- 𝚂𝚎𝚙𝚝𝚎𝚖𝚋𝚎𝚛 𝟷𝟺 𝟷𝟿𝟾𝟾 -
- 𝙼𝚎𝚝𝚛𝚘𝚙𝚘𝚕𝚒𝚜, 𝙴𝚟𝚎𝚛𝚐𝚛𝚎𝚎𝚗 𝚂𝚝𝚊𝚝𝚎 -
-𝙳𝚘𝚞𝚐 𝙿𝚎𝚗𝚑𝚊𝚕𝚕'𝚜 𝙷𝚘𝚞𝚜𝚎 -
- 𝟻:𝟹𝟶 𝙰𝙼 -
"HEY," DOUG GREETED as he ushered Tom into his garage. "I'd let you in the house, but Dorothy'd rip my head off if I let anyone see her before she got all dolled up," he yawned, only half joking as he shut the garage door.
"Good thing you don't have that problem," Tom scoffed as his eyes trailed over Doug. There he stood in all his glory, wearing a powder blue set of pajamas with baseballs printed all over his brawny, 6 '1 frame. "Pretty sure I had that same set when I was 10,"
"Yeah, yeah, at least I don't look like I just came from planet zomboid," Doug snorted. Tom looked rough. Heavy shadows stained his under eyes and the dark, rough stubble growing along his sharp jawline made him look even worse for wear. "Rough night?"
"Yeah, you could say that," Tom scratched at his stubbly chin as he recalled the events of last night. It was clear to everyone in that station that those boys were guilty of a lot— but Tracy Edwards wasn't one of them. They'd grilled those kids six ways to Sunday and still came up with nothing to connect them to the assault. Tom had gone home that with seeds of anxiety sprouting in his chest. He tried to sleep it off, but every time he shut his eyes, all he could picture was Booker's smug face illuminated by the cross on burning on Tracy's yard.
"You get that stuff for me?" Tom cut right to the chase. This wasn't a social visit.
"Yeah! Yeah, I did," Doug assured him, but Tom didn't miss the way his eyes shied away when he answered. "You know Booker went to the academy the same year you did? And—er, uh... Richards only finished up last year." Tom merely stared at Doug after he spewed that useless little tidbit, making the larger officer squirm beneath his judgmental gaze.
"Find anything useful?" Tom reiterated, hoping to get better answers out of Doug this time around.
"... Nothing too interesting," Doug shrugged. "She grew up on the south side, she worked down in the Bible Belt... she's clean,"
"That all?" Tom asked once more.
"Yeah, squeaky clean. Nothing to worry about..."
Tom wasn't worried about her to begin with.
"What about Booker, Doug?" Tom asked outright when Doug failed to get the hint.
"Oh, him," Doug hesitated, sitting down at his workbench. "He, uh, bounced around a couple divisions. Just some minor disciplinary problems..."
"Yeah, he's got some problems alright... I think he raped Tracy Edwards." An icy silence filled the air as those words fell from Tom's lips. The atmosphere in the room grew heavy, words lingering that they couldn't unhear. Doug gawked at Tom, his lips parting in stunned silence.
"... Geez, you are way off base," Doug chuckled uneasily, turning his back to Tom as he fixed his attention on his motorbike.
Tom gritted his teeth.
"I know I'm right," he persisted, irked by how easily Doug was dismissing him. "He's a racist!"
"You're on the wrong track, Tom," Doug sighed as he rifled through his toolbox. "You really need to get some sleep, man,"
"He's got a thing for black girls," Tom continued, repeating what Marty had suggested to him last night. "He's been hitting on Judy and Richards—"
"Judy is a beautiful woman," Doug countered with an exasperated sigh. "Richards probably is too. You can't be surprised?"
"Well, how about him knowing Tracy had cigarette burns on her ass?" That was the most damning evidence Tom had on Booker's possible involvement. That was a detail neither of them should've known, and Doug couldn't argue that away. "It wasn't on the news. You got an answer for that?"
"... I do," Doug's voice was hardly above a whisper as he spoke. The silence growing between them was almost deafening now. Tom waited, eager to receive the answers that would finally put this whole thing into perspective, but Doug didn't look up at him. He let the silence stretch on, long and tedious as he began to tinker with his bike. Tom's eyes thinned, a sense of unease washing over him as he observed the officer's strange behavior.
"... What aren't you telling me, Penhall?" Doug wasn't normally one to keep secrets. The fact that he was being so tight-lipped about this was beginning to make Tom's stomach turn. Doug, again, kept his mouth shut. "Come on!" Tom yelled, no longer able to hide his frustration. " He raped her! What other explanation—"
"He didn't rape her!" Doug snapped, throwing his wrench back down into his toolbox. "The cigarette burns were in Greenwell's files, it just wasn't released to the press!"
"So?" Tom questioned, confused on how that would clear Booker's name when none of them had access to those files. "Doug," he pleaded earnestly. "What's going on?" Doug finally looked up at Tom and, as his eyes trailed over the haggard appearance of a desperate man, decided to have mercy.
"... Booker's Internal Affairs." Those three words that Doug whispered so softly in the quiet hours of the early morning were enough to rattle Tom to his core. They were slow to absorb into the officer's mind as he struggled to tame the whirlwind of emotions coursing through him. The Internal Affairs Division (IAD) consisted of officers who looked into the possibility of criminal acts being committed within the police department. They had access to everyone's files.
"... What's he doing on Jump Street?" Tom sneered in utter disbelief of what he was hearing, but refused to show how truly shaken he was.
"City hall wants to make sure you guys aren't entrapping kids... So they sent him in to sniff you out," Doug sheepishly confessed. Of course, Tom thought. City Hall flip-flopped so much on their opinion of Jump Street, it was only a matter of time before they sent someone in to check them out. But knowing that didn't make the news any easier to swallow.
"...Why didn't you tell me this?" Tom asked after a beat, doing his best to mask the pain of the knife Doug had so secretly plunged in his back.
"If Intelligence finds out... I'm gone, man," Guilt was blanketed all over Doug's face, but Tom couldn't find the will to be sympathetic. "I'm sorry," He looked at Tom expectantly, hoping for his friend's forgiveness. But Tom was too busy swallowing down the intense feelings of anger and betrayal boiling within him to spend any more time in this room with Doug.
"Good job," Tom muttered, pushing past Doug toward the garage door. He quickly headed to his car and, once inside, he just sat in the vehicle. His hands gripped the steering wheel so tightly his knuckles turned white. He took a deep breath, trying hard to remember all the grounding techniques his shrink had taught him this year, but it was no use.
Tom was pissed.
He let out a frustrated yell, startling an early morning jogger running by with his dog. As the barks of the border collie awoke the sleeping neighborhood, Tom took another deep breath, and tried to think.
"He did it..." Tom muttered to himself, fighting back a yawn. Whether Booker was IAD or not, it didn't make him any less suspicious. Tom couldn't shake the feeling that there was something more to this that he wasn't seeing. "I just need evidence." Turning his key in the ignition, he took one last look at Doug's house. With the flames of determination fueling his tired mind, he tore off the headed straight to Westside High.
-/-
- 𝚂𝚎𝚙𝚝𝚎𝚖𝚋𝚎𝚛 𝟷𝟺 𝟷𝟿𝟾𝟾 -
- 𝙼𝚎𝚝𝚛𝚘𝚙𝚘𝚕𝚒𝚜, 𝙴𝚟𝚎𝚛𝚐𝚛𝚎𝚎𝚗 𝚂𝚝𝚊𝚝𝚎 -
- 𝙹𝚞𝚖𝚙 𝚂𝚝𝚛𝚎𝚎𝚝 𝙲𝚑𝚊𝚙𝚎𝚕 -
- 𝟾:𝟶𝟶 𝙰𝙼 -
"You're late," Fuller frowned when Tom strolled into the Captain's office. He was over an hour late, but the young officer was much too excited about the bomb he was about to drop to care about being tardy.
"Sorry," he apologized half-heartedly as he looked around the room. Judy, Ioki, and Booker were all present. Good, he thought. He was happy to have an audience. He locked eyes with Booker when his fellow officers spared him a glance, and a triumphant grin stretched across Tom's face. "Don't mind me, Captain. I'm all ears,"
"... I was just telling everyone that Greenwell has requested our help in working the high school," Fuller explained, watching Tom with narrowed eyes. Tom was leaning against the door, his arms folded confidently over his chest as his eyes burned holes in the back of Booker's head. "... Do you have something to say, Hanson?" He asked, concerned by the officer's demeanor and haggard appearance.
"I'm glad you asked," Tom let out a breathy chuckle and smirked as he approached Captain Fuller. He looked down at Booker sitting beside Judy at the Captain's desk, completely unbothered. Tom couldn't wait to drop the hammer on him. "You see, I know this is gonna sound personal, but it isn't," he smiled, reaching under his coat and pulling out a file folder that had been burning a hole in his jacket. "I found this file on Tracy Edwards in Booker's apartment this morning,"
Booker's eyes went wide as Tom dropped the file on Fuller's desk for all of them to see. His eyes drifted from the file and up to Tom, a searing hatred burning behind his dark irises.
"What were you doing in Booker's—"
"I broke in," Tom admitted, completely unashamed as he interrupted the Captain. Fuller's eyes gradually widened as Tom's words became clear.
"Hanson, are you out of your mind?" Tom shook his head and bit back another smile. He knew the evidence he had on Booker would make his petty crime obsolete.
"Take a peek," Tom encouraged, handing Fuller the file. The Captain thumbed through the papers, and it only took a few moments for him to realize exactly what he was looking at.
"These are from Greenwell's private files," Fuller said aloud, looking at Booker with narrowed eyes. "How'd you come by this?" Booker glanced up, his face paling as his eyes bounced back and forth between Tom and Fuller. Tom couldn't wait to watch him squirm.
"...Tommy's already doing such a bang-up job," Booker said, his jaw clenched as he stared Tom down. "Why don't we let him tell it?"
"Booker's Internal Affairs," Tom blurted, unable to contain himself any longer. "He's been trying to get us for entrapping kids." Tom could feel tension in the room grow heavy at his revelation, and the other three officers began to look at Booker with fresh eyes. A mix of emotions flashed across Judy's face while Booker sat silently, his jaw tensed as he allowed Tom to blow his cover.
Tom was loving every minute of it.
"Now, you wanna tell everyone where you were the night Tracy Edwards was raped?" Tom had been busy this morning searching for evidence that could pin Booker to the scene of the crime. Even if there were no witnesses to Tracy's attack, Tom knows there's always one constant at every school who sees almost everything without being noticed.
"See, I went up to the school this morning and talked to the janitor," he announced to the room. "I showed him your picture, and he said he saw you in the bushes with a black girl! I got a dozen teachers who say your car was parked at the school all night, and not to mention how you were hassling Tracy at lunch. See, your pal Marty let it slip that he saw you talking to her after school— so that makes you the last one to see her!" He turned to Fuller, knowing full well that Booker couldn't dig himself out of the grave he'd just dug for him. "He raped her!"
As all the officers in the room looked at Booker, waiting for him to defend himself from Hanson's accusations, Tom felt triumphant. He could see them all finally beginning to see in Booker what Tom has been complaining about all along. The longer the man stayed silent only proved his guilt.
"... No, he didn't," Judy's voice unexpectedly cut through the silence. Everyone's head snapped to her. Judy's eyes nervously bounced between all the men in the room before landing on Booker's. Taking a deep breath, she said: "I picked up Dennis after school on Monday, he was with me all night."
Tom's mouth fell open, and Judy turned her face away. For a moment, no one dared to speak. The awkwardness of her confession was enough to bring the impromptu interrogation to a screeching halt.
"... Will you all excuse us so I can talk to Hanson alone?" At Fuller's order, the officers all began to file out. Judy practically ran from the room with Ioki chasing after her, but Booker took his time.
"I really meant it, Tommy," he said, clapping Tom on the shoulder. "Real bang-up job you did here." With a sarcastic scoff, he pushed past Tom and followed the other officers out of the office. The door slammed shut behind him, and Tom was left alone with the Captain.
"Look, I know what you're gonna say—" Tom began, but Fuller cut him off before he could pedal out an excuse.
"I'm worried about you, Hanson," Fuller said. "I haven't seen you like this since Amy died,"
"I—" Tom faltered at the mention of his old girlfriend. He'd expected Fuller to yell at him, to tell him he was out of line and reprimand him, not to bring up his dead girlfriend. "I-I..." Tom struggled to regain his composure, but he eventually managed to grit out, "I'm fine,"
"Hanson, you just accused another officer of assaulting a minor— on top of breaking and entering! You are not fine,"
"I know I messed up," Tom admitted, his cheeks burning hot with frustration. "But I'm not off the deep end this time!" He was trying his best to think of anything he could say that could reframe this whole situation. After Amy died... Tom took it hard, to say the least. He'd been swallowed up in a sea of darkness, stumbling down a path where it became harder and harder for him to see the light... but he wasn't grieving now. He wasn't living in denial. He was fucking right. "I told you something was off with him, Captain, and I was right! He's been lying to us since day one! We can't trust him!"
"Hanson, right now, it's your judgment I can't trust," Fuller told him. "...You're finished with this case, I'm sending you home,"
"Captain," Tom begged. "I'm inches away from solving this! There's just something I'm missing—"
"Yeah, a good night's sleep," the Captain sighed. "Hanson, go home. Get some sleep. This case will be solved without you,"
"... Fine," Tom relented, seeing there was no use trying to change Fuller's mind. He stormed out of the building and hurried to the parking lot, doing his best not to lock eyes with anyone. But confrontation seemed to be unavoidable.
"Hey!" Judy yelled from behind him, following him down the fire escape. "I got a bone to pick with you, Hanson!" Tom let out an aggravated groan before turning to face the angry woman.
"Booker's IAD and I'm the one you're mad at?" He laughed. "Great. Just great, Jude. What? You're upset I blew your boyfriend's cover?" Judy shook her head at Tom's snide remark and angrily crossed her arms over her chest.
"You do a lot of crazy things, Tom, but this one just about takes the cake," she huffed. "It was stupid a-and reckless and—Dennis could have your badge for this, you know!" She yelled. "You better talk to him, Hanson,"
"I got nothing to say," Tom replied gruffly. "I was right about him, he was sent to check us out. I guess he already checked you out, huh?"
"That is absolutely none of your business," Judy replied coldly. "You really need to give yourself a reality check if you think what happened back there was okay! Nevermind how you're talking to me right now!"
"How I'm talking to—Booker said a lot worse yesterday! He called that poor girl the N-word, but I guess that's the kind of dirty talk you like now that you're in bed with the Klan,"
"You're being a real ass right now, Tom," Judy frowned. "Did you forget that you and Booker were sent undercover to play racist? Pretend!" She emphasized.
"He's not faking it, Jude, I've seen him in action! But I guess you have too," he spat.
"... Danika was right. You really don't know when to stop, do you?" Judy noted with a disappointed shake of her head. "I'm worried about you, but you are burning a lot of bridges right now, Tom,"
"Give me a break!" Tom snapped. "I'm just trying to do my job, and you and everybody else are giving me a hard time for it! Booker's Internal Affairs, I get kicked off the case! Richards has a breakdown, I get covered in coffee!"
"I don't exactly remember you doing so hot on your first case, either!" Judy frowned. "Don't forget, when you kept messing up our cases when you first got here, Jenko gave you a second chance," she reminded him. "Don't write them off because of a first impression. None of us liked you very much when you first got here either." Without another word, she turned her back on Tom and walked back inside the chapel.
-/-
- 𝚂𝚎𝚙𝚝𝚎𝚖𝚋𝚎𝚛 𝟷𝟺 𝟷𝟿𝟾𝟾 -
- 𝙼𝚎𝚝𝚛𝚘𝚙𝚘𝚕𝚒𝚜, 𝙴𝚟𝚎𝚛𝚐𝚛𝚎𝚎𝚗 𝚂𝚝𝚊𝚝𝚎 -
- 𝙹𝚞𝚍𝚢 𝙷𝚘𝚏𝚏𝚜' 𝙰𝚙𝚊𝚛𝚝𝚖𝚎𝚗𝚝 -
- 𝟽:𝟸𝟶 𝙿𝙼 -
"And then I had to tell everyone that Booker spent the night with me, it was so embarrassing!" Judy complained as she filled Danika in on the events of her chaotic morning. "And to make it worse, Tom had the nerve to try to shame me for it! Like, like I was some kind of slut!"
"He called you a ho?!" Danika gasped, spoon falling from her mouth and into the carton of ice cream she'd been eating from. The idea of anyone slut-shaming a woman as sophisticated and elegant as Judy Hoffs was more shocking than Booker being IAD or Tom breaking into his home just to prove it.
"He might as well have," Judy huffed, angrily pacing around the kitchen as Danika watched from the kitchen table. "That boy needs an attitude adjustment, ASAP!"
"Mhm!" Danika agreed, humming around the spoonful of butter pecan ice cream she shoved in her mouth. Judy was filling her in on all the juicy details of the day since Danika was not allowed back to work until Doctor Janisse gave his okay on it. Instead of feeling sorry for herself for getting kicked off the case and giving in to the intrusive thoughts of how much of a failure she was, she took doctor Janisse's advice and used her day at home to focus on herself.
She took a long shower that used up all the hot water, then she took an even longer amount of time to wash her hair (regretting using up all the hot water). She helped herself to Judy's expensive skincare products (and hoped she wouldn't notice), retwisted her long locs, and filed her nails while blasting her collection of Prince albums on the stereo. By the time Judy got home from work, Danika was sitting on the couch in her bathrobe and slippers, a t-shirt wrapped around her still-drying locs, having just opened a carton of Häagen-Dazs.
Danika was big enough to admit that the shrink had been right. Some time away from the case did help clear her head a bit, but as Judy told her about the events of the day, the whole thing with Tracy was still kicking in the back of her mind.
"So he got kicked off the case too?"
"Talk about poetic justice, am I right?" Judy scoffed. "But the case hasn't gotten any easier without Tom running around like a maniac. The victim still isn't talking, but I can see why. The whole thing was brutal," Judy lamented. "She had cigarette burns on her buttocks, cuts and bruises all down her body, they even cut her hair, Nika," Judy told her scandalously. "I mean— the whole thing's just awful! And to make things worse, nobody in the high school claims to have seen anything! And the girl refused a rape kit so we don't—"
"Hold on, hold on," Danika interrupted, her ears perking up at that particular detail. "She refused a rape kit?"
"It's not so unusual," Judy shrugged. "It's a relatively new procedure and it's pretty invasive. You can't blame the girl for saying no, she's really shaken up," Judy defended, always sympathetic to a girl in need. "But that just puts us back to square one," she groaned. Danika watched as Judy put her head in her hands, looking just as defeated as Captain Fuller had yesterday. This case was taking a toll on everybody.
"Oh, Judy, come on," Danika cooed as she stood up from the table. She took her friend's hand and led her into the living room. "Let's stop stressing about this case, eat some ice cream, and put on your video of The Wiz,"
"But Nika, this case—"
"You already said we don't have anything to go on," Danika reminded her. "The more you try to put it together, the more you're gonna come up empty. We both need to relax, babe,"
"... I guess you're right," Judy relented with a reluctant smile. "I just hate that we can't do anything. That poor girl is probably gonna get subpoenaed if she doesn't start talking soon,"
"Subpoenaed?" Danika furrowed her brow.
"Yeah," Judy sighed as she began to search through her VHS collection. "This case has been all over the news. With the way the media's been hounding the police, and councilwoman Travers being on our case, they're not gonna let this go unsolved. It just looks bad on everybody. Especially Jump Street since we were the ones stationed in the school." She picked a video tape off the shelf. "Found it!" She exclaimed, shimmying excitedly as she showed Danika the VHS tape with Michael Jackson donning a scarecrow costume beside Diana Ross. "You ready to 'Ease on Down the Road'?"
"Yeah, let me grab you a spoon," Danika mumbled softly, heading back into the kitchen as Judy got the tape set up. The idea of Tracy being called to testify in court rubbed Danika the wrong way. She knew that those officers would badger the girl on the stand and break her down worse than she already was just because she didn't want to talk. No matter how much of a toll this case was taking on all of them, Danika prayed that whatever sordid detail they were missing came to light soon so they could finally piece this puzzle together.
At the very least to spare Tracy the burden.
_____________________________
A/N: unpublished because i was restructuring some older chapters, but its back up.
next chapter is Nika centric since I know it's been a lot of just Tom's POV the last few chapters. And after this case, the two of them actually have proper interactions that don't go wrong all the time lol. I drafted a lot of this story out while I wasn't posting so, I'm hoping to start getting more chapters out soon.
Anyway, thanks for reading ✨
Pls remember to vote and comment ✨