Exceptional Merit (32 page)

He desperately wanted to contact Dan O'Brien to find out if he knew anything, but he knew it was much too risky a chance to take
…especially this close to the parade.  Flynn knew the only thing he really could do was to remain in hiding until the day of the parade.  He finished cleaning the semi-automatic handgun and made sure it was in perfect condition.  He inserted a magazine and pulled the slide back to chamber a round.  He then released the magazine and added the final round before easing the hammer down and putting the gun on safety.  He placed the gun on the night table and laid back on the bed thinking about the hit and his escape afterwards.  He watched a couple of cockroaches run along the ceiling.  He couldn't wait until he was back at home in Ireland.

Martin Devine stepped down from the podium, feeling the press conference had been a success.  He had been nervous stepping up there at first and had cautiously looked over the crowd, wondering if an assassin was among the spectators just waiting for the opportunity to snuff out his life.  As he started to speak however, Devine put his fears aside and his words seem to take a life of their own.  Devine had the feeling that the members of the press not only believed everything he was saying but also supported him.

During the questions he fielded from the press, Devine almost felt like he really could put an end to the problems in Northern Ireland.  He knew it wouldn’t simply go away over night but maybe he would go down in history as the man who initiated the cause of a peaceful Northern Ireland.  Only time would tell for sure, thought Devine.  But at least for this moment
, Devine felt very good about himself and decided he wasn’t going to worry too much about the possible hit man.

****************************

Keegan opened the door of his commanding officer and went inside.  He realized he had exhausted all other means to prevent the hit on his own and now it was inevitable that he must bring the intelligence report to the attention of his supervisor.  “Have a seat Jim.”

“Thank you Cap.”

Keegan pulled up a chair at the Captain's desk.  He was nervous to tell Anderson about the impending hit but was even more scared of what could eventually happen on the day of the parade.

“So what brings you into my office Jim?  You almost never come to me for anything.”

Anderson respected him as the most competent investigator he had ever had the pleasure of supervising.  He always seemed to know what to do and how to make sure it got done.  He needed little or no supervision in whatever he did and Anderson was surprised to see him.  Anderson's first impression was that Keegan came to him to take the last few hours of the tour off, since that was just about the only reason he ever came in to see him.  But then something disturbing caught Anderson's eye.  Keegan had come into see him with a case folder under his arm.  Anderson's
suspicions were raised by that fact alone and then he noticed that Keegan was not his usual calm and composed self.  He appeared to be nervous.

“Well Cap,” Keegan handed Anderson a copy of the intelligence report as he began.  He paused momentarily to give Anderson time to peruse it before he continued, “I get the feeling it's legit.”

Anderson's face began to turn red and he seemed to get annoyed.  “Jim, this report is dated last week.  Why did you wait until now to bring it across my desk?”

“I've been doing some investigating on the matter and wanted to make sure it was for real before I bothered you with it.”

It was a feeble excuse, Keegan conceded.  He had learned a long time ago on the job that one should always have an answer.  Sometimes you'd have the right answer and sometimes you'd have a bad answer, but a bad answer was better than no answer at all.

“Jim, I'm surprised at you.  This isn't the type of thing you can just keep under your hat and wait out.  We have to reach out to Martin Devine forthwith and warn him.”

“I've already done that Cap.  I just came from his office.”

Anderson shook his head in disbelief.  “Are you telling me you went and told a civilian about a death threat even before you told your own commanding officer?  We have to run this by the Threat Assessment Unit at Intel before you contact the person.  You know that!  Jim, you know I have the utmost respect and admiration for you, but this is an inexcusable error in judgment.

What would have happened if the hit man didn't wait for the parade and decided to take Devine out today, during a live televised press conference?  Do you realize the potential embarrassment to the entire New York City Police Department you would've caused?  What if the press found out we knew about it and did nothing to at least
attempt
to prevent it?”

“Cap, trust me, this guy isn't going to try anything before the parade.”  Keegan was doing his best to defend himself and his actions.

“How could you possibly be so sure of that Jim?”

“I've been doing some research on the case and I'm pretty sure …”

Anderson curtly cut him off.  “Forget it Jim.  You really left me in a bind now.  I have to act on this immediately before it's too late.”

Keegan knew he was right and felt horrible to have put Anderson in the position he was in now.  He knew downtown was going to have a fit once they heard about the delay in taking action.  Captain Ronald Anderson picked up the telephone and dialed the number without having to look it up.  Keegan sat patiently and listened.

“Hello, this is Captain Anderson from the J.T.T.F., I need to speak to the Chief of Detectives immediately,” Anderson explained.  After waiting for a moment, Anderson then responded once again into the phone.  “Tell him a priority has come up and it's extremely urgent he call me back right away.”

Anderson hung up the phone and paced the floor without uttering a word.  Keegan remained seated and awkwardly looked up at Anderson unsure what he should do next.  He knew he had his job cut out for him and his career was in jeopardy but he wasn't about to come clean in case he could figure out a way around his dilemma.  No matter how much he thought however, he didn't see any way to both stop the assassination and save his job.  If he were to stop Flynn, the easiest way for Flynn to get back at him would be to tell Internal Affairs about his years of gun running for the I.R.A.  Still, until the
axe was to fall, Keegan had to keep the faith no matter how bad things looked; if not for himself, then at least for the sake of his family.  The silence was driving Keegan crazy and he finally broke it by asking a question of his boss.  “So Cap, what do you want me to do?”

Anderson stopped in his tracks and looked down at Keegan.  He answered in a soft voice.  "Nothing right now.  I'm a firm believer in the chain of command.”

Keegan caught the sarcasm and knew better than to respond to it.  “We are not going to make a move without the direction of the Chief of Detectives.”

After his quick and rather sarcastic answer for Keegan, Anderson once again paced the floor of his office.  The tension in the office was broken by the ringing of the telephone.  Anderson practically leaped at the phone to lift the receiver.  “Captain Anderson, Joint Terrorist Task Force.”

Keegan listened attentively, trying to imagine what the Chief of Detective’s had to say on the other end.  Anderson explained the situation in detail.  “I know it sounds strange that the Irish Republican Army would strike here in New York but my men seem to think it's a very real threat.”

He glanced at Keegan.  “An I.R.A. member who got collared in Northern Ireland gave up the plan as a part of a plea bargain over there.  The Northern Irish Police passed on the information to INTERPOL.  We have verified as much information as we could.”

Keegan watched as Anderson turned red.  He could only imagine what was being said to Anderson over the phone.  Anderson, who had remained standing for the first few minutes of the phone call, looked down at him.  He shook his head in an annoyed manner and took his seat before he continued.  “Well sir, we became aware of the threat a few days ago but I wanted to do as much research as possible before bothering you with it,” he lied.

Keegan stared at Anderson, as he blatantly lied to the Chief of Detective's to cover Keegan’s ass.  He greatly appreciated that Anderson was willing to place his own neck on the chopping block in order to protect him.  “Yes sir, all of the indications would lead us to believe that there will be an attempt on Devine's life at the parade.  Yes sir, I am aware the parade is later on in this week.  We are just awaiting your word to put the detail together.  Lieutenant Keegan
and I have been already working on it.  We just need your approval before we officially map it out.”

After a short pause
, “I had Lieutenant Keegan personally go over to his law office and inform him today.”  More silence.  “Yes sir, I'll let you know every detail as soon as I know them myself.”

Once Anderson hung up the phone
, Keegan spoke.  “You didn't have to lie for me Cap.  I'll call him right back and tell him it was me who kept him, as well as you, in the dark.  You shouldn’t have to be accountable for my fuck up.”

“Don't be foolish Jim.  You made a poor call in judgment.  There's no reason to put your job on the line.”  Anderson had obviously cooled off at Keegan and once again displayed the admiration he held for his subordinate.

Keegan began to protest.  “But what about your job and your career if something goes wrong?  I can't let you be the fall guy for something I did...or in this case didn’t do.”

“Jim you are a rising star on this job and you're headed to the top in a hurry.  What are you about twenty names away from getting promoted to Captain?  Once you get promoted, you will be on the fast track.  You will get the bump to Deputy Inspector in no time.  I have over thirty years in the police department and I've already gone as far as I'm going to go.  Nobody, not even the Chief of Department
, is going to give me a real hard time…and if they do…well Jim, I have my time in.  I'll tell them to kiss my ass and I'll put my papers in and retire.”

Keegan had always felt a special loyalty to Anderson and it was incidents like this one that came to mind when he would think of him.  “Thank you Cap.  I owe you.”

“Yes Jim you do.  So you had better get your ass in gear, preferably overdrive and get this detail together before the Chief calls back.”

For the favor Anderson had done for him, this wasn't a very big request at all.  It was usually Keegan's job to put details together whenever the occasion arose.  He was a great strategist and Anderson didn't mind using this attribute of his to ensure that the job gets done.  “One more thing you can do for me Jim.”  Keegan looked up at Anderson.  “Make sure nothing happens to this guy, okay.”

That was not as simple a task and Keegan knew it. 

“I’ll do my best, boss.”

Keegan waited for the Chief of Department's office to fax him over a copy of the parade route as well as a copy of all the uniformed and plainclothes Anti-Crime details that were already in place.  He received all of the documents he had requested from the Chief of Patrol’s office in only a matter of minutes.  He studied the detail rosters and the parade route.

He figured the hit would be attempted probably at the very beginning of the parade or towards the end.  The middle of the parade would be where all the cameras, dignitaries and the most uniformed police officers would be.  Keegan figured the last thing any hit man would want
is to be caught on film.  That would just magnify the chance of getting caught.  Keegan tallied up all the figures and learned there would be well over three thousand police officers at the parade.

He thought that the assignment was an almost certain death wish for the man and he reflected on Flynn's own words.  “
He would either carry out the hit or die trying to
.”  It seemed impossible for this man, no matter how good he is, to actually carry out the hit and believe he would have any chance in the world of escaping the area inundated with cops.

Keegan decided to play the odds as he mapped out his own detail.  He had well over a hundred detectives assigned to him to cover the entire parade route. 
He strongly felt the hit man would almost certainly attempt the hit either at the beginning or toward the end of the parade.  He would take this into consideration when drawing up the detail.  He assigned four men to every intersection for the first four blocks and the last eight blocks of the parade.  In between those areas, would be where the parade was most heavily guarded with uniformed officers.  Those areas he would assign only two men per intersection. 
To try anything in the middle of the parade was nothing less than suicidal
.

Keegan came to realize that there was one very strong bond he and Flynn shared.  That was the loyalty to their job.  As Flynn had said he would die before failing, Keegan also would risk his own life for the job he so strongly loved and believed in.  Keegan decided he was going to walk right alongside of Devine for the entire parade.  If Devine objected, he would walk slightly off to the side but nevertheless, he wouldn't let Martin Devine out of his sight the entire afternoon.  He was going to be Devine’s personal bodyguard for the day, whether Devine liked it or not.

Keegan decided in no uncertain terms that if Martin Devine was going to lose his life on this Saint Patrick's Day, it would only be after Keegan did everything in his power to prevent it.  He was one hundred percent dedicated to preventing the hit, no matter what the consequences to himself ultimately would be.  He became so involved with planning the detail and where to deploy his personnel, that he had lost track of the time.  Captain Anderson walked back into the office and broke him from his work.