Many of you have read and enjoyed the TT Spalding PI stories I post so I thought you might like to meet some of the other characters. Bruno and Polly work for TT on most cases, but so far I haven't said much about them. This story is about Bruno and his part in one of TT's cases. It was the Conner Case.
Edited by Angel Love with my thanks as always.
Bruno and the Conner Case.
I got a call today from TT. You know TT Spalding, the PI? He just got a new case and wants me to drop everything and get right on it. Like I don't have a life of my own. Nothing to do but stop what I'm doing and hop right on his stuff. I know he lives for this shit, since all he talks about is his job and that stupid fictional character, Mike Hammer. Who the hell is Mike Hammer anyway? OK, so he's before my time, but come on. I don't read crap like that. He's not real, not like TT himself. As far as I'm concerned, one of the best PIs anyplace is TT. I know since I've been with him like since forever. Anyway, he wants me on it and it seems like a straightforward deal.
TT says this case is a real gem. It's about a woman who wants to catch her cheating husband with his secretary. She's convinced he's bopping the bleached blond bitch (her words) that works for him and he's doing it in the office after hours. She must have sold TT on it as well cause he wants me to get right on it. Says she's a real looker and has a body made for sin. As if TT was going to do anything about it. That's a real laugh. He's married to Maggie and Maggie would have TT's ass in a sling if he so much as thought about another woman. Hell, TT is so much in love with Maggie that he can't see straight if she so much as yells at him. Goes into a funk if she gets mad at him. I guess I don't blame him. Maggie is one of a kind. Beautiful, smart, hard working and loyal as all hell when it comes to TT. She turns a lot of heads and attracts a lot of male attention when she goes out but the only head she pays any attention to is her husband's.
But back to business. I'll do just what TT wants as he knows perfectly well. He is the only person in this black hole of a world that I would do anything for. TT saved my life a long time ago and I owe him, big time. He never asked for anything in return and he gave me this job a while back just to help me out in a time when I needed it. I'm still here, even though I've gone on to become a relatively rich dude. Some of my inventions in the electronic spying arena have done quite well. I have a few patents that will keep me in spending money for a long time to come. TT knows that but never mentions it when he calls. Just assumes that I love this shit like he does. Well, I'm not going to burst his bubble. But I'll tell you this: when he calls, I answer. That's a fact.
I put things to bed for the night, made a few calls and cleared my schedule. I liked to be ready when I went in to see the boss. That's what TT would always be for me: the boss. He and I spent several years in the field together when he worked for the DA. He was what they called a special investigator and was one of the best. That's when TT and I got together the first time.
TT found me on a case he was working. It involved drugs, some very bad men, and me. I was the 'wires' guy for a gang that was building their reputation in the drug distribution business in the Bronx. I disabled alarms, opened doors and tracked shipments that the others would hijack. Anything to do with wires and computers. They were building their business on the back of the competition. Me, I worked for drug money. I was a junkie at the time. Yeah, that's right. I'm not proud of it but there it is. I was hooked on crack and those I worked for liked it that way. They could control me and I would do what they wanted for enough to buy a fix.
It was not a nice story but let me just say that TT found me working my trade on an alarm system in a building he was staking out. He collared me, took me in and listened in to the interview. I guess he saw something in me that he liked because the next thing I knew I was working as his CI: his confidential informer. He put me back, made sure I was wired and let me do my thing. A few days later when he had the whole gang in one place and in possession of a million dollar cache of cocaine, things came to a head. The place swarmed with cops and it went down without a shot being fired. After the bust, I was singled out and taken to a small room. TT came in, talked to me, said some things that drove my situation home and then made me a deal that put me in rehab. Afterwards, he took me in, set me up in business as an electronics expert working with him and the DA's office and made sure I kept straight.
He was a hawk, always on me to make sure I wasn't using or carrying. He never let me out of his sight. There was one time I scored a bag and was about to find a quiet place to shoot up and get high but he found out. I still remember it. TT caught me with the stuff and never said a word. He just took me to his apartment ( he lived alone at the time, before he met Maggie), had me sit down on his couch and then he said to me,
"If you're going to kill yourself, that's your choice, but I'm going to make sure you're safe while you do it. No one else is going to kill you. That's your job so go right ahead. You just go ahead and put that shit in your veins and scramble your brains. That's what you want to do. So go ahead. But you're going to do it in front of me."
Well, hell! I looked at him, sitting there so damn quiet and serious and I said, "I can't do this when you're watching me."
He said, "That's too damn bad because I'm not letting you out of my sight. Go ahead: shoot up and get stupid. Make your momma proud. I'll make sure no one else takes advantage of your stupidity."
Well, suffice it to say I couldn't do it. The son of a bitch just wasn't going to let me go. I finally decided he must know something that I didn't. So, I took that dime bag of shit and flushed it down the toilet and that was the last time I considered doing drugs again. From that day on, if I ever got in trouble, I called TT. If I felt the need to do the deed he would always respond. If I just felt like shit and needed someone to dump on, he always responded. Always.
We worked together for the DA for about three years before he decided to go private. By that time, I was straight and had been all that time. I had begun to see some money coming in from my patents, patents that TT showed me how to file, and I was doing pretty damn good. That empty feeling that demanded the release that cocaine gave was gone as well. Finally, someone else had filled it. A good friend, someone who believed in me and found something worth saving. When TT told me that he was going to quit the DA's office, and asked me to come to work for him, I told him I didn't want a full time job but that all he had to do was call and I would come. We shook, and that was that.
You know most of the rest. He set up his PI business and TT Spalding Investigations was born. He met Maggie a year later when he hired her as his secretary and gal Friday. It was love at first site, at least for Maggie and TT had no chance. She set out to snag him and he proposed three months later. I was best man at their wedding and Polly was maid of honor. That was the first time I met Polly. She was cute, sort of bubbly and very eager but not my type. The feeling was mutual and we became friends, but nothing more.
