Knights of the Round Ch. 01

"He was hired by T-Square a few years ago," said Cindy, "to install security equipment at T-Square's studio in the City. Then T-Square hired him as a security man, then a full member of the 'Regiment'."

"What does it take to be a full member of the 'Regiment'?" asked Teresa. "Like being a 'made man' in the Mob?"

"It's not as bad as that." I said. "Mostly showing loyalty, coming to work on time, being good at the job, keeping calm with crowds and fans around, willing to take a bullet for T-Square or his lieutenants, such as T-Mac. Also, I've always equated it to the special bodyguard of a Japanese daimyo, or feudal lord... a protector that might hear important, private conversations and is expected to keep his ears closed and his mouth shut." Teresa nodded at the analogy.

"Anyway, no criminal record, no problems with finances, had a concealed carry permit." Cindy said. "No reason pops out for him to be targeted. But that does lead me to ask another question, sir: why your 'Orange Order' uniform last night? What was the real reason?"

I smiled. "To see if you were paying attention, Captain Ross... and I fooled you pretty well."

"For a second there, you did." Cindy said. "And you're lucky you didn't get a crowbar on your back, the hard way. But what was it about?"

"Well," I said, "the FBI and Chief Moynahan have told me that they've developed credible evidence that my life is in danger. And after we solved the Barclay murder and John Barclay came over all dead, people he associated with are very unhappy with me, and Forest Gillis is leading the way in creating a stink. The danger extends to you too, Cindy, so continue to take precautions." Cindy nodded.

"So," I said, "I showed up as a Uniformed Officer, didn't stand out too much, at least at first, and I never observed anything unusual in the few people that showed up to see what was going on. The only anomaly was that State DOJ bitch showing up and fucking with us."

"Geez." Cindy said. "I was so close to beating the shit out of her."

"Have you heard any more from her?" asked Teresa.

"Not yet." I said. "But there's plenty of time for that."

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

"I can tell you this." said Chief Moynahan as we sat in his office at 9:30am. "Harold Bennett said that he sent Tasheeka Jones, one of his State psychologists, to examine your procedures at the crime scene, because a Federal lawsuit was filed against the State."

"By whom?" I asked. "The US DOJ?"

"No, a couple of lawyers." said the Chief. "Their names are Ken Eidex and Jay Swenson. They represent a group called 'Citizens For Police Accountability', and the FBI thinks they're a front for a group of black activists. Eidex and Swenson themselves are white, but they're a front for black activists.

"So Bennett sends a psychologist..." I mused.

"I've always wondered, Mr. Crowbar," said Moynahan, "why you put Bennett in this Chief's chair. Part of me thought you thought he was stupid and you could control him. And part of me thinks you thought more of him than you should have. So which is it?"

I smiled. "Both. Neither. My real reasons were that he wasn't corrupt, and that it wasn't your time to leave Midtown yet. Funny how the job opened up just as you needed to get out of Midtown, Chief."

"Heh heh heh heh." the Chief laughed. "I'm glad you did think of me, though. It has been wonderful getting to watch you and your fellow Officers on this Police Force."

"Thank you, sir." I said. "And back to the question... Bennett sent a psychologist for another reason... she's worked with the FBI before, if not currently, and she had ulterior motives for being there. Maybe to check up on me, or... ohhhhh."

"Yessss, Mr. Crowbar, I can see that it is not getting past you." Moynahan said.

Just then, the Chief's phone buzzed. "Chief," said my assistant Helena, "I have several Officers here to see Commander Troy, including Chief Griswold, and they say it's urgent."

"Is there anything else, sir?" I asked.

"No. Go put out that fire, and I'll put out these other ones." he said. I went back to my office.

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

Corporal Ronnie Kirkpatrick, Chief Emeritus Griswold, and Commander Della Harlow were sitting in my office "What's up, guys?" I asked. "To actually call me out of a meeting with the Chief? Must be big."

"Yes sir." said Kirkpatrick. "It's about the Orange Order. Since the ballots went out, I've been inundated with questions about someone." Kirkpatrick said who it was, and asked about the rules.

"At first," I said, "I was thinking 'that is crazy'... but as I think about it, it makes sense. I see no reason why not."

"Neither do I." said Griswold. "Never had a case quite like it, though."

"I guess it'll be up to the Membership." I said. "But my input is that it's good."

"I'll check with every member today." said Kirkpatrick. They all left, and later that afternoon Kirkpatrick would call me and say all the Members of the Orange Order were in concurrence. I then told Cindy and Teresa, and said that if they quietly made it clear to everyone about the decision, I'd have no problem with it... and neither did they.

Part 3 - Regimental Colors

At 10:00am, the Mouseketeers came to my office: Detective David Krueger, Supervisor Myron Milton, and Master Technician Mary Mahoney Milton sat in my hot chairs as I tried to get comfortable in my 'command chair': I was still wearing 'the girdle' to protect my back, as well as protect my abdomen with its bulletproof properties.

"Virtually nothing new on Holden." said Mary, opening their report. "No recent police reports on him, nothing about him as a C.I. or anything like that, not even so much as a traffic ticket."

"His car, the one that was shot up at the scene," said Myron, "was purchased four years ago from the Cadillac Dealership near Jefferson Avenue and University Parkway. I might add that all of T-Square's Regiment have bought cars from there, but they all bought their cars with their own money in their own names."

"Doesn't mean T-Square doesn't give them some cash to cover the purchases." I said. "But the cars were standard, nothing souped up, or with extra drug compartments and such stuff?"

"No sir." said Myron. "Standard latest-year models. And always black, never silver or blue or anything else."

"Cellphone?" I asked.

"Pinging from his home." said Myron. "He had a phone system in his car, but I'm still surprised he left his cellphone at home."

"What about his weaponry?" I asked.

David Krueger said "T-Square created a shell security company, and all of his Regiment are listed as employees. They're authorized to carry firearms as his security, and they all carry 9mmP, .40 S&W, or 357 SIG handguns as their official weapons. Holden owned a .357 Magnum revolver as a backup piece, and that may have been what was in the holster that was found on his body."

"Didn't find a semi-auto pistol at the scene, either?" I asked. Kruger confirmed that none was found.

"Sir," said Mary, "T-Square said in his statement that Holden was due to come in to T-Square's offices at midnight, to be bodyguard security."

"Where are T-Square's offices?" I asked.

Mary replied "Right behind the 'Rhythms & Rap' Club... that's his new name for his old club, so the offices are the same place they've always been, just renovated to look like he's the millionaire rapper that he is. Anyway, T-Square says Holden always arrived early, usually 15-30 minutes early."

"So he was gunned down about, what, 10:00pm last night?" I asked, and they all nodded. "So he was really early... and that area was further west than T-Square's club... a lot further west. Where did Holden live?"

"His address was an apartment on the West side... not far from those apartments you raided and where Easley went into that fire." said Krueger. "And the Regiment's members live all over the lower to middle parts of Town. Good blanket coverage of the area, geographically."

"Hmmm..." I said. "So, David, what were his finances like?"

"Rock solid." said Krueger. "He was paying for the car and his apartment and bills, just like the rest of us. T-Square gives the Regiment a company credit card, but Holden had only bought some suits on it, and had not run up any sort of debt. Considering he gets to eat free at T-Square's clubs, and he's on 12-hour shifts if not all-day shifts while T-Square travels, his expenses were light."

"So no motive that we know of." I said. "You did get a warrant to search his apartment?"

"Theo Washington did, first thing this morning." Mary said. "I think he's already back from doing that."

"Street camera coverage?" I asked.

"Not much." said Myron. "The parking lot is covered by cameras from the strip mall, but that corner is on the periphery of their view. The street coming up to MLK Jr. Drive is a small side street, Leon Avenue, that connects to Adams Street, which goes towards the Southwestern Ghetto going west, and towards Hotel Row and Junction Station going southeast in the other direction."

"Hotel Row..." I mused, seeing the map of the Town in my head. "Did y'all try to get camera footage along Leon and Adams Streets, and Hotel Row?"

"Yes sir, going back about four hours, which was the best we could do." said Myron. "His car didn't show up. The tapes look strange, too, as if they're a recording from an earlier time. And before you ask, his GPS showed nothing. Either it wasn't recording, or it was wiped."

That caused me to sit up straight and take notice. "Nothing on his GPS?" I asked, astonished. I turned and fired off an email to the Crime Lab, telling them to check on that GPS system, see if it was malfunctioning or had been tampered with, and let me know their findings pronto!

"All right." I said. "That might be our first 'strangeness'."

"How so, sir?" asked David Krueger.

"From what I understand of the eyewitness reports, the small amount of camera footage we have, and whatever else... this thing happened very, very quickly. A car came up behind Holden, possibly a running gun battle up Leon Avenue, he exits his car, they gun him down, and they leave. Therefore... they didn't have time to wipe his GPS... unless..." Yep, I was gone. Reverie.

"Sir," said Mary after a moment, breaking me out of my train of thought, "I know you don't like to theorize without data, but is there any direction you can think of to point us?"

"You're right, it's bad to theorize without data." I said. "But the absence of data, after one has sought to acquire it, is in itself a data point. And this case is startling in its lack of data. My only suggestion to you is to see if anything comes up on T-Square himself. Either T-Square had him bumped off, or someone else did it as a message to T-Square. Check with the highly regarded SBI's vaunted computers, and see if there's anything there." By that, I meant to hack the SBI's computers, which were anything but vaunted, and anything but secure.

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

"Autopsy report, sir." said J.R. Barnes at 10:25am, as he came into the office.

"You didn't have to hand-deliver it." I said.

"I sent an email of it, sir," said Barnes, "but I wanted to cover some points. Mr. Holden was shot multiple times in the front and back by high-powered weapons, mostly nine millimeter caliber but a couple of 40 S&W---"

"And the .40 cal bullets were from his own gun, whose ballistics are on record because he's a security man." I said, interrupting. J.R. was suitably shocked.

"How... how did you know that, sir?" he asked, his voice full of wonder.

I smiled slightly as I said "If you hand-deliver an autopsy report, then there must be something unusual in it, and I simply figured out what it was and told you before you could tell me. Also, it fits the data I have, so far. Obviously his killers took his security gun, which we Officers would call 'service weapons', and shot him with it. Very interesting. What was the time of death, by the way?"

J.R. again looked at me. "Not what we expected, sir. Martha is running more tests to make sure. The shootout was at 10:00pm or so. But Martha says the preliminary evidence suggests he died much earlier, as early as an hour before that!"

I nodded. "I'll tell Martha she may not be wrong on that. This is starting to get interesting. Anything else?"

"There was blood in the car, which types to his. We're running further tests. Ballistics on the bullets recovered from the car are the same weapons that shot him." said J.R. The GPS gave us nothing, but per your email we're going back and checking on that some more. If we can, we'll use forensic recovery methods to get data from the device."

"Good." I said. "How was Holden's health?"

"Martha says he was relatively healthy, though showing the early stages of heart disease." J.R. replied. "Showed no evidence of heavy drinking, and he was pretty fit, athletics-wise. He had not eaten in at least 18 hours, though."

"He probably would eat at the club before going on his shift." I said. "Okay, see what else you guys can find, and J.R... tell Martha this: expect the unexpected on this case."

"After what you just did, sir... no doubt about that." J.R. said. I dismissed him. Yep, cannot let people think this is an Agency of the Weak-Minded...

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

At 10:45am I went into MCD. Theo Washington, Teddy Parker, and Joanne Warner were setting up the whiteboards for the Holden case.

"Sir, do you know Patrolman Jermaine Davis?" Theo said, introducing the Patrolman. Davis was black, medium height and build, and his uniform looked pressed and sharp.

"Yes, I do. Hello, Patrolman Davis." I said, shaking his hand.

"Hello, Commander. Thank you for this opportunity to work with the Detectives." said Davis. Chief Griswold would approve of the sucking up, I thought to myself.

"Let's see if you might be a Detective yourself, one of these days." I said. "Okay guys, carry on. I didn't mean to interrupt you." I sat back, drinking my mug of coffee as the Detectives talked.

First, a DMV picture of Holden was put up at the upper left corner. "Holden's never had his picture taken by a police department, while he was alive, anyway." Theo said as Joanne taped the picture up. "He's never been arrested, never had a problem with the law. He had a concealed carry permit as well as a State permit to buy and sell security equipment. He was employed by T-Square's Regiment, which is an incorporated company, and he had license through that to carry a .40 S&W handgun. Personally owned a .357 magnum revolver, and he was the owner of the Cadillac that got shot up along with him at the crime scene."

As they talked, I went to one of the empty desks and logged in as a SuperAdmin. I set up Jermaine Davis's already-existing account so that he could look at data along with the other Detectives, then sent an email copy of the autopsy report and Crime Lab findings to his email.

Joanne was putting up T-Square's photo next to Holden's. She then said: "T-Square, internationally known rapper. Holden worked for T-Square. T-Square was at his club, 'Rhythms & Rap' last night, per several C.I. sources, and was there meeting people pretty much all evening. No known problems with Holden, who was by all accounts a very quiet and good employee. So no motive right now for T-Square being behind Holden's death."

"Why would T-Square kill one of his employees?" asked Davis. Joanne and Theo looked back at me.

"Well," I said, "we had a small problem of one of T-Square's Regiment being found headless in barrel of acid." (Author's note: Pink Lemonade, Ch. 04.) "That crime remains unsolved, but we had some word that the guy may have offended T-Square in some way. So it's something we have to consider, that Holden ran afoul of T-Square, and paid a wicked price."

"Having said that, Patrolman Davis," I continued, "the m.o. of this crime doesn't fit what I'd expect T-Square to do if he were involved. Holden would more likely have gone into T-Square's club and never would be seen again. Shootouts on the street are bad for T-Square's business."

"Not to mention bringing the Iron Crowbar into T-Square's territory!" said a voice behind me. Captain Cindy Ross was coming in from the back door, the one to the back hall near the Chief's suite.

"Ah, Captain, glad you could join us." I said.

"Sorry, sir." Cindy said, "The Chief called me into his office."

"No problem." I said. "Okay, everyone, before going further, go to your desks and read the autopsy reports and CSI reports that have been emailed to you. Davis, I set this computer up for you, so sit down here."

"Thank you, sir!" said Davis, who looked like he'd just gotten a Christmas present. As they did, I went to the whiteboards. Taking a dry-erase pen, I began writing on the far-right side of the boards...

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

Once everyone had read the reports, I asked Theo to tell us about his visit to the Holden apartment.

"There was nothing there, sir." said Theo. "We took Sergeant Stonewall and Sergeant Seymour, our drug and explosives dogs, and they came up with nothing but an ibuprofen bottle. We found Holden's personal cellphone on his desk and we confiscated it for analysis, but nothing else. Everything was perfectly clean and in place; laundry all done and in the drawers, bills filed, no papers of interest. No magazines, nothing to suggest a personal life.

"Interesting." I said. "What do you make of that, Captain Ross?"

"It's how Westboro left the homes of his victims." said Cindy. "But Westboro is no longer with us, so it's a copycat there."

"Yes, and that may be important." I said. "Anyone else?"

Teddy Parker said "Commander, do you think Holden might have overheard something discussed between T-Square and others, and was eliminated because of it?"

"If three or four other Regiment members come over all dead as well, then I'd consider that. T-Square always has three to four Regiment people present." I said. Parker nodded at the explanation.

Joanne said "That time of death thing is bothering me, sir."

Theo said "I'm waiting for the further testing on that, just to make sure."

I said "I'm going to go out on a limb and suggest that Martha's time of death is accurate. When I examined the body at the scene, I was a bit confused that the body was less than warm, and rigor was just beginning to set in. In addition, a lot of blood had already been lost, and was not running down the parking lot pavement. So, what are your conclusions? Davis?"

"Uhhh, sir, I'd have to say if the time of death is right, then the man died earlier than we thought. And that means he had to have died before getting to the scene of that gun battle." Davis said.

"You mean, he wasn't killed during the gunfight?" Theo asked. Davis had started well, but now he looked a little lost, so I jumped in.

"What gunfight?" I asked. "We know perps shot up the car, but no one saw Holden fire back, no one saw him fire at all, he had no gun on him at all at the scene. Looks like a shoot-ing, not a shoot-out."

I went on: "You did a good job there, Davis. The time of death from the M.E. is a data point, and while not exact, I take it as data. We have to formulate our theories based on the data, not try to force the data fit our theories. So Holden died half an hour to an hour before the fireworks began, more likely the latter. So, what do you reason from all that?"

I had some confused Detectives on my hands. But I saw Joanne thinking about it, and starting to get it.

"Sir," she said, "that would have to mean---"

Just then, Tasheeka Jones walked into MCD, accompanied by the Duty Desk Sergeant.

"Commander, Ms. Jones is from the State DOJ, and she wants to talk to you."

"I know who she is, Sergeant." I said, rising to my feet and turning on my 'thunder' voice. "What I want to know is why you broke the rules and brought her back here, instead of contacting me from the Duty Desk while she waited in the waiting room."