Case of the Parole Officer Ch. 01

"We wiped those out." said Laura.

"In the Middle East, yes." I said. "But everywhere? And he still could've set up new operations, financed by rogue nations... or even the Russian Federation itself. Mr. Putin likes to avail himself of the abilities of talented people."

"Sir," said Jack Muscone, "I think this is another one of those 'Salem' moments." He meant that I was doing or realizing something that would've had me burned at the stake 400 years ago.

"Yes, I agree." said the DepDirector, working hard to control himself at the moment. "So, Commander, he didn't run. Why not?"

"He cut a deal... to save his wife's life, which was under threat by our Consultant of Crime. She inherits what money her husband had left in trusts, she'll live comfortably for the rest of her life, and he doesn't have to live the rest of his life in the misery of having to stay on the run and to rebuild at the mercy of a benefactor... especially one like the aforementioned Mr. Putin."

"Even accepting that," said the DepDirector, "let's not play games here: your Consultant got you to do his dirty work. Call it suicide if you like, and I understand 'plausible deniability', but admit it... he manipulated you."

"All right." I said agreeably. "I admit that he manipulated me." I was unable to keep a sly grin off my face. The Director noticed, his eyes narrowing as he peered at me.

"And speaking of manipulation," said the DepDirector, "Wargrave tried to manipulate you into killing one of my agents. Don't get me wrong, I'm very happy that failed... but it was Eckhart's process that might have made that possible in the first place. Why shouldn't I have that place shut down, and Eckhart in prison for the rest of his life?" Laura looked over at me, unable to hide the worry in her face.

"Because, sir," I said with alacrity, "you want to take down Superior Bloodlines." Who did this man think he was playing games with? I thought to myself.

The Director understood, as did Muscone. "So... what do we do now?" Muscone asked.

"You can call the lawyers of Gresham & Mason, P.C." I said, my voice inflective of a joke, but a serious clue underlying my comment. The Director looked like he wanted to shout at me, but held himself, then realized what I was saying.

"Yes." he said. "We've already been looking into that. Jack, what do you have?"

"It may be the inroad we need." said Muscone. "We've very quietly looked into the many offices of Gresham & Mason and their associate law firms around the country. They have offices in cities, but those may be to facilitate their operations in smaller counties and communities. We've found many places where they're operating and the same political things happening that occurred in Apple Grove, in this Town and County, and in California, where Sergeant Carroll's buddy Patrolman Delmar found work."

"Ah, him again." I said.

"Yes." said the Director, getting up. "I have to go back to Washington tonight. I'll try to convince the top brass that Wargrave's death is not the huge setback they think it is."

"Don't worry." said Laura. "I've already taken care of that... as have the top brass in my Company." The Director looked something between shocked and angry, but said no more.

As Laura and I left with Jack, I said "Jack, why don't you join Laura and me at the Chop House for dinner, my treat."

"Sure." said Jack. "But let me pay for it, and expense it. I do owe you for not really shooting me, even if my boss is pissed off about not being told about that."

"It was for the best." Laura said. "If you knew, Don's ruse might not have worked--" She was interrupted by an insistent ringing of her cell phone, her 'Company business' phone. She took the call.

"Happy happy, joy joy." she said as she hung up. "I get to go to Washington for meetings, also. But they can wait; I'm not going to miss a good steak dinner..."

Part 4 - The Meeting

"This is Bettina Wurtzburg, KXTC Channel Two News!" blared the lovely redheaded reporterette at 7:00am, Tuesday, June 30th. "Channel Two News has learned that the burglary at the home of Hamilton Myers in the Heritage Cloisters neighborhood is the latest of no less than six burglaries in that subdivision in the last three months, and there were three other burglaries in other affluent neighborhoods north of Town, as well."

"The Town & County Police Force issued a statement saying only that they are continuing to investigate the crimes, and that they have increased patrols in the Third Precinct, where these burglaries were committed. Asked why Commander Troy's Police Force has not yet solved these crimes, Sheriff Daniel Allgood said, and I quote: 'Commander Troy carries a crowbar, not a magic wand. His Police Force is working on the cases. Crimes such as these are not often solved within a day or two, and KXTC is being unfair to suggest that they should be.'."

Bettina continued: "Town & County Councilman Thomas P. Cook issued a statement on behalf of the Council, saying 'The Council has heard the concerns of our citizens, and we expect the Police Force to work diligently to solve these burglaries and prevent future ones.'. Councilman John Colby issued a counter-statement on behalf of several Council members, saying that the Police Force was doing an excellent job, as always, and he had full confidence they would solve the cases..."

"Hoo boy." I muttered as I drank my coffee with Cindy and the MCD Detectives in the MCD room. "Okay guys, my ass hurts already in anticipation, but it is my fault that we have not paid more attention to this. So Perlman, start looking into these cases. Work with Croyle on the ones Vice has been looking into, see if you can find some common patterns."

"Yes sir." Tanya said soberly.

"Commander," said Detective Theo Washington, "are they really so jaded they expect you to solve everything in minutes?"

"When I was at Airborne School," I said, "I had to go through a drill of doing parachute landing falls, and had to do a lot very quickly. When I did them all, the 'Black Hat' there made me do pushups, and he said 'You're too good for your own good.'. Well, this is the same damn thing: the price of us, not just me but all of you, doing a good job... and I get to do the equivalent of push-ups for it. Don't sweat it; let's get up to speed and get this done so we can stop the Press bashing."

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

At 8:30am, I met with "Crowbar's Angels" in my office: Cindy, Teresa, and Tanya.

"Okay, guys." I said. "Did we get anything overnight on the Myers case?"

"A lot, sir." said Teresa. "And by the way, Sonali is working like a dog on this one. Maybe it's the glare of the spotlight on her, but she has come up with a lot of stuff. First, she came up with three good matches for the possible perp:

"David Bacon is a hippie-type that has a record of burglaries where he deactivates alarms. But he mostly steals cars, and last Wednesday he was in California. He played in a chess tournament this past weekend, and was at a chess club that Wednesday night playing blitz chess with about twenty other people.

"The second name to come up was your buddy 'Dirty Lennie'. Probably because he rents and uses trucks to haul contraband, particularly drugs. For example, he rented the trucks that delivered the caches of diamonds we finally caught. It took some digging to get through the layers, but we're starting to put together a string of such rentals. There are two issues, though: first, he's not known to be a cat burglar; and second, he was in the Precinct Two jail Wednesday night after getting into a fight at a bar in the Tenderloin District Tuesday night, and he didn't get out until Saturday, when the County Solicitor ultimately declined to press charges."

"Ah, disappointing that charged were not pressed." I said.

"Solicitor Walters said the complaints about Lennie's hygiene and bad odor was a contributor in getting him out of our clean jails." said Teresa.

I laughed. "Can't argue with that. And third?"

"Much more interesting." Teresa replied. "Howard Spratt, called 'Howie', and known in the criminal world as 'Jack Spratt'. Yes, he's lean, slender build, about 5'8", so not very tall, dark brown hair, very dark brown eyes. Did prison time for a series of burglaries about three years ago, released on parole earlier this year, no problems since his release. But he's reputed to be good at defeating alarm systems."

I reached out my hand and Teresa gave me the file, which included his mugshot. "He's our best shot." I said. "Put out an APB and bring him in, under arrest for suspicion of burglary. If it's not him, he may know something about these crimes at the Cloisters and give us something. At the worst, he goes free in 24 hours, having been gifted three free meals courtesy of the County. And give Sonali my compliments on her good work..."

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

At 10:00am, the local equivalent of Airborne School's 'break area procedures' commenced, and it was not pretty.

I was not called onto the carpet individually, as I'd expected to be. No, the Chief decided to make this one a dressing down of all of his top Staff, sharing the humiliation. The meeting was in the Main Conference Room. I was at the far end of the table, Cindy Ross to my left, Teresa Croyle next to her, then Supervisor Myron Milton. On my right was Tanya Perlman, then Lieutenant Wes 'Coldiron' Masters, then 3d Precinct Captain Susan Weston.

Sitting off to my right side, not at the table but in the corner, was Sheriff Daniel Allgood. Sitting to the Chief's left, not at the table, was Deputy Chief Brownlee... who was barely able to hide his glee at the situation.

At the head of the table was Chief Harold Bennett, who said "The Press has ambushed us very well this morning. The Sheriff and I are being beaten up one side and down the other by the Press as well as the Council, not to mention very rich residents of the wealthiest subdivisions in the County who are very angry. Commander Troy, why haven't you solved these cases yet?"

"I take full responsibility for not correlating these cases and prioritizing them as a spree." I said. "We are working on them, and just put out an APB for a person of interest."

The Chief was not mollified. "Okay, everyone, I'll just get this out now: I understand that the Commander has been very busy, and pulled in many directions these past few months. Not to mention him being kidnapped one night. And I can't argue with the results of his work: he solved two murders, took down one of the City Police Department's highest officers for those murders, and was instrumental in bringing the Wargrave case to its conclusion."

"What bothers me," the Chief then said, "is that this Police Force seems to be totally reliant upon Commander Troy to get anything solved. I need to know that when he is not here, crimes will continue to be solved. Everyone in this room, except the Sheriff and Deputy Chief Brownlee, is at least partially responsible for this failure to quickly solve these burglaries, and that includes me at the top. I need for some of you here, especially those of you in leadership positions, to step up and bring your 'A' games, especially when Commander Troy is not here."

He was not looking at Cindy as he said it, but did furtively glance in her direction several times. I felt relief that Cindy's face remained passive, not letting Bennett get to her.

Meanwhile, the Chief looked at some notes, then said "There's still a problem, here. I understand that of these nine cases, only this last one was given directly to MCD. Of the other eight, six calls went to Precinct Three. What happened there, Captain Weston? Why didn't you call in Detectives from MCD or Vice?"

"We did, sir, on four of the six." said PCpt. Weston. "On the other two, the homeowners told the responding officers that they were calling the police only because their insurance companies demanded it. My officers took their statements and canvassed the neighborhood to see if anything unusual was seen, but the homeowners didn't even want the Crime Lab people there. And on the other four, we notified Headquarters but never heard back."

"So, Captain Ross," said Chief Bennett acidly, "what happened?"

Cindy replied, "Sir, Detectives responded to those calls. Only one case was as big as the Myers case, though, where a considerable amount of considerable value was taken. The rest were smaller, with only one or a few items taken, but we did look into them. Nash responded to one, Washington to one, Parker to two of them. Their investigations are ongoing."

"But not very well, it looks like." said Deputy Chief Brownlee, taking a cheap shot.

"And how would you have any idea of that?" retorted Captain Ross, not taking any shit from Brownlee.

"You forget yourself, Captain." Chief Bennett quickly interjected. "That's a Commander you're talking to, and--"

"Then consider that to have come from me, Chief." I said, interrupting and near anger, my voice carrying strongly through the room. "Captain Ross is correct: it's not Paper Pusher's job to overwatch the Detectives. And if he does know all that much about it, then I'm going to wonder why he's sticking his nose where it doesn't belong, and particularly onto my turf. And I tend to punch noses that wrongly stick themselves onto my turf, literally if not figuratively."

Brownlee glaring at me did not bother me. It was Chief Bennett who was also glaring at me, and I was staring right back at him.

"Okay, guys," said Sheriff Allgood. "Let's get back to business. Captain Ross, you were saying something about the ongoing investigation?"

"Yes, Sheriff." Cindy said. "My Detectives have done everything correctly to this point. We haven't had any leads, but it's not from their lack of effort. We're correlating everything now to see if there is any commonality in the crimes, but for the most part there are enough differences to suggest that they've been done by different perps. It may not be a spree."

"That's interesting." I said, thinking out loud and near a reverie.

"Chief," said Precinct Captain Weston, "I would like to suggest at this time that it might be much better if I had Detectives dedicated to my Precinct. I could assign them cases immediately without going through the red tape of calling Headquarters, only to be ignored by Lieutenant Perlman, and none of these problems might have happened."

"I totally agree with that, Chief." piped in Brownlee. "We should assign Detectives to Precincts."

"That's ridiculous." I said, now seeing fully why Brownlee was even in this meeting. "Spreading the Detectives out only hinders communications, makes things worse than what's happening now. We can learn from our mistakes on this case and take steps to do better communicating and working together to find those correlations between crimes, but assigning Detectives to Precincts is exactly the opposite and wrong way to go."

"But look at the disaster now, Chief." retorted Brownlee. "Troy's way hasn't worked at all; it's time to try something different. The Nazis lost World War II because they were too centralized. We need to give our Precinct Captains the tools they need to do their jobs."

"It's something to consider--" said Bennett, looking not at me, but at Cindy.

"No, it's not." replied Sheriff Allgood, his voice cutting in and making people almost jump... even me. "I agree with Commander Troy completely on this, and I'll just tell you right now that while I try to let you guys run the Police Force, I will step in and kill any attempt to assign the core Detectives to Precincts. And you may be sure that I'll have the Council backing me up on it. Anyone who does not fully agree with that can leave their resignations with me before the exiting the room." Daniel stared directly at Brownlee as he said the last sentence.

Well, that ends that, I thought to myself with great relief in the awkward silence in the room.

Allgood said "Okay, let's wrap this up. We can have recriminations and work on better communications later. What is going on about catching perps and preventing future burglaries?"

Lieutenant Masters said "We have increased patrols in the affluent areas, and I've put out word to all the Precincts to be on the lookout for suspicious delivery trucks and suspicious activities related to them."

"We have an APB out for a possible suspect in the Myers crime." said Lt. Perlman.

"The Data teams have already gathered a lot of information." said Cpt. Ross, "and they're still working it."

"Okay, let's get back to work." said Chief Bennett. "All of you, go. Commander, I need to speak with you privately for a moment."

Daniel came over to me. "Need me to stay?"

"No." I whispered back. "I got it." Daniel left with everyone else.

In the silence of the room, the Chief looked at me across the table, as if marshaling his thoughts and considering what to say. Finally he spoke: "I did mean that when I said your people need to be able to continue in your absence. I really am disappointed in them."

"I'm not sure I understand your expectation of perfection from them." I replied. "As I said, it's my responsibility that these cases weren't handled better."

"I don't agree." said Bennett. "To be honest, your position is one where you should be delegating just about everything. Only your incredible deductive abilities keep you in the field when you really should not be. Meanwhile, Lt. Croyle is doing okay in Vice, but Captain Ross and Lt. Perlman are not running with the ball when you hand it off to them, which is what you're doing when you're not here. I do expect more than I'm seeing right now."

"Sir, may I speak freely?" I asked.

"No." said Bennett. "No, you may not. Anything you want to say, it needs to be within protocols."

"Then I'll speak within protocols." I said, standing up, and to hell with it if this guy wants to fire me to spite his own face. "Chief, I don't know what you have against my people, particularly Captain Ross, but if you have a problem with them, you come to me. My people, and especially Captain Ross, are doing a very good job. No, they're not perfect; neither am I. But they have done and are doing a lot. What you did to us today, Chief... that wasn't right."

"Okay, you want me to come to you?" said Bennett, staring coldly at me. "Then consider this my official complaint: I don't think Captain Ross has what it takes to do the job in your absence. I consider this failure to be her fault and a result of her lack of leadership and attention to detail. And that is for the record, not off the record. I don't give a shit about the nepotism issue, but you better get her to the point she can handle the position you've put her in, or I will be going to the Sheriff and even the Council to do something about it."

After a moment of silence I said "Is that all, sir?"

"Yes. Go." replied the Chief. I left the Conference Room, noticing that Daniel went into the Conference Room and shut the door before the Chief could make it out of there. I went to my office, where my 'Angels' were gathered. I made another observation as I went around to my chair behind my desk.

"My office furniture appreciates you confiscating the blue crowbar, Lt. Croyle." I said, seeing the object in Teresa's hands.

"That was to keep me from using it on you." replied Cindy, who was anything but happy at the moment. "You, sir, could have and should have been the Chief of Police of this Force, but you didn't take it. You fucked up." That last line stunned Teresa and Tanya.

I just stayed calm, and then made a point to take my badge off my shirt and place it on the table. "Put 'em on the desk, ladies." I said. They did so, putting their badges next to mine as I opened my bottom right drawer, took out the bottle of peppermint schnapps and four shot glasses, and poured four drinks.