Another Day in the Life Ch. 01

But most of these Police Officers did not have the means to just walk away. They had families to care for. Teresa remembered what had happened to many of the EMTs that had bee fired.

Also, some would love it under Della Harlow; but many Officers, honest, decent people that people like Chief Griswold, Chief Moynahan, and Commander Troy had worked hard to keep while getting rid of the trash, what would they do if we left? Do we have an obligation to stay on their behalf, to fight to keep the TCPD clean and honest?

"Guys," she said, "I don't know what is going to happen tomorrow, much less months down the road. Chief Moynahan has a saying about burning bridges when we come to them. In the here and now, the Police leadership is what it is, and you're not getting rid of me that easily. Let the Officers know that, and let them know that we know they'll continue to do their jobs as the professionals they are, no matter what."

She did not need Cindy's vibes to know this was not going over very well. Della Harlow's efforts to undermine morale in the Police Force were already working...

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

11:45am. Joanne Warner and Theo Washington were at their desks, which faced each other and were against the wall partitioning MCD and Vice.

"I sent an email to the people that make Tylenol." said Theo. "I told them it was likely a one-off, but I gave them the lot number from the bottle so they could begin checking on it, just in case it's a bigger thing."

"Good." said Joanne as she scanned financial data Lainie Everett had amassed for them. "Yeah, some interesting data, here. Patricia has begun to run up her credit cards. Almost $2000 in the hole now on the one in her name only. Dennis has a new card in his name only, pays it off each month. The ones they had jointly are closed, and are still being paid off."

"I've seen that pattern before." said Theo. "Wife starts dragging the husband into debt. Often a reason for him to initiate divorce proceedings..." He paused.

"Or put something in her Tylenol?" Joanne finished.

"I wasn't going to say it." said Theo. "Early days yet, as my grandmother would say."

"Your grandmother says lots of neat sayings." Joanne said with a smile.

"Yeah, she's a character. Okay, medical records..." said Theo. "Hmmm... Patricia is allergic to codeine and codeine derivates. He's taking high blood pressure medicine. Nothing else there, no medical issues with their son."

"Okay, then." Joanne said. "We're waiting for the Crime Lab, and if I know Captain Perlman... and I do... she'll have them sending us the information within a couple of hours. Want to get lunch while we can?"

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

12:05pm. Teresa, Cindy, myself, and Chief Moynahan were seated at a table in the back room of the Cop Bar. The Fire Chief and some of his people, including Fire Marshal Zoe Singer were at another table. We spoke to them briefly, then placed our orders: Fish & Chips for Cindy, steak Caesar salad for the Chief, and Breakfast Burger plates for me and Teresa.

"Soooooo, Captain Croyle," said the Chief, "what was it you wanted to speak to us about?"

"A morale issue came up, sir." said Teresa. She recounted the meeting with her subordinates. "It's obviously gotten big enough that my people have talked about it with each other and wanted to come to me about it."

"Glad they did," I said, "and I'm glad you're bringing it to us. Cindy, what about the Detectives?"

"I haven't heard anything like this from them." said Cindy. I'd noticed as Teresa talked that Cindy's face had fallen a bit and she'd become introspective.

"Chief?" I asked. "What about the Support Staff?"

"Well," said the Chief, "many of them worked for Harlow, and some of them support her for Sheriff. Some of those supporters stopped supporting her after her ads attacking the Police, and especially attacking Captain Croyle. That is one of the reeeee-sons I'm going to propose some changes in the leadership structure tomorrow night."

"The question is," said Croyle, "how do we nip this in the bud? I don't want the rumor mill to start grinding, and things to start getting out of hand. And with this Independent State Counsel stuff coming up, they'll be dragging Commander Troy's name through the mud. Now I know you can take care of yourself, Commander, but these repeated Media attacks hurt the entire Force's morale. And if they try some crap like suspending you, it's going to get worse. Much worse."

"That's where I step in." said the Chief. "I'll have to address the Force about it. Let's see what happens with the State politics first."

"And ladies," I said, "we're just going to have to endure some of it, especially the sewage the Media is pumping out of their potty mouths every day, and of course the election campaigns."

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

1:35pm, Monday, April 16th. The Duty Desk Sergeant brought a manila envelope to Captain Cindy Ross's office. She signed for it, then dismissed the Sergeant back to his duties.

Opening the envelope, she read the report inside it. It was from the State Crime Lab. She then checked her emails; yep, an electronic copy of the same report had been sent. She forwarded that email to MCD, with copies sent to Commander Troy and Chief Moynahan.

She went into MCD. "Okay, guys!" she said loudly to get their attention. "The results on that Tylenol came back, and I just sent you the email. Every capsule in the bottle was filled with oxycodone and a cyanate compound that Commander Troy can probably tell us more about than I'll ever know. Warner, Washington, you're with me."

The three went across the hall to the Commander's office. The door was closed, so Cindy stopped in front of his assistant Helena's desk.

"He's working on some paperwork." Helena said. "I'll buzz him to make sure it's okay."

Part 4 - Beginning the Grind

I was working on two things: the BigAgraFoods papers that had been released to Congress, which U.S. Senator Bill Nunn had provided me; and the 'Queenie' files, as I continued to attempt to pursue the reasons that Katherine Woodburn's Queen of Opposition Research had been murdered. (Author's note: 'Agents And Angels', Ch. 03.)

And to those ends, I was examining other data, data that I probably should not have nor be looking at. Katherine's assistant Clark had said that Queenie had said that Jack Lewis, the former SBI Director and Democrat candidate or Governor, had information about the 'Willis' files. I was looking for anything I could get to hold over Lewis's head (besides a physical crowbar) to make him tell me what that information was.

*BUZZZ!*

Helena was buzzing me. I picked up the phone and she told me Captain Ross and two Detectives wanted to see me. I told her to send them on in.

"Whassup?" I asked as Cindy came in, followed by Joanne and Theo.

Cindy said "Warner and Washington responded to a call this morning from a woman who thought her Tylenol was spiked. They secured the bottle and sent it to the State Crime Lab. Here's the results." She handed me the folder and continued as I perused it: "She thinks her husband was trying to poison her. I just want to clear it with you before we go find him and bring him in for questioning."

"Whether he did or not," I replied, "he is definitely someone we'd like to have a conversation with. Let's do this by the book: Warner, Washington, y'all take this to ADA Washington and get a warrant to find Mr. Dennis Ridley via his cellphone pings, and bring him in for questioning. Put him in I-A. Then ask Mrs. Ridley to come back to the Station, and have her in I-B, so we can talk to her and ask her more questions as needed. But make sure he does not see her, nor know that she's also here. Okay, you can go. Captain Ross, stay here a moment." Joanne and Theo left.

"So," I said, "what do you think of this?"

"I think there's something going on, here." said Cindy. "And for you to have the wife brought back in shows me that you're thinking along the lines that I am."

"That things aren't as they seeeeem, as the Chief would say." I said. I noticed Cindy had remained standing and was fidgety. "Got someplace to be?"

"Yes sir." said Cindy. "I'm about to meet with the Chief." She picked up the folder with the test results. "Should I go ahead and brief him on this?"

"Absolutely." I said. "Go ahead." I got up. "In the meantime, I'm going to go ask Davis and Parker about that false alarm case..."

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

There is a chair in MCD. It is on wheels, and has armrests. It rotates left and right, and can rock back and forth if the catch is released. It usually sits in the corner of the room, and is known as the 'Commander's Chair'.

I came into MCD from the back hallway, grabbed the back of the chair, wheeled it to Davis and Parker's desks, which faced each other and were along the far side wall (the hallway to Classrooms 'C', 'E', and 'F' were on the other side), and sat down. "Okay, guys," I said, "what happened this morning?"

Davis said "Guy called in thinking he had been broken into, but when we went there, he said nothing was missing, and he thought he'd made a mistake. Seemed embarrassed about it."

"Sir," said Teddy Parker, "Coltrane Sports can be likened to a pawn shop for sports equipment: they buy and sell used equipment as well as new stuff. Lots of cash transactions, so we took a look before closing this out. For our close-out report, we ran checks on the owner, Steve Coltrane, and his assistant, a man named Paul Escandes."

"Good." I said, impressed with their efficiency and not just going through the motions on this. "Find anything?"

"Coltrane has family in Coltrane County, the old family for which that county is named." said Parker. "He's 29 years old, unmarried, no kids. He's been running the business ever since he left City University, where he was on a Swimming scholarship. He failed out of School, then came back here and set up the store. It's been doing okay, but the last three years it's been slowly declining. If he keeps up at this rate, he might start having some problems in a few months."

"Who's backing him financially?" I asked.

"We don't know yet, sir." said Jerome Davis. "We're not finding any accessible records of loans or credit uses, such as credit cards. We think his family might've gotten him started, and he's running on the same starter pile of cash he's always had in the bank, which is the J.P. Goldman Bank. But right now, nothing really sticks out like a sore thumb; drawdowns are seasonal, as are cash surpluses."

"Sir," said Parker, "the person of interest here is Paul Escandes. He's been with Coltrane Sports since the November after it opened. He's 36 years old, and he's had two arrests in the past. One was for DUI, for which he was convicted; and the other was an assault charge that was pled down to misdemeanor disturbing the peace. That was seven years ago; the DUI was twelve years ago."

"Okay, nothing severe there." I said. "Or is there something behind the scenes?"

"Sir," said Jerome, "that assault bust was as part of a Romanian-Mob-backed gang in the City. The FBI got some data on him at the time, and it appears he was just on the outer fringes, and this gang he was part of was just a bunch of low-lifes, trying to latch on to the bigger gang by doing muscle activities for them. After his bust and plea-down, he got out of there and hasn't had anything to do with them since."

"Lucky to not get burned, having circled the flame and flirted with the edges." I said. "Tell you guys what... if you happen to be in that area late this afternoon... and of course you will be... check back in with Steve Coltrane and see if he found anything amiss since you guys left last time."

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

2:00pm, County Courthouse Complex.

"Hey, guys." said Franklin Washington as his brother Theo and Theo's Police partner Joanne Warner came into his office. "So what's going on?"

"We need a warrant to pick up someone for questioning, search his house and car, get the financial records, yadda yadda yadda." said Theo. He passed the file folder over to his brother.

"Oxycodone, eh?" said Franklin. Theo filled him in on the details of the case, then Franklin said "So the wife thinks the husband spiked the bottle, trying to kill her?" Theo and Joanne nodded their agreement.

"We need the medical records, also." said Joanne. "We saw a blurb where Patricia Ridley is allergic to codeine compounds, and oxycodone would be a blowout to her system. We need to shore that up."

"All right, let's go see the Judge." said Franklin. "I'm going to take this to Judge Watts, if I can. Nance is a fucking joke; sometimes I sincerely think he's on the criminals' side on things."

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

2:10pm. Judge Rodney K. Watts looked at the folder, then the application for the warrant. "Okay, I'm issuing a limited warrant for the time being. You can bring in Mr. Ridley, do the basic background checks on him, and get the medical information. But right now, we're only going on his wife's word, and even though the bottle was spiked with this stuff, you've got to build a better case before I allow you to begin tearing apart his life. So you can't search his car or home until we have more, and you cannot move to confiscate any guns he owns, even with the child in consideration."

"Your Honor," said Franklin Washington, "his wife gave her written consent to allow the home to be searched, and a preliminary search has already happened. We'd like to finish that under the auspices of her having given permission."

Watts looked a bit peeved, but said "Ah, hell. Okay, you can run a dog through the car and house, but do not destroy anything unless the dog alerts... legitimately alerts."

"Yes sir." said ADA Washington. Five minutes later, the Police had their freshly printed warrant.

Part 5 - Interrogations

"The bigger the cushion, the sweeter the pushin';

Oh yeah, that's what I said..."

--- Spinal Tap.

The unmistakable sounds of a woman being sexually pleasured echoed through the house. Dennis Ridley was lying on top of a woman, his weight on his arms in a pushup position, using his knees as leverage to provide the power to drive into her.

Susan Carrera was 'big boned', not really fat but fleshy, still voluptuous and curvy, but not athletic in any way... and one day the pounds would add on. Her hair was dirty blonde, cut and fashioned to fall straight down to her shoulders, just curling inwards to frame her pretty but not beautiful face.

They were lying diagonally across Susan's bed, their merged loins and legs tightly locked. Dennis was kissing the woman as his weapon of lust pumped fiercely in and out of the woman's stretched cunthole. Dennis's balls were swinging wildly back and forth, his leathery nutsack wetly smacking her ample asscheeks each time he buried his throbbing organ into her well-filled womanhood.

As he rose up, he got a glimpse of the woman's pubic bush, and saw the lightness of the hairs. Her shapely legs were wrapped tightly around his lower back, and the backs of her leopard-pattern pumps were pushing the top of his ass, urging him into her.

"Come on, baby, take that cock!" the married man gasped as he egged the married beauty on. "You like that cock, babe? Do you like having my big cock fucking that tight little cunt of yours?"

"Oh, yess... YES!" Susan gasped out. "Fuck me, Dennis! Fuck me with that big, hard cock!"

The man's taut asscheeks rhythmically rose and fell, propelling his size into Susan's deep cunt with incredible speed and power. She unwound her legs from her lover's back, pulling them back towards her shoulders as the pleasure she was feeling overwhelmed her. As he tried to slam into her deeper and harder, he pushed down on her thighs, forcing her legs back further as he began to ram his cockmeat straight down into her with almost brutal force.

Susan began getting noisy as she began climaxing. Dennis quickly kissed her mouth, smothering her near-screams as she writhed beneath him, trying to push her loins up against his. After a minute, he convulsions slowed down, and she moaned as if exhausted. She began returning Dennis's kisses, and their mouths locked into a deep, passionate kiss for several minutes as he slowly gyrated his loins, keeping his dick buried in her burning snatch.

Breaking their kiss, the man suddenly pulled his huge cock all the way out of Susan and leaned back onto his heels. "Turn over, babe. I want to fuck you like a God-damned dog." he commanded. She quickly complied, turning over onto her hands and knees, and eagerly pushing the globes of her big, sweet ass back into his groin.

Dennis grabbed Susan's hips, his pulsing prickhead finding her swollen cuntlips. He hunched his ass down and thrust forward. Susan gasped as a little over half of his meat slid up into her. A second hard thrust, and he was totally sheathed.

It was pure animal fucking, yet sensuous and passionate at the same time. Susan's big asscheeks rippled each time Dennis's hard groin smacked into them.

"I'm getting close, baby. Uhh... close..." Dennis gasped.

"Come in me!" Susan cried out.

"OH YEAH, HERE IT IS!" Dennis yelled as the first wad of his semen shot up into the depths of her deep pussy. Dennis's second spurt fired into the length of Susan's cunt, followed by more spurts that were not as strong as the man slid out and thrust his pulsing meat up and down the luscious crack between the pillowy cheeks of Susan's ass, his loins thrusting jerkily as the final spasms moved through him.

"God, baby, that was so fucking good." Susan moaned as she slid down onto the bed. Dennis did not ease down with her to cuddle with her, getting off the bed.

"You got some aspirin, baby?" he asked. "I'm getting a headache. Weather front must be coming through."

"In the bathroom cabinet." Susan said. "Aspirin and acetaminophen."

"I'll take the aspirin." Dennis said. "Acetaminophen never did a thing for me." He went into the bathroom...

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

A half hour later, Dennis came out of Susan's apartment and walked down to his car. Just before getting there, two men in the Uniforms of the Town & County Police Force came up to him.

"Mr. Dennis Ridley?" asked the jovial-looking man, who had Sergeant stripes on the sleeves of his uniform shirt.

"Yes." Dennis.

"Sir," said the Sergeant, "we have a warrant to bring you to Police Headquarters to answer some questions."

"What's this about?" asked Ridley.

"I'm sure they'll explain everything at the Station, sir." said the Sergeant. It was obvious that he and his partner were not taking 'no' for an answer...

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

3:15pm.

"I want a lawyer." Dennis Ridley said immediately upon being brought into Interrogation-A.

"Why? asked Theo Washington. "You haven't been charged with anything yet."

"I have a right to a lawyer, and I want one." said Ridley. "Now. Immediately."

I wasn't real happy with what Theo had just said, and it got worse: "There's a phone on the wall you can use." said Joanne.

"No. I don't trust your phones." said Ridley. "I want to use my own cellphone. Now return it to me and allow me to use it to call a lawyer. Eventually I am going to contact someone outside of here."

"You're not getting your cellphone back until we're ready to give it to you." said Joanne. "Now you can use the wall phone to contact a lawyer, or go without."

"Go without?" snarled Ridley. "I'm entitled to a lawyer. You've just violated my rights telling me I have to go without."

"You don't have to go without." said Joanne. Use the wall phone to contact a lawyer."

"Am I under arrest?" asked Ridley.

"No." said Theo. "Not yet."