chapter 185

word count: 1291

with the female remains safely in the hands of the new albany forensic department for autopsy and identification,, and the crime scene investigative team firmly in place,, gil and his new partner, detective jimmy dolan, decided to head back to the precinct and get the paperwork out of the way while they waited on what they hoped would be a swift positive ID so they could proceed on the current 'jane doe' case..

“throw me the keys.” gil said to jimmy as they approached the crown vic.. “nothin’ personal, i just wanna gab something to eat on the way back and i’d rather drive then have to explain to you where were going.. hey you like chinese??”

“hell yeah!” jimmy responded as he smiled back at gil and tossed him the keys.. “and hey,, no offense taken..”

“i know this great little place.. it’s in china town,, but kind of off the beaten path.. caters mostly to those of the asian persuasion,, so you  know the food is authentic.. not your run of the mill americanized chinese..” gil informed jimmy as he wheeled the crown vic through the maze of official police vehicles and awestruck onlookers that riddled the parking lot surrounding the dumpster in which the pieces parts of the body had been found..

“sounds good.” jimmy replied without looking up from the keyboard of his cell phone,, where he was already busily texting away..

“that’s one thing i just can’t get comfortable with.” gil stated as he looked on in amazement as jimmy’s thumb tapped wickedly at the keypad..

“huh?? what??” jimmy asked, still too engrossed in whatever it was he was typing to look up..

“texting.. i don’t know how you guys do it.. i’ve tried,, but my thumbs are too damn big,, so i end up typing it in with one finger,, and then that fucking auto-correct thing steps in and… nope.. just not for me..”

“well just turn the auto-correct off.” said jimmy as he finally took his eyes off his phone and looked eagerly at gil, as if something he had said had really piqued his interest..

“shit!!” exclaimed gil, as he shook his head 'no' and broke out in what could easily have been interpreted as an embarrassed smile. “i’m lucky i know how to retrieve my messages!! i been lost ever since the department issued us these crazy smart phones.. way too much technology for me!!”

“are you serious??” jimmy smiled back.. “dude! toss me your phone.. i’ll turn it off for you.. take me all of two seconds..”

“so what?” gil inquired as he reached into his breast pocket and grabbed his phone. “you like one of those techno geeks or something??”

“well i don’t know that i officially qualify as a geek, but yeah, i like it and i guess you could say i am pretty good at it..” jimmy nodded,, as gil unlocked his phone and handed to him..

a couple of quick taps later, jimmy handed the phone back to gil.

“all set.. and hey,, about that texting thing,, looks like you’re gonna have to start figuring it out.. you got a text in there from someone named tori.. that wouldn't happen to be that hot little mess we just left back at your place, would it??” jimmy chided him, as he watched a bit of rose color rising in gil’s ordinarily olive complexion..

“sure as hell is!!” gil exclaimed.. “and hot mess ain’t nothing’ compared to that!! whew, lemme tell ya!!”

“so yeah, go ahead!” jimmy laughed, as he watched a sly little grin join the boyish blush in gil’s cheeks.. 

“you know you wanna!!”

“holy shit!” gil said in a reflective tone, as if last night’s antics were playing out in sexy little scenarios dancing through his stream of consciousness..

“what the fuck was that?” jimmy barked as his demeanor changed  from fun loving tech geek to homicide detective almost instantaneously..

“what was what?”

“that crowd!! didn’t ya see that huge crowd of people packed into that alley way??” jimmy inquired with a tone of urgency.. 

“we need to turn around.”

gil hung a quick left, on what just happened to be on the same street he was headed for.. as he cleared the corner, all you could see was people. the street was a crushing throng of people.. there was no doubt this was in some way connected to the crowd jimmy had just seen in the alley..

“jesus christ!!” gil exclaimed, as he quickly swung into the left lane and double parked,, the car facing in the wrong direction.. jimmy was already on the radio to dispatch..

“we got back up on its way..” jimmy informed gil as they hastened toward the crowd, badges securely in hand..

***

while hank was failing miserably at his most genial attempt at shooting the proverbial shit with buzz,, detective marisa wells, disappeared outside the drawn privacy curtain to take an urgent call from dispatch..

“detective!” she barked as she yanked back the drape,, putting an abrupt end to the painfully strained conversation that was going on at buzz’s bedside..

both buzz and hank jumped to attention when they heard the no nonsense tone of her voice.. 

“we got six bodies in china town..”

“holy fuck!!” hank exclaimed as he pushed past her and headed for the elevator,, without so much as nod in buzz’s direction..

marisa stepped it up a bit,, and caught up with hank at the elevator,, where he was repeatedly banging the down button for the elevator..

“whadda we got??” he asked impatiently.

“three adults, three children, execution style in the apartment over  tsang’s chinese restaurant.. bettancourt and dolan already on the scene.. looks like when the restaurant failed to open up on time  today, a neighboring business owner went up to check it out.. door was ajar,, the rest is still up in the air..” marisa clicked off the facts,, stopping short when the elevator doors opened..

before the elevator even had a chance to begin its descent,, hank was on the phone..

“bettencourt!!” he barked loudly into his phone, causing the civilian occupants in the elevator to take a quick step back, “wadda ya got??”

“six down.. it’s tsung, the restaurant owner,, what appears to be his whole family,, and some 20 something asain female identified by the locals as, uhm..” gil paused a moment as he paged through his already extensive notes.. “a tiffany yoo.. father owns some swanky jewelry store here in china town,, you know the one,, the suspected fence nothing ever seems to stick to..”

“got it.” hank retorted quickly as he slapped the blue light on the roof of the car,, and blasted out into traffic..

“this place is crawling with people.” gil continued.. “we got uniforms on crowd control,, but this place is a fucking zoo!!”

“where do you want us?” hank asked gil, as marisa slapped her hand against the dashboard in defensive motion, evidently anticipating an impending crash as hank slammed the gas and took off, flying up the wrong side of the street in order to get around standing traffic..

“hit the jewelry store will ya?? grab yoo..  tell him we need him for identification purposes or something.. maybe we’ll get lucky and get a nice mob collar outta this thing..”

something about gil telling him what to do,, even though he knew he asked for it,, didn’t sit right with hank.. 

‘fuck yoo!!’ he thought to himself. ‘i’m the senior homicide detective and he’s got me running down family members?? what the fuck??’

without so much as an affirmative, hank slid his finger across the screen on his phone,, thereby silencing gil, and made a totally illegal u-turn heading back the three blocks that stood between him and yoo’s fine jewelry…..

even though marisa wells hadn't known hank bowers all that long,, she could tell- he was pissed...