Chapter 12

The Detective: Spud Finds His Calling

The year with Julie at school and Spud living with her parents had gone by much faster than either of them thought it would. Julie was home with her degree in marketing and had a job with a local ad agency. Spud would enter his last year at the university and was thinking about a job after finishing. The problem was that he didn’t know what he wanted to do with his life.

Julie was eager to get on with their life together, and she talked about it with her parents when Spud was at school tutoring summer students which was proving lucrative for him. They knew that Julie and Spud were planning on having children and their concern was that if they had a baby right away, it would put a lot of stress on Spud just when he was trying to finish his degree. Julie indicated that they had already talked about children and would wait until Spud had a job.

Marg said, “Well you have been responsible and not gotten pregnant up to now, so I am sure you can continue that until the time is right for kids, so I don’t see a problem with you two getting married this summer.”

“Mom, you are giving credit where none is due. You always told the six of us that sex was personal and when it was legal for us we were expected to make our own responsible decisions about who and when but you would always be available to answer questions.”

“And I am standing by my word. That part of your life is none of my business.”

“Spud and I have gotten to know each other well, and I am sure we can handle any crisis that will come along in our lives. He is my boyfriend, but Spud is also my best friend, and he has told me I am his best friend ever. Spud also has old-fashioned views and I love him for it. Our relationship has not been held together by the joy of sex. We have never slept together… and that is the last time I will talk to you about my sex life. Now I have to get Spud to propose and make him think it is his idea.”

Later that day Spud came home excited. He had seen a poster at school showing that it was possible to go for a ride-along with a cop to see what being a cop was all about. His announcement caught everyone by surprise. Julie’s parents hoped that it would not appeal to him and thought with his abilities he was aiming low. Julie was quiet. She had seen Spud be uncompromising with others and knew that the day would come in their relationship when Spud would not agree with her, and she might have to compromise. She loved him and would meet him more than halfway when that time came.

Spud went for the ride-along on an evening shift and it proved boring. The cop he was with said Spud could leave anytime, and he said the shift had been unusually quiet. All they were doing was driving around and checking doors here and there. Spud said jokingly that he knew it was difficult to arrange a robbery or murder but that he would stay for the whole shift. The cop liked that Spud would stay, and he also found Spud was an easy person to like.

It was about half an hour before shift end when they got their only call. The dispatcher had said there was a hysterical woman at a certain address and the dispatcher had trouble understanding what the problem was and that the woman just kept screaming “the wino, the wino”. She finally got the nearest street intersection out of her, and then she heard a male voice and the communication ended. The cop told Spud he didn’t know what they were getting into and that Spud was to stay in the car unless he told him otherwise. The dispatcher had already sent a backup unit to the same location.

When they arrived Spud saw a woman crying hysterically, missing a shoe, and being held in comfort by a man. Spud had never seen a hooker, but he thought she looked the part and the guy holding her was in a suit. He didn’t think they were together. She only had one shoe on and her makeup was running down her face making her look like a clown.

The cop was out of the vehicle approaching the couple and Spud had rolled down his window when he heard the cop say,

“What’s wrong Heidi?”

She pointed into the alley. The man said,

“I think she saw a dead body. I was just walking by when this guy ran out of the alley and I heard her screaming. She ran out of the alley and into my arms. That’s all that I know.”

The cop asked them to wait and turned on his flashlight and headed up the alley. He was gone a few minutes. When he returned, he spoke quietly to the couple and then returned to the car. He told Spud that Heidi, the hooker, had found a rather brutal murder and to just sit tight because he couldn’t deal with Spud right now. He radioed to find out where his backup was, and he said 10-100 and asked for a detective unit to come to the scene. Spud asked what 10-100 meant, and the cop said it stood for a dead body found. The second unit arrived and Spud’s cop spoke to the two officers. They both got rolls of yellow tape out of their car and one went in the alley and the other taped Spud’s end of the alley.

Spud’s cop spoke again to the couple and then came back to the car and asked how Spud was feeling. Spud said he wasn’t feeling anything since he had just been sitting in the car. Well, you have seen one side of police work for most of the shift and this is the other part.

“Have you ever seen a dead body?”

Spud said no.

“If you want, and this is optional, I can take you for a quick look before the detectives and forensics arrive. I already cleared it with my buddies but you would have to keep your mouth shut about this to the detectives.”

“OK,” Spud said.

“Oh, and if you think you will throw up back there run like hell out here away from my scene.”

Spud stood transfixed staring at the body with the ice pick in its ear. Then he leaned over to look more closely at the ice pick.

“One less wino cluttering up the alley. Don’t touch anything.” the cop said.

Spud’s reaction was totally different from the cops. This was a human being who had every right to go on living. No one had the right to take that away from him. Spud’s future was decided in that instant.

“He wasn’t a wino,” Spud said.

“Why do you say that?”

“When I leaned over to look at the ice pick, I didn’t smell any alcohol. He hasn’t been on the street more than a few months because his clothes are custom-made, not off a rack. His shoes are very expensive and made in Italy. The ring on his little finger is a professional engineer’s ring. This guy was educated and well off. Heidi’s missing shoe is under the edge of the dumpster about 10 metres (30 feet) this side of the body. There was an unused but open condom on the ground in the area of the shoe. The john was getting ready to do his business when Heidi saw the body and screamed. I don’t know if the john saw the body, but that was the guy that the male witness saw run out of the alley just before Heidi arrived on the street screaming. There was something odd I noticed on the victim’s face near the ice pick. It looked like glitter.”

“Holy Crap kid. Are you sure that this is your first body? I am supposed to tell you all that stuff and show you what a smart cop I am. Frankly, I didn’t see half of it.”

“Sorry,” Spud said.

“Don’t be sorry. If you ever want to go on another ride-along, just tell the Sargent that Bob said OK anytime.”

Spud did not know that his future job would eventually be tied to this murderer.

*****