Dark Side of the Force Ch. 04

The chronological order of my stories is as follows:

Todd & Melina series, Interludes 1-5, Sperm Wars series, Russian Roulette series, Case of the Murdered Lovers series, Case of the Murdered Chessplayer series, The Swap series, Interludes 6-10, The Murdered Football Player Series, Case of the Black Widow series, Teresa's Christmas Story, The Case of the Black Badge series, A Case of Revenge series, Trilogy Series.

Dark Side Of The Force, Ch 1-4.

Feedback and constructive criticism is very much appreciated, and I encourage feedback for ideas.

This story contains graphic scenes, extreme language, and actions that might be extremely offensive to some people. These scenes, words and actions are used only for the literary purposes of this story. The author does not condone murder, racial or racist language, violence, rape or violence against women, and any depictions of any of these in this story should not be construed as acceptance of the above.

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Part 17 - Leads

The University's Bulldogs had lost its first football game, to a better opponent. Then they went 0-2 as they lost a game they likely should've won. My Wildcats, by way of contrast, were 2-0. Therefore on September 10th I was a happy Commander and Dr. Woodrow was also happy, while most of my Police Force was an unhappy bunch.

On that morning of September 10th, I was asked to come to Lt. Scott Peterson's office. When one enters Headquarters from the front, one hallway next to the Duty Desk in direct front goes to the left to Interrogation Rooms A-C. A hallway against the outer wall to the left goes to the Press room, which has a podium and rows of chairs and (most very unsecure) wi-fi connections for the reporters. A door to the left of the podium, in the right rear of the room as one faces the podium, was a short hallway that went to Lt. Peterson's office, which was about the size of Cindy's. There was no way to get from the Media section into the rest of the Headquarters.

When I got there, Lt. Peterson was behind his desk talking with KXTC reporter John "Johnny" Hardwood. Most reporters are very short, especially the ones on TV, and Hardwood was noticeable in that he was tall, though not nearly as tall as me. He was sitting in the chair in front of Peterson's desk.

"Commander, Mr. Hardwood here has been asking me some questions that might be interesting to you. Johnny?" said Lt. Peterson as I sat down in the small chair to the side of the desk.

"Commander, I was just asking Scott here about a tip I got." said Hardwood. "The source is anonymous, of course, but the information I got was that there was an altercation at Senator Nathan Allen's campaign headquarters a few days ago. Some guy burst in, screaming at the Senator. My source said that the man was subdued by the Senator's security people, and that he was roughed up pretty good. Allen then told his security people to bring the man to Police Headquarters, and that Allen said he'd follow up and press charges. I was following up with Peterson here, and he says there's no record of such an arrest."

"Commander," said Lt. Peterson, "I just checked the arrest logs from the day before Johnny says the incident happened until yesterday. No one was brought in by any security people; all arrests have been made by police officers."

"Any description of the man that burst into Allen's offices?" I asked.

"You mean Senator Allen..." Hardwood corrected, pissing me off instantly. I'd left off the title deliberately. "What I got was the man was early 40s, wearing a collared, button-down shirt with criss-cross green and red lines, khaki pants that looked worn, and brown, really beat-up shoes." Hardwood gave a further description of the man.

"Well, Allen, and I left the title off on purpose, Hardwood," I said, taking a hard shot at him for his rudeness in daring to correct me in my own Police Station, "did not make any such complaints to my Department that I am aware of. But let me ask you this, have you heard of the man who was found dead in the River in South Coltrane County the other day?"

Hardwood was red faced after my verbal lashing, and now I was asking him about news of which he was unaware. "Er, no, I haven't. Why should I?" he asked, his voice beginning to take a hostile edge.

"If you'll do some checking, Hardwood," I said a bit witheringly, "I think you'll find the description you just gave us matches very well with the dead man fished out of the River in Coltrane County. Peterson, see if you can pull up a couple of articles or a police report on it for Mr. Hardwood." I got up to go. "By the way, Mr. Hardwood, since you're so in love with Senator Allen, I won't expect you to connect the obvious dots and begin a good journalistic investigation. But the path to a Pulitzer is wide open to you if you take it." I left the room.

"Geez, what a prick." Hardwood said quietly. "No wonder Ms. Woodburn hates his guts so much."

"Guts is something the Iron Crowbar has in tremendous quantity, Hardwood." Peterson replied. "And you can quote me on this for the record: this Police Force loves that man and will follow him to the Gates of Hell and back."

----

"Cindy, did Parker and Washington get anything on that father that was found in the River in Coltrane County?" I asked during my meeting with my Lieutenants.

"Uhhh, not that I remember." Cindy said. She began shuffling through notes. "Sorry, sir, I'm not prepared; you ambushed me with that one."

"Don't stress on it." I said. "Stay after this meeting and I'll call in Teddy and Theo."

Some minutes later, after working through the agenda items, I excused Tanya and Teresa, asking Tanya to send Theo and Teddy in. Mere seconds passed before they were reporting in at the door. I had them come in and sit down.

"No sir, we didn't get anything." said Theo Washington. "We looked at where the FBI said his cell phone had pinged. The only area that he apparently stopped was in the north central strip mall where Nathan Allen's campaign headquarters is located. We asked some of the businesspeople there if they'd seen the man or his vehicle, showing them pictures, but no one remembered anything."

"Did you ask people at Nathan Allen's campaign headquarters?" I asked.

"We went in." Teddy Parker said. "Senator Allen wasn't there, and most of his staff was out. There were only three people in there at the time, and they all said they had not seen that man nor his vehicle."

"Sir, I told them not to waste too much time on that." said Cindy, partly to cover for her Detectives. "They looked at it for one day, then I put them on other assignments."

"And I don't blame you a bit for doing that." I said. "But I have a new lead that there was an incident at Allen's campaign HQ the other day." I gave them the details. "Now we don't want to mention yet that the man who allegedly invaded their offices is the same man who came over all dead in Coltrane County, but I want to find out if the event happened. So here is what we're going to do:

"Cindy, I'm taking this one myself, just because I personally want to be the one to front Allen and his people when the political shit hits the fan. Theo, you'll be with me. We'll stop by the Duty Desk and find out where Rudistan and Morton are, and maybe another couple of Uniforms... Johnson and McGhillie, if they're available."

---

Theo Washington and I pulled up to the front of Allen Campaign Headquarters. An astonishing thing happened as we got out of my SUV: the blinds were being drawn, the sign was turned from 'Open' to 'Closed', and the lights were being turned out.

"Let's go, scatter!" the campaign manager ordered as he and his fellow staff members rushed out the back door into the service alley... only to be stopped as two Police cars and four uniformed officers were waiting right there.

"Going somewhere, folks?" said Senior Patrolman Micah Rudistan, with a joviality that belied the seriousness of the issue. "You people wouldn't be trying tooooooo... evade police, now would you?"

The staff were shepherded back inside. As Rudistan followed, the campaign manager snarled "Where's your warrant, pig? You can't come in here without a warrant."

"Oh, I got probable cause now, little man." Rudistan said in a happy mood, not letting the punk frustrate him. "You boys and girls tried to evade police." He and the other officers came inside. McGhillie opened the door to admit Theo and myself. There was an audible gasp when I walked in, red crowbar in hand.

"Okay folks, this won't take long." I said. "Guys, send them in one at a time."

"No one say a word. Refuse to answer, demand a lawyer." the campaign manager shouted before we could stop him. "You police, I order you to leave if you don't have a warrant."

"You can file a complaint with the Town & County Council and/or the Inspector General's office." I said. "Guys, send them in, anyway." I said, then added with a menacing look at the campaign manager. "One at a time... one at a time. And if any of them refuse, even one of them, I'm going to arrest every last one of them and they can sit in jail for a while."

Part 18 - Visits

I was sitting in the Chief's office an hour after finishing at Allen Campaign Headquarters, reporting to him what had happened. Jack Muscone of the FBI was also present.

"They all refused to talk and demanded lawyers." I said. "But I learned what I wanted to learn. I asked them one question as I showed them the picture of the dead man: 'Did this man come into this office and attack Senator Allen?'. Their eyes gave themselves away; I believe it definitely happened."

"Looking dreamily into their eyes will not fly in getting a warrant or proving murder, Crowbar." the Chief growled.

"True, sir," I said, smiling, "but now that we essentially know the man went there, we can look into the case with fresh eyes."

"Fill me in." said Muscone. "I read the reports filed by the Missing Persons Branch, but I don't know the rest yet."

I first told Muscone about the accusation that Nathan Allen raped the daughter that was later run over by a car and then died at the hospital, then about the father. "The reporter Hardwood said that he got a tip that this man went to Allen's campaign headquarters to attack Allen, that security people beat the guy up, then were told by Allen to bring him to our Headquarters here... but they never did. Then the man shows up dead in Coltrane County. It's pretty easy to connect the dots mentally-"

A commotion was occurring outside the Chief's door, as his secretary was screaming "Stop! You can't go in there!" as the door was flung open. Senator Nathan Allen invaded the room, followed by Katherine Woodburn, a campaign staffer, and two well-armed SBI Agents: Richard 'Dick' Ferrell and the youngish Carter Fischer.

"There's a concept called 'knocking', Senator. Like on my door. Now get out and learn that concept." said Chief Griswold, his face reddening with anger.

"Go fuck yourself, Griswold." replied Nathan Allen, which caused me to bring out the red crowbar and 'front' Allen. "Oh, I see your little cocksucker wants to use his fucking little stick. Go ahead, shithead, take a swing at me. You'll be dead before you blink twice." The SBI Agents were poised to go for their guns."

"And like you'll get out of this Police Station alive, eh, Senator. If your poodles kill us, you'll be blown away before you can get ten feet down the hall." I said, not backing down. "And you will show the Chief respect, or you'll get an ass-whipping from me such that you'll never walk normally again. Now what the fuck do you want?"

"I want to know what the fuck you and your cops were doing in my Campaign Headquarters today, coming in without invitation and without warrants, and interrogating my innocent campaign staff with Gestapo tactics."

"Innocent people don't shut the blinds, lock the doors, then try to run, Allen." I said. "They evaded police but they got caught trying to sneak out the back door."

"By the time I'm done, you're going to be demoted to fucking janitor around here, boy." Allen said to me, then turned to the Chief. "And you won't get to retire, you old fart; you're going to be brought up on charges, fired, and stripped of your pension-" I got right into Allen's face as he spoke, cutting him off.

"Allen, if you have an issue with any police officer," I said, "then you may file a complaint with the Town & County Council or the Inspector General. The first thing they'll do is contact the media, KXTC... under new ownership, I might add..." I said, looking right at Katherine Woodburn, twisting the verbal knife, "and that little recovery in your polls that you managed to engineer will start slipping again."

"Go sit and spin on that crowbar, you little prick." hissed Katherine Woodburn, her eyes glaring with hatred at me.


By now there were fifteen police officers with shotguns in the anteroom of the Chief's office. "Gentlemen," I said to them, looking past the despicable little group in front of me, "please escort Senator Allen and his lapdogs to the front door. As you can see, Senator, they are not taking 'no' for an answer. One false move from any of you, and every one of you are dead. Not arrested, but dead. Now you have a nice day, and I'm going to be seeing you again... reeeeeal soon."

"You bet your ass you will." said Allen. "You're on notice, all of you. My campaign headquarters and my people are off limits to you. Get warrants before you enter my property or my facilities, and get warrants before you try to talk to any of my people." He turned and left.

Part 19 - Observation and Deduction

"It's good to see you recovering so well, Cindy." said Jack Muscone as we ate lunch at the Irish Pub, a.k.a. the Cop Bar. He was enjoying a delicious double-cheeseburger, while I ate more sensibly by consuming a Caesar steak salad. Cindy had come with us, and was also eating a salad. Per a new tradition between me and Cindy and Jack, all ranks were off and we were all equals while we ate.

"When are you coming back on full duty?" Jack asked.

"I re-qualify with my gun on September 15th." Cindy said. "And thank you for noticing that I've recovered so well... seems some people have been trying to delay my full return." She looked at me. I just ate a bite of salad as if I'd heard nothing.

"Well, your fellow officers care about you." said Jack, trying to help me out. "They want you completely healed before you return. I once had an Agent who tried to return too fast... he ended up getting shot again, fortunately only in the leg. By the way... I did notice one thing in that office... I saw who took charge of Allen while your Police Chief stood by and let you. You really are in charge there now, aren't you Don?"

"The Chief is generously allowing me to fill my new role," I said, then looked at Cindy, "which includes making sure my very best officers don't hurt themselves by coming back to full duty too quickly."

Cindy stared back at me as she fearlessly replied "Jack, the man has forgotten that he gave me his blue crowbar. And I gave him the red one just to make it a bit more fair... to him." Jack was just about doubled over with laughter.

"I'm glad you two get along." the FBI agent said. "God have mercy on you, Don, if she liked you as much as Katherine Woodburn does."

"This is nothing, you should see Cindy and Teresa having a 'pleasant' conversation." I rejoined. "And Teresa doesn't even need a crowbar..." Cindy gave me another wilting look. I changed the conversation.

"So guys, why do you think the Senator's staff is so afraid to talk to us?" I asked. "And what do you think of his little visit to our humble Headquarters?"

"His visit bespeaks desperation." Cindy said. "I think he fucked up, and now he's scared because we're sniffing around."

"Yeah, and I think he was shocked and very unhappy that I was in the office when he got there." said Muscone. "He had those SBI agents ready to shoot-to-kill, but killing a Federal agent is a whole different ballgame."

"You might well be right, Jack, and I agree with you, Cindy." I said. "He's acting like a cornered rat."

"Don," said Cindy, "there's something I want to ask you: when Jack here and DD Conlan confronted Captain Malone about the racial stuff, you weren't at the Station... but Malone was really calling out for you, calling you names and stuff."

"I wasn't there, but I heard about it." I said.

"I was there." Jack said. "And yeah, he really made a point to take your name in vain."

Cindy continued: "Well, from what I heard today, Senator Allen and that Woodburn bitch were really taking verbal shots at you. They were really trying to get you to use that crowbar on them."

I sat bolt upright. "Yes... ye-esss..." I then recovered. "Cindy, you are getting good, very good, at observation and deduction." I could see my partner was very pleased with that comment, though she tried to hide it. "So what do you make of that?"

Cindy said "It occurred to me that they were trying to provoke you into doing something physical, and that Captain Malone was doing the same thing."

"Ohhhh, I see what you're getting at." said Muscone. "Think they're doing it on purpose?"

"Youuuu betcha." I said. "And Katherine Woodburn is the common element with Malone and Allen. I wouldn't be surprised if she was the one that concocted having them all do that... as a deliberate plan to trap me! Okay, Cindy, your lunch is on me."

Jack had been silent for a few moments, thinking about something. Finally he spoke. "You know, I really wish there was some way we could bust that bastard Allen. People have been after him for years... Feds, State... but he always weasels out of trouble."

"Hell, he just committed the murder of a father and daughter," said Cindy, "and I don't think we're going to be able to do a damn thing about it. And I still want to bust the bastard's chops after what he tried to do to Teresa..."

I just sat there, listening to the words, my mind at work... and in turmoil...

Part 20 - Assault In The Night

"Oh, what a long day!" said Daniel Allgood as he lay back on the bed. It was now 1:00am on the morning of September 11th, the anniversary of the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon. "Did you have a good time tonight, honey?"

"It was okay." said Melina from the bathroom as she got ready for bed. "The Ladies Auxiliary, I can do without. But I was glad to see Laura up and about and looking healthy again."

"Come on out of that bathroom and come to bed." Daniel ordered his wife. Melina stuck just her head around the door and said "Are you sure you want me to come out?"

"You bet your sweet ass I do, baby." Daniel replied- then gasped as Melina walked through the door into the bedroom. She was wearing a see-thru orange-peach teddy, the hem of which did not cover her fur-lined pussy. She was also wearing high-heel slides with criss-cross pastel-colored straps.

"Like what you see, cowboy?" Melina said, her voice sultry and seductive. She lifted one leg and rested it on the edge of the bed, letting her hand slide down to her labes and play with them as her husband's eyes reveled in the sight, knowing what was coming.

"Jesus, baby!" Daniel said, feeling his cock throbbing as it quickly hardened, "you look magnificent! Good enough to eat..."

"Mmmm," Melina mewled as she climbed onto the bed, very slowly crawling a couple of steps up towards her husband. "I think I might let you do that... but I get my candy first." With that, Melina grasped the base of Daniel's nine inch cock and began gently stroking it. She leaned over and kissed the tip of his bulging cockhead, licking out the drop of pre-cum forming at his piss-slit. "Mmmmff!!"