Private Practice Ch. 03

This story is part of an ongoing series. The chronological order of my stories is listed in WifeWatchman's biography.

Feedback and constructive criticism is very much appreciated, and I encourage feedback for ideas.

This story contains graphic scenes, language and actions that might be extremely offensive to some people. These scenes, words and actions are used only for the literary purposes of this story. The author does not condone murder, racism, racial language, violence, rape or violence against women, and any depictions of any of these in this story should not be construed as acceptance of the above.

There may or may not be discussion of political issues in my stories. If you are a Snowflake that feels you need to be protected from any mention of politics, then click the Back button now, and never attempt to read any of my stories ever again. You've been warned.

***

Part 13 - Evidence of a Crrrime

1:00pm, Thursday, August 26th. Lt. Commander Teresa Croyle, Assistant District Attorney Paulina Patterson, and I were sitting in the Chambers of Superior Court Judge Patrick R. Folsom.

"So, Commander," said Judge Folsom as he reviewed my very thorough and well-documented application for a search warrant, "it's not about the Locklear case, after all, is it?" His voice seemed to have a tinge of triumph to it.

"I can't say that for certain, Your Honor." I replied. "The engagement ring we found in Dr. Frost's home with the inscription for Marla could well be part of the motive, if not all of it."

"That's true, that's true." Judge Folsom said, as much to himself as to me, and with a bit more humility in his voice. "Well, you are very specific in what you are looking for in your search. The two missing servers, a memory storage device for a home videocamera, and the murder weapon... a Beretta.25 caliber pistol. And your links in the chain for means and opportunity are strong enough. Okay, then, the warrant is granted."

He signed the paperwork, which Teresa wasted no time in personally taking to the offices to get printed up. I knew she'd also be making the phone calls to set into motion the execution of the warrant.

"I must commend you, Commander Troy." said Judge Folsom "You've put together a very good case in spite of the legal hurdles and obstacles in front of you. I'm impressed, I truly am."

"Thank you, Your Honor." I said. "It was a Team effort." Folsom and Paulina looked at each other, and I could just hear them channeling Sheriff Griswold's opinion of my modesty...

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

1:20pm, Thursday, August 26th. Dr. Peter Frost's assistant Denise was ushered into Father Romano's temporary office by Lt. Joanne Warner, who had picked her up at her apartment. "Thank you for coming, Denise." said Father Romano. "We may have a break in the case, and I need your help to find some files."

"Sure, Father." Denise said. "What are we looking for?"

Father Romano said "You had told the Police that someone had accosted and assaulted Dr. Frost last year. We found out who it was, or at least who we think it was. His name is Dr. Ted Maris. His wife was a client of Dr. Frost. What we are looking for are the files and any videotaped sessions with Mrs. Maris, that will confirm the possible motive for Dr. Maris's actions?"

"Oh yes, I remember him now." Denise said. She sat down in the chair next to Chaplain Romano and began searching through the files...

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

2:05pm. Lt. Jerome Davis came to my office. "K'plaa, sir. We found the two servers, Dr. Frost's home and office computers, and a memory storage device. They were concealed pretty well in the air conditioning vent. And we found the Beretta in the bedside drawer. Same serial number as the one you put on the warrant. We've sent it to Ballistics, and Jody Taylor dropped everything else to expedite it."

"Okay, then." I said. "That's excellent work. How did Roark do at the scene?"

"Very good, sir." said Jerome. "He's the one who noticed the flecks of drywall on the carpet beneath the A/C vent, and had the CSI's look there while being videotaped."

"Good." I said. "Sit down, if you will. Let's discuss the future of our MCD, Vice, and Intel units..."

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

At 3:00pm even, the phone call came in. "Commander, this is Commander Croyle. I'm with Jody Taylor in the Ballistics Lab at the Crime Lab Building. He's just confirmed that the Beretta recovered today is the murder weapon. I'm leaving for the Courthouse now to get an arrest warrant."

"Be faster than a speeding bullet." I quipped.

"That's what she said. Not." Teresa replied before disconnecting, leaving me laughing out loud...

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

3:15pm, Thursday, August 26th. Denise told Father Romano "Those two video files are the only two I can find of the sessions with Mrs. Maris, but I know she had a lot more sessions with him. Maybe those videos are on the missing servers."

"That's very possible." said Captain Romano. Just then there was a knock on the door, which opened to reveal Lt. Commander Teresa Croyle and Lieutenant Joanne Warner.

"Denise, please stand up." Teresa said. As Denise did, Teresa held up a folded document as she said "This is a warrant for your arrest, for the murder of Dr. Peter Frost, a human being." As Joanne frisked Denise then handcuffed her, Teresa began the recitation: "You have the right to remain silent..."

Part 14 - The Little Things

3:30pm. In the Main Conference Room were Sheriff Antonio Griswold, Police Chief Sean Moynahan, Deputy Chief Tanya P. Muscone, and District Attorney Miriam Walters, watching on the wall-mounted monitor. In the Monitor Room were Chief Deputy Sheriff Cindy Ross and Police Lt. Commander Teresa Croyle, as well as attorney Nadine Hall.

Nadine had been called by Denise, but sent her partner in the women's law firm of Dewey, Burnham & Winn, Tina Felton, to sit with Denise, citing potential conflict of interest for Nadine personally, as she'd been Marla Locklear's attorney.

In the full Classroom 'E' were Captain Claire Michaels, her Lieutenants Three, and almost everyone in the Detective Corps. They were agog at what had transpired in the last several minutes, and could not wait to hear their Police Commander explain this one.

I entered Interrogation-1 with a box in my hands, and saw Denise sitting at the table, wearing the stylish orange prison suit that was the required fashion of my jails. Next to her was her attorney, Tina Felton. Coming in behind me was Assistant District Attorney... Paulina Patterson. Neither she nor I had asked D.A. Walters; I called Paulina, and she came in. And so far, Miriam Walters had not uttered one word of protest nor backtalk.

I sat down at the table across from Denise, with Paulina to my left and Tina Felton to Denise's right. Denise's lovely face was a mixture of shock, sorrow... and acute awareness, as if looking for a loophole to escape the mess she was in. Unfortunately for her, it was Your Iron Crowbar she was dealing with. There were no loopholes.

I read Denise her rights from the card, and she nodded that she understood. I reached down into the box and pulled out from the box a plastic evidence bag that contained a Beretta 25 pistol, and placed it on the table. I handed Tina Felton a copy of the ballistics report as Denise stared at the gun as if it were alive and might move of its own accord.

"It's the same gun, Denise." I said. "Ballistics has matched this weapon, that we found in your apartment, to the bullets recovered from the body of Dr. Peter Frost. And we found the two missing servers, as well as the memory box from Dr. Frost's home camera hidden in the walls of your apartment."

Tina Felton said "And how are you going to show that that is my client's gun? And upon exactly what evidence did you somehow obtain a warrant to search my client's home?"

I said "I showed Judge Folsom several pieces of evidence as well as a sequence of 'strangenesses' we've found over the last few days. For example, you, Denise, acquired a concealed carry permit... but you never bought a gun. It is somewhat strange for someone, especially a woman, to acquire a permit to carry but not buy a weapon to carry."

Me: "And the 'Occam's Razor' simplest explanation for that... is that you already had a weapon. Where did it come from? I deduced that from the records we have of your past. You graduated County High School here, then moved back to Sacramento, California for two years... but had no employment record and no tax returns for that time. And that's because you went home to take care of your grandfather, who was slowly dying of Alzheimer's as well as heart disease."

Me: "He was your mother's father, so he did not have the same last name that you and your parents do. So the name on his Federal and California gun purchase forms didn't match up to your name, and we had to get your mother's maiden name to search for his name. And that's what I had my Intel Branch Lieutenant do, and she found the California-required registration of his Beretta 25 handgun, serial number and all. And it's the same serial number as this gun right here, whose ballistics match the bullets that killed Peter Frost."

"That's nothing." said Tina Felton.

"And that is not even a good try, Ms. Felton." I said. "Shall I continue?" I did so, anyway: "When your grandfather died, Denise, whatever things he had left went to your parents or to you. But I suspected that you kept the gun. Maybe he gave it to you for your self-protection, or you just found it after he died and kept it."

Me: "Since you left the People's Republic of California and their onerous anti-gun-rights laws, and moved back here where we respect the Second Amendment, you didn't have to register the weapon. But I now had a link... between a.25 caliber handgun and someone closely associated with Peter Frost."

"And you thought of all that clear out of the blue, and used it to obtain a warrant?" Tina Felton said, trying to put incredulity into her voice.

"Not clear out of the blue."I said. "Your client left a trail of small (air quotes) 'strangenesses', each of them no big deal in their own right, but when put together formed quite the little pattern."

I turned to Denise and said "You told both Lieutenant Warner and me that the alarm was set when you came in, and you deactivated it. I have a device that could check that on the spot, and I did so... and found that you were telling the truth, that the alarm was deactivated that morning. The problem is that I would not expect whoever killed Peter Frost on Saturday afternoon to set the alarm on the way out."

I explained: "The alarm was deactivated when Peter came into the office Saturday. But how did it get RE-activated? Someone else who was there... very most likely Frost's killer... reactivated it. Why do that? It didn't make sense. And then I realized that whoever reset it did so for one of two reasons: to protect the two servers and the files that were left in the office after two others were removed; -or- out of sheer force of habit. I suspect the latter, but now that I've said the former, you'll probably claim that to be the case."

"My client is not claiming anything." Tina Felton said. "So stop trying to put words in her mouth and ideas in her head."

Me: "And I'm not trying to. But there's more. By rights, the perp should have removed all the servers. But you didn't, and I'll come back to that later. When you came in Monday, you got on your computer, got the emails and the appointment list, which showed me that there were servers in use. So when we didn't find them, that's how I knew they'd been removed that morning. And that is how I knew you were not telling the truth about the timeline of finding the body, that you called the lawyers first, and one of them removed the servers. Again, I am digressing, and I will come back to that in a moment."

Me: "So I also considered how Peter Frost's Audi got back to his home. Obviously he drove it to the office on Saturday, and it was likely the killer drove his own car to his place in order to find and remove other servers and memory devices that might have incriminating information."

Me: "One thing my Vice Detectives will tell you is that thieves who steal a car often drive it to the home of the victim and burgle it. The registration and insurance cards often have the car owner's address and personal information on it. Neighbors will not notice anything particularly wrong about that owner's car pulling into that owner's house's garage. And that's why it's a good idea to not have anything with your address in your car. Keep the info in your wallet or something."

(Author's note: Are you feeling me on this, Readers?)

Me: "Soooo, neighbors might not think anything of Peter's Audi toodling up the road and into his home's garage. But the killer took several items out of the home, and it would definitely get the attention of nosy neighbors if someone is walking down the street with an armload of stuff. Ditto that for an Uber coming up."

Me: "So the moral of the story is that whatever car was used to take the perp and the stuff away was also known to the nosy neighbors! And you, Denise, told us that in your 'friends with benefits' relationship with Peter Frost, you often stayed at his house on weekends. Your car was known, and would not be noticed as unusual. And I suspect that you spent the previous night with Peter at his home, rode with him in his car to the office, shot him, drove his car back to his home, then drove your car to your home."

Me: "And then there are your obviously 'frosty' relations, pun not intended, with the lawyers, especially Bertram. He was really trying to intimidate you, and you got really ugly with him in return. And then you begged Lieutenant Warner to give you a ride home the night Father Romano was attacked; you wanted no part of being in a car alone with that man."

"That's having good instincts, good intuition." Tina Felton said. "You might not realize that... being a man."

"Oh, I do understand." I said. "But I also have a few good instincts of my own, and those told me that the animosity was born not only of good instincts, but of history. And I remembered that your client got her concealed carry permit just before leaving the employment of their law firm. I suspect Bertram and maybe Gale Gaston sexually harassed your client, or worse; maybe they attempted to physically sexually molest her."

I saw the reaction in Denise, and I knew I was right. I went on: "So, Denise, you got the carry permit, but you already had the gun and ammo for it, so you didn't buy one. And you met Peter Frost about that time, and obtained employment with him, leaving those assholes in the dust."

"And that brings up an important point." said Tina Felton. "Motive. Why would she murder her employer, much less her 'friend with benefits', as you call it?"

"Ah, yes. That." I said. I reached into the box and pulled out an evidence bag. From that, I took out the diamond ring box and opened it. "Does this look familiar to you, Denise?" Yes it did, I deduced from the look on Denise's face that I observed. And then her face fell, and tears formed in her otherwise lovely eyes.

I said "If you examine the inside of the ring, you see the inscription to Marla, and also an alteration. At first, I thought that was due to resizing, but then realized my error. In fact, Peter originally bought this ring for you, Denise. He had inscribed it for you."

Me: "But then... he met Marla Locklear. And he is not the only man who was totally smitten by her, and got himself wrapped around her finger. Marla is nowhere near as pretty nor as fit as you, Denise, but she has what I call 'the aura', what was called 'sex appeal' in my parents's day."

Me: "The only thing I don't know is if Peter did ask you to marry him and gave you the ring, then called it off and got the ring back; -or- if y'all talked about marriage but it never came to fruition. But what was painfully evident was that Peter fell hard for Marla, and he believed that he was going to marry Marla after she was rid of her husband Stanley."

Me: "And this is where I will circle back to the question of the servers. I think that you, Denise, removed two of them on Saturday, but left two. The two you took have video files on them... including videos of Peter Frost having sex with some of his female clients, and some of those in front of the husbands. Our Police Chaplain had to say a few 'Ave Marias' after he observed them."

Me: "There are also files of Peter having sex with you, Denise. But most importantly, there are videos of Peter having sex with Marla Locklear and Peter and Marla discussing how to get her husband Stanley out of her life. They actually talked about Peter lying on the stand to make sure Stanley would be convicted of murdering his two co-workers."

Me: "You knew that, Denise. Only you and Peter had access to those files. And my theory is that you could accept that Peter had dumped you for Marla, but you were not prepared to accept that he was going to help Marla get Stanley put away, if not executed by the State, for murder. You have that much conscience. I think you confronted Peter about that, and it led to Peter's death at close range by the Beretta 25 in your hands."

Me: "You also knew that Gaston and Bertram would take those servers and hide or destroy them if they could. And that is why you didn't want to be alone in a car with Bertram; there is no telling what he or his hired henchmen... like the late Joey Mendon was... would do to you to find out what you did with those servers."

Me: "So, you took those two servers on Saturday, and left the others to be found and removed by the overprotective lawyers, which of course I found. And it all might have worked; you planned and executed it very well, pun not intended. Unfortunately, there was the pitter-patter of little defeats. You needed to reset the alarm, even though it was inconsistent with what any other murderer would normally do, and you couldn't get past the two servers you didn't take being left behind for you to access Monday morning."

"So," I said as I put all the evidence back in my box, "why don't you, Ms. Felton, have a private conversation with your client, while ADA Patterson and I step outside and discuss what very generous plea deal we'll be prepared to offer you... if any." And with that, Paulina and I exited Interrogation-1 into the anteroom and on into the back hallway of Police Headquarters...

Part 15 - Negotiations

When we came out of I-1, Teresa, Cindy, and Nadine Hall came out of the Monitor Room. Teresa said "Another amazing success for the Iron Crowbar. One day we might even get used to it."

Then she and Cindy said simultaneously "Naaah!" I chuckled at that.

Nadine said "I'm very glad I dropped Marla as a client. I had no idea that she conspired with Peter Frost, though."

I said "I'm glad you took the precaution of bringing in Tina to represent Denise. Okay, let's mosey our way down to the Main Conference Room and talk plea deals. But first..."

I turned down the hallway that led to Classroom 'E', and went inside. The Detective Corps had been discussing the case, but it went silent when I came in, followed by Lt. Rudistan starting up a round of applause that became a standing ovation.

I said "Give that applause to yourselves, guys. This was truly a Team effort, and I am not being modest in saying that. All of you contributed. Lieutenant Warner and Detective Roark did particularly well, as did Lieutenant Davis and all of you in MCD. The Intel Branch and Lieutenant Mary Milton did your usual amazing job of gathering data. And the insights of you guys in Vice were very helpful, as well. All your work is what lets everyone know that this is the best Police Force in the world!"