Chapter 4 Michael Fuller Gets Busted
1479 Words
Michael Fuller was working on the report for the Montecristo case. The whole concept of report writing bored him a lot. The police report before a murder trial could easily span over a total of 1500 pages, and in a lot of the cases, the report writing for the court took more time and resources than apprehending the perpetrator. Luckily for Michael Fuller, Barry Itch had implemented a procedure where ghost-writer wrote most of the police reports, which gave more time for Michael Fuller to do what he enjoyed doing and was good at; solving murder cases and apprehending criminals. Having said this, it still took a lot of effort to make a report since he had to review the works of the ghost-writers and come with the necessary input to make the police report consistent with the actual case. Anyway, Michael Fuller was happy that Barry Itch had implemented the system with ghost-writers as it at least gave him some more freedom.
While reviewing the report, Michael Fuller started daydreaming about his coming holiday. In a few weeks, he would be on a plane to The British Isles where he would attend the “Castles and Whiskeys” tour. The tour consisted of three weeks in Great Britain and Ireland, and during this time Michael would stay at fourteen different castles and enjoy the local's specialties when it came to whiskey. It would be amazing to see some of the places where they made his favourite brands, and he could not wait to taste them in their natural environment. The only thing that made him sad was that he had to go on this tour alone. All his friends were either busy with their families or in the cases where their children had reached adulthood; they usually had a wife who did not approve of them spending all their annual leave going to Great Britain for a whiskey tour.
When thinking about this, he felt sad that he was not close to his 21-year-old daughter Rebecca from a failed marriage. He had asked her if she wanted to join him at his expense, but she had responded that whiskeys and castles were not her things. The problem with this, of course, was not that she did not like whiskey, but rather the distance between them. She had accused him of being distant to her and focusing too much on his work during her childhood, an accusation he could agree on, but what to do about it now? "Oh well, she is graduating from police academy next year, so maybe she will understand by then," he thought to himself. He was interrupted in his daydreaming by a phone call from Barry Itch telling him to come by his office immediately “Oh well, no point in beating around the bush” he thought and headed over.
Michael Fuller entered Barry Itch's impeccably clean and orderly office, which to Michael Fuller signalled that apart from being tedious and annoying Barry Itch also had a slight hint of OCD in his personality.
Barry Itch
- Welcome Michael, please have a seat
Michael Fuller
- Thank you, Barry. Is this about the intercom incident earlier today? Because I agree with you that Adams' behaviour earlier today was inappropriate.
Barry Itch
- Great to have your support on this Michael, although I find surprising that you agree with me and still did not interrupt him. Nevertheless, this incident will only affect Adam's career prospects, and it seems likely that he will not receive any pay rise this year either.
- I surely hope he will enjoy unpaid participation in five days long Workplace Equality seminars held by my wife Wanda Itch on Saturdays.
Barry Itch smiled grimly while Michael Fuller sat in silence.
Barry Itch continued talking:
- No, the reason I called you over is the Lopez case, I hope you recall it?
Michael Fuller
- Yes, of course, it was only six weeks ago, and it got massive media coverage. How would I forget, I am not THAT old! From an investigation point of view, it's dead though with the alleged killer being dead. I am sure you remember that we handed it over to the Organized Crime department since the high command believed there was nothing more we could do from our end.
Barry Itch:
- Yes, that case was a real disgrace for the entire police department with two airport police officers sent to the Intensive Care Unit with severe injuries and the hired gunman Angelo Ramirez shot at the airport. Sad for the city's reputation
Michael Fuller:
- I seriously don't follow you. We got a picture of the killer face from a hidden CCTV camera that showed us the whole chain of events. Of course, we matched the description with our database of suspected hitmen. Anything else would be negligence of duty. Furthermore, once we identified him, we found out that he just had passed the passport checkpoint at the airport and we had to have the airport police arrest him as we could not get there in time ourselves, all done by the book.
Barry Itch:
- You are missing the serious point of this. The CCTV feed shows a suitcase on a desk at the time of the murder. We can see that Angelo Ramirez was not taking the bag while leaving. A bit after the killing, the CCTV feed ends, and in your report, there is no suitcase mentioned.
Michael Fuller
- Because there was none! I don’t know what happened in the period between the murder and the time we got there. I have not thought much about it as the case was handed over to the Organized Crime department.
Barry Itch
- Well, here is the problem. The Organized Crime department has received an anonymous tip about you having illegal drugs that you stole from the crime scene.
Michael Fuller
- That’s preposterous, why would I steal the drugs?
Barry Itch
- Because of the street value of at least $100,000.
- Look; we can do this in two ways. Either I contact the internal investigations, while you remain detained in a holding cell. Or you can just stay in my office, while two men from a private security company I am cooperating with searches your house. You see, I don't want the reputation of this department sullied down by your supposedly criminal activities. If you do agree to have your home searched by the company Sydney True Blue Security Inc., please sign this indemnification form, and all their findings will be between you and me.
Michael Fuller:
- Well, I don't want my life turned upside down by internal investigation guys, please let me sign the contract and here are my house keys.
Barry Itch
- Great. Just sit tight, and we'll search your house in no time.
At 8 PM after three hours of tense waiting in Barry Itch’s office, two men in suits came in.
Greg Bloom:
- Sir, we found this bag containing 3.5 kilos of cocaine in Michael's basement. It's full of Michael's fingerprints and some DNA which we believe is his. We have taken pictures of where we found it. How do we proceed?
Barry Itch:
- That's a great question. Michael, how do we proceed?
Michael Fuller got pale from fear and shock
- You set me up, that is not my cocaine; I have never seen it before!
Barry Itch:
- Well, that's your version of course. But the facts remain. The bag disappeared from YOUR crime scene, it was found in YOUR house, and it's full of YOUR fingerprints.
- But rest assured, I have no interest in ruining the reputation of this department, and its most famous co-worker, so here is the deal. I overlook this event, and in return, you sign your immediate resignation stating health reasons. That way you can live a retiree's life while the reputation of this department stands firm. Do you agree?
Michael Fuller realised that he had been set up. But by whom, and why would Barry Itch set him up? He quickly decided that he did not want to take his chances with a long-term prison term at stake to keep his job.
Michael Fuller:
- I accept and sign my resignation immediately, how do we proceed?
Barry Itch:
- Well, you hand over your gun and your police ID. After that, you go to my toilet, open the bag and flush down the cocaine; I want nothing to do with it!
Michael Fuller did as Barry instructed.
Barry Itch shook his hand and said:
- Sorry things ended this way; you were the best detective we have ever had. I hope you find something positive to do with your life.
Michael Fuller said nothing and left the station.
- Writer
