Since he and his partner had cleared up several of the cases they'd been working on, Tim had a bit of free time. He told his boss what he'd stumbled onto and asked permission to spend a little time working on it.
"How much time do you figure you'll need, Tim?" detective captain Alex Martin asked.
"No more than a day, if that," Tim replied. "I've got a plan that should get Juan to give me the information I need."
"How, exactly, do you plan to do that?" Alex asked. "This Perez kid sounds like a he could be tough."
"He thinks he's tough," Tim said. "He's a punk. I know the family. Here's what I plan to do..." He explained his plan to his boss.
Alex smiled. He liked the young detective and knew how capable Tim was from the high quality of the work he'd done since he joined the detective division. "Sounds like it might be worth giving it a shot. I'll ask Lieutenant Dawson to assign Lex work with you today."
"Thanks, boss," Tim said. He left the captain's office and went looking for Lex Dumont, his old partner.
"Hey, look who's slumming," Lex said when Tim walked into the roll call room.
"I just stopped by to see if you were still scoffing down cheese Danish regularly," Tim laughed. "And to find out if you've learned how to use the computer terminal in your patrol unit yet."
Lieutenant Dawson, the day shift patrol commander, was standing at a lectern in the front of the roll call room. He cleared his throat. "Dumont, I'm assigning you a special detail today. You're working with Sergeant Jackman."
Lex looked around and Tim nodded his head in the direction of the door. He and Lex walked out into the hall.
"What kinda deal have you gotten me into, kid?" Lex asked.
"I'm going to ride with you," Tim explained. "We're going to run radar over on Emerson Street."
"What the hell are you up to, kid?" Lex asked, looking at Tim as if he were crazy. "Why in the heck are they assigning me to work with a detective to do that?"
"Because..." Tim began. He explained to Lex what he hoped to accomplish.
"I'm glad to see you remember everything I taught you," Lex said, grinning, when Tim finished his explanation. "I gotta tell you, kid, bein' promoted didn't screw you up at all."
"Come on, partner, let's get going," Tim said.
A half-hour later, Tim and Lex were sitting in a police car in a used car lot on Emerson Street. The radar gun on the cruiser's dashboard was pointed down the street in the direction of Juan Perez's house. The car they were in had police department markings, but didn't have a light bar on the roof, so it pretty much blended in with the other cars in the lot.
Tim was wearing a dark blue jacket that had a police badge embroidered on the front and "JAMESTOWN POLICE" in white reflective letters on the back. He was sitting in the passenger seat, watching the reading on the radar unit while cars passed.
"Why are you rousting this Perez guy?" Lex asked.
"He's got information I want," Tim replied. "I figure if we're lucky enough to catch him dirty, he just might be willing to cooperate."
"Ah," Lex said.
A battered car with loud mufflers turned onto the street. It accelerated rapidly toward the police car, tires squealing.
"That's our boy," Tim said. "I ran his name through the computer before we left to get the make, model, and registration number of his car."
The radar display on the dash began beeping.
"Got him," Lex said. "He's doing fifty-five in a twenty zone."
"Let's take him down, partner," Tim said.
