The Brink of Minds | Tim Bradford

08┃please

S1 EP6

"Alright," Tim cleared his throat, "We're serving a search warrant. You see door hinges?"

Grey had assigned them a warrant from Burglary that had not been resolved from the night before. They now walked down the quiet hallway in the shady-looking apartment building, making their way to their search. Ollie surveyed the doors by her two sides, noticing the hinges on the outside of the apartments. "The door opens outwards towards us."

"And what's a 'fatal funnel'?" the T.O. continued quizzing.

"The first three feet in any doorway," Ollie responded again.

"Not bad," Tim peered over at her, "Here's the real test. Of all the things Burglary told us about our suspect LeShawn Halvorsen, what's most important?"

"Uh... History of fighting with the police?"

"Wrong. This guy's been served seven search warrants, spent half his life on parole."

The rookie started to think for a second. "So, he's been searched a lot," she stated, and the T.O. nodded.

"Exactly. He knows what doesn't work, so to find his stash, you'll have to think like a crook. Can you do that?"

"Yes," Ollie answered swiftly, familiar with all the nooks and crannies she watched her mother hiding her stash in. But instead, she received a doubting stare from her T.O. "You don't think I can? I have years of experience under my belt."

"I think you know the spots where your mom would hide her drugs. Serial burglars like LeShawn are different. And to be a great cop, you got to learn the difference," Tim clarified as they stopped in front of their suspect's apartment, "Hinges?"

"Inside," Ollie answered, drawing her gun as she took her position on the side of the door.

Tim pounded on the door of LeShawn's residency. "Police," he called out, "Open up, LeShawn." The officers received no response other than loud, ear-blasting music.

"What's an acceptable amount of time to wait before we bust in?" Ollie asked in all seiousness.

Tim only paused for another two seconds before he kicked the door in; a crash sounded as it flung open.

Ollie sucked her breath at the sight of LeShawn, who was out cold on the floor after getting knocked down by the door. "Talk about timing..."

"That had to hurt," Tim bluntly replied.

➤

They had cuffed LeShawn to a chair when he was still unconscious, and the T.O. instructed her to conduct the search as their suspect woke up. Ollie was flipping over couch seats and wire piles to search the place.

LeShawn leered when Ollie bent down to look under the couch. "Yo, lady cop, you can search my place all day."

Tim followed his line of sight — realising he was checking her out — and heavily smacking the back of the suspect's head. "Get up. Face the wall before I snatch the other eye out of your head," he barked, yanking LeShawn up from the chair and then hauling him to face the wall, "You need to learn some respect."

Tim glanced over to the rookie, who was still by the couch. "Okay, come on, Officer Marshall. I thought you'd do better with your experience."

Ollie let out a frustrated groan, her nose itching from the accumulated dust. "You know how many times I found—" she sneezed, "—found opioids under the couch back then?"

Tim sighed, "You ever heard of the DEAR method? D-E-A-R?" he asked, and the rookie shook her head in response. "There are four principles of concealment. First is deception, D. Deception shows you one thing when it's really something else."