The Line

Judge Goodwin thought over Chief Riley's phone call for a few minutes and decided to call Frank Lisk, owner of Lisk's Food Mart. Frank had always provided large donations to the election funds of Sheriff Matt Damon, Judge Goodwin and Mayor Lawrence Talbot. The trio also had controlling interest in Frank Lisk's more lucrative businesses which included dealing in counterfeit and/or stolen merchandise and running a loansharking operation.

Judge Goodwin got in his car and drove to the local strip mall. There was a phone booth located far enough from the stores so that he could see if anyone was approaching him. He dialed the number from memory.

"Hello, Frank here."

"Frank, this is Henry Goodwin. Can you talk?"

"Not now, my wife has friends over. Can it wait?"

"No! This has to be done fast. Find an excuse to go out for a new box of cigars or such and meet me near the new strip mall. I need to see you within the next ten minutes or so."

"O.K. if it has to be that fast I'll be there."

"I'll be parked near the pay phone, pull in next to me I'll get in your truck and we'll take a short drive."

"O.K., see you in ten."

Seven minutes later Henry Goodwin climbed into Frank's truck. They drove out of town along a long straight back road.

"What's so important, Henry?"

The Judge filled him in on what had happened that afternoon. "Chief Riley is really dumb. He kept all sorts of papers at home that could burn us. We've got to get rid of the evidence, that damned attorney Moore, and the chief."

"You're going to kill the chief?" The tone in Frank's voice didn't fully betray his concern.

"We've got to. As close as I can figure the incident that formed the trigger for this raid was the chief's attempt to cover up his kid's use of his service weapon."

"What?"

"Yeah, the other night when your son Bud led his little group out to try to teach that geeky kid a lesson, the chief's son brought along the chief's 9mm Glock. When the kid tried to draw the weapon he was attacked. The police found the weapon on the ground, with the kids finger prints all over it. The chief was in the process of trying to make the evidence disappear when the State Police and Attorney Moore showed up"

"Who's investigating that case?"

"Sheriff's deputy, Jack Frazier and city police detective Mark Fabrizzio."

"Damn!!! those guys have been a thorn in our flesh for years. They can't be bought, they don't get involved in questionable fun, and they take the law seriously. Now I see why we need to do some serious stuff. But, why the chief?

"We both know him, he's never been a real cop. He'll cave in the first time they put pressure on him and then we will be in deep water. He's the only one who was stupid enough to keep incriminating evidence around. He's got to go."

"O.K. I can live with that. What do I need to do?"

"In some ways your job is relatively easy. We need to destroy the evidence room at the police headquarters. I know just how it has to happen. You will need to use your son's gang, or other trustworthy small group, and what I will provide. Meet me at your store an hour after you drop me off back at my car."

"O.k. I can do that."

An hour later the Judge entered Frank Lisk's Food Mart. He searched the isles for something until there were no customers who could see him. He then went to Frank Lisk's office.

"Frank, here is a small package that you will need. It contains a floor layout of the police station, a schedule of what goes on during the graveyard shift, a key to the back entrance to the station and a key to the property room. The police budget hasn't been very good for many years. I know, as a matter of fact, that the alarm circuit that includes the back door doesn't work. They have avoided spending anything to get it fixed since it isn't considered to be much of a threat. Do you still have that stuff your kid's gang looted from the army depot last year? You know the stuff, it included thermite and demolition charges?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Well, tomorrow morning, between 4:00 am and 4:30 am, you, and a group of your choosing, will enter the police station and take out the one cop who will be on duty. When that is taken care of you will take all of the thermite and demolition charges, except one of each, to the evidence room. The police budget has never been rich enough to buy fire resistant filing cabinets, they are simply average office ones. Make sure that the ones with dates that cover the last five years have charges on top of them. Use the other charges wherever you think the most damage can be done. The last charge is to be taken down to the furnace room. The police department furnace is an oil fired unit. The tanks for the oil are in the basement. The last thermite and demolition units go there. The thermite goes on top of the tank and the demolition charge goes under the tank Set them for simultaneous firing. Have one of your guys cut the copper tube that comes out the bottom of the tank. On notice that the evidence room guys are ready; cut the padlock and chain from the water valve for the sprinkler system and turn off the water to the sprinklers. Then set your timer and leave. Now, this is important; do not shut the basement or evidence room doors! The fire will need as much oxygen as it can get. You might even open a rear window on your way out of the station. Can you do that?"

"Yeah, I guess I can. How do I cover my ass in case something goes wrong?"

"Make sure nothing goes wrong! That is not an option. No living witnesses are allowed. When you are ready to leave the station, put the map, keys, and the guns you use under one of the thermite charges. We must remove that evidence. Oh, one other thing, I need fifty pounds of C4 and some caps; and I need them yesterday. Can you provide them?"

"No, but I do have some RDX. Nasty stuff. I don't like the sounds of what I am hearing."

"Too bad, we're in too deep to back out now. Get me the caps and RDX. Put them inside my boat house near the 55 gallon fuel tank."

* * * * * *

Two hours later Judge Goodwin called the sheriff's nephew, Ted Smith. Ted, a corrupt member of the city's bomb squad had grown used to a life of affluence. As a retired Army Green Beret his military training was excellent. He was at the expert level with most weapons and really knew his way around explosives. Most important was the fact that Ted owed the Judge a big favor. The Judge arranged to have evidence disappear that would have given Ted Smith a long prison term. (Ted had used explosives to get rid of his adulterous wife's boy friend.)

"Hi Ted, this is Henry Goodwin, I need a few big favors from you. Do you think you could help me?"

"Well, I don't know what you want, but I assume I can do whatever it is. What's needed?"

The Judge brought Ted up to speed. He told him where the evidence was that had to disappear and he told him who had to die.

"Whew! That is a full plate. How long do I have?"

"The evidence room has to go early tomorrow morning. But the death's of Al Moore and the chief have to happen tonight. Fortunately they both live out of town where there will be no street lights. I've got something that will help you with the State Police barracks job. I have a set of keys to the police department's old pickup truck. It runs and will do the job. With the other things that are going on tonight it will be good to use. I'd suggest that you arrange the fireworks for after four in the morning. I have my speedboat in a small boathouse down on Lake Carlopa. Inside the boat house is a 55 gallon drum of gasoline. I have a track mounted hoist that runs from the double doors at the driveway directly over to the boat. Halfway along is the cradle that holds the gas. I also have about fifty pounds of RDX and some caps. Use the police department's pickup and get the fuel, and I'll have the explosives waiting there for you right near the gasoline. By the time you have the stolen pickup it will be waiting for you."

"O.K. I can do that."

"The evidence storage room at the State Police barracks is on the right rear corner of the building. It is located directly next to the communications/watch officer's office. Conveniently the building is a frame structure as opposed to reinforced concrete or brick and mortar. The watch officer will probably die in this attack, but that's the way it goes. Now, the two people who need to die this weekend are Attorney Al Moore and police Chief Riley."

Can you tell me where Attorney Moore lives?"

"Yes; Moore should be shot and the house burned down to delay the discovery that it was a murder scene. As for Riley he might as well get the same treatment as Attorney Moore. Re-using a simple effective plan is sometimes good policy."

"O.K. I'm on the clock, have those explosives ready for me."

"You got it!"

* * *

It was Friday evening and Al Moore was sitting in his living room with his wife. Living out in the country, he didn't usually bother to close the living room drapes. He was hit with a round from a high powered rifle directly above the left eye.. As his wife ran over to him, she received a fatal shot. The sniper approached the house and turned the propane tank's main valve off so that no gas could flow. He entered the house and closed the living room drapes. He then placed three lit candles on the floor in the living room, between the bodies and the front window. Moments later he cut the propane line going to the stove.. After leaving the house he turned on the propane valve at the tank and left the area at a sedate, speed. Nobody would ever remember seeing his vehicle, which was stolen anyway. Minutes later the house is an inferno.

Chief Riley never knew what hit him. He was sitting at his computer, in his study, looking at porn on the internet when the bullet took off the top of his head. When his wife cam in to see what the noise was all about, she took a shot in the center of her chest. Within seconds she was dead. Chief Riley was a gun collector. He also liked to shoot black powder weapons. Instead of having a proper powder magazine outside the house he stored a twenty-five pound container of XXX black powder in his basement. A time delayed squib was placed in his twenty-five pound black powder container. When the explosion occurred, there was little left of the center part of the house.

Chief Riley's temper and sloppiness would not get the Judge into further trouble. The chief's son was safe since he was still in the hospital and he knew nothing about most of the chief's illegal activities.

* * * * * *

The watch officer, at the State Police barracks, had just gotten himself a fresh cup of coffee and was looking forward to enjoying one of his wife's wonderful cinnamon raisin rolls. He had an f.m. radio on and was listening to Rachmaninoff's Second Piano Concerto. He never knew what hit him. Ted had driven quietly into the parking lot, and moved the stolen truck so that its open bed was backed up almost directly to the corner of the building. Four shaped charges made in number ten cans were placed against the two walls that met at the corner. A heavy shaped charge was also placed directly behind the 55 gallon drum. The charges were set so that the shaped charges on the walls would go off twenty milliseconds before the main charge behind the open 55 gallon drum. There was a remote trigger for the explosives made from an inexpensive cellular phone. There was also a mechanical timer set for ten minutes, just in case the phone trigger didn't work. Ted moved directly back on the state police property, crossed the property line onto a vacant lot, and was picked up by the Judge who was driving Ted's car.

When they were a mile away, Ted made a phone call.

"Damn, that is some fireball, observed the Judge."

"Well, you wanted it done right, it is as right as can be done on this short a notice."

The watch officer was dead before the inferno started. As it would happen, the first shaped charge lined up with a small metal object in the evidence room and the watch officer at his desk.. The detonation drove that metal directly through his head.

* * *

Frank Lisk had made the necessary calls. He didn't want to use his son's friends. Too many of them liked to do drugs, drink, and brag. No talkers were wanted for this job. None of the people he called really wanted to get involved with the night's work. However, in the end they agree to help him destroy the city police's evidence and furnace rooms. Masked and wearing dark clothing they entered the police department at 4:15am. Using a stolen weapon, the desk sergeant was shot where he sat. The group then split and moved both to the evidence room and the furnace room. They open the evidence room door using key provided by the Judge. When they determined the location of the files that they need, they placed their incendiary devices on those filing cabinets and called down to the group in the furnace room. In the furnace room, where the oil line had already been cut, the sprinkler valve was turned off and then the timer for the thermite and demolition packages were set for a delay of five minutes. Both the group from the basement and the group from the evidence room carefully blocked open those rooms respective doors, opened all the rear windows in the building, and then left via the back door which they locked behind them. Within twenty minutes the entire administrative section of the police department was engulfed in flames. It was only due to the heroic action of the fire and rescue people that the few vagrants and drunks in the jail had their lives spared.

* * * * * *

It was 7p.m. the night after the destruction of the police evidence room, the state police barracks, and the murders of Al Moore and Chief Riley. In John Hughes' living room a meeting was taking place.

Present were: John Hughes, Jim Wood, Mark Fabrizzio, and Jack Frazier

John Hughes was speaking; "Gentlemen, as you know, we have a problem. Not only have we lost some friends, a major corruption case is now almost assuredly down the drain. At the minimum, the key attorney and the critical evidence have been destroyed. You three represent the uncorrupted portion of your organizations. We cannot depend upon most of the rest of the city police force, since we don't know who has been and who has not been compromised. We can't depend upon the rest of the Sheriff's department for the same reason. To top it off, we have a city Judge who is still in power who we believe to be ready and able to throw every legal maneuver possible in our path. In your opinion, Mark, what do you think we should do? "

"That's a tricky question. I listen to the "grape vine" a lot in my work. It's my understanding that Al Moore had all of his documentary evidence in his attaché case today. He didn't want the State Court of Appeals Judge to refuse his requests for warrants; so he was "loaded for bear", so to speak. It is my understanding that all of the evidence, with no backup copies, were in the evidence room at the state police building. There is no evidence to lead other investigators foreword on this case. If this is true, the attorney general's office now has their hands tied. We not only have a difficult job ahead of us, we may have a dangerous job ahead of us. We are, so to speak, working without backup. I know that the judge has some friends in the Attorney General's office as well as the governor's office. We will have difficulty approaching them."

Jim Wood spoke up; "Let me but in, if I may. There is a piece of data that you need that I got just before leaving to come here for our get together. The coroner is a good friend of mine, we go to the same church. He, unofficially told me, that both Al Moore and his wife didn't die in the fire. They were both shot! There was no soot in their airways and their blood chemistries didn't show carbon monoxide or excessive carbon dioxide buildups. They were murdered."

"Are you sure?", John asked.

"That is what the man said. The Judge has ordered him to seal the results of the autopsy for the moment, so the coroner could get in a lot of trouble if we were to let on that we know what happened. But, by issuing the order the Judge has shown us where he is in this situation. Without the coroner's report a homicide investigation cannot be started. I have also been told that the Judge has taken custody of all of the coroner's notes and photos. In a few days it will be the coroner's word against the Judges word. My bet is that this one will be declared an accidental death. This wouldn't be the first time Judge Goodwin has changed an obvious murder into an accidental death."

"Do we have any information on Chief Riley's death?"

"Yeah, they only found bits and pieces of him and his wife, but one part they found was half of his skull with a 0.500" hole entering one side. The bullet had to be moving at incredible speed since the hydraulic pressure blew his skull apart. The guess is that the gun used was a 50 caliber sniper rifle chambered for the standard Browning machine gun cartridge. It is unlikely that there will be anything found of that round. If it was fired from a few hundred yards away the bullet could almost be in the next county. Those rounds have ranges measured in miles. And, while we are at it, the same type of bullet hole was found in attorney Moore's head."

Jack Frazier spoke up. "Did you say that it was definitely a .50 Cal bullet?"

"Yeah, why?"

"The only person that I know of that has a .50 Cal high powered rifle is Ted Smith, the Sheriff's nephew. He is a dangerous man!"

John broke in; "Wonderful, just what we need, another crooked cop!" Then he continued: "You know, since Al Moore ran this investigation so close to his vest, it is unlikely that anyone else in the AG's office knows who can be trusted and who is part of the problem. In fact they can't even be sure that there is a problem now. Mark; we're going to need really good legal advice as we proceed. Do you know anyone you can trust to provide it?"

"Jim and I may know of someone. He is, by all reports, very sharp and scrupulously honest. His name is Pete Slovenski."

"The lawyer from Smithton?"

"Yeah, that's him, John."

John continued: "I know him. I also know what type of man he seems to be. I like that suggestion. Do you think he would consider doing something this risky?"

Mark responded: "Let's find out. I'll call him and ask him if he would be willing to do some under the table pro bono work."

"Mark, make sure you use a cell phone. They are much harder to tap. With the people who we believe we are up against I wouldn't put it past them to have all of our phone lines tapped. Tapping digital cell phones, however, requires equipment and skills that our local people don't have."

*********

The phone rang at Peter Slovenski's home.

"Hello?"

"Is Peter Slovenski at home?"

"Speaking!"

"Mr. Slovenski, this is Mark Fabbrizzio. I am the detective who came out to your house a few days ago. Would you have time to meet with me, and a few close friends? We have a major problem, and need honest legal input. I can't say more than that right now..We are only using digital cell phones to make our calls, if that tells you anything."

"Yes, Mark, I remember you. Your comment about digital cell phones rings a very loud bell in my head. When do you want to come out to talk?"

"When would you be available?"

"How about in half an hour, I'll get some pizza ordered."

"That sounds good. Please, and this is very important, do not let anyone know we are coming or that we have talked with you."

"O.K. I'll see you in half an hour, Mark."

Forty-five minutes later John Hughes, Jim Wood, Mark Fabrizzio, Jack Frazier and Peter Slovenski were sitting around the dining room table at Slovenski's house.

"John, we called you because we are in a very dangerous situation. What we are going to tell you has to be kept very, very, quiet. If word started to leak or suspicions were aroused people could end up dead. Can you live with those terms, for the moment?"