Case of the Fertilized Fish Ch. 01

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"We're not trying to jack you up, here." I said to the warehouse floor manager, a short, harassed-looking man with a full reddish beard and mustache.. "We're just checking up on a delivery that wasn't made yesterday."

"And I'm telling you, all our deliveries were made yesterday." the man said.

"Even the ones by David Griese?" I asked. Seeing the man visibly start, I said "Yeah, that's right, he didn't come in. And we got a complaint about a delivery he was supposed to make, but didn't. Like I said, dude, we're not trying to jack you up here. We just need to know about his shipment."

"All right." the man said, then dropped his voice, as if sharing a secret. "Greezy didn't show up for work, and we couldn't get him on the phone. He's been late before, but he's never just not shown up by ten a.m. This time, though, we got a phone call asking about the shipment, so we had Ted take it."

"And who was the recipient?" I asked.

The man looked at his paperwork, or at least pretended to. "Yeah, there it is. Dan and Julie's."

"The Package Store?" asked Nick.

"Yeah." said the man.

"All right, thanks." I said. "We'll check up with them, and if the stories match, there won't be any problems a'tall..."

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It was after 4:00pm, April 3rd, when we arrived at the building. On the left side was a package store with bars behind the windows. The sign above it said 'Dan & Julie's Fine Wines and Spirits'.

"Hey would ya look at that." I said, pointing to the store to the right of the bottle shop. "That can't be a coincidence." The sign on it said 'Dan & Julie's Exotic Fish and Pets'.

"No, it can't be." said Detective Adrian. "You wanna check it out while I go into the Bottle Shop?"

"Sure." I said. As Nick went for the door on the left, I went up to the door about ten yards to the right of it. Alas, the door was locked. I could not see inside, as the shades were drawn.

I went over to the Package Store. Behind the counter was an attractive young woman with a lot of curly auburn hair. Her nametag showed me that her name was Shayla.

"No, Dan and Julie are not here." Shayla was telling Nick. "They've been gone over a week, on bourbon hunting trips. Right now they're in Gainesville, Florida, and then they're going to the 'Pours In The Park' event. Next to the World Whiskey Tasting Championships, it's one of the biggest bourbon events in the nation. Oh, can I help you, sir?" she added as I walked up to the counter.

"I'm with him." I said, nodding slightly at Nick, then said "I see you have a lot of Old Carter here. That's hard to get, isn't it?"

Shayla said "Dan and Julie have some of the best connections. They're the people to contact if you want Old Carter. They get Pappy Van Winkle when no one else can, either."

"And Alec Bradley cigars." I said. "They're the best. I'm going to buy a box before we leave."

"They go great with Scotch." Shayla said. "I'm the Scotch aficionado here. My co-worker Matt is the bourbon expert."

Nick Adrian said "Let me ask you this. You didn't get a shipment yesterday morning?"

Shayla said "Oh no, we did get it. It was just late. The truck usually comes in before ten, but yesterday it came about two in the afternoon. Matt took care of it."

She called Matt to come to the counter. Matt Beverly had a trimmed beard and hair that was dark red, not too far from Shayla's. He had been a 'big guy' in the past, but had clearly gotten in shape and lost weight, which was commendable. We didn't know it at the time, but he was one of the best bourbon tasters in the world, having won some of the most prestigious competitions.

"That's right." Matt said in reply to Nick's query. "It was a little late, but I didn't think much of it.

"Was it your normal delivery guy?" asked Nick.

"No, it wasn't Greezy, the normal delivery man, it was someone else with the same distributors." Matt replied.

"Did you call the distributor about the shipment not arriving?" I asked. "Or maybe you did, Shayla?"

Matt replied "No, I didn't call them. I didn't even realize the shipment was late."

Shayla said "I didn't call them, either."

I said "The place next door, is that Dan and Julie's business, too?"

"Sure is." said Matt. "But it's not always open. Usually a buyer will make an appointment."

"What do you sell there?" I asked.

Shayla said "Mostly pets in aquariums and tanks. Fish, snakes, stuff like that. They have some endangered species conservation projects, too."

"That sounds fascinating." I said. "Mind if we take a quick peek? And then I'll come back in here and buy that box of the Alec Bradley cigars before we go."

"Sure!" Shayla said enthusiastically. Matt seemed more reluctant, but he was persuaded to let us look. He took us through the back and down a hallway, then into the pet store.

The door to the outside was on the left side of the front wall, the rest of it being windows covered by blinds. On the left wall, to our right entering from the back, were glass tanks on shelves. Most of them had snakes or amphibians residing in them.

"This one must be from Florida." I said, pointing to one.

"Yes, Dan and Julie captured that guy when they were in Florida a while back." said Matt. "Good thing they didn't step on it; it's a coral snake, and deadly."

"How can you tell it's not a king snake?" asked Nick.

"Red is touching yellow." I said, pointing at the snake's bands of colors. "Red touches yellow, he'll kill a fellow. Red touches black, pat him on the back."

"Or just leave 'em alone no matter what they are." Nick said. Then he looked over at the other side of the room. Fish tanks were on horizontal tables that went down the length of the room. In the right rear corner was a fairly large tank that was on a bench, and was lower to the floor than the others.

"Check that out." I said, pointing at it. The tank was less than half-full, and water was all over the floor in front of it.

"What the hell?" Matt asked. He was about to go over to it, but Detective Adrian stopped him.

"Hold on." Nick said. "Something's happened, here. When was the last time you came in here?"

"On the morning of April 1st, to feed all the fish and the snakes." Matt said. "That tank was full of water. It must be leaking. I need to get the axolotls into another tank."

"It's not leaking." I said. "What are axolotls?"

"Mexican walking fish." Matt said, pointing at two pink creatures in the aquarium that had little arms, but also had what looked like hair around their gills.

Matt continued: "They're actually part of the salamander family. They only exist naturally in a lake near Mexico City, and they're critically endangered, so they're worth a lot of money. Dan and Julie were trying to help these two be fruitful and multiply."

"Whaddya think, Russ?" Detective Adrian asked me.

I said "I think we've found our crime scene."

Matt said "What, did someone try to steal the axolotls?"

"No." said Nick Adrian. "We're looking at murder in the first, here. Of a human being..."

Part 4 - The Police and The Press

The Spring Valley Police CSI Team had swooped down on Dan & Julie's Exotic Fish and Pets. In what can only be described as a 'first' for the local investigators, swabs were taken from the axolotls for potential DNA comparison to what was found in Dan Griese's lungs.

The next morning, April 4th, I was 'invited' to a meeting in the conference room at SVPD Headquarters. Detective Nick Adrian met me at the door. As he led me up to the conference room, he said "The Lieutenant is pretty pissed off at you, but since you got us a crime scene, he's letting you come to this meeting. But you need to keep your mouth shut and not do anything to rile him up, okay?"

"I'm the strong, silent type." I said reassuringly. Nick rolled his eyes, not reassured.

In the meeting, Martha the M.E. was there, and give us the rundown: "Female axolotls begin the mating process by rubbing the male's cloaca, which is the opening that releases both wastes and reproductive material. When she does, he releases little cone-shaped sperm packets. When he drops his load, she grabs those sperm sacs with her cloaca, uses the sperm to fertilize her eggs, and lays them in the vegetation on the riverbed floor, in this case the aquarium floor."

Martha: "The full DNA tests won't be back for two weeks, but early markers suggest that what the murder victim swallowed was one of those sperm packets. And if the DNA matches the sample we took of the male axolotl in the tank at Dan & Julie's, you've got confirmation of a crime scene."

So the guy died swallowing fish sperm, I thought to myself. Helluva way to go. There are worse ways, I'm sure, but that's pretty sordid.

"What do we have on this David Griese?" asked Lt. Bentley Bayse.

Officer Kira David said: "I've got some information on him. His finances aren't much to look at. Several thousand in credit card debt, and the cards are cut off. He had a Bankruptcy discharge four years ago, and he's accumulated more debt since. He does have one claim to fame: he won a whiskey tasting contest, one of the big ones, a while back. But some people think he won because he cheated."

"How can you cheat in a whiskey tasting contest?" I asked.

"He may have had prior knowledge of which whiskeys would be used in the contest." said Sergeant Graves. "He could then taste them in advance, and therefore know what he was tasting during the contest."

"Let's move on." said Bayse. "You were saying, Kira?"

Kira David: "Yes sir. Griese has a State-issued Class 5 CDL (commercial drivers license), which was suspended two years ago and reinstated this past January. He's employed by Huxtable Distributors, LLC, as an employee, not a contractor. His job title is listed as a warehouse manager. The State Tax Authority has no 1099 records on him, which he'd be getting as an independent contractor, and he hasn't listed any independent income on his returns for the past four years."

"Why was his CDL suspended?" asked Nick Adrian.

"And more importantly," I added, "why was it reinstated?"

Kira said "It was suspended after a truck he was driving was found to have twice the amount of pharmaceutical fentanyl citrate than what was listed on the manifest."

"And he didn't go to prison?" Sergeant Graves asked, more like growled.

"No." Kira said. "The Feds worked him over really hard, then offered him a plea deal if he cooperated with them and participated in a sting to nab his partners. But he adamantly denied knowing about the extra inventory, and strongly denied involvement in any ring or conspiracy. The DEA denied him legal representation for six days while they all but renditioned him, but he finally was able to get a really good lawyer, who fought savagely for him in Federal Court and shredded the DEA and the U.S. Attorney."

Kira: "After that, the Court dropped all criminal charges with prejudice, but the Feds and the State did him dirty by having his CDL and all his truck permits suspended. As to his CDL's reinstatement, there's no reason listed; it was simply re-issued."

I said "Hmmm... any State Senators we know of that might be involved in this case, that could pull strings to have his license reinstated?"

"What are you saying, Ferrament?" Lieutenant Bayse snarled, his voice low and menacing.

"Sounds pretty obvious." replied Sergeant Graves fearlessly, staring hard at Bayse. "He's asking a very pertinent question about the involvement of Mitt Willard in this case. And he's right to do so."

"You better have some fucking proof before you go off making accusations or even implications like that." snarled Bayse, his face becoming contorted. "Okay, let's move on... what about Laura Thornwell and her company, Huxtable Distributors?"

"Isn't Mitt Willard 50% owner of Huxtable?" I asked, peering hard at Bayse.

"Thornwell." replied Bayse, glaring back at me. "Give me a report on Thornwell."

Officer Kira David said "Laura Washington married Calvin Knox Thornwell eight years ago. Huxtable was Mr. Thornwell's parents's business, and it was doing very well. Then his parents died, and Huxtable was inherited by Knox and his sister, Lenore. Four years ago, Lenore married Mitt Willard. He also became part of the business, and ended up working with their Sales & Marketing people."

Kira: "Knox and Lenore weren't wealthy, at least not until she married Willard. Knox and Laura lived in a split-level home in the relatively modest Kensington subdivision, which was his home before they married. Lenore lived in a two-bedroom apartment until she met Mitt Willard, then moved into his home after they became engaged."

"As to Laura Thornwell," Kira continued, "her family, especially her mother's family, the Hamiltons, were believed to be very wealthy, and had land holdings and stakes in banks... as in the Big Boy banks. But when her mother died, Laura listed on her taxes as inheriting a grand total of $400,000. The IRS did forensic audits, and could not find any more money, but they never stopped believing she has more money... a lot more money... hidden away somewhere, maybe offshore."

Kira: "As to Huxtable Distributors, they created a niche where they deliver and distribute things that are very tightly controlled by the Federal Government and also State Governments. Alcohol, pharmaceuticals, including legal fentanyl citrate and cocaine hydrochloride, and things like exotic pets. Dan & Julie's businesses are not big customers of Huxtable, but they've been solid customers for years."

Kira: "Huxtable is known for developing good relationships with the Government officials they deal with. And the flip side of that coin is that there are whisperings that they leverage those friendships and political contributions into the Government looking the other way while 'extras' in the shipments go by undetected. But they've passed every forensic audit and inquiry that's come against them, and there have been a sharply increasing number of those since Mitt Willard was elected State Senator."

"Sounds like they'd be a perfect front company for smuggling drugs and contraband." growled Sergeant Graves. "No wonder Mitt Willard married Lenore Thornwell and tried to push his way into the company."

"I agree about the front company being a good smokescreen." replied Lieutenant Bayse. "But it's Laura Thornwell that benefited the most, from her marriage to inheriting the business."

"What about Dan and Julie?" asked Nick Adrian.

Kira said "They're totally clean, totally legit. They have other businesses, too; car dealerships, and stuff like that. She is a Registered Nurse, though she has not worked as one in a while. The whiskey shop and the pet store appear to be hobbies, labors of love, so to speak. The shops are making money, but not oodles of cash, and they could walk away from either, especially the pet store, at any time."

And then I opened my potty mouth. I wish I had put my foot in it, but I didn't. Instead I asked "What about the report of the explosion that killed Knox Thornwell and Lenore Willard? Did anyone get that?"

Kira David and Nick Adria both visibly winced, then Kira looked down at the table. Sergeant Graves rolled his eyes, then gave me a look connoting his total disgust with me for asking. Lieutenant Bayse's face was mottled with rage.

"I already TOLD you what was on that report!" Bayse yelled at the very top of his lungs as he jabbed his finger just inches from my face. "Now you fucking DROP it!"

Everyone was looking at him in shock. He took a breath, then said "Sergeant Graves, Officer David, get out of here and get back to work." Trevor Graves and Kira David quickly got up and left. Kira gave me a look of feeling sorry for me, and Graves gave me another look of anger and disgust as he passed by me.

Bayse said "I could have sworn... sworn... that I told you to drop this and stay out of it. And yet, here you are, hip-deep in the sewage. Now you did give us the crime scene, so I'm holding off arresting you for obstructing justice and interfering with a Police investigation. Just holding off, by a thread."

Then he fronted me, and said in a very menacing voice: "Now you listen and you listen good, Ferrament. Drop it, drop it completely. Walk away from it."

My look at him was more than skeptical, it was outright hostile, almost as bad as an Alabama fan would look at an Auburn fan rubbing it in about the 'Kick-Six'. Bayse met my glare, and then some.

"I know what you're thinking, Ferrament. And you're thinking with the wrong head." he said. "I'm not on the take. I'm not on Mitt Willard's payroll. Yeah, he's as dirty as they come, but I also know a few other things. I'll demonstrate this way: what is Laura Thornwell's phone number? How are you supposed to get in touch with her?"

After a long moment of awkward silence, he said "She didn't give you a way to contact her, did she? Only a promise to check in with you after a few days." He had my attention, that was for sure.

Bayse continued: "I'll bet that Laura Thornwell came to you with a sob story about Mitt Willard murdering her husband and sister-in-law, and maybe about this Greezy guy disappearing. She probably cried about Mitt Willard trying to steal her business, which is half his business as it is. And she asked you to find (air quotes) 'evidence' of Willard's involvement."

Bayse began pacing as he said "She probably underpaid you, promised you more, and then gave you a blowjob, or maybe even fucked you. And that's how I know you're thinking with the wrong head, because it's the one she was giving sexual attention to."

Bayse: "And then, poof! she's disappeared, leaving you holding the bag. Good luck getting paid by her; she's going to stay 'disappeared', because she knows she's the prime suspect in Greezy's murder."

"Why would she kill her fiancé?" I asked, my voice connoting my skepticism and hostility.

Bayse: "C'mon, Ferrament, use the head on your shoulders for a change. Do you really think the likes of women like her would marry a guy like Griese? Women marry up, Ferrament, not down! You know that! And what you need to know is that Laura Thornwell is not poor, she's not some lowborn Georgia hick that clawed her way up out of the mud."

Bayse: "Knox Thornwell, he was a businessman, he wasn't some low class loser. But that dame saw how she could use Huxtable to her advantage, so she pussywhipped Knox Thornwell and wrapped him around her finger, and got him to marry her. And then... poof! her house blows up, and she wasn't there because she forgot something and turned around to get it. How conveeeenient, wouldn't you say?"

Bayse: "And now she owns a business that is perfect for smuggling. She's an expert at hiding things; hiding money, hiding goods she uses her company to distribute illegally. She's manipulative as hell. And Huxtable Distributors has been crossing the line for a long, long time."

Bayse was on a rant, and he continued it: "I'll tell you something else, too: the Feds have been watching Huxtable for a while. Sure they're watching Mitt Willard, but they're really focusing on Laura Thornwell. I wouldn't be surprised if this Griese guy was an undercover Fed, or at least a C.I. for them... who do you think really got his CDL restored all of a sudden?"

"So do yourself a huge favor, Ferrament." Bayse said, finishing up his verbal barrage, and peering at my face for clues to the effect his mental blows were having on my psyche. "Walk away. Just walk away from this one. Take your losses, and move on. There are a lot more fish in the sea... not to mention axolotl tanks."

I said nothing as I stared at him, wondering how he knew so much so well. If anything, what he said was doing nothing but reaffirming my suspicions that he was on the take.