Lady Ironside Ch. 02

"That is so true." said Amber. The tape was cut off there, and Bettina came back on.

"In the District Attorney race," Bettina said, "Jenna Stiles has renewed her calls for District Attorney Krasney to debate her face-to-face. The Krasney Campaign has issued a statement saying that their efforts to negotiate a possible debate are constantly disrupted by the 'unreasonable demands' of the Stiles Campaign. Mr. Krasney continues to lead Ms. Stiles 50-44 in Public Policy Polling's most recent numbers. And now let's go to Nick Eastwood for Sports! Big Bulldogs win, Nick!"

"Yes, Bettina, it was!" said a happy Nick Eastwood, with University Memorial Stadium behind him. "The Bulldogs are the surprise of the Nation after their solid win over a very good State U. team..."

"Commander," said Joanne Cummings Warner to me as we sipped coffee in MCD, "when was Mr. Cash arrested?"

"Oh, that." I said. "Well, he attempted to leave my jurisdiction for the City within two hours of me telling him to stay at home. The Nextdoor County Police Force pulled him over and arrested him, then we went and got him and brought him back here. Judge Nance allowed him to post bail, but he's now wearing an ankle monitor. Paulina is going through the motions of having his parole revoked, though his lawyer is fighting that very hard."

I looked over at the whiteboards. There were several lines of information about the victim Melissa Darby Cash, about the husband Arnold Gay Cash, and about Tina Sasskind. Photos of Jerry Kidd and Paul Claisson were also on the boards, but very little was listed about either.

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

As we sat in my office before the 'C(rowbar)-Level' meeting, Cindy said "By the way, Molly told me that Cash almost got a resisting arrest charge when she was going to handcuff him. Her uniformed officers, who are males, were given no trouble."

"Is she going to file those charges?" I asked.

"She's going to talk to Paulina, then her county's D.A. about it." Cindy replied. "I don't understand all these legalities, but if she were to bring the further charges, it might complicate things."

"I need to call her," I said, "and tell her that if she has it recorded on video, she absolutely needs to file the charges. His business is in Nextdoor County, and it would help having a charge against them there."

"Sir," said Lt. 'Coldiron' Masters, "any new information on any of our suspects? Particularly Kidd and Claisson?"

"No." I said. "I'm going to be meeting with the FBI and Lt. Perlman this morning. I hope they'll have something. Claisson may have gotten out of the country. Kidd probably is in the City. I've asked the City Police to give finding him priority, but so far they haven't come up with anything."

"No informational workups on them?" said Lt. Masters, persisting.

"Not by our guys." I said. "At least not yet. I think the FBI and Tanya will be able to get more."

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

Before going to the FBI offices, I went to the Psychology Building at the University. Laura's assistant Gayle told me to go right on in, so I did. To my surprise, Laura already had a visitor: Lt. Tanya Perlman. And in Tanya's lap was my firstborn child.

"Daddy!" Carole cried out joyously as I came in, and she reached out for me.

"Hi, Sweetpea!" I said, taking her in my arms for a big hug. "Are you being good for Mommy and Tanya today?"

"Yes, Daddy." said Carole. "And Pete is in the room with Jim. Is Pete my brother, too?"

I paused, then said "Pete is not your brother like Jim, Ross and Ian are, but he's like family, so we should treat him like a brother, yes?"

"Okay." Carole said simply. I wish all my explanations were so quickly accepted.

After taking Carole to the back room and asking her to look after her brother and Pete, I came back into the office area. "So, Lady Ironside, what brings you to see my lovely wife?"

"She was asking for the psychological profile of Arnold Cash." said Laura. "So I'm glad you're here so I can talk to both of you at the same time about it.

"Good." I said, glad to see Tanya's astuteness, as well as her initiative in going to Laura to get the information. "So, whaddya got?"

Laura said "I'll tell it chronologically. About five years ago, Arnold Cash and his wife got into an argument, and it ended with him beating her up, fairly severely. The Police came, and as you know, they can't leave a domestic abuse scene without making an arrest, even if the victim doesn't want to press charges. So Cash was arrested."

"He was very remorseful about what he'd done, and they both wanted to work on saving the marriage. So the Judge gave a probation sentence that included extensive psychological profiling and counseling, and they also had marriage counseling."

"Just don't tell me Westboro was the marriage counselor." I said.

"Okay, I won't tell you." Laura said, then added: "Seriously, he wasn't. They were Methodists, but it was outside counselors that worked with them. But let me get back on track."

Laura continued: "Cash had a rough childhood. You know how we have to be careful about naming children, so their initials don't come out 'S.O.B.', and such stuff. Well, Arnold's maternal grandparents had the surname 'Gay', which in their day was not a problem. His parents gave him 'Gay' as his middle name. And in the more recent decades, the word acquired an association with homosexuality."

Laura went on "Arnold's parents didn't understand, and openly affirmed what the 'G' stood for... and his classmates teased and taunted him relentlessly. Basically, he fought his way through Junior High and High School, was constantly in trouble for fighting. His parents still never understood what the problem was, so they blamed him for it all."

I nodded. "So he's always having to prove his manhood, his toughness."

"Yes." Laura said. "I can only imagine what Cindy would be saying about all this."

"Which is why I chose to not bring her here to hear this." I replied. Tanya gave me an understanding nod.

"So when he beat up Melissa, he was really scared he was going to lose her. He went to all the counseling sessions, did everything asked of him, and worked hard to win her forgiveness. And she did forgive him, though family and friends told her she should leave him."

"When did he stop seeing the counselors?" I asked.

"About two years ago." Laura said. "His insurance paid for the sessions for three years. After that, he paid for them himself for about three months. Then his business started getting busy, and he was short of time, so he stopped them. And there have been no real problems, until now. So... does that help?"

"Immensely." I said, looking out the window, halfway into a reverie. Then I came back. "Thank you, dear." I said. "It does confirm something for me. Okay, Tanya, what say you and I go visit our FBI buddies?" Tanya's eyes lighted up...

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

"All we have right now," said FBI Special Agent Sandra Speer, "is that Paul Claisson is a, shall we say, 'professional' associate of Frenchman Jean-Paul Baptiste, who was a, shall we say, 'professional' associate of your sister Elizabeth, Don."

"No 'was' about it." I said. "They're still working together. But what's Paul's story?"

In the room with us were Special Agents Martin Nash, Lindy Linares, and their boss, Jack Muscone. They were all listening to Sandra's report with avid interest.

"Claisson's pipelines were mostly from South America to France," said Lindy Linares, "while Jean-Paul, and likely Elizabeth, worked Franco-American pipelines. Elizabeth worked guns more than drugs; Jean-Paul and Paul Claisson were all over the drugs. Claisson had an interesting side business, though... he had a plant that made generic prescription drugs, which he sold on the cheap on the black market, undercutting the prices of the big pharmacy corporations, especially South of the Border. This made him mighty popular among the very poor people in those countries, almost god-like."

I nodded. "South America. Tanya?"

"Yes, I was just thinking of the curare." Tanya said. "He could produce it down there, bring it up here. And while we're on the subject relative to this murder... curare was the perfect drug to put into that epi-pen. Peanut allergies cause anaphylaxis; someone injected with curare would be mistaken as being affected by peanuts. Makes the autopsy much more difficult, too. With all respect to Martha, she likely would not have found the curare in the bloodstream if we hadn't have found it in the epi-pen."

"That's very true." I said. "Good observation, Tanya." The FBI Agents all agreed.

"Don't tell me she just realized something you didn't." said Lindy.

"Okay, I won't tell you." I said, repeating my wife's earlier joke. "But hey! I'm not perfect, and I'm glad to have sharp minds working with me if and when I start thinking about double-cheeseburgers and miss something important." The attempts to suppress chuckles failed, and laughter began sweeping the room.

"Now you're making me all hungry." Jack Muscone said, taking my ribbing well. "But yes, that's a great observation, Tanya. So... did Melissa have a peanut allergy, or was it all the curare?"

"Yes, she did have the allergy." I said. "And a prescription for the epi-pen."

"But according to these reports Tanya compiled," Jack said, "the epi-pen found in the hotel room was not the same lot, and maybe not the same company as Melissa's prescription pen?"

"That is correct." Tanya confirmed.

"So," Jack said, "our next task is to find out where the murder weapon epi-pen came from."

"I've been researching that already." said Tanya. "The serial number for the injector was sold in a large batch. Injectors of these types are also used by the military to inject atropine in soldiers affected by nerve agents. They can also be used to inject local anesthetics, and of course can be used illegally for things like horse doping, and people doping in the case of cycling. I'm still trying to trace where this one originated."

"And somewhat changing the subject, I've got one question for you." I said. "Due to his conviction for domestic abuse and being on probation, Arnold Cash cannot have a gun. But his wife had a Concealed Carry Permit, and very likely had a gun. But if the parole officer on a search found her gun in the house, even if it was hers, his probation is revoked and he's in jail. Now how did that work?"

"Ooooh," said Tanya. "Implications abound! I'll check up on that."

Just then, Jack Muscone's phone rang. He answered it, then hung up.

"We just found Melissa Cash's cellphone on the highway to the City." said Jack. "right at the turnoff to AGC Trucking, just across the County Line, in Nextdoor County."

I did not need to ask how the FBI got a cellphone to ping, even if it was turned off. The Government controls our cell phones much more than We The People do...

"I wouldn't think he'd throw the phone away that close to his business." said Lindy Linares, more to herself than anyone else.

"I wouldn't either," I said, "but why are we assuming that it was him that threw it away... when Jerry Kidd was from the City and would use that road to get back home?"

"That's a thought." said Martin Nash.

Just then, my phone rang. It was Cindy. "Sir, Coach Sasskind has just arrived at Headquarters." I excused myself from the Federal party and headed back to Police Headquarters.

Part 8 - Coaching

Russ Sasskind was once an imposing physical specimen of a man. However, when he transitioned from playing to coaching football, he lost weight in a careful way under medical supervision. I might add that retiring sumo wrestlers in Japan do this, as well.

In the last few years, however, Coach Sasskind had been less rigorous in his training, and was beginning to acquire some girth around his middle.

"Hello, Coach." I said as Teddy Parker and I walked into Interrogation-Alpha. Cindy and Joanne were watching from the anteroom.

"Gentlemen." he said. He had brought a lawyer, at the insistence of his NFL team; he was the same man that had represented Tina Sasskind, Mr. Prentiss.

"For your protection, sir," I said after introducing myself, Teddy, and Officer Morton, "I am going to read you your rights." I did so from the card and Coach Sasskind acknowledged he understood.

"With respect to your attorney here," I said, "he also represented your wife the other day. I might suggest that you consider each of you having separate attorneys."

"We understand that." said the attorney. "And we'll be working on that. In the meantime, I'm here to represent the coach's interests in this particular session."

"Okay then." I said. "Let's get started. Are you aware of the situation concerning your wife Tina and her friend Melissa?"

"Melissa's dead, and Tina's a suspect." said Sasskind. "I know Tina was arrested in Dallas while we were down there, but I'm not sure of much else."

"Are you aware that your wife and Mrs. Cash were having sexual affairs with other men at the time of Mrs. Cash's passing?"

"I am now." said Coach Sasskind, his eyes showing a bit of emotion, but held well in check. "And before you ask: I'm away from home for long stretches of time, and my wife did not get the nickname 'Sassy' because of her wholesome good virtues. So I didn't know, but I'm not really all that surprised."

"Do you know Arnold Cash?" I asked.

"Yeah." said Sasskind. "Sometimes Tina and I would go out to dinner with Melissa and Arnold, since they were close girlfriends. He was an all right guy. Ran a good business. Knew something about Sports, so we could talk about things."

"Hmmm..." I said. "Did you and Arnold talk about your NFL job, sideline stuff, behind-the-scenes stuff?"

"A little bit." said Sasskind. "He seemed to be most interested in how we moved our operations around, how we packed and moved the team to another city for a game, how we got stuff in and out of our training facility. Since that tied directly to his own business, I wasn't surprised he asked about those things."

"How would you describe Mr. Cash?" I asked.

"Driven." said Sasskind. "I wish some of our rookie football players were as committed to their jobs as he was to his. He was driven in everything he did."

"When you talked with him, did everything come back to him? As in 'was it all about him'?"

"Not in a bad way, but you could say that." said Sasskind.

"Okay, I'm going to have to get a bit personal, here. How was your relationship with your wife?"

"I wish I could say it was good." Sasskind said. "But I was away a lot, and even when I was home, my head was in my job. I knew I was neglecting her too much, but you have no idea how much of your time the NFL will occupy. So when she came to Dallas to see me, I knew she was getting lonely and frustrated."

"Had she done that before? Come visit you unexpectedly?"

"Yes, sir." said Sasskind. "And on some of our away games, it's a 'bring-the-wives' trip. Usually to New York, Miami, and such, so they can enjoy the big cities."

I nodded. "Is your wife a good cook, Coach?"

"Uh, yes." said the coach, as he and his lawyer both registered surprise at the question. That's one reason I'm developing this tire around my gut. When I'm home, she goes all out in the kitchen for me."

"I see." I said. "What about Mr. and Mrs. Cash? What were they like when they were together?"

"I usually only saw them at dinners and social occasions." said Coach Sasskind. "But they seemed to be close, like they loved each other."

"Are you aware Mrs. Cash had a peanut allergy?" I asked.

"Yeah, I think Tina said something about that." said the coach. "She has one of those epi-pens in case she has an attack."

"Any players on your team have anything like that?" I asked.

"Not on my team." said Sasskind. "But maybe some players on another team do. But the trainers and medical people would handle that."

"I see." I said. "Okay, Coach, here's the deal. My friends in the FBI have contacted your team, who will take custody of you and be responsible for you. Whenever you travel, please let the FBI know where you're going. If we need you, don't make it hard for us to find you. If you do that, you can keep doing your coaching job."

"What about Tina?" Russ asked.

"She's basically under house arrest." I said. "She cannot leave the County until we clear this matter up. We'll keep your attorney, or any new one you have, updated on our progress." With that, Teddy and I left, and Morton escorted the lawyer and his client out the front way.

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

"You obviously don't think Coach Sasskind did it." Cindy said. "Or you would not have let him walk out of here." We were in Classroom 'E', that being me, Cindy, Lt. Masters, Detectives Parker and Cummings, and Supervisor Myron Milton.

"Well" I said, "he's the least likely suspect. He wasn't anywhere around here at the time of the crime, and though we can't rule him out, I'm not going to destroy his coaching career just to keep him here. It's a good thing that his job is with an organization like the NFL, which can take custody of him and will overwatch him for us."

"Sir," said Joanne, "did it bother you as much as it bothered me that he didn't seem to be too upset that his wife was cheating on him?"

"Naw." I said casually. "I think he had a better idea than he was letting on to us, though he didn't explicitly lie."

"He's also a coach." said Cindy. "From what could find about him, he's pretty level-headed, just like we saw today. Definitely not like Arnold Cash. I think Coach Sasskind was not going to show us much emotion, no matter how much of it he felt."

"And what did he feel, my psychic Captain?" I asked with a grin.

"You're asking the wrong Michaux on that." Cindy replied.

"Touché." I said. "And this Michaux got the feeling that the Coach wasn't so much upset as he was just getting confirmation of what he knew. Whether the marriage is on solid ground... I'm not as sure."

"It's on better grounds than the Cash's marriage." said Teddy Parker. We all turned to peer at him.

"Why do you say that?" I asked.

"Confidence." said Parker. "Commander, with all due respect, I know you and your wife have an open marriage, and you and she are both very confident in yourselves and each other. Coach Sasskind is also confident in himself; he has to be in order to be a coach. He barely blinked an eye when you brought up his wife's affair; it didn't seem to worry him."

"However," Parker continued, "when I reviewed the interview of Mr. Arnold Cash, I saw a man that was not confident in himself nor in his marriage. It wasn't just her death that shook him up... it was her cheating on him and him not even seeing it that got to him."

"What would you say about Seth and me?" asked Joanne, perhaps testing him.

Teddy's face reddened and he got disquieted, but he turned to her and said "Seth loves you, but he is scared to death of losing you. I can understand that; he watched you walk into a building and then watched that building explode while you were in it. I think he's worried about you being a Police Detective, though he might keep it to himself because he knows you love doing this so much."

Cindy's face was one of open shock at what she'd just heard, and Joanne was processing it all. Me, not so much.

"Not too bad an observation, there, Parker." I said. "I'm actually disappointed in you, though."

"Sir?" asked Parker. Cindy almost broke her neck whirling to look at me. I smiled.

"You have some very good observational powers, Mr. Parker..." I said, "... that you have not been using properly. I can assure you that Captain Ross and I will be assisting your development of those observational abilities. Is that not right, Captain?"