Knights of the Round Ch. 03

"What questions are those, sir?" asked Cindy.

"I'm not at liberty to say in this public situation." said the DepDirector.

"I'll tell you later, Kato." I said. "It's pretty obvious... and pretty insulting."

"They're asking you to forgive the insult." said Chief Moynahan. "Why don't we move past this."

"No hard feelings, Commander?" said Tasheeka Jones, extending her hand. I just glared coldly at her, turned on my heel, and walked to the door.

"You're a racist, aren't you, Commander Troy?" Jones yelled after me. I turned back.

"No, I'm not a racist." I said. "YOU are the racist, and the race-baiter, just by asking that question, just by dropping the race card at the first opportunity. I'll stand on my race relations record, Agent Jones, and you can go fuck yourself." I turned and exited the room, slamming the door behind me.

"He is a racist." said Jones. "And I will be making that statement in a formal report."

"The hell you will, bitch!" Cindy snarled, coming up to Jones. She held up a framed photograph, which was of my daughter Tasha that had been sitting on my desk. "See that baby girl in that picture? That's Commander Troy's daughter. His daughter! She's not exactly lily-white, is she, bitch?"

Cindy pushed the rounded end of the green crowbar into Tasheeka Jones's chest. "No, Donald Troy is not a racist. He is not a misogynist. He doesn't waste time on sexual orientation. He's the most honorable man I've ever known, and if you slander him I will shove this crowbar so far up your fat ass that you will never be able to sit down again. Now get out of this County, bitch, because if I ever see you again, you will be arrested... but you will never make it alive to jail."

"Are you threatening me?" Jones started, and Cindy pushed the crowbar harder into the woman's chest.

"You damn straight I am." Cindy said.

"Ms. Ross..." said Moynahan.

"Shut the fuck up!" Cindy yelled at him. "I'm tired of this shit. I'm tired of my cousin, who has damn near lost his life and his family's lives for this County, being treated like shit like this! And if some fucking bitch comes in here and calls him a racist, she can expect to get fucked up, bad. If you want my badge, Chief, you can fucking have it. But Agent Jones has crossed the line. And I will never forgive nor forget. As the Commander said, bitch: 'go fuck yourself'!"

With that, Cindy exited the office. The slamming of the door was heard as far down the hall as the Duty Desk at the other end of the building.

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

I had caught Cindy as she came into the hallway, and steered her into my office. We sat down together on my sofa and I told her to breathe as her father had taught us.

"I do appreciate you taking up for me." I said.

"Don, we don't need this." Cindy said. "We do not need this shit. We do not have to be here, we do not have to stay here. We can join the FBI. We can go somewhere else."

"Calm down, my friend." I said. "We are where we are supposed to be, and they know it."

There was a knock on the door, and the FBI Deputy Director opened it. "Can I come in?" he asked. I waved him in.

He took one of the hot chairs, sat on it, and faced us on the sofa. "I can see that that was fucked up from the beginning. I apologize to you both for my role in it."

"Don, you were going to tell me what that role was?" Cindy queried.

"Seeing what our reaction to Agent Jones would be." I said. "Seeing if we reacted as white people to a black woman. Again... very insulting."

"I know, and again, I'm sorry about that." said the DepDirector. "And I've learned what I wanted to know, especially about Captain Ross. I was impressed with the way you took up for Don, and so was your Chief... though telling him to shut up might require some contrition..."

"You did that?" I asked, grinning. "Damn, you are my blood kin!"

"And never prouder to be." Cindy said firmly. "Okay, Mr. Director, you have your answers... and a couple of pissed off Consultants. I daresay a dinner on you is in order."

"She's good at negotiating for dinners." I said. "Again, blood kin to me."

The DepDirector tried to laugh to ease the tension. "Okay, that's fine. I'll call Jack Muscone and ask him to join us as well, if that's okay with you..."

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

"Come on in, Davis." said Precinct Captain Damien Thompson. With him in the office was Sergeant Carswell. Davis was bidden to be seated, and he did so.

"We got the Commander's report." said PCpt. Thompson. "He spoke in some very glowing terms of you, and your potential to be a Detective."

"Thank you, sir." said Davis. "And thank you for giving me the opportunity. It was really good."

"Good." said Thompson. "So tell us, Davis... what about Commander Troy? What's he really like?"

"He's straight up, sir." said Davis. "He's no racist, but he's aware of the issues going on. Especially with T-Square. I think T-Square is afraid of him, and well he should be."

"Why is that?" asked Sergeant Carswell.

"Sergeant," said Davis, "that man, the Commander, his eyes just look through everything. Every time he looked at me, it felt like he was looking right into my head behind my eyes. He's seeing it all before we know what's there to be seen. He was all over this Holden murder, saw through what the perps were doing, and I got the idea he saw it from the beginning."

"So, you think we can trust him?"

"I know I trust him, sir." said Davis. "At least I know it won't pay off to not trust him."

"Okay good. You're dismissed." said PCpt. Thompson. "And if we can ever get any Officers into the Detective Track, you'll be right there if you want to be."

"I do, sir. Thank you, sir." said Davis. He exited the room.

"Feel better?" asked Carswell.

"Oh yeah," said Thompson, "I never really doubted the Commander, and Davis just confirms that. But we'll see what happens when the balloon goes up. And that day is coming..."

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

"Darling," said Laura as I sat and petted Bowser and thought and thought and thought, "you've been a million miles away ever since you got home."

"I know." I said. I finally decided. "Honey, we need to talk."

I moved to get up, and Bowser got the hint. He bounded off my lap and upstairs to where Carole was. I went over and sat next to Laura, first picking up a manila envelope.

"I need to show you this." I said.

"And it took hours of petting the dog to decide?" Laura asked.

"Let's not joke about this one, honey." I said. "It's serious." Laura immediately felt my vibe.

"Okay, what is it?" she asked. I took the photo out of the envelope.

"This was taken by a Confidential Informant at the 'Citizens for Police Accountability' rally the other day.

"I don't see.... ohhhhhhh." Laura said. "We don't need facial recognition to know who that is, do we?"

"No, we do not." I said. "I don't know if she was undercover, if she's working on something, and I don't want to step on any operational toes..."

"I don't know of anything." said Laura. "And we both know the story of what happened to her mother, and her rather strong feelings about blacks."

"Yes." I said. "And from what you just said, I deduce that you know that there's a connection between this group, and white supremacists."

"Yes, the FBI's Deputy Director and some others in Washington also know." said Laura. "They know about these groups, and what they're trying to do, and that there are cells in the CIA as well as people in the Department of Justice that think as my sister does and want these white supremacists to succeed."

"So..." I said, "what do we do about Melina, here? Is she involved in this?"

"I honestly don't know." Laura said. "I'm trying to wind down and retire. She's with another group completely, in counter-intelligence."

"Walker's old stomping grounds." I said.

"No, he was something different," Laura said, "and as we found out, something worse. Melina was a 'wet boy', taking out enemies that had come to the United States, then moved into a higher position with another group. I'm not supposed to be telling you this, of course."

"Well, I'll understand if you don't." I said. "But there's her picture, I have a murder victim in our morgue whose threads lead to these groups, and a Sheriff that is beginning to show a lack of clarity in his vision."

"I'll check up on it, and see what I can find out." Laura said. "So... we're not going to solve that tonight. Shall we go to bed and solve my problem of my sexual desire for you?"

"Well," I said, standing up and taking Laura's hand, "how can I say 'no' to your desires to research those desires?" Laura giggled, and we made our way upstairs to the master bedroom...

Finis... for now.