Four Square Ch. 04

"It's over, Ashwarya." I said. "They're confessing, they're naming you, they're giving all they know about MegaTech, and they'll have protective custody in prison. But you're not getting protective custody. Hell, the FBI will probably come in here and take you away from us, and you may have heard about how bad the Federal Prisons are about protecting their inmates."

"Murder is a State crime." Chip Blake tried.

"Treason is not." I replied. Blake saw that he was totally defeated.

"What are you offering?" he said...

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

6:00pm, Friday, April 12th. Miriam Walters and Paulina Patterson came to my office with me.

"I don't know about you guys, but I'm starved!" Paulina Patterson said as we sat down. "Don, you must be exhausted by now."

"It'll hit me later tonight." I said. "Right now I'm high on the fumes. Three more plea deals, total of five."

"That really was an amazing performance." said D.A. Walters. "We did not have a prayer to get all that if they'd gone to trial."

"I was counting on their lawyers not really wanting the publicity of trials." I said, fooling no one present.

"Harrumph!" grunted Paulina. "Miriam, that was the reputation of the Iron Crowbar at work. He just told them the true story, and they were so scared that he could prove it, they caved in and took the plea deals."

A slight smile crossed Miriam Walters's pretty but severe face. "So you do bluff, Commander."

I pretended to be miffed. "Why in the world do you think I was bluffing?" I asked with all the innocence and dignity I could muster.

*KNOCK!* *KNOCK!* *KNOCK!* *KNOCK!*

Fortunately, I was saved from a forced confession at the hands of the District Attorney by FBI Special Agent In Charge Jack Muscone knocking on the door. He came in at my bidding, and to my surprise he was followed by FBI Supervisory Agent Melina Allgood.

"I'll go congratulate Julia on the job she did." said Paulina. She left, and Muscone sat down in the hot chair she'd just vacated, with Melina standing between them.

"Okay, Ms. Walters." Melina said, taking some papers out of his briefcase. "This is simply non-disclosure paperwork, where you agree to not reveal the Top Secret information we're about to tell you."

Muscone said "And then there's paperwork for you to apply for a Top Secret clearance, which Commander Troy believes that you are going to need in the coming months."

"Yes, I was realizing that today." Miriam said as she signed the paperwork.

Once that was done, Muscone started: "That Army 'exercise' a few months ago? Wasn't. The rumors you may have heard are true: a nuclear weapon was smuggled into Town, and Commander Troy and Special Agent Allgood were more than instrumental in stopping the threat and recovering the weapon."

"Are you kidding?" Miriam gasped.

"I can assure you he is not." I said. "The man that gave Rhonda Fitch Gray those drugs, helped steal the nuke in a combat-style hijacking operation. And the woman that Ashwarya Subramaniam recognized, that she called 'Mai Lin'... is in reality Keiko Shimono, a disavowed CIA Agent and foreign spy concentrating on stealing technology. The last time I saw her, she was leaving me handcuffed to that nuke, with 20 minutes on the timer to set it off and wipe out this corner of the State..."

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

After Miriam left, Muscone and Melina discussed with me some wrap-up points of the cases.

"We've really gone 'round and 'round," said Muscone, "debating whether or not we should inform MegaTech Industries that Mai Lin is a spy, and ask them to help us capture her, or if we should lay low and pretend ignorance while going after her."

"It's a moot point." I said. "I happen to know that while the interrogations were going on, Chip Blake was texting Nathan Masterson. I believe Masterson told Blake to try to get Amit to sacrifice himself to stop the investigation. Why? Because it was going to lead back to MegaTech, and to Shimono on the side. MegaTech is hip-deep in the Swamp; they're one of the Big Boy companies like BigAgraFoods, BigRoadAndRailCorp, BigPharmaCorp, and so on. I'd be willing to bet that Masterson has told his Elitist masters all about it."

"So was she a part of MegaTech?" asked Melina. "Or were they fooled, too?"

"I'm theorizing without much data here," I said, "but I strongly suspect they know damn well who she is. She was seen by Frieda Franklin with Edward Blassingame at the BigAgraFoods warehouse. She was an integral part of the nuke incident, which was designed partially to steal the Mutanix technology from BOW Enterprises, technology that MegaTech badly craves. And she was liaison to projects that were involved in audio to spy on American Citizens, 'Big Brother' style. MegaTech probably would not mind if Red China got that technology to help their Government spy on the Chinese People, either."

Melina replied: "The flip side of the coin, and the reason we think we may need to tell MegaTech and force them to sever all ties with her, is that MegaTech has created a lot of very highly classified technology that the Federal Government and many industries use today. And whether benign or not, that technology cannot be allowed to fall into foreign hands. So if they don't know what she is, we have an obligation to tell them."

"Sounds like that decision is to be made at a level far above my pay grade." I said. "More like on the pay grade level of a former Deputy Director of the Science and Technology Directorate of the CIA. But you're already way ahead of me on that, aren't you?"

"Four hundred years ago..." Jack Muscone muttered. Melina just smiled a knowing smile...

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

"Daddy!"

That wonderful sound greeted me as I came into The Cabin, and it was followed by three girls coming up to hug me: Carole, Tasha, and Marie. Bowser also barked happily, and I made sure to pet him after hugging the girls.

"Why have I not been tackled by three boys?" I wondered out loud.

"That would take time away from creating their Lego city upstairs." Molly said as she got up to hug me. "But I have to admit, it's getting impressive up there."

"Yes, it is." Laura said, coming out of the kitchen with plates for setting the table. I noticed the placesettings at the table.

"Ah, Mom is joining us for dinner?" I observed out loud.

"Why, yes I am." said my mom, coming out of the kitchen with a casserole, which she placed upon the table. "Congratulations upon solving those difficult cases."

"And connecting them all together." said Molly.

"Thanks." I said. "They're still unresolved, though, until we get Trent and Quint off the streets. How's Mrs. Boddiker doing, Mom?"

"She was very happy to hear that Mr. Fitch's death was solved." said my mom. "As are the staff at the Boddiker Hospice facility."

"So, who wants to help me take these dogs out before dinner?" I called out. Buddy and Bowser practically 'teleported' to the back door.

"I will!" volunteered Carole. Tasha had been about to speak up, but hesitated.

"You want to come too, Tasha?" I asked Tasha.

"Yeah!" Tasha said happily. I opened the door and two outstanding dogs instantly disappeared, scampering around the corner of the house. I sat down in the metal mesh loveseat, with Carole on the seat to my left and Tasha in my lap.

"How has school been, Carole?" I asked.

"Good." Carole said.

"Has Shawn messed with you?" I asked.

"No sir." said Carole. "He's been playing baseball with the other boys. But the teachers are watching us reeeeal close, especially me."

"Oh really?" I asked. "Why is that?"

"They still think I started it with Shawn." Carole said, looking out over the Town. "I just ignore 'em, and we have fun anyway. Oh... hi, Mommy."

"Hello." Laura said, having snuck up behind us. "How did you know I was behind you?" She'd observed that Carole had not turned around.

"I just knew." Carole said.

"Why don't you girls take the dogs back in, and get washed up for dinner." I 'suggested'. My 'suggestions' were followed, and the girls and dogs went back inside.

"She just knew." I said. "As for me, I smelled your perfume as you came up. What's up?"

Laura sat down next to me on the loveseat, and I put my arm around her and pulled her to me. She said "I've checked with friends on the school situation. Some of the teachers do seem to be birddogging Carole at recess, but I'm not sure why, and Carole couldn't care less."

"I am afraid," I said, "that she's going to get a lot of scrutiny in the future. She's got the vibe, and she opens her mouth, with truths they don't want to hear, just a little too often."

"I wonder where she inherited that from." Laura quipped. "Wasn't from me; I've been keeping secrets all my life."

"I'll happily bear the blame for that." I said. "And speaking of keeping secrets, what is it that you came out here to tell me?"

"Not much gets by you." Laura quipped. "I'm sure you've figured out by now that Trent Ridge being a suspect in the murder of LCDR Waring and Shimono being embedded in MegaTech Industries are issues of deep concern to a lot of people in Washington. Some for the right reasons, like the threat Ridge poses; but some for the wrong reasons, like protecting MegaTech from scrutiny."

"And to root out the MegaTech problem," I said, "they need someone with great experience as well as a strong understanding of science and technology issues to do something about it... like go undercover, maybe?" Laura made like an owl and turned her head very fast to peer hard at me.

"Wow." Laura said. "Nothing really does get past you."

"I hope that'll be true when my daughters get to be teenagers, though I fear they will find new ways to get past me." I said jovially. "But I understand. You have to do what you have to do. Let's go in, and eat."

We got up and I took Laura into my arms, which turned into a warm kiss. Then I heard giggling from the area of the back door, and looked over to see two five-year-old cockblockers peering out the door, and giggling some more.

"What are you two laughing at?" I asked Carole and Marie as I peered hard at them.

"At you and Mommy." Carole replied. "You're being in love again." She and Marie erupted into more giggles...

Part 19 - Cleanup on Aisle 5

"Hello and welcome!" said Catrina Pierce at 8:00am, Saturday, April 13th, from the KFXU studios. "I'm Catrina Pierce and with me is Meredith Peller. Good morning, Meredith!"

"Good morning, Catrina." said Meredith. "Good morning, everyone. Here's what's in the news this weekend. The Town & County Police and the District Attorney's Office announced that five plea deals were made in the cases of the death of a Hospice patient and what appeared to be an accidental killing by someone purporting to be a Good Samaritan. According to D.A.Miriam Walters, Commander Donald Troy broke down the stories of five persons involved in the cases, leading to murder charges and the plea deals."

Meredith went on to give some details of the David Lang case, but not revealing a lot of it. The Fitch murder was not discussed in further detail, at all.

"In State news," said Catrina after Meredith finished, "Karl Frazier's Public Policy Polling was embarrassed and had to issue an apology when it was revealed that their latest polls, which said that a majority of people wanted Governor Val Jared impeached, oversampled people that identified themselves as Democrats by three times the number of people that identified themselves as Republicans or Conservatives, which skewed the numbers significantly. Public Policy Polling issued an apology and a retraction of that poll."

"Meanwhile," Meredith said, "Legislators are continuing to investigate Governor Val Jared for what they describe as an illegal phone call to Federal Immigration Enforcement officials, offering a quid pro quo arrangement. The State House Judiciary Committee has announced they will issue subpoenas for aides to the Governor to testify about the phone call. Governor Jared has stated that without a formal impeachment or inquiry resolution voted upon by the State House, he will not cooperate with what he is calling a 'lynching', and has ordered that his staff refuse the subpoenas and not answer questions."

Catrina: "An avalanche of condemnations against the Governor were issued in response to his use of the term 'lynching'. Maxine Watts, spokeswoman for the group 'Black Voices Raised' said that Governor Jared's use of the word 'lynching' was racist, and dishonored blacks who were lynched by whites in what she called 'America's racist past'."

Catrina: "Governor Jared immediately issued a response, calling Ms. Watts a race-baiter, accusing her of ginning up race for political purposes, and that what the State Legislature had been doing to him, the Governor, through the false accusations of the Independent State Counsel and now the 'ginned-up' impeachment inquiry, was absolutely the political equivalent of a person being lynched and murdered."

Meredith: "Governor Jared went on to say that the false accusations against him were really against the People of the State that voted for him, and that the Democrats are using racial accusations to try to overturn the People's vote and the results of the race that he fairly won. Black Legislators called Governor Jared a White Nationalist and White Supremacist, and demanded that he resign immediately. Midtown State Rep. Tasheeka Harris said she would file a bill to impeach Governor Jared for being a racist..."

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

*CLICK!*

It was Captain Teresa Croyle that expertly used the remote to turn off the television monitor in my office.

"Thank you." said Commander Cindy Ross. "And that was the Fox station. I'm not going to go find out, but I can only imagine what Bettina and Lester Holder are saying."

"I don't care to know, either." I said. "But I'll find out from Our Sheriff, because he's really watching these developments concerning his friend the Governor."


"Sheriff Griswold is worried about it, isn't he?" Cindy said. "I felt a real vibe from him about it yesterday morning."

"I think so." I said. "He hasn't said anything to me about it yet, though."

"If I may change the subject," said Teresa, "what's going on about the murder of LCDR Waring, and the other cases with respect to the Shimono gang?"

"I suspect Todd is more worried about those cases than he's letting on?" I asked. Teresa nodded, raising her eyebrows in a 'nothing gets by you' kind of way.

I continued: "The Navy's CIS is formally taking over the Waring case. The Chief and I agreed, with the caveat that we will move to capture Trent Ridge and Quint Starr if we find them in our jurisdiction, and we might use lethal force to stop them."

"Hey!" said Teresa. "We can have a new TV show: 'NCIS: Town & County'."

"And who is going to be 'Heddy'?" I asked.

"Your wife." said Teresa. "And Melina can be the EAD. She's acting like one already."

I chuckled. "You're right about that, and then some. Anyhoo, the FBI is working the Federal aspects of the Lang case, since Lang was apparently an undercover FBI Agent inside MegaTech. Tanu and Amit are not going to know what is going to hit them."

"And Ashwarya?" asked Cindy.

"Oh, I think she has every idea of how deep the waters are that she's swimming in." I said.

"What about the Professor Christian case?" Teresa asked. "Capture Trent, close that case?"

"I dunno." I said. "I've gone through some of his papers on the Consultant. Too bad he was just starting his research on Westboro. I would have enjoyed reading his book."

"He was going to interview you for the book, Don." said Cindy. "And I'd be surprised if there was anything Professor Christian would've found about the Consultant that you don't know already."

"Oh, there's a ton of stuff about Westboro that I don't know. Yet." I said. "In fact, one thing Professor Christian found that I didn't know: Westboro liked the old 'Mission: Impossible' shows, with Peter Graves, Martin Landau and eventually with Leonard Nimoy. That's... interesting..."

I went into a reverie for a second, then came out of it and said: "But I continue to study the Consultant. His life and career are fascinating to read about. And examples of his work keep popping up."

"Do you think his lost fortune is really out there?" Cindy asked.

"I don't know." I said, shrugging my shoulders. "Like the man himself for so long, there aren't even any rumors about it. The FBI tore his financial webs apart, and never found a thing..."

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

Saturday night, April 13th. The celebration was in the new back room of the Cop Bar. It wasn't a dinner, but just a party with finger foods and beer. Lots of beer.

Among the guests were the Mayor, the Honorable Daniel Allgood, and his lovely wife Melina. I noticed that my mother Phyllis spent a considerable amount of time talking with her former daughter-in-law. As they did, Daniel came up to me.

"Great work on those cases, Don." Daniel said as we shook hands. "But I wanted to ask you about something else. How are the Charter Commission meetings going?"

"Pretty well, so far." I said. "But we haven't had any public hearings yet. And the NEA has been pushing on the School Board thing, though I don't know why: they're going to get an independent School Board. It's pretty much a done deal on that."

"I'm not sure what the deal with the NEA is, either." said Daniel. "But I wanted to alert you to something else that's going on. I'd heard rumors that the black politicians are going to make a push to eliminate the Council. And then I was approached by the local Republican businesspeople, who wanted the same thing, and wanted me to consider endorsing it."

"What do they want?" I asked. "Equal-population Council seats?"

"No." said Daniel. "They want to do away with the Council altogether. And so does the Democrat group, from what I understand."

"Why?" I asked, stunned. "I mean... I'm not seeing any logic in it."

"There is none, Commander Spock." quipped Daniel, knowing that Spock held the rank of Commander in the original Star Trek series. "The Republican group said the Council was too gridlocked to function properly, and that the Mayor and a strengthened Town Assembly would better meet the needs of the County's citizens. As to the Democrats, I'm not sure what their motives are. I was wondering if you knew anything from the Charter Commission."

"No, nothing like that has come up." I said.

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

After the Sheriff, Chief, and I made our little speeches about how well everyone had done in the face of four simultaneous cases, Cindy and I found a moment to talk.

"Where's Geiger?" she asked.

"I dunno." I said. "I made a point to invite all of Vice as well as MCD, and most of them are either here or sent earlier regrets."

"Maybe it's a morale thing." Cindy said.

"Well," I replied, "Janice Holloway is here with Teddy Parker, and Jerome Davis is here with Inga Gundottar, so their morale is okay. And those ladies look better than Geiger does, for sure."

"I totally agree." replied my lesbian cousin. "Anyway, my point is that I'm not sure that Geiger-to-MCD thing is going to work out. Molly told me that Parker's résumé crossed her desk, and Deputy Strait in Coltrane County said Parker sent one to the Buford P.D., which is all of four people. What I don't understand is why he'd send résumés to those places, especially knowing that Molly and I are sisters, and that I'd find out... or you would."

"And that's exactly why he sent them there." I said. "He wants us to know he's looking, and that he's unhappy with the current situation."

"It's your Detective Force, and Tanya's." Cindy said. "But losing a good Detective like Parker for the likes of Geiger... I wouldn't let that happen."