Shattered Ice

Chapter Three

The two detectives would return to the precinct. Ryker was there, looking very angry at them.

Naturally, Stoneward was up to his sense of humor. “What is it, Captain? You don't like my suit?”

Not amused by Stoneward's reply, Ryker was fuming, breathing almost heavily.

Still, this didn't faze Stoneward a bit. “Captain, please. You're steaming up my tie. Are you trying to wrinkle it?”

Ryker wouldn't speak, just looking mad at the two detectives. That's when Tannehill answered, “Captain, watch your blood pressure. We're doing our jobs.”

Finally, Ryker would shake his head and then he calmed down. “Okay, I see telling you to back off this case and let Crane and Jones handle it is pointless at this point”

This humored Stonewall, as he asked, “Gee, Captain. Whatever gave you that idea?”

“Crane told me you've visited D'Amico and Ms Fredricks.”

“Of course. Do you like Italian food, sir?” Tannehill would answer.

Ryker was about to blow his temper again, but he backed off. “This is against my better judgment, but I'm transferring you out of stakeout and putting you back on homicide” He'd show us his index finger and continued, “But on one condition. You work with Crane and Jones.”

Stoneward would smile and answered, “Is that all? Why, I'd be glad to show Sammy how to be a good homicide detective. After all, he's got a lot to learn.”

Ryker would go back into his office, sulking. Meanwhile, the two detectives would walk towards Crane's office.

“Hey, junior!” “Stoneward said to Crane, smiling. “Looks like you and Billy will be our students, and we're your teachers.”

Crane wasn't too happy. “How stupid do you think I am?”

Stoneward shook his head and replied, “Asking that rhetorical question again, or do you really want an answer?”

For a moment, Crane was about to lose his temper, but Jones held him back. He backed off and slammed his fist on the table.

That when Tannehill replied, “Careful, Sammy, You don't want to break your hand. I doubt workman' comp will cover that.”

Crane eventually calmed down. “All right. All right. Maybe we need to learn the ropes from experienced homicide detectives. D'Amico and Ms Fredricks told us probably the same thing she told you.”

Stoneward decided to be more serious. “If you mean that Ms. Fredricks dated the deceased, that D'Amico gave her a modeling job and gave a job to Carducci, then yes.”

By this time, Crane was more relaxed. “Okay. So we got a dead Carducci, D'Amico and Ms. Fredricks. Where do we go from here?”

Suddenly a voice from another office said, “Lieutenant, a Ms. Fredricks on the phone.”

Stoneward would say, “Well, at least there's the next step.” Suddenly the phone rang.

He answered the phone. “Ms. Fredricks, what can I do for you?” As he listened, his facial expression changed. “Okay, stay where you are; we'll be right over.”

After he hung the phone up he said, “Okay, gentlemen. We've got work to do.“

They would all hop in to Stoneward's car and head back to Anna Fredricks's place. As they pulled up, they noticed something unusual. There was a white car there that they didn't see before when they first visited her.

Crane was confused. “Is that her other car or is she expecting visitors besides us?”

As they walk towards the front door, suddenly there was gunfire. Thus they got their firearms ready.

Breaking into the door, they looked around. The living room was ransacked. They split up to check the other rooms.

Suddenly they could hear someone crying. Tannehill discovered Anna on her knees, crying. She had been beaten as well.

“Ms. Fredricks, who did this to you?”

“Those guys work for someone named the Toad. Damon told me a little bit about them the night he went to Bennett's. He told me he's got a surprise for me there.”

More shots were fired. Tannehill ran out to see what was going on.

He saw that Stoneward and Crane were okay. However, there were three dead bodies on the living room floor, one of them was Jones. “We didn't even fire a shot. We tried to question them, but then they got shot by someone else”, said Crane. “We shouted, POLICE!! FREEZE!! They put their hands up and suddenly they got shot. Even Bill was shot..”

Just then, they saw the mysterious white car speed off. Something peculiar was going on.

Tannehill called for an ambulance for Anna, while Stoneward and Crane searched the pockets of the two dead men. One of them was carrying a business card of the Toad.

Crane was confused, asking, “Who the hell is the Toad”?

Tannehill answered, “Anna told me these thugs worked for this character”

Just then the ambulance arrived. Tannehill showed them where Anna was, and they put her in the stretcher.

Before they put her in the ambulance, Anna told Tannehill, “The Toad is a lousy pimp. His men did this to me. “

“Tannehill would answer, “Okay. You concentrate on getting better. We'll handle it from here.” He then turned to the ambulance attendants, saying. “Take care of her.” After that, the ambulance was on its way to the hospital.

The three detectives looked at the business card of the Toad. It had his number, address, and the name of his business, HIGH CLASS ESCORTS.

Stoneward shook his head. “Escorts? Yeah right.”

Naturally the three of them were pondering, who is the Toad, and what does he have to do with Carducci and D'Amico.

Well, the next thing to do was to see if an old informant, who was a guy working a newspaper and magazine stand, had any answers. They met with him.

His name was Ben, a guy who keeps his eyes and ears open to anything going on. He was a guy in his 40s, and both Stoneward and Tannehill remembered when they helped him after he turned in evidence to arrest some drug lord and bust his organization,

“Hey, Benny!” Stoneward said to him as they stood in front of the newsstand.

Ben was smiling as he answered, “Lieutenant, so good to see you again, Hey, I haven't forgotten how you and Inspector Tannehill helped me after you busted Le Grant Monet Are you here to buy a newspaper or is this business?”

As Stoneward grabbed a magazine, HIGH FASHION magazine. “Tell me, Benny. Do you see people buying this issue?”

Ben answered, “Ah, maybe a few people, You know, the kind that wear fancy clothes. Other than that, I sell a lot of Sports Illustrated, comics, some out-of-town papers. You know what I mean.”

Stoneward noticed the 18+ section was empty. “I taketh that nobody buys pornography anymore.”

As Ben looked at that empty shelf, he replied, “Ah, some dude in a white tuxedo bought them all. The guy even left me $1.000 and said to me, 'Here. Keep the change.”

“Let me ask you something, Benny. Did the guy tell you his name?”

“Oh, no, Lieutenant. But he left me with something else.” As Benny handed Stoneward the business card, he was surprised.

“Well, this Toad character is generous”

Naturally, Tannehill and Crane looked at the business card and then they looked at the business card from one of the dead men. It was the same.

“Tell me, Benny, have you ever heard of Joseph D'Amico?”

Ben was very eager to answer. “Ah, yeah. Word out in the streets is that this Toad and D'Amico are not exactly in friendly terms with each other.”

“No kidding”, exclaimed Stoneward.

“I mean, these dudes are bitter rivals. I heard that D'Amico apparently wanted to muscle into Toad's so-called escort service.”

“Hmmmm.” Tannehill started to say, and then he continued,”That would explain those scantily-clad pictures in D'Amico's office. Anything else?”

“Beyond that, fellas, I know nothing, except that rumors were spread about that dead guy, Carducci.”

“What about Carducci?” asked Crane.

Ben knew a lot of things going on in the streets, but the detectives got more than they bargained for as he answered, “Well, rumors are going around that this Carducci was playing Toad and D'Amico for fools. You know, pitting both these dudes against each other.”

“For what?”, asked Crane,

Ben answered, “Well, for that, you'll have to ask the Toad.”

After a pause, Stoneward put down the HIGH FASHION magazine, and Crane came up to Ben and said, “Here' I'm buying this.” It was a book of word search puzzles.

Ben smiled and said, “Okay. It's good to do business with you. Oh, and I'm sorry about your partner, Bill Jones”

Crane would shake his head and say in a soft voice, “Yeah. Thanks”\.”

As Stoneward and Tannehill stared at Crane, he replied, “Hey, I got to keep a sharp mind going.”

Stoneward shook his head and said, “Whatever, kid.”