03:55 Study

John was cursing the drink in his coffee mug. He hated coffee. Despised it was a more accurate term. It smelled like a monkey’s ass and tasted like cat shit to him. But it was needed as he was working on things. Jessica’s frantic call was unsettling, but there wasn’t much they could do given the time.

Kevin was rubbing his eyes as he walked into the room, “Dude, did you see this message.”

“Yup I sure did. That's why there’s a pot of coffee downstairs,” John said without looking back at Kevin, “What a fucking mess.”

“Was it a setup or did they actually do that?”

John shrugged, “My VI is analyzing the security camera footage. I am working on getting their phone GPS data now. My gut tells me this is an attempted shakedown.”

“I’m gonna go get some coffee. Fucking hell. I didn’t expect this shit to happen.”

Kevin left the room still looking and feeling incredibly tired. John didn’t notice as he was laser-focused on the workstation. Eve, his VI, was processing the location data that he had just sent and was running a background search on the lead detective and the victim.

John was skimming through the social media accounts of the lead detective. What he saw he didn’t like. Skimming through the man’s private photo roll on the man's phone was causing his blood to boil. John transferred several pictures to his data slate. He couldn't, no, wouldn't let his opinion of the detective influence his investigation.

He sat there staring at the screen running different permutations of how to approach the situation. The detective didn’t appear to be a man that commanded anyone’s presence. But he was unusually tenacious with his prey and highly successful at closing cases. John presumed he could use force to prove his point, but that was not likely to be an overly successful strategy.

John let a smile loose as he was hard at work. He was in his old element again. One in which he excelled at. He was ready to move heaven and earth to understand what really happened. John desperately wanted to believe his friends weren't friends, but he stopped that line of thinking. Bias must be removed from this investigation.

Thirty minutes later, his work was interrupted by the arrival of the rest of their friends. Eve displayed a message that it’d be five more minutes until the detailed visual displayed the locations of everyone in the bar. John stood up and headed downstairs.

Thomas was hysterical, “They didn’t do anything. They were at the table the whole time!”

Brian was still crying, “I’ve never seen anything like that. I’m sure they didn’t do anything.”

“The only time he wasn’t next to me was when he took a piss. And the bathrooms were behind our table,” Kristin was an emotional mess, “But if he actually did what he was accused of, God wouldn’t be able to protect him from the ass-kicking I’d give him.”

Jessica was trembling as she sat down at the kitchen table. The others remained huddled near her. Everyone was shocked at the events. The worst part was they were literally helpless to do anything about it.

John sat down on the stairs and looked at the group, “So let’s start from the beginning. Where did you go?”

Jessica walked next to Kristin, “We went to the East End Bay Lounge. We drove straight there and didn’t stop anywhere else. We got there around 23:00 but we waited outside until a table opened up just before midnight.”

“All we did was drink and shoot the shit. We didn’t interact with anyone besides the waitress,” Brian said.

John’s tablet dinged, “Well, that finished. Let's go to the study, I have something to show y'all.”

They all followed John into the study. John sat down in front of the terminal and connected the TV to it. He then swiveled in his chair to face it.

“Eve, begin playback at sixty times speed. Please draw a line between the victim and the two boys. Also, measure the minimum distance between each one please.”

The visual appeared on the screen, then multi-colored dots appeared to pop up on it. John was impressed with what his VI had produced. It was, for lack of a better term, perfect for displaying the coming and goings of the bar crowd that night.

John spoke up, "Ok so here's the layout of the bar. The red dot is the complainant while Andern and Nathan were the blue dots. Yellow dots are employees. The grey dots are other patrons, denoting those with or without a tablet on them."

The panic in the room was quickly replaced with vengeful anger. It was a setup, the supposed victim never came closer than fifteen feet to either of them. John frowned but he had some leverage on the detective, but it wasn’t enough. He wanted to bury the asshole, but he needed more time to research everything.

“Eve, do a thorough search of the victim. I want detailed bank records and spending through all available means. Do the same for the detective of this case.”

“This is not the first sexual battery case involving the two,” the feminine machine voice said.

“What a load of horseshit. They didn’t do a fucking thing,” Kristin was clenching her fists, “Worse yet, I thought he could do that.”

John grabbed his coffee mug and took a sip, “To be fair to you, the amount of alcohol we consume on these trips could lead to shit like that happening. Eve, where are these two being held?”

“Private cells in the general detention wing of the police precinct.”

“Guys, get cleaned up and get some rest. I’m on it. Tomorrow morning I'll make things right, one way or another.”

They dispersed back to their rooms against their desire to help. John walked downstairs to get another cup of coffee. He sighed to himself after pouring it. They were in yet another mess, though this time he wasn’t part of it. John smiled when he could use his old skills to help his friends.

07:15 Kitchen

John was on hold with someone as he was making some scrambled eggs. It had been a long night and he was only running on about an hour of sleep. Despite that John was in a good mood as he was dropping some cheese and freshly cooked bacon bits onto the eggs. Using chopsticks he folded over half of it on top of itself. Three minutes later John slid it off onto a waiting plate.

“Good morning, this is Deputy Hodge.”

John smiled as he set the plate down, “Good morning deputy. This is Naval Special Investigator Karl Atkinson, NI-123-BG45. Please transfer Jacob Andern and Nathan Ellison to the Central Precinct, please. I want them housed in the detective wing by 08:00.”

John was smiling as he looked down at his tablet. The deputy was in his terminal trying to verify the information. Eve was spoofing the entire system already though and feeding the man false information.

“I’ll have them there on time sir.”

“Were they harmed by any of your guards?”

“No, no sir. They were placed in an isolation room just the two of them.”

“If that is true then we won’t need to have any further conversations,” John said hanging up.

Alice was rubbing her eyes before pouring a glass of coffee. She turned around and took a sip and savored it. Then she stared at John enjoying his breakfast.

“So, are we impersonating other people now?”

“If you knew even half of what I knew you’d give me the green light to ice the motherfuckers behind this stunt.”

“John, be careful. You don’t have protection.”

John set his fork down and looked up at Alice, “I understand and I do love you. I wouldn’t be this cocky if I didn’t have good reason to be though. I will tone it down a bit to ensure the three of us leave that precinct safely though.”

Kevin and Theresa walked into the kitchen. Kevin grabbed an apple and sat down across from John. Theresa pulled some pancake batter from the fridge and was about to start cleaning the frying pan John used.

“So when are we going?” Kevin leaned into the table.

“We aren’t doing anything. I am.”

“But…”

“Dammit Kevin, I told you not to ask him that,” Theresa was shaking the pan.

“Look, I appreciate the enthusiasm, but if this does go sideways it will be my ass. Which reminds me.”

John grabbed his table and made a call. He finished a piece of toast and began spreading some strawberry jam on his last piece. The ringing stopped and eventually, a tired man answered the phone.

“Who is this?”

“Detective Maduro? This is John Lief, I was at the lounge last night. I have some critical information about the sexual assault.”

“And what would that be,” the detective sounded dead tired.

“I have a video of someone feeling up that girl you were talking to.”

The man’s demeanor changed, “You actually have a video of the assault?”

“Sure do. I’m about to head into the precinct. I’ll be there at 08:00,” John grinned as he hung up on the call and began eating his last piece of toast.

“Should I even ask what you have on him?” Theresa winked at John before turning back to focus on the pancakes.

“You can ask, but I won’t answer,” John stood up and brought his plate and glass to the sink, “Better that I keep this on the down-low until our friends out of the Clink.”

John walked over to Alice and kissed her on the cheek, “I am going to get cleaned up and head over there if all goes to plan we’ll be back here around 09:30, if not sooner.”

John left the kitchen but could hear Kevin opine that he could help more. The girls, and John, knew his heart was in the right place, but once again John didn’t want anyone else to suffer any consequences for his plan. Which was admittedly risky based on what he was planning on doing.

07:50 Central Precinct – Detective Wing

Two very tired and hungover cadets were being directed to sit down in a small cell outside of Detective Maduro’s office. Their spirits lifted when they saw John sitting casually on a bench. He gave them a weak salute.

“John, seriously man, we didn’t do a fucking…” Andern was cut off.

“Just shut up and don’t say anything to anyone, please. I will take care of this,” John said quietly and confidently.

John looked down at his watch and began tapping his foot. With two minutes to spare a short corpulent fellow began walking down the hall. The man was tired but also incredibly happy. John let out a single short laugh under his breath and sighed.

“I presume you’re the person…” Detective Maduro’s mood changed instantly when he saw the two cadets in the precinct’s holding cage, “Why the hell are they here?”

John smiled and began lying convincingly, “Some deputy brought them in here about ten minutes ago. Hey, I have a tee time in about an hour so I’d like to get this shit taken care of so I can get back to my vacation.”

“Fine fine, come on in,” Detective Maduro opened the door for John.

John sat down on the rickety chair and pulled out his data slate. Once it was booted up, he synced it to the television. He also had control of the privacy glass and set it to atomically turn on when John wanted privacy. It also deactivated all of the detective’s recording devices.

“So, what do you have for me?” the detective said as he began smiling in his chair.

“Well, here’s a simple view of all twenty cameras inside the lounge. I’ll leave this data slate with you by the way. You can view each one of these angles individually.”

“Excuse me, you said you had video of the assault happening. Why are you showing me security footage of the lounge? And why do you even have this? We don’t even have it yet.”

“Oh, I lied about that shit,” John said nonchalantly, “The main reason I’m here is to exonerate those two. Which I’m going to do with this visual.”

John smiled and moved to the visual representation of the bar, “Oh, pardon me, to answer your question the lounge's data security was essentially non-existent for me. It took next to no effort to download that footage. I also acquired GPS information from the wireless networks, which I used to build this visual. I have an amazing VI that was able to render all of this through the use of those two sources of data.”

“Excuse me, are you admitting that you not only hacked the lounge's security systems, but you also did the same for the phone systems?”

“Yes, but that doesn’t matter right now. You really want to see this.”

Detective Maduro stood up, “No, I’m done with this farce. I’m going to arrest…”

John’s happy-go-lucky attitude was gone and he focused his ire at the detective, “Sit your fat ass down and watch the fucking visual.”

Detective Maduro was stunned at John as he began playing the visual. He pointed out the victim and the supposed suspects. He sat back down in the seat and grinned at the now red-faced detection. Once the playback ended the privacy glass engaged, to the surprise of the detection.

“Don’t worry about that, if I wanted you dead you would never have made it into work. I actually want you alive,” John’s smile disappeared as he stared down at the detective.

“And threatening a detective. You aren’t too smart.”

“Oh, I’m brilliant actually. You, on the other hand, are not, in fact, you will be incredibly impotent when it comes to doing anything to me,” John then switched to the screen that listed all of the sexual assault cases that the woman had been involved in, “Eighteen cases in ten months. Every last one of them was against a non-resident that was on vacation here. And you were the lead investigator on each one, yet none of these were sent on to the DA for prosecution.”

“Are you accusing me of something?”

“Does a bear shit in the woods? Of course, I am. As you can see on this slide every last one of them paid five to six figures to get off the charges," John flipped to the Detective's secret bank account, "Look at that you thieving asshole, you took a third of the hush money. It was a clever scheme, but you made a couple of mistakes.”

“Oh, please enlighten me,” Detective Maduro was getting fidgety behind his desk.

“First is you pulled this stunt on a pair of poor ass Naval cadets. The black one is dirt-ass poor from the middle of fucking nowhere North Dakota. The other one is slightly better off but not much so. Combined they might have eight or nine grand saved to their names.”

“And the second reason?”

“Your dumbass scheme got me involved,” John said smugly as he displayed a pair of pornographic images that featured the detective and two different women, “I'm a damned good investigator. And you are a repugnant pig. But you actually lived out a porn movie’s storyline.”

“HOW…”

“I wonder what your wife would say when she finds out that you’re fucking her younger sister and mother. The craziest damned thing is that you did all three women last week. And the week before. And the week before that. I want to hate you, I really do. I can’t because I kinda respect those gigantic brass balls of yours.”

“You aren’t going to get a damn…”

John shot him a look that shut the detective up, “So this is how things are going to play out. Those two are going to be let go and that trumped-up and bullshit report is going to be permanently deleted. You and that little bitch are going to stop doing this scheme henceforth. If she files one more bullshit case and you or anyone else on the force sign off on it your wife is getting these pictures. Going scorched earth on you would not be difficult to do at all.”

"And if I don't comply?"

"All this and more gets leaked to everyone on the island. And before the sun sets tonight you'll be fish food. Between you and me though, I'd prefer the former option. I don't feel like killing anyone today."

The detective's desk phone rang. Maduro looked at the caller ID and then back at John. The detective didn’t understand why the adversary across his desk was smiling.

“Yeah, you’ll want to pick up her call. Please put her on speaker if you'd be so kind.”

The detective complied and the so-called victim screamed, “WHERE THE HELL IS MY MONEY JOE? IT’S ALL FUCKING GONE.”

“I don’t know what…” Detective Maduro quickly looked at his bank account and noticed it was nearly emptied, “What the fuck? My money is gone.”

“Oh, I can answer both of y’all’s questions,” John smiled and flashed five credit chits, “I took the liberty of confiscating your ill-gotten gains. Luna, you don’t know me, but I know you. If you try anything like this again you will most likely end up dead. If you speak about this to anyone then you'll be dead too. My advice is to suck it up and find a legitimate profession.”

John switched to a recording of the Apex Garden Massacre. It was a recording from his rifle’s point of view. This was a video only a handful of civilians had an opportunity to view. When the video ended it paused on a reflection clearly showing it was John who was shooting that rifle.

“Yeah, Luna, the party is over. I’ll take care of your rent this month but you’re going to have to find work.”

“That’s not good enough. I want my fucking money back.”

“Look, we can deal with that later,” Detective Maduro looked like his world was imploding.

“You and I need to finish our conversation detective,” John said calmly, “I have that tee time that I’d rather not miss.”

“I’ll call you back in ten Luna. Don’t do anything rash.”

Detective Maduro hung up the phone and looked down at the floor as he spoke, “So what now?”

“You are one ugly motherfucker. But you’re a damned legend on this island. I just don’t get it,” John laughed as he stood up and tossed three of the chits at the detective, “I’ll give you that back, give one or two to the bitch, or none since I don't really care. The inner chauvinistic asshole inside of me is oddly impressed with your feats.”

“You are just going to leave it at that?”

John tossed the data slate in front of the detective, “I don’t really give a damn what you do, but this bullshit stops.”

“Just take your friends and get the hell out of here and away from me.”

John stopped at the door, “Be smart and don’t play stupid games anymore in the future. That shit will catch up to you some time.”

“Does that apply to you too?” the detective whimpered.

“Nah, I’m just too damned good last what I do.”

He walked out and gestured to the deputy to let them go. The deputy looked at a dejected Detective Maduro who meekly nodded. Nathan and Andern were wicked excited, but John shut that down with a single wagging finger motion.

They followed him down the stairs. John tossed both credits over him, perfectly timed so that Andern and Nathan caught them. They both examined it and found that it held over fifty thousand credits. John then stopped just shy of the ground floor.

“Consider that payment for pain and suffering that you suffered. Keep it quiet. They are unmarked as an FYI.”

“Dude…” Nathan was at a loss for words.

“Sweet, the wedding is paid for. Fucking worth it,” Andern was smiling.

John and Nathan both shook their heads at the village idiot. John led them down and out of the precinct and walked to his parked SUV. Twenty-five minutes later they were back at the estate.

9:15 Pool

John was in the hot tub smoking Cohiba Esplendido. His victory drink was some delightful bourbon. Alice and Jessica were in with him too. Alice and Jessica had opted for a smaller cigar and wine. Andern was practically being mugged by Kristin. Both of them were also enjoying drinks though only Andern was having a cigar.

Nathan was resting on the side of the pool dangling his feet laughing and enjoying his cigar. Brian and Thomas sitting at the bar drinking some wine. Kevin and Theresa were dipping their feet into the hot tub and enjoying similar vices as the rest.

Their spirits were good once more. In only six hours things had completely changed. Dread turned to hope which turned into relief. Everyone desperately wanted to know what John had done but thought better than to ask for the details. Nathan and Andern didn’t want to keep the credit chits a secret and confronted John privately, but he insisted they keep them and use them intelligently.

Life for the next five days was fun. The boys went golfing in the morning three more times. They chartered a boat to go fishing a couple of miles off the coast. They ate well, were merry, and enjoyed every last minute of their time off.

The flight back to both the academy and reality was comfortable but one they all dreaded. None of them really wanted to leave their lives of luxury. Though in all fairness that luxury was an illusion because of John’s largesse. The reality of it was that all ten of them had a mission to succeed. A short ten more weeks and they’d accomplish that and begin their journey.