A Conspiracy of Shadows: Epilogue

"Harry! Come on in!" Hannah Demspey gave the dieseled Latino detective a hug and ushered him into the living room.

"These are for you..." He grinned as he handed Captain Dempsey's wife a large spray of yellow roses.

"Oooo... these are beautiful!!! Thank you!"

He then handed her the bakery  box tied with string. "I saw Cap eyeing the piece of carrot cake I was having yesterday, so I brought one from the panaderia near me."

"Ohh, you're terrible. It's bad for his cholesterol, but he's entitled to a treat every now and then. Marty's out in the back puttering around in the garage..."

"I'll go find him..." He went back out the front door and closed it quietly behind him. Hannah smiled. It was so good to have a young man around the house again...

* * *

"Sir?"

Captain Martin Dempsey glanced up from the engine block of the cherry-red 2008 Monte Carlo with a surprised look on his face. "Jeez, Harry - you need to wear a bell around your neck! I didn't even hear you come into the garage! I'll be done in a few minutes - just working on replacing some spark plugs... with the shitstorms brewing around Jimmy Schroeder's murder and Uresti's suicide, it's good to be doing something enjoyable for a while..."

"Cap, there's some stuff I should have told you about that earlier...."

The police captain sensed something was wrong. "You weren't involved in that Uresti thing, were you?" He couldn't believe the man he thought of as his own son would have been tangled in that web of deceit and treachery. Treville looked uncomfortable. But not guilty, thank God.

The young detective shook his head and sighed. "The video that was released last week was computer edited by some of the best hackers on the planet. Some items needed to be omitted from public consumption in order to get things done." He pulled out Pritchard's smartphone.

"This is Uresti's driver's phone - it's got all of the unedited videos of the murders and other crimes that he committed."

* * * 

Dempsey was shaking when he finished watching more than half of the videos on the phone. "Mary, Mother of God... the Mayor and the commissioner.... Harry, how did you get this?"

"One of my CI's is... was... a pickpocket. Logan McBride. He pinched Pritchard's phone and wallet on the subway. When they started broadcasting a police sketch of him as Schroeder's murderer, he came to me. He was frightened to death - and with good reason."

Dempsey shook his head. "Why didn't you come to me with this? Or did you think I was dirty, too?"

"Of course not, Cap! But that phone and those videos were poison to anyone who touched them. I was scared, Sir. You saw what Uresti did to Jimmy Schroeder... what if he knew you had the phone? What would he have done to you - or Hannah for that matter - to get it back? And once that happened, do you think either or both of you would still be alive? I couldn't take that risk. I brought it to the only cop I knew couldn't be involved and could do something about it. I took Logan and the phone to the Dark Lord."

A pit formed in the commander's stomach. "You went to Morgan?"

Treville nodded. "He looked like an avenging angel when he saw the clips and he said he'd take care of it. He also made sure Logan was safe from any repercussions."

Dempsey knew Morgan's reputation and shivered. Both the one in the official police records and the one guardedly whispered by other cops. "You're playing with Promethean fire, Harry. I'm guessing this..." He held up the phone. "... was the reason the commissioner retired and DiFazio has suddenly turned into a responsible individual?"

"Captain Morgan offered them a choice. He'd give the Molantos and the Feds a copy of the phone, or they could do what he told them. For the PC, he wanted him out, and for the mayor, it was to stop all his liberal bullshit."

The commander of the Five-Two was quiet. "When they found Uresti with his brains splattered all over the ceiling tiles, they also found a burned patch on the carpet that had eaten into the concrete flooring. Forensics said it was a lead bullet that had boiled away. But the odd thing was that for that type of damage to occur, the temperature of the lead had to be at least 2000 degrees. More than white-hot...  It also appeared that the slug melted in mid-air above the carpet and then dropped down. Did Morgan have anything to do with that?"

It was Harry's turn to shiver. "Not sure, Sir. I know Captain Morgan went to see him. He wanted him to verify the list of the officers involved. Next thing that happened was the announcement that the deputy commissioner killed himself. Whatever he said to him, it must've scared him to death."

"You know Pritchard is in Bellevue? He's breathing, but he's brain-dead. They found him in an alley near his apartment with a look of absolute terror on his face." Dempsey had no doubt that Morgan was involved in the officer's condition, but he wondered what he had done to rip his mind apart and leave him looking as if he had stared into the maw of Hell itself.

"This list... any of our guys on it?"

Harry nodded. "Isler, Hart, Kasperov and Lieberman. You noticed how they all were twitchy the day after Logan's sketch was released?"

Dempsey cursed. "Sonsofbitches. Lieberman put in for early retirement yesterday."

Harry's eyes hardened. "I think he'll be amenable to a 80% reduction, Sir. The only one that has an excuse is Isler. He needed money for his son's cancer treatment and Medical wouldn't cover the costs." The Latino shook his head. "He could have gone to Mr. Guidice if he needed money. He wouldn't have held it over his head for trying to cure his kid." 

"You know Salvatore Guidice?"

"Captain Morgan introduced us. Sal is absolutely nothing like you'd think he is."

"You and Morgan seem to be running this show, Harry... why are you telling me?" The captain's heart was breaking- he remembered Morgan's words to him at the gala those years back and he was now watching his protege slipping away from him. Treville was already moving in circles way beyond Dempsey's comprehension.

"I didn't have the best role models growing up, Sir. My father was a small-time criminal who left my mom and me when I was two years old. My uncles weren't much better, but at least they were around..." Treville gave him a wry grin. "when they weren't in lockup."

"You're the man I look up to and - and you're like the father I never had." Harry looked down in embarrassment. "Captain Morgan said we need to navigate between the pillars of Might and Mercy on deciding what will happen to these men. I couldn't think of anyone better to help make these decisions than you. He agreed."

Thank you Lord, for putting this brilliant and decent young man in my life. He took the muscled Latino in his arms and held him close. "Let's not mention any of this to Hannah, okay? I'll get cleaned up and then we can have a nice family dinner together."

Harry gave his CO a bright grin. "I brought a carrot cake, Sir..."

"Brown-noser..." Dempsey chuckled as he put an arm around the detective as they headed out of the garage and into the waiting back door.

* * *

Not a huge story, but as I was re-reading "A Conspiracy of Shadows" I thought I had been a little too abrupt in ending the tale. I felt that Captain Dempsey needed to be brought in on the activities of his lieutenant and tie up a few loose ends. I also wanted a Hallmark moment. So sue me.

I also wanted to clarify a bit on how Tanner Morgan obtained the list of conspirators. Given Gabril's special talents, it seemed apropos that the Castle operative would be the one to teach EJ Korean. It would also make sense that he would also be able to interrogate Pritchard (or someone else that was known to be involved in the conspiracy) for further information. 

He would be ruthless in obtaining such information from a man who had dishonored himself and broken his oath of service. I had mentioned that Morgan had already obtained the list of conspirators, but I was (at that time) deliberately vague as to how he received it. I wanted to make that point clear in this epilogue. 

We see that Harry Treville and Tanner Morgan are working together and this is the first step in his move from the Five-Two to the Four-One. In my head, I see him eventually being Danny Kaminski's replacement and have to design the path for him to do that.