A Death in the Family Ch. 04

"Glad to have you here tonight." I said. "You're speaking together, and not separately?"

"If we could, since this is a joint presentation that we all agree upon." said Mr. Aniston. We all agreed, and he began speaking as a young woman brought each of us folders containing a report.

"Our proposal, said Mr. Aniston, "is to dissolve and do away with the Town & County Council. We believe the Council as currently constructed does not meet the needs of our Citizens nor our businesses." He paused for a second, and may have been surprised that we didn't really visibly react to him.

Edward R. Steele asked "Are you suggesting some sort of replacement for the Council?"

"No sir." said Mr. Aniston politely. "We are suggesting that the Executive Authority of the County reside solely in a Chief Executive Officer, who might be the Mayor or someone elected or appointed by the Mayor. Many counties in America, such as Dekalb County, Georgia, have Chief Executive Officers. But our point is to dissolve the unwieldy current Council, no offense to you intended, Mr. Steele."

"No offense taken." said Edward R. Steele. "My wife and young daughter would love having me at home on Tuesday nights." There was laughter in the chamber as he said that.

"So what is your proposal for the Town & County government going forward?" I asked.

Mr. Abel came to the podium. "We believe the Town & County Assembly could serve as the sole Legislative body, and could also take on more of an oversight role that the Board of Commissioners currently does."

"You know," I said, almost musingly, "that might be a way to solve another problem I want to address later. But the question I have is about the concentration of power you want to invest in the Mayor, if the Mayor were vested as this 'CEO' you're bringing up. And if you're dissolving the Council, are you also wanting to dissolve the Board of Commissioners? Or would they become the de facto Council?"

"We are suggesting that the Mayor or a County CEO be the sole Executive Authority." said Mr. Aniston. "If I may continue with our prepared remarks, some of your questions, particularly about the Board of Commissioners, may be answered..."

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

The next persons to approach the podium to address us was well known to me. "My name is Myrtle L. James, and this is Barbara Langram." I remembered Barbara Langram as being in the 'Hot Wives Investment Club' as its Treasurer. Mrs. Myrtle L. James was an icon in this County as well as being a University Regent.

"Nice to see you again, Mrs. James." I said. "How can we help you tonight?"

"Thank you Commander, ladies and gentlemen." replied Mrs. Myrtle L. James. "I am here representing the Ladies Auxiliary Club as well as other groups. While we do not necessarily oppose the Chamber of Commerce's position on dissolving the Town & County Council, I want to suggest if the Council is dissolved, then a vote should be allowed to split the Town and the County into separate entities again..."

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

The session ended at 10:30pm. Everyone in the audience had left, and we were packing our things to go.

"Those were some very interesting ideas that were brought to us." said Edward Steele.

"Now we know who was behind those rumors of abolishing the Council." said the Rev. Dr. Joseph E. Williams. "But I could never quite figure out just why they're advocating it."

"Control." I said. "It's a lot easier to elect and control one Mayor than ten Council Members. My surprise was Mrs. Myrtle L. James wanting to split the Town and County again if we abolish the Council."

"How do you all feel about that?" asked Edna Carter.

"It won't really affect the legal and Court system," said Savannah Fineman, "but it'll be expensive as heck to do, to separate the services... especially the Police and Fire Departments."

"True." I said. "And they would split... not much point in having a separate Town and County if they still have combined Public Safety components."

"So, Don," said Edward, his voice suggesting joviality, "which way will you go to? Town or County Police?"

"Harrumph." I said. "Let's hope we never have to find out."

"Maybe that's why they want it, Commander." said Rev. Williams. "One or the other gets you out of their hair."

"That could be." I said agreeably. "But we'll have to talk about this later. I've gotta go. A very dangerous criminal escaped custody today, and I need to see if there is any progress on getting him back into custody."

"Is that why there's so many checkpoints on the roads again?" asked Savannah Fineman. I just nodded, then grabbed my briefcase and said my goodbyes as I left the chamber.

Part 26 - Ridge Redux

11:00pm, Wednesday, June 12th. I went into Police Headquarters. Captain Teresa Croyle was in her office, and followed me to mine as I passed her office. I noted that Detective Teddy Parker was working at his desk in MCD, and that he was alone in the room.

"The main searches are being done out of the two Precinct locations, County Jail and the Old Mill." Teresa reported, standing in front of my desk, despite my effort to get her to sit down. "So far there's no sign of Trent Ridge at all, but I got a report from the Officers at the checkpoint going into Coltrane County that people are increasingly asking what the stops are about, and are complaining more strongly about it than in the past. Some have said they're going to contact their Council members and maybe their State Legislators about it."

"They have that right." I said.

"We did find out one thing." Teresa said. "Myron checked on Amber Harris's ankle monitor. It's been at her home, her new condo home, all day, not moving at all. But a street camera caught her car on one of the roads near where Trent escaped the van. Myron thinks she's found a way to mimic the signal, or a way to get the ankle monitor off."

"Or, more likely, she's had help in doing so." I replied.

"Yes." Teresa said. "Anyhoo, we've increased patrols in the area around her condo complex, in case she's been aiding and abetting him. Ditto that for Bettina Wurtzburg, but nothing out of the ordinary for her. She's been fucking some University student who is interning at KXTC, and he's with her tonight."

"Good." I said. "And Myron may be right. Amber was at the scene at BOW Enterprises, several Officers saw her, but her ankle monitor never recorded being there. I wouldn't be surprised at all if she and/or Bettina were helping Trent. She better be careful, though; he'll kill just as quickly as he'll take her to bed. Anyhoo... how's Todd doing?"

"Good." said Teresa. "Laura thinks his nut is going to heal and won't have to be removed. It probably won't produce sperm anymore, though, which doesn't matter to me since I have no eggs for him to fertilize. His whip lacerations are healing, though more slowly. They may release him from the Hospital as early as tomorrow, and then I'll have to be the one to keep his wounds moisturized and change the bandages."

I nodded. "Yeah, he went through a lot. Good thing he has you to come home to. And you've been through a lot, too. If you need some time off, if you want to go up to my place at Lake Watchacoochie..."

"I'll pretend you didn't say that." Teresa said. "Seriously, sir, I appreciate it, but work has been my antidote to the emotional pain. And with the threats to your children out there, I'm going to stay right here and do my part to make sure Carole inherits your crowbar one day."

I smiled. "I appreciate that." I said. After a momentary pause, I said "She's not even six yet, and she's already mentally tougher than I ever was."

"She's a great kid." Teresa said. "Like her father before her." She turned to go. "I'll let you know if anything develops with Trent Ridge."

"Thanks." I said. "I'll be heading home soon."

A few minutes later I came out of my office. I'd changed from the suit and tie I'd worn to the Charter Commission meeting and back into the all-black clothing I'd been wearing earlier in the day. Instead of going out to my car, I went to the front Duty Desk.

"Anything, guys?"

"No sir." said the Duty Desk Sergeant. "And it's starting to quieten down on the streets, which makes it easier for our patrols. If that guy so much as sneezes, we'll get him."

"Okay, thanks." I said. Instead of going out, though, I went into the room with the loading elevator and stairwell to the downstairs areas. I took the stairs, using my ID and passwords for each door, then went down the basement hallway to the I.T. room.

The office in the corner that has been my original office when I joined the TCPD was now Myron's. I used my Master key that unlocked every door in Headquarters (even the one to the Chief's office and all the Internal Affairs office doors) and went into the office.

Myron had once hooked up a ham radio to all the TCPD precinct antennas so that he could triangulate signals. (Author's note: 'Pink Lemonade', Ch. 04.) He had never taken that apart, and the radio was still in the corner of his office. I went to it and turned on the power to it, set it to a certain frequency, then hooked a small device into it that gave me GPS coordinates of any signal at that frequency.

The device I'd injected into Trent's shoulder during that otherwise stupid fight in the jail cell was a tiny transceiver. If a radio signal of a certain frequency hit it, it transmitted a signal back of a slightly different frequency. The device was too small to transmit a strong signal, but detectors these days were getting better and better. The Government had crony businesses like the phone companies and MegaTech Industries providing them with the technology. I had Professor Marvin Milton and BOW Enterprises helping me out.

The Police radio towers were good enough in tandem for me to detect what I was looking for. And I recognized the location: Amber Harris's old house, in the Kensington district.

I remembered going there and making some arrests. (Author's note: 'Fire in the Hole', Ch. 03.) Since then, with her divorce in progress, Amber had moved into a condo. Ownership of the house was being contested, but both sides had agreed to put it up for sale, and it was now empty.

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

I drove up to The Cabin. Going in, I found that the boys and Molly were all asleep, but my mother Phyllis was still awake.

"Ah, hello son." she said when I came in the front door. "I thought you would go to the Mountain Nest."

"I just came by to get something to eat. I'm starving." I said. "And then I'm going to go back to Headquarters and keep looking for Ridge." I rummaged through the refrigerator and found some cooked hamburger patties and some chocolate milk. I heated up the patties and some buns, and feasted on the burgers and chocolate milk. Good stuff!

As I ate, my mother said "Your Lieutenant Milton brought me a jump drive with the photographs on my cell phone. He said I needed to just buy a new phone, as he could not guarantee the old one was completely free of that virus that came with that text."

"Probably a good idea." I said. "So, what's going on up in Apple Grove?"

"It's growing." said my mom. "With the BOW Enterprises construction going on, and other companies coming in, Fillmore County is starting to grow. Your Bed & Breakfast is doing very well, they have guests almost every week, usually the executives of the companies coming in."

"And of course growing pains are coming with it." Phyllis continued. "The Apple Grove Police and the Fillmore County Police are going to be hiring. If you'd like a job with them, now is the time to apply."

I grinned. "I'm very happy here." I replied. "So no problems up there?"

"Not that I'm aware of." my mother said, though I caught a slight inflection in her voice that suggested she was aware of something, but was not ready to tell her only son what that was. At least not yet...

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

After eating, I left The Cabin, but not in my Police SUV. Instead, I drove the Black Beauty out of the far-side garage and down the hill. It was on 'silent running', which meant that all possible radio transmission signatures were being suppressed or shielded, and it would not show up on any detectors.

I drove to the Kensington district, seeing a number of TCPD patrols in the area. The houses in this area were aligned on the straight east-west and north-south streets, with the east-west streets running for long stretches. Between the rows of homes on their back sides were two-lane gravel strips, upon which the garbage trucks drove. I drove the Black Beauty down one of those two-lane strip roads and stopped at the corner of the property that was Amber Harris's old house...

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

Trent Ridge lay on the two yoga mats, with a sheet covering him. His shoulder was hurting him, and he was exhausted. Losing twice to that bastard Troy in personal combat was humiliating enough, and the tension of his getaway had drained him of energy once the crisis moment was passed.

But he was also tired from the sexual workout Amber Harris had put him through. After picking him up after he easily escaped the Police van, she'd driven him here. She'd left for a while, then at dusk had brought him some food. After eating, the hot athletic blonde had voraciously sucked Trent's cock like a starved whore, swallowing every drop of his load. Then she had fucked him in several positions, ending up with him on top of her and coming deep inside her pussy after an intense 'fuck to pop' pounding.

His years of missions in foreign lands had taught him to sleep lightly. He heard the sounds of dogs barking and the occasional car passing on the road. He wondered what time it was, estimating it to be around midnight.

And then he heard something, and came fully awake. He sat up, squinting to see in the near totally inky black darkness, his ears straining to hear.

Nothing, he thought to himself. I'm just jumpy. He lay back down...

*creak...*

He opened his eyes again. He looked up, seeing only blackness. Then he realized that something was moving!

"What the..." he gasped, sitting up.

*ZZZZZT!*

The powerful voltage of the TASER coursed through him. When it stopped, he barely felt something pressing against his neck, then injecting him with a dose of sleeping agent, and his eyes fluttered shut...

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

"Uhhhh..." Trent Ridge groaned as he regained consciousness. He tried to move his arms, but could not. As he came awake, he realized that he was sitting in a metal folding chair that was up against a pole, and that his arms were handcuffed around the pole behind him. He saw a small camping lantern with an LED light in front of him, but nothing beyond it's dim, bluish light.

"Where am I?" he asked aloud.

"In Hell." replied a low, deep voice. "Or the entrance to Hell."

"Who's there?" Trent asked.

"Your worst nightmare." he looked over to see Your Iron Crowbar in the dim light, sitting on another folding chair. "Don't you recognize this place? Oh, that's right. You and Quint didn't follow the nuke into the County after you ambushed those men and killed Randy Smith."

We were in the red-metal-walled building where the nuke had been parked in its truck trailer. Trent was able to see a few 55-gallon drums on the edge of the lantern's field of light, and he could smell the malodorous chemicals.

"Not that it will do any good," Trent said, "but I want a lawyer."

"I'm sure you do." I said.

"What do you want, Troy?"

"Like I told you earlier today," I said, "I only have one question." With that I reached into the inner pocket of my trenchcoat and pulled out a small billfold. Opening it, I extracted the one syringe in it, filled with a clear blue liquid.

"This is going to hurt you a lot more than it's going to hurt me." I growled. I then injected half the contents of the syringe in Trent's upper back, then the other half into his lower back, just above is coccyx bone.

"AUUUGGHHHH!!" Trent screamed as the pain began taking him. He began thrashing against the cuffs securing his arms to the pole and his legs to the chair.

I just watched, noting the time. For long minutes Trent screamed and thrashed in agony. "What do you WANT?" he asked.

"I only have one question." I said. I noted that some biological smells were accompanying the chemical smells in the room; Trent was losing control of his bladder and his bowels.

It was hard listening to his shrieks of agony, but I reminded myself that this bastard had murdered people, committed atrocities in Iraq... but worst of all had tried to kidnap my daughter, then tried again with the intent to murder her. No, it wasn't too hard.

"I'll tell you everything!" Trent shrieked. "What do you want to know? I'll tell you!"

"I only want to know one thing." I said. I waited.

"I don't know where Westboro's gold is! We never found it!" Trent screamed out.

"That's obvious." I said. "He who has the gold, makes the rules. And you're not the one making the rules here. But that doesn't matter... I only want to know one thing."

Trent began babbling. He gave addresses of safehouses in the upper part of the State. I said nothing. He gave the phone numbers of contacts, and the passwords to use. Then he shouted "Blassingame... Edward Blassingame... he was behind the nuke incident..."

"You're lying." I said.

"No... I'm not." Trent gasped through the excruciating pain he was feeling. "He... sent Dick Granger... and Jerry... B... B... Barsbane to... Idaho... then to..." He named Teresa's hometown, then several other towns, including Barstow, California. "He... wants to control... the routes... for troop transportation..."

"You're boring me." I said.

"Then what... do you WANT?" Trent asked. "I'll tell you anything! Just make the pain stop!"

"I only want to know one thing." I said.

"Blassingame's contact... in the Government... FBI... Andrew Parsons... MegaTech contact... Mai Ling... Senator Samuel Russell... Curtis Meigs... BigRoadAndRail... Arthur Wood..."

Ridge had been vomiting, now his thrashing caused the chair to turn over, and he landed in his own puke, still thrashing. "Make it stop!" he yelled.

"I only want to know one thing." I said as I patiently watched.

"All right..." gasped Ridge. "I'll give you the names of the top guys. They don't know I know, but I know..."

I didn't even bother to say anything.

"They're all... in the... Intelligence Community." gasped Trent. "Top guys... Warren Bern... point man... Brendan Chapel... the DNI... he's the top guy... they're going to have him... run for Vice President... then assassinate the President... AAAUUUGGHHH!!"

Trent Ridge did not speak again. He soon became a quivering mass of pain as his body began shutting down. I just watched...and remembered Ivar Irwin...

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

Dawn was breaking over the eastern horizon as I drove the Black Beauty through the streets of Town. Trent Ridge's dismembered body would never be found; the 55-gallon drums were half-full of sulfuric acid, and labeled as industrial waste, and now that acid was dissolving some biological material. I would remove the drums and have them disposed of with other hazardous wastes in the near future.

I drove north on Riverside Drive, past Police Headquarters, my true home here in my Town & County. I turned east onto College Avenue, retracing the funeral route of Ivar Irwin... Joe Smedley... Pete Feeley. I passed by First Baptist Church, rebuilt.

As I took the road up to The Cabin, I thought about what Trent Ridge had said, without me even asking a question. I did not need to ask any questions. It wasn't an interrogation.

There was only one thing I wanted to know. How long would it take for my nephew Ned's brutal chemical concoction to kill the person into whom it had been injected?