Casting Aspersions Ch. 03

I picked it back up: "We are looking to streamline and possibly centralize the process overall as part of revamping the Board of Commissioners...

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

One of the first speakers was the Police Union Rep. He stated that he agreed that the BOI process had to be revamped, as the current system was an injustice to the Police Force and its Uniformed Officers.

And then, almost unbelievably, the rabidly hostile Finneran came to the microphone. "I'm here," he said, his voice a vicious snarl, "to ask what are you going to do to ensure the Police are held accountable for their actions. The attempt to dismantle the Boards of Inquiry is just an attempt to cover up for Police brutality and malfeasance. Society needs power over cops; otherwise the rogue and cowboy actions of the Police over the last few years will continue unabated, and only get worse..."

Everyone was looking at me, and were seeing me calmly looking at the stopwatch in my hand, then at Finneran, then at the stopwatch, then at Finneran. And you better believe that after exactly one minute, I said "Time."

Finneran did not stop speaking, so I pressed a button in front of me, cutting off his microphone. I said "Finneran, you can leave the podium, or you can be arrested. Which do you prefer?" I might add that Teresa Croyle was moving towards Finneran with a strong desire to effect an arrest.

"You fucking bastard." Finneran hissed. But he turned and left before Teresa could get to him. Sheriff's Deputies escorted him out of the chamber.

Other people came up. One suggested the Board of Commissioners replace the Council as the Executive Authority of the Town & County. Eldrick X. Weaver suggested that every little thing from Libraries to the Water Works to Roads & Bridges have separate 9-member Boards elected by the People. Dr. Jan Camp suggested that there be a Board of Citizens to act as the Board of Inquiry on Police matters, and my reply was to ask if we should just name the Ladies Auxiliary Club, led by Mrs. Myrtle L. James, to be that Citizens Review Board. That got some strong applause from the Ladies Auxiliary members that were present...

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

11:15pm. As everyone in the audience filed out, I said to my fellow Commission members: "Why don't we get together tomorrow night, and informally hash out what we want to do about all this?"

"I'm game." said Edward R. Steele.

"Me, too." said Savannah Fineman.

"Where shall we meet?" asked Edna Carter.

"I can reserve the back room of the Irish Pub." I said, referring to the Cop Bar.

"We'll be as safe there as anywhere, with all the Police Officers around. said Edward Steele, meaning it humorously... I think.

"It's been a while since I had a good burger." said Dr. Williams.

"They have salads there, don't they?" asked Edna Carter.

"Very good ones." I said. That sealed the deal.

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

I am in the habit of taking different routes to get home day by day. This evening I went south on Riverside Drive, turning east on MLK Jr. Avenue. As I went right through the heart of the Tenderloin District, I kept my eyes peeled for cars that might be following me, but saw nothing suspicious... on the roads. What might have been going on in T-Square's clubs was another matter.

I turned north onto University Avenue, a bit surprised at how heavy the traffic was on a Wednesday night at this late hour. I turned onto the road leading to the Mountain Nest, still seeing no one following me.

Getting home, I found my wife and mother still awake and talking in the greatroom. Two outstanding dogs came bounding up to greet me. "I'll take these guys out." I said, prompting two streaks of canine lightning to the back door. Laura said she'd pour me a Scotch for when I got back.

Going outside, the dogs ran off to do their business. I looked around, seeing The Cabin in the distance up the mountainside, and seeing the light that was in Teresa and Todd's driveway at their new home. Then I looked towards Town---

*Grrrrrrrrrrr!*

"WOOF! WOOF WOOF!"

It was Bowser growling and Buddy barking at something, and it was at the end of the yard, near the trail that led down to the University.

"What is it, guys?" I called out as I walked towards them. Then I thought I heard something, a rustling in the weeds. "Hello? Who's there?" I called out.

When I got to where the dogs were, they were looking down the hillside. I strained to see in the darkness, but could not make out anything. "What, you guys scare a rabbit again?" I asked. Bowser and Buddy did not relax, still peering into the darkness. But they had not chased whatever it was that had spooked them.

"All right, guys." I said. "Let's go back in." The dogs took my move towards the house as their cue, and ran ahead of me to the back steps...

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

"What was that ruckus about?" Laura asked.

"I dunno." I said thoughtfully. "The dogs started barking at something. May have been a rabbit."

"I sense you're not satisfied with that explanation." said my mother.

"No, I'm not." I said as I sat down in the rocking chair and Laura handed me my drink. "Mom, perhaps you should stay in the guest room up here tonight, rather than downstairs by yourself."

"That is a wise suggestion, son." said my mother.

"So... anything new on anything?" I asked.

"Yes." said Laura, extending her iPad tablet to me. As I took it, she said "I did a check on Adele Peabody's niece, as a courtesy to the TCPD looking into Mr. Goldman's poisoning. As you can see, Jenny Peabody's guidance counselor is Dr. Lionel Carmela, head professor of the Political Science Department. Dr. Carmela has been closely involved with Jay Swenson and Ken Eidex of Citizens For Police Accountability, who will be seeing you in Court next month. And Jenny Peabody has been Carmela's student point woman with the CFPA on campus."

"Hmmmm." I said, which came out almost as a growl, which caused Bowser to look up at me. "But that in itself is not enough to question her."

Laura said: "She also has bad grades. Carmela and another Poly Sci professor gave her As, but, she failed English 101 and Math 099, which is the remedial math course. Carmela won't be able to save her, and she's close to failing out of School. There is no way she should have an internship, even with her aunt being a City Hall employee."

"Whoa... these are not the grades we saw earlier when we got them." I said.

"No son, they're not." said my mother, with 'meaning' in her voice.

Laura said: "I've already notified Dr. Wellman that someone sent the TCPD and Campus Police doctored grades. I pulled those up straight out of the University's core servers, that aren't easily accessed."

"That is bad for Jenny." I said.

"Yes, son, it is." said my mother. "Also, Lady Ironside reviewed the video, which SAC Muscone had enhanced for her. The young man at the microphones had his back to the camera, but footage of him coming in does not show any bulges in his clothing that might be water bottles. And he didn't have a toolbox or anything with him, so if it was him changing out water bottles, it was a truly magnificent trick."

I was studying the video, which Laura had downloaded to her tablet (how, I wasn't sure). "And it definitely looks like the Sound Man. But why would he lie, and say he wasn't there?"

"Why, son!" exclaimed my mother. "Mr. Goldman became ill, and was clearly poisoned. Your sound man did not want any part of the Police questioning him. Of course, we'll be having further discussions with him in the morning."

"And... ohhhh... that's something I didn't see before." I said as I continued watching the video. "Tell you what. You and Lady Ironside can get him brought in. But leave Jenny Peabody to me."

"Why?" asked Laura. "I mean, why you personally? Can't they handle it?"

"You do realize who Adele Peabody is, don't you?" I asked. "She is far and away the most powerful person in this County, present company included. It might be most very good if I handle this one myself. There's also a 'teachable moment' in this one..."

Part 15 - Media Dishonesty

"This is Bettina Wurtzburg, KXTC Channel Two News!" shouted the redheaded reporterette from her perch on the building at Riverside and College, with City Hall in the background, at 7:00am, Thursday, July 18th. "Police Commander Donald Troy has abused his power as Charter Commission Chairman to destroy the Council's oversight of the Police Force!"

Bettina began: "In last night's Charter Commission meeting, Chairman Donald Troy announced that there would be a 'streamlining' of the oversight process that would potentially do away with Boards of Inquiry. These Boards have long been the Town & County Council's only means of oversight of the Police Force, but the Police Union Rep asked the Commission to do something about the Boards of Inquiry or face a possible Police strike!"

Bettina: "Commander Troy has long been hostile to the Boards of Inquiry, often refusing to participate in them or cooperate with them, creating a hostile atmosphere and stonewalling the Council's ability to get information on his and the Police Force's activities. During the Charter Commission meeting, Commander Troy cut off the microphone of Board member Finneran and threatened to arrest him. Mr. Finneran has often been threatened by Commander Troy for daring to fully investigate Police brutality and other actions, including Commander Troy's reckless use of a helicopter gunship to endanger the Public while attacking criminals with excessive force." (Author's note: 'Moonlight Shadow', Ch. 01.)

Bettina: "And in other news, Commander Donald Troy and the TCPD have no leads in the case of the murder of journalist Louella Hopper. The TCPD also is making no progress in the case of the violent assault of our colleague Lester Holder. The TCPD has made no statements on the Hopper case, and as usual, despite being a suspect in the case, Commander Donald Troy has repeatedly refused to meet his obligation to the Public and respond to KXTC's repeated requests for comment on the case..."

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

"Good grief." muttered Sheriff Griswold as we drank coffee in the Chief's Conference Room.

"It would be funny how Bettina contradicts herself, saying Don is a suspect then saying he's not commenting on the case," said Cindy Ross, "but too many people can't figure that contradiction out."

"And there was enough libel in that one hit piece to keep the Courts busy for years." said Teresa Croyle. It was then that everyone began noticing that I was in a reverie.

When I began coming out of it, everyone was leaning forward and staring googly-eyed at me, even the Chief. I was being subjected to 'ribbing', and like a good Iron Crowbar, I took it in stride.

"Okay, okay." I said, waving a red crowbar in all of their general directions. Then I said "I was just realizing something: Bettina made a point to call Louella Hopper a 'journalist', and she whined about her 'colleague' Lester Holder. But she did not say one word about Tim Sioban!"

"And you think that's important, Mr. Crowbarrrrr?" asked the Chief.

"Yes sir." I said. "If there was anything journalists just love to whine about, it's their Free Press rights being abused and them being put in jail for their sanctimonious stands over it. But not a word from Bettina on that this morning..." I went back into a reverie.

When I came out of it, everyone was sitting with their backs to me. I love my team, I love my team, I love my team...

"Okay, what is in the coffee this morning?" I asked as I looked into my coffee cup. There were failed attempts to suppress giggling amongst my Angels.

"What does it meeeeeeeeean, Mr. Crowbar?" asked the Chief.

"Just that I need to act fast this morning." I said. "If you'll excuse me, I have some things to do. And no Angels Meeting this morning, Ladies."

"Awwwwwww." my Angels replied, in unison. I love my Angels, I love my Angels, I love my Angels...

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

8:30am. I knocked on the open door of the Intendent's office in City Hall.

"Oh, hi Don." Adele Peabody said happily upon seeing me. Then she saw Detective Julia Rodriguez behind me. "Hello, Detective." she said, much less happily. "How can I help you this morning?"

"Good morning." I said. "Mrs. Peabody, is your niece Jenny here?"

"She's distributing coffee to everyone." said Adele. "Why? Do you need to talk to her?"

"Yes." I said. "And in a Police professional interrogation kind of way. I'm hoping you'll help me make her understand the gravity of the situation."

"Is this about the Goldman poisoning?" Adele asked. I nodded. "Does Jenny need a lawyer?"

"She has that right." I said. "And she very well might need one. But before we go there, you need to see this. I suspect you have no idea." I handed her the printed sheets of Jenny's grades.

"Oh my God." Adele whispered. "I had no idea..." Then she caught herself and looked up at me. "And how did you get these? The grades in her application to be an intern here were very good."

"Yes, as were the grades sent to the TCPD." I said. "But I think we both know how I got the real grades." Yes, Adele knew my wife was a full Professor at the University.

"Oh. Yes." said Adele. "And no, I didn't know. Let's go find her..."

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

Jenny Peabody looked extremely nervous as she sat in Interrogation-A. Patrol Officer Joan Laurer was the Uniformed Presence, and Jenny's legal beagle was Tina Felton of the Women's Law Firm of Dewey, Burnham & Winn. I came in with Detective Julia Rodriguez. Cindy, Tanya, and Adele Peabody were watching from the Monitor Room.

Julia read Jenny her rights from the card, and then I began: "Jenny, you have some things you need to explain to us." Tina leaned over and whispered something to Jenny.

"Are you charging my client with anything?" asked Tina, who normally was not hostile to me nor the Police; after all, she was normally a divorce attorney.

"Your client is a person of interest in the poisoning of Council Member J.P. Goldman." I said severely. "And let me make it clear: due to Mr. Goldman's advanced age and physical health, the Police consider this to be 'aggravated assault', which for you right now means that there was a distinct possibility of Mr. Goldman dying, and therefore the possibility... of murder." Jenny about jumped out of her skin at that.

"Really? Murder?" Tina asked acidly. "Come on, Don, are you really going to resort to these intimidation tactics with a college Freshman that has no record of doing wrong?"

"His name is 'Commander Troy'." said Julia Rodriguez, her eyes boring right through Tina Felton. Tina looked shocked, then angry.

"Yes, we need to keep things proper, here." I said. "And I'm not trying to intimidate anyone. I'm just putting out the facts, here. Your client, Ms. Felton, was the one who put the waters on the bench... and two of those bottled waters were contaminated with a very strong concentration of ipecac. Let's watch some TV." I picked up the remote and turned on the monitor."

"As you can see here," I said as the video played, "your client came in with a tray of waters lying on their sides so that they wouldn't fall over. Your client told my Detective the other day that she put out the waters left-to-right with no regard to order, but you can see here that she set Mr. Goldman's bottle down as she was picking up others with her left hand, then she set Mr. McGhillie's down, and only then did she put the others down, going left to right."

"That proves nothing." said Felton.

"Really?" I said. "It's circumstantial, but I have faith in the intelligence of Juries. And here's some more circumstantial evidence, Jenny: you are about to fail out of school. The grades you sent City Hall with your internship application and the grades that were sent to the TCPD don't match your actual grades in the University's database."

"I didn't send anything to the Police!" Jenny burst out. Tina pulled her over and whispered something in her ear.

Tina then said "I need to talk to my client alone." Julia and I left, as did Officer Laurer.

"I'm... sorry, sir." Julia said as we stood in the anteroom. "I didn't see that at all on the tape, that she slipped those two bottles down like that."

"She told you when you talked to her that she went left-to-right." I said. "And it's understandable to take her at her word. And the original tape we looked at was blurry, and we're seeing more with the FBI-enhanced tape Muscone had done for Captain Perlman. But it's a teachable moment... don't necessarily trust what people tell you, especially the ones that look innocent."

"How can you tell, sir?" Julia asked. "We can't just not believe anything anyone says?"

"Like Ronald Reagan used to say about the Soviets: 'Trust, but verify.' In this case, I reviewed the case when I first saw the bad grades. Usually one 'strangeness', as I call them, leads to another and another. Something to learn from."

"Sir," said Julia, "can I ask you something 'off the record', so to speak?"

"Sure." I said.

"We don't want to say anything to or in front of Captain Perlman, as her fiancé is a high-level FBI Agent." said Julia. "But we're aware of the situation with the Feds and Louella Hopper, as well as the McGinty's Materials situation. Can you give us any informal insight on that?"

"Yeah, it's tough when relationships interfere with investigations." I said. "And I have to err on the side of caution about all this. Both my mother and myself are potentially involved in this..."

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

Meanwhile...

Gwen Munson came into Westphalia Police Headquarters and demanded to speak to her client Tim Sioban. He was brought into an Interrogation Room to talk with her.

"Read this while I talk out loud." Gwen said quietly, handing Sioban a piece of paper. Out loud she said "I'm going to Court today, and tell them that you're going to drop your refusal to cooperate, and that you'll answer all questions. You need to go along with this. The Courts and the District Attorney both here and in the Town & County are not accepting your 'journalistic privilege' claims. You're not in jail for Contempt of Court, you're being formally charged with Obstruction of Justice and impeding Federal and State investigations, and they are hell-bent on making an example out of you."

Sioban handed the piece of paper back and Gwen put it in her briefcase as he said "Okay, I'll follow your lead on this..."

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

Julia and I went back into Interrogation-A. Jenny Peabody was looking really scared now. Her attorney Tina Felton said "My client denies knowledge of the doctored grades, but will not invoke her right to silence and will answer questions in exchange for immunity from prosecution for anything to do with the poisoning case."

"Not good enough." I said. "Jenny, I don't know if you've heard of any small reputation that I possess, but I am not an Agency of the Weak Minded. You may not have been aware of what was submitted to the TCPD, but I am very skeptical that you could not have known about the grades you submitted to City Hall with your internship application."

"My client didn't know." protested Tina Felton. "She asked the University to send City Hall a transcript; she didn't see it herself."

"Uh huh." I said. "Well, someone sent the Police falsified documents, and you better believe we will be investigating that very thoroughly at the local and State levels. And if it comes up that someone Jenny is associated with is involved, like Dr. Lionel Carmela... mmm mmm mmm. It is going to be bad, Jenny." I did not fail to observe that Jenny again just about jumped out of her skin upon my mention of Carmela's name."