Power of Love Ch. 01

"Me too." I said.

Lange: "I had people check on Nash's whereabouts during the timeframe of that visit to the library, and he was here, in the Town & County or the City, for just about all of it. The Rovers BAU Team was also in this area. So either they sent someone else, and we haven't figured out who it is yet, or it's not our rogue guys."

"What did Nash say about sending that video to the Rovers Team?" I asked.

"He denied it was him that sent it." said Lange. "We showed him our data showing it was from him, and he said we should check it out harder as being fraudulent... like your forged signature on that Morelli custody document."

"And he may be right." I said. "I also wonder why he'd deny it if he really did do it. It's not like he did anything illegal in it."

"Except that other branches go to the OPR with complaints, not the other way around like this time." said Lange. "And while you're technically correct, the optics are that either he's a snitch or he's got a vendetta against Muscone. And the FBI hasn't gone so far over to the Swamp Frogs that his actions would be excused. Quite the opposite, as he has a reputation for having survived only because his now-deceased uncle was the FBI Deputy Director for a long time. A lot of FBI field agents don't like Nash."

"I understand." I said. "But I'm interested mostly because it concerns two of my Angels, Teresa and Tanya. Jack can handle himself, though I'm ready to assist him if need be."

"And you were right to tell Muscone not to look up his brother's case nor anything else." said Lange. "They may have sent that video to see how Muscone reacted, to see if he'd give himself away, but he didn't. And to that end, I looked all that up. The case of Muscone's brother was never solved, and to my surprise they never spoke with him about it."

Lange: "Some of the Agents that investigated thought Jack was involved or had done it, but they knew he'd just plead the Fifth if they asked him about it. Others said there was insufficient evidence to investigate him, while others didn't think he was involved because his brother had a lot of enemies. So it was dropped."

I nodded. "It's also occurred to me that all this was done to see what Teresa Croyle will do, how she will react to all of this. And I'm calling 'dirty pool' on that... bringing up the most painful event of her life, just to fuck with us? Crowbar beatdowns will be occurring... when I find out who is behind this."

Lange nodded. "I'll be glad to help, if you'll loan me a crowbar for a few moments."

"I might take you up on that." I said. "In the meantime------"

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

It was Owen Lange's cellphone. He answered it. I saw a looks of shock and consternation on his face as he listened to the voice on the other end. "All right." he finally said. "Keep me informed."

After he disconnected, he looked at me and said "That was Nate Grimes, the Supervisory Special Agent of the OPR in this region. Someone in the Washington OPR just re-opened the case of Muscone's brother's assassination. And they want to set up an interview."

"For Jack?" I asked.

"No." said Owen Lange. "You were right... they're going after Teresa Croyle. It's her they want to talk to..."

Part 6 - The Never-Ending Story

"This is Bettina Wurtzburg, KXTC Channel Two News!" shouted the redheaded MILF reporterette at 7:00am, Tuesday, March 10th, from the KXTC studios. "The chaos and gridlock in the State Legislature is not popular with the People of the State!"

Bettina began: "Citizens are increasingly becoming angry at the gridlock in the Legislature, and polls show they are blaming the Republicans, especially deeply unpopular Governor Val Jared! Jared, who is a lame duck and will be out of office at the end of the year, has made no effort to work with Legislators of either Party to get something done in this Legislative session."

Bettina: "We have with us Karl Frazier of Public Policy Polling." A split screen with Karl Frazier appeared "Karl, what do the Citizens of our State want to see?"

Frazier: "Bettina, they're tired of the gridlock, and what they see is the obstinacy of the State Republican Party. People want to see Republican politicians crossing the aisle to work with the Democrats on common-sense legislation. While gun control is not one of those issues, voters want to see the Republicans accept the Democrats's proposals for health care and Climate Change."

Bettina: "What could this mean for the Elections, Karl? After all, the primaries are May 5th in this State. Is Jared having a negative effect on the Republicans? Can the Democrats win control of both Houses of the State Legislature AND the Governorship?"

Frazier: "Our polls are showing that it will depend on who the nominees are. Lt. Governor Sharon Marshall polls very poorly against any Democrat running for Governor, including Corey Coons, who is the most stridently Leftwing candidate. State Attorney General Karl Handel polls well against Democrats, but he's running well behind Lt. Governor Marshall for the Republican nomination."

"Thank you, Karl!" said Bettina as she was brought to full screen. "And in other news, Federal Judge K.M. Landis egregiously stepped in to take the case 'USDOJ vs. Town & County' from Federal Judge Ruth B. Taney, and Landis denied the USDOJ's request to force the TCPD into a Consent Decree. The TCPD has insisted upon a full Court trial, and has refused to negotiate with the US DOJ at all..."

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

"Yeah, Bettina," I said, "don't bother mentioning that Taney tried to take the case from Landis, who has jurisdiction over our County and also is the Chief Federal Judge for this Circuit. She was in the wrong, but Bettina makes it sound like he did something bad for doing the right thing."

"Sounds like the Civil Rights Division of the USDOJ is a little desperate." said Tanya Perlman. "Trying to force a Consent Degree without a trial? And I haven't even gotten to the contradiction in terms: forcing a Consent Decree." We all chuckled at that.

"I agree." I said. "That reeks of desperation."

"What I want to know," said Cindy Ross, "is what's going on with the FBI and the Iron Wolf, here."

"Nothing, so far." said Teresa. "Agnes T. Spires is ready to go, and eager to engage the Feds again in legal combat. But they haven't contacted me yet, and I'm wondering if EAD Lange got a 'bad Buddha' about them coming at me."

"I don't think he did." I said. "He heard about it early on, and maybe they weren't as ready to come at us as fast as we thought they'd be. Just keep your eyes and ears open, and don't let them take you into custody."

"It's sad that we have to disssss-trust the Feds that much." said the Chief. To Teresa he asked: "Are you going to cooperate and talk with them if they ask you toooo?"

"It depends, Chief." said Teresa. "If they're up front and honest, and don't play games... and if they tell us what it's about up front... then I'll probably cooperate. If they play the crap games like they did with Commanders Troy and Ross... I will not be participating in those games."

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

"Hello and welcome to Fox University Sunrise." said Catrina Pierce at 8:00am from the KFXU studios. "I'm Catrina Pierce, and with me is Meredith Peller. Hi Meredith."

"Hi Catrina." said Meredith. "Hello, everyone. Here's what's in the news. The Legislature is in gridlock, and nearing total meltdown as we enter the final month of the session. Democrats are accusing the Republicans of not negotiating the Budget in good faith, but as Representative William C. 'Billy' Williams says, it's not that simple. Roll tape."

Tape rolled, showing our 1st District State Rep saying: "The Democrats's ideas of 'negotiation' and 'compromise' are for the Republicans to do exactly what the Democrats order them to do, and that's not going to happen. We're ready for real negotiations, but we're not going to bend over like wimps for the Democrats, like the Mitt Romney-John McCain Republicans in Washington do."

Back to Catrina live: "We have with us Peter D. Gordon of Clear Call Polling." The camera panned out to show Peter Dwayne Gordon sitting in the KFXU 'hot chair'. "Peter, what are the polls saying about the gridlock?"

Peter: "The Citizens of the State are as evenly divided on the issues as they are over Parties and their policies. For example, 83% of respondents say they are tired of gridlock, but when we ask how that gridlock should be resolved, it's right down the middle, 50-50... those that identify right-of-center say the Democrats need to compromise or capitulate, while those that identify left-of-center say the Republicans should be the ones to capitulate."

Peter: "And the 17% that say they prefer the gridlock identify 95% as right-of-center. These respondents believe that almost any compromise weakens the Constitution and individual liberties."

Meredith: "Let's talk about the races for a moment. Sharon Marshall probably is closest to Governor Jared in her positions. How is she doing?"

Peter: "She is polling very, very well with respondents that identify as Conservative or leaning Conservative. She has an almost 2-1 advantage over State AG Karl Handel, who is widely identified as the Republican Establishment's 'great white hope', to use some boxing lingo, there. Lt. Governor Marshall also does reasonably well in our polling when compared to every specific Democrat... but when it's the unnamed, 'generic' Democrat, she doesn't do as well."

Catrina: "And how does AG Handel do if he's the Republican nominee?"

Peter: "If Handel is the Republican nominee, almost every Democrat would wipe him out in the General Election in November. Only Maxine Watts polls poorly against him."

Meredith: "Is Governor Jared hurting Republicans in the State and local races?"

Peter: "We're not seeing any signs of it right now. The Governor's popularity ratings are at a base 40%, but that's not hurting Sharon Marshall, nor other races. Other pollsters are saying there's going to be a 'blue wave', and the Democrats will take full control of the State House, State Senate, and the Governorship, but I'm certainly not seeing that in our polling. The Democrats may win the City and Southport by 85-15% margins, but the rest of the State is nowhere near those numbers..."

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

"Don't you just love political season?" Tanya Perlman asked with a great deal of sarcasm as we watched in my office prior to the Angels Meeting.

"When is it ever not political season?" Teresa countered.

"Damn good point!" I said, pointing at Teresa.

"Would you say that right now is the most bitterly divided America has ever been, politically?" asked Cindy Ross.

"Er, noooo." I said. "I think the 1860-1861 timeframe takes the 'blue and gray' ribbon for that." (Author's note: That was Abraham Lincoln's election and the months leading to the American Civil War.)

Teresa said: "But we may be headed towards that level of rancor again. I can see America splitting into three parts: the liberal Northeast, the hardcore-leftwing Pacific Coast, and the Conservative 'Flyover County' between, especially the South, the Plains States, and the near-Northwest."

"Don't tell Carole and Marie that," I said, "or they'll start drawing maps. And I can see another way of seceding. Take New York, or Illinois. Upstate New York is strongly Conservative. But New York City is so populous, it rides roughshod over the rest of the State."

Your Iron Crowbar: "So what if the rest of New York says 'we want to be a separate State from NYC.'? To become a separate State, they have to get approval of Congress as well as the State they're separating from. And Democrat-controlled New York would never let the split happen."

Your Iron Crowbar: "So the only thing they could do, is secede. Become a separate country entirely. That could create a cascade effect, it could lead to Civil War. But that's about the only thing they can do."

"Bottom line," Cindy said, "no more United States of America."

"Yeah." I said. "Anyhoo, what's on the Police Force agenda for today, besides serving and protecting, protecting and serving?..." My Angels laughed politely.

"It's quiet... too quiet." Teresa said. "Not quite yet time for Spring Sports to start up, nor Spring Break to be an issue on Campus."

Tanya said "Lt. Rudistan told me yesterday he's beginning to hear about a trickle of poor quality drugs into the Southside: dirty heroin, meth, some fentanyl. The fentanyl bothers him; Marcie Harper had the monopoly on that stuff, and no one really wanted to touch it since she was busted. But that aversion ended, and someone has picked it up."

I said "And what is Rudistan's response to that?"

Tanya said "He's putting Vice's ears to the ground to see what they can come up with. Not much, so far. We start sending undercover Officers in to make small buys if we don't get some good intel by next Monday."

I nodded. "Okay, but speed that up. Do the undercover buys over the weekend if you don't hear anything by Friday." Tanya and Teresa nodded and made notes.

Tanya said "I guess the only other thing is the wrap-up of the Stoddard murder. It's about to go cold. The guy we caught trying to plant drugs in Tracy Stone's car lawyered up and clammed up, and we have absolutely nothing to connect him to the murder. Ditto that for Dana Stirewalt and Rob Lawton; nothing to connect them to anything other than being Carmela's sycophants and being idiots."

"I'm still doing some work on that in my spare time." I said. "I'll let you guys know if I come upon any live wires."

"Vat ees thees concept of 'spare time', ov vich yoo speek?" Cindy asked in her best German accent. "And yoo ov all pee-pul have none of thees 'spare time' to yoose."

"C'est vrai, mon Commandant!" I replied in real French. "Okay, you guys get crackin'..." That was a dismissal, and my Angels smartly executed it.

Part 7 - Selling One's Soul

Tuesday, March 10th. FBI Assistant Special Agent In Charge Karina White called and asked me to come to the Cattleman's Club for lunch. When I got there, I saw that she had a guest: Supervisory Special Agent Melina Allgood.

"I hope you don't mind me asking Melina to join us." Karina said as we were seated at our table.

"I certainly don't mind having lunch with two lovely ladies." I said. "Better ask her about eating with her ex-husband, though."

"Still the ol' silver-tongued devil, you are." Melina said. "But no worries. The divorce was amicable, and Don and I are still friends." I nodded vigorously in agreement.

After we ordered, all of us ordering steaks for lunch, Karina said "I asked both of you to come so that we could talk about what's going on with this thing with Jack Muscone. He's ignoring it, or trying to, and he's getting ready for his wedding. Soooo, it falls upon me to get the straight scoop on the issues, and the danger they represent to him, and to the rest of us." Both women looked at me.

"I wish I had some 'scoop' to give you." I replied. "But I don't have a thing. I'm as much in the dark about this as everyone else."

"Maybe you can tell us what the issues are." said Karina. "I saw that video of that car wreck. Jack won't talk about it... it's almost like he's taken the Fifth about it... and no one else knows what's going on.

I nodded. "There's a reason Jack won't talk about it, and why the rest of us shouldn't. But I'll tell you this much so you have the gist of it."

I began: "You may or may not know that several years ago, Teresa Croyle beat up a worthless piece of shit that was driving drunk, ran into a family, and wiped out the mother and her two daughters. The perp was the son of the late State Senator Nathan Allen, and Senator Allen used his political power to protect his son, arrest and imprison the father, and to go after Teresa."

Your Iron Crowbar: "They were about to fire Teresa, and I asked for a weekend to just find out why Teresa had done it. I went to her hometown, where Jack Muscone and I found a photo of Teresa and her sister after winning a race, and we learned the truth about Teresa... how a drunk driver had wiped out Teresa's sister and a friend, leading to a chain of events that led to Teresa whipping Dean Allen's ass for wiping out that family in our County here." (Author's note: 'Teresa's Christmas Story'.)

"Oh, wow." said Karina.

Your Iron Crowbar: "After saving Teresa's job, I began quietly looking into that whole situation. I found out that the person who collided with Teresa's sister was a man who had several DUIs, but was also an FBI Agent, and the Bureau got him out of trouble every time. And that guy was also Jack Muscone's half-brother."

"Does Teresa know that?" Karina asked.

"Yes." I said. "She began looking into the case a few years ago, once she knew I knew her secret about her sister's death. She independently found out what I did. But now... the rest of the story."

Your Iron Crowbar: "Jack's brother was found dead about a month after another incident that got an FBI Agent killed, which was blamed on Jack's brother. The case was never solved, and it was attributed to a Mob pro hit. And that's the gist of what I know." (Author's note: 'Dark Side of the Force', Ch. 05.)

"So why the secrecy about it?" Karina asked. "Why won't Jack nor anyone else speak of it?"

"You're a Detective, and a good one." I replied. "Connect those dots."

"And say no more of it." Melina admonished.

"Okay." said Karina. "So what's our play?"

"We don't have one." I said. "We're just sitting and waiting to see what's going on. I've heard they're coming after Teresa, and they better come correct or I will be all over them like a wet blanket. And I'm ready to help Jack to the extent I can, as well."

Karina nodded. "Well, I don't have much to add to what you already know. The OPR office opened an investigation and handed it off to the dirty Rovers BAU. They haven't done anything so far, but that may be because they're in the doghouse after destroying Commander Troy's home last month."

"You have a different idea, Don?" Melina said, and correctly reading the expression on my face.

"Ehhhhh, I'm just not liking it." I said. "I'm sure they're up to something, but what it is, I don't know."

Our food had arrived, and as we ate Karina asked "So... is Tanya taking Jack's surname? Or keeping her own like your wife did and Teresa Croyle did?"

I replied: "She's taking his name. She'll be 'Tanya Muscone' after the wedding. But Jack is not formally adopting Pete, just assuming guardianship of him, so Pete will still be 'Pete Feeley'."

"Was that Tanya's idea?" asked Melina.

"No, it was Pete's decision." I said. "However, I understand that a six-year-old girl that was not minding her own business advised Pete to keep the 'Feeley' name."

"Wow." Melina said. "I'll bet Laura went ballistic about that. But why did Carole tell Pete that?"

I said "No, Laura just told me to handle it. She and I have a deal about Carole over things like that. As to the 'why' of it, I don't know, and all Carole would say is 'I don't know why, but I know it's the right thing to do.' And that was the last word on the subject... the subject..."

I was in a reverie. When I finally came out of it, I saw Karina watching me, and Melina eating but glancing over at me with a knowing look on her lovely face.

"And that, Karina," Melina said, "was a world-famous Iron Crowbar reverie. It usually leads to perps being arrested."

"And I think it's going to this time, also." I said. But no more would I say about it.

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

After lunch, Melina said "Don, can I get a ride with you? I have a family issue I have to ask you about." She had come with Karina, so we made our goodbyes with her, and Melina sat in the shotgun seat of my Police SUV while I drove.