Schism

Chapter 11

Chapter 11

The number of shifting, restless bodies in the room must have raised the air temperature by at least five degrees, and though Bryan's jacket was already off, he was beginning to sweat. 

He was at the back of the crowd of detectives, where he preferred to be.  As Lieutenant Hayes started the meeting, he had been able to move away from his desk and get further from notice.  He had heard about the street fight the night before, knew the meeting would be about that.  And if his suspicions were correct, he already knew more about it than any of the other detectives.  He hid behind his cup of coffee and tried to stay out of Hayes' eye line.

"You all know about the incident last night.  And the one the night before that.  It looks like there is a new player in town and I'm not happy about it.  The Captain isn't happy about it and District Attorney Giles isn't happy about it."  Hayes pointed out into the crowd.  "Rios and Cray got a few eyewitness descriptions of our vigilante last night and they include..."

Bryan snuck a peek at Rios and Cray as Hayes paused to look at the file in his hands.  The two looked quite pleased with themselves and their high profile case.  Behind the coffee cup, a smile spread on Bryan's face.

He saw Hayes look up.  "Seven feet tall, built like a gorilla...able to dodge bullets just like in that...I'm quoting this here...like in that one old movie, The Matrix."

Bryan heard the ripple of laughter run through the room.  Rios and Cray didn't join in.  He tamped his own grin back down.

"Shut it."  Hayes said.  "There's more.  Another said he took a bullet to the chest and it bounced right off him."

Another chuckle passed around under Hayes' glare.  "It's Batman!"  Bryan craned his neck.  Dieterly slapped the shoulders of those around him to congratulate his own cleverness.

"Moron!" It was the other rookie, Hicks.  "If he's bulletproof, it's Superman."  Bryan figured they both might still be reading comic books.  Would his own son be reading comics now if he was still alive?  Bryan wasn't sure.

Dieterly made another grab for the spotlight.  "Spidey, or Daredevil!"

"Shut up!"  Hayes stared them down.  The two rookies shrank back and the room grew quiet again.  "Cray, Rios.  Anything besides superhero bullshit?"

Bryan watched Rios shrug it over to Cray.  They both looked fairly deflated.  "Aside from white male, the descriptions obviously are all over the place."  A few more snickers sprang up and Bryan could see Cray tighten up.  It looked like they wanted their high profile case untainted by any juvenile associations.  Maybe Bryan could find a way to encourage the rookies and their outbursts just to pay Cray back for his attitude.

"Yeah, yeah."  Rios said.  "What little we could pry out of the survivors matched the description from a homicide the night before that we've been working.  The skinheads aren't giving anything up, but one who had a knife in his stomach kept calling our perp a race traitor and wouldn't stop going on about revenge, so I think we can expect some kind of reprisal."

Bryan took a sip of coffee.  It was good.  Far better than he'd ever thought would come out of the squad room coffee pot.  He knew Meyers had taken it upon himself to replace the large tins of off brand coffee with bags of fresh roasted from a local cafe.  He'd even brought in a small electric grinder.  The coffee had become a quick refuge for Bryan, a small detail that he could focus on and use to tune out the memories.

He looked up from the cup as Hayes started again.  "Listen, this is not Gotham or Metropolis or wherever those stupid comic book characters live.  I don't want some freak thinking he can come and take our jobs away.  We're the law, so make sure people out there know it.  Anybody has any information, they give it to Cray and Rios.  Go catch this bastard before this vigilante shit spreads and this turns into a real circus."  As the crowd of detectives started to chatter and stretch, Hayes held up one big hand.  "And...the D.A. is planning another pep talk for you all.  We want this settled and some traction on the arson cases before then, don't we?"