Free New York Chief of Detectives by Gary Hastings Page A

eventually prosecute the case. I want you to go so far as to tell them that if this information leaks out, you’ll have it investigated criminally and lock up the person who released it, for obstruction of justice. It may just scare them enough to keep it quiet. There are more press leaks in One PP than in Noah’s Ark. Can you help me?”
    Richard Chambers walked away from the table and looked out the window overlooking lower Manhattan.
    “If this’ll help you catch the killer. I’ll do it. When does it need to happen?”
    Pat looked at his watch.
    “In about ten minutes. The brass will be filing in soon along with my task force.”
    “I appreciate the advanced notice, Pat. What if I’d said no?”
    “I knew you wouldn’t.”
    At 0800 hours, Pat and Chambers walked into the Major Crimes Conference Room. In addition to the task force, they were joined by Commissioner Longstreet, Harry Doogin, the First Deputy Police Commissioner and a few aides. The conference room was quite packed. There was a general buzz of chatter in the room, but only the task force knew what they were going to find out.  Pat walked to the podium.
    “Good morning everyone, I appreciate you being here so early at short notice. There have been some developments in our investigation of the murder of Tony Rodriguez that I need to share with you, but before I begin, we have Richard Chambers with us, the Queens County District Attorney. The task force has been working our investigation in cooperation with Queens County, and DA Chambers has a few words for us.”
    “Thank you, Chief O’Connor. I appreciate the opportunity to work with the Chief of Detectives’ office on this investigation. This is a very sensitive and complicated case. We are far from bringing this case to a conclusion, but we’re making investigative progress. There’s a lot of interest in this case from the media, but you guys have appropriately been very careful about not releasing too much information. The information being released today to you is considered peak information and cannot be publically released.  Therefore, as District Attorney of Queens County, I’m ordering each of you not to divulge this information to anyone outside this room. I’m certain that you will understand and comply with this direction, but I want you to understand that if this information is inappropriately released, my office will initiate criminal charges for obstruction of justice. I have faith that the task force will reach a successful conclusion in this case. Thank you for your time this morning and I’ll turn the briefing back over to the Chief of D’s.”
    Richard Chambers warning had turned up the heat quite a bit. There were several in the room who were noticeably angered by the warning, including Police Commissioner Longstreet, who was visibly red in the face. Several of the aides looked very uncomfortable as well, and Pat’s gut told him that they were the most likely sources of all the One PP leaks.
    “Thank you, Mr. DA. I assure you that we understand and will comply with your wishes. All of you are aware that we’ve been immersed in our investigation of Detective Rodriguez’s murder since last Saturday morning, and that it has been very difficult to develop significant leads. The last person that Rodriguez talked to was an informant by the name of Curtis Gee. On Monday morning, my detectives went to his residence in Queens where he was found dead, with two 9 mm gunshot wounds to the head. Ballistics has now confirmed that the two slugs were fired from Rodriguez’s Glock 19, which is still missing. We believe that it’s likely that the suspect who murdered Rodriguez took the Glock and then killed Gee.  However, due to these developments, I’ve asked Chief Doogin to assign an IAB team to assist in our investigation. If there are further developments, I’ll let you know. We’ve still not located Detective Rodriguez’s police car. Thanks again for your presence and your