Case of the Fake Badges Ch. 05

"Why?" asked Sandra Speer.

"If you'll permit me," I said, "I'll come back around to that. The next crime was Richard Norris's body being found in Hamilton County, killed by a method that we've seen before in this County: a large needle injecting drugs directly into the brain. At first glance, this looked like it was connected to the Pawn Shop crime, since Norris was Knight's partner. But we had a second anomaly that seemingly had no connection: the badge of Watch Captain Lockhart of the Prison System."

"And this, Sandra," I said, "is why I eliminated Knight's involvement in the Belfort Badge and in Norris's killing. Knight was in jail and unable to plant a badge on Norris. Also, if Knight wanted Norris dead, he could've killed Norris when he killed Bishop. I suspect Knight instead wanted Norris to be the suspect, as Knight was seemingly shot by an intruder."

"Couldn't Knight have killed Norris, dumped him or had Bonita dump him, and therefore still have planted both badges?" The question came from a very astute Teresa Croyle. "And to that, if Knight wanted Norris to be the suspect, it makes him planting the Belfort badge even more likely."

"True." I said. "Let me take these one at a time. First, Knight was so adamant about not knowing anything about the Belfort badge that I actually believed him. Lt. Croyle, how many times have you seen perps go through the motions on being accused of drug distribution when they're guilty, but then fight like hell when they are accused of something they didn't do?"

Teresa nodded vigorously in agreement at that point as I continued: "So with Knight screaming that he knew nothing about a badge even in the face of getting Death off the table in an plea deal, it caused me to think maybe he wasn't involved. And then the other badges showed up, which Knight could not possibly have done himself, and that strengthened that hypothesis for me."

I went on: "As far as Norris and the badge on him: in thinking about a possible accomplice for Ben Knight, I first thought of Bonita and the possibility of Mr. Knight and Mrs. Bishop having an affair. But there were some problems with the scenario of her dumping the body: Norris is not a small man, being very tall, and it's not easy dragging a big man out of the trunk of a car and dumping him. I'll come back around to this.

"Meanwhile, Norris is dead, so I'm thinking that this is getting to be a pretty complex situation with lots of moving parts... or else this was all being staged with the intent to make it look more complex than it really was. So I re-evaluated Norris."

I continued: "I saw that he was something of an idealist, do-the-right-thing type of guy, and when he was appointed to the City Housing Authority, he idealistically tried to clean up some of the bureaucratic mess. He tried to light a fire under the asses of some do-nothings, but Louise Belfort showed him the power of corruption, bureaucracy, racial politics, and Government waste, fraud and abuse by bringing racism charges against him when he wrote her up for being a worthless piece of crap."

"As it turned out," I went on, "he was right about her, but the Government bureaucracy brought the hammer down on him, instead. He had to retain legal counsel, at great expense to himself, to save his name and reputation. To sum up, I would venture to guess that he left that post very embittered at both Government and a Republican Party that had not supported him because they were too gutless to stand up to political correctness like he did." There were murmurs of agreement... I think it was agreement.

"Anyway," I said, "I could see Norris planting the Belfort badge, but I didn't see him being a part of the Bishop crime. Knight wanted all the money for himself, and Bonita; I would think Norris would want all the money for him-self if he were going to do this. All in all, I was not seeing Richard Norris as a criminal. But he did end up dead."

"Question." said Sheriff Allgood. "What about the Belfort badge?"

"Getting there. I'll come back around to it." I said, drawing some laughter, as I'd said that several times already.

"Okay, at least give us the motive for Norris before moving on?" asked Jack Muscone.

"Guys, give me a chance here." I said, becoming irritated. "You've got to let me lay this out my way. I'll answer all questions in due course and time." Everyone quietened down, perhaps because my blue eyes were throwing daggers at them as I stared around the table.

"Okay." I said. "There was no connection at all between Watch Captain Lockhart and Norris. I had had dealings with Lockhart at the time of the Priemus execution in Jacksonville, and I don't think he's particularly clean. I kept that in mind as we moved to the next crime, which was Gabe Wheeler, found with SBI Agent Ferrell's badge."

"Wheeler was a narc for the TCPD." I said. "I get a real sense that he was eliminated for that reason, but also to put the Ferrell badge upon him. That had to be, at least partially, to distract me or lead me down a path against Ferrell while other things were put into motion. By this time, several of the ideas I had about these cases were solidifying into a coherent theory."

"Which we cannot wait to hear." chided Cindy Ross, drawing laughter. A red crowbar was waved in her general direction.

"Getting there." I said. "Meanwhile, the fourth crime, Ivan Sebrovsky with Stevie Johnson's Southport Police Badge on it, occurred next. This one I'm not sure I can talk about."

"Yeah, you can." said Jack Muscone. That was the permission I needed.

"And I will in a moment." I said. "Meanwhile, there were two more 'Badge' crimes: Midtown Detective Frank Soltis's badge on Bonita Bishop, and an unassigned City Police Badge on the body of Midtown Assistant Chief Mark McCluskey."

I took a breath and said "Thank you for your patience in bearing with me to get to this point. I will now connect all the dots." There were cheers and mock applause. I love my team, I love my team, I love my team, I reminded myself...

"First, there were two parallel but separate threads, here." I said. "The victims, and the badge owners. The victims's roles are easy: almost all of them were narcs, C.I.s, or undercover operatives." I heard a slight gasp through the room.

"I can't understand why Bishop's money had drug residues," I said, "unless I understand that Quintus's entire operation is a front. This might be why Bonita left him, when she saw he wasn't in it for the money, but for something else. And that something else..." I said, looking around the room, "is that Bishop was working with the U.S. DEA in some capacity."

"Hand it over." Jack said to Eduardo. Eduardo took out his wallet and a twenty-dollar-bill exchanged hands. Cindy Ross was aggrieved.

"You guys just don't learn, do you?" she said. "Sandra, if you ever bet against the Iron Crowbar, I will arrest you!"

"Shhhh." said Sandra. "I'm taking Martin's money every few days." Cindy rolled her eyes as everyone else, including me, laughed.

"Sandra, Martin is letting you win..." I said. "...the same way I let my wife win all the family arguments. Smart man, that Nash guy." That got more laughter, and Sandra turned thoughtful...

"Okay." I said. "It really was all too easy to see. Quintus only had a few items in his pawnshop, and title deeds are not nearly as cash-rich and lucrative as this case would make it seem. In addition, Quintus played fast and loose with the rules on title deeds, so I realized his lack of fear of the Law on that was not out of thinking that forgiveness is easier to get than permission. So I wasn't really fooled by what was going on there. It just reeked of being a front for an undercover operation.

"In addition, Chaplain Steven Ikea of the SBI has told Inspector Maxwell here that Norris worked as a C.I. with him, but I think Ikea is a dumb shit that didn't realize Norris was also working with Bishop and the DEA, and was treating Ikea like a mushroom: keeping him in the dark and feeding him a lot of shit." Laughter erupted.

I went on: "Norris was such a goody-two-shoes that, after his brutal treatment at the hands of the political bureaucracy, the DEA took note of him and asked him to work with them. They played his sense of frustration at the corruption of the bureaucracy. So they and he worked with Quintus Bishop on intel-gathering missions in the County, and pipelines in and out of here. They might've been working on Malone's involvement back in the day, though maybe not. But I think that's what was going on. We may have touched the periphery of it during the 'Medical Murder' case... and the killings by the needle into the brain is common to both. But let me continue...

"As we've learned, Gabe Wheeler was a TCPD C.I." I said. "And who knows if he was more, but he was known, and was a convenient target when the time came. Sebrovsky had cut a deal with the FBI in New York City after getting busted, and he was an informant."

"Bonita Bishop broke the pattern." I said. "But I already had ideas enough to know that her death was for betraying her and Knight's benefactor, and to clean up that little mess."


"The Consultant of Crime?" asked Cindy. I nodded.

"And this is where we get back to Norris's body being dumped." I said. "No way Bonita does that by herself, not only physically, but because the bastard that killed Norris dead wanted Bonita dead, too. And he succeeded, I might add."

I went on: "Soltis's badge was placed on her to give McCluskey a chance to kill Captain Moynahan. This was a quid pro quo between McCluskey and the Consultant, serving both their purposes. But McCluskey was waylaid, run off the road, and executed as he pursued Moynahan up here. And a badge had to be planted, so one was planted... but it was unassigned."

"Ergo," I said, "those last two crimes were sort of appendages, and don't fully fit with the first four, though that unassigned City badge gives me ideas. And before you say it, Miss Ross, the connection is coming." A blue crowbar was waved in my general direction.

"This connection is more complex, and is why I've asked you here today." I said. "It goes something like this: Norris knew Louise Belfort was dirty at the time he was working with her, and attempted to get her fired. But she was protected and he was moved out. Why? Because Belfort was put where she was for a reason, and she was moved to the State Housing Authority for a reason: to recruit criminals for manpower."

"Watch-Captain Lockhart worked with Belfort, as well as on his own, to identify criminals that might work well as manpower for a certain... organization. Ferrell also is in a position to identify and point out criminals that are good leaders of drug organizations. And Stevie Johnson is Belfort's nephew, and has been recruiting from the Southport area. I might add that they all put these recruits to work in transportation hubs: City Airport, the City Railroad Yards, Southport and Jacksonville waterway shipping. Definitely some fertile ground for smuggling operations."

"Wow, that's a great job of correlating those things, Don." said Lindy Linares, whose eyes gave away her desire to jump me and fuck my brains out right there in front of everyone.

"I'm still waiting for them to smuggle in my order of stakes for the witch burning." Jack Muscone said. Tanya slapped him on the arm as she laughed.

"So you think these people with badges are dirty?" asked Paulina.

"Ohhhh, yes." I said emphatically. "Except for Soltis, of course. The others all replaced those badges with new ones, knew that they had done so, and lied about it when asked. They may or may not have gone through official channels for the replacements; Ferrell's gold badge suggests it wasn't the normal sources, but it could be that someone in a position to get them replacements and cover it up... did so. I haven't gone there very hard, at least not yet."

"So here's the thing." I said. "I don't have enough to bust these bastards. I don't really have the killer or killers of Norris, Wheeler, Bonita Bishop, and Sebrovsky, and we may never... all those were the work of the Consultant. But I would propose that we watch these people Belfort, Lockhart, Ferrell, and Johnson, and see what we can find... and ultimately act upon."

"What do you think it'll lead to?" asked Jack Muscone.

"Smuggling. Drugs, underage girls and boys for prostitution, maybe." I said. "Maybe even to money laundering for your boss's favorite targets, Jack, at least in the case of your buddy Ferrell." Jack barked a short laugh, fondly remembering how he beat the shit out of Ferrell at our Fairgrounds as we investigated the death of the Reverend Jonas Oldeeds.

I was not finished: "But I will also say this: when I talked about recruiting manpower... I was thinking of those criminals that attacked the nuclear power station. I'm thinking of disciplined groups of well-trained criminals, many with military backgrounds that are now in the Projects or in the prisons. Being recruited, trained, and exceptionally well-organized with iron discipline. That is what I see happening here, guys."

"Wow." said Britt Maxwell. "You've uncovered a huge operation here, if it pans out."

"Yes, this could be the first thread to pull that will unwind a huge curtain hiding some really bad stuff." said Muscone, beginning to grasp the sheer magnitude of it all. We discussed some ideas, Jack said he'd take it to his boss, and we finished our meals and got up to pay the bills and leave.

As we were heading out, I did hear Sandra Speer say to Eduardo Escobar "It is amazing how he figures things like that out." and Eduardo reply "Yeah... almost like he already knows the answers. I know he's been working on it, and finding things we don't know about... but it seems like he already knows more than he's letting on..."

Cindy rode with me in my Police SUV on the way back to Headquarters. She suddenly whirled towards me and said "I just realized that you never said who is actually planting those badges on the victims. So who did?"

"You tell me, Crowbar 2." I replied. "You've seen everything, heard everything."

"It could be our Consultant of Crime, but why would he expose what may be his own operation?" Cindy asked.

"Are you sure it's his operation?" I asked in reply.

"I can't imagine he'd try to use you to squelch competition." Cindy said. "I'd think he'd do what he normally does, and there'd be a lot of dead people lying around."

"And aren't there several dead bodies already?" I asked, this time sarcastically. Cindy's ice blue eyes flared with ice-cold anger.

"I mean State operatives with badges lying around, as opposed to just their badges." my partner replied sourly. "So, did the Consultant plant the badges?"

"That will be for you to figure out, now that the FBI is taking over the investigation into the corruption." I said. "But I will give you this one word as a clue: 'Porlock'."

That shut Cindy Ross up like nothing ever had before. She was lost in thought as we arrived at Headquarters...

Part 23 - Aftermath

"Goddammit, Charles!" yelled Russ Bronson. He was in the Conference Assistant Commissioner's office. "You left me hanging out to dry! I'm not exactly employed any more, and I spent a fortune on that lawyer to get the lawsuit ready! And then you go and pull the rug out from under me!"

"Look, Russ." said the CAC. "I did what I had to do. Pressure was brought to bear to drop the investigation. Very high level pressure. You have no idea what is going on above your head."

"Bullshit!" snarled Bronson. "I've half a mind to file that lawsuit anyway... do the job you won't do. Now I know how that punk Tim Dawdle felt when you bent him over and fucked him in the ass."

"Go fuck yourself, Bronson." snarled the CAC. "We had nothing to do with any of that."

"I meant the cover-up, not his murder." said Bronson.

"I don't care what you meant." said the Conference official. "Now what you need to do is go home, take some time off, and you'll have another job next year at the latest. Maybe as an assistant with a pro team or a major school, or head coach at a smaller school."

"What I need to do," threatened Bronson, "is find a way to fuck you over like you just fucked me. One day I will find a way... to roast your fat ass on a spit!" With that, the former Bulldogs coach stormed out of the room, slamming the door hard behind him.

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

"I asked him who planted the badges, and all he said was 'Porlock'." said Cindy. "It is fortunate for him that it's very hard to get leverage to swing a crowbar while sitting in a moving SUV."

She was sitting in her office behind her desk. Tanya Perlman was sitting on the love seat sofa, and Teresa Croyle straddling the chair at the side of the desk.

"Well, let's go ask him to be a little more forthcoming." said Tanya.

"We can't." Cindy said. "This has officially become an SBI Internal Affairs investigation, led by the Inspector of the SBI and Director of the Office of Ethics and Review, that being Britt Maxwell, with covert assistance from the City office of the FBI, that being Jack Muscone and his team. Don will probably be kept in the loop, but he says it's no longer in our hands and we can't even talk about it anymore, as it might affect future operations by our higher-level friends."

"By the way," said Cindy, "I can tell you that before she left, Britt Maxwell said she'd hired Frank Soltis away from the Midtown P.D., and he will be working with her on this case. My sister Molly was very happy to hear that."

"So am I. Good for him." Teresa said. "As to whoever planted the badges, maybe it was this Consultant of Crime. Certainly the killer or killers of each of the victims had to do the badge plantings."

"You know," Tanya said, "I'm not so sure. I was thinking about this for a while, and if you ask me what got Don onto the threads of this whole thing, it was finding those badges at the crime scene. This may sound weird, but it's as if whoever planted the badges wanted to help us get onto the scent of these perps."

"That's a good point." said Teresa. "But even if Ben Knight blacked out, there was only a small window of time for someone else to plant Belfort's badge. And who was around Norris's body but not involved with his killing? There was time for Wheeler, but Sebrovsky all the way down in Jacksonville, then finding Bonita Bishop who was in hiding? That'd be something."

"You raise good points." Cindy said. "Plenty of objections, but some interesting ideas."

"If it was someone wanting to help," Tanya said, "then it was someone who knew about the ring. And therefore, might have been watching, and was able to make the badge plants possible. Maybe someone on the inside, on the Consultant's payroll. That would be very much in line with Don's reference to 'Porlock'."

"Maybe he doesn't know for sure," said Cindy, "but wants to keep anything from getting back to the bad guys, and keep people from dying."

"People are already dying, though." said Teresa Croyle. "And I'm starting to believe The Abacus about Commander Troy knowing things in advance rather than figuring them out afterwards."

"Nooooo," Cindy said, "He's just good. He's just that good. You guys are that good, too... you just move your heads too much."

"Whaa?" Tanya asked. Cindy explained about Detective Theo Washington's observation of Commander Troy...

Part 24 - Epilogue

"I have to speak to the Intendent!" said the old woman to the Duty Desk Sergeant. "I have his badge right here, and I must return it."

"Ma'am," said the Duty Desk Sergeant, "you can leave that with me, but we don't have an officer by the name or title of 'Intendent'."