Casting Aspersions Ch. 02

Jocelyn Moran stood up and pointed her finger at Allgood and said "That was racist! I'm bringing Federal criminal charges against you, Cracker!"

Suddenly the door opened, and in walked the Intendent, Mrs. Peabody. She was followed by FBI EAD Owen Lange and FBI Special Agents Julius Jefferson and Lindy Linares. He stepped up to Jocelyn Moran.

"No, you're not, if you know what's good for you." the EAD said. He exhibited a document. "This is a Federal warrant to arrest you as a person of interest in the murder of Louella Hopper."

"What?!" said Jocelyn Moran. "I'm not going anywhere with you." Her two associates moved closer to her, protectively. Teresa took my red crowbar out of my hands and moved towards them.

"Yes you are." said Lange. "All three of you are coming to the Federal Building, and under arrest if need be."

"For what reason? shouted Moran.

"For being a person of interest in the murder of Louella Hopper." said the EAD. "Everything will be explained at the Federal Building, but you're with us now."

Moran had looked at the warrant, and also saw that she had no allies beyond her two henchmen... who Teresa Croyle could whip all by herself. "All right, let's go." she said to her henchmen.

As they left, I moved to Reginald Lewis in his chair. "Stand up, Lewis. I said.

"Are you fucking kidding me?" shouted Lewis.

"The Mayor is having you arrested, and I agree that you committed the crimes." I said. "Now you can stand up, or I will physically remove you from that chair, cuff you, and drag you to Police Headquarters. Move."

Lewis reluctantly got up. I affixed handcuffs to his wrists behind his back, and I marched him out of the room.

"You fucking son of a bitch!" yelled Kelly Carnes. "I'll have your fucking badge!---" She stopped as a red crowbar was jammed against her neck.

"One more word out of you, bitch," Teresa said, the quietness of her voice belying the fury inside her, "and I will throw what's left of your body in the jail cell with him."

"Let's go, Captain." said the Sheriff. "This whore isn't worth it. She's about to have some serious legal problems, too, if I heard the Iron Crowbar right."

"And you did, Sheriff." said Teresa. To Carnes she said "I'll be back. Bitch." then turned and followed the Sheriff out the door.

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

Arriving at Police Headquarters, I took Reginald B.F. Lewis through the jail side door. Then I took off his handcuffs and said "Get the fuck out of my Police Station, dirtbag."

"What?" Lewis said, confused. "What the fuck is going on?"

"The meeting was over, so the Mayor really couldn't have you arrested. That was all me." I said. "And it's a reminder that I can, and will, arrest you any time I feel like it, and you'll go to prison for ten years. That really was racist hate-speech you used, and despite that idiot from the US DOJ's assertion that blacks can't commit hate crimes or use hate speech, I am eager to test her assertions by making an example out of you."

"You are one fucked up Cracker." Lewis said. I turned on him and he realized that it was about to get ugly for him.

"Yes I am." I said. "Wanna see just how fucked up I can make things?"

"So you going to take me back to City Hall?" Lewis asked, backing down for the moment.

"It's a warm night." I said. "You can walk."

"And what if I get mugged?" asked Lewis.

"Hey." I said. "The Police are only a phone call away, right?"

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

Going back to my office, I speed-dialed Cindy on her Police iPhone. "Hey, what's up?" I asked.

"I'm at the Hospital." Cindy said. "The Crime Lab is analyzing the waters, and it looks like J.P. Goldman and Ian McGillie's waters were spiked with ipecac. Goldman drank his, but McGhillie didn't. As you know, ipecac was a legal drug that was an expectorant and emetic, but is no longer generally prescribed and is hard to come by, and it's a poison in too high a dose. The Crime Lab will have to confirm this, but Dr. Morgan thinks what was in Mr. Goldman's bottle was a higher concentration than industrially made ipecac would've been, and therefore very poisonous to Mr. Goldman's system."

"How is Mr. Goldman?" I asked.

"He's had a rough go of it." said Cindy. "They've got him on an I.V. to prevent dehydration, and they've given him something to counteract the drugs and stop the dry heaves."

"That was really good of you to act so quickly to take those bottles into evidence." I said. "Power of the Vibe?"

"Maybe." Cindy said. "I knew something was wrong the minute he went down. Don... what was the motive of poisoning Mr. Goldman?"

"If Mr. McGhillie's water was also contaminated," I said, "then the motive obviously was to incapacitate one or two of the Republican Council Members. Did you hear about the MOV application? It got downgraded, to a Police Cross, and that was only after Susan Weston tried to downgrade it to a Distinguished Service Medal."

"Are you kidding?" Cindy gasped. Then she said "How's Teresa?"

"Bad." I said. "I still don't have my crowbar back..."

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

"All right, what's this about?" Jocelyn Moran demanded to know. Her two assistants were on either side of her.

"First, I'm going to read all three of you your rights." said Owen Lange. He did so from the card.

There was no reply when he asked if they understood the rights. Instead, Moran said "You better start explaining, and fast."

"I'll start at the beginning." said EAD Lange. "Last night a reporter dropped dead at a University dinner. She was murdered---"

"That's a local crime." said Moran. "So why am I in here now?"

"Let me finish, and I'll tell you." said Lange. "The investigation is going on at the local, State, and Federal levels. Louella Hopper, the victim, was a gossip columnist, and on her computer was an article she was about to publish. One of the items she was about to publish is that she had confirmation that your investigation of Mayor Allgood was predetermined to charge him with racial crimes no matter what the truth was, and that this was being done in collusion with State-level persons to force the Governor to suspend Mayor Allgood and then impeach the Governor whether or not he suspends the Mayor."


"So what." Moran said flatly.

"It means that you are a person of interest in the murder, and we have a few questions for you." said EAD Lange. "Are you or have you been in contact with any State or local-level officials regarding a predetermined outcome of your investigation of Daniel Allgood?"

"Gentlemen," Moran said to her two guys, "say nothing, answer no questions. I am demanding a lawyer before I answer any of your questions."

"Then call him or her, and get him or her up here." said Lange.

"Why don't we continue this in the morning, when my lawyer from the City can get here?" said Moran.

"Ms. Moran," said the EAD, "you don't seem to understand that you are under arrest. As person of interest in a murder and conspiracy investigation. And that this is a formal interrogation. I've got all night. Now call your lawyer and get them here, or answer my questions, or take the Fifth. In all these variations, you are not free to go; you will remain here until I am done with you..."

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

11:30pm, near the end of a long, exhausting day. The Cabin was empty except for me on the back deck. I heard Teresa drive up, then her walking around the side to the back deck.

"Here you go." she said, handing me my crowbar back. I had her sit down on the metal mesh loveseat with me. "How is Mr. Goldman?" she asked.

"He'll... recover." I said. "But he's an old man, and something like that would be hard on any of us."

"So this was a planned attack?" asked Teresa.

"I think so." I said. "Mr. McGhillie's water bottle was full of ipecac, too, but fortunately he didn't drink any of it.

"What's the motive?" asked Teresa. "Did they really poison a man, just to keep a good Police Officer from getting the MOV he deserved?"

"Looks that way." I said. "And all out of spite, and hatred."

"Did you really let Reginald Lewis go?" Teresa asked.

"Yeah." I said. "And I observed that he was very, very careful to not do or say anything until after the meeting was adjourned, and then he started goading the Mayor. They were clearly setting up Daniel, and Daniel almost bit."

"Well, moron Moran is under arrest now." said Teresa.

"For the time being." I said. "This really is an opportunity to dig deep into her, and see if we can find a collusion link. If we do, we'll embarrass the hell out of the DOJ."

"And save Daniel, and maybe the Governor." said Teresa. "By the way, when you do file the charges against Kelly Carnes, I want to personally make that arrest."

"Noooo problem." I said.

"How do you know she has illegal campaign finance issues?" Teresa asked.

"That... is what I wanted to talk to about tonight." I said. The bug-killer was 'on', and I picked up the infrared binoculars and looked very carefully around. Then I said in a very low whisper: "I have something to apologize to you about. When I told you that I destroyed McGinty's Materials, that was only partially the truth. I did destroy a lot of it, stuff pertaining to dead people or long-retired politicians, where the Materials are no longer harmful to them or helpful to me."

"But not all of them." Teresa said quietly, realizing where I was going with the conversation.

"Not all of them." I replied just as quietly. "I told you I destroyed them because I feared someone might capture you to get to me, and if they did to you what Dr. Casey B. Walker did to me," (Author's note: 'Dream Weaver') "all you could tell them is what I told you. And when those bastards captured and tortured Todd, and Trent Ridge came after Carole, my first thought is that they were after McGinty's Materials, not the Mutanix."

Teresa nodded. "I understand."

I said "I was hoping to be able to put out some deceptions, to control the narrative about the Materials. But something happened. The Feds told Louella Hopper that I have the Materials, and if you can't fathom why they wanted to deny Irwin the MOV, imagine how I can't fathom the Feds doing that to me."

"Is that the source of your friction with Jack Muscone?" Teresa asked.

I nodded. "By the way, Martin Nash and Julius Jefferson found the storage place. They found a room that was empty save for a playing card that was left on the floor, with the Sign of the Joker on it. Muscone showed it to me for a reaction, then later was forced to confess they'd found the place."

"You... you think Team Lazarus leaked that to Hopper?" Teresa asked, her voice sounding stunned.

"Someone in the FBI did." I replied. "And Jack is going to come correct with some names, or else."

"Or else... what?" Teresa asked.

"Just.. 'or else'." I said. "Anyway, I apologize for not telling you the full truth. I still have McGinty's Materials. And that's how I knew where to look to get the evidence on Kelly Carnes's campaign finances. She's been funneling money through her husband's dentistry business. The D.A. gets my phone call on that in the morning."

I continued: "You and Todd need to be very careful, and watch over your children. It's getting dangerous. If something does happen to me, you, and only you, will be given information to find the Materials, and you can light up the world to avenge me."

"And I will." Teresa promised.

*CLICK!*

The motion-sensor light attached to the wall of The Cabin came on, spooking us. As we looked behind us, a cat walked up along the deck, then jumped up on the railing. It had beautiful bengal-tiger stripes in gray, silver and black.

"Hello, Cat." I said as it looked at us. I made observations. "I think it's a 'she', and that she is pregnant."

Teresa said, "Where did she come from?"

"I don't know." I said. The motion sensor light went back off, plunging us back into darkness. I saw the headlight of a train coming out of the western horizon.

"I wanted to kill that bitch Carnes." said Teresa. "I haven't felt hat angry since... since the night I whipped Dean Allen's sorry ass. And the night I got home and my father had set the house on fire... Why? WHY did they do that to Irwin? Are they really that full of hate?"

"Yes." I said. "Yes they are." I felt Teresa collapse into me, and I held her as she silently wept in the dark of the night...

To be continued.