A Day in the Life Ch. 02

"Yes sir," said Geiger, "that's what we hope to do. I have to say, sir, and this is not just kissing ass... with you and Lt. Croyle running things, it's a lot more fun in Vice than it used to be. It's nice to actually get to be a policeman like I always wanted to be, without the politics and looking over my shoulder."

"Thank you." I said. "I understand. But tell me this: do you know of any underhanded stuff Sharples was doing before he got kicked to the kerb?"

"No sir." Geiger said. "I heard you say once that he colored within the lines, but barely. And that's really what it was with him. If he was doing anything outright dirty, he hid it well. He might have been behind that diamond smuggling caper that you busted, but you'd never be able to prove it. He seemed to be more into the 'cop on the take' routine for corrupt businessmen than anything else."

"Any names of those corrupt businessmen?" I asked.

"Ward of Ward Harvester is one guy we've been watching." said Geiger. "But you know that already. And Councilman Cook... his name just keeps coming up, though we don't have a shred of evidence to even suggest he's actually bad."

"I'm working on that, too." I said. "Just one more question: is everyone in Vice on the up-and-up and doing well?"

"Sure, as far as I know." said Geiger. "Grubby Paul still makes a lot of C.I. contacts, even though he's not supposed to do undercover anymore. Lorena Rose is still really pissed about Sharples outing her, but she still gets good leads. Purvis is so straight-laced that it's not even a joke anymore, but he's okay; he does good work in the white-collar crimes area. The 'Abacus'... hell, I'm totally lost adding 2 plus 2, much less the stuff she's doing unraveling ledgers and dirty dealings." The 'Abacus' was Julie Newton.

"So what do you want to do, going forward?" I asked.

"I don't mean this to sound unambitious," said Geiger, "but I like what I'm doing now. I would like a little more tactical training with the SWAT guys... not to be one of them, but to be better prepared when we make our own raids."

"That's a good idea... for everyone." I said. "I'll see what I can do--"

The sound of a spoon ringing a glass could only mean one thing: Cindy Ross's patience was at an end, and she wanted me to tell everyone how I'd solved the case.

"Okay, guys," Cindy said, "this is the time where I ask the Iron Crowbar to tell everyone how he solved the case." There was a cheer of approval and applause.

"First of all," I said, "I want Molly Evans to come in the middle of the circle here and make a very exciting announcement." Molly came forward to 'oohs' and 'ahhs'.

"Yes, this is very exciting." Molly said. "I hope as many of you as possible will come next Monday, that's September 15th, to my swearing in as the Vice Lieutenant with the Nextdoor County Police Force!" There was a burst of loud applause, then Molly said "I'm very excited to be much closer to you guys up here, my extended police family, and especially my blood family. Somebody has to keep an eye on this rowdy Police Captain of yours!" She was pointing at Cindy. Laughter ensued.

"Who still outranks you, Big Sister." replied Cindy levelly, to more laughter. "Seriously, I'm very excited to have you up here where I can see my nephews more often... oh, did I just give away that you're going to have another boy, Molly?"

"It was already an open secret." Molly said, grinning at the one-upmanship attempt. "Now, let's hear the Iron Crowbar give us the answers to the last case."

"I'm very excited to have Molly up here, as well." I said. "So... this case. I'm glad Alison and Chris got to follow us around for this one, as it was pretty straightforward, it showed all the basic tenets of the police work we all do. But it also had a couple of interesting and instructive twists."

I began: "We first came onto the body in the River. The hair of the head had been shaved off after death, but the vast majority of the body hair was already shaved off. This in itself is not entirely unusual of young men; after all, male models do that. But this guy seemed more effeminate to me, so I was already thinking in terms of looking at the tranny and punk scene. I suggested to Martha the M.E. to take samples where makeup might be applied."

"What about the... male anatomy being cut off and stuffed in his mouth?" asked Alison.

"Good question." I said. The penis being cut off and stuffed in the mouth suggested that the victim had crossed somebody and/or angered the killer, which might've been a drug ring betrayal or something similar. It also occurred to me that it was a blind, designed to lead us in a false direction. Some of us here on the Police Force remember the Carroll/Blondie murders, and some similar things happening there. I noted that, but I did not allow it to prematurely cloud my thinking. As it turns out, it was simply anger and retaliation for pretending to be a woman and humiliating the killer."

"At any rate, we got the tapes of the shooting at the gas station." I said. "It immediately was clear to me that the gunshot wounds were in very similar places to those of the body we found. So while the tape was showing a woman, I was seeing an effeminate man in my morgue with those same wounds. It immediately occurred to me that they might be the same person, and these two murders might be just one. All I really needed was for the lab results to come back with some corroboration."

"In the meantime, this whole thing sure threw a wrench into Manuel Domingo's desire to set up some operations in this County through his shipping company. And it was his own son that had for some reason gone off and shot someone dead. And the Police were showing up the very next day at the shipping company, asking for his son, asking about the van that had been at the scene of the shooting. Obviously we were on to it. Carlos panicked, tried to run, got caught. And even though everyone clammed up, wouldn't cooperate, and the lawyer tried to huff and puff and bluff, it was clear we were going in the right direction.

"So I got the lab reports, saw the bismuth and titanium compounds that screamed makeup that women use, and it was easy to formulate a theory based on some evidence: this guy is pretending to be a woman, starts dating Carlos, doesn't give Carlos sex like a good Catholic, but does give Carlos oral sex. Then someone finds out, tells Carlos. He's a Latino man, leader of a group that quite frankly is on the fringe of becoming a drug or smuggling ring, and now it's coming out he's dating a transvestite.

"This kind of humiliation not only crushes his work in setting up his gang, but is a personal humiliation that would cause a Latino man to 'lose face', as the Japanese would say. Carlos is so mortified, humiliated and angry when he hears the news that he goes into a rage, murders Raoul. They haul the body off somewhere, shave the hair off, cut off the penis as much in anger as any kind of message, then dump the body in the River, wash out the van, and go about business."

Tanya said: "They might better have served themselves better by getting the hell out of this County while the getting was good. I think we'd have still gotten Carlos, but it would've been a bit harder if he'd made it to Southport, where his daddy's crime ring could protect him."

"That's a good point." I said. "I would suggest that Manuel Domingo acted so outrageously at Headquarters because he knew of the humiliating nature of the reason behind his son killing Raoul. He was angry and on the verge of being humiliated himself for his son 'dating' a transvestite. He was trying to bluff his way through the problem."

"Trying to bluff the Police is bad enough." said Theo Washington with his movie-star-handsome grin. "Trying to bluff the man who don't play and carries the red crowbar... that's just dumb." Everyone laughed and agreed.

"I'd like to think so." I said, smiling. "And to be honest, I'm not sure what would've happened to Carlos. If he ran back to Southport, it would be running to a father he'd just humiliated, not to mention whose operations he'd endangered. Carlos may have considered that, which is why he stayed up here rather than run to daddy. Any questions?"

"Just the one I always feel after hearing you tell the answer." said Tanya. "Why didn't we solve it?"

"Oh, I think you guys did." I said. "When you saw the lab results in MCD, it hit you, Tanya, and Joanne, and Alison. You use makeup, and know what's in it. And you guys would've gotten onto it pretty quick, I think. I just happened to be all ready to go with a way to humiliate the suspect into a confession. Okay, guys, I cannot believe there is still any pizza left..."

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

As the party broke up, Cindy did come up to me and say "I know what you were doing, but the use of the words 'tranny fag'?"

"Yeah, I know." I said. "But I needed to humiliate a confession out of the guy. I knew that would work with him. Obviously it would not work on you in a similar situation."

"Nor would I use those words." Cindy replied.

"Maybe I would use those words to interrogate you." I said with a grin. "Since they're a hot button for you, obviously."

"Yeah, right." Cindy replied, not grinning. "But I'll tell ya what... Jenna would've gone ape-shit. Me, I'm just calm, cool and collected about things."

"I did not just hear that!" exclaimed a voice. Molly was walking up to us. I was laughing.

"Oh, yes you certainly did. I think I'm going to go enjoy this last slice of pizza." Cindy said, taking the last slice from the box and walking off with a great amount of dignity.

"It is going to be so much fun having you up here." I said as I tried, and failed, to stop laughing.

"I know." Molly said, then got a bit serious. "I do want you to know this: before I took the job, I talked to Laura about it. She said she was good with it. I want Ross and the new baby to know you and their sister and brother, but I also know you're married to Laura and not me. It's... strange... but I'll do whatever I can to help you make it work out."

"I appreciate you doing that." I said. "But it's all good. Laura may act a little matriarchal with you, but she does love you and Ross and will love the new baby, too..."

Part 10 - Media Circus

"This is Bettina Wurtzburg, KXTC Channel Two News!" blared the gorgeous reporterette at 7:00am, Thursday September 10th. "Channel Two News has learned that Carlos Domingo has pled guilty to the murder of Raoul Martinez! Neither the Town & County Police Force nor the District Attorney's Office will confirm that Martinez was dressed as a woman and pretending to be a woman when he was gunned down by Domingo. KXTC and our colleagues at KSTD have filed Open Record Act requests for the public papers of this case, but Judge Patrick R. Folsom has ordered the information to not be released until case details are finalized in the Court system."

Bettina continued: "In a related situation, Manuel Domingo, father of admitted murderer Carlos Domingo, says that he is closing down the Domingo Shipping location here in Town, and will be moving the company's assets to his new location in Southport. In an interview with KXTC, Mr. Domingo said that the 'unfriendly spirit' of our Town towards Hispanics, coupled with an, in his words, 'abusive and authoritarian' Police Force, make our Town and County a place where he does not want to do business."

"Well," Cindy Ross said as we watched, "at least Bettina didn't give out all the details of what happened between Raoul and Carlos. Maybe we can keep that under wraps."

"I'll bet you two boxes of doughnuts that it's going to come out." I said. "Priya's report is in an hour, and Brownlee is desperate to get into her good graces." There was a groan at my insinuations.

"And we, the Police, will get blamed for it." Cindy said. "I'll take your bet, Commander, but just so we can share some doughnuts with our fellow police officers, here. Nothing changes a police officer's morale like a box of hot doughnuts."

There was strong agreement in the MCD room with that comment.

"A lesson in leadership learned well." I said to Cindy, grinning. There was laughter in the room. I then said "Speaking of the Media, I wonder what Alison and Chris's report will look like."

"They're writing separate papers, from what I understand." said Joanne Cummings.

"I'll make this prediction now." I said. "Chris's report will be about the processes we go through, the details of what we did and how we did it. Alison's report will complain about too many cameras on the streets, the extent of the level we can access citizens' information, the violation of privacy rights, and maybe even a little comment about race relations with those of Hispanic heritage."

"She'd better not!" said Diana Torres. "I am sick of hearing that crap. We do not abuse anyone upon the basis of race. It is the criminals that say we do, so they can get off while making us look bad."

"Commander," said Joanne astutely, "we usually love your observations and deductions, but you'd better get us three boxes of doughnuts because you're depressing the heck out of us today!" Everyone was chuckling, especially Your Iron Crowbar.

"Okay," I said, sputtering through laughter, "three it is."

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

"This is Priya Ajmani, Five-Alive News This Morning!" shouted the lovely Indian reporterette. Cindy watched with avid interest, her eyes sparkling. Everyone else watched apprehensively as I put three boxes of doughnuts down next to the coffee pots.

Priya shouted "We are getting new details of the arrest of Carlos Domingo for the murder of college student Raoul Martinez! It appears that this was a crime of passion by Domingo, who sources reveal had been dating Martinez. Sources have confirmed to Five-Alive News that Martinez was part of the transvestite community on campus, and dressed as a woman while on dates with Domingo. Sources also confirm that the shooting of Martinez by Domingo was preceded by an argument between the two."

Priya continued: "Carlos Domingo is the son of Manuel Domingo, owner of Domingo Shipping. Mr. Domingo had no comment upon his son's sexual affair with Martinez, but Domingo Shipping has announced that they are closing their operations in this County and will be moving their property and assets to their new facility that is opening in Southport. In a statement to the Press, Mr. Domingo stated that the 'unfriendly spirit' of our Town and our Police towards Hispanics and immigrants was a strong factor in the decision to leave."

Priya was not finished. "I asked Town & County Councilman Thomas P. Cook about the loss of Domingo Shipping, and here is that interview."

A video was played: "Yes, Priya," said Thomas P. Cook, "we just lost dozens of jobs and revenue for the Town because the Town & County Police handled this case with an amazing lack of tact and discretion. This is yet another example of Chief Harold Bennett and Commander Donald Troy's utterly failed leadership. We need a strong leader like Commander Robert Brownlee as our Chief to prevent these issues from coming up again and staining the name of our good Town..."

"I need something to spike this coffee with." said Martin Nash after hearing that.

"Something like Pepto-Bismol." replied Tanya Perlman, with no small amount of disgust. "I mean, for crying out loud... we just busted a murderer, and not only the Media but a Council Member acts like we committed a crime... geez!"

"Okay, okay," Cindy said, getting out her wallet. "Don, here's the money for the doughnuts."

"Keep it." I said. "You can buy 'em next time. I suspect we're going to need more morale-building in the near future. A lot more."

Have I mentioned that I have a very deep hatred of the Press, shared by many, and not assuaged by even three boxes of doughnuts?

Part 11 - Epilogue

Saturday afternoon, August 12th. I took out my 'McBeth 3x Champion Roc3' disc, named after the Professional Disc Golf World Champion. Yes, they actually have a professional disc golf league.

I aimed at the basket of the 18th hole 150 feet away, then launched the clear blue disc into the air. It looked as if it would sail to the right of the basket, but as it approached it curved left. Sinking down, the disc clanged against the metal of the basket then fell to the earth just below.

"Aw, man!" Cindy said. "Great shot, Don! It almost went in!" Indeed, the shot had almost won the day for me, Cindy, and Carole here on the 18th hole of the Ronald Reagan Park Disc Golf Course.

Teresa's shot was from much closer, and settled to the ground about six feet away. Todd and little Doug came up, and after Todd threw his disc in the basket, I came up and handed a disc to Carole, holding her right above where my disc had landed.

"Okay, Carole," I said, "drop it in." Carole did so and (thankfully) it went right into the basket.

"Yay! We win!" she exclaimed after her successful putt, clapping her hands in happiness.

Teresa quietly said "I think we tied."

"Then we all win." I said, kissing my daughter's cheek as we walked off the course. "It was fun, guys. We should do it again soon."

"Yes we should." said Cindy. "Here, let me hold this champion putter." I handed Carole to Cindy. Just then, I noticed a couple of old ladies sitting on a bench nearby. I excused myself from my group for a moment and went over to them.

"Why hello, Commander!" said old Mrs. Boddiker as I came up. "Have you met my friend Mrs. Williams?"

"I believe I did meet you, at Mrs. Myrtle James's birthday party." I said as I shook her hand politely. "How are you both doing these days?"

"Quite well, Commander." said Mrs. Williams. "Mrs. Boddiker and I were just saying how pretty your little girl is."

"Thank you, thank you very much." I said. "Fortunately, she takes after her mother." The old ladies giggled in that special way that old ladies do.

"Why, yes..." said Mrs. Boddiker, who then looked past me and said "Why hello, Pastor Westboro!"

"Ah, ladies," said Pastor Westboro, who had been walking on the walking path but stopped as he was hailed, "how are you? Commander, what a pleasant surprise to see you here also." He extended his hand, which I shook politely. "No crowbar today?"

"Gets in the way of throwing frisbees." I said.

"Ah," said Westboro, "disc golf. Our local version of the Olympic Games and the discus throw, with modern plastics for modern times."

"What brings you to the park today, Pastor?" asked Mrs. Williams.

"Ah, I'm just getting a bit of exercise on the walking path." replied Westboro. "And if you will excuse me, I need to be getting back to the church for an appointment. Good to see you all." With that, Pastor Westboro made his way down the path towards the parking lot.

"It's such a shame that he has no wife." said Mrs. Williams as the rest of my group began coming to get me. "The Pastor's wife left him years ago, you know."

"Yes, that's the story." said Mrs. Boddiker. "Some say she ran away with another man. Others say she died, but we'd have heard about that, would we not, Commander?"

"Long before my time here, but I'm sure we would have." I said agreeably as I took Carole from Cindy, who'd just walked up. "Carole, say hello to Mrs. Boddiker and Mrs. Williams."

"Hi." Carole said shyly, hugging me. The old ladies greeted Carole warmly.

"We'd better go." I said. "It was nice to see you, ladies. Carole, say goodbye."

"Bye bye." said Carole as the old ladies beamed at her some more.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

1:00am, Sunday, August 13th. Only the light from Thaddeus Ward's office was on; the rest of the building, and indeed the entire property, was deserted he came into the office, seeing the other three in their chairs.