Causing a Commotion Ch. 01

"How do they know that?" asked Cindy.

"I understand that their clothing did not hide the basics of their female anatomies." I replied. "And there's another reason, which I'll get to in a second. Anyway, an undercover City Vice cop saw the kidnapping and attempted to intervene. One of the women said they were cops, this guy asked to see a badge, and the woman knocked him out cold with what was described as a 'vicious martial arts kick'. Know anyone that could do that, Cindy?"

"I'll see if I can think of some names." Cindy replied. "You said the guy that was knocked out was a cop?"

"Yep." I said. "Undercover City Vice. They'd spotted Leon at the bar, and were seeing who he might've been meeting. And they were lucking out: the woman Mills picked up for several straight weeks was Jenny Van Dyke, once the queen of the Southport/Turpin Heights drug trade."

"And these kidnappers messed up City Vice's plans, yes?" asked the Chief.

"They're saying they did, Chief," I said, "but my own opinion is that City Vice could've been moving on this a lot faster. They seemed content to watch for weeks rather than make arrests, so I dunno. Anyway, a few hours later Detective E.J. Jefferson got a tip, and it led to Mills and Van Dyke being found and arrested."

"Mills and Van Dyke both said that their kidnappers were women, which confirms the observations at the bar." I said, looking over at Cindy. "They also said that a third woman was at the location inside a building they'd been taken to. And they both said that one of the kidnappers injected Leon's testicles with a liquid, maybe trying to get him to talk about something he might have known."

"Mmm, talk about blue balls." said Tanya, shaking her head but grinning. "They messed up him picking up that hooker, then injected his balls with something. I almost feel sorry for the guy."

"I don't." I said. "I wish I had known that Mills had been found and was under observation. Neither City Vice nor these kidnappers did me any favors, any favors a'tall. I'd have interrogated him... properly... and if he knew where Jack Lewis was, I would now know."

"Your 'plausible deniability' is very quickly flying out the win-dowwwww." said the Chief. "But you did talk to them yesterday, I understand. What did you find out?"

"I said that Van Dyke was once the queen of the Southport-Turpin Heights drug trade," I said, "and that's generally true. That was back in the days of the Consultant, and when Elizabeth was all over the smuggling trade in these parts. Also, you guys remember the Collins/Velasquez/Chen cases?"

"Oh yeah." said Tanya brightly. "We nicknamed that one the 'Eyes Only' case."

"Yes." I said. "There was a woman that played a role in that, especially Roy Chen's murder. Her name was Tomoko Shimono. She disappeared shortly after we solved that case."

"I remember hearing her name." said Cindy. "Disavowed CIA agent, wasn't she?"

"Yes." I said. "Her name is still on the 'Disavowed' list, but nothing at all has been heard from her since that time."

"What happened to Jenny Van Dyke?" Cindy asked.

"After Elizabeth turned herself in," (Author's note: 'Interlude 8'.) "and after the Consultant died, Jenny got out of her drug distribution business when the Feds became interested in her. After that, she hasn't really been heard from, until recently. The City Police think she's been hooking for the past couple of years, maybe being a drug 'mule' and providing transportation for large quantities of really hot stuff."

"And now she's hooking up with Leon Mills, pun not intended." said the Chief. "I do know the Feds put out an APB for Tomoko Shimono. The FBI may even put her on their Ten Most Wanted List. Things are quiet around here, Mr. Crowbar. Do you want some time to help the Feds find this Tomoko Shimono woman?"

"Like I told the EAD, Chief." I said. "I'm going to stick to more local things, particularly the pursuit of Jack Lewis. And I'll say no more, for the sake of... 'plausible deniability'."

"Good man, Mister Crowbarrrrr." said the Chief. "Good man."

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

"This is Catrina Pierce, KSTD Five-Alive News in the Morning!" said the beautiful new reporterette for KSTD. She was athletic like Amber Harris, but her hair was a more platinum shade of blonde, more like Cindy's... but Catrina had dark roots. "Five-Alive News is bringing you continuing coverage of the ongoing battle for the Lieutenant Governor position!"

Catrina's story matched Bettina's for the most part, but she did have an addition: "Town & County Representative Billy Williams has announced he is exploring a possible run for the nomination as a Republican! Mr. Williams is a strongly Conservative representative, and said that someone needs to oppose Wilson Hammonds's attempts to control the caucus process. Mr. Hammonds reacted strongly, saying that the Republican Party would never allow, quote 'Grassroots traitors' unquote, to be the Party's nominee."

"Additionally," said Catrina, "Westphalia's State Representative, Sharon Marshall, has said she might run as a Republican. Republicans strongly discouraged her from running, saying she'd have to give up her seat if she were nominated, and they fear her seat is one that could flip to the Democrats if she is not the Candidate in that district..."

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

"New reporter for KSTD." said Tanya as I sat with my Angels in my office, watching the broadcast. "What happened to Cynthia Freeman?"

Cindy said "According to Priya Ajmani, Catrina Pierce was the Women's Sports reporter for KSTD, and she was swapped with Cynthia. Those photos of Cynthia fucking for her job were pretty devastating to Cynthia's psyche, and male reporters are already making jokes about her."

"Maybe next time Cynthia will refrain from calling me 'abusive' and a racist." I said.

Cindy said "Priya said the Media members in the State thought that Cynthia was too new for you to have anything on. After those photos of her came out, and the little note mentioning Bettina... they are scared shitless about what you might do next."

"Are you saying Don is winning the war?" Teresa asked, excitement creeping into her voice.

"No, I didn't say that." Cindy replied. "But now they're using proxies, like Karl Frazier, to take shots at Don."

"As if Karl Frazier is clean as a whistle?" I said derisively. "Yeah, right."

"All right, I have bookkeeping to do." said Cindy, getting up. "Y'all have a great day." She left, closing the doors a lot more gently than she had some days before.

"All right, what's new?" I asked.

"Car thefts." said Tanya. "We had four over the weekend, and one last Wednesday and one last Thursday. That's a lot in a short amount of time."

"Any patterns?" I asked.

"Two of them were stolen right out of driveways in the Heritage Cloisters subdivision." Teresa said. "We've got an HOA meeting tomorrow night, and I fully intend to be present, in uniform, asking them what's going on with the security there."

"Do me a favor: don't go in uniform." I said. "They may try to turn it around and ask why the Police aren't doing more." Teresa nodded. "So where were the other cars taken from?" I asked.

"One from the ungated parking lot of the new 'Jasmine' club." said Tanya. "My first impression was that T-Square had it done to get people to think about using the valet parking there, for more security, dontcha know."

"As an aside," I said, "how's that club doing?"

"Really well, on weekends." said Teresa. "They're getting the middle-aged, suburban clientele that T-Square wasn't getting into 'Rhythms & Rap' and other dance clubs. And they're getting clientele from all over the County, including the northern suburbs, if you get my drift."

"Cool." I said. "Sorry to interrupt, Tanya. You were saying?"

"Two cars from Heritage Cloisters, two from the Mall parking lot." said Tanya. "And one from the Sunrise Hotel parking lot on the Coltrane County highway. We got some video of every theft... except the ones in the Heritage Cloisters. Young people, wearing hoodies. Perps are both black and white, we think."

"Any gang colors?" I asked.

"Not on the videotapes, which are not all that great." said Tanya.

"Rudistan told me that we're not seeing any open gang clusters or congregations, either." said Teresa. "Which may be one reason we're not picking up any major drug imports into the County."

I nodded. "Have the Force really keep their eyes peeled. With Leon Mills getting busted, and Jenny Van Dyke also, someone may feel they can come in and set up shop. I'm still wondering why we're not getting anything on that front."

"Sir," said Tanya, "we think a lot of people, the University students especially, are going into Nextdoor County and maybe Coltrane County to get their supplies. We were thinking about setting up DUI checkpoints on the highways coming in, and maybe having drug dogs sniff cars while our Officers speak with the drivers."

"Yeah, we may just have to do something like that." I said. "But also do it on incoming traffic from the State west of us. And, as always, take some dogs to sniff around Point Hollow. If they alert, we may have to arrange stakeouts of that property."

As the meeting was concluding, Tanya asked "Sir, can I have Joanne and maybe Parker start looking into Tomoko Shimono? It's a longshot, but she's wanted in this County over the Chen murder, and maybe we'll catch a break on her."

"Maybe." I said. "Tell you what, have Parker and Rodriguez do it. And let me know if you find anything. Nobody else has gotten a whiff of her in what, nearly three years now? Of course, I expect more from my great Detectives." Tanya grinned and Teresa somewhat disdainfully shot her eyebrows up at that...

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

"My baby is growing up so fast." Laura said wistfully. "My daughter is in first grade already!"

The DepDirector chuckled. "Yes, you blink your eyes, and that two year old is suddenly grown up."

They were at the Lilibet House, having breakfast. The crêpes and coffee were among Laura's favorites, and the setting was much more elegant than the diners and breakfast buffets in Town. They were in the back room for privacy.

As they finished eating, the DepDirector said "What I wanted to talk to you about is the situation in Washington. I've done nothing but talk on the phone for two days. The Keating murder tore the lid off hell, but it also has the Swamp Frogs scrambling and circling the wagons."

"I've been getting sporadic information," said Laura, "but the CIA Director's web is so pervasive that people are afraid to talk to me right now. What's going on?"

"As you know," said the DepDirector, "the President and CIA Director are good friends, and they share a friendliness with Islamists and a hatred of Israel. We're getting word that the groundwork is being laid for the President to declare that the official United States position is that Israel is illegally occupying the West Bank and must return to its pre-1967 borders."

"Oh my God." said Laura. "That could lead to a break in diplomatic relations, or worse: outright war in the Middle East."

"Yes." said the DepDirector. "But it's by no means a done deal, and the President would risk severe political consequences, including possible impeachment, if he does go forward with it. He's really gotta prepare the political ground for doing it... and that's where the CIA Director comes in."

"All this is for that?" asked Laura.

"It's some of it." the DepDirector said. "But the CIA Director has a personal hatred of Jews and Israel that goes beyond the political. And he's also part of the Swamp, the Elites that were moving to control everything and everyone, working closely with big businesses and the Press."

The DepDirector continued: "As you know, U.S. Senator Samuel Russell has been the Establishment's linchpin in the Senate, while Senator Bill Nunn has been working hard to expose the Elitists and their plans. In the U.S. House, Representatives Travis Gowron of Florida and Tim Chavis of New York State, both Grassroots Republicans, were leading the investigations of Russell, Mitt Willis, the CIA Director, and the Elites."

"Well..." the DepDirector said sadly, "all three have been threatened, with their deaths and the deaths of their families. All three have gone to the FBI and Secret Service about it, but are very unhappy with the responses they've received. Gowron put his family in hiding and sleeps at his office, but Chavis hasn't been able to do that. They've both told me that they're not re-running for Congress, and are going to leave at the end of their terms at the end of the year."

"And Bill Nunn?" asked Laura.

"He's single, his parents are already deceased, so the only threat is to him personally." said the DepDirector. "But I've gotten word that if Nunn keeps pushing the Russell rape thing, and if he keeps bringing up the CIA Director, Russell will have Nunn murdered, and is all but openly defying us to do anything about it. Nunn won't be bullied... but I'm scared for him."

"What about my husband?" asked Laura. "The CIA Director has not been holding up his end of the bargain about leaving Don alone."

"Flip side of that, for right or wrong," said the DepDirector, "is that the CIA Director, and several of the Elites that Don has not arrested and perp-walked yet, believe that we haven't kept our end of the deal, that we should've stopped Don from making those arrests."

"That's a load of----" Laura started, but the DepDirector stopped her.

"I know, I know." he said. "But these Irrationalists are just looking for excuses. Anyway, the bottom line is that my friends think the Swamp Frogs feel cornered, and they're about to come out... energetically... and start tamping down on what they perceive to be their problems... including the Media even mentioning the CIA Director and the issues with Israel..."

Part 4- Whooooo Are You?

"So that's what I have." said Callie Carrington. She'd just briefed Laura on everything she'd discovered about Leon Mills, Jenny Van Dyke, and Tomoko Shimono.

"What happened at their hearings this morning?" Laura asked, though she seemed a million miles away.

"Jenny Van Dyke is being held without bond." said Callie. "The judge set a hearing for extraditing her to the FBI's custody to face Federal drug distribution charges. Leon Mills has another hearing for this afternoon, to determine two things: first, if the Town & County will get jurisdiction over him for the charges involving the death of Charlie Griswold; and second, to determine what if any involvement the City Police had in what Mills's lawyer is claiming to be torture at their hands."

"I don't know who kidnapped those two," Laura said with asperity, "and I don't want to know. But I do know that they fucked up a lot of things doing what they did."

Callie said nothing. Laura then said "Callie, why don't you call Cindy and take a long lunch? On me. Just save the receipts."

"Uh, sure." said Callie. "What do you want me to look at next?"

"I'll tell you that later... when I've figured it out myself." Laura replied. "Until then, put those papers Dr. Grier wrote in some semblance of order, from the least ridiculous to the most." Callie grinned, then accepted her dismissal and left to call Cindy.

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

"Callie, I'm really busy." Cindy said as she sat at her desk in her office. "I can't make it today..."

The door to her office opened, and a strawberry-blonde head peeked in. "Take the lunch." I said. "And consider that to be more than a request."

"Okayyyyyy, I'm told I'm free to meet you for lunch." Cindy said, her ice-blue eyes glaring at door from which the red head had just (wisely) withdrawn. "If Laura is paying, let's make it the Cattleman's Club..."

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

I entered my wife's office by the main entrance. Laura's assistant Laurie had also been ordered to enjoy a long lunch.

"Hello, Darling." Laura said, getting up to greet me with a hug and a warm kiss, which stirred my loins. "So, you wanted to meet about something important?"

"Yes." I said as we sat down on the sofa facing the windows of the office, Laura on my right side, curling her legs up under her. I thought of what had happened at those windows just over a year before, and the significant damage that had been done as a result. (Author's note: 'Falsely Accused', Ch. 04-05.)

I said "Let me start with a question: does the CIA keep DNA records of their people?"

"Yes." Laura said. "But after what Aldrich Ames did to betray the Company, that information is very tough to get. Just imagine if the Russians had that data, and could just run a DNA test and find out they had a CIA agent in their custody."

"Oh, I understand." I said. "So if I gave you some DNA information, you could see if it matched an Agent?"

Laura said "Well, let me tell you how it works. Every Agent has blood drawn when undergoing entry physicals, and of course we do a DNA workup on them, partially to identify their dead bodies if we find them."

Laura continued: "After Aldrich Ames, the digital data was separated into three databases, each controlled by a separate Directorate. The Directorate of Science and Technology keeps the actual DNA scans, along with a 128-bit encrypted key for each entry. The Directorate of Operations, which used to be the National Clandestine Services, has a database with that encrypted key, and a second unique 128-bit key as an identifier. That second key matches a line in the third database, maintained by the Directorate of Support, which maintains personnel records. That database has the Agent or other person's name."

More Laura: "No one person can ever have access to more than one of the databases. It's like the military's two-man control for the nuclear codes, or Coca-Cola's A and B factories kept totally separate. We just added a third layer. Each database requires two persons to enter passwords to access the data. On top of that, the CIA Director and Deputy Director must both sign off on permission to access the data."

"So the CIA Director would know," I said, "if you scanned for a DNA match with this." I held out a jump drive. "There's a file on this, with a DNA profile on it. I was hoping you could run it for a match."

"Yeah, he'd know." said Laura. "It's the only way to get the Agent's name."

"Let me ask this, then." I said, as if it were a sudden thought. "It may take two persons to access, but if you scanned only the database with the DNA scans, would he know?"

"Uhh... you know, you may have an idea, there." said my wife. "It's only when asking for the databases to link with each other that we have to get permission. But what good would it do if you don't have a match to a name?"

"It could do a great, great deal of good." I said. I explained why, then said "So, do you still have friends... or a sister... in the Directorate of Science and Technology?"

Laura smiled. "Yes. Melina's in the Directorate of Operations, but I do have some friends... and friends in the way we need them to be..."

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

"Mmmm, they cook steaks perfectly here." said Callie as she enjoyed her lunch. "Even better than the Chop House, if you ask me. Just don't tell Mr. Colby I said that." Part of the joke was that Mr. Colby owned both excellent steak houses.

"Your secret is safe with me." said Cindy. "But speaking of secrets... I did not mention to Don that it was you and me that kidnapped blue-balls Leon and Jenny Van Dyke. And now I don't think I can... that guy I knocked out in the parking lot? He's a cop. City Vice."

"Ouch!" Callie moaned.

"Yeah, I feel terrible about it." Cindy said. "Though at that point we were in for a penny, in for a pound."