Cowboy Bebop Fan Fiction ❯ Cats In The Cradle ❯ Cats In The Cradle ( Chapter 1 )

[ P - Pre-Teen ]

Session 5 CATS IN THE CRADLE by jak981125

Note: This work is part of a series. It will make more sense if you read the earlier sessions.

        “Bob, just take it easy!” yelled Jet.

“Just back off, Jet,” replied Bob. “I’ll take it easy the minute you back off.”

“You know I can’t do that. I’m the black dog, remember,” said Jet with a grin. Bob was in no mood for jokes. Bob, Jet’s old cop buddy and informant was in serious trouble. He was the primary suspect in a murder. Now Jet found himself in a nightmare trying to get him to surrender. Just how did they wind up in this mess?

        It started about the time Lau joined Bebop. Bob had been promoted to detective. His very first case turned out to be one that would nearly destroy him. There was a Scandinavian serial rapist on the loose on Mars named Ken Lundgren. For a sick man like Lundgren, sex itself was an act of hatred. It wasn’t enough for him to rape his victims. He would torture them as well. I won’t go into details. The last victim didn’t survive, placing the case in Bob’s hands.

        The identity of the rapist was no secret at all. There had been plenty of genetic evidence on all of his victims. He had a prior rape conviction, so they had his DNA on file. The problem was that after he had been released from prison, he got a lot sneakier. Even before he was released, he had totally managed to BS a prison psychiatrist into thinking he had been rehabilitated. The shrink made a recommendation for parole and as soon as he was released he went right back to his old routine. This time, however, he was like a phantom. No one could find him. That’s when Bob decided to team up with Jet.

        Jet and Bob tracked the guy based on places where he would try to pawn his victims’ belongings. It’s sad to say that this time he was released by a judge on a technicality. The technicality was that the judge was technically bribed and technically had to invent some technicality to let him off. Bob had taken the case quite personally and was furious when Lundgren was released. This is when he made his first big mistake. In a moment of rage, he cornered Lundgren in the courthouse in front of several witnesses, including Jet. He promised Lundgren that he was going to make him sorry. What Bob had in mind was waiting a couple of weeks for him to get complacent and then jumping him in an alley and breaking his nose. What actually happened was that Lundgren was found dead in the back alley of a porno theater. The bullet that had killed him came from an ISSP issued pistol. Then Bob made his second mistake. He ran. Jet took it upon himself to bring him in and clear his name.

        “Jet, tell your friend to put his gun away. I’d never sleep again if I had to hurt one of you,” said Bob. They had followed Bob into a warehouse but he had seen them coming before they were close enough to nab him. He and Lau had drawn their weapons in unison. Upon hearing this threat, the inexperienced Lau figured that he had to act. Thank God he didn’t shoot Bob. He was a crack shot and managed to shoot the gun out of his hand. Jet had been trying to talk this out and was annoyed at Lau’s actions. That’s why he didn’t run right up and grab Bob as soon as he was helpless.

        “Bob, you know you don’t have to convince me that you’re innocent.” No reply. “All we have to do is take your weapon in for ballistics testing. That’ll clear your name for sure.” Still no response. “Bob, come on, talk to me.”

“You want me to talk? What do you want me to say?” Bob said quietly.

“Why did you run? You hadn’t been charged yet. You didn’t give them a chance to see that you were innocent,” said Jet, slowly approaching Bob.

“Them? The system? The system let me down,” replied Bob.

“I know, I know. That’s why I left ISSP. The system always let me down too,” replied Jet as he put a comforting hand on Bob’s shoulder. Bob had not run out of guilt. He had run because he had lost his faith in the ability of the criminal justice system to tell the guilty from the innocent.

        Jet saw Lau going for his cuffs and angrily motioned for him to put them away. “So he’s the new partner, eh Jet? How much are you two getting for bringing me in?” asked Bob.

“Nothing,” replied Jet. “I went to the ISSP and convinced them not to put a bounty on you just yet. I promised I’d have you back in two days. I wouldn’t trust anyone else to get you back safely.” Bob smiled. In his own way, Jet really was a boy scout. No wonder a guy like him didn’t last at ISSP.

        Out in space, they don’t presume you innocent until proven guilty. They aren’t supposed to presume anything. In a perfect world that may have been the case but Bob was placed in a very small room with two very gung-ho Internal Affairs detectives for over twelve hours. Jet could only imagine what was going on in there. He’d had a couple of run-ins with the rat squad himself as a cop. These were the type of guys who would never consider the possibility that a cop could be wrongfully accused of something. If you were in an interrogation room with them, you were guilty in their eyes and their wasn’t a thing you could do to convince them otherwise.

        “He wouldn’t have fired.”

“What?” replied Lau.

“He wouldn’t have fired. Lau, one thing you have to get better at in this business is reading people. You have to know when they mean business, when it’s all just talk, and when they think they mean business but it’s all just talk,” explained Jet.

“So what’ll happen to him now?” asked Lau. “Oh, I expect those rat squad guys will threaten him for a while, he’ll tell them to go to hell, they’ll exaggerate the evidence they have against him, and then the ballistics report will come back and exonerate him. At this point the rat squad guys will let him go but refuse to admit that they had the wrong guy unless another cop (it has to be a cop) is convicted. Otherwise they’ll go to their graves believing it was Bob who did it.”

“Man, no wonder you left,” remarked Lau.

“No, it wasn’t the rat squad that made me want to leave,” sighed Jet. “It was the rats.”

        Just then, the door to the interrogation room opened and Bob was lead out in handcuffs.

“Bob! What...”

“The ballistics matched my gun,” Bob interrupted as he was lead away. Now this was serious. Jet remained silent for a few minutes.

“I don’t care what that ballistics report says’” Jet finally said. “If it was his gun then someone’s trying to frame him. I know that may be hard to swallow...”

“Not hard at all,” interrupted Lau. “I used to be a syndicate guy. I know there are plenty of good cops out there who have enemies. If you’re so sure that this guy is being framed, I’ll take your word for it.”

Jet smiled and put a hand on Lau’s shoulder. “I think I underestimated you,” he said.

“So what’s the game plan? What are we going to do now?” asked Lau.

        The answer to that one was to send out Faye. Jet knew that someone had to go around talking to people to dig up information. Jet figured that people would recognize him and possibly even Lau as bounty hunters before they even had a chance to talk. The reality was that tons of people had some sort of price on their heads and were mistrustful of strangers. Faye must have walked ten miles that day, talking to as many people in that neighborhood as she could. All she needed to know was if anyone had access to Bob’s apartment or belongings. Of course she had enough subtlety to get answers without asking something like that directly. Faye was having no luck at all. That’s when she ran into a little trouble.

“Lady, you’ve been asking too many questions around here,” came a gruff voice from behind her. She turned to see two menacing-looking men in trench coats behind her.

“Get lost if you know what’s good for you,” said the other one.

“Oh now this is sooo unfair,” said Faye in her whiniest voice. “Two big strong guys like you picking on a helpless little damsel like me. What is a girl to do?” She smirked and then kicked one of the men in the head, knocking him down. The other swung at her. She easily dodged his punch and threw him over her shoulder. Before he could get up she decked him, knocking him out cold. Then without even looking she fired a kick in the direction behind her. The other guy had gotten up and tried to sneak up on her but Faye had good hearing. She looked over her two fallen would-be assailants and grinned. “Hm, I wonder if you two have a bounty on you. Oh well, only one way to find out.” She reached for her handcuffs.

        A few minutes later she walked out of police headquarters looking disappointed. Lau was outside waiting for her. “I got your message,” said Lau. “So did you get anything for bringing those guys in?” All he received in reply was a growl. “I’ll take that as a no,” said Lau.

“They weren’t crooks,” replied Faye. “Apparently, they thought I was a crook. They were neighborhood watch guys. You laugh and you die.” She had seen Lau trying to conceal a snicker. “This guy is Jet’s friend, and I’m not getting paid for this. I wasted a whole afternoon on this wild goose chase,” she complained.

“You’re doing a favor for a friend,” replied Lau.

“I don’t mind doing favors as long as I get results,” growled Faye. “I’m not half as selfish as Jet thinks I am but I am impatient and I’ve had enough!” Once again, Lau couldn’t help but think she looked cute when she was ticked off, but said nothing. They took a cab back to the pier where Bebop was docked.

        When they came in, Jet was busy on the computer. He was looking at some public records that gave a list of every prosecuted case that Bob had been involved in. “Any luck, Faye?” he asked rather casually. In reply she threw a pillow at him and stormed off to her room. “Was it something I said?”

“I’ll tell you about it later,” replied Lau.

“I’ve got a list here of people Bob has taken down over the years, narrowed it down to people who are not currently incarcerated, and narrowed it down even farther by those I think would actually go this far to get revenge,” said Jet.

“So what’s the next step?” asked Lau.

“The next step is to visit the people on this list and to ask them as politely as possible if they know anything,” replied Jet.

        Asking politely actually translated out into Jet kicking peoples’ doors in and then using his metal arm to extract information. Not even the most hardened liar will typically mislead you when faced with a hostile situation like that. Every single person Jet visited had air-tight alibis.

        “Now what?” asked Lau. Jet was in a bad mood and didn’t answer. He headed for an apartment complex on the east side of town. “Jet, we’ve already covered every name on the list. Where are we going now?” asked Lau.

“To Bob’s place,” replied Jet. They walked into a condominium building that looked like a palace compared to some of the rat holes that they had visited that day. He walked up to an apartment on the third floor. He was about to pick the lock when the door was opened by a boy with blonde hair and glasses. “Oh hi there Tim,” said Jet to the boy. “I didn’t know you would be here. I thought that maybe you would be staying with relatives or something.” Lau couldn’t help but think that this boy was the nerdiest looking kid he had ever seen in his life. He was wearing a blazer with knickers for crying out loud.

“Hey Jet. My aunt has been staying with me while my dad’s locked up,” said the boy. “She’s at work right now but she’ll be home later.”

        The boy’s name was Tim. Bob and an old girlfriend of his had produced this boy by accident about twelve years ago. She wasn’t interested in raising kids and had considered having an abortion. Bob had agreed to raise the child himself if she gave birth. The girlfriend agreed and nine months later, Tim was born. Tim’s mother had never been part of his life and he had always lived with Bob.

        “Can we come in?” asked Jet. Without saying a word, Tim stepped aside and they entered the apartment. “Tim, I’ll get to the point. Your dad’s been arrested but I don’t think he’s guilty,” said Jet. “I’m trying to prove that he didn’t do what the police think he did.”

“He’s guilty,” replied the boy flatly.

“What? Why would you say something like that?” asked Jet.

“Because he told me he was going to kill that guy and now he’s gone ahead and done it,” replied Tim with no emotion whatsoever.

“When did he say that?” asked Jet rather suspiciously. This sounded incredibly fishy to him. Bob had threatened the guy in a moment of anger and had never said even once that he was going to kill him. It just didn’t add up.

“He said it plenty of times,” replied Tim.

“Son, where does Bob keep his lockbox?” asked Jet. “At the far back of the left side of his closet. I can show you where it is,” said Tim

        The boy took them back into Bob’s bedroom and opened his closet. There was a green lockbox with a small combination lock behind the shoes. “Do you want me to open it for you?” asked Tim.

“You know the combination?” asked Lau in surprise.

“My dad told it to me in case we ever had burglars or something,” replied Tim. He started to do the combination but Jet stopped him.

“That won’t be necessary, Tim. We just wanted to see where it is. We’ll be going now. Come on Lau.” Jet grabbed Lau by the shoulder a little roughly and ushered him out of the apartment. Tim closed the door behind them without a word. Jet didn’t let go of Lau until they were in the elevator.

“What was that about?” asked Lau. “Why were you in such a hurry to leave?”

“Go back to the Bebop,” was the only reply Jet gave. “Go back to the Bebop and don’t leave and don’t talk to anyone about this. Just wait for me.”

“And what are you going to be doing?” asked Lau.

“Never mind. There’s some business that I have to take care of.”

        Lau was confused but he trusted Jet enough to do exactly what he was told. Jet took the Hammerhead over to the opposite side of town. Looking through notes on his palm-top computer, he found the address of the murder scene. It wasn’t exactly the nicest neighborhood in the world. On his way, he was propositioned by several prostitutes. I’m not sure every single one of them was female. He found the porno theater he was looking for and went to check out the back alley. He had to chase off a pair of teenagers who he found making out back there. Jet spent the next five hours combing every single square inch of that alley. He had been a trained investigator with ISSP and knew what he was doing. Even as a cop he never would have searched a crime scene that intently. As evening settled over the city, there came on knock on the door at Bob’s apartment. Tim’s aunt opened the door. It was Jet. He explained to the woman who he was and was allowed inside. Just then, Tim entered the room, puzzled to see Jet return. “Hey kid. Missing something?” asked Jet. He held up a brass button that he had found in the alley. Sure enough, there was a button missing on the sleeve of Tim’s blazer. “I want a lawyer,” was all Tim said.

        Jet called the ISSP and asked them to send someone over. He specifically asked them not to send over those guys from internal affairs, figuring they would try to find a way to explain away this evidence that Jet had discovered. The whole time, the boy just sat on the couch with no expression of any kind on his face. Jet had known this boy since he was an infant. Seeing this was almost enough to make him sick to his stomach.

        Tim was taken to ISSP headquarters and they sat him down in an interrogation room with a juvenile officer. The police didn’t treat kids with anywhere near the kind of severity that they did with adults. Tim just sat there with that same blank look on his face while the juvenile officer and the public defender tried to explain to him the severity of the situation that he was in. He didn’t say a thing.

        Jet was watching this through a small window in the door to the room. All of the sudden he heard yelling coming from the hall. “TIM!” It was Bob. He came running down the hall towards the interrogation room like a bolt of lightning.

“Bob, try to calm down,” said Jet.

“Out of my way Jet!” yelled Bob. He didn’t even give Jet a chance to move. He actually shoved him out of the way. As soon as he was in the room he began shouting at the juvenile officer. “This is my son and he’s a minor. You can’t even talk to him without my consent and I sure as hell don’t consent!” he yelled.

“Bob, he hasn’t said a single word to me,” replied the juvenile officer. “All he has done so far is invoke counsel but he won’t even talk to the lawyer.” Other cops were starting to gather outside to see what all the commotion was about.

        “I want everyone out of this room!” Bob shouted. “I have a legal right to talk to my son alone.”

“As legal counsel I would advise you to let me stay. Anything I overhear is part of attorney-client privilege,” said the lawyer. At that point Bob wasn’t listening to anyone. He forced the juvenile officer and the lawyer out of the room but literally dragged Jet inside.

        “Jet, what in heaven’s name is going on here? What would posses you to bring Tim into this?” asked Bob angrily.

“Bob, did you go around your apartment telling Tim you were going to kill Lundgren?” asked Jet.

“Of course not!” replied Bob. “Not even as a figure of speech?”

“Not once. I’m a cop, Jet. I have more sense than to use a figure of speech like that,” replied Bob. Jet gave Tim a dirty look. Tim had no reaction at all. “Tim, did you tell Jet that I said something like that? Why would you do that?” asked Bob. No response. “I’m your father, dammit, now answer me when I ask you something,” said Bob in an angry tone. Tim just seemed to be looking right through everyone in the room.

        “Bob, I found this at the crime scene,” said Jet, handing Bob the button. “He’s missing an identical button on his left sleeve.”

Bob was silent for a moment. “That doesn’t mean he was involved. He could have just gone to the crime scene. He knew right where it was,” replied Bob. “Son, why would you go to the crime scene? That’s a dangerous neighborhood. It’s ten miles from where we live. You know better than that.” Still no response.

Jet sighed. “Oh wake up and smell the coffee Bob.”

“Shut up! Don’t you even hint at what you’re trying to say. Don’t you think I know my own kid?” snarled Bob.

        At that point a fury overtook the boy. “NO! YOU DON’T!” he screamed at the top of his lungs. Bob and Jet were startled and looked over at Tim, whose face was red as a beet.

“Son, what’s wrong?” asked Bob in a much more gentle voice.

“I killed him,” said Tim.

“Don’t say that!”

“I hunted him down...”

“Tim!”

“And when I found him I used your gun and blew his brains out,” snarled Tim.

“Tim, my gosh, do you know what you’re saying?” asked Bob with a hint of panic in his voice. Jet began to wish he hadn’t been brought into the room.

“And I framed you on purpose,” added Tim with a sick smile.

        Bob sat down on the floor and put his head between his knees. Jet walked over and rubbed his back. He was nearly as shocked as Bob. “Why did you do did it?” asked Jet. Tim ignored Jet completely.

“You have the nerve to say you know your son?” growled Tim. “You never knew me. You never wanted to.”

Bob got off the floor and looked his son right in the eye. “What did I do wrong? How did I ever neglect you? What did I do that was so horrible that you would go out and do a thing like this? I have to know!”

Tim grinned. “You can go ahead and spend the rest of your life going crazy trying to figure it out. I’ll never tell you,” he smirked. It’s always a hard thing to watch a grown man cry, but that’s exactly what Bob did at that moment. Jet tried his best to console him while resisting the urge to slam that rotten kid’s head through the table. He knew full well that what Tim had told his father could very well nag at Bob’s mind for the rest of his life.

        When the juvenile officer came back in, Tim confessed in detail but wouldn’t say anything else. Jet took Bob up to the roof of the building so he could get some air. He was starting to wonder if it would have been kinder to let Bob go to jail. “Bob I’m sorry. I just knew you were innocent and I was just so determined to clear your name. You know, the whole black dog thing. I never imagined this would happen.”

“You know what’s weird, Jet? It always seemed to me that he was the one who had no interest in me. Not the other way around. He would come home and spend hours on end in his room without so much as a hello to me. He never wanted to spend any time at all with his old man. I just don’t get it.” Bob was shaking all over. After a long silence, he spoke again. “Jet, you had better find yourself a new informant.”

Jet was hurt. “So we’re not friends anymore?” asked Jet.

“I didn’t say that. Actually right now I think you should be up for friend of the year. I just don’t think I want to be a cop anymore,” replied Bob.

“Now look, I know you’re upset right now. But don’t go making any rash decisions until you’ve had a chance to calm down and think this over,” said Jet.

“I’ve been considering turning in my badge for a long time, Jet,” replied Bob. “I had been thinking it might be good for me and Tim to settle down in some small town on Venus that needs a sheriff or police chief.”

“Sounds tempting Bob. Maybe that is what you should do,” replied Jet.

“No, not now. Not without my boy. Maybe I’ll be a cowboy like you. How’s that life treating you Jet?”

“Can’t complain,” replied Jet. “Bob, if it’s any consolation at all, he’s twelve. They can’t charge him as an adult. All they can do is send him to reform school until he’s twenty-one.” Bob didn’t reply. Jet just put his arm around him and lead him back inside.

SEE YOU SPACE COWBOY

(c) 2004 Joseph Kerner jak981125@catholic.org

Disclaimer: I did not create Cowboy Bebop. I wish I had, but I didn’t. This is just fanfiction.