Case of the Black Badge Ch. 02

"I'm going to go work out." I told Cindy and Martin. "I've got to let off some steam before I hurt somebody." They understood. I went to the gym. It is possible that a once-in-good-condition punching bag in the facility was badly damaged during my hour-long workout...

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I had Myron work in my little Lieutenant's office, gathering and crunching the data. We were in my office because Julie Newton of Vice had suddenly started working much more often in her cubicle in the dungeon, and I needed a greater degree of privacy on this one.

"After we discovered the missing logs in the Carroll/Delmar case while working on the Murdered Chessplayer case," Myron said, "both I.T. and Internal Affairs secretly set up systems where all entries were immediately backed up to a temporary server, which would be checked against the main backup and discrepancies noted before being recycled and the space reused. So now log entries cannot be eradicated without us seeing it immediately. Even so, I've found no instances where Gunn and Brody's logs were altered."

"That's not a surprise." I said. "After Carroll and Delmar, they stopped making any police reports or log entries. They stopped using calls to the Station as cover for their visits to places."

"Yes sir." said Myron. "Here's the deal, though: we and I.A. also started backing up the GPS logs immediately, so we have those. And Brody and Gunn made a lot of visits to places in various places that have no matching log entries. Most of the stops were in the Tenderloin District, a few in the Warehouse District and... get this, sir... some of those were at the abandoned King & Ebenezer Food Industries plant where Carroll and the other guy were found."

"Good work." I said. "Myron, I know you always come to me first with anything you find, and I appreciate it. My question is: do you know if I.A. knows about this? This is at least partially their arena."

"The connection to the murder location makes it yours and mine, as well as theirs." said Myron. "But to answer your question: they haven't talked to me, so I don't know what they know." said Myron. "In fact, I've been expecting Lt. Allgood to come in and try to shut me down, but I haven't seen him nor heard from him for days. I figured you'd cleared it with him."

"No..." I said, beginning to be lost in thought. Finally, I said "Myron, put together a file with everything you have on Brody and Gunn, and I need it now. I'm going to the Chief; this one is over my head."

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"Brody and Gunn are up for arraignment in the morning." I told the Chief. "Paulina is going to ask the judge to deny bail. I checked the Court calendar, the judge should be Nance or Folsom, so we might get to keep these guys for another night or two."

"Good." said the Chief. "By the way, Crowbar, have you considered what will happen if they do get bail? If they don't get ankle monitored, they'll run... and even with an ankle monitor, we might find them hanging from a meathook like we found Carroll and that other lowlife."

"Yes sir, I have made plans for that eventuality." I said, smiling. "And there's not a god-damned thing Captain Malone can do about it."

"That's my Iron Crowbar!" the Chief said, beaming from behind his mustaches. "So, what are you going to do?"

I told him my plan, then continued: "Chief, I know you stay out of I.A.'s way, and so do I... but we really need to know if they knew what was going on, and for how long."

"So what would you do if you were sitting in this chair, Crowbar?" asked the Chief. His question was testing me, but also preparing me for the day he hoped would come: that I would one day be Chief of Police. I knew I was not ready for that.

"I don't know, sir." I said. "Maybe bring Allgood in here and grill him, even though he's recused himself... perhaps because he's recused himself? Or maybe speak to the Inspector General, ask him if he'd ask I.A. to 'cooperate' with us on this investigation as our paths may be crossing and we don't want to step on each other's toes, etc."

The Inspector General was the Town & County Public Safety Department's position for things like Internal Affairs. The Police, Fire, EMT and Public Health Department's Internal Affairs people reported to the I.G., not the Department heads. Admittedly, the Police I.A. was the only truly organized unit, and often the Police I.A. liaisoned with other Departments to provide manpower for Internal investigations. The I.G. was technically below the Sheriff in rank, as the Sheriff was the Public Safety Officer and in charge of all the Departments, but the I.G. was equivalent rank to the Police and Fire Chiefs, and reported directly to the Council.

"I'm going to talk to Allgood myself before going over his head." said Chief Griswold. "And I'm going to ask what you want to know, which is what I want to know: how long have they known about Brody and Gunn, who else do they know about, and why have I not heard more about what they do know? Allgood doesn't answer directly to me, but I'm still Chief of this Police Force, I have the right to know, and I expect him to keep me in the loop."

Chief Griswold continued: "As you know, Daniel Allgood has been on leave the last two days, working on that family matter. But I'll call him on his cellphone and tell him to be ready for a meeting at 10:00am tomorrow morning-- er, you do know about that family matter, don't you Don?" he asked, seeing the puzzled look on my face.

"No sir." I said. "I wasn't aware of any problem. Not that it's any of my business."

"I thought you knew." said Griswold. He then leaned forward and whispered "Talk to your wife. Don't mention my name as your 'source', if you don't mind..."

Part 14 - A Secret From The Past

Daniel Allgood sat down on the sofa in the late afternoon, sipping a bourbon and Coca-Cola. Melina came into the room and sat down beside him, her legs curled under her, attending him as she liked to do.

"Honey, we have to talk." Daniel said. "The Chief called me and said I'm needed at a meeting tomorrow morning. It's about those two dirty cops, and even though I recused myself from that investigation, I'm pretty sure where the Chief is going to go with the meeting."

"Where's that?" Melina asked, already knowing the answer.

"About the racial issues in the Department." Daniel said. "The ones I've been overlooking."

"I see." said Melina, her face scowling slightly. "Well, you gotta do what you gotta do, the niggers be damned."

Daniel said, knowing it had to be said, "Melina, you know that I'm not for or against them as individuals. It's just when they start into the 'group politics' and the White People's rights start being trampled in the name of a false 'equality' that I get upset. But there's some stuff going on within the Police Department and the Court system, and it's coming out into the open. I can't hold back on it any longer."

"I know, honey." Melina said. "And 'they' can do whatever they want, I just wish they'd do it somewhere I'm not. I just don't want to see another nigger for as long as I live. Maybe impossible, but that's what I'd be happy with."

Daniel knew this was the right time to ask. "Honey, why do you hate blacks so much?"

Melina sighed as she looked forward, her eyes becoming jet. "I've never discussed this with anyone before, not even Laura or Don when I was married to him." She took a long swig of her drink, then continued. "My real parents died when I was a baby; I never knew them. My adopted parents and I moved around a bit. We were living in Tennessee, near Oak Ridge when I was ten years old."

"One day, four niggers broke into our house while my dad was gone. One of them grabbed me while the others grabbed my mother and started ripping her clothes off. They threatened to harm me if she didn't submit to them, but she fought them as hard as she could anyway. It wasn't enough; the overpowered her, and then they... they took turns raping her on the floor while the fourth one made me watch and taunted me.

Tears were streaming down Melina's cheeks as she continued: "I can still remember how they smelled... how their filthy, sweaty arms felt as they held me off the floor. I was screaming as loud as I could and trying to fight to get loose, telling them to leave my mother alone. One of them laughed and said I had more fight than my mother... by then, she was half unconscious from being hit and raped six times. Then the fourth nigger handed me to another one and took his turn... raping my mom. He slapped her face as hard as she could; she was bleeding from her nose and not moving. I... I try not to think about it, but sometimes I have nightmares, remembering watching that son of a bitch..."

"They didn't harm me physically, but threw me down hard on the floor as they left. I crawled to my mom and she was still alive. I called 9-1-1 and the paramedics got there just in time: I found out later that my mom was bleeding inside, and would've bled out if they'd been just a few minutes later."

"Oh honey, I'm so sorry." Daniel said, hugging Melina in his arms.

"Ever since then, I've practiced martial arts, I've practiced shooting guns and bow-and-arrows to be the very best I can be, and I swore that neither I nor my loved ones would ever endure pain at the hands of niggers again if I could do anything at all about it." Melina said.

"And I've hated niggers, all niggers, ever since that day. I don't see a difference from one to the next: every nigger is a rapist, every nigger beat my mother nearly to death. That may not be right, but that is how I feel. Like I said, put me somewhere where I'll never see another nigger again, and I'll be happy."

"You never told Don about any of this?" Daniel asked.

Melina then said, "When I was married to Don, I knew he didn't have a racist bone in his body. He'd play chess with some of the black guys, never used racist language. I never said anything, nor did he, during the years of our marriage; we both knew what each other was about and just didn't discuss it.

"But then... when he was in the hospital after being shot, one of the nurses, the one Don calls 'Nurse Ratchett', she told me that she suspected that nigger Nurse Jones snuck into Don's room and had sex with him. Don says he doesn't remember anything, but I knew he knew more than he was saying... I could tell. And that was one big, big reason that we divorced. It might have happened anyway; he was in love with Laura from the minute he saw her, and I didn't mind that... but I didn't feel quite the same way about him after that hospital stay."

Melina then looked at Daniel and said "Honey, you do what you need to do. I know both you and Don are good men, and doing what's best for the 'good Citizens of the County', as Don would say. And I love you and will keep on loving you, no matter what, unless you sleep with a black woman."

"You know I'd never sleep with a black woman when I can come home to you." Daniel said. "But Melina... I love you, and I appreciate you telling me all this. I know it was hard, but I'm glad you trusted me and talked to me about it..." The kiss they shared was long, deep, and full of emotion.

"Make love to me, Daniel." Melina whispered. "I need you... I need you right now, baby..." She was already opening her husband's pants, her hand fishing inside for his large cock.

It was difficult for Daniel. He loved his wife and would always get hotly aroused, his nine inch cock hard and throbbing, whenever they began having sex. But now his mind was blazing with what Melina had just told him. He was feeling pain, pain on her behalf, at what she'd just told him... my God! that had to be so horrible to watch! he thought.

Melina's mouth and hands were hard at work, trying to bring life to Daniel's cock. The physical pleasure of her mouth on him was enough to get him half-hard, but not as fully, throbbing hard that he would need to be to get him meat balls-deep inside her.

"Hey baby, let me eat your pussy for a while." Daniel said. Melina lay back on the sofa and Daniel dove in between his wife's luscious legs, licking deeper and deeper into her slit. She was getting wetter and hotter and Daniel used his lips, tongue and fingers to arouse her and bring her pleasure. He settled in for a long session of muff-diving...

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After giving Melina two orgasms, Daniel finally raised up and took her into his arms, cuddling with her. She did not say anything more about having him penetrate her, probably realizing that he needed the time to mentally digest what she'd told him. And it was confirmed when Daniel asked "So how are you feeling... about our talk with Laura today?"

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I stepped onto the patio of the 'Mountain Nest', bringing with me two drinks: one neat Scotch for myself, and one 'Godfather', a Scotch and Amaretto, for Laura. She had asked for the strong drink.

"How was your day today, honey?" I asked.

"Rough." she said, staring forward, looking over the view of the Town as the sun was lowering.

"Daniel and Melina? Wanna clue me in on the details?"

Laura looked sharply at me. "Yes. Today has been probably the hardest day of my life. Not the worst, but the hardest. How much do you know?"

I said "Only that we just arrested two dirty cops who may be connected with a double murder, we may have a drug ring within the Force -and- we have a brewing race issue as well, situations that are screaming for Internal Affairs involvement.... and while Daniel recused himself from the investigation of the dirty cops, he's still not there, he's taking a couple of days off. Doesn't take much to figure out something is going on, but I don't know the full story. Care to enlighten me?"

Laura took a long swallow of her drink, then said "If I haven't told you this, it's not because I was trying to hide it from you. I know you're very busy and I didn't want you to be worried about this, also. And of course it is also was a professional situation for me, as well as a very personal one."

"Well, you know I'll respect your professional privacy if you need to keep it." I said.

"I know, and I appreciate it. But no, you need to know." Laura said. "It's about Melina, it's about Todd, it's about the baby. You mentioned right after she delivered the baby that she didn't seem to be acting normal. And you were right. She was having postpartum depression. I was hoping she'd snap out of it; most new mothers do, especially with treatment. But Melina didn't."

Laura went on, the words gushing: "I watched her during our Denver trip, and she seemed normal, which for her is being quiet but sometimes being extremely active and single-minded when focused on something she wants done." I nodded as Laura continued: "But it's when she's around the baby that things were getting dicey. I think she loves the baby, but she was all but rejecting it. Her breasts are not making milk, even with medication I gave her. She's not responding when the baby cries, which is why either Todd's stepmother, your mother or Daniel is staying with her at all times when the baby is there. She's been letting the baby stay with Todd and Jeanine more and more. They certainly don't mind, though it essentially means they're dealing with two babies at once, and they're both young and busy."

"I see." said the blind man (me).

"Daniel came to me some days ago to discuss the situation." Laura said. "I've been watching since, and have had some talks with Melina, first alone, then her and Daniel together. My concerns were confirmed when I actually suggested that Todd and Jeanine take custody of little Doug. Melina didn't make any objection to it; in fact, I think Daniel was more unhappy about it."

"So I talked to Jeanine and Todd, who not only were agreeable but actually want to take custody. Jeanine's going to do the paperwork, and it'll be formally filed on Todd's 21st birthday in May. Melina will have virtually unlimited visitation rights.

"Now the problem is that, for reasons I cannot discuss with you Don, we cannot have Melina have any paperwork that says she has any kind of psychological problem. Just for openers, Melina could no longer work with me if any Court judged her as mentally deficient in any way."

"I understand." I said, fully understanding far more than my wife realized. "But does she have a problem?" I was shocked to be hearing all this. I'd been married to Melina for over eight years; to be hearing of this without a clue beforehand was stunning.

"I don't think she is mentally ill or has a real problem." Laura replied. "She was never abusive to the child, she loves the child, but she's also essentially rejected it. It may be that after she met Daniel and fell for him, she was inwardly embarrassed about being pregnant with Todd's child. There have been studies on postpartum depression and the like, and I've called some people I know who specialize in it far more than I do, just so I can try to understand it myself."

"The bottom line and the trick is that we're going to have to give Jeanine and Todd custody, and Jeanine may adopt Doug formally, while at the same time not saying anything about any problems Melina has been having. Jeanine has agreed to this. Todd basically is going along with whatever his wife said."

"Todd wants that baby a lot more than he's letting on." I said. "He's playing it quiet and careful, but I'm sure he's ecstatic to be getting custody of Doug."

"Well, I'm going to have to pull some tremendous strings and call in some heavy favors to get this through without upsetting the applecart." Laura said. "I've already called Judge Watts; he's the only one halfway trustworthy."

"Let me know if I can help." I said. "Oderwise, I'll stay in the deep background on it. Now speaking of babies... how is our second one coming along inside there?" I rubbed my wife's tummy as I said it.

*BRRRING!!! BRRRING!!! BRRRING!!!*

It was my cellphone... and it spelled trouble.

Part 15 - Vices of Vice

Captain's offices are larger than the tiny Lieutenant offices, but not as large as Paulina's nor the empty one beside hers. In Captain Malone's office, the blinds were shut tight so that no one could see the lewd and lascivious actions taking place as the Police Force underwent the afternoon shift change.

"Ohhh, that's so fucking good." Captain Malone groaned. "You have one hell of a hot mouth, babe!" He was sitting in his desk chair. Julie Newton was kneeling to his left side, her mouth sliding hotly up and down his thick shaft.

The slender young woman looked almost waifish next to the larger man. She was wearing a shimmering purple blouse that was open to reveal her firm breasts, a white skirt, white pantyhose and black high heel pumps. She was going to town on Malone's meat, really getting into the act she was performing upon her boss.

"Mmmmm!" Julie moaned as she fellated the older man's cock, sliding her lips down his shaft, stretching them to accommodate his girth as she deep throated him and took every one of his six inches into her face. It did not take too much of this intense oral action for Malone to feel the first rumbling in his loins.

"Easy, baby, you're going to make me shoot off early if you keep doing that." he gasped. Julie stood up, eased her skirt down her legs, letting it fall to the floor. Then she went to the edge of the desk in front of him and sat down on it. She pulled her legs up so that her high-heeled feet were on the desk next to her soaking wet pussy, her cuntlips gaping in desperate anticipation to receive his fuck-tool.

"Come and get it, Captain." Julie offered. Malone felt his cock throb a little extra at the sight of his wanton Detective's lewd pose. She wanted to mate! and he intended to fulfill her desires.