A Death in the Family Ch. 01

"I'm not even going to dignify that with a response." said the Green Crowbar. It was already 'Game On!' for next year.

"Speaking of crowbars, here's yours back." Teresa said, trying to hand me the red crowbar.

"You can hold onto it." I said. "Either you'll carry it one day, or you can keep it as a memento to remind you of this... glorious day." Cindy burst out laughing at that.

"Well..." Teresa said, then her eyes lit us as if she'd had a sudden thought. "Okay, I'll hold on to it... for now."

"If you're thinking of giving it to Carole one day," I said, "I've got hers just waiting for her in my safe here. Wrapped in pink foil. It's the crowbar she carried on the night I gave that speech at the Sheriff's rally." (Author's note: 'The Guardians of Justice', Ch. 06.)

Just then there was a knock on my door, and the Chief and Sheriff came in. "Let's all go have lunch. My treat." invited the Chief. Can't turn that down, I thought to myself.

Part 4 - Moles Triumphant

"So, you happy now, Crowbar?" growled the Sheriff, his mustaches twitching, as we sat down in the back room of the Cop Bar.

"Yes sir." I said. "I always wanted a second title, just to show the first wasn't a fluke."

"You'd've won it last year, going away, if the Slender Man hadn't used a welding torch on your back." said Teresa.

"Oh really?" said Cindy, rather acerbically.

"You don't think so?" retorted Teresa.

"We'll never know, will we?" said Cindy, more adroitly.

"What I wanted to talk to all of yooooo about," said Chief Moynahan, "is the Boxing Matches going forward. You three are far and away the very best contenders, there's no doubt about that. But you're also my three highest-ranking Officers on the Force."

"Is this an 'officer and enlisted' thing, sir?" I asked, realizing where this was going.

"Something like that." said the Chief. "And it's the reason I entered this year, though realizing I had no shot at the title. I wanted to see what it was like. But I think it's something we should leave to the Uniformed Officers and the Junior Detectives. You guys can, and should, train our Officers, then let them compete."

"I tend to agree with the Chief on this." growled Griswold, adding his (considerable) weight to the discussion. "Usually Captains and above are old people, like me. I can't 'heppit' that you young whippersnappers came in and took over everything." We all chuckled at that, then the Sheriff said "So consider not participating next year, nor anymore in the future."

"I don't mind retiring as Champion." I said.

"It won't hurt my feelings." said Teresa.

"Humbug!" said Cindy. "I won six in a row, but next year would be five years since I've won. I wanted one more title."

"That's just it." said the Chief. "The last ten... TEN... Police Boxing Matches Champions are sitting here at this table now. You have nothing to prove, any of you. Let our young men and women show their mettle."

"I don't suppose..." I said just a bit loudly, "that a certain Doctor and Psychology Professor had anything to do with this?"

"Four hundred years ago." said the Sheriff, which surprised me; I was thinking that Laura had talked to the Chief. Griswold growled "Yeah, Crowbar, she's not a fan, and she knows that if you three aren't in the Matches, they'll calm down to the original billy sticks or weaponless matches they used to be."

Just then, two persons entered the room. They were FBI Special Agent In Charge Jack Muscone and FBI Executive Assistant Director Owen Lange.

"Congratulations, Commander." Owen Lange said in his scratchy voice as he came up to me and shook my hand. "You may not have seen us in the gym, but we were there watching. Very impressive, all of you."

"Thank you, sir." I said. "It was a good 'last hurrah'."

"Join us, gentlemen." said the Chief. "It's on me today."

"That's kind of you." said Lange. "But I can expense it to the Federal Government, so let me get it."

"Your tax dollars at work, Chief." I said. The Chief shrugged his acquiescence.

"So what's going on, gentlemen?" asked the Sheriff.

"Why don't we finish lunch, and then go back to your Headquarters to talk." said Owen Lange. We all agreed with that plan, and lunch was mostly Owen Lange picking our brains about our maneuvers in the Police Boxing Matches...

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

After lunch we all reconvened in the Main Conference Room at Headquarters, and added Captain Perlman to our gathering. "Is this room safe?" asked EAD Lange.

"Yes sir." I said. "I ripped the wires out of the Internal Affairs listening devices myself. And I've talked with Captain Orosco about things, and he's agreed that listening in should be limited in scope."

"Good." said Lange. "Jack, you want to brief them?"

"Yes sir." said Muscone. He connected his laptop to the monitor so we could all see it, and began: "I know you guys were distracted by Chief Evans's recovery and the Boxing Matches and stuff, so we didn't bother you much. But we continued looking for Trent and Quint, Barsbane and Shimono. And we were watching Edward Blassingame very carefully, to see if he was making any plans to get his son out of your jails by violent force."

"Oh, we haven't been distracted enough to take our eyes off that ball." I said. "But nothing's happened with all that, so far."

"What about in Captain Croyle's hometown?" asked Lange. "Blassingame was going to build a new distribution center there, wasn't he? And Todd Burke was considering doing something?"

Teresa spoke up. "My husband Todd was going to do something there if I'd taken the Police Chief job there. But I didn't, so he didn't. He also was waiting for the Court case between the Midwest & Pacific and BigRoadAndRailCorp on the options on the land to be decided. Midwest & Pacific won the case, and they're going to build rail lines and a hub there. But Todd has not made a decision on building a new facility there."

"Not to put my beak into your business," said Lange, "but is there a reason he's holding back?"

"Yes sir." said Teresa. "Todd was hoping that some new communications infrastructure would be put in. But then he found out that BigCommunicationsCorp, the telephone company, and BigWirelessCorp, the wireless and internet service company, was awarded the major contracts by the NSA, the National Security Agency itself. They're planning to build a data storage center there like the one they have in Utah, which will record every phone call made by every person in the country, if not the world, and will be able to control a lot of what Don here calls the 'Electronic Order of Battle'."

"Thank you for telling us." said Lange. "And that is what I also was going to say: we've been able to find out that the NSA is waiting to build that facility until BOW Enterprises and other technology firms commit to building out there."

"And those companies are holding back," I said, "because they don't want to build there if the NSA moves in next door."

"There you go." said Lange. "But that won't last forever. MegaTech Industries has begun talking about building a facility there, to 'cooperate with the NSA on joint ventures', so they say."

"I'd say my hometown is becoming a... Swamp." Teresa said acerbically.

"In-deeeed." I said. "Teresa, you might advise Todd to discontinue plans for building anything out there."

"You can tell him yourself, sir." Teresa said. "When you come have dinner with your nextdoor neighbors."

"And that brings up the second part of this." said Jack Muscone. "As you know, Dick Granger of SPS and Jerry Barsbane have been known to associate with each other. We've been looking for them across the American Northwest, but to no avail. But then we got a small lead that Granger was seen in the area of Teresa's hometown a couple of weeks ago. No sign of Barsbane, but we had Granger's burner phones's IDs. He apparently made the mistake of buying a bunch at a time, so they were from the same lot with the IDs in sequence. We were tracking his pings in Teresa's hometown, then to a location near San Jose, California."

"Were?" I asked, catching the form of Muscone's sentence.

"Yes. Past tense." said Muscone. "Granger suddenly went quiet. And he apparently bolted from the area, and we haven't picked up his trail. He's in the wind again."

"Because of this," said EAD Lange, "we've determined that we likely have a mole within the FBI, and that that mole learned what we were doing and warned off Granger. And that's why I'm here: to enlist your help, all of your help, in finding out who this mole is, and busting his or her ass down to the level of the puddle the Wicked Witch of the West became after Dorothy threw a pail of water on her."

"Nice visual." said Teresa. "Could it have been Rovers's team?"

"That was our first thought, too." said Jack. "But they've been preoccupied with you guys here, and all that stuff going on last month. We also were very careful about what information they could obtain, and we don't think they got this stuff."

"You know..." I said, then went into a reverie. I felt like I was somewhere outside the room as I connected the dots in my mind. When I came out of it, everyone was talking about possible leak suspects.

"Mr. Assistant Director," I said, the room going silent at the sound of my voice cutting authoritatively through the chatter, "where is FBI Special Agent Andrew Parsons? Where did he go after he was removed from Southport?" Lange looked at Muscone.

"He bounced around." said Muscone. "He was in New York City, last I heard." But Muscone's words did not cause my stare at the EAD to be broken, and Owen Lange realized it.

"He's in Pennsylvania, Jack." admitted the EAD. "The Scranton office." He turned to me and said "Why did you want to know about him, Commander?"

I turned to Jack and said "Can I drive?" as I pointed at his laptop. He slid it over to me, and I soon had a photo of Parsons on the screen.

"I just remembered that when we went in and arrested Peter Blassingame out of the Tau Fraternity House," I said, "I thought at the time he had a dumb face like Andrew Parsons's face." (Author's note: 'Unresolved', Ch. 03)

I brought up the mug shot photo of Peter Blassingame and put it side-by-side with Parsons's mug. Chief Moynahan whistled among the murmurs. "You're right, Mr. Crowbarrrrr... " the Chief said. "They do look alike."

"I failed to think about this earlier." I said as I typed furiously on Jack's laptop. "But I realized sitting here where the 'missing link' might be. Yep... here it is." I brought up a photo of a middle-aged woman.

"This is Edward Blassingame's wife, coincidentally named 'Tiffany'." I said, saying that because Muscone's daughter was also named Tiffany. "Her son definitely took after her raven black hair and somewhat dumb expression." I typed some more. "And her maiden name is... 'Parsons'! Mr. Director, we have a starting point for the possible leak. Edward Blassingame and Andrew Parsons are brothers-in-law."

"Oh my Godddddd..." whispered Jack Muscone as he stared at the screen.

The EAD was also suitably impressed. He said "That's amazing, Commander." He then looked around the room and said "Aren't you guys amazed at that?"

"We're used to him, Mr. Director." said Cindy, to some chuckles in the room.

"No we're not." replied the Sheriff, his mustaches twitching merrily. "And I for one hope I never get used to it." More chuckles ensued.

"400 years ago..." said Muscone, in the form of a quotation.

"So what big things are going on in Pennsylvania?" I asked.

"It's a thruway between New York City and Chicago." said the EAD. "It's a heavily populated area, with big cities like Pittsburgh and Philadelphia. A lot of Agents looking for a place to be end up in that area. At any rate, Muscone, we need to start looking into Parsons."

"Be careful about it." I said. "If we don't let them know we know this, we might could use it to spread disinformation to the Swamp Frogs. Maybe even set a trap for them." Everyone nodded vigorously in agreement.

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

7:30pm, Saturday, June 1st. Molly was staying in the mother-in-law apartment in the basement of the Mountain Nest. Paulina and Selena Steele were at The Cabin, babysitting Carole, Marie, and Tasha. Teresa and Todd had invited Laura and me to come over for dinner, and to bring the boys. That meant there were no less than six boys finding ways to cause trouble, giving new meaning to the term 'six-to-one odds'.

As Laura and Teresa talked and supervised the chaos, Todd and I talked in his study room. "This is a nice room." I said as I looked around.

"Yeah, I got the idea partly from your office room at The Cabin, and partly from Grandpop's room in Apple Grove." Todd said. The desk in the room had been my father's. "It works well. So... Teresa said there was some interest by the FBI in what was going on in her hometown."

"Yes." I said. "Seems the Swamp Frogs might've been popping up there, but then they got spooked and went back into the weeds."

"Not that I like telling the FBI my business," said Todd, "but I understand your need to know, Uncle Don. So I'll tell you this much: we, meaning me and my BOW Enterprises team, have decided not to pursue the research facility there that I'd thought about building. I've found out that if I and some others begin building there, the NSA will come in with what amounts to a spy center."

"So I heard." I said.

Todd continued: "The Midwest & Pacific intends to re-build a couple of the old railroad lines and a yard, and several of the major package delivery companies are going to build hubs there. It'll bring jobs to the area. And I did buy some property to the north of there, but not for the reason they think I did. The land I bought has good silver deposits, not huge, but enough to supply my various companies's needs and some left over to sell to others as I so choose. MegaTech Industries will not be on my customer list."

"Good." I said. "Between you, me, and the crowbars, what can you tell me about them?"

"I should probably be telling Aunt Laura this more than you." said Todd. "MegaTech is hip deep in the Swamp. They're working closely with the Government, particularly the NSA, to build technology to spy on Citizens. You already know about the 'Alicia' smart devices that are nothing more than Government Listening Devices in our homes. Well, they're working on things that will enable them to use your home security devices to spy on you."

"I'd imagine anything that uses a cellphone or wi-fi," I said, "such as apps to turn on your lights and heating, automatically lock or unlock your doors, and all that, can be turned against you and used by the Government to invade your privacy."

"Exactly." said Todd. "But MegaTech Industries is going deeper, much deeper, into the Swamp. I don't have the proof like the old Guardians of Justice could get on companies, but the MegaTech plans are to work with the Government to be able to control the population completely. That's why they wanted the Mutanix so bad... the nanites could literally control the three electric grids of this nation, as well as the grids of other nations."

"But consider, if you will," Todd went on, using that phrase from 'The Twilight Zone', "being able to track any car going anywhere, anywhere at all. Being able to literally watch a person, no matter where he or she goes or what he or she does, even in the bathroom or the bedroom. And ultimately being able to control mass communications, including the Mainstream Media and Social Media... not just cooperate closely with them like they're doing now, but completely control everything you see and read and hear."

"We're just about there already, aren't we?" I asked.

"They still have work to do." said Todd. "First, they need the Cashless Society. When they can make it where all financial transactions from buying coffee to trading a hundred million dollars worth of bonds are done electronically, and cash doesn't exist and is not allowed, it's 'ovah' for a free society."

"Second," said Todd, "they need automation. You see and hear MegaTech's CEO, Elliot Sanders, and their COO, Kara Zorn, talking about a minimum basic income, a 'living wage'... it's because they know they are working to automate enough jobs that millions will be put out of work."

I nodded, and Todd said: "You saw that nutjob owner of that EV Car company talking about a fleet of Robotaxis that will use automation to drive people anywhere? Where are the millions of human taxi drivers put out of work by that going to get jobs? The answer is, they're not. The Swamp Frogs want all those people, millions and ultimately billions of them, dependent upon Government for that basic living wage."

"We're getting into realms above my pay grade now." I said.

"No, we're not." said Todd. "The technology is not the problem, just as the gun doesn't act by itself to kill another person. It's the people controlling that technology, and their intentions and capacity for good or evil. What Mitt Willis wanted, what Edward Blassingame wants, what Elliot Sanders and Kara Zorn want... is to use that technology to control everyone else. But then there's people like you, and Teresa, and Misaki-sama, that aren't playing their game. The Swamp was devastated when you perp-walked Mitt Willis, and that guy shot him up. They know that that is what can defeat them and all their technology---

*BRING!* *BRING!* *BRING!* *BRING!*

It was Todd's cellphone. I was going to get up and go, to let him take the call, but he stopped me. He answered and began speaking in Japanese, then listening. After a moment, he disconnected.

"That was Takaki Nagamasa." said Todd. "He and Mariko and all of our Japanese friends, meaning the trained ninja, are being recalled to Japan. Seems they have something big going on over there. So Teresa and I and Teddy Franklin are your only protection right now."

"I take solace in the fact I have you two and a strong Police family helping me." I said lightly, unaware of how prescient I really was...

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

"Teresa is doing really well." said Laura as we drove home. "Having their new home they built themselves is good, and her Catholic Faith is becoming a good anchor point for her. It's allowing her to face her past, and come to terms with it."

"Good." I said. "And I'm not psychiatrist, though I sleep with the best one in the world... but when the Chief told us he didn't want the high leadership of the Police Force participating in the Boxing Matches anymore, I was surprised how amenable to it Teresa was. Maybe that's a good sign."

"How did you feel about what the Chief said?" Laura asked.

"I'm okay with it." I said. "I'm not getting any younger, and the training grind is hell on my back. But it was motivation to train."

"And Cindy?" Laura asked. I suspected I knew the reasons why she was asking.

"She didn't want to give up the Boxing Matches." I said. "She still wants to win."

"What do you think that means?" Laura asked. I definitely knew what my wife was up to, but played along.


"There were some other things Cindy said to me recently, that got me to thinking." I said. "Even after all this time, she's still not comfortable with her sexual orientation. Everyone knows and it doesn't bother them; it's not a big deal these days, especially for lesbians; and Maggie has accepted it and she loves Callie like another daughter. But Cindy still looks for reasons to consider her orientation 'not accepted' by others, and she apparently still feels she needs to prove herself, especially in the boxing ring."

Laura said "I think the stress of Molly's recent ordeal has affected Cindy, as well. Keep an eye on her... and maybe start training with her. It'll keep you both sharp, and give you both outlets for your aggressions."