Dark Side of the Force Ch. 03

"Chief," said Dr. Woodrow, "I'm a widower, I've been a teacher and researcher for many years now. I could tell you that I want to apply my knowledge in a practical way while continuing to supervise and teach. I can also say, and it's very true, that it's a way of serving the community, as you all do. But the real reason is that I have really enjoyed all of the times I've consulted with police and testified and worked with officers and crime lab teams, and I want to do it on a permanent basis."

"So what happens when you get bored? Will you leave, walk out on us?" asked the Chief brusquely.

"I can assure you I won't be bored." said Dr. Woodrow. "And if you like, I'll sign a three year contract, with penalties for leaving early. Whatever will assuage your concerns."

"Okay." said the Chief. "Now I have one question for you, Commander: what's procedure for hiring a civilian as a supervisor of the Crime Lab? Despite your mother's abilities, Crowbar, and with all due respect to you, Doctor, I just don't see you going through the Police Academy."

"Sir, I've already talked with Paulina, Captain Harlow of Personnel & Records, and some people in the Public Safety Department offices. The regulations allow for hiring civilians into administrative positions. Your secretary is an example. We can and do hire civilians for accounting and payroll and in the IT department. And while normally officers are supervisors, as long as you as Chief certifies that Dr. Woodrow is qualified to supervise the Crime Lab, he can be hired and put in the Supervisor position. He won't carry formal rank, but by position he would be considered the same as our Supervisor or Lieutenant rank. He can also be a 'silver badge' Auxiliary member."

Auxiliary members who had not completed the Police Academy's regular or auxiliary courses had a badge that looked like ours, but it was silver instead of gold.

"All right, then." said the Chief. "Welcome aboard, Dr. Woodrow! Hit the ground running: you start tomorrow morning." Part of me was elated: my Crime Lab was about to take a HUGE step up in efficiency and ability. Dr. Woodrow would supervise efficiently, he knew the law, he would teach his team well, and we would simply be matchless in the State as a Crime Lab/CSI squad. Damn, I love it when my job gets easier like that!

But part of me was less than elated, as there was another duty to perform.

-----

On the next day, September 1st, Lt. Tanya Perlman was called into Chief Griswold's office, where I was already sitting.

"How's Dr. Woodrow getting along in there?" asked the Chief after having Tanya be seated. She was showing her pregnancy very much now.

"Really well, sir!" Tanya replied enthusiastically. "He can hardly hide his excitement. He's like a kid with a new toy, but he's already looking into improving the work schedule for the technicians. I think he's going to be great!"

"Excellent!" said the Chief. "I'm glad I listened to all of you on your hiring recommendation. Now... there's something you're going to have to listen to me about, Lieutenant Perlman: as of right now, you are on Restricted Duty and will remain so until your baby is born. You can work here at the Station, but you cannot go on field assignments. If you try to do that, I'll de-certify you to carry a gun and send you home until you have the baby. Do I make myself clear on that, Miss Perlman?"

"Yes sir." Tanya replied. She knew this day had been coming and tried hard to put a good face on it, but she still looked disappointed.

"You're also to stay out of the Lab, the evidence rooms and the armory." said the Chief. "You can give lectures to our new Detectives and Uniformed officers, and you can pretend to do desk work. But that's about it. No lifting, no physical labor. Take off early any time you like, after telling the Commander, of course."

"Yes sir." Tanya said, then smiled, her eyes gleaming as she said "Chief, it's hard physical labor just to get behind my desk in that Lieutenant's office. What can I do to get a bigger one?" That one got me to laughing, and ultimately the Chief could not resist chuckling himself.

"Ah... that's the nice thing about having the Commander here. That's your issue to work out with your Lieutenant, Don. Now both of you head to the main auditorium. We're about to make an overdue award."

Some minutes later, at the awards ceremony in the main auditorium, Chief Griswold pinned upon my shirt the Police Medal for my actions in saving baby Jack Burke from my very bad nephew Ned.

The Police Medal came after only the Medal of Valor, Distinguished Police Cross, and Police Distinguished Service Awards in precedence. I had been approved for it before August 1st, but made damn sure to let the Council know that I did not want anything to distract from Cindy's Medal of Valor day, so the Council agreed to delay the actual awarding for one month.

Part 15 - Politics of Personal Destruction

"Our Labor Day appearances were a disaster." said Harold Malone on the phone as he drove to his Campaign Headquarters the Tuesday morning after Labor Day. "We had twenty people show up at the barbecue cookout, and five of those were staff. And we had only ten people at the rally speech Saturday night."

When he entered the Headquarters, he said into the phone "I'll have to call you back." and hung up. Inside his once-busy headquarters, there was only one person in the room, a woman who helped with mail distribution and making copies.

"Where is everyone?" he asked.

"Mr. Malone," said the woman, "I've been asked to tell you that everyone on your campaign staff has resigned. I'll be leaving myself in just a few minutes; I just came by to give you the latest poll numbers: Daniel Allgood has a 15 point lead on you, 55-40 percent, with 5 percent undecided."

"Oh my God..." said Malone, speaking more of the abandonment of his staff than of the poll numbers. He went into his office and sat down as the last staffer exited the building.

It had been a bad weekend, as on the Friday before the Labor Day weekend the Town & County Examiner had run pictures of a young Harold Malone in the white robes and conical hat of the Ku Klux Klan. His attempts to say that it was a costume at a party had fooled no one.

"Well, Harold." said the voice from the door. "What are you going to do now?" Malone looked up as Henry R. Wargrave strode slowly into the room, took a small chair, and sat down at the side of the desk.

"I have a feeling you're about to tell me." said Malone, perceptively. Wargrave gave a small, brief smile.

"Well, perhaps I can take the liberty of offering a suggestion, anyway." said Wargrave. He sat down, leaned back and said "The job of Police Chief just opened up in a small town in south Alabama, not far from where your wife's family lives." Wargrave said, mentioning the town's name. "I might have mentioned your name to their hiring committee, and they're looking forward to bringing you on..."

-----

"It's unbelievable." said Detective Molly Evans of the Midtown Police. Sitting with her in the main Conference Room of Town & County Police Headquarters was Detective Sergeant Wes 'Coldiron' Masters. Also in the room were myself, Lt. Cindy Ross and Lt. Teresa 'Cunt' Croyle. The Chief was not present, as he was in meetings with D.A. Krasney. We listened in shock and amazement as Molly told her story:

"As you guys know," Molly said, "Senator Allen likes to trade political favors for sexual favors. If someone wants or needs Allen's help, the payment is that Allen gets to bang that person's underage daughter. Usually the people asking for help are desperate, and of course Allen arranges things in such a way that if they ever speak out, he can destroy them, often without getting involved himself."

"Before Teresa left us, she developed a couple of leads on Nathan Allen." Molly continued. "She managed to get a girl and her father to talk to us in late July. The girl is now 18 years old, but the incident happened two and a half years ago, when she was not yet 16 years old. The Statute-of-Limitations on most of this runs out in three years, so we had to move quickly.

"After Teresa left, our squad took over the case, and I took real interest in it as it pertained to Allen." Molly said. "I really thought we had a shot at him on this one. The father and daughter both gave written sworn affidavits, and they were talking to one of our ADAs while I investigated and began to lay out the groundwork for the ADA to prosecute."

"There is a 'but' coming in here, isn't there?" Cindy asked as Molly paused. Molly just gave her sister a 'look', then exhaled and continued.

"Yes." she said. "First, the State Internal Revenue Division slapped liens on the man's business as well as his personal holdings. Froze his bank accounts. Then he was notified that SBI Narcotics Task Force agents were investigating him for drugs and money laundering through his business, and froze his assets under RICO statutes."

"What's his business?" I asked.



"Software development." Molly replied. "Exactly the right choice to launder drugs and money."

"Not." said Teresa, getting it.

"Anyway, the man and his family were suddenly made destitute." said Molly. "He and his daughter also were followed by police and pulled over several times, until our Chief got wind of it and stopped that crap cold. The father and daughter were not intimidated, they were pissed off, and they both really wanted to keep pushing their case against Allen.

"Unfortunately... on August 27th, the girl and some friends were coming out of the Mall of Midtown when a speeding car came careening into them. The perps hit the girl, then tried to back up and run over her again. Fortunately, her friends grabbed her while other's actually tried to attack the car and pull the driver and passenger out. Some of them were on one of the high school football teams down there. Despite their bravery, the car drove away, and none of the several different car tag numbers we were given came up with anything."

"The girl was still badly injured and was in ICU at the hospital." Molly said. "The father was really angry about it, and didn't want to back down; he still really wanted to go after Nathan Allen for it. He felt Allen was behind it, and so did I."

"Well, on August 29th the girl died. She had an embolism." said Molly. "We very much suspect that someone sneaked into her room and injected an air bubble into her IV line. When it got to her heart it expanded and killed her. Midtown Police is considering her death to be suspicious and a homicide."

"Was the girl guarded?" Teresa asked.

"Yes." said Molly. "But there are doctors and nurses in and out of the ICU ward all the time. It was simply too easy for someone to fake being a medical person and come in and inject the air bubble with no one really noticing."

"So what happened next?" I asked, very sure. Molly gave me a 'look', then continued.

"The girl's father became deeply upset, pretty much unhinged." Molly said. "He was ranting that he would get Nathan Allen no matter what. He disappeared. He was last seen on the morning of August 30th, getting into his car and driving away. When he did not return by the next morning, the family contacted the Police."

"We contacted the FBI's Missing Person's bureau in the City." said Sgt. Masters. "They were able to determine from the father's cell phone pings that he came up to this County, and we know Nathan Allen was in this County at the same time. The FBI found his truck, with the cell phone inside it, parked at Lake Ocheekobee Golf Club in Coltrane County later that afternoon."

"That's September 2nd?" I asked.

"Yes sir." said Masters. "Detective Evans?"

"Yesterday the man's body was found floating in the River in southern Coltrane County." said Molly. "Out where the farms are. I'm not sure who found it or how. Deputy Strait called me about it. The clothing matched what the missing father was last seen wearing. Death was by drowning. The body had been in the water for some time, but FBI confirmed his identity through dental records, and more recently by DNA. Once that happened, FBI Missing Persons dropped the case, leaving it to Coltrane County authorities. The new Sheriff down there is amenable to having me deputize myself into the SBI and 'assist' with the investigation..." Her voice trailed off.

"We're not sure we want to do that, though." said Masters. "If we do, then the SBI as an institution becomes formally involved, and even if Detective Evans breaks off the investigation, Director Lewis can still claim ownership of it. But more importantly, we're not sure we want the SBI to even know about this, at least not formally."

"I see." I said, the pieces finally fitting. "Lewis will make sure it gets back to Allen that you're investigating."

"For sure." said Molly. "Since we do know the man came up here, we came up to look around. Consider this your formal notification that we're invading your turf, too."

"You want our help?" I asked.

"It might help if the locals can ask around, see if the man was seen, see if he approached Allen or anything."

"Cindy," I said, "Why don't you assign Teddy Parker and Theo Washington to this, have them nose around."

"Wilco." Cindy replied.

As we were leaving the Conference Room, Molly said quietly to me "Don, there has got to be something we can do about this son of a bitch Nathan Allen!"

"There is." I said. "We'll talk about that later."

-----

"And while I will be fighting these baseless charges against me and clearing my good name," announced Harold Malone, "I realize that I would not have the confidence of the People of this good County to serve as your Sheriff. Therefore, I am withdrawing from the race. I will not be endorsing any other candidate in the election going forward. I want to thank those who have worked tirelessly for me to this point..."

Malone droned on. He was flanked by his wife and campaign staff at the press conference... not his campaign staff, but some of Nathan Allen's people, who had stood there at the request of the County Democrat Party.

-----

"Who can we get at this late date?" asked Katherine Woodburn at an emergency meeting of the County Democrat Party later that day. "There's not much time."

"We don't have another candidate." said one of the Party operatives. "Most of the Police Force support Allgood, and by the time we get candidate with anything resembling credentials, it'll be too close to Election Day."

"No!" exclaimed Katherine. "We can't let Daniel Allgood win!"

"I'm sorry, Katherine... we're done with this one." said another operative. In reaction, Woodburn got up and left the meeting.

Part 16 - Roll Tide/War Eagle

I drove up to The Cabin. My iPhone app had alerted me that someone had tripped a sensor up there. I halfway expected to find P. Harvey Eckhart, but I was wrong. It was Harold Malone on my back deck.

Coming up behind him as I eased along the walkway, I said "Is there something I can help you with here, Captain Malone?"

"Ah, hello Commander." said Malone. "I came by here to drop off these two letters... and take one last look at the Town." He then turned to face me. Seeing that I was tense and ready to go for my gun, he slowly pulled open his jacket.

"I'm not armed. Nothing for you to worry about." he said, then held up an envelope. "I brought these letters. One is for the Chief, it's my formal resignation from the Police Force here. The other is to notify the Department, through you, that I am leaving for Alabama tomorrow morning." He named the town as he put the envelope on the metal mesh table. "I've taken the Chief of Police job there, and some of my wife's family lives near there."

"I see." I said, still wary.

"I was up here, at this house, once before." Malone said, pointing to the view. "Back when Old Man Bonniker lived here. He loved this view; I'm sure you do, too. I'd just been promoted to Lieutenant then..."

Malone then turned to me and said "This might not mean too much to you, Commander, but I've been playing this game for a long time... the Police game, the politics game, the behind-the-scenes game. It's rough-and-tumble, and every man or woman for himself. When you first came here, I thought you might be a player in the Game, and to an extent I was right: you do play the game, but your own way, on your terms. I don't expect you to admit you were behind exposing my racial issues, but would it surprise you if I told you that I don't hold it against you?"

He paused, as if expecting me to answer. All I could say was "I think one difference between us, among many, is that I never did see it as a game. Too many lives at stake. We lost Feeley. I just don't see the game in it." Malone nodded, understanding if not agreeing.

"Well, Commander, I'll go, and best of luck to you. I think you're going to need it." said Malone. "You really have done a spectacular job, but you've got some enemies lined up against you now that make your bad nephew look like an amateur. And you won't get far playing it straight against them."

"I'll keep that in mind." I said. "I do have one question, though: you can't be in the middle when you're living in the State of Alabama, you have to choose sides. So what will you be yelling: 'Roll Tide!' or 'War Eagle!'?"

Malone laughed. "Har! 'War Eagle!'. My wife went to Auburn for two years. She cried when that bastard killed the trees at Toomer's Corner. See you around, Iron Crowbar. Hopefully not any time soon, though." With that, Harold Malone went around the walkway and left.

I stayed a while, sitting on the deck in the warm sun. I was thinking about what Molly had told me about Senator Nathan Allen. He was now resorting to murdering people, he had the dirty half of the SBI broken to his fist, to use 'War Eagle' lingo about birds of prey. I knew what I wanted to do, what I needed to do, but it would mean irreversibly crossing a line, like Julius Caesar crossing the River Rubicon. This wasn't just fucking up punks with a crowbar...

It would mean crossing over to the Dark Side.

To be continued.