Homewrecker Ch. 03

This story is part of an ongoing series. The chronological order of my stories is 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.

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Part 12 - The Boss of Bosses

Orrin B. Taggart, head of OBT Rail & Shipping, and the Boss of Bosses of the Southport Mobs, was a large-bodied man who frequently made hand gestures as he talked, giving him the air of being full of life... until one looked into the slits of his eyes. They were the eyes of a killer.

"Commander Troy!" Taggart said jovially as he came in and walked up to me. "It's so good to see you again." I shook his proffered hand, but that was not enough for him. He wrapped his arms around me in a bear hug. I hugged him back, looking at Eugene and Parker with a 'WTF?' look, and seeing amusement in their eyes.

"You may not know this, Commander," said Taggart, "but I took one of your Uncle P. Harvey Eckhart's courses some years ago, and he teaches to hug like you mean it."

"I'll let him know that you learned well." I said. "Mr. Taggart, this is Detective Teddy Parker of my Town & County Police..."

"Ah, the undercover man that helped bring down that bastard Edward Blassingame." Taggart said. He hugged Parker as he said "Well done, young man! Well done!"

"Thank you sir." was all Parker could manage to say.

"Ahhh... the bane of my existence." Taggart said, seemingly severely. "Lieutenant Eugene Graham. Commander Troy, this man is like Sherlock Holmes to my Professor Moriarty." He then grabbed Eugene in a bear hug as he said "But that's okay. A friend of the Iron Crowbar is a friend of mine."

"Hello, sir." said a rather shocked Eugene Graham.

Taggart then hugged Jimmy 'The Creek' DeAngelo as if they were brothers, then said "Have a seat, Commander." I sat down, facing him, as he took a chair, and DeAngelo sat down with us, to my left and Taggart's right. Graham and Parker correctly remained standing, watching Taggart's security men that were watching us.

"So what do I owe the honor of your visit to Southport, Commander?" asked Taggart.

"I came by to offer my condolences to Mr. DeAngelo on the loss of his niece." I said. "And of course to try to find out who murdered her in my County. As you know, I really do not like people committing murders in my County."

"Commander Troy has very good manners." said DeAngelo. "Very rare to see, these days. You young Officers, take note. Good manners will get you a long way in this world."

"Very true." said Taggart. "And I understand. I'm sure Mr. DeAngelo is helping you as much as he is able to." Your Iron Crowbar was not fooled: Taggart meant that DeAngelo knew what to share and not share with Town & County Law Enforcement.

"He's been very helpful." I said. "May I ask you a few questions, Mr. Taggart?"

"Certainly." said Taggart. "I remember Beverly when she was growing up, and she was like a daughter to me. And Jimmy The Creek here is a friend of mine, so this assault on his family is an assault on mine." They don't call themselves 'Families' for nothing, I thought to myself.

"Are you aware of anyone who might want to harm Mr. DeAngelo's niece?" I asked.

"No, not offhand." said Taggart. "I would imagine you know Beverly's history. She had her wild days in her youth, but got away from drugs and got out of the working girl business. Still, she loved money, and went in circles with men who had money and liked to spend it on her. I kept tabs on her to the extent I was able, but of course I'm a busy man with my Southport businesses."

"I understand." I said. "To your knowledge, did she start up an escort agency, not working herself but managing other girls?"

"Not in Southport." said Taggart. "I can't speak for the City, though. You'll have to have a lunch with Mr. Molinari or one of his people to find that out."

I nodded. ""So no idea who might've wanted to do this? For instance, anyone she was hanging around with about to get hit with divorce papers?"

"No." said Taggart. "The last few months, she stayed in Southport a lot more, and wasn't dating around. She visited me and my family a few times, went out on the River Rose a few weekends, though I understand her uncle here doesn't go out as often as he used to. I do know she's been the cause of some divorce proceedings, but I don't know of anyone she's been dating recently that would potentially have a problem like that. Again, if she's dating a man in Midtown or the City, you'll have to ask others"

"Did Beverly ever do any work for either of you?" I asked. "And I ask because I can't understand why she would be in my Town & County that night, unless you'd asked her to go up there for some reason... legitimate, I'm sure."

"She didn't work for me, and the only place she could've worked for me was on my boats." said Jimmy The Creek. "She wasn't the type that served drinks or working a casino table; she preferred being the one drinks were served to or rolling the dice herself."

Taggart said "The one thing I know is that whoever did it is very very stupid. Drawing the Iron Crowbar's attention is one of the dumbest things a criminal can do, and committing a murder in your County borders on suicide."

"Thank you, sir." I said. "I appreciate your time, and your time also, Mr. DeAngelo." Taggart got the hint and stood up so that I could.

"Commander," Taggart said as he shook my hand, not letting it go, "I know with your abilities that you'll find out who murdered my friend's niece. If you can bust him, do it. But if there's some reason you can't get it to trial, just let me know... and I'll take care of it."

"Thank you, Mr. Taggart." I said politely. I shook hands with Jimmy The Creek, and both mobsters made a point to shake hands with Eugene and Teddy again. We excused ourselves and left.

Back in Eugene's car, as we drove away, he said "Wow, Commander. I was worried when Taggart showed up."

"So was I." I said. "I called him and told him I was coming down to talk to Jimmy The Creek, but I didn't expect him to show up. He must've wanted to make sure DeAngelo didn't tell any tales out of school."

Eugene said "And Taggart pretty much outright told you that he'll kill the murderer if you find him but can't bring him to trial."

"Yes." I said. "Yes he did. So it's all the more important we find the bastard that murdered her, and get him into our jails first."

"Sir," said Parker, "do you think either of them know anything about what happened to Beverly?"

I replied "I think Taggart knows more than he's telling us, but he didn't give me any clues to who it might be. So I don't think he knows for sure. But... time will tell on that..."

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

We drove back to the Federal Building, and Lt. Graham came inside with us. Inside the FBI offices we found TCPD Deputy Chief Cindy Ross and FBI Special Agent Tim Jenkins sitting side-by-side at a conference table, looking at reports. Supervisory Special Agent Ted Crenshaw was coming down the hall, and hailed us when he saw us. We all went into the conference room.

"Hi guys." I said. "Anything new and helpful to us?"

Cindy replied "A little bit. Tim, why don't you fill them in?" Propping him up, she was. Hmmm, I thought to myself.

"Sure." said Jenkins as we all sat down. "We don't have a lot on Beverly DeAngelo. The er... previous administration here didn't keep tabs on her, even though she's probably done more criminal acts than her uncle, Jimmy 'The Creek' DeAngelo."

"I wouldn't be surprised." I said. "Give us the rundown."

"The Southport Police was very familiar with Beverly in her younger years." said Tim Jenkins. "She turned tricks and sold drugs for a small-time black gangbanger nicknamed 'Taurus'."

Cindy interjected: "This is where Tanya would tell you that he was called 'Taurus' because he was allegedly hung like a bull."

"Thank you for acting on Tanya's behalf, there." I said with a grin. "I take it he was a pimp?"

"He may have worked some girls, but his main gig was selling drugs on the street." said Jenkins. "About the time Beverly turned 20, 'Taurus' was found dead, floating in the River... actually right at the confluence of the rivers. Meanwhile, Beverly was in and out of prison for drug distribution."

Jenkins: "Then she cleaned herself up, and dropped off the Southport Feds's collective radar. Our Midtown and City offices have spotty notes of her getting arrested in sweeps of working girls in hotels, but she was one of the smart ones that demanded a lawyer and had the charges dropped on technicalities. Still, it looks like she eventually dropped prostitution altogether."

Jenkins: "From about 12 years ago to six years ago, our Federal offices in Florida, Georgia, and Charlotte, North Carolina, mostly the DEA, had her name in some of their case files. Cindy... er, Commander Ross... is telling me Beverly had a lot of fake IDs, and some of them were from those States. We're now speculating that she was a drug mule, running drugs in a rented car one way, then a different car the other way."

"Makes sense." I said.

Jenkins continued: "After she got tired of driving and partying in Florida, and maybe to make sure she didn't get on the DEA's radar, she came back to this State and pretty much stayed here. She most often stayed in the City or Midtown, and came to Southport at odd times... like Thanksgivings, Easter weekends, staying for a week or two here and there."

"Almost like she was taking vacations." Cindy said. "If I may, Tim... we also noticed that Beverly stayed in Midtown in the Winter and Spring months, the City in the Autumn months and usually through Christmas, and in Florida during the summer."

"Oh, that's interesting." I said. "Don't you agree, Mr. Parker?"

"If you say so, sir." said Parker, not batting an eyelash. I told Tim and Cindy to continue.

"There's not much more." said Tim Jenkins. "Beverly began dating high-profile men, men with money that they could and did spend on her, and they were almost always married. And some divorces followed. After she was involved in Terry Schultz's 'Red Flag' business, Commander Ross and I speculated that she attempted to start up her own 'Red Flag' service."

Cindy interjected again: "That could be what was really going on behind these rumors that she started an escort agency of her own. Vice squads from the City to Midtown to Southport don't know anything about her pimping out girls, so maybe these girls were doing... other things... for her."

I said "It's an idea. But we only have Charles Caldwell saying that she was starting up a stable of girls, to use his own words... and Charles Caldwell is not a man whose word I am inclined to trust. So what about Andrew Adams? Anything on him?"

"The FBI, DEA, and U.S. Customs have been watching him on and off for years." said Tim Jenkins. "He's 'connected', but we think he was closer to Jimmy 'Coffin' Cerone than he is to Orrin B. Taggart. When his wife filed for divorce, the State Tax Authority got involved, and conducted a Court-ordered forensic analysis of his finances."

Jenkins: "Because of that, he had to toe the line and keep it legit, so he wasn't useful to the Southport Mob, anymore. And they never really came back to him after that, so his cash flow dropped off from what it once was. But he's still plodding along with it."

"Cool beans." I said. "Thanks for putting that together for us."

"So what's next?" said Cindy.

"Perhaps you will come with us, Commander Ross," I said, "to talk with Andrew Adams and his ex-wife, and also Darryl Dawson's ex-wife...

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

Andrew Adams was at his art gallery, which was the front part of a warehouse building. The elegance of the gallery rooms contrasted sharply with the back warehouse, with crates and boxes of many different items in stacks and rows.

"The Iron Crowbar? Here?" Adams asked with something between awe and dismay as I introduced myself, Cindy, Parker, and Graham.

"One and the same." I said, not looking around as the others were, but keeping my eyes boring into Adams. He looked to be middle-aged, in decent health but not particularly fit.

"What's it about?" asked Adams.

"Did you know a woman named Beverly DeAngelo?" I asked.

"Yeah, she was Jimmy The Creek DeAngelo's niece." said Adams. "And yes, I said 'was', because I heard she was murdered up in your University Town yesterday."

"You heard correctly." I said. "How did you hear that?"

"Word gets around." said Adams, seemingly indifferently. "Jimmy The Creek is pretty clean, as far as associates of Orrin B. Taggart are concerned, but he's still under the Cerone umbrella."

"As are you?" I asked.

"I will not attempt to deceive the Iron Crowbar by denying it." said Adams. "But I'm not admitting anything, either."

"Thank you for that." I replied, glad to know that my reputation preceded me, and helped cut through the crap. "So you had an affair with Beverly?"

"I knew her as 'Beryl'." said Adams. "That was her nickname even when she was growing up. So about four, five years ago, she comes to see me. I hadn't seen her in ten years or more. She's flirting with me, and you better believe I went for it. If you had known her, you'd know why. Sorry to be crude, young lady, but Beryl put a charge in me I hadn't felt in years." Cindy didn't bat an eyelash.

"And your wife found out." I said.

"Oh yeah." said Adams. "She hired a P.I., and he got pictures. My wife filed for divorce, then had the gall to demand half of everything I owned! Well, I fought that like hell, you may be sure! I had the Tax people all over me, too, but in the end it worked out for me. I don't know if 'Coffin' Cerone or Orrin B. Taggart had a word with someone, but it got fixed, and the judge ruled mostly in my favor. And then what did Beryl do, but fly off to Midtown since I couldn't buy her as much jewelry as I used to."

"You harbor any grudges for that?" I asked.

"No." said Adams. "I'm not that young any more, business is good, and I can hire a girl if I need to. I was doing that anyway; my ex-wife wasn't giving me the time of day, much less a piece of ass more often than once every two months."

"Sir," said Cindy, "do you think your wife might've hired Beryl to set you up, to approach you to see if you'd cheat?"

"I dunno." said Adams. "Didn't seem Beryl's style. And remember, I knew Beryl from years before. I won't say if I 'indulged' in those earlier days. So my wife might've wanted to hire Beryl, but I now know Beryl was far more interested in the jewelry I was buying her than anything else..."

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

Andrew Adams's ex-wife was not at home, and we had no immediate way of finding her. So we drove out to the upper-middle-class home in a good subdivision east of Southport, where Darryl Dawson's ex-wife lived.

Sheila Dawson was a very attractive woman in her forties, with black hair and a good figure. She had let us come into her home when Cindy and I had knocked on the door. Parker and Graham were sitting in the car, listening in on the microphones-and-earbuds devices we were wearing.

"To be honest with you," said Sheila Dawson, "I wasn't really looking for sexual dirt on Darryl. I hired Ramon, Castro, and Partners to get into his finances, so that when I filed for divorce I could make sure I was getting my fair share."

"So even without his relationship with Ms. DeAngelo, you were going to divorce him?" I asked.

"Yes." said Sheila Dawson. "Him being with that harpy homewrecker was the final straw, but our marriage was already over."

"Did he abuse you?" Cindy asked.

"Not really." Sheila said. "Unless you consider ignoring me, treating me like I didn't exist, to be 'abuse'. He never hit me or even yelled at me, nothing like that. We weren't all that much alike, and I never should've married him, but he was very charming while we were dating, and he spent a lot of money on our dates, and jewelry for me. A woman can get used to that pretty quickly."

Sheila continued: "I really didn't like the political crowd he was hanging around with, though. He would go to these parties with them, and they were just... sleazebags, just God-awful people. So I made it clear I didn't want to go to those parties anymore, and things went downhill pretty rapidly from there. I'm not the kind of woman that runs around behind my husband's back and cheats on him, so I didn't go out at all. Over time, I knew I had a life to live, so I made plans to divorce him. But I knew I'd need at least some money."

"How was the divorce?" Cindy asked. "Amicable?""

"Pretty much." Sheila said. "I had the evidence on his relationship with that woman, so he was pretty accommodating. I got the house, which I later sold and moved here, and I got a good cash settlement. I'm a travel agent now, so I have a decent income. I can't complain."

"Did you ever know Darryl's lover, Beryl?" I asked.

"No, I never met her." said Sheila. "And I never wanted to, either. If Darryl really wanted that low-class tramp instead of me, then hey! let him have her..."

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

"Think it was her?" Cindy asked me as we drove back to the Federal Building. "She said she was going to divorce him anyway, but she sure hated Beryl."

"No, that would be a contradiction." I said. "Like you said, she was already planning to divorce him, so it's not like Beryl took him away from her. Her pride was hurt that her husband wanted Beryl over her, and she considered Beryl far beneath her; hence, the butthurt. But like she said, her life is okay, so why risk it all by killing Beryl. And in our County..."

Cindy said "You've said it several times, and I'm getting the vibe on it, too... the fact it was done in our County is a big sticking point for you, isn't it?"

"Somebody give this woman a green crowbar!" I said with a grin.

"Stoppit." Cindy replied.

"Okay," I said, "let's go see Beryl's home..."

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

The two-bedroom condo apartment was tastefully furnished with furniture and other items of good quality, but not as 'overdone' as I'd expected it to be. There were no dishes in the sink or dishwasher; they were all clean and put away. There was almost nothing in the refrigerator, but a good bit of canned goods and pasta in the pantry.

I noticed the heavy triple deadbolt locks on the front and back doors, and the alarm system on the doors and windows, as well. "This alarm system has a feature that she can set when she's at home, so that if it goes off, it automatically notifies the Police." I told the others. "It doesn't route through an alarm company or call 9-1-1, it goes right to the nearest Precinct."

"That costs money." said Lt. Graham. "And the Police have to agree to allow it, which takes someone with influence to get them to do it. She would have that influence through Orrin B. Taggart, of course."

Cindy came over and looked at the alarm system. "It's not a MegaTech Industries system." She got her Police iPhone out, and sent a text. "I'm asking Intelligence Branch to look into how long she's had this current alarm system." she said.

"It can't be too long." I said. "This is a new system; it's only been on the market since last Spring. And you're right: a key feature is that there is no wireless communications, and there are no MegaTech parts in it."