No Show Ch. 01

I said "I have one question: do the people at KFXU know that KXTC was trying to set me up?"

Cindy said "I'm not supposed to say anything, seeing as what I know is coming from a confidential source... but yeah, they know just like I know. But they have no proof, either."

"That was still a great broadcast, though." Tanya said. "I just wish KXTC's loyal viewers could be forced to watch it, and see the real truth for what it is."

"It wouldn't matter." Teresa said. "People watch KXTC's trash because it's what they want to hear. And they're going to believe every word Bettina tells them, and call Catrina and Priya the filthiest of names, because their minds are made up, and Bettina gives them what they already believe."

"Give that woman a crowbar!" I said, then added: "Never mind, she says she doesn't need one. Okay, despite Bettina's outright slander, I actually am present and doing work on behalf of Chief Moynahan's Police Force today. So... what's going on?"

Teresa said "Captain Hewitt came into 1st Precinct just before eight o'clock, so I didn't have time to talk to him on the phone. I've 'invited' him, in the Japanese sense, to come to my office at 9:00am."

"What did he say when you did talk to him?" Tanya asked.

Teresa said "No disrespect to you or Cindy, but I think I need to talk to him first, and we'll probably end up in here in your office, Don, or in the Chief's office."

I said "Personnel issue, huh? Possibly something punishable. In that case, you're right not to talk about it in front of anyone else."

Tanya said "Speaking of personnel issues, what are we doing about Jerome Davis? The Media is already bothering Captain Thompson, asking if Davis is suspended without pay for insubordination. And when he tells them no, they go off on him, demanding to know why not, and if Commander Troy is covering up for him? Thompson just tells them 'no further comment', and now he's saying 'no comment' to any question regarding Jerome."

Teresa said "I'm not doing a damn thing to Jerome."

I said "Hell, I'm writing up the medal we're going to give him next Monday."

Cindy said "Somewhat to that point, and also to what happened between me and Louis Bailey, what do y'all think is going to happen with all that?" When she was met with a 'deafening' silence, she said "Speak freely, please."

I said "Before anyone says anything, I need to ask you a question. Exactly what did you say to Bailey last night?"

Cindy said "Bailey was telling his Deputies to arrest Davis, and Davis's Officers were encircling him and goading the Deputies to, and I quote, 'molon labe'. When I got there, Bailey said he'd already told Davis to stand down, that he, Bailey, and the Deputies were in charge. But when they didn't move to help the Council Members, Davis did, and the TCPD Officers very quickly went with him, despite Bailey telling them to stop."

Cindy: "Davis said that he could see the Council Members were in danger of being physically stopped from leaving, which would be a kidnapping charge in its own right, and Davis said he feared the Council Members might be physically assaulted, so he acted and the perps backed off. He said Bailey then told his Deputies to arrest him, Jerome, and that's when the standoff started."

Cindy: "I told Bailey and his Deputies to stand down and leave Davis alone, that Davis had acted properly. Bailey said to me that he was formally accusing Davis of insubordination, and demanded Davis be immediately suspended and removed from the scene. I told Bailey to back off, and that's when he called me a 'staffer' and became insubordinate. Fortunately for him, that's when Amber came down to ask me where you were, Don, and you know the rest."

I nodded, then said "Okay, guys, we need to stop talking about this. Cindy, you know we love you and support you, and if I had been there I would've backed you up all the way. But this is a Sheriff's Department issue now, I suspect it's going to be a Union issue, and it's going to get ugly. So... let's just say no more about it in the here and now."

Cindy gaped at us for a second, then I saw she was trying to read our minds, especially mine. I mentally pushed back on that. Finally, she said "You think I was wrong, don't you?"

"No." I said, looking her dead in the eye. "And if I did, I'd tell you to your face. I'm on your side. But it's a TCSD issue, not a TCPD issue, so I want to come correct and leave this one in the Sheriff's hands."

"Okay, then." Cindy said, not at all mollified. She stood up and said "I better get back to City Hall, then. The Sheriff is probably waiting for me to get there now, as it is." She then hustled out the door before I could respond.

Tanya said "I better go, too. And Don, be ready to hear more from friendly Federal Agents about everything that has been simmering."

"Isn't this a beautiful office?" I asked as I put my hands up and twisted my body in a circle to show it off. "And they know they can find me right here in it when they need to."

After Tanya exited the office, Teresa said "I don't need the Power of the Vibe to know what you were thinking... and it's the same thing I'm thinking: Della Harlow."

"Spot on, Iron Wolf." I said. "Sure you don't want this crowbar?" I held up the red crowbar.

"Don't need one." Teresa said. "And Carole is going to be the next Iron Crowbar. Not me..."

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

9:15am, Wednesday, October 27th. We did it all formal: Helena buzzed me and announced that Lieutenant Commander Croyle and Captain Hewitt were in the anteroom. I said to show them in, which meant what Helena did: She got up and opened the door, came in ahead of them and held it as they entered. If I had asked to serve my guests coffee, tea, or water, she would have, but in this case I just said "Thank you, Helena." and she exited the room, closing the door behind her.

Captain Hugh Hewitt was a military veteran, and did the proper thing by standing to Teresa's left in front of my desk, giving her the 'place of honor' since she outranked him. So I said "Commander, sit in your normal chair.", indicating the far-side chair, then "Captain, have a seat there.", indicating the near-side (to the door) chair. They both sat down.

Teresa said "Sir, I had Captain Hewitt come to my office so we could discuss why he could not be contacted last night. His phone went to voicemail when Lieutenant Davis called him, and also when the 1st Precinct Duty Desk called him. He was not on duty at the time, so he did nothing wrong, but I wanted to clarify why he couldn't be reached. And after he gave his answer, I asked him to come in here so that he could tell you directly what happened last night."

"Okay, let's hear it." I said.

Hugh Hewitt said "Sir... I had been drinking last night, and was too buzzed to respond when I was contacted about the incident at City Hall."

I nodded. "You were off duty, weren't you? Apologies for being this candid, but were you with a girl or something?"

"No sir, I was alone at home." said Hewitt.

"Were you on call?" I asked.

Hewitt: "Not formally. But I should have remembered the Council meeting was that night, and not had any wine with my dinner. I got buzzed, then had a Jack and Coke, so when my phone rang and I saw it was Davis, I knew there was nothing I could do. I know I should've answered anyway, but I let it go to voicemail. And I fell asleep and didn't even hear the call from the Duty Desk."

Hewitt: "And sir, this is not excuse-making or a cop-out, but I know that Jerome Davis is a really outstanding Officer and leader, and I thank my lucky stars that he came to 1st Precinct. There really is nothing I could handle that he can't. But I should have stayed sober, especially on a Tuesday night."

I said "Well, it's a dilemma, and I get it. And I'm sure as hell glad you didn't drink and drive to get there, or be on duty with a service weapon while you were less than sober. And I agree with you that Davis is an outstanding Officer. By the way, did you hear about the altercation with Senior Deputy Bailey?"

"Yes sir." said Hewitt. "I got reports from Davis himself as well as other Officers that were there. I recommended to Davis to grieve his treatment at the hands of Senior Deputy Bailey to the Union; Bailey was totally out of line, even if he does outrank Davis or was the Incident Commander at the scene."

I said "This is spilt milk, but that's why we could've used you at the scene. Even though Bailey outranks you, too, both you and he are in the Captain's Union, and they don't like internecine battles between members, so they'd likely have left things up to the Sheriff. I agree that Davis should file his grievance, but it's going to get sticky."

I continued: "Anyhoo, unless you know something I don't, Commander Croyle, I don't see anything officially wrong, just some potential embarrassment on Hewitt's part. My unofficial advice for you, Hewitt, is to not put yourself in a position like that again in situations where you might be called in. Commander, do you have anything else for Captain Hewitt?"

"No sir." Teresa said, though her eyes were boring into me.

"Okay, then." I said, standing up. "You can go, Captain. And go get all the paperwork about last night's incident done and your ducks in a row; the Sheriff is gonna come a'callin."

"Yes sir." Hewitt said. He shook my proffered hand, then exited the office. As I sat back down, I looked at Teresa.

"Sir," she said, "now would be a very good time to have a (air quotes) 'random' drug test of 1st Precinct... including its leadership."

"Fine with me, and that's your call to make." I said. "But do you think Hewitt is using drugs?"

"No sir." said Teresa. "But he may be becoming an alcoholic. They have a test for alcoholism we can give during the drug test, and I'll arrange for him and the Sergeants and above to be given it."

"Make it so, Number One." I replied...

Part 4 - They're Not Helping...

At 11:30am, Teresa and I arrived at the Cop Bar, at Sheriff Griswold and Chief Moynahan's 'invitation'. We went to the back 'Command Room', and found a long table set for eight persons. The Sheriff was at the far end, with my seat to his left and Teresa to his right. To my left would be my wife Laura, and to Teresa's right was Mayor Daniel Allgood. To Laura's left was Cindy, and to Daniel's right was Town & County Councilman Edward R. Steele. And at the near end (to the door) of the table was Police Chief Moynahan.

There were sliding doors inside the doorway to the Command Room. They were rarely used, but would be closed today. As the others were arriving, I checked the room carefully for bugs. Somewhat to my surprise, there were none, just a 'warm' ethernet connection. I plugged a jack into it that would neutralize anything sinister it might do.

Once everyone had arrived, we ordered. I had my 'usual' Double Breakfast Cheeseburger Plate; Cindy, the Fish & Chips; Teresa, the Steak Caesar Salad; Sheriff Griswold, the (single) Cheeseburger Plate with a bottomless basket of 'Griswold's Grizzly Fries';

and Edward, the Double Cheeseburger Plate.

Interestingly to me, Chief Moynahan tried a new dish on the menu: Shepherd's Pie. Laura had the Grilled Chicken Caesar Salad and a large bowl of Potato Cheese Soup. She did not realize how huge the bowl of soup was, but she said it was delicious as she ate the whole thing. Daniel Allgood had ordered a grilled chicken sandwich (no plate, just the sandwich), but only ate half of it; he was clearly not hungry, and not in a very good mood.

After we ate, the Sheriff began the meeting: "Thank you all for coming. We have some important things to talk about. Mayor Allgood, you're not aware of some things that have been going on, so we invited you to hear it at the same time Crowbar and Edward hear it."

Allgood said sourly "I was hoping to have a private meeting with you and Chief Moynahan about this."

"And you still can." Laura said with an abundance of cold authority in her voice. "But it would do you very well to hear those of us around the table discuss this." Daniel did not like that, but he'd learned that when his sister-in-law spoke like that, arguing was not an option.

Griswold: "That's true, Mr. Mayor, and we can certainly talk more later. Anyhoo, last night there was a large and concerted effort to keep Crowbar from responding to the violent agitators that infested the Council Meeting. I ordered him to send the phone call he was getting to voicemail, and he did---"

"That phone call was from me, and it was urgent." Daniel said. "It looked like we were about to have a hostage situation. Literally."

"Daniel, would you let the man finish?" Laura said witheringly.

"I don't give a damn about his explanation." Daniel said. "We had a very serious incident developing, and I couldn't get your husband on the phone!"

I'd had enough. "And this from the guy who voted to deny me entry to Council Executive Sessions! But when a mob of three hundred thugs show up with the intent to do you bodily harm? Oh, then you bitch and moan about me not being available... even though dozens of our Police Officers were there."

Daniel said "That vote was for show. I intended to vote the other way in the Second Reading of the Bill."

Edward R. Steele said "And he didn't need to. Weston and Sorrells voted with us to defeat the bill in the Second Reading, so it's dead and you're welcome back."

I said witheringly "So the only vote for you on record is to deny me entry. Reinforcing my point. And it looks like the Dems got one over on you on that."

Sheriff Griswold had taken the opportunity to down a few more 'Griswold Grizzly Fries', but now he was ready to continue: "Guys, it was a bad night all the way around, so let me finish this."

We all settled down and the Sheriff went on: "We had some credible evidence, from people that I, Sean, Cindy, and Laura consider reliable, that a protest was going to be staged, that it would be orchestrated, and it was set up to go ballistic and get really violent when Crowbar showed up."

Griswold: "We had our protocols in place, to deny anyone in a red Antifa shirt or green Environmentalist Wacko shirt entry to the Chamber. But someone in regular clothing went down and opened the fire exit door at the far end of the back hall, and people outside started pouring in, overwhelming the few Deputies we had that early in the evening."

Griswold: "They planned it very well, too; they flooded the back hallway to keep our renforcements from coming down the hallway, then they flooded the Chamber en masse with people, filling it up before our people really even knew what was going on. And I'll add that we never expected a full 300 slugs to show up."

Griswold: "Senior Deputy Louis Bailey and Chief Bailiff Clark Alexander were the senior Deputies on the scene. They reported that the gallery was being pretty calm, so we left things alone, called for reinforcements from the Police, since the Deputies were maxed out, and tried to hold serve. We expected it to get noisy, but not violent before Crowbar got there, and of course we knew we were holding him back."

Griswold: "And then it went sideways, and off the rails. We made Fox Cable's year with that footage of the Haters screaming during the Pledge., but what we didn't expect was the rioters moving to take the Council Members hostage, nor Louis Bailey being too restrained and pulling rank on Jerome Davis when Davis did the right thing and got the Council Members out of there."

Griswold: "We weren't going to have Cindy there, either, but when Bailey started throwing his weight around, she went down there in my stead. And that's its own disaster that I'm going to have to fix. But the bottom line is that it was contained, handled, and because Crowbar was not there, it didn't get any worse."

Daniel Allgood looked totally stunned. He said "I... I... I can't believe what I was just told." He stood up, then said "Don, I apologize; you were ordered to send my phone call to voicemail, and they were going to hold you back anyway."

He then swiveled his head back and forth as he looked at Griswold and Moynahan. "I am absolutely disgusted... DISGUSTED!... at what I just heard. I was a TCPD Officer. I was Internal Affairs, which I think speaks well to my integrity. And I was Sheriff before you were, Griswold."

Allgood: "You had knowledge of this, but didn't warn me nor the Council about it? And you made no effort to arrest the perps when they invaded City Hall? And you held back your very best Officer... Officers, that is... while those of us on the Council were in real danger?"

A pall of total silence enveloped the room. Nobody seemed to know what else to say. I knew I sure didn't. Finally, after looking at everyone several times, Allgood finally said: "I... I... I just don't know what to say. But I do know this. You were fucking wrong! And I won't be forgetting this." He turned and stalked out of the room, leaving the door half open.

Edward R. Steele said "Well, I want to hear about this intel information you had before I jump to conclusions."

"I want to hear it, too." I said as Cindy got up and secured the door.

It was Laura that spoke up. She said "First, you can take the NTSB's Gary Weller off the 'Swamp Frog' list. He contacted Jack Muscone and other Federal Agents friendly to us, and said that two Homeland Security Agents he did not know pressured him to attack you through the Press about your absence at the train wreck. He told them you were at a triple homicide scene, and they got angry and told him to lie... and he refused."

"Career move, there?" I asked.

"Maybe not." Laura said. "The guy is good at investigating trains, planes, and automobiles that crash and kill people. But he won't be upwardly mobile in the current Administration in Washington."

"No good people are." I said witheringly.

"Second," my wife continued, ignoring my comment, "I learned through contacts that Derrick B. Harland's US DOJ really wants to come after you and the TCPD, to set an example that will demoralize Police Forces nationally."

"They've been wanting that for a long time." I said. "They backed off after Melina shot dead Jocelyn Moran, but their desire to kill me and force the TCPD into a Consent Decree has never abated." (Author's note: 'Black and Blue', Ch. 05 for Melina v. Moran.)

Laura said "True. And furthermore to that subject: Brendan Chapel is planning to run for Congress in New York next Election cycle, but Dr. Robin Isley is still deep within the National Security Agency, and is still a huge threat. And Lindsey Black and Karl Coleman are still her Federal Agent 'useful idiots'."

Teresa said venomously: "Not for long, if I catch them in this County."

Laura said "Until that happens, in the here and now Black and Coleman and the Rovers BAU Team are the ones actively trying to get the USDOJ in here. And here's something new: we thought they were behind the Toyota Gang attack on Amelia Sedgwick, but my sources are telling me that they are very bitter about Amelia Sedgwick's death. But I'm not sure why, and neither are my sources."

I nodded. "But last night was not orchestrated by Federal Agents... was it?"

Laura said "Let me answer in this roundabout way: the going theory is that the Toyota Gang was behind the train incident. My own experience and analysis suggests that it could not have been a local or even State group any more than the EMPTY QUIVER event was or could have been. There are Federal fingerprints all over the train incident."

Laura: "We also assumed that their goal was to distract you from the Sedgwick murder. But I'm re-thinking that after last night's event. Maybe that train incident was to make you be in a place they wanted you to be. Not to be away from the other place, but just to be where they wanted you to be."