Charlie-316 Read online

  CHARLIE-316

  Colin Conway and Frank Zafiro

  PRAISE FOR CHARLIE-316

  “A hard-hitting police conspiracy tale turned on its head, Charlie-316 bristles with authenticity and rich detail. Conway and Zafiro deliver an engrossing socio-political drama that packs plenty of action and intrigue, while asking the difficult questions. Corruption, conspiracy, and compromise frame the downfall of a perfect cop. And Wardell Clint is the most nuanced, fascinating detective I’ve read in a very long time. This one tackles tough issues and will leave no reader indifferent. Compelling.” —James W. Ziskin, Anthony and Macavity Award-winning author of the Ellie Stone mysteries

  “Riveting and compulsively readable, Charlie-316 is an ambitious book about many things including honor, the murkiness of politics, corruption, and a good man searching for the truth. Any fan of Don Winslow’s critically-acclaimed The Force needs to be searching out and reading this book.” —Dave Zeltserman, author of Small Crimes

  “In Charlie-316, Conway and Zafiro, two master storytellers, have punched a hole in the blue wall in this compelling tale that offers the reader a no-holds barred, insider’s view of corruption in a mid-sized American city.” —Charles Salzberg, author of Second Story Man

  “Crackles with authenticity and ripped-from-the-headlines urgency. This is a police procedural written by guys who know the job from the inside. It offers a full view of an incident that feels as real as they come. Charlie-316 is the ultimate ride-along.” —Eric Beetner, author of All the Way Down

  “Few books have the ambition to cover the scope attempted here; fewer can pull it off. Charlie-316 does more than pull it off: it succeeds. Not since The Wire have I seen a better mixture of crime, law enforcement, politics, and media.” —Dana King, Shamus Award-nominated author of the Nick Forte and Penns River series

  “Not since the glory days of Joseph Wambaugh has there been such an unflinching portrayal of working cops under pressure. In Charlie-316, Colin Conway and Frank Zafiro deftly juggle a complex cast of characters coping with the issues—racial, political, and personal—that boil around a controversial officer-involved shooting. Expect surprises. Highly recommended.” —J.D. Rhoades, author of Fortunate Son, People Like Us, and the Jack Keller series

  “Charlie-316 is the real deal. Ripped from today’s headlines, it is an intense tale of corruption, suspense and humanity that is impossible to put down. One of the best cop books I’ve read in years.” —Terrence McCauley, award-winning author of The Fairfax Incident and Sympathy for the Devil

  “A ripped-from-the-headlines police procedural so real that you’ll almost think you joined the force. Conway and Zafiro effortlessly weave intricate investigative details together with raw human emotion to deliver a truly gripping read.” —S.W. Lauden, Anthony Award-nominated author of Crosswise

  “Charlie-316 is a taut and tense look behind the thin blue line. In a world where the truth is malleable and honor is a tattered banner, justice is as elusive as a ghost. Zafiro and Conway guide us through this world with unflinching honesty and sure handed skill. If you liked The Force you will love Charlie-316.” —S.A. Cosby, author of My Darkest Prayer

  “Conveyed in classically clean, sharp, staccato-styled prose that makes Sergeant Friday sound like a soft-boiled sap by comparison, Charlie-316 carves its own niche in the busy field of police procedurals with its gritty, grisly, action-driven, twist-happy plot as well as its realistic depictions of police as flawed people in peril, not just stalwart guardians of bystanders in the sidelines of the battlefield. These guys put their lives on the line on a daily basis, and the immediacy of this ongoing and often untold human drama involving both heroes and anti-heroes, in and out of the squad car, on and off those mean streets, is what compels compassion amid all the departmental corruption and institutionalized criminality.” —Will “the Thrill” Viharo, author of The Thrillville Pulp Fiction Collection and the Vic Valentine, Private Eye series

  Copyright © 2019 by Colin Conway and Frank Zafiro

  All rights reserved. No part of the book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review.

  Down & Out Books

  3959 Van Dyke Road, Suite 265

  Lutz, FL 33558

  DownAndOutBooks.com

  The characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.

  Cover design by JT Lindroos

  Visit the Down & Out Books website to sign up for our monthly newsletter and we’ll deliver the latest news on our upcoming titles, sale books, Down & Out authors on the net, and more!

  TABLE OF CONTENTS

  Charlie-316

  Acknowledgments

  About the Authors

  Also by the Authors

  Preview from The Ornery Gene by Warren C. Embree

  Preview from Swann’s Down by Charles Salzberg

  Preview from No Salvation by Jeffery Hess

  This one is for our dads, David S. Conway and Frank Scalise

  For God so loved the world

  that He gave His only begotten Son,

  that whosoever believeth in Him

  should not perish,

  but have everlasting life.

  —John 3:16

  The public weal requires that men should betray, and lie, and massacre.

  —Michel de Montaigne, philosopher

  Sunday

  Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth.

  —Marcus Aurelius, Emperor of Rome

  Chapter 1

  Tyler Garrett slid behind the wheel of the patrol car and shut off his overhead lights. Ahead of him, the car he’d stopped a few minutes ago pulled tentatively back into the roadway and headed on its way. The driver had been a grocery clerk, just off shift, and she’d drifted through a stop sign on her way home. Garrett had given her a friendly warning. He didn’t write tickets to working people.

  Garrett reached for the microphone and depressed the button. “Charlie-three-sixteen, I’m clear.”

  “Three-sixteen, copy,” came the dispatcher’s reply.

  He put the car into gear and drove with the air conditioner cranked and the windows down. It was a habit he developed over the years to better connect with his environment. He wanted to be able to feel, hear, and smell the neighborhoods as he drifted through them looking for crime.

  Garrett smiled as an image of Marvel’s Luke Cage popped into his mind.

  “Yeah, I’m Power Man,” he muttered to himself. “A regular crime fighting machine.”

  He guided his patrol car through East Central Spokane, a neighborhood just south of Interstate 90. It was an eclectic mixture of black and white, with a growing Russian population. Spokane was a predominantly pale city but East Central bucked the trend. Almost everyone he knew either grew up in or had connections to the neighborhood. Even though he no longer lived in that part of the city, it was a personal mission to keep watch on this neighborhood.

  DJ Khaled’s “I’m the One” softly played while he drove. Garrett whispered the words and bobbed his head, his eyes scanning for any illegal activity. With a light ding, a call for service popped up on the Mobile Data Computer to his right. A quick glance told him it was a noise complaint between two neighbors on the South Hill, Spokane’s wealthiest part of town. Garrett shook his head. He planned to take a break in a few minutes to stretch his legs. He didn’t want to listen to some Richie Rich complaining. Let someone else take it, he thought.

  He hook
ed his finger over the top of the ballistic vest that was underneath his uniform and tugged it down. While he sat in the car, the vest had a habit of riding up until it touched his throat. Most of the time, it didn’t bother him much. However, on a hot August night, the vest was a nagging irritant that threatened to put him in a foul mood.

  It was shortly after midnight and vehicle traffic had thinned out in the neighborhoods. A white male rode a BMX bike across the street in front of him, a TV balanced precariously on the handlebars. He considered stopping him, but knew it almost certainly meant some sort of paperwork. If the guy didn’t have an arrest warrant, then either the TV or bike was stolen.

  Or both.

  Garrett grinned. If he had a nickel for every scraggly white guy riding a BMX while carrying a TV in Spokane…

  A Chrysler 300 lurched out onto Thor Street from Ninth, cutting him off. Garrett tapped his brakes to slow his car. It was the second time Garrett had seen the car tonight. It was hard to mistake it with the front-end damage and the spare tire running on the front left. The Chrysler immediately turned west onto Eighth without signaling, cutting off a newer pick-up truck headed in the opposite direction. The Chrysler accelerated, its engine roaring in the quiet of the night.

  Garrett turned in front of the now stopped truck and caught the eye of the BMX rider. Both the driver and the cyclist were watching so Garrett accelerated to catch up with the Chrysler which was doing its best to avoid him. The engine of his patrol car whined as he gained ground for several blocks.

  Garrett grabbed his microphone and keyed it. “Charlie-three-sixteen, a traffic stop.”

  “Three-sixteen,” a radio dispatcher responded. “Go ahead.”

  “A white Chrysler 300 at Greene and Eighth,” Garrett said, before he phonetically read the letters of the license plate. “Code Four.”

  “Greene and Eighth. Code Four,” the dispatcher repeated, verifying his instruction that a back-up officer was not needed.

  Garrett activated his emergency lights, and, for a moment, the Chrysler accelerated before its brake lights flashed on and off several times as the driver tapped his brakes. The Chrysler continued the length of the block, his speed consistent.

  He’d seen this many times before. The guy was deciding whether to run.

  “Don’t do it,” Garrett muttered. “Just pull over.”

  The car turned right when the street ran into Underhill Park. Garrett keyed his mic. “Charlie-three-sixteen, he’s still rolling. We’re at the park.”

  “Copy, Sixteen. Charlie-three-twelve to back?”

  Officer Ray Zielinski’s gravelly voice immediately responded to the request for back-up. “Twelve, copy.”

  The Chrysler suddenly pulled over and stopped on the right side of the street. The park was on the opposite side of the street and an older home with a for sale sign stood on the right. Garrett immediately parked his car behind the Chrysler and hopped out, watching for signs that the driver might run into the park where he had played as a child. He keyed his shoulder mic at the same time. “Sixteen, we’re stopped. Still Code Four.”

  “Copy, Sixteen. Charlie-three-twelve, disregard.”

  Zielinski clicked his mic in response.

  The driver exited the car and turned to face Garrett. A tall, skinny white man, he wore only knee length shorts and tennis shoes. A single thick gold chain hung around his neck. Highlighted in blue and red by the splashing rotator lights of Garrett’s patrol car were various tattoos that covered his body.

  “What is your problem, man?” the driver yelled.

  “Get back in your car,” Garrett ordered him.

  The driver waved his hands around as he yelled. “You think you can do anything? The mighty five-oh. I ain’t afraid of you. You can’t do nothing to me. Why keep pretending?”

  Ty dropped his hand onto his Glock and repeated, “Get back in your car. Now!”

  “I’m not taking this anymore!” the driver yelled and reached behind his back.

  Garrett unsnapped his holster and freed his Glock.

  A shot rang out and the window in his driver’s door exploded. Garrett’s mind froze for a split second. He hadn’t seen the driver fire, but instinctively, he pointed his gun at him.

  A second and third shot rang out. He snapped his head to the right in the direction of the shots. They were coming from the vacant house.

  Ambush!

  The realization hit him hard. A surge of adrenaline seemed to explode through him. He dropped behind the driver’s door and took a deep breath to steady himself. Training kicked in as his mind immediately switched into tactical mode.

  Two points of fire, he thought quickly. The car and the house. They had him triangulated. Garrett’s mind raced and came to one immediate decision. Eliminate one threat now.

  More shots cut through the night as rounds thudded into the patrol car. Glass exploded and rained down around him.

  Remaining crouched, Garrett quickly scooted out from behind the door and fired two shots at the driver. At least one round found the target as the driver collapsed to the street.

  Ty moved to the back of the car and arose slightly above the trunk section. He fired three quick shots into the house before dropping below the cover of the car. Without hesitation, he moved toward to the hood section of the car. As he shuffled along in a crouch, he changed magazines, keeping his weapon fully loaded just as he’d been trained. At the front tire, he raised back into view, prepared to fire. Garrett realized no more shots were being fired from the house. An eerie silence had descended upon the neighborhood.

  He became keenly aware of the whirring of his emergency lights above him when he heard a screen door slam in the distance. Then it slammed a second time.

  Garrett stood and sprinted toward the house, seeing a six-foot-fence that bordered both sides of the house as he ran. He knew not to scale it and come face-to-face with a potential shooter. Instead, he leaped on the porch in a single step. He steadied himself and kicked the door. It opened with a splintery explosion at the handle.

  From behind the house, an engine revved loudly. Garrett raised his weapon and hurried through each room, prepared to find a shooter waiting for him in the dark. With each step, he was convinced there’d be a flash of light and the bite of lead. Sweat poured down his forehead and into his eyes. He wiped it away with his left hand and kept his gun trained on the threat areas as he moved through the small house. His radio crackled but he ignored it. No one waited in any room, and there was no furniture to hide behind. The house was completely vacant.

  When he got to the rear of the house, the back door stood open. He burst through the screen door which slammed shut behind him. At the edge of the yard, the fence gate was open and he could hear a car racing down the alley.

  Garrett sprinted across the grass and into the alley. He could see the red of tail lights at the far end of block. He raised his Glock and his finger tensed, but he didn’t fire. He didn’t know what else was at the end of the block and knew better than to send a round into an environment like that.

  Ty Garrett lowered his weapon and felt his heart pounding against his chest. He was suddenly aware that he was drenched in sweat. His ballistic vest felt like it weighed a ton. The lights from his patrol car danced in the sky above the house but didn’t reach the alley.

  He stood in the quiet of the alley’s darkness, wondering what in the hell had just happened.

  Chapter 2

  Officer Ray Zielinski pulled into the convenience store at Sprague and Freya. Another six hours of his shift remained and without coffee, it was going to be brutal. Hell, with coffee it would still be brutal.

  He had to stop working so much extra duty, he told himself, but knew it was a fruitless admonition. He needed the money, plain and simple. Two divorces, three kids, and always living on the edge of what his income could support had brought him to this point. Six months ago, he decided he had to get a handle on it, so he sold the house that he h
ad somehow miraculously kept in the last divorce and moved into a small apartment. He lived frugally, and that made a difference, but it wasn’t like he could force either ex-wife or the kids to do the same. So, he worked the extra duty gigs, providing police presence at banks, stores, and special events. The pay was good, but the hours were…well, they were brutal.

  Zielinski put the car in park and started to roll up the windows when heard the sound of pops in the distance. His first thought was fireworks. They were illegal in Spokane but still inescapable around the Fourth of July. By August, though, most people were over them, even the kids.

  More pops.

  “Not fireworks,” Zielinski muttered. He recognized the sounds now for what they were. Gunshots.

  Irritated, he put the car into drive and rolled the windows back down. Coffee would have to wait. He made his best guess as to the origin of the shots and drove in that direction. He didn’t bother with his lights or siren. It wasn’t like gunshots in East Central were an everyday event, but it wasn’t necessarily uncommon, either. Especially during the summer months.

  He drove, listening and knowing what was coming next. It only took another thirty seconds.

  “Charlie units, I have a report of shots fired in the East Central area,” the dispatcher broadcasted. “Two separate complainants.”

  “East Central, huh?” Zielinski shook his head. “Way to narrow it down.”

  A second later, a thought struck him. He reached for the mic, but before he could, the dispatcher came back on.

  “Charlie-three-sixteen, a status check?”