Just a Story Ch. 05

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, racism, 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.

There may or may not be discussion of political issues in my stories. If you are a Snowflake that feels you need to be protected from any mention of politics, then click the Back button now, and never attempt to read any of my stories ever again. You've been warned.

***

Part 7 - Back To Work

6:40am, Monday, November 29th. MCD was full of Detectives... including Lieutenant Joanne Warner. She didn't look angry so much as she looked very sad, and she also looked exhausted, as if she'd gotten very little sleep. I wondered why she came in early, then realized that it was to stop pranksters from doing to her desk what had been done to Teddy Parker's before. (Author's note: 'Pink Panther', Ch. 03.)

Everyone was trickling in and getting coffee. No one had said anything to Joanne yet. That ended when Lieutenant Micah Rudistan seemingly casually strolled into MCD. "Good morning, everyone!" he said with great joviality. "Did everyone have a good weekend?"

No one answered as he strolled over towards Joanne's desk. "Does anyone know where we can find a good placekicker? I know a team that needs one---" Only then did he see all the eyes looking at the side door. He turned around and found himself face-to-face with...

... Your Iron Crowbar.

"Yeah, I know a great placekicker." I said. "Me. And I'll demonstrate by putting this Airborne boot up your Chairborne ass, Rudistan. Lieutenant Warner is in enough pain, and it was a freak play."

I went over to Joanne and said "Condolences to your team. Now you know how I felt after that Natty." I extended my fist, and Joanne dispiritedly fist-bumped me.

"Yes sir." she said sadly, wondering when, and what, my own retaliation for the Bear Bryant hat on my 'I Beat Slender Man' statue was going to be. (Author's note: 'Time Flies', Ch. 01.)

"It's lucky Commander Croyle is not here today." I said. "And speaking of the Airborne--- Oh, don't leave, Mr. Rudistan." I said as Rudistan was attempting to quietly sneak out the side door. "I want you to see this. You too, Rodriguez, Ambrose."

I expertly used the remote to turn on one of the monitors on the end wall of MCD, below the 'We The People' in Constitutional script. I then brought up a photo that had been sent to my iPhone, taken by my nephew Todd.

It showed Teresa in a gray pullover sweater with Airborne wings printed in black, and the word 'AIRBORNE' in Varsity script printed above the wings. In the photo with her was a man in military uniform. Behind them were the 250-foot towers on the grounds of the United States Army Airborne School at Ft. Benning, Georgia.

"Oh yeah, that's what I'm talking about!" Detective Sergeant Julia Rodriguez (ABN) said happily.

"Who's the military man?" asked Detective Kerri Ambrose (ABN).

I said "The Commandant of Fort Benning, a two-star general. When Todd and Teresa went through the gate at Fort Benning, they were led by the MPs to the Post's Headquarters at his direction. It seems a certain Admiral of our acquaintance (Cordell) and Chief of Staff General McFarland contacted him and asked him to show good hospitality to the daughter of a Medal of Honor recipient. He personally gave them a tour of the place."

"It's overcast there." said Julia, observing the photo. "So they would not have let her go off the tower."

I said "When I went to Airborne School, it was bad weather during Tower Week: windy, storm clouds, some rain. So I didn't get to go off the towers, either. And I didn't regret it; I just saw that as an opportunity to get hurt and not make it to Jump Week."

"I am the choir; you are preaching to it." Julia Rodriguez said. "And I still got hurt during Jump Week." (Author's note: 'Jump!', Ch. 01.)

"And Commander Troy is not going to have the chance to go off those towers. Ever." said Cindy Ross as she came into the room.

"How many jumps do you have, Ms. Ross?" I asked nonchalantly.

"One, which is one more than I'll ever need." replied Cindy. "Let's go, Paratrooper Troy. The Chief wants to see you in his Conference Room..."

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

"This is Bettina Wurtzburg, KXTC Channel Two News!" shouted the redheaded MILF reporterette at 7:00am, Monday, November 29th, from the anchor desk of the KXTC studios. "Political season begins in the County today with major announcements!"

After the hard-charging intro music, Bettina began: "A Press conference has been called for twelve noon today by a new political action group called 'Restore Town & County Values'. The RTCV's first three candidates for Town & County offices will make their announcements during the Press conference. KXTC Channel Two News will be bringing you the announcements live."

Bettina: "And the fallout is just beginning for the University after the Bulldogs were shocked by State Tech 28-27 on Saturday. Let's go to Sports reporter Jeff Hull for more. Jeff!"

"That's right, Bettina!" said the Sports reporter, every black hair on his head styled perfectly into place. "The heat is being turned up on Coach Ted Thrasher and his Staff after the ugly loss to State Tech Saturday."

Hull: "The Bulldogs were ahead 27-14 with under 7 minutes left in the game, but the Engineers scored twice, the last touchdown coming with only 29 seconds on the clock. State Tech finishes their season at 2-10, and the Bulldogs will have to settle for a much lesser bowl after posting a 7-5 regular season."

Hull: "The embarrassing loss, along with the controversial loss to the Wildcats earlier in the season, has Coach Ted Thrasher's position as head coach under close scrutiny. And with Sports experts saying Bulldogs quarterback Lawrence Watson could be a Heisman Trophy contender next year, and linebacker Daevon Roquan being an All-American and a candidate for several awards, those Boosters are wondering if their talents will be wasted under Coach Thrasher's poor leadership."

Hull: "But worse, much worse, athletic program Boosters are threatening to decrease or stop making contributions to the University's Scholarship Fund and other athletic program projects if improvements are not made immediately. The financial ramifications of the loss to the Engineers are only beginning to be felt..."

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

"Sooooo, that's what the Media is going to do." I said as I, Sheriff Griswold, Police Chief Sean Moynahan, Deputy Chief Tanya P. Muscone, Chief Deputy Cindy Ross, and ADA Paulina Patterson drank coffee and watched the Bettina broadcast in the Chief's Conference Room.

"What do you mean, Crowbar?" growled Sheriff Griswold.

I said "Contributions to the School are already down some 40%, from Boosters and other Donors alike, because of the Biology & Climate Change School, and especially because of the 'loyalty documents' issue. But if KXTC ever mentions it, they'll blame the bad football team, and the losses to the Wildcats and especially State Tech."

"I'll go you one furrrrr-thurrrrr, Mr. Crowbarrrrr." drawled the Chief. "When I was with the Midtown P.D., it was commonly discussed that the University got more money from the State Legisss-laturrrre when they beat State Tech, and State Tech got more money when they won the game. Maybe State Tech will get a new building to do research on Cold Fuzzzzzionnnn."

"If they do, sir, I hope they succeed." I replied. "That would solve any energy crisis, and deliver a devastating blow to those who worship the Fraud of Climate Change."

"HAR!" barked the Sheriff loudly, his mustaches twitching merrily.

"So, Paulina," Tanya said with a wicked twinkle in her eyes, "are you announcing your candidacy for District Attorney today?"

"Not only 'no', but 'hell no'." Paulina said, though in a friendly voice. "But what I've heard is that Ted Mason will be announcing for D.A. as a Republican. He's going to primary Miriam (Walters), and I've been 'invited' to consider running for Ted's current position of Solicitor, since he can't run for it and D.A. at the same time."

"What's Savannah Fineman going to do" Cindy asked.

I said "It is very, very likely she will run for D.A. as a Democrat. So yeah, consider running for Solicitor, Paulina. You won't have to step down as ADA, since you're not directly opposing Miriam."

"I'm thinking about it." Paulina said. "But to be candidly honest, that job has never interested me. I think I'd be bored as hell. And I'd have to run again in four years.

The only good thing is that I can promise to fully prosecute the little stuff, stuff the big cities won't prosecute anymore. And you see the hellholes that Chicago, New York City, Portland Oregon, and especially the filthy sewer that is Wilmington, Delaware have become."

"Strong letter to follow." growled the Sheriff. "Okay, I need to see all you LEOs in the Main Conference Room at 9:00am sharp..."

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

After watching the KFXU broadcast, which also concentrated on the local races, I expertly used the remote to turn off the monitor in my office, and Cindy, Tanya, and I commenced with the Angels Meeting.

"I got my ballot for the Orange Order." said Cindy. "Why do I still get to vote?"

"Because you're in it." I replied. "And you'll get to vote once you completely retire, just like Efram Elliott, and Leslie Charles and his son both do. Ditto that for Sheriff Griswold. It's like Heisman Trophy winners getting to vote on it in future ballots."

"Who are we voting for?" Tanya asked.

"Whoever you think is worthy." I said. "Which reminds me: I need to fill out my ballot and give it to Helena." I took my ballot out of my desk drawer and wrote down two names. Then I got up to refill my Airborne School coffee mug, and 'failed' to notice Cindy blatantly get up and look at my ballot.

And so it began...

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

Just before 9:00am, I went into MCD and put down a sheaf of papers by the coffeemakers in the back. "Julia, Kerri, do you have Airborne School mugs? Coffee tastes better in them." I asked, holding up my own Airborne School mug.

Kerri said "My mug has my Unit Crest that I served in Afghanistan with."

"Even better." I said. "Julia, don't buy anything yet. I'll order you a mug from Ranger Joe's or something."

While we were talking, astute Detectives named Parker, Warner, and Washington had moseyed back to the coffeemakers to refill their own coffee mugs, and they egregiously examined the piece of paper on top of the ones I'd put down... my Orange Order ballot.

And so it continued...

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

9:00am sharp, Monday, November 29th. Chief Moynahan was in his chair at the near end of the Main Conference Room. I was to his left, my back to the window and the daylight coming in through the window that stretched the length of the back wall. Teresa was to my left, and Cindy to her left. To her left was Fire Marshal Roy Easley, who was equivalent in rank to me, Tanya, and Cindy, and who was a recipient of the Medal of Valor.

Tanya was to the Chief's right, per usual. To her right was Lt. Commander Eitan Abram, the Internal Affairs Chief. To his right was EMS Assistant Chief Zoe Singer, equivalent to me, Cindy, Tanya, and Easley in rank. To her right was the EMS Chief, retired Admiral Leonard R. Cordell. And to his right, to my surprise, was Town & County Councilman Edward R. Steele.

At the far end of the table was Sheriff Griswold. "I suppose you're wondering why I called this meeting today." he quipped. We chuckled politely.

Our Sheriff began: "To make a short story long, I invited Chief Moynahan, Chief Cordell, Chief Singer, Fire Marshal Easley, and some others to enjoy some good food, good spirits, and good conversation on Thanksgiving Day. And I had the gathering that day of those people to fool the God-cursed Press, so they'd think it was just a Holiday gathering."

Griswold: "Back when Crowbar and the Charter Commission rewrote the Charter, and they did an excellent job overall, Crowbar took the opportunity to (air quotes) 'go granular' on some of the Public Safety issues, such as the conflicts within the rank structure of the Fire Department. They also did a good job building in the potential for scalability in the event the County grew."

Griswold: "But since the Charter was rewritten, some new problems have come up. Many of them can be addressed by me, with no required action by the Council. But there will also need to be some structural changes which may need the Council's approval. Some of these changes or additions will be to hopefully pre-empt the Witch Hunt that we expect from Derrick B. Harland's weaponized US DOJ. And some are to clarify and streamline the command structure of the Public Safety Department."

Our Sheriff: "First of all, Crowbar wrote in the Chiefs as having two stars, and when asked why not three stars, he said it was for flexibility for the future. Well, Crowbar, the future is now. I'll be proposing that the Chiefs be elevated to three stars. You good with that?"

I said "Of course, Sheriff, especially when I'm sitting here in front of a Navy Admiral with an Airborne combat jump." There were chuckles at that, then I said "But the important thing, Sheriff, is what you're planning to do underneath that three-star level."

Our Sheriff: "And that's where I am about to go. After my discussions with the various Chiefs and others, one thing is clear: we need to make our Internal Affairs Departments more autonomous than they have been. The Fire Department's I.A. has traditionally been in the hands of the Fire Marshal, who is autonomous almost to the point that that Division could be made separate from the rest of the Fire Department. I won't go that far, but I'm confident leaving that I.A. under the Fire Marshal."

"However," continued the Sheriff, "I am going to propose that the Internal Affairs Chiefs of the other Departments answer directly to the Chiefs, and not the Commanders or Assistant Chiefs." He paused for effect, and to gauge our reactions... especially mine. After a moment of silent lack-of-reaction, he said "Any comments?"

"You're about to see stars, Mr. Abram." I said humorously. "Particularly on your shoulders, if I don't miss my guess."

"And you never do." chorused my three Angels, as if on cue. Everyone laughed again.

"You're on the right track." the Sheriff said. "The I.A. Chiefs, except the Fire Marshal, would be one-star Deputy-Chief-level Officers. And Mr. Easley, I'd expect you to consider having a Fire Officer dedicated to I.A., possibly as your deputy with specifically I.A. duties."

"We can talk, sir, and with the Fire Chief as part of the discussions." replied Easley, and most very correctly.

"Yeah, I got input from him last Thursday." said Griswold. "Also, in addition to answering directly to their respective Chiefs, the I.A. Chiefs will still be expected to work with the Town & County I.G., especially if something comes up involving higher-ranking Public Safety Officers. Of course you're all outstanding people, so I expect no issues, there, but I do remember the days when we had some bad seeds in the wrong places." There were nods of general agreement with that.

Griswold: "Additionally, the Compliance Officer in the Sheriff's Department, who answers straight to me, will be working with the I.A. Chiefs of the various Public Safety branches, and keeping me and whoever succeeds me as Sheriff directly informed of any issues. I know that sounds like I'm contradicting myself when talking about streamlining things, but the I.A. Chiefs's direct chain-of-command is their Chiefs, and no one outranks a Chief, except me personally."

Sheriff Griswold: "And there is another thing, which is probably going to be more controversial. Currently, the Police Department has an Assistant Chief, who you call 'Commander Troy', and a Deputy Police Chief, Ms. Muscone. However, the Fire Department has an Assistant Fire Chief and the Fire Marshal, but no Deputy Fire Chief. The EMS Service has started slowly but is doing well... and may be about to grow a lot more. They have an Assistant Chief... and the next rank down is the equivalent of a Police Captain."

Our Sheriff: "Soooo, I'm going to talk with the Chiefs some more on this, and with Crowbar as the Charter Chairman, but my intention is for every branch to have a Deputy Chief in charge of Administration issues, like Commander Muscone is right now for the Police."

Our Sheriff: "This will align with my vision for the Sheriff's Department, which will have a true Chief of Staff doing Admin things, and an Undersheriff, or Command Deputy Sheriff who will be my right hand woman... and I did not mess up my genders, there; Ms. Ross is going to be in both roles, at least to start out if all this passes."

"And two stars on her shoulders." said Teresa Croyle, astutely but with the merest hint of cattiness in her voice.

Griswold growled "And Crowbar, Ms. Singer, and the Assistant Fire Chief and Assistant PHOs will be two-stars, also. As Fire Marshal, you likely will be, also, Mr. Easley. The Deputy Chiefs, especially where they did not exist before, may have one star in the new setup... because my Chief of Staff will need some authority when it comes to things like the Budget, and allocations for the branches."

"With all due respect, Sheriff," said Assistant EMS Chief Zoe Singer, "you are right about one thing... the Fire Department is not going to like that. They won't mind a more formal Admin structure, but everyone saw the spats the Battalion Chiefs and the Superintendents had. Just magnify that times ten if the Admin Assistant Chief isn't the same as the regular Assistant Chief."

"We'll see about that." growled Griswold in reply. Seriously, these are just some preliminary things. We've got more work to do, and I'm going to be making Crowbar here do a lot of extra work to really get things right this time."

Tanya groaned. "When Bettina hears about this, she's going to be spouting off to no end that (air quotes) 'Commander Troy wrote a bad Charter. Commander Troy failed to get it right, and now they're having to rescue him.', and so on and so forth."

"What do you say to that, Mis-ter Crowbarrrr?" drawled the Chief, teasing me and causing 'trouble'.

I said "Sir, I'll defend myself in two ways. First, we were writing the Charter for the entire Town & County Government, and it kept me busy for months. Second, what we wrote... and yes, I wrote most of it for the Public Safety Department... was pretty good at that time, for that time. But as the Sheriff said, now we are going to need that scalability we tried to write into the structure at the time of the Charter, and way sooner than I ever expected... because the US DOJ and the State Legislature may be redirecting my suppositions this coming year."

Zoe Singer said "And that brings up my other concern... we can plan all we want, but what if the State Legislature comes in and starts tearing everything apart? I'm not worried about the US DOJ... anything they do will be tied up in the Courts for years and years... but the State Legislature and what they might do is a real threat to us. Is there really any point in going to the Council with structural changes that might come to nothing?"