Along Came A Spider Ch. 04

All of them had long knives, unsheathed, ready for use.

"What, what is this?" asked Scotty.

"A small ritual." said Rita. "A little ceremony when I find a traitor in my midst. I have known that there has been a mole amongst my lovely Nymphs and handsome Satyrs. And now... I know who it is."

"Ma'am, I'm loyal, I've always been loyal." Scotty said, fear running through his very soul... and for good reason.

"Oh, really?" Rita said. "So would you mind explaining these?" She opened her fist, displaying three metallic objects in her right hand, and what looked like a thick U.S. nickel in her left hand.

"These are bugs, listening devices." Rita said loudly, for everyone's audial consumption. "Only you could have planted these in the delicious Dr. Fredricson's office... and now she's dead. And then this coin, found in the Police Commander's vehicle. He really is very angry, you know. And who can blame him... his children dead because of you."

"Ma'am, I had nothing to do with any of that." Scotty said, trying to defend himself. Rita just stared at him, feeling him wilt mentally.

"You are fortunate." said Rita. "I can only imagine what the Iron Crowbar would do to you if he were here now, what he would permit himself to do in his agony. But you are only with us, amongst... family."

Rita came up to Scotty, who was still on his knees. She put a golden crown of leaves on his head, then a red robe over his shoulders.

"Why, I have a wonderful idea." Rita said, as if it were a sudden thought. "Let's play 'Julius Caesar'... and it's the Ides of March..."

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

"We will now go into Executive Session." said the Mayor. He led the Council Members out of the public meeting arena and upstairs to the private meeting chamber, the catcalls and boos of hundreds of people chasing them. People were still angry about the Community Center land sale.

Once they were in their seats in the chamber, the Mayor said "Well, it's obvious what tonight's meeting will be about."

"Yes, to do what we should have done a long, long time ago." Kelly Carnes sneered.

"What, arrest Thomas Cook for assault and graft?" snarled Dagmar Schoen. Cook glared at her, but both she and Jack Colby stared back at him.

"Look," said the Mayor, "I'm not happy about this. Commander Troy has done an amazing job cleaning up the drug gangs, cleaning up the corruption, and solving some difficult crimes. But apparently he's not totally clean himself, and the State DOJ is finding some things. The standoff with the SBI makes our entire County look bad, and like we're trying to hide something."

"My God." said John Colby. "You heard those people screaming at us in the public meeting, and you say the TCPD not kowtowing to the corrupt SBI is making us look bad?"

"Commander Troy's actions have made us look bad for months and years now." said Thomas P. Cook.

"I don't see how saving my daughter's life made any of us look bad." said Edward R. Steele.

"Then you should recuse yourself from this vote." demanded Cook.

"I'll see you burning in hell before I recuse myself from any such vote, Mr. Cook." thundered Steele in reply, his eyes boring into Cook's.

"Guys, I don't want to be here all night." said the Mayor. "Now Commander Troy is likely going to be suspended by the State on Thursday or Friday. What we need to do is decide our course of action when that happens. We can either suspend him ourselves, with the intent to fire him after a Board of Inquiry; or we can countermand the State and refuse to suspend him until the State provides a solid legal Court case. Let's go around the horn for comments."

"I think we should not only suspend and fire him, we should bring criminal charges against him." said Kelly Carnes.

"It's a sad day." said Reginald B.F. Lewis. "I very much fear what will happen to my people when Commander Troy is gone. They respect that man, and there is no one else they will respect. But if he's shown to be corrupt, that respect will be gone, and then there is no hope anyway." Everyone peered at the black Councilman, wondering what those cryptic statements meant.

Malinda Adams spoke up. "Commander Troy has done well in elevating women. Of course, one of those women is his cousin, so I'm not sure how well that counts. But the problem to me is that our Peace Officers are being made to look like brute thugs by that man going around swinging that crowbar, throwing his weight around."

"And the woman he brought up with him doesn't also use a crowbar?" asked Dagmar Schoen. "And who was it that led the officers to help the woman being raped by thugs from the Fire Department? That was Commander Troy..."

"Let's not go there, please." said the Mayor. "J.P. Goldman, what do you have to say?"

"Only that no good deed goes unpunished." said Goldman. "The Iron Crowbar has worked his ass off to clean up this Town. He's been shot, they've tried to kill him several times, and now his family is gone. And some of you here want to kick him out? Reginald says there's no hope for his people... I say there's no hope for any of us if a good man like Commander Troy is paid for his work to protect us by being kicked out by corrupt politicians working for their own enrichment."

"It's not clear to me that Commander Troy has done all that good a job protecting us?" said Pastor Raymond Westboro. "The Ward Harvester warehouse explosion, the Standard Tools Building explosion, the explosion of those trucks on the Bypass, the explosion of that car in the Hospital parking lot, the explosion at the Community Center... and I have not even begun listing the names of the victims of his crowbar. Too much violence for me, I'm afraid."

"All right, Mr. McGhillie, close it out for us." said the Mayor.

"My son is a police officer." said McGhillie. "And no, Cook, I won't abstain from the vote. My son says that the morale of the TCPD under Commander Troy is very high. They love working for that man. They know he has their back. They know he stands up to the deeply corrupt SBI. They don't believe this SBI crap about him being corrupt. I suppose some here want him gone, so they can do whatever they please to use their Council seats for profit and political power, rather than serve the People. But if our decision is to do what is best for our Police Force... then give the men and women of the Force the leadership they deserve... and that leadership is the Iron Crowbar."

"The vote will now take place." said the Mayor. "The vote is to suspend Commander Donald Troy from the Police Force if he is suspended by the SBI, or if formal criminal charges are brought against him at the State or Federal level."

The vote was 5-5: Carnes, Cook, Adams, Lewis, and Westboro vs. Colby, Schoen, Steele, Goldman, and McGhillie. All eyes looked to the Mayor for the tiebreaking vote...

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

10:15pm, Tuesday, June 21st. Lieutenant Wes 'Coldiron' Masters worked his way through the crowd in the parking lot of Whippets on the southern side of the Tenderloin District. With him were 2d Precinct Captain Damien Thompson, Detectives Theo Washington and Teddy Parker, Sergeant Sean DeLong and Patrolman Jermaine Davis, the last two being black officers assigned to Precinct Two.

"What a mess." said Coldiron as he looked upon the body of a young, fit, white man, naked except for a red cape, with dozens of stab wounds all over his body. He was lying on a white sheet.

"He didn't bleed out here." said Teddy Parker. "Looks like he was killed somewhere else and dumped here."

"Got the parking lot videotape?" asked Masters.

"Got that first thing." said Sergeant DeLong. "Black van came up, must've known where the camera is because nothing can be seen, then it drives away and the body is just lying there on that sheet. No license plate on the van, either, just a temp tag, which I suspect will prove to be fake."

"Call Lt. Perlman out here." said Theo Washington. "This guy has a huge dick. She always liked cases where the dead guy had a big dick."

"Call Rasputin, she would say." said Teddy Parker. "The body was wrapped in this plain white sheet in order to be moved here. Not a high threadcount like the hotels would have. Either a very cheap hotel or bought from Wal-Mart."

"Looks like different knives did this." said Theo Washington as he examined the body more closely. "You can see that some of the wounds are longer than others, suggesting a wider knife."

"All right." said Masters. "The autopsy will tell us more, and maybe we'll get an I.D. from fingerprints. I'd call the Iron Crowbar, knowing how he likes these types of cases, but he's in mourning right now."

"That's not right, killing a man's kids like that." someone from the crowd around the crime scene called out.

"Yeah," said another, "the Iron Crowbar didn't deserve that. His kids didn't, either..."

"Wonder what this guy did to deserve this?" Theo Washington mused as they all looked upon the dead young man...

Part 27 - The Confrontation

"My nerves are fairly proof, Watson, but I must confess to a start when I saw the very man who had been so much in my thoughts standing there on my threshold.

...

"'Danger is part of my trade,' I remarked.

"'That is not danger,' said he. 'It is inevitable destruction. You stand in the way not merely of an individual, but of a mighty organization, the full extent of which you, with all your cleverness, have been unable to realize. You must stand clear, Mr. Holmes, or be trodden under foot."

-- Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 'The Final Problem'

11:30pm, Tuesday, June 21st. I sat on the back deck of the Cabin, alone. All alone. Cindy had awakened in the guest room of Chief Griswold's home, and 'Hornet' did not begin to describe what I was dealing with when she saw me waiting for her in the living room. After a lot of yelling, screaming, and finally crying together, she calmed down enough to be functional again. I even told her to go after the Consultant if she wanted to... and she knew she'd never find him. Then Chief Griswold took over, and finally got her head right and back in the Game.

I contemplated events. The special Council meeting was tomorrow afternoon, before the big Robert Patterson rally. I had not heard from Colby or Schoen; I had no idea what the Council's vote was. I did know they'd asked Griswold and the Sheriff to be there at the next day's meeting. Almost all of my 'Eightfold Fence' list of suspects would be there...

I think I felt his presence before I heard the steps on the outside walk. I folded my arms as he came onto the deck, walking around the right side table, keeping it between us. He looked out over the Town as the clouds rolled in, the fog beginning to obscure the more distant lights. I felt my heart beating in my chest.

It was him. The Consultant of Crime was here. At long last, we were in direct confrontation.

"Yes, a dangerous habit indeed." he said. When I'd crossed my arms, my left hand under my right armpit held a small revolver. Remember, I'm ambidextrous... and qualified with a gun both left-handed and right-handed. This revolver had a laser sight, and that little red dot was square on the center of his chest.

"Yes, I would love to say it's been an intellectual joy watching you pursue me." he said. "But I'm long past that. The pain you have caused me... well, murdering your children in that plane crash was only the smallest of payments back."

I knew he was trying to goad me. To kill him now, though I deeply wanted to do it, would be the undoing of all of the years of my work. He would die a martyr, his organization would continue, I'd be on Death Row...

"I simply do not understand how you thought you could come up against me and defeat me." he said. "Your sister foolishly thought so, and she died. Tanya Perlman is lucky to be alive. Pete Feeley, not so much... oh yes... I not only corrupted Angela Harlan, I actually got her to murder one of your police officers." He laughed, the evil sound of it searing my soul. Still, I held myself in check.

"Yes, you have no idea what you are up against." he said. "In fact, you have no idea of the sheer power I hold in my hands, which you can never hope to duplicate. Would you like a demonstration?"

I just stared at him, not speaking. Holding myself in check... holding myself in check.

"I'll tell you what I'm going to do." he said. "I'm going to allow you... to commit suicide."

He had my attention, that was for sure.

"Like father, like son." he said. "I'm going to make you kill yourself, like I made your father kill himself. Here is my most generous offer: if Bettina Wurtzburg tells me and everyone else on her morning newscast that you are dead by your own hand, I will let your mother live. I will let your mistress and your two sons live. I'll let your dyke cousin live and the Officers of your Police Force live. I'll let your nephew live, and his associates and friends survive. And many, many more people..." He said the words softly, as if they were a caress.

"Now if you are alive tomorrow, if I do not hear what I want to hear on the morning broadcast," he said, "I'm going to make you kill yourself anyway, but I will kill your family and friends, and many others. So the choice is yours, Commander Troy."

"You'll try to kill them anyway." I said. "Why should I believe a word you say?"

"Because I've said I would spare them." he said indignantly. "I'm sure you understand that I cannot run the organization that I do unless I and all my people adhere to a ruthless and rigid integrity. If I give you my word, that is what will happen."

"Of course," he said, "I'll spare your remaining sons... but not that filthy halfbreed niglet you brought into this world. That alone is reason to kill you. And those God-cursed dogs of yours will die, and most painfully." He was trying to goad me again... retribution would be merciless, I promised myself. But not now... not now...

"But the rest of your family, and the thousands of others..." he said. "They will be spared."

"So why shouldn't I just kill you right now?" I asked. The red laser dot appeared on his chest again.

"Oh, I would die stunned, of that you may be sure." he said. "But whatever would you do with my body?"

"Ohh..." I drawled, the thought amusing me, "probably the same thing that caused me to realize who you were in the first place." I saw his eyes light up as he understood.

"Oh, I think you are more of a sportsman than that." he said. "Well, I'll be going. Lovely view from this deck. I should've bought this place myself, years ago. Your fortunate... well, as long as the house is not on fire..." He chuckled sardonically as he made his way around the table and back down the outside walk.

I remained sitting on the deck for a long, long time. The clouds had obscured most of the Town; I could not even see any trains coming out of the western horizon. The weight of the world was bearing down on me, and I was now having to bear it alone. I had chosen this path; I had not expected to pay this high a price to win this battle. My family was gone, my reputation shattered, my career and any possible future destroyed.

And now I had a fatal choice to make. As I looked out over my Town, a deep sense of foreboding overtook me. It seemed that Doom walked the heavens...

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

The two figures, in black masks and clad in all black, had crept silently around the far side of the Cabin. They listened to the conversation between the formidable antagonists, the Iron Crowbar vs. the Consultant of Crime. When it was done, and the Consultant gone, they crept back up the road and over the hill.

Removing their masks, Teresa Croyle and Todd Burke just looked at each other, unable to believe what they had just heard... and unable to believe who the Consultant of Crime was. They silently made their way down the other side of the mountain, now armed with knowledge that could provide needed help to the Iron Crowbar...

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

Unaware that the conversation had been overheard, I came out of my reverie. No, everything was in place. Everything I had worked for, planned for, fought for, bled for... it was now time. P. Harvey Eckhart would say that most people fail without realizing they were 99% to the finish. I had to run through the finish, not just to it.

I had spun my web and cast my nets. I had planned this and worked for this day, yes, I had even been able to know the day. I just had to trust myself, and believe that Good would triumph over Evil. In seeming answer, somewhere through the mists the University Clock Tower chimed. It was midnight.

It was Wednesday, June 22d.

Finis.... for now.

Last chance... who is the Consultant of Crime? And not just the name... what were the clues that led to identifying that most evil of dog haters?

Here it comes...