Hood Still Don't Love You (HDLY#2)

Chapter one

District Attorney Larry Levine looked at the last file in his hand before looking at Captain Whitmore.

Levine smiled but it wasn’t a smile of confidence.

“These boys are good. They know you don’t have anything on them. What we got is conspiracy at best. Not to mention how you barged into their apartment and didn’t read them their rights or give reasons for an arrest,” Levine stated.

“Nobody barged in,” Whitmore defended. “We had a warrant.”

“Yes, made in two hours to search a place you suspected had two kidnapped people in it, all on a hunch,” Levine nodded. “Let’s face it. They set you up.”

“What do you mean?” Whitmore looked confused.

“Simple,” Levine folded his right leg over his left leg and leaned back a little in the chair he was in. “They must have known you was looking for them. What better way to find them than in a place y’all already know about. You think it was coincidence that they just happen to be there and just be ready waiting for the police to bust in. You played right into their hands. You have no bodies that could hundred percent link them to any crime, no crucial evidence, and nothing that will scream out at a jury they’re guilty.”

“I know they got that girl from that hospital,” Whitmore said.

“What proof you have?” Levine asked. “Let me know begin to tell you how bad we all look on that one. A key witness in your care was able to leave police custody at a hospital. The key detective in charge let the only person who was there to witness alone to chase a lead that turned out to be nothing. Only to return and found out that the supposed cop he was detaining wasn’t even a real cop. The real cop was bounded and gagged in the bathroom somewhere. The supposed officer, a Miss Bradbury, or whatever her name is, that gave him the tape he was so eager to see wasn’t a cop either. The detective, Adams, is it? He’s lucky he’s not brought up on charges of conspiracy. Unless he really is that stupid then he doesn’t need to be on the force at all anymore and suspension is way too good for him.”

Captain Whitmore said nothing

“And then there’s the Kaeron Middleton fellow case,” Levine added. “You told me you had something for me with him but he up and disappears too. Your officers found a body at the scene but it wasn’t him just an associate, you claim, of Mister Richards but that can easily be disproven and Mister Richards could still deny any involvement with this person's actions. Then Mister Richards’ club gets robbed, for lack or a better word. So we can’t determine if Mister Middleton is still alive and ran off with Mister Richards’ money or if Mister Richards did in fact take that money and made it look like a robbery. Either way, I don’t give a shit and frankly neither does the people of New York. We are up shit’s creek and you still doing the paddling. This whole department is about to be put under investigation because stupidity can’t be this contagious. We have had those men in those rooms, in those jail cells too long and we keep coming back with what? Nothing. Mister Richards and Mister Bishop are making us look like laughing stocks. I, for one, will not tolerate being made a fool out of and neither would any citizen of our greater Metropolis. But you and your fellow officers seem to be the first one signing up for comedy central. This shit has got to stop.”

“We’re working on it,” Whitmore said.

“How are we working on it?” Levine asked. “By arresting men without any evidence or probable cause? That lawyer of theirs is no fool. That Richards kid may be a hoodlum and a delinquent but he is far from stupid. He hires the best. The only lawyer with a greater track record than mine. I practically begged Mister Lewis to join my firm with a full partnership. He is the best in the business and every time I go up against him, I want him to regret ever telling me no. You’re not making that possible. If anything, you are proving he is right and the people I have working for me are incompetent. You have nothing for me. Mister Middleton, gone. Charmaine Davids, gone. There was supposed to be link with the store that burnt down and the father of Miss Davids’ being involved in this. That’s gone along with him. You have giving me nothing since Day one. What is this plan you working on? What? Bring them in that interrogation room so they can make a fool out of you again causing the department even more embarrassment like your keen Detective Mister Knight. By the way, wasn’t he supposed to be on suspension for that tape that cause this department a lot of plea bargains and negotiations to go away. That still could be brought into evidence since that same detective was the one that arrested Mister Richards this time. Mister Richards could give that man a full confession and it can be thrown away as inadmissible, all he has to do is say he was under duress. The tape proves Knight was trying to kill him and his partner had to stop it.”