Did you know that on the same street that the police headquarters is located and just one block down is where all of the stripper shows/bars and other X rated goodies are located? It's called "The Block" and is famous in Baltimore. Det. Lewis couldn't help but point out the irony of it all as we drove by all of the lit up signs advertising girls, girls, girls. Crazy, huh? Believe it or not, all parties concerned peacefully coexist.
We walked into the HQ's main entrance. It was a very small area with a large cop wearing a protective vest underneath his shirt sitting behind a big wraparound desk. There was room for one small table and a bench. There may have been a chair on each end of the table. Det. Lewis made small talk w/the cop while I signed my name in a notebook similar to a loose leaf binder. Once that was completed we walked through a pair of double doors and I was in.
It was a labyrinth of hallways and elevators. We made it to Homicide and it was just like as it was depicted in "The Wire". It was an open room with cubicles making up the center and on one wall was a large wipe-off board. There weren't a lot of personnel milling about. We did pass a guy sitting in his cube. Det. Lewis said hello to him. When he looked up he seemed surprised to see a civilian looking back at him.
I was shown to a weird kind of room that was the waiting area. There were magazines and a TV tuned into some kind of moronic programming. It kind of felt dirty in there like I should expect bugs to start showing up. I didn't want to touch anything so I just sat there amusing myself with my own thoughts like why was I put in this room? Am I secretly being watched? How long will I have to wait for Det. Lewis to come back? Speaking of Det. Lewis...what the hell was he doing now?
As my imagination pushed and pulled me in and out of different compositions, Det. Lewis showed back up. I really don't think I was sitting there even ten minutes but when one is in the Homicide Dept. waiting to give a taped statement, it is a little unnerving.
As we were walking to one of the interrogation rooms, he explained that he was going to tape this and another detective would sit in with us as a witness. He was going to ask me questions about that morning and all I had to do was answer honestly and to the best of my ability. It was probably right about then that my mouth went dry and I had an idea of what desert dwellers felt.
We walked down a long hall with rows of doors on the right until we came to the one especially made for us. I really am no good with estimating measurements, but the room was probably 7 x 6. The white table and chairs took up almost all of the area and the chairs were secured to the floor. I was sitting in the one that forced me to have my back to the mirror. To my right at one end of the table was the detective who I am sure was glad he had nothing better to do and across from me was Det. Lewis. The left side of the table was against the wall. The room was colorless. Was this so that it could be easily cleaned up.....if you know what I mean?
Det. Lewis introduced me to Det. I'd Rather Be Anywhere Else But Am A Polite Nice Guy And Now You Owe Me One and then turned on the tape recorder. My heart rate doubled.
It ended up not being bad at all. We went through what we had already discussed and the other Det. asked some questions of his own that made no sense to me as to what bearing they had on anything but who am I to say? Do I wear a badge? Did I promise to serve and protect?
It was over and I had to use the ladies room. So what else is new, right? After I powdered my nose I met back up with Det. Lewis and he drove me back home. He would keep in touch. He promised.
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