Private Practice Ch. 02

"Oh, that was the 9mmP Sig Sauer in his hand when he died, sir." said Taylor. "And it was 9mmP rounds from the same firearm that we pulled out of Officer Buchannan's armored vest."

"Okay, thanks." I said. After disconnecting, I called Captain Michaels and asked to her to assemble the MCD and Vice Detectives, as well as representatives from Intel for a 10:30am meeting in Classroom 'E'.

As I left my office, I turned and stepped inside Tanya's office. "How did the autopsies go?" I asked.

"Routine." Tanya said. "We-elll, I shouldn't say that. Martha had Kendell Ramsey assisting her, and getting good training from her. He's promising, young but promising."

I said "How did Martha look? In good health?"

"Uh, yeah." Tanya said, taken aback by the question. "At least I didn't notice anything strange about her. Why?"

"She hired a new guy to go into the field in her place." I said. "She didn't come over to give her report; instead, she just sent an email. Soooo, I'm wondering why she is avoiding me."

"Admit it, you're missing her." Tanya said with her cherubic grin and twinkling eyes.

"I admit it." I said, then got serious and said: "And I really would miss her expertise in our morgue if she retires... or worse..."

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

10:30am, Tuesday, August 24th. The large assemblage of Detectives stood as I came into Classroom 'E', followed by Lt. Commander Teresa Croyle. "Carry on, take your seats please." I said, then walked to 'my' chair at the center of the long table, facing the 5x4' matrix of monitors on the wall.

"Did everyone get the autopsy and ballistics reports?" I asked. Some of the Vice Detectives had not, so Teresa forwarded those reports to them as I said "First of all, Officer Buchannan is going to be fine, and he'll be released from the hospital today, if he hasn't already been. Chaplain Romano is on Restricted Duty, but is at work now looking at Dr. Frost's client records."

"Good. We need them." said Lt. Mary Milton. "We have almost no data to look at, so far."

"That can't be true." I said. "Did y'all look for video footage of vehicles in the vicinity of Dr. Frost's home?"

"Yes sir." said Mary. "The townhouses are high-end, but it's not gated, and there's no formal HOA. The closest cameras are the Heritage Cloisters entrance gate and the intersection of the street with the main road feeding into that area. Some of the houses have cameras in their doorbells or overlooking their driveways and front yards, but we'd either have to go house-to-house and ask for footage they likely no longer have; -orrrr- for those houses monitored by external security, we'd have to get warrants to compel them to share with us."

"And that's a (air quotes) 'fishing expedition', and unlikely to succeed." I lamented. "Mr. Roark, did any of the neighbors see anything unusual?"

"Nothing unusual was reported, sir." said Roark Coleman. "One neighbor said he was pulling out of his driveway late Saturday morning, and fell in behind Peter Frost's vehicle, which also had just pulled out. Other than that, nothing."

"Okay, good work." I said. "So, Lieutenant Milton... what do you have?" I asked.

Mary: "We did get Dr. Frost's personal and business tax records. They look perfectly normal, according to Lieutenant Purvis. But there was one thing that struck both of us: Dr. Frost's insurance premiums went up. Way up. After the State dropped him as a consulting psychologist, they went up some. And then he had several complaints against him by former patients, which were withdrawn. While those records are sealed, his previous insurance company, Allen & Allen, dropped him. BigLiabilityInsurance picked him up, but are... were... charging him much higher rates."

Teresa said, and a bit cattily, "Tell everyone who BigLiabilityInsurance is."

Mary smiled in understanding, and said "They are under the umbrella of BigBenefitInsurance's amalgam of companies. BigLiabilityInsurance covers lawyers, doctors, and their ilk with liability insurance."

Teresa said "So BigBenefitInsurance or their subsidiary BigHealthBenefit, covers patients that may have been harmed by a doctor, while their brothers of BigLiabilityInsurance insure the doctors as well as the lawyers on both sides of the subsequent lawsuit. Am I the only one that sees potential issues with that?"

I said "No, you are not. But let's circle back to the beginning. Tell me about Peter Frost."

Mary said "Sorry for getting off track, sir. Peter Frost was 37 years old when he died over the weekend. He received his Psy.D. degree from State U., the Wildcats's in-State rival, and has taken some continuing education courses with Dr. Laura Fredricson's Psychology Department at our University here."

Mary: "And by the way, sir, why can't Dr. Fredricson be helping Father Romano with the data? She's a psychiatrist as well as having one of the highest clearances in all of the Nation. If she can't be trusted, who can be?"

I replied: "The lawyers don't think much of her husband." Everyone chucked, knowing that Your Iron Crowbar was Dr. Fredricson's loving husband. "Keep going." I said.

Mary: "When we were looking at the Locklear case, we found out about those complaints made against Dr. Frost that were withdrawn. I asked Father Romano to look at those sealed complaints, and see if the Judge will give us the names of those making the complaints as well as the nature of the complaints."

Mary: "Also, Dr. Frost has no arrests, but had three speeding tickets over time. He contested all three tickets in Court, even hired a lawyer in one of the cases, citing that the Police Officer in the case was stalking him, then pulled him over for speeding when he was driving under the speed limit. He lost that case as well as the other two."

"Who was the Officer in that case?" Teresa asked.

Mary said "Roger Hunt. He's actually a Deputy Sheriff, and it's not all that common for Deputies to issue tickets, though they can. So I pulled the ticket and the relevant data, and it says Frost went through a school zone ten miles per hour over the speed limit. And Deputies do give out tickets around school zones. Dr. Frost said in Court that he never was in the school zone Hunt said he was, that he was pulled over on a street well away from the one listed on the ticket, and the time was different."

Mary: "But Frost's GPS wasn't working, while Hunt's GPS in his Sheriff Department vehicle backed up what was on the ticket. Frost was convicted by the Jury he requested for the trial. Because of the Court costs, what would've been a $400 ticket ended up being $2200, and that doesn't include whatever his lawyer charged him."

"When was all that?" I asked.

"Two years ago." Mary said.

I asked "Is Deputy Hunt married?"

Mary checked her papers, then said "He's divorced, sir... oh wow... the divorce was finalized one month before Deputy Hunt issued Frost that ticket."

I said "Find out his wife's name, and give both their names to Father Romano to see if he can find anything showing they were clients of Dr. Frost." That started some murmurs, which I squelched by saying "Anything else of interest that you've found?"

"No sir." said Mary.

"What about Frost's assistant, Denise?" I asked.

Mary: "She's 28 years old, never been married, totally clean sheet, no debts, good credit record. Her parents moved here from Sacramento, California 14 years ago, and Denise was enrolled in County High School in 9th grade at that time. After she graduated County High, she went back to Sacramento for two years. I know that because she got a California drivers license the summer after she graduated County High, but she had no Federal or State tax records nor records of employment at all for the two years she was there."

Mary: "She came back here again, and enrolled at Town Technical Institute. She got her Associates Degree as a paralegal from TTI two years later, six years ago from now. She worked two years for Lowe, Ball & Lynch, who are Peter Frost's attorneys. Employment records said she resigned from their employ, and it was right at the time she applied for and obtained a concealed carry permit, which was about two months before being hired by Peter Frost. But the Federal BATFE has no record of her ever buying a firearm."

I said "She's a single, pretty young woman, so it's not surprising she might apply to carry for her personal safety. I'm surprised she didn't follow through and buy a weapon, though. Anything else on her?"

Lt. Joanne Warner piped up: "Sir, this might be a good time to mention this. Last night I took supper to Father Romano, Denise, and the Officers there. When I was about to leave, Denise asked me if I could give her a ride home. Michael Bertram said he could drive her, and she turned to me and said "Please?", as if she were desperate to not have to ride with Bertram."

Joanne: "So I gave her the ride home. I tried to ask her about Peter, but she said the lawyers kept drilling it into her that she couldn't talk about him to the Police, so I let it go. But she did say she appreciated me giving her a ride, because she couldn't stand Michael Bertram, and wouldn't feel safe being alone with him nor his associates in a car, a room, nor anywhere else."

Joanne: "I asked her if she felt threatened by them, and she said not violently, but (air quotes) 'as a woman' she did not want to be around them. She said she felt the same way about Gale Gaston, that they were both 'lecherous snakes' and that's a direct quote."

I said "Interesting. Did she say anything else?"

"Not really, sir." Joanne said. "We were arriving at her apartment complex. I told her that if she had any problems with them to give me a call, and I gave her my card. I watched to make sure she went inside, then I drove on home."

"Okay, that's good information to know." I said. "Mary, do you have anything on Michael Bertram and/or Gale Gaston?"

Mary said "A little bit, sir. Gale Gaston has been with Lowe, Ball & Lynch for ten years, and is a junior partner in the firm. I contacted a reliable confidential source that told me that Gaston is very expensive to hire or retain, but he does a very good job protecting clients if and when they have any problems with anyone, including the Law."

Mary: "Michael Bertram has been with the firm for six years, and is not a partner but a salaried employee. He has his law degree, but he's also has had a private investigator license for twelve years, which is still active; he's kept it current. He's basically worked at Gaston's sidekick since he was hired by Lowe, Ball & Lynch. The work must be dangerous; he was in the hospital four years ago, but I don't know for what; we'll have to get a warrant to get that information."

I said "Don't, at least not yet. Just leave that to me."

Roark Coleman said: "Sir, I'm surprised that Gaston had the servers in his car; that sounds like something Bertram would more likely do."

I said "Good thought, but in this case I can see why we found it the way it was. Any financial issues with either of those guys?"

Mary: "Just that Gaston has a number of properties, including one in the Lake Amengi-Nunagen area, one on Lake Weiss in northeast Alabama, and one in the Lake Tahoe area. It might be interesting to follow the money trail that leads to purchasing those properties, but so far we've seen nothing illegal."

Mary: "Okay, on to the perp that wounded Officer Buchannan and tried to kill Father Romano. His name is Joey Mendon, and he's known as 'Big Boy' on the Streets, probably because he's all of 5'3" tall, slender, and weighed 140 pounds soaking wet, and they like to give nicknames that are opposite of reality."

Mary: "'Big Boy' has a long sheet of petty thefts, simple assaults, and is believed to work as enforcement for pimps and maybe mobsters. He was arrested for beating the crap out of a prostitute, and another working girl filed a Police report that he raped her. Those cases fell through for lack of evidence as well as witnesses recanting or disappearing. However, 'Big Boy' has never been accused nor even suspected as being involved in contract murder-for-hire."

I said "That's because he was pretty damn good at it, if I don't miss my guess. But he was the hired help, so let's pivot to who is behind these murders, and who actually shot Dr. Frost."

Detective Roark Coleman spoke up: "Sir, you don't think this 'Big Boy' shot Dr, Frost?"

I said "Mendon brought a nine millimeter to the party for Father Romano, but Dr. Frost was shot with a.25 caliber firearm. I'm not seeing why he'd not use the more powerful nine millimeter to kill Frost, too."

Teresa said "But there is something circumstantial that shows we can't rule him out." She got up and said "If you'll stand up next to me, I'll demonstrate." As I stood up, Teresa said "Commander Troy is six-foot-four, and I'm five-foot-six if I'm not wearing heels, and not much taller if I was."

She made her right hand point the index finger out and thumb up in the well-known 'gun' sign, then said "If we're at close contact, and I bring a gun to my belly area and press it against the Commander's ripped abs..."

There was laughter at that as I rolled my eyes, then Teresa continued: "A bullet would bounce off the Iron Crowbar like he was Superman, of course. But you all can see that it's likely a fired bullet would go upwards from Peter Frost's abdomen up into the chest. Peter was 6-feet-tall exactly, and that dead punk was shorter than me."

As we sat back down, Teresa finished up: "Having said that, I agree with Commander Troy that a.25 cal would not be Big Boy's weapon of choice. He'd want to use the more powerful nine millimeter, and from a little further away."

Roark Coleman said "Unless he was demanding Dr. Frost turn over something to him, and Dr. Frost rushed him to try to get the gun away from him."

I said "Everything you say is possible, Mr. Roark, but not likely. If Frost rushed his assailant, either he gets shot from a distance further away, the wound channel is not upwards, or he gets hit somewhere else on his body. No, I think we are fairly safe is saying that the small caliber firearm was pressed to him at close range and the trigger pulled for both the body shot and the shot to the head."

I then said "Okay, let's talk motive, means, and opportunity; and try to figure out who might've wanted to kill Dr. Frost, and why. Who wants to go first?"

Captain Claire Michaels said "With all due respect, sir... isn't it obvious? Someone was trying to stop Peter Frost from revealing something, and was trying to keep Father Romano from finding something damaging."

I said "Ye-es, that's fairly obvious, but let's get a lot more granular about it."

Roark Coleman: "This has to be related to the Locklear trial, doesn't it, sir? If Dr. Frost is dead, he can't testify against the Prosecution on behalf of Stanley Locklear."

Joanne Warner said "He can't testify for the Prosecution and put Stanley Locklear on Death Row, either."

I said "But you agree that it's about the Locklear trial?" Joanne nodded, and I said "So what if I tell you that the attack on Father Romano shows me that Frost's murder was not related to the Locklear trial?"

It got dead quiet in the room, and I could see that I was not being followed, and more importantly, why not. I said "Since most of you have not seen both crime scenes nor have all the details, allow me to make some observations." Everyone nodded most very vigorously in agreement.

I began: "First, let's look at who has tried to impede our access to the records: Frost's attorneys Gaston and Bertram, ADA Savannah Fineman, and Marla Locklear's attorney Nadine Hall... who dropped Marla as a client, by the way. So we'll exclude her, for the moment anyway."

Me: "Fineman's reasons, and Marla Locklear's, have to do with the Stanley Locklear trial. Fineman has also done some potentially unethical things, like trying to sneak Frost in as a last-second witness, and Stanley Locklear's attorney Michael McGill has been all over that. But we can also surmise that Fineman did not want Peter Frost dead. She wanted him as a witness for the Prosecution."

Me: "Sooo, what about the lawyers, Gaston and Bertram? They even took two of Frost's servers out of the crime scene in an attempt to hide the data from us. They're obviously trying to protect that data, and trying to hide something from us. And I'm asking myself what lengths they might go to in order to protect that data."

Claire: "I dunno, sir. Protecting their client by killing him seems a bit extreme... and he can't keep paying them if he's dead."

Lt. Jerome Davis said " But they're still fighting hard to keep those records sealed, even after Frost's murder. Commander, are you trying to suggest that maybe those lawyers are working for someone else's interests instead of Dr. Frost's? And it might benefit that client for Dr. Frost to come over all dead?"

"Ahhhhh, there you go." I said. "Somebody wants that data suppressed."

Joanne: "Sir, all that doesn't exonerate Stanley Locklear nor his attorney. If Peter Frost were alive, we would not even have Father Romano looking at the privileged data. Dr. Frost's death gets Stanley Locklear closer to getting Marla's files released."

Roark Coleman: "But that could happen anyway. Mr. McGill intended to start the Special Master process, and we'd be exactly where we are right now, except that Peter Frost is alive."

Joanne turned on Roark and said: "How do you know Mr. McGill was going to start the Special Master process?" The room grew quiet as they realized fully what Roark had said.

"Yes, how did you know that, Detective Coleman?" Claire Michaels said.

"Because *I* told him." I said, rescuing Roark. "Let it go, and say no more about it, to him or to me. Okay, let's get back on the right track. There was something else I observed at the crime scene: there were wires for four servers in Frost's office, but we only recovered two from Gaston's vehicle, and none from Bertram's. So we are missing two servers."

"Additionally," I said, "Dr. Frost had a videocamera at home, which could be hooked up to a computer or memory storage device like a server, but no computer nor storage device was found. So that's out there."

Me: "Last but not least, we are searching for a.25 caliber handgun. Most likely a Beretta 25, though it could be Walther or another brand. I need y'all to visit gun shops to see if anyone bought.25 ACP ammo recently, not to mention a.25 ACP handgun. Check with local pawn shops, as well. And I need Intel to hit the ATF databases to see who has bought a.25 caliber firearm in the past 30 years, and give those names to Father Romano, to see if they match up with any names in the files that only he can see."

"Lieutenant Davis," I finished up, "it's not for me to tell you how to run your MCD Division, but I do observe that there are certain Detectives who want to follow certain paths, here. Make your assignments accordingly. Y'all stay seated, and carry on. Commander Croyle, you're with me."

And with that, Teresa and I left the room...

Part 9 - Trials And Errors

12:00 high noon, Tuesday, August 24th. Sheriff Griswold invited me and Teresa to lunch with him and Cindy at the Cop Bar, and of course we accepted. As we were driving there, Teresa said "Mr. Roark gave himself away there, didn't he?"

"A little bit." I replied. "He's been in contact with Michael McGill, trying to help Stanley Locklear's case. And sometimes Roark has been my messenger and liaison to McGill, as well."

Teresa said "Well, I have to say this about that: you know as well as I do that Joanne and Roark don't like each other very much. And they're on opposite sides of the Locklear case, which is exacerbating the animosity. Don't ask me how I know this, but Joanne is spitting mad that she can't talk to Savannah Fineman about the Locklear case, but Roark can talk to Michael McGill, and apparently has."