No Way Out Ch. 04

Bettina: "Several Legislators of both parties are demanding that Donald Troy resign as SBI Reserve Inspector, and have made provisions in the Budget bill to defund the SBI if she does not resign. Meanwhile, State Inspector Britt Maxwell, who was facing her own Impeachment charges when she refused to open an investigation of Donald Troy, now faces her Office being defunded as part of State Rep. Tasheeka Harris's defund the Police initiative..."

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

"Crazy." muttered Sheriff Griswold as he, the Chief, myself, and Lt. Cmdr. Croyle drank coffee in the Chief's Conference Room. "The Media is just out of control."

"No doubt, sir." I said. "They're just slinging whatever mud they can, to see what sticks."

"How can you have 50% favorables and 52% unfavorables?" asked Chief Moynahan.

"Two different polls." the Sheriff replied. "KXTC expects their viewers to be too stupid to realize the numbers don't add up. And they're probably right that their viewers are that stupid."

"Including me, for even bothering to watch Bettina's filth." I said. "But since I'm not running for anything, I'm not really worried about Bettina's rigged, massaged, crap polls."

"I am." replied the Sheriff. "There are things over the horizon which will require your popularity and trustworthiness to get us through..."

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

10:00am, Saturday, January 25th. Teresa practically dragged Cindy into my office. As the Green Crowbar sat down in the hot chair nearest the door, the Iron Wolf expertly used the remote to turn on the television monitor, then sat down without being asked. That was no problem, and my curiosity was piqued.

"And welcome to 'Week In Review'!" said hostess Rosie Berkmar. "It's been a big week, a lot has happened. My guest today is respected reporter Amber Harris of KXTC. Welcome, Amber." The audience applauded as the camera panned out to show Amber sitting in the chair next to Rosie.

"Amber," said Rosie, "the FBI raided Donald Troy's home, and opinions are very divided on the legality of it as well as the amount of force used and property destruction that occurred. And then the Governor shocked the world by pardoning Troy seemingly out of the blue. Is this Governor Jared paying back Donald Troy for using his Police power to harass and charge two women that brought credible claims of sexual harassment against the Governor?"

"Not only that," said Amber, "but the same FBI group that said that the booklet those women had was a forgery, also said the document that showed Troy signed for custody of Betty Morelli was a forgery. The fix was in from the beginning."

"Do you think the State could've proved their case against Donald Troy?" asked Rosie. "After all, Betty Morelli died in prison. Her death was called a 'suicide', but it was very suspicious." (Author's note: 'Believer', Ch. 04.)

"Let's talk about that for a minute." said Amber. "The death was suspicious. And Donald Troy was asked to go down and investigate the death, and he's come up with?... Zilch. Inspector Britt Maxwell was also asked to investigate Betty Morelli's death, and what has she found? Zilch.

Amber: "And who would be able to pull off something like Betty Morelli's death? Someone with connections to the Governor, and to the SBI Inspector? And let's talk motive. Who benefitted from Betty Morelli being silenced?"

"Those are really good points." said Rosie Berkmar. "But once again... could the State have proved their case against Donald Troy? Could they have put Troy in prison, if the Governor had not outrageously intervened, and thwarted Justice?"

Amber: "Let's remember one other thing: Betty Morelli had a child nine months after her alleged sexual encounter with Donald Troy. It is very unlikely she slept with her husband or other men, since her husband and his henchmen was arrested the next morning, and she was also incarcerated at that time."

Amber: "So I've asked where Betty Morelli's baby is, and who is the father? KXTC is being blocked from obtaining the adoption records of the child, who is around two years old now. Judge Rodney K. Watts, who the State Bar has recommended be suspended or even impeached for potential bribery charges, has sealed adoption records and blocked off any attempts to obtain them under the Open Records Act. And this is more than just the Public's Right To Know, which they do, but it's to prove that Donald Troy is potentially a sexual predator with a Police badge..."

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

"If you two will excuse me..." said Cindy as she stood up. She left the office without further comment, but I was almost overwhelmed by the vibe I was getting from her... and it was not a positive vibe at all.

"She just won't stop." said Teresa, meaning Amber, as I expertly used the remote to turn off the verbal diarrhea spewing from the television. "I mean, it's over, but she just won't stop trying to gin up shit."

"Yeah, I know." I said. I then turned on the bug killer and said "You got any plans for tonight?"

"What, are you asking me for a date?" Teresa replied with as much of a grin as I was going to get from her, which wasn't much.

"In a manner of speaking." I said...

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

Meanwhile...

Cindy Ross was in her office. Her hands were shaking, and she could not control the thoughts crowding her mind.

She's coming for my child, Cindy thought over and over. That bitch Amber is coming for my baby, my little girl...

*BRING!* *BRING!* *BRING!* *BRING!*

The ringing of her cellphone jarred her out of her reverie. She answered it. "Hey baby," said Callie Carrington, "I saw that bitch's broadcast. You okay?"

"No, no I'm not." said Cindy. Then she got hold of herself. "Callie, I'm going to need your help..."

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

2:00pm, Saturday, January 25th. FBI Special Agent In Charge Jack Muscone appeared at my office door. With him was DEA Supervisory Special Agent Dwight Stevens.

"I'm just the referee." said Muscone as they came in.

"Hoo boy, what now?" I asked.

"That drug deal that wasn't." said Dwight Stevens. "What the fuck was up with that?"

"I did suggest you not go through with it." I said.

"My agent Pitts thinks you told me that so your men could come in ahead of him to get the glory for that bust." said Stevens. "What am I supposed to tell him?

"Just ask him a logical question." I said. "Just what are we getting glory for? We stopped a major purchase of... cornstarch. We recovered large amounts of... Monopoly money. Yeah, University Hospital is glad they're getting their ambulance back intact, but that would hardly be the DEA's Finest Hour, recovering that. The way I see it... we saved you from embarrassing yourselves. And I did try to tell you beforehand."

Stevens finally sat down in the 'hot chair' next to the one Muscone had already seated himself in. "Okay, okay." Stevens said with both resignation and exasperation. "But why all this? Why are The Eighth Street Latinos and T-Mac's crew making a fake deal like that? We had good intel; Pitts really thought he was going to make a good bust, there. And you obviously knew something, since you were able to tell me to stay away from it."

I replied "I guess the intel was compromised. It happens. The good news is that no DEA Agents were harmed in the exercise of the cornstarch bust. The bad news is that the Eighth Street Latinos might decide not to do Eighth Street Latino things in my County any more... well, that's not bad news for the Citizens of my County, of course."

Muscone looked at Stevens and said "I told ya... four hundred years ago."

"Yeah, and there are a lot of people that want to burn you at the stake, Don." said Stevens. 
"But you did give me fair warning..."

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

2:30pm. It just must've been my day to have Federal Agents appear at my office door. This time it was FBI EAD Dr. Robin Isley. How she got past the Duty Desk, I did not know... but would be finding out and making on-the-spot corrections with language not fit to be printed here.

She had FBI Special Agents Peter Page and Karl Coleman with her, but they were surrounded by no less than four armed-and-armored TCPD Officers.

"Where's Curtis Halsey?" Isley hissed at me.

"You tell me." I replied acidly. "Not my day to babysit him."

"I think you know." spat Isley.

"I don't care what you think." I replied. "And you obviously need more practice at it."

"Where were you last night?" thundered Isley.

"He was with me."

Isley whirled around to see my wife Laura in the doorway to the anteroom. And that was a yellow crowbar my wife was wielding.

"Was he?" Isley said venomously. "And what's with that play toy? Giving yourself airs that you can actually do something with it?"

"You're about to find out." said Laura. "My sister may have shot Halsey in the knee, but I hold you responsible for him pointing a gun at my daughter and almost pulling the trigger. And you're going to pay for it."

"So!" Isley said loudly. "Having to fight your worthless husband's battles for you?"

"Dr. Isley," I said, standing up and coming around my desk, "I am not so chivalrous that I won't hit a woman, and that I won't hit you as hard as I can."

"Yeah," snarled Isley, turning back to me, "we know how you are with women in your custody. Did you knock Betty up?----"

*WHAM!*

My right-hand jab caught Isley right in her face, and I felt her nose cave in as my closed fist made full contact. Robin Isley collapsed to the floor. Laura, ever the doctor, knelt down and checked on the FBI EAD. Isley was unconscious.

Laura used smelling salts, and Robin came to with a start, then moaned in pain. "Get her out of here." Laura ordered Isley's Federal Agents. As they got Robin to her feet, Laura said to her: "And if you ever come back to this County, either my sister or I will finish you."

After the Federal Agents were gone, leaving for a Hospital across State Lines to have Isley's broken nose set, Laura turned to me with something of a scowl.

"Sorry, dear." I said. "I was going to let you give her a crowbar beatdown, but she pissed me off."

"That's okay." said Laura, hugging me warmly. "I like it when my man takes up for me... and our children."

"How did you know she was coming here?" I asked as I escorted Laura into my office.

"I didn't." Laura said. "I came to tell you something else. I have to go out of Town tonight."

"Uh oh." I said. "Meetings?"

"In a manner of speaking..." Laura said cryptically.

Part 20 - Crowbars Rule The Night

11:30pm, Saturday, January 25th. It was a cold, clear night, with temperatures dropping into the teens. Cindy Ross and Callie Carrington, dressed in black and moving stealthily like ninja in the night, came to the new house where Amber Harris was now living. They crept across the back yard, hearing no dogs in the neighborhood barking at them.

They saw the dim light in the upstairs room, and quietly climbed the poles to the patio deck. They looked in the crack of the not-quite-closed drapes through the sliding glass door... and found that they'd been beaten to the punch: two masked persons in all black were inside!

"What the hell?" Cindy whispered as she saw that the two home invaders had captured Amber and zip-tied her hands behind her. To one side was the crib for the new baby, with the one lamp bathing the room in dim light on the table at the foot of the crib.

One of the intruders was relatively short and agile, and looked to be a woman. The other was much taller, broad-shouldered. And then he reached up and took off his mask, and Cindy and Callie gasped...

It was the Iron Crowbar.

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

Teresa and I had made our way to Amber's home and easily breached the garage door. I disabled the alarm with the manufacturer's code, and we went upstairs. Amber had just fed her newborn baby, and was putting him in his crib for the night.

"What the--- EEEK!" Amber screamed as the two masked figures in black suddenly rushed in and were upon her. She was taken to the floor and quickly manacled, and a gloved hand covered her overactive, overused mouth.

"Okay, bitch." I growled in my gravelly voice. "I am getting tired of your attacks on an innocent child."

"Your child, Troy?" Amber spat after suddenly moving her head to the side to free her mouth.

"What if she is?" I growled as I took off my mask. "And what are you going to do about it?"

"Whatever it takes, to expose her as your daughter, and humiliate you!" Amber snarled, trying to fight her bonds, but held too tightly in Teresa's grip.

"Soooooo." I hissed. "You think you can say anything you want, hurt anyone you want, hiding behind the Free Press First Amendment... while we can't do anything, constrained by the Law and our consciences? Eh? Well... what if if I choose to remove those constraints? What if I do to your baby that you've been doing to Betty Morelli's?"

With that, I got up, and advanced towards the crib.

"NO!" Amber screamed, fighting her captor and her bonds as hard as she could. "You leave my baby alone, you bastard! Leave him alone!---UHK!" She was forced to lie prone on her back as I advanced towards the crib, and the baby lying inside it, taking something out of my pocket...

To be continued.