Brodricksburg Pt. 03

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K.K.
K.K.
3,045 Followers

"So?"

"So, that's what got him killed," I said. I could see the color draining from Farlow's face. "I don't believe that. You're crazy."

"Tell me this, if Commissioner Buske was concerned that I might be looking at what he was doing in Las Vegas, who might he go to for help."

"His attorney, I guess," Farlow said.

"That would be Richard Mitchell of Mitchell and Horne, wouldn't it?"

"Yes."

"What do you think Commissioner Buske would have done if he was indicted for accepting bribes from a vendor?" I asked.

"I don't know. I guess he would let his attorney handle that for him."

"That would be Mr. Mitchell again. Now how do you think Mr. Mitchell would feel about his client, who also happens to be a partner in the land deal you are working on, getting himself busted for accepting bribes. As his attorney he would want to try and make a deal with the DA to help his client but what if Commissioner Buske wanted to trade information about your land deal to save his neck?"

Farlow stiffened and his jaw tightened as he realized where this conversation was headed.

"What land deal are you talking about?"

"I am talking about the deal where you went around putting options to buy on all of the land along River Road between Munt Street and Grayson Road. The property that your exclusive little club plans to sell to the city when it turns out that the city can't buy land at Fort Brodrick for the new schools."

Farlow began shaking his head as he looked down at his hands.

"Do you really think that your friends would take a chance on letting Commissioner Buske expose their project to save his own ass?"

"Oh, God."

"Here's your chance to save your own ass and get some justice for your lover."

Farlow cringed a little when I said that. "I have nothing to say to you," he said.

"Do your friends know that you and Commissioner Buske were lovers?"

Farlow didn't have to answer. I could tell by the look on his face that they didn't.

"What do you think they will do when they find that out?"

The fear was evident in his face.

"I guess that if you aren't going to talk to me now I will have to bring you down to the station to question you. While we are there I will make sure that Captain Ross finds out about your relationship with Commissioner Buske and I'll tell him that you are being very cooperative."

"You can't do that. If they killed Glen, they will surely kill me too."

"I can only help you if you cooperate."

"I'll cooperate but you can't let Ross know."

That confirmed what I suspected, that Ross was part of the conspiracy. Over the next hour, speaking in front of a video camera, Stephen Farlow confirmed what I suspected.

Before we finished I asked him, "Who killed Donald Boland?"

"I thought Boland killed himself."

"No. His was killed and I am certain that his death is connected to this land deal so if you know anything about this you better tell me now or you will be an accessory to murder."

"I don't know anything about that. I honestly believed that he killed himself. I would never have gotten involved in this if I thought anyone would be killed. Besides, Boland died before I got involved with these people."

I put the video camera into my briefcase and then Farlow and I walked back to my car for the ride down to the Bucks County substation. When we arrived Hanratty and two state police detectives were still questioning Lucia. Hanratty saw me come in and excused himself to come talk to me.

"The little bugger was getting ready to skip town when I grabbed him. He spilled everything but he still claims it was you he saw coming out of the house after he heard the gun shot," Hanratty said. "He said that Ross paid him $25,000 and told him to go to the house a little before 8:00 PM and wait to see what time your wife arrived and what time she left. He was told to wait until he heard a gun shot and then call 911 and report it."

"Did Ross tell him to leave town?"

"Yep."

"Good. When Ross checks up on him, he'll think Lucia left town as instructed," I said.

I walk into the interrogation room and stood directly in front of Lucia.

"Who was it that you saw coming out of the house at 37 Third Street after you heard the gun shot?" I asked him.

Lucia looked at me and his expression showed that he obviously had no idea who I was.

"I already told them what I saw," was his response.

"Now I want you to tell me. Who did you see leaving that house?"

"It was Lt. Hobbs."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes."

"Do you know who I am?"

"How the fuck should I know who you are?" Lucia said.

"I am Lt. Brain Hobbs of the Brodricksburg Police Department."

Lucia's eyes opened wide as he stared at me.

"Now, who was it that you saw coming out of that house?"

"Ross told me it was Lt. Hobbs." Lucia said.

"I don't give a fuck what Ross told you, who did you see coming out of that house?"

"I don't know. It was some guy in a dark coat. I couldn't see his face. Ross told me he saw him too and that it was Lt. Hobbs."

"Ross said he saw the man?"

"Yes."

"Why didn't he tell anyone else?" I asked.

"Ross said that he couldn't say anything because he wasn't supposed to be there."

"Did that make sense to you?"

"Hey, for 25K I was willing to say whatever he told me to say."

"When did Ross say that he would contact you again?"

"He said he wouldn't contact me and that I should never try to contact him," Lucia replied.

I turned to one of the State Police detectives in the room and asked him to lock Lucia up and hold him as an accessory to murder. Then I turned back to Lucia. "I don't think you're going to get to spend that 25K for a long time."

*****

The Next Morning

*****

"So far we have Ross, Lucia and Farlow," I said. Hanratty and I were sitting in my apartment with Chief Pasiak the next morning.

"Lucia puts Ross right in the middle of this mess. The rest of them will be a little harder to bring down. I did get some information from Farlow that should help Van Horn's investigation of Congressman Freewater. Apparently Freewater already has the paper work to release the J&J railroad right of way lands. He managed to work something out with someone in the US Department of Interior. Farlow said that some money changed hands to make this happen so we have to follow the money.

"My money is on Kasperek being the man behind this whole scheme. He was the first to find out about the J&J railroad right of way problem. He and his lawyer - guess who that is - have been trying to find a way to get that land from the government for the last six years. It looks now as though with the help of Congressman Freewater they have been able to accomplish that."

"Well, that's a start," the chief said. "I think we need to stay away from Richard Mitchell and Mayor Gargas for now. Mitchell will just claim that he is the attorney for these men and then claim attorney/client privilege. We can't get to him until one of the others in the group is willing to identify Mitchell as a full participating member of the Thursday Night Club. We don't have any direct evidence against Mayor Gargas yet and he is just too cool under fire to be scared into giving us any information. He'll want to call his attorney immediately and we end up with Mitchell involved and nobody talking."

"The next person on my list is our Superintendent of Schools, Robert Kelly," I said. "We already know that he had talked to the State Department of Parks several years ago and was told that the school board could not purchase land at Fort Brodrick. That's enough to put him in the middle of the conspiracy. I think he'll break pretty quickly when he finds out how deep the shit is that he is standing in."

"I am starting to understand the picture now," Hanratty said. "Kasperek finds out he can't build his fancy subdivision unless he can get title to the J&J railroad land so he goes to Mitchell and Horne to enlist their help. Mitchell goes to Mayor Gargas, who happens to be a personal friend of Congressman Freewater. So Mitchell asks the Mayor to see if the congressman can help. Coincidentally the law firm of Mitchell and Horne are the attorneys for the Brodricksburg Board of Education, so they would have known of Robert Kelly's attempts to get the Fort Brodrick land for the school district."

"How did you know that Mitchell and Horne represented the school board?" I asked Hanratty.

"When I got home last night I got on the Internet and did a little research on the players in this game," Hanratty said.

"Better keep an eye on this guy, Chief. He may be after both of our jobs," I said.

Hanratty smiled and then continued. "My guess is that Congressman Freewater found a way to get the right of way lands from the feds and that's when the idea came to them to buy up all the land along River Road and then sell it to the school board for a huge profit. That's where Stephen Farlow comes in. They needed a real estate agent to contact the landowners and make the option to buy offers. What I don't understand is why Commissioner Buske and Captain Ross were involved. What did they bring to the table?"

"Commissioner Buske brought money to the table," Chief Pasiak said. They needed a lot of money to buy the options on the land and to pay bribes where needed. Captain Ross was their eyes and ears within the police department. It was his job to make sure no one was snooping around asking questions about their land deal."

"I think that Farlow must have told the Commissioner that he and I talked about his trip to Las Vegas and Buske must have told Richard Mitchell," I said.

"Why do you think he would go to Mitchell?" Hanratty asked.

"Mitchell is his attorney," I said. "I am guessing, of course, but it makes sense. Mitchell then contacts Ross and tells him to keep an eye on me to see what I am up to. Ross had already been watching me ever since the Boland shooting. I think he was afraid that I would eventually prove that Boland was murdered."

"Why do you think Boland was murdered?" the Chief asked.

"I'll tell you why and who I think did it or at least had it done," I said.

"Sometime near the end of last year, George Kasperek contacted Mr. Boland and offered to buy his land. Boland turned him down flat. I think that Kasperek must have tried to approach Boland again, which probably made Mr. Boland wonder why Kasperek would want his land when he already had a few hundred acres along Munt Street that he couldn't develop because of the J&J right of way. I believe that Kasperek was worried that Mr. Boland would start asking questions and would ruin the group's plans to purchase the land along the J&J railroad right of way, so he had Mr. Boland killed."

Hanratty and the Chief sat quietly looking at me as my comments sank in.

"Chief, didn't you wonder at the time why Captain Ross was the first officer on the scene? He just happened to be near the Boland farm when the call came in, which allowed him to be on site before the lead homicide detective was even notified of the shooting."

"That is very suspicious," the chief said.

"Then Captain Ross pulls rank on me so that he could release the body to the coroner before I could get the crime lab boys up from Bucks County. Ross ruled it a suicide and the coroner agreed and they closed the investigation. It has always bothered me that Ross was in such a hurry to close that case. At the time I just thought he was trying to embarrass me but now I suspect that he may have been the shooter."

The Chief spun around to look at me. "You think Ross shot Boland?"

"Yes. I think he shot him and then waited for the body to be discovered by his wife so that he could be there before me so that he could call it a suicide and prevent a full investigation of the shooting."

The Chief shook his head in dismay.

"What a piece of shit," was Hanratty's comment.

"This afternoon I am going to ask Captain Ross to go down to Quantico to take that leadership class that the FBI is sponsoring," Chief Pasiak said. "Once he is safely out of town, you can pull Robert Kelly in for questioning. You will have to break him fast; if he asks for his lawyer before you get him to implicate Richard Mitchell, we may never be able to get enough evidence to get the whole group."

*****

Superintendent of Schools

*****

Later that afternoon I watched Captain Ross go into Chief Pasiak's office. The success of the rest of our investigation depended on Ross believing that the Chief really wanted him to take the leadership course at Quantico.

Half an hour later, Ross came out of the chief's office with a big smile on his face. When Ross left the station I went into the Chief's office and asked what he told Ross that made him smile.

"I told Captain Ross that I didn't think you would be a good candidate to replace me as chief because of the cloud hanging over you because of Commissioner Buske's murder. I told him that it appears that you are innocent but that the public may not accept that. I told Ross that he would most likely be the next chief. Then I told him about the class at Quantico and he could not have been happier. He left to make travel arrangements to leave for Quantico on Sunday."

Monday morning I called Van Horn to make sure that Ross was in the leadership class at Quantico and then made my plans for the day. Hanratty and I kept a low profile over the weekend so that we wouldn't raise any suspicion among the members of the Thursday Night Club and I planned to grab Robert Kelley on his way home from work, again to keep from alerting the rest of the club.

That evening Hanratty and I followed Robert Kelley from the School Board offices to a supermarket about two blocks from his house. As soon as Mr. Kelly got out of his car Hanratty grabbed him, spun him around and pushed him face down on the trunk of his car.

"Robert Kelly, you are under arrest for conspiracy to commit land fraud, and accessory to murder," Hanratty said as he cuffed Kelley.

Robert Kelly tried to protest but Hanratty cut him off by reading him his Miranda rights and then pushed him into the back seat of our car.

We made the forty-five minute trip down to the Bucks County substation in silence. I could almost smell the fear on Kelley. That made me smile. The more fear he had the easier it would be to break him.

*****

"Whose idea was it to play this bait-and-switch with the land for the new schools?" was my first question to Mr. Kelley.

"I think I want to talk to my lawyer," Kelley said.

"You are welcome to call your lawyer as long he isn't a lawyer from Mitchell and Horne," I bluffed. "Richard Mitchell is also a suspect in this case so he will not be able to represent you."

Robert Kelley's face went completely white.

"While you are trying to decided on who you can call to represent you the rest of the members of your little club are trying to make deals with the DA to stay out of jail. They are going to pin this mess on you. After all this was all your idea, wasn't it? You're the one that knew that the school board couldn't buy the land at Fort Brodrick but you kept pushing that site as the best place for the new schools. Now two men are dead because of you."

"I didn't kill anyone and this wasn't my idea," Kelley said.

"Doesn't matter if you killed anyone or not. You'll go down as an accessory to murder."

'It wasn't me. I didn't even know about the murders," Kelley said.

"How could you not know about the murders of Donald Boland and Glen Buske?" Hanratty asked.

"I didn't know about them when they happened," Kelley cried. "I found out afterward."

"Who killed them?" I shouted.

"Kasperek had Ross do it. He said it was done to protect us."

"Protect who?" Hanratty asked.

"Me, Richard..."

"Richard Mitchell?" I asked.

"Yes, Richard Mitchell."

"Who else?" I asked.

"Stephen Farlow, Mayor Gargas and Congressman Freewater."

"Can you prove that Richard Mitchell was an active member of this conspiracy?" I asked.

"Yes. He came to me with the idea. The original idea was Kasperek's. He involved Mitchell and Mitchell brought me into it," Kelley said.

"Do you know who Congressman Freewater's contact is within the Department of Interior?" I asked.

"I don't know the name but it is someone that works in the Bureau of Land Management. He found the deeds to the J&J railroad right of way and he is going to sign them over to us."

"For how much?" I asked.

"Fifty thousand."

After that Kelley opened up and give us the whole story with as much detail as he could. It was obvious that he was trying to be cooperative.

*****

The FBI Takes Over

*****

After interrogating Kelley I called Van Horn and told him about the Congressman's contact within the Bureau of Land Management.

"That fits," Van Horn said. "We pulled the Congressman's phone records for the last two years. We found several calls to the Department of Interior, but he seldom called the same number twice. But over the last eighteen months he has called one number several times. That number belongs to a clerk in the Bureau of Land Management. We'll pick this guy up tomorrow and if he rolls we will probably pick up Congressman Freewater on Wednesday."

"That's great," I said.

"You may not think so when I tell you the rest of this," Van Horn said. "Because this conspiracy involves the illegal transfer of Federal lands to private citizens, a federal employee of the Bureau of Land Management, and a member of the United States Congress, the FBI is taking charge of this case. Also, because the two murders were part of this conspiracy they will also be part of our investigation. Don't worry, I'll make sure you get credit for your part in the investigation."

I was a little pissed but I kind of expected this to happen right from the beginning, it's just that I never dreamed that this case would become so big.

"So when is the round up?"

"Assuming our friend at the Bureau of Land Management is cooperative tomorrow, I expect that we will pick up all of the members of the Thursday Night Club on Wednesday. So, I guess I'll see you in Brodricksburg Wednesday morning."

*****

The Roundup

*****

By noon on Wednesday it was over. The FBI picked up Richard Mitchell, Mayor Gargas and George Kasperek in Brodricksburg and had arrested Congressman Freewater at his office in Washington. The FBI also took Robert Kelley, Stephen Farlow and Daniel Lucia into their custody.

It became evident rather quickly that Kasperek was the leader of the Thursday Night Club and Captain Ross was his enforcer. While trying to save their own asses, the other suspects said that Kasperek had ordered the killings of Donald Boland and Glen Buske and Ross did the deed.

I asked Agent Van Horn how the arrest of Captain Ross had gone down.

"I don't know how that went down," he said. Van Horn then pick up his phone and made a call.

"He what?" Van Horn yelled. "God damn it."

"What happened?" I asked.

"Agents were going to grab Captain Ross when he came into class this morning but he didn't show up. His hotel room was empty and his rental car was gone."

"Fuck. Now where the hell is he?" I said. "He must have found out what was happening back here."

After asking around the station I found out that Ross had called the office that morning to find out what was going on and the duty sergeant told him that I was in the chief's office with five FBI agents and the FBI agents had a handful of arrest warrants. I guessed that Ross jumped to the right conclusion and skipped town. The question became, where would he go?

Ross was now the FBI's problem but I didn't like that he was running around loose somewhere.

"Why don't we go have a chat with Mrs. Ross. See if he has talked to her today. Maybe she even knows where he is."

"How well do you know her?" Van Horn asked.

K.K.
K.K.
3,045 Followers