Going Rogue Ch. 03

The chronological order of my stories is now listed in WifeWatchman's biography.

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

This story contains graphic scenes, 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 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.

Part 10 - Memories and Politics

Wednesday, October 7th, 6:30am. I walked through the empty rooms of the house, letting the memories flow.

I had driven down to Midtown, leaving home at 4:00am for the two hour drive. After a quick stop for breakfast, I came by the house to check up on it. Molly had moved out when she moved up to Nextdoor County. I was tremendously happy to be seeing a lot more of her, and especially my son Ross, with another boy on the way.

But as I walked through the now bare rooms, I was remembering the years spent here with Melina. My life had been so different then, drudgery in labs, going to Army Reserve weekends, starting up the security equipment business that hadn't done badly... until the CIA had tried to force me to become a vendor to them.

And then that fateful day Todd and Ned had shown up, and my whole world changed. I wasn't complaining; indeed, I felt nothing but gratitude for my beautiful wife Laura, my wonderful kids, having Cindy and Molly and Ross in my family, and of course Bowser.

But still, the memories were there. I looked into the master bedroom, seeing the sitting room that Melina had really loved, remembering the many times she and I had made passionate love in this room... and then I heard a sound, downstairs. Someone else was in the house!

Making my way down the hall, I peered down into the living room. I was faintly shocked to see Chief Griswold in the greatroom, looking around. I came on down the stairs without saying anything.

"Ah, there you are." Chief Griswold said. "So this is where it all started, eh?"

I smiled. "Yes sir." I said. "This is where Melina and I lived. And then we went on a camping trip, then had to bring Ned to the University to turn him in to the police..."

"And thank God for that." the old Chief said. "Do you believe in predestination, Don?"

"No sir." I said, knowing the Chief was a Presbyterian. "But I do believe in karma."

"Same thing, really." said the Chief. "Whatever you believe in, you were meant to be where you are now, doing what you are doing. And so it was, and so it shall be."

"You planning to become a preacher in your retirement, Chief?" I asked in a joking voice. "You can tour with Robert Patterson of the Oldeeds Group, or fill in for Pastor Westboro at First Baptist from time to time."

"Or become a Police Chaplain, like your buddy Steven Ikea." teased the Chief, giving it right back to me. "But I think the Good Lord put the fish in Lake Reservoir for me to catch, so I'll do my duty. So... are you and Molly going to sell this house?"

"No sir." I said. "We've talked about it. It somehow managed to get paid for. I suspect a man with great... 'Vision'... that has untold amounts of money and just looks for ways to spend it on his relatives."

The Chief smiled as I continued "So Molly and I were talking about renting it, especially to someone in the Midtown Police Force that needs a home. Or we could make it something of a gasthaus, where people could stay temporarily from time to time, including me if I have to be down here for any length of time."

"Not a bad idea." said the Chief. I showed him around the house, including the fenced-in backyard. Not too small, but not all that big.

"Yes," I said, "I always thought Melina and I would have kids and a dog running around in this yard. But I'm not complaining. I like how things have worked out."

"The view at The Cabin is much better." said the Chief, with a lot more meaning in his words than the short sentence would indicate.

"So, Chief," I said, "I take it you're down here for the meeting with the Governor?"

"Not much gets by you, Crowbar." growled the Chief affectionately.

"If you'd have let me know, I'd've given you a ride down here." I said.

"I came down last night." said Griswold. "My wife and I spent the night at the Governor's mansion with Val and his wife, and we're planning to stay tonight, as well."

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

At 9:00am, Chief Griswold and I presented ourselves to the Governor of the State. He greeted us warmly and had us sit down for some breakfast before the meeting began at 9:30. As we ate, Gov. Jared talked of what was going on.

"Don, we've looked into that matter of them slipping that mickey into the SBI bill. We think the aides to Senator Katherine Woodburn of your District and Senator Langdon of Madison County are the culprits. Unfortunately, they covered their tracks well enough that we can't prove the bill was tampered with, so it remains law, and the University gets a new State Crime Lab."

"I wish it were the University's." I replied. "But that land is just State property that is not part of the University's land. So it's just the State Crime Lab... and out of the reach of my influence."

"Why do I think that's not true, especially since it's still in your County?" mused the Governor. "But the good news is that the State Attorney General did tender his resignation to me. He was a possible contender for Governor, but that's all over now."

"So before we go into the meeting," I said, "who are you guys looking at to run? Since I'm not going to, it must be Chief Griswold here." The Governor chuckled; Chief Griswold stared daggers at me.

"You'll be Governor before I ever will, Crowbar." said Griswold. "The only thing I'm governing is my fishing pole."

"And your computer at home." I replied, which got my old Chief staring in amazement at me.

"Nothing gets by the man, Val." said Griswold to the Governor.

"Yes, so I've been told." Jared said. "To answer your question, Don, we're actually at something of a loss. We need a candidate by the end of this month, that's for sure. But the State GOP has done an exceptionally poor job of grooming any candidates."

"Not that I'm complaining, as this breakfast is delicious," I said, "but why bring me down for the meeting?"

"Because some of my people think you're our good luck charm." said the Governor. "We know you're not running, but you have this way of getting ideas out there that somehow come to fruition. I know you're no friend of Jack Lewis, so maybe you'll help us find a candidate that can crush him."

Your Iron Crowbar is no part of any Agency of the Weak Minded. I knew something was up about all this; it was only a matter of time to find out what it was...

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

At 9:30 the Governor led me and Chief Griswold to another room in the State Capitol building. It was where the Republican Caucus of the State House would meet. There were several small offices off this room, and we went into one of them.

Inside the room were several staffers of the various politicians that were gathering. Among those politicians were my State Representative, Billy Williams; State Rep. Wilson Hammonds, Chairman of the State House Ways and Means Committee; State Sen. Sean Stockton, the minority leader on the Senate Justice Committee; and State Rep. Johnny Perdue, the most Libertarian in the State House. The same guys that I'd worked with on the SBI bill, I noted...

Also joining us was SBI Deputy Director Tom Conlan and City Mayor Lucian Phelps. Phelps was 'tight' with the Governor and Chief Griswold, I knew, as I got up and began going around the room.

"Find anything?" asked Griswold, knowing what I was doing. I was looking for bugs... and I found one, secreted as a button in the seatback of an upholstered chair. The entire group looked at me and the bug in total shock.

"Let's get out of here." said Governor Jared. That prompted a processional column back to the Governor's suite in the State Capitol, where we settled into a smaller conference room. My sweep for bugs found none.

"Wow," said Sean Stockton, "the Iron Crowbar doesn't fool around."

"No sir, I do not." I said as I sat down after my search. "Maybe it's being a police officer, or maybe that I once sold security equipment, but I'm cynical to the point of paranoia."

"It ain't paranoia if they really are out to get you." said Chief Griswold. "And you found one bug already, Crowbar."

"Thank you for that, Commander." said the Governor, with a grin that reminded me of University President Sidney Wellman's sinister smile. "Okay, let's get down to business, shall we?"

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

Meetings like the one I was in make me appreciate having a police job that challenges my mind. It was as if these Republicans were trying to see who could be the most numbingly boring. And as the meeting wore on, it was no great feat of deduction to see that the State Republicans were in total disarray.

It was a big political circle-jerk. One guy would say "Why don't you run, Mr. A?" and then another person who was opposes Mr. A would say "He can't win with (insert group here)." At some point in time Chief Griswold started watching me, to make sure I didn't get... impatient, for lack of a better term.

But then I observed a ray of hope. One youngish, nerdy looking man, a member of the Governor's budget staff, who was also tasked with polling, got my attention as he could go through different sets of paperwork and then his laptop console, correlate the information from them, and give a crisp answer to the Governor. But even more interesting was that I was sure I'd seen him before... in my class at the Police Academy.

"Why don't you just run again, Governor?" said SBI Deputy Director Tom Conlan. "You're not term-limited."

"An excellent idea." growled Chief Griswold... who then glanced sideways over at me.

"I ran for Governor last time," said Jared, "saying that I only wanted one term, and that still holds. And if I did run, the Democrats would use that against me." Was it my imagination, or was he glancing over at me for my reaction, as well?

The Governor then said "Look guys, we're in a total mess here." He turned to the nerdy looking guy and said "David, would you please give these guys the full picture?"

"Yes sir." said David. He said "Our polling indicates that the Republican Party in the State is badly split, just as the national Party is. The Conservatives and the Grassroots are very angry with the Establishment Republicans for promising to fight the Democrats, but then turning around and agreeing with the Democrats on big-spending budgets."

"I hate the fucking Grassroots!" growled Wilson Hammonds, a longtime Establishment Republican in the State House. "They're idiots. They have no idea what is going on, what we do up here."

"Don't worry about them." said Sen. Sean Stockton. "They have no choice but to vote for us if they don't want the Democrats to win. We can urinate in their faces, tell them it's raining, and they have to lap it up with a smile. They have no place else to go."

"Did you really just say that out loud?" asked Rep. Johnny Perdue, who was a Libertarian in his actual political leanings.

"Sure I did." said Stockton. "What are they going to do? The Media gins them up, then calls them the 'angry' people. They're just a bunch of whiners, though. And they vote for us in the end, because we're they're only true alternative to the Democrats. They're nothing. And what's more, the Libertarians are just a one-percent fringe party. The Libertarians are less than nothing, Perdue. Less than nothing."

Perdue looked furious at the blatant, direct insult, but said nothing. If Stockton had called out my manhood like that, there'd be a crowbar beatdown going on right now... but I held back, listening with nauseated fascination...

"That's true." said Hammonds. "The problem is that those Grassroots and TEA Party bastards don't understand politics. It's a give-and-take game out there. We have to give some to get some. We have to work with the other side to get stuff done."

"Except that the Republicans give away the store and never get anything back in return." said Perdue, finally showing some courage. "And the voters see that. You call them 'angry' as if it's a bad thing, as if it makes them wrong... but righteous anger at the attack on Pearl Harbor won World War II for us against the Japanese."

"Gentlemen," said the Governor, "let's table this until David finishes his report. David, please continue."

David said "Thank you, sir. As I was saying, polling indicates a problem when any of the leading names are mentioned vs. Jack Lewis. Senator Stockton would lose by ten points, Rep. Perdue by twelve, and Mayor Phelps by nineteen."

"What about Tom Conlan?" asked Wilson Hammonds, mentioning the SBI Deputy Director, who was sitting right next to him.

"He does a little better, sir." said David. "Five points right now, sometimes it's four and around the margin of error."

"So, why not you, Tom?" asked Hammonds. I knew Hammonds and Jack Lewis had a personal dislike of each other, as Conlan and Lewis hated each other within the SBI.

"Sir, if I may..." said David before Conlan could answer, "the problem for Deputy Conlan is not the overall numbers, but the issues themselves. One reason Jack Lewis is doing well is because he's seen as a law-and-order candidate, a good administrator of the SBI, and someone who can work with those on both sides of the aisle. Deputy Conlan is seen as a decent administrator, but only as Lewis's assistant in the SBI, carried along by Lewis's greater stature. Deputy Conlan is seen as law-and-order, but has been painted as combative after the SBI Bill battle last year, and as not willing to work with the other side."

"Sorry, Chief Griswold," I said out loud. "No way I could win if that's a problem." There were chuckles in the room as the Chief nodded.

"No doubt about that, Crowbar." said Griswold, his mustaches twitching. "So what I'm hearing is that Lewis and Conlan are seen as very similar, but on the differences Lewis wins with the electorate?"

"Yes sir." said David. "Mr. Lewis is considered the more trustworthy candidate."

"No accounting for taste in the voting Public." growled Griswold. "How does Lewis get away with the SBI shooting at Town & County Police Officers on a botched raid, and the PED scandal, the Asylum atrocities... but people think he's the good guy and Conlan is the bad guy?"

"That is thanks to a Media that has worked closely with the Democrats, and worked very hard for Director Lewis." I said. Have I mentioned that I have a deep hatred of the Press?

I continued: "David, I know I've met you before and I apologize for not remembering your last name..."

"'Krueger', sir. Not to be confused with 'Freddie' from the movies." said David, drawing laughter.

"What I want to ask you is this." I said. "Who does have a shot at Lewis?"

David answered "Commander, you're in a statistical tie with him. The whole State knows you, knows of your successes. Your negatives are some rumors of overly aggressive actions towards some criminals, but your stature is high. I know that you are not running, though. The State Attorney General was only two points behind, but after this latest thing with the State Crime Lab, his numbers are likely to fall."

"And I can assure you," said Governor Jared, with considerable feeling, "that he would not have my support nor the support of any of my political friends."

"Yes sir." said David Krueger. "You, Governor Jared, would be two points ahead of Lewis. Your popularity and job satisfaction numbers are high. And last but not least is John Cummings, who many people feel was robbed in the State Senator election last year. He's four points ahead of Lewis."

"That's an idea." said Sean Stockton. "Let's get Cummings to run."

"He's no longer a resident of this State." I said. "The requirements for Governor include State residency for at least one continuous year at the time qualifying paperwork is filed."

"Oh, we can get around that." said Stockton enthusiastically. "Put his uncle's address from your County down."

I peered hard at Stockton. "Sir," I said in my authoritative voice, "that is illegal."

"So what?" said Stockton. "The Democrats do this crap all the time, and it's nothing either side hasn't done before."

"Mr. Stockton," I said, "are you aware that you are speaking in front of not one but three police officers in this room?" Stockton gaped at me as I called him out. Everyone else looked around, confused. Who was the third officer? they were wondering all but out loud.

"What are you saying, Commander Troy?" Wilson Hammonds thundered, challenging me directly.

"I am saying that if you tried to run John Cummings by falsifying documents of his residency, I will personally arrest you. I'll also be the first to bring suit against it in Court. And despite my hatred of the deeply corrupt, biased Media, I'll work with them to make sure the story gets out."

I could feel the resentment of me building amongst the Establishment Republicans in the room. At me. By way of contrast, Chief Griswold was beaming at me under those big handlebar mustaches, and the staffers were looking at me with part amazement and part appreciation.

"Doesn't John Cummings's cousin work for your Police Force?" asked Stockton, as if playing his trump card. "What she going to say if you fuck up her cousin's chance to become Governor?"

"What's she going to say if I let you get away with breaking the law?" I thundered back.

The Governor intervened in the awkward silence. "The Commander is right; we're going to do this the right way. So, Commander Troy, before we conclude the meeting and let you get back to your duties at home, what is your advice?"

"Well," I said, "I'll just say that I now understand the three reasons why I was invited here. First, to find the bug in the other office. The Governor has been desperately searching for the leaks that are giving the Democrats advance information, and now he knows."

The Governor grumbled, reached into his pocket for his wallet, and took out a $100 bill and passed it to Chief Griswold, who chuckled.

"It's easy money when the Iron Crowbar is at work." Griswold said merrily.

"You're taking me to lunch with that money, Chief." I said, then turned back to the group. "The second reason I'm here is to tell you how to do what you want to do... which is to tell you how to enable Governor Jared to run again without it looking like he is breaking his one-term promise."

"Wow, you are good." said Perdue. "So, what do we do?"

I spent a few minutes giving them my ideas for paving the way.

"So, Commander," said Sean Stockton with acid in his voice, "what was the third reason for bringing you down?"

"Testing my integrity over John Cummings." I fired back. "And it's obvious you did not like the answers I gave you. Do not play poker with me, Mr. Stockton. You'll find bankruptcy a hard thing to bear..."

Part 11 - Employee Relations

As the meeting broke up, I hurried to get David's attention.

"Mr. Krueger." I said, coming up to him. "I remember that you were in my Police Academy class. I'd like for you to have lunch with me and Chief Griswold."

"Thank you, sir, but the Governor might need me..." said David.

"Aw, go ahead." said the Governor, who had heard us. "I've got to meet with the Planning Committee..."

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

"So you two were in the same Academy class?" asked Chief Griswold after we'd ordered at the restaurant near the State Capitol.