No Mercy Read Free Page B

investigations during the past year and a half. Priority 1 stood for more than just what case was most important at the time. It was looked upon as the top task force team and something to aspire to if you were a cop who wanted to further your career.
    The offices for the task force were in Yaphank headquarters, which now had a new correctional facility as their neighbor. Attorney Al Simmons had already inquired as to the possibility of moving Madison to the Yaphank facility to be fifteen minutes closer to Rachelle, but so far his request had not been approved by the DA's office and the sentencing judge. The Riverhead facility was becoming overcrowded to the point that bunk beds were on the outside walls of cells and as much as two hundred inmates were already transferred to other jails at a cost of $200 per day to the taxpayers. The Priority 1 task force utilized about four thousand square feet in a separate locked area of the building.
    Once Detective Lieutenant Cronin was promoted as head of Priority 1, he had provisions added that only authorized personnel could get into the area. This way there would be no “ears” and no Monday morning quarterbacks while he was working a case with his team. The only time there was outside interference was when the chief of police, the DA, and Kevin Cronin's old friend ADA John Ashley came into the Priority 1 unit to review the current case being worked on. During the past eighteen months there were a few periods of time when there was not a Priority 1 case assigned and Cronin had no problem lending out a few of the men to help out here and there.
    The relationship between Priority 1 and the media had become a strong one and something that the detective lieutenant was initially fond of. He realized, however, the need for the relationship after LI Pulse published his statements and interview, which escalated the solving of the famous Face of Fear case. He never forgot it and has remained available to this day when the magazine and Nada Marjanovich, the publisher and editor, requested it.
    Cronin stood up and saw Powers and Johnson at their desks. He couldn't believe a year and a half had gone by since the killing spree that left Police Officer Davis dead and six more killed at the hands of Madison Robinson wearing the blood-splattered Ghost Face mask. Yet most likely she saved the lives of Deborah, Rachelle, and Officer Sherry Walker. Former FBI agent Jason “Jack” O'Connor was now serving a life sentence at Bedford Hills Prison upstate, and his cohorts had been killed during an attempt to eliminate twelve-year-old Lindsey Wilkerson. All three were shot by Detective Powers and Officers Healey and Lynagh.
    The detective lieutenant believed no other squad could have saved more innocent lives than those he had on the case. Cronin was criticized by some for his manipulation of the investigation that put many people's lives in jeopardy, but those were subjective opinions. The outcome of the case ended with lives saved and the case solved.
    The team, especially, Johnson and Healey, had grown close to Lindsey Wilkerson but honored the request of her parents who wanted time to pass to where it was comfortable for them to slip out of their child's life. Lindsey, then a twelve-year-old with a photographic memory, was heavily traumatized by the home invasion. Her bodyguard or “protector,” as she called him, Officer Justin Healey was badly injured, and she stayed by his side at the hospital till sleep took over and her parents put their foot down by taking her home. The scene at Stony Brook Hospital looked like a war zone with Officer Dugan injured as well. Officer George Lynagh was there as well, holding a shotgun in the hallway the entire time Lindsey was at the hospital and wouldn't leave her side until they found Phil Smith dead in the storage barn on Morgan Lane the following morning. They were taking no chances on Lindsey at the hospital, but when it was over, the questions of who