Going Under_ A Bill Roberts Thriller - Silas Payton Page 0,42

into this.

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Detective Cliff Jones

Cliff dialed Cathy's number.

"Hi Cathy," he said. He didn't get another chance to say anything. His face became serious as he was listening to her.

"What exactly is all over the news?" he asked, as he looked at Evans and pointed to the TV on the wall, nodding toward it.

Evans turned it on to see writing on the screen: Warning! The following contains graphic footage. Young children should not watch.

The warning was followed by a video of the dead bodies of the biker and the police officers, outside of the Darksiders' clubhouse. It spanned the area, revealing tactical officers in bulletproof vests running around with assault rifles. Bill, Cliff and Evans exchanged a look of horror and disbelief. The announcer was interviewing a man talking about the police having too much power in the city of Toronto.

After thirty seconds of blood and guts, they changed to a close-up clip of Bill looking angry, pointing at the camera.

Oh, no, this isn't happening.

Bill watched himself speaking sternly into the camera, "Step out of line -- you'll suffer the consequences."

"Whoa!" said Evans. "Did you actually say that?"

They both looked at Bill, waiting for a reaction. He shook his head and said, "Did I survive getting shot, or am I actually dead and in Hell?"

Cliff still had Cathy on the phone. "We saw the news clip. It really is bad."

Bill's phone rang.

"Cathy, I'll call you back in a minute," said Cliff.

Bill answered, hoping it wasn't the Chief. He wondered if he'd still have a job once he got off the phone, if it was. He was relieved to find Staff Sergeant Brooks, on the other end, his equivalent rank in the tactical division, and not a higher-up.

Well, at least I'm not fired yet.

"What's up Brooks?" he asked.

"How's the shoulder?"

"I'll live...for now, anyway."

"We're still at the scene here. The police photographers had to come in and the special investigation unit is here as well. It's turned into a nut-house. We've had to maintain the perimeter to keep the media out. Consider yourself lucky. I think I'd take a shot too, if it would get me out of this mess."

"I assume you haven't had time for any TV then?"

"Watching TV? Sounds like you're being a little pampered at the hospital, while I'm dealing with this crap. I hope you're enjoying it," Brooks said.

"Oh, rest assured, things are about to get real uncomfortable for me, once the Chief tracks me down," Bill said.

"What do you mean?"

"You'll hear about it soon enough."

"Hey. I thought you might be interested -- someone in dispatch just let me know about a 911 call they received. We may have located the cell phone used to prank us into this mess at the Darksiders' clubhouse. It was found in a park by some teenagers. A cruiser's on the way to pick it up. Listen, I can't deal with it right now, but it might lead us to why we were called here tonight. This whole thing may have been a set-up. Can you look into it?"

"That's the best news I've heard since my doctor said they don't have to dig out a bullet, although, she still found a reason to get up close and personal with her finger. I'll have someone try and get some answers," said Bill. "I'll get back to you."

Bill hung up and looked to Cliff and Evans, who were waiting for any good news they could get. "There's a chance we might be able to take some of the heat off this situation."

Chapter 45

Cliff Jones

Cliff left the hospital and drove to the office where he and Cathy waited for the cell phone to be delivered. Once it arrived, they brought it to the second floor for Joe in computer forensics to have a look. Joe must have come in at the same time and was taking off his jacket when they entered.

"I hope this is important, dragging me in at four in the morning," he said.

"We appreciate you coming in early. The media is going to be riding the city police for a while on this one. If we can find out who this belongs to, it might help defend what happened this morning."

Joe had the reputation of being the best computer wiz in the city. Cliff knew if anyone could figure out who made the call, he could.

Joe turned on the phone and the phone app was still open. He hit the key in the top left corner labeled Contacts. He scrolled down through the list