Believer Ch. 02

"I don't knowwwwww." said the Chief. "But I'm going to be having a few worrrrrrrds with her about it. And I'm not delegating that, Mr. Crowbar. You say nothing to her; I'll handle it."

"Noooo problem, Chief." I said. "But please do be careful about revealing what Franklin and Paulina told us." The Chief nodded vigorously in agreement.

Tanya said "Franklin told me before he left that he believes Paulina will do a good job with the drug cases in his place, but he believes Miriam's motives are to keep Paulina from working with you, Don, on the MCD cases. I consider that nothing short of sabotaging us. Why is she doing that? Does she really think Savannah is better at MCD cases than Paulina is?"

"Quite the opposite." I said. "I used to think Miriam was doing this crap to help Savannah win the Solicitor race. But now I think it's just a fit of pique. Miriam believes we, and I in particular, are trying to tell her how to do her job and dictating terms to her, and she's determined to shove it in our faces and do what she damn well pleases."

Seeing Tanya and the Chief weren't feeling me on that, I continued: "Let me make this analogy: if Walters came in and demanded that Parker and only Parker be assigned to certain cases, how would you take that?"

"I'd be pissed." said Tanya. "Wouldn't you?"

"Well, I'd ask Miriam for her reasons," I said, "and if they were good, I might actually consider it. But you get my point... that Miriam thinks it's her exclusive right to assign ADAs as she pleases. Unfortunately, what she's doing is potentially harmful to our cases, and I for one don't want to waste our Detectives's long hours of hard work to make a case and make arrests, only to see the cases destroyed by Savannah's lack of understanding, leading to incompetent prosecutions."

"Or worse, no prosecution at all." lamented Chief Moynahan. "Okayyyy, I'll deal with this issue of the Investigators----"

"If I may, Chief?" I said. When he looked at me, I said "Maybe we should leave this Investigator thing alone, let things play out with them. Vice can pick up the investigation of the gangs, and pretend we didn't hear it from them. And then maybe Walters will tip her hand and reveal her real intent with those guys."

"Hmmmm." the Chief said, thinking about it. "Okayyyy, then. We'll play it by ear, for now."

He stood up, causing me to do so also as he said "Meeeen-while, I'll deal with the D.A.'s Office, and I'll leave yooooo, Mr. Crowbar, to deal with the Press. And that's because I get first choice." Tanya and I burst out laughing at the Chief's unexpected and funny joke.

Part 10 - Tenpins

"Hello and welcome to Fox University Sunrise!" said Catrina Pierce at 8:00am, Wednesday, December 4th, from the KFXU studios. "I'm Catrina Pierce, and with me as always is Meredith Peller. Hello, Meredith!"

"Hello, Catrina." said Meredith Peller. "Hello everyone. Here's what's in the news today: A bitter exchange between Commander Donald Troy and our competitor's reporter Lester Holder highlighted a contentious Press Conference, the first given by Commander Troy in months."

Meredith: "Commander Troy delivered a powerful defense of his wife, Dr. Laura Fredricson, but things turned ugly when Holder asked this loaded question. Roll tape." Tape rolled showing my exchange with Penis Holder in its entirety.

Catrina: "That exchange really shows the deep political divisions that are forming over racial issues in the State and the Nation today. Commander Troy is fearless enough to stand right up to Holder's accusations of racism, but many Americans are intimidated by namecalling and threats of physical violence from speaking their Truth."

Not responding, Meredith said: "And in other news, the Town & County Council meeting last night was viciously contentious. Council Member Malinda Adams made a motion demanding that Mayor Daniel Allgood, who is being sued by the US Department of Justice Civil Rights Division, resign from the Mayoral post. The resolution was defeated 5-6, with Mayor Allgood making a point to cast the tiebreaking vote, even though the motion would not have passed anyway, and he could not be forced to resign if it did pass."

Meredith: "A second motion was then made by black Council Member Reginald B.F. Lewis, to force Mayor Allgood to be suspended while the DOJ lawsuit is in progress. That motion was also defeated, 5-6. A third motion, by Council Member Kelly Carnes, to impeach Mayor Allgood, failed to reach the 2/3 threshold needed to send the impeachment to the Town Assembly."

Catrina: "And in a related story, Council Member Reginald B.F. Lewis had announced that he was not running for his Council seat again. However, he announced last night that he would be filing to run for the District Attorney post as a Democrat. The new Charter, written by the Charter Commission chaired by Donald Troy, now allows the District Attorney, Solicitor, and all posts be by Party, with primaries and subject to the 'sour grapes' laws... except those under State requirements to be non-partisan."

Meredith: "And finally, the State Medical Board declined to suspend the medical license of Dr. Laura Fredricson, head of the University's Department of Psychology and on Staff at University Hospital. The Board investigated allegations by a whistleblower against Dr. Fredricson, but found no wrongdoing on her part in assisting other doctors through a complicated delivery. With the decision of the State Medical Board, Dr. Fredricson has now been cleared in three separate complaints against her..."

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

"And here we were," said Tanya Perlman as we watching in my office before the Angels Meeting, "thinking that Miriam Walters was a disaster as District Attorney."

"She is." I replied. "And if you're suggesting she's the lesser of two evils, you're probably right. But I'll be curious to see what Walters does. Will she run as a Republican or a Democrat?"

"Think Gil Krasney will run for D.A. again?" asked Cindy Ross.

"I'm hearing he's going to run for State Attorney General." replied Teresa.

"So am I." I replied.

"What happened between Chief Moynahan and D.A. Walters?" asked Tanya. "I heard they... spoke."

I replied: "The Chief rather casually asked if we were going to meet her new Investigators, and begin working with them, and she said that with the Holidays coming up things were too busy."

"Wow." said Teresa. "What is up with that?"

"I dunno," I replied, "but I had Intel get their photos and very quietly disseminate them to all Officers, with my note that they were 'good guys' and should not be shot dead if they're seen at any crime scenes or drug deals going down... unless they shoot at us first, of course."

"Good." said Tanya. "That really would not be good optics. Bettina would drool on her microphone if she had a story like that." We all laughed at that.

After a pause, I said "Anyhoo, let me ask this: what was the crowd like at the Council meeting?"

Teresa said "We had a good number of Deputies there, wearing armored vests, and I had 2nd shift people patrolling in abnormally large numbers in that area, and possibly more Officers here in Police Headquarters patrolling the gym. But there weren't all that many people at the Council meeting. It looked like everything the Council Democrats did was for posturing, and for the Media."

"And to get something on the record about the lawsuit against Mayor Allgood." I said.

"Speaking of all that," said Teresa, "and since we're all Orange Order members, I want to bring up the route for the Patrol of Honor on Friday night. Should we change the route?"

"To not go down MLK Jr. Avenue?" I asked. Teresa nodded, and I said "Is there a perceived threat?"

Teresa replied "I began thinking about it when Penis Holder asked you that about 'black lives matter', then called you a racist when you said 'all lives matter'. That felt set up, by him, and as a prelude to something... more. And it has occurred to me that someone, in cooperation with the Media, might try to gin up some kind of altercation that will lead to a wider problem. We have had some near-misses on the walks." (Author's note: 'The Saga Continues', Ch. 06.)

"Flip side of that," Cindy said, "is that if we don't go through somewhere on the Southside, the Press will accuse us of racism, of avoiding those areas precisely because they're majority-minority."

I nodded. "Yes, the Press certainly would do that. But I don't disagree that there is potential for trouble with racial tensions so high. So here's what we can do..."

Part 11 - Orange is the New (Police) Blue

"Those who vote decide nothing. Those who count the vote decide everything."
―-- attributed to Soviet leader Joseph Stalin.

Thursday, December 6th. At 2:00pm, Cindy Ross and I gave my assistant Helena and Cindy's assistant Lauren Wilcox beautiful bouquets of roses and carnations for keeping the most very sacred Ballot Boxes of the Orange Order, and took possession of the consolidated Ballot Box. Helena and Lauren had already gone to both Precincts and collected the Ballot Boxes there.

Under two-man control, Cindy and I took the boxes to City Hall, where we met in the Conference Room next to the Sheriff's Office. The members of the Orange Order were assembled there, as was The Intendent, Adele Peabody. She and the Sheriff tabulated the votes as we waited and chatted. Then the members of the Inner Circle were invited to examine the results. Then those results were announced to the entire group, and were accepted enthusiastically.

"We have one position for the Orange Order Inner Circle." said spokesman Micah Rudistan. "We'll vote by secret ballot." Post-it Note sheets were handed out, and The Intendent and I counted them.

Per tradition, a lantern with orange glass was brought out. We got into a circle, and I handed Teresa Croyle the lantern. She went around the circle three times, then stopped in front of... Chaplain Alberto Romano.

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

Friday, December 6th. Orange Order Day. On this day, the entire Police Force dressed uniformly (pun intended) in standard dark blue uniforms with dark blue ties tucked into the shirts; even the Chaplains did not wear their clerical collars, but neckties. No metal-bordered boxes nor ribbons were worn. Only our nametags and pinned-on metal ranks on our collars showed any differences.

And as usual, photos were taken, especially amongst the Detectives that were normally in plainclothes. The Chief also let the Captains and above go to MCD for the coffee klatch, and I brought doughnuts. Detective Joanne Warner was present, and everyone was ooh-ing and ahh-ing her many photos of her new son Tony. I asked her to email me two of them.

"Yes, Seth met with the Hospital Board and the University Regents yesterday." Joanne was telling everyone as we sat and ate doughnuts. "Some Faculty members are complaining, mostly Dr. Carmela, who wants to hold Seth's appointment up in exchange for firing Dr. Fredricson. If I didn't know better, I'd think he was the whistleblower that tried to get her license rescinded."

"I do know better." I said. "And you don't hear me disagreeing with you..."

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

At 3:30pm, the members of the Orange Order congregated in Classroom 'J'. We put our Orange Order ribbons (not full medals, but ribbons) on, above our right pocket flaps where ribbons go, then strategized our route to get our two initiates.

A large contingent of Officers from the Precincts were in the gym, and many were listening to Captain (Ret.) Leslie Charles tell stories about the TCPD of decades past. The Detectives and Intel people were in MCD, as were a few alumni, including Janice Holloway.

Not all of the Orange Order members were going to collect the candidates; hence, Captain Charles being in the gym. As the Inner Circle initiate, Chaplain Romano was leading the 'rope line', and six of us accompanied him into the hallway. The others would head for the auditorium.

We went down the hallway to the gym, and went inside. All chatter ceased as everyone saw us. We made our way through the groups of Officers to near the back, and Lt. Commander Teresa Croyle went forward, followed by Deputy Chief Cindy Ross.

"Corporal Gunddottar," Teresa said to Inga Gundottar, "would you please come with us?"

The entire gym erupted into cheering and applause as a blushing Inga stood up and was led to her place in line behind Chaplain Romano. We made our way back out of the gym. Once out of there, we walked along the north hallway of Headquarters, the jail and booking side on the other side of the wall to the left, and offices and rooms for the SWAT Teams, Uniformed Officers, and Personnel & Records people to the right.

We turned right down the east (front) hallway towards the Duty Desk, knowing people were peeking out of the offices at us. We turned right at the Pastor's Room, going down the south hallway, the auditorium then Vice then MCD on the right, and the Lieutenant, Captain, and Commander offices to the left.

Just past the side door to MCD, we stopped. I went on around, followed by Sheriff Griswold to the back entrance, 'ambushing' the people in MCD. Silence was instantaneous as we entered the crowded room. I walked forward to one of the desks...

To be continued.