Private Practice Ch. 02

"Yes sir." said Hunt. "I heard his name on the news, and it sounded familiar. So I looked up the case and re-read the Police report."

"Good." I said. "Deputy, did you and your wife use Dr. Frost as a marriage counselor?"

Deputy Hunt nodded, as if he was understanding what was really going on. He said "Commander Troy, you have a reputation as a straight shooter. So before I ask for a Union Rep and a lawyer, tell me if I can get some sort of immunity under which I can answer your questions truthfully."

I said "I appreciate your trust in me. And we could go that route, but it's messy and time-consuming. What we can do is for you to make a (air quotes) 'hypothetical' statement, or answer my hypothetical questions with hypothetical answers."

As Hunt considered it, Sheriff Griswold said "Deputy Hunt, you've had a good career with the Sheriff's Department, and no blemishes. And that is why Commander Troy is offering to let you speak hypothetically. It won't leave this room and it won't hurt your career, as long as you're totally truthful with us."

"Okay, sir." Hunt said. He took in a breath and said "Yes sir. My wife and I were trying to save our marriage at the time. Frost was recommended to us, so we went to him, and he took us on as clients. He was really expensive, though, and he wasn't all that helpful. I wanted to find another counselor, but my wife wouldn't hear of it. And that's when I first suspected something was going on... between my wife and Frost."

Hunt: "I'm nowhere near the Detective you are, Commander, but I'm not the dumbest rock in the box, either. I hired a P.I., and he got the proof quickly enough. Photos of them having sex, as well as audio recordings of their conversations. So I confronted my wife. She admitted that Frost had asked her for a date and then seduced her, and they were going to be together after the divorce."

Hunt: "Well, we did divorce, and due to her infidelity she didn't get anything out of it. But during the proceedings, Frost testified that he thought I was being physically abusive towards my wife, which was not true, and she said so herself. After the divorce my wife was going to break it off with him, but he was bothering her, maybe even stalking her."

Hunt: "So... hypothetically I followed him around, and when he went through a school zone, I pulled him over. I wrote him up a ticket, and hypothetically I might have told him that if he kept pestering my wife, he was likely to get a lot more tickets... if not worse: hypothetically someone might find a bag of cocaine in his car after a dog alerted after his next traffic stop."

Hunt: "Hypothetically, I just wanted to scare him, make him leave my ex-wife alone. And after he lost badly in Court contesting the ticket, and then saw either me or other Deputies helping me out by following him around, he got the message and left my her alone. Not that it did me any good; I'd lost my wife."

"Did you have any contact with Frost after that?" I asked.

"No sir." said Hunt. "We stopped fooling with him after I was sure he was leaving my ex-wife alone."

"Where were you this past weekend, especially Saturday?" I asked.

"I was at a party for Deputy Coleman's birthday on Saturday." said Hunt. "We watched the Braves-Cardinals doubleheader, then cooked hamburgers on the grill."

"All right, then." I said. "Deputy, I'm sure you understand that using your law enforcement position to mess with Citizens is not the right thing to do. I've heard that the Sheriff is looking to implement a new policy, where physically large men like yourself will be transferred to work at County Jail, where you can and will intimidate unruly prisoners until you get enough years to retire and get your pension."

Me: "So... no more patrol duties, no more Courthouse duties, except perhaps transporting prisoners. I suspect the Sheriff will very quietly make that happen, and no one will have to know of any blemishes that are written in invisible ink upon your record."

"You have read my mind, Crowbar." growled the Sheriff. "Deputy Hunt, as the Bible says: go, and sin no more."

"Yes, Sheriff. Thank you. Thank you, Commanders." said Hunt, who realized he'd been very leniently dealt with. He got up and exited the room.

"Wow." Teresa said. "Christmas in August. You really let him off easy. So you believe him?"

I replied: "We can check up behind him with the other Deputies at the party, and with his ex-wife if we really need to. But the problem is that we can't use anything he just talked about in Court. Especially since Frost's version of events surrounding the ticket are the true ones."

"Whaa?" gasped the Sheriff.

I said "Hunt is right about one thing: he's not the dumbest rock in the box. What he did was pull Frost over and issue him the ticket. And then he went to a school zone, parked himself, radioed in Frost's car tag, then waited several minutes and pulled away, so that it was recorded on his GPS. He set Frost up for a heavy ticket. Frost fought the Law, and the Law won on that one."

Teresa said "Are we going to talk to his wife? And if she can help, can we give Michael McGill her name?"

"Ahhh, you anticipate me, my dear Iron Wolf." I said. "You anticipate me..."

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

"Who's next?" Teresa asked as we got into my Police SUV and drove away from County Jail. "And why can't the Detectives be making these inquiries?"

I replied: "Because with all due respect to them, they don't know enough about the details of the case. And also because we cannot have any false steps with this if we want to help Stanley Locklear in his upcoming death penalty trial. As to our next step... we're going to see Dr. Ted Maris...

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

It was not hard getting Dr. Maris to meet with us. Dr. Laura Fredricson phoned him and 'invited' him to come to the Hospital Boardroom at University Hospital. It was not hard securing the Boardroom for our use. Lt. Commander Teresa Croyle was a Hospital Board Member.

Dr. Maris was average height, about 5'7" tall. He was of average build, and had an average face under his black hair. If he squinted his eyes, they became piercing, and we were receiving that piercing look as he came into the Boardroom. His personality was a 'quietness' that was not all that common among doctors, but was by no means a negative against him.

"Have a seat, please, Dr. Maris." I said when he came in. The window drapes were drawn, nullifying the lighting effect; nevertheless, Teresa and I were sitting with our backs to the window, and Dr. Maris took a seat facing the window, and us.

"Dr. Fredricson said you wanted to talk to me." said Dr. Maris. "What's it about?"

"I know you're busy, so I'll get right to it." I replied. "Do you know a man named Peter Frost?"

Maris's face fell slightly. He said "Oh, so that's what it is. I heard about his death on the news. What do you want to know?"

I said "First, for your protection as well as ours, I'm going to read you your rights." I did so from the card, and Dr. Maris said he understood the rights.

I said "We know that your wife was a client of Dr. Frost. We also know that Dr. Frost attempted to obtain a Restraining Order against you, then withdrew it. Why did he seek that Restraining Order? And why did he withdraw it?"

Dr. Maris said "Some months ago... almost a year, now... my wife was having some issues. She was becoming increasingly unhappy with our marriage, but also her life beyond that. Upon the advice of a friend of hers, she began seeing Dr. Frost. Without my knowledge. She didn't go to Dr. Fredricson because she was afraid that Dr. Fredricson might say something to me."

Maris: "I found out pretty quickly that my wife had begun having a sexual affair with a young man. When I confronted her with the evidence I'd obtained from a Private Investigator, she broke down and told me what had happened. She'd been considering having a sexual affair... and Peter Frost encouraged her to do it, to find a man and have the affair."

Maris: "My wife said it didn't help; in fact, it made her feel much worse. And she stopped going to Frost and paying his enormous fees. I suggested that we go to Dr. Fredricson together, to work things out, but something got in the way. You see, the young man my wife had a sexual relationship was named Carl Ryder. And he was murdered right about that time, and the Media was making accusations against Dr. Fredricson with regards to that crime." (Author's note: 'The Babymaker')

I nodded, then said "So why the Restraining Order?"

Maris: "I may get in trouble for this, but when my wife admitted that she'd had the affair based upon Frost's advice, I went to visit him. I went through the door of his office, pushed him against the wall, and punched him in the belly as hard as I could. He doubled over, and I told him that that had been for him telling my wife to have an affair. After I left, he had his attorney ask for a Restraining Order against me, but after my wife threatened to publicize his advice to her, he had it withdrawn."

I said "Did your wife have sex with Dr. Frost himself?"

Dr. Maris said "She said she didn't, that she only had sex with Carl Ryder. And I really don't have any reason to not believe her on that."

"Where were you this past weekend?" I asked. "Particularly Saturday?"

"At home, with my wife." said Dr. Maris. "We'd both had a long week, so we slept in and then lounged around the house, not doing much of anything."

"Can anyone vouch for that?" I asked.

Maris looked a bit irritated as he said "The cleaning service came in late that morning... 10:00am to about noon. Other than that, we were alone..."

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

As we got back into my Police SUV, Teresa said "He showed violence towards Frost in the past, and he has no alibi for Saturday, except his wife. And maybe he hires someone to kill Father Romano to keep his wife's issues and his incident with Frost covered up."

"Yet he readily told us all that when he could've clammed up." I replied. "And while his wife is no good as a formal alibi, we can still talk to her and see if she corroborates what he said---"

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

It was my Police iPhone, and Teresa answered for me. After a moment she disconnected then said "That was Lieutenant Mary Milton. She said she ran the data on the names Father Romano gave us as well as the other information you requested, and she's found something."

"Good." I said. "That gives us an excuse to go back to Headquarters instead of chasing Mario Marchiano and his family across the northern half of the State..."

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

When we got back to Police Headquarters, we went to my office. Once there, I called Lt. Mary Milton to come see us.

"I honestly don't know how you do it, sir." Mary said as she handed me a folder with several sheets of data. "You were right, though. It's all there."

I perused the data and then handed the folder to Teresa. As the Iron Wolf examined the data, Mary said "Do you want me to call Judge Doss and get a warrant?"

"No." I said. "I'm sure she'll tell us we have to go to Judge Folsom himself, since this involves Peter Frost. And second... I probably should make this warrant request to him personally, so I can explain everything."

"Why don't you rehearse on me." Teresa said.

I said "We need the warrant to execute a search to find the corroborating evidence we need. Hopefully, we will find the missing servers, memory data for Frost's home camera, and the weapon that murdered him."

"Sooo..." Teresa said.

"Yes." I confirmed. "I know who murdered Dr. Peter Frost..."

To be continued.

Dear Readers, you have sufficient clues to solve this case. Who murdered Dr. Peter Frost?