Environmental Hazards Ch. 02

"Maybe a financial anomaly." I said. "Salaried people are paid the same each week, but the amount charged to each lab for their pay changes. I'm going to have someone crawl through their finances to find where that money goes." Everyone nodded.

"Okay, changing the subject a bit," I said, "who is the project principal for the Pine Valley Project?"

Project principals are leaders of a company and can sign contracts on behalf of a company. Technically, as part of the TCPD Command Group, I am a 'principal' for the TCPD, and I have used the power on occasion.

"There's three of them, sir." said Chow. "It's that big a project. There's one for the environmental issues and compliance; one for environmental development of the land, including the golf course and road construction; and one for the development of the community, the houses and such stuff as that."

Chow continued: "The principal for the compliance part is a man named Fred Steinhart. He lives in your Town, and usually is in the Forbes & Sehgal branch office in your Town. He has a good relationship with the University's Environmental Design School, as well as professors who are involved in climate change research."

"The principal for the environmental development is named Jim DeSantos. He's been with Forbes & Sehgal since Sehgal's part of the company started up over 20 years ago, and he's very highly respected in the environmental engineering world." Chow continued. "The third principal... is A.U. Sehgal himself, the co-founder and Senior Partner in the firm. He knows all the right people, and he brings people together to get things done."

"All the right people, eh?" I said. "Including the politicians?"

"Especially the politicians." said Orosco. "He usually is friendly with politicians on both sides of the aisle. There were rumors that he would be the one to end the feud between Senators Molinari and Cerone, but it turned out some guy with full-brim hat and a crowbar got that done first." Cindy burst out laughing and I chuckled at that one.

"I was once told," I said, "to not wear a hat with more personality than me. First of many rules I have broken."

"Yes sir." said Orosco. "As I was going to say, Sehgal has made only one exception to working with both sides, giving money to both candidates, and so on... and that's Val Jared. He poured a ton of money into Jack Lewis's gubernatorial campaign, and supposedly gave more under the table. On the flip side, he gave Val Jared exactly zero dollars, and he's been heard to say that he hates Governor Jared with a passion."

"Hmmm, interesting." I said, making a note of that. "Sapper, did you see anything else of interest today?"

"Just what these guys have said, sir." said Detective Warren. "The employees were intimidated by the lawyers, and I suspect they've been told to not say anything. Two important people, the Chief Chemist and the mass spec girl that was in Midtown, were not at work today. And that Lab Manager, Brandon?..." Sapper shook his head vigorously... "Something ain't right about him."

"He's like a politician." Cindy said. "He bullshits his way through everything, pretending all is okay with a smile on his face... then the minute you turn your back on him..." She did not need to finish the sentence.

"Well look who's here!" said a voice. We looked up to see FBI Special Agent in Charge Jack Muscone coming up to us, along with Special Agents Lindy Linares, Sandra Speer, Martin Nash, and Special Agent in Charge Clark Webster."

"Mind if we join you?" Muscone asked.

"By all means!" I said. "Pull that table up to ours." The FBI Agents pulled the next table up to ours, making us a big ten-person table. Introductions were made all the way around.

"Working on that Jimmy Shell murder?" Jack asked. I nodded. Then everyone got quiet as the server came in to take the FBI people's orders (we already had our food).

"How are things in your office?" I asked. "Everyone seems a lot happier than the last time I saw you."

"It's been kind of quiet for us." said Lindy.

"Too quiet, if you ask me." said Sandra Speer, who was looking rosy and happy and pregnant.

"They're not even pressuring us to find Leonard Lotz anymore." said Clark Webster.

"Think they found him, and 'disappeared' him?" I asked.

Jack Muscone said "No. I would've heard about that if it had happened. Word I'm getting is that they think he's made it out of the country. How he could've pulled that off, I don't know. What do you think, Iron Crowbar?"

"I think I'm the brother of one of the best smugglers on the planet today." I replied. "And it's embarrassing how easily she can cross borders and oceans, and take a full, stacked pallet of gold bars with her if she so desires." Cindy nodded vigorously in agreement... which made me wonder what and how much she knew about that...

"I hear you." said Muscone. "But there hasn't been a trace of Lotz for weeks now. He has to have gotten away to somewhere. But I'm more interested in this murder case you've got going."

"And it's getting bigger by the minute." Cindy said. "It's only a matter of time before you start hearing politicians complaining."

"And time's up on that." said Muscone. "U.S. Senator Russell cancelled a Senate Committee hearing this morning, and is flying here to the City as we speak. My boss told me to keep an eye on that..."

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

The sun was setting. We'd finished eating. Orosco, Lindy, and Nash were talking at one booth, while Cindy, Norm, and Sandra were talking at our table. Sapper had gone home to his family. And Jack and I had moved to a booth for a quieter, more private conversation.

"I'm going to need some Federal muscle." I said. "Maybe some subpoenas from a Federal Court." I described what I needed.

"That shouldn't be a problem." said Muscone. "So... I didn't say anything in front of everyone, but your remark about your sister is more prescient than you may realize."

"No, I'm fully aware." I said, a small smile forming on my face. "My sister has acquired some help recently. One of those helpers is a very good bank robber that drives Les Craig nuts. Speaking of Craig, what's up with him?"

"That's one reason we're all happier right now." Muscone said. "Craig has realized that the Lotz situation is not putting him, Craig, in a good light. So now he's back into looking into Organized Crime. We're not sure where he is... he may be in Southport, or even in Midtown after this Jimmy Shell case broke."

"Has your interest, the Shell case." I said in Jedi Master Yoda grammar. "Understand it, you do not."

"Whaddya mean?" asked Muscone.

"I hope you don't think I don't realize what's going on." I said with a smile. "You, meaning the Jack Muscone team, are looking into the Organized Crime aspects of the Jimmy Shell case."

"Nothing gets by you... 400 years ago..." said Jack. "I give up. I'm running out of clichés."

"Well," I said, "I'm not sure this is the case that will help you. It's deep, and there is a lot of Government corruption coming to light, as well as a dirty environmental lab, pun fully intended. But I don't know if you'll get the Organized Crime figures involved in the financing. They're going to take their balls and go home, again pun fully intended."

Jack gave what for him was a chuckle. "Yeah, you may be right."

"So," I said, "you, Jack, will have to look for another way to make a big bust and one-up Les Craig, and humiliate him."

Jack peered at me, then shook his head. "Damn, I really do believe you can read my mind. Seriously, how do you do it? I can only imagine how many cases we could close if I could do what you do."

"Human nature, Jack." I said. "And you're a damn sight better at seeing it than most people, which is why you are who you are and where you are within the FBI."

"So," said Muscone, "beyond this lovefest, what's next?"

I said "So you want to put Craig in his place? Expose him as the failure he is?"

"Wouldn't hurt." said Muscone. "I don't care so much for myself, but it's my team and it staying together that worries me. Craig is not only after you and Cindy, he's trying to rip us apart, too."

"Well, then," I said with a 'little' smile, "you've come to the ri-ight place..."

Part 9 - Glowing In The Dark

After dinner, I paid the bill for everyone (including our FBI buddies), and we said goodnight to everyone. Cindy had not consumed any alcohol, and I'd only had a beer with dinner, but of course she drove.

"So," I said as we strapped into the car, "do you want to go back home, or drive back down towards Midtown?"

"Sounds like you have an idea about something," Cindy said, "and you want to go back to Midtown."

"You are a very astute Detective." I replied with a smile. "I want to go at least towards the Pine Valley area. Why don't we take the Interstate down to State Highway 40 and cut across to Hamilton County. There are some decent hotels along the University-Midtown Highway in that area."

"Okay." Cindy said. "I need to call Callie and tell her."

"You'll find she's at the Cabin tonight, with Molly and the boys." I said. "I was going to invite you, too, but we're on a case."

Cindy made the phone call and found out that I was correct. When she disconnected, she said "Callie says she and Molly are having fun with the boys and also Carole and Jim. Laura and your mother brought them and the dogs up. So I guess your wife and my girlfriend are going to sleep together tonight."

"Not like they can't do that in Laura's offices." I replied. "But they're all together, which is good. Safer that way."

"So why do you want to go back towards Midtown, or at least the Pine Valley project?" Cindy asked.

"I have a sneaking suspicion that those chemicals in the tanks at Bexall Chemicals are going to be drained in the dark of the night tonight." I said. "I've got Eddy the Bounty Hunter watching the place. He'll let me know if anything happens there tonight."

"Wow, you're spending some money on this." said Cindy. "I know you can expense it, but they cut the SBI budget, you know."

I smiled. "I'm paying Eddy a flat-rate $1000 for the night. He's going to dig a foxhole on the hill overlooking the site, and wrap up warm. He'll probably get some sleep, too, which is fine as long as he wakes up if any tanker trucks pull up."

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

The phone call came earlier than I expected. At 9:30pm, still Friday, March 24th, I got a brief text, which read "Barbarians at the gate."

"All right, that's it." I said to Cindy as we sat in my hotel room. We put on our full armor, including me putting on the bulletproof 'girdle', then headed out in the Black Beauty.

"I've got a pretty massive contingent of State Patrol ready to help us out." I said. "They've been working on a case of tanker trucks transporting chemicals they think drugs are dissolved in, in association with the DEA and formerly with the SBI-NTF, which is now nearly dead. The State Patrol is hoping the guys in these trucks are part of the same Domingo Shipping fleet that has been running the drugs."

"I hope you told them the Black Beauty is on their side." Cindy said adroitly.

"Oh yeah." I said. "Okay, we're near the road to Bexall. Turn out the headlights..."

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

The Black Beauty was hidden in some tall grass by the side of the road about 150 feet from the entrance of the Bexall chemical plant. Cindy and I had crept up closer to the site on foot, and now her Police iPhone and my videocamera were filming the trucks siphoning the chemicals out of the underground tanks. We made sure to focus on license plates and registration numbers and identifying marks on the vehicles.

There were four tanker trucks. I was not sure, but I suspected that four might not be enough to completely hold all the liquids in the full tanks on the property. If they were planning to make a second run, however, they were going to need a Plan B... as we were going to interdict them tonight. The State Patrol had the road back to the University-Midtown Highway blocked off.

It took a long time, but the four trucks were finally filled. Cindy and I hustled back to the Black Beauty. 'Kato' took the wheel, while Your Iron Hornet rode shotgun. I activated the weapons systems as we waited for the trucks to approach.

But they didn't.

"Uh oh," I said, "it looks like they're going the other way. Let's ride, Kato!"

Part 10 - The Chase

"Roger that." Cindy said, pulling out. Sure enough, we came upon the tankers going west on the two-lane road, towards the town of Columbus.

Cindy had shut off the headlights, and we were able to get past the last two trucks. But the second truck in line had spotted us, and was swerving to prevent us from passing.

"We can't run off the road." Cindy said loudly. "There's a ditch, and then the soil is too soft." She turned on the radio, and a CD of Al Hirt's 'Green Hornet' theme began. We were just having entirely too much fun, here, I thought to myself.

"Let's disable this fucker." I said. Cindy nodded. She swerved right, and as the truck swerved to the right, she pulled back left. I pulled the trigger, and machine gun fire raked the the tires at the front of the tanker, the tracers guiding my aim. Then I fired at the rear tires, shredding them. Cindy hit the gas, and the Black Beauty leaped ahead as the disabled truck slowed to a stop.

"Okay," I said, "the second truck pulled over, but there's still three of them headed to the State Line. Let's disable this front one so that the next two can't get by."

"Be careful!" Cindy said over the sound of Al Hirt's trumpet on the speakers. "We don't want a massive spill of these chemicals!"

"Nor exploding gas tanks starting a fire1" I replied. "Good thing these are diesel trucks." I armed a missile, and as the Black Beauty swerved into the left lane of the road, I aimed at where the tank was coupled to the truck pulling it.

The truck swerved and Cindy did the right-and-back-to-left trick. As we came into range again, she said "You may fire your phasers."

I fired the missile, which was guided, and it went right where I was aiming. A direct hit! But the coupling didn't break.

"Target that explosion, and fire!" Cindy called out.

"Aye, Captain Sulu!" I replied. I fired another missile. As it blew the coupling apart, Cindy sped up. She got ahead of the trailer as it decoupled from the truck and jackknifed, blocking the road. I heard the squeal of tires behind us as the next truck hit the brakes to avoid a massive collision.

"These guys aren't stopping!" Cindy said. "Set your phasers to 'kill'!"

"Locked and loaded!" I called out. I raked the tires and back of the truck with more machine gun fire, then fired another rocket into the left front tires. The explosion rocked the truck, and it nearly toppled over onto us! But Cindy hit the brakes as the truck skidded off the road into the ditch on the right. It was disabled and not moving.

"Come out with your hands up!" I called into the megaphone. The driver door opened and the driver opened fire with an auto pistol. A burst of machine gun fire in his general direction showed him he was outgunned. He finally gave up, along with the passenger.

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

The State Patrol had followed us on the chase, and bagged all the other drivers and passengers of the other trucks; they had not had a chance to run before they were surrounded. After some minutes, two State Patrol vehicles rode up to us. One contained the State Patrol Commander, Colonel Hartmann.

"Excellent job, Commander Troy, Captain Ross!" he said to us. "We're a bit fortunate we had no spillages, but they're stopped. And some of these guys were on our radar for drug transportation."

"And the record will show that the State Patrol gets full credit for these arrests." I said. "Excellent job, Colonel! Pass that down to your Troopers."

"Thank you, sir." said Hartmann. "It'll help us a lot to get some credit for this."

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

There was a problem of jurisdiction. The captures had been made in Benning County, but they simply did not have the facilities to handle what was happening, so their Sheriff gladly handed all jurisdictional issues to me as SBI Reserve Inspector. In turn, I instructed the State Patrol to deliver these guys to the nearest Midtown Precinct.

Once there, Chief Frank Soltis, MPD Detectives Steve Ruger and Kimberly Wesson, SBI Agents Ted Orosco and Norm Chow, and FBI Agents Jack Muscone and Martin Nash were invited to attend my interrogation of the suspects. They all arrived within an hour. So did the lawyers for the slugs: they were all from various offices of Gresham & Mason, P.C., which told me volumes.

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

We started with the two people in the first truck. I read the perps their considerable Constitutional rights, then began.

"Where were you taking those chemicals?" I asked. I think the question surprised the perps and their lawyer; they'd probably expected me to immediately ask who'd hired them. But I am a tricky Iron Crowbar.

"To the State Line river bridge." said one of the perps.

"In Columbus?" I asked. "They'd have stopped you."

"The bridge of the road that goes north of the town." said the perp, the one who'd wanted to shoot at us. I was shocked at the answer.

"But... but... do you realize the Water Works is just downstream from there?" I asked. "You were going to poison an entire town, maybe kill every person there? You do realize that's attempted murder?"

"We had our orders." said the perp.

The other man then said "And I don't really give a shit about that hellhole town or those people. They're mostly black. If they die, it's no loss to the white race... is it, Commander Troy?" He was peering at me. I peered right back.

"May I have a moment with my clients, please?" asked the attorney.

"I think that would be for the best." I replied acidly, still staring at the white supremacist in front of me.

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

As we waited for the attorneys to get up to speed with the perps, I said to Cindy "That was great driving, Kato. You been practicing?"

"Oh, I sometimes use those simulator games on the computer." Cindy replied with as innocent a look on her face as she could muster.

"Uh huh." I said. "Those things ain't shit when it comes to real driving. And I just saw some seriously no-shit driving."

Cindy just looked at the ceiling and began whistling innocently. I began laughing.

"All the same, that was some awesome driving."

"Your shooting was pretty damn good, also." Cindy said. "Been practicing?"

I just looked at her and said "Yes."

Part 11 - Crash and Burn

At 5:00am, Saturday March 25th, everyone crowded into the small meeting room at the MPD Precinct to hear Lt. David Krueger's information.

"These eight guys have all come under the eye of the SBI or FBI in the last few years as potential drug runners." said Krueger, as his computer exhibited the eight men's mug shots on the projector screen. "Domingo Shipping was run out of the State by the Iron Crowbar some time ago, and we suspect other criminal organizations may have reinforced keeping Domingo out of the State." (Author's note: 'A Day In The Life'.)

Krueger continued: "Domingo is suspected of running tanker trucks that appear to have simple solvents, but may have drugs like cocaine dissolved in those chemicals. The SBI-NTF, DEA, and FBI have been trying to catch these guys, but so far have not been able to catch a truck and then get probable cause to test the contents. But these names," he said as he again showed the mugshots, "can now be charged with trying to take these deadly chemicals away and dump them."

"What does this give us?" asked Ted Orosco.