, she had never told him about his son. He just transferred here last week, that doesn’t leave a lot of time to win someone over.

“I’m sure it will work out in the end. She loved you at one point.” I give him a brotherly pat on the back because I want to help, but really I don’t have much to go on.

“I know, but I hurt her really fucking bad when I left. Now I have to fix it and it’s hard as fuck with that rich asshole trying to steal her away.” He shakes his head. “You don’t need to hear about my drama.”

I shake my head right back at him. “Dude, we are brothers in blue. If we can’t rely on each other we don’t got shit.”

He laughs. “That’s the truth.”

“I got to head to the hospital and talk to Gus Stanford, the security guard. Can you check the neighboring businesses for me?”All content © N/.ôvel/Dr/ama.Org.

He takes a big breath. “Not a problem, it is way better than watching this shit show.”

I am really hoping for a good lead.