Irish Coffee

Chapter 6

That incessant racket was making it increasingly difficult to sleep.  Ethan rolled onto his chest, burying his head under the covers.  The sound aggravating his ears stopped causing a groan of relief to slip out of the detective.  With a sigh, he settled back into the heat of his cocoon and closed his eyes.  The noise came again, shrill, loud and this time he reconciled it with the annoying ringtone he’d chosen for his cell phone.    

Fumbling out of the fog of sleep and web of blankets covering him, Ethan reached for his cell on the nightstand beside his bed.  “McDowell,” he mumbled incoherently into the mouthpiece. 

“Detective Ethan McDowell,” a voice asked. 

“I used to be,” he responded, waking up a bit.  He refrained from admitting that now he was just a glorified pencil pusher with a badge.  White Pine hardly needed cops, what use did they have for a detective?  Even if they had hired one. 

“Detective,” the voice continued on, as if he hadn’t even spoken, “I’m Captain Larry Michaels of the City of Minden Lake Police Department.  I’ve taken over your old division at the fifty-third precinct.”

This news caused Ethan to bolt upright in bed.  “What do you mean by ‘taken over’?  What happened to Captain Burke?” 

“I regret to inform you,” Captain Michaels reported in a voice that carried anything but regret, “that Captain Burke has been removed from his position within the department.”

Interesting.  “Really, sir?  Did he finally retire?”  Ethan had rather hoped the old codger would be taken out by a sniper while picnicking in the park, but that didn’t matter much at the moment. 

A deep belly laugh filled the phone line.  “Retire?  Oh, no, not willingly,” the captain announced.  “He was forcibly removed from his position once it was determined that he had been in business with his son.”

So it had been the captain after all.  Ethan and his partner had made the connection between the murders and a drug dealer – a drug dealer that had turned out to be Captain Michaels’ oldest son, Douglas.  Extraneous evidence had pointed to an accomplice, but try as they might, they couldn’t pin it on anyone.  It had been evident to Ethan that Douglas Michaels’ accomplice had been his father, but his partner had refused to pursue that line of investigation to the point where he had reported Ethan to their captain.  His partner had lied and accused Ethan of planting evidence to make Douglas look guilty.  Only by the grace of God had he been able to avoid a jail term.  His willingness to leave Minden Lake was the only thing that had saved his hide.

“Question, Captain Burke.”  He really shouldn’t even ask this, some things were better left unknown, but the need for the truth nagged at him fiercely. 

“Shoot, McDowell.”  He could hear the other man tapping a pencil against something on the other end. 

“What about Detective Andrew Murray?  I never did find out what happened to him after I was forced to leave the department.”  Ethan could hear a bunch of shuffling going on and he waited patiently for it to finish.

“My perceptive Detective McDowell,” Burke cooed into the phone.  “I was beginning to think you weren’t going to ask about your old partner.”

“I almost didn’t,” he admitted.  “Sometimes, you’re better off not knowing.”

“That is the truth, son.  Are you sure you want to know now?”  The tapping had resumed. 

“Yes sir,” he acknowledged, sitting up and fully awake. 

“Your ex-partner’s fate is the reason for my call to you this morning.  It has come to light the he, as well, had been involved in the drug smuggling operation your ex-captain and his son had been operating under the department’s nose.”