Red Squad Ch. 02

"The SEC officials don't know what 'holding' is." I said. "But I agree with everything you just said."

"I'll be candidly honest, too." said Cindy. "Last year was a heartbreaker for the Bulldogs. Two years ago, a heartbreaker for the Wildcats. The year before that, a heartbreaker for the Bulldogs. All those games were close, and decided at the last minute. By way of contrast, this year was not a 'heartbreaker'. It wasn't the beatdown it could've been, but it was a solid win for the Wildcats, almost never in question."

I might add that Cindy had come into Headquarters to find her door covered with condolence cards, some commiserating her on the death of a loved one. She went into her office to find the walls and desk covered with sympathy cards. Morbid humor by our Police Force. I had no idea who was behind it, as I had not been informed earlier nor asked to participate. And the decorations had not happened the day before when I was here.

"You know..." Cindy had said when she saw me, "... I think I may have a use for these." For some reason, I found that to be... disturrrrrrbing...

Back in present time, Tanya Perlman asked "So where are the Sheriff and the Chief this morning?"

"I don't know." I said. "The Sheriff texted me that he wasn't going to be here this morning. He and I text every morning to make sure we're both still breathing. The Chief, I'm not sure. He didn't give any indication he wasn't going to be here."

"His SUV is parked in his spot, but he's not in his office." Cindy said. "He must be in a meeting somewhere." Everyone looked at me, and I just shrugged my shoulders in reply.

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

"Hello and welcome to Fox University Sunrise!." said Catrina Pierce at 7:30am, from the Fox University studios. "I'm Catrina Pierce, and with me as always is Meredith Peller. Good morning, Meredith."


"Good morning, Catrina." said Meredith. "Good morning, everyone. Here's what's in the news. Both Federal and local charges of money laundering and campaign finance violations against Town & County Councilwoman Kelly Carnes were dropped after Mrs. Carnes husband, Stephen Carnes, pled guilty to all charges and stated that his wife had no knowledge of what he was doing. Judge Harry Nance dropped the charges against Mrs. Carnes 'with prejudice', meaning that they cannot be re-filed against her. Sentencing for Dr. Carnes, a longtime local dentist, has not been set as of this time."

"And let's go to Nick Eastwood for more on the Wildcats win over the University Bulldogs." said Catrina. "Nick!"

"Thank you, Catrina, Meredith." said Nick Eastwood. "The Bulldogs fought a hard battle, but the No. 2 Wildcats were simply too much for them. The nation's best defense held the Bulldogs scoreless, and while the Wildcats had a number of mistakes on offense, Heisman candidate Clarence Appletree rushed for a Conference record 402 yards."

Catrina: "Nick, we heard a lot of complaints about the officiating in the game. What do you know about that?"

Nick: "Catrina, Fox Eight Sports has learned that the Wildcats have requested a meeting with the Conference Department of Officiating, and that some egregiously bad calls will be discussed. Sources tell Fox Eight Sports that the Wildcats will demand that at least one official be fired, and that others be investigated."

Meredith: "And they're this bitter after they won? I'd hate to see how they'd reacted if they lost!"

Nick: "It's not a joke, Meredith. The Wildcats and the Conference consider this a very serious matter. The fact that the Wildcats are pushing this even after winning the game shows just how serious they consider the matter to be, and sources tell me that suggestions of criminal impropriety might be brought up..."

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

"Well, get the Iron Crowbar on the case." Cindy said. The look I gave her, boring right through her, froze the room into silence.

"Cindy," I said quietly, "I'm the one that called the Wildcats Athletic Director as well as the FBI last night, and suggested an investigation. Betting money was moving strangely, and those calls were worse than egregiously incompetent."

"Dayum." was all Cindy could say. "You really think the officials were corrupt?"

"One of them may have been." I said. "And the replay booth official, too."

"Sore winners." Cindy muttered, meaning it as a joke.

"Get the fuck out of my office." I snarled. When no one moved, I said "I'm not kidding. Get the fuck out! All of you! Go!" My shocked Angels wisely made a tactical retreat.

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

"What's that about?" Teresa asked Cindy as they turned out of my office and into Cindy's.

"I don't know." Cindy replied. "I caught him at a bad moment, and said the wrong thing at the wrong time. But something else is bothering him, and I don't know what it is."

Tanya said "He did call Jack last night, and it was about the officiating at the game. Jack relayed the message to the FBI Office that's over that State. So whatever it is, Don thinks it's real, and he didn't take it very well when you made light of it..."

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

8:50am. The Chief called and asked me to meet him at the office of District Attorney Miriam Walters. I'd asked him to arrange a meeting, and at 9:00am sharp we were admitted into her office.

"Have a seat, gentlemen." Miriam Walters said. "Would you like some coffee or water?" We both politely refused. "So what is this about?"

"I'm just here as the refereeeeeee." said Chief Moynahan. "Mr Crowbar?"

I said "I have a request. For the most part, you can assign whoever you want to the cases we send you. But there are going to be times when I want to name the ADA you send, and when I do ask, I want you to honor my 'requests'."

Miriam Walters affixed her beady black eyes on me and said "I thought we had discussed this before? You do your job, and I'll do mine?"

"Except that you are not doing yours." I said. "Or more accurately, your Office is not getting the job done."


"What do you mean?" Miriam asked, the edge of anger in her voice.

"Two words." I said. "Kelly. Carnes."

"Oh, that." Miriam said, rolling her eyes a bit. "Yes, I heard you were pissed off about it. So am I, believe it or not. But I really had no choice. Her husband confessed, said she had no knowledge. How do I overcome that reasonable doubt?"

"Easily." I said. "I gave you a very strong case on a silver platter. I could've dug more and probably given you more, but I thought your Office could handle it. You've hired two Investigators... who, by the way, you have not introduced to us... and you could've put them on it. At worst, you get see what they can do. At best, Kelly Carnes goes to prison."

Miriam sighed. "Commander, after the Feds got her husband's confession, it was over---"

"No ma'am!" I said, interrupting. "You and Fineman did not have to go along with what the Feds did. You could've fought for this. Paulina would have fought for it. Even if she'd lost, she'd have given it everything she had, and then some! The bottom line is that Kelly Carnes was what we thought she was... and you let her off the hook!"

Miriam glanced over to Chief Moynahan, who said "Ms. Walters, I worked in Midtown for many yearrrrrrz. I believe your Office to be honest; by way of contrast Midtown's D.A. Office was very, very corrupt, like a lot of other things down there. My Police Officers there put their lives on the line every day, worked their asses off to make good cases... only to see the DDAs there be so afraid of their own shadows that they wouldn't fight for the cases. I hate it when the efforts of Police Officers go unrewarded like that."

Chief Moynahan: "So I a-greeeeee with Commander Troy that watching a good case be flushed down the toilet is more than just demoralizing to the Police Force, it's unconscionable. And while I will recommend to him in the strongest terms to use the power wisely, I agree that there are some cases where he should be allowed to name and work with the ADA of his choooo-sing."

"So you call Paulina in on the big cases, that get the recognition when she wins them," said Miriam Walters, "and Savannah gets the crumbs."

"Or I call in Franklin Washington, or maybe Hannah Doss if I think she can handle it." I said. "The point is that there are some cases that need Paulina or Franklin's abilities and determination, while some can be handled by Savannah or Dwayne Gregory. I'm not worried about the glory. I just want the wins against the perps."

Miriam's black eyes became jet. "That's an insult to ADA Fineman." she said. "She can handle any case I give her."

"She didn't handle the Carnes case." I fired back. "She wilted like a piece of lettuce once the heat was on."

"I don't agree." said Walters. "I know your preference for Patterson, and I know the reasons why. But I think Savannah Fineman is a better ADA, and it's my opinion that counts in this office. I'll assign the ADA... or DDA... that I think is best. And it'll be your job to work with her or him to get the job done."

I held up my hands in exasperation. "Well, then," I said, "not much more to discuss here. If you'll excuse me, Chief?" Chief Moynahan nodded, and I got up and exited the room.

"Glad we got that settled." Miriam said, meaning it dismissively.

"Are you some special kind of stupid?" Moynahan said, rising from his chair.

"What?!" Miriam Walters said, shocked to have heard that from the Chief.

The Chief pointed at the door as he said "You have the best asset you could possibly have in your very life, and you treat him like that? The Iron Crowbar. He beat Westboro. He beat Marcie Harper. He put Peter Blassingame on Death Row, and Susan Dougherty in prison for the rest of her life. He took down Mitt Willis, and Edward Blassingame. Every D.A. in this State... hell, in this entire nation!... would give their eyeteeth to have that guy on their team... but he's on yours, and you act like that?..."

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

I don't know why I wasn't angrier than I was as I left D.A. Walters's office. I felt more 'just tired of it' than anything else.

As I started down the hallway, I saw Lt. Cmdr. Teresa Croyle standing there, obviously waiting for me. "Sheriff wants to see us in his office." she said. I fell in step with her and we walked to the other side of City Hall, and the office of Our Sheriff.

His assistant buzzed him to announce us, and a second later we were ushered in and were seated in the chairs in front of his desk. He made the 'ink pen' motion, and I turned on the anti-bugging device.

"Crowbar," the Sheriff said, "I know you know what's going on with Orosco. Does Ms. Croyle know?"

"I haven't said anything to her, Sheriff." I replied.

Griswold turned to Teresa and said "You and Orosco were doing an audit of the TCPD for possible problem children. What happened with it?"

Teresa said "Orosco said he was going to run some data and get some trends on possible problem Officers, then he'd come back to me. I got busy with the tactical training and never really talked to Orosco about it again."

The Sheriff nodded. "All right. Here's what I know, and Crowbar can correct me where I go astray. Orosco called Crowbar Saturday, right before the football game was starting, of all the frickin' times in the world." I nodded vigorously in agreement.

The Sheriff continued: "Orosco found some things. He's onto the Blood Order of the Orange Order, and he also found what I call 'clumps' of Officers that hang out together socially as well as professionally, and they have a higher-than-normal number of complaints against them. Orosco also knows that in the past, particularly in the time before Crowbar got here, Malone had his group of loyalists, and I had mine."

Griswold: "Orosco told the Chief, who told me, that he doesn't want to elevate this to the I.G. because he's afraid it'll leak, and Finneran could use it against Horace Wellman. Not to mention the horrible optics the Press could make out of it."

"Sir," said Teresa, "what's going on with these other groups?" The Sheriff looked at me to reply.

I said: "Orosco told me that there were two groups. Then when we talked to the Chief, he said there were more. He told me that the groups send out a communication of a, quote, 'Red Squad meeting', and the group meets within 24 hours, usually for lunch or dinner. It was the first I'd heard of this group, though of course I know what the Blood Order is."

I continued: "I remember that 'Red Squad' was the Starfleet Academy group of elite cadets, and when Orosco mentioned it I froze up, knowing that that was something you would know, Sheriff. So I didn't say anything, not knowing what you know, sir." The Sheriff nodded.

I continued: "I'll tell you guys this, clan to clan, family to family: I think Orosco knows a lot more than he's telling. He did not amass this information in less than two weeks. His initial discussions with me seemed to be in a way to see what I knew, what he could get out of me, what I'd admit to... and I definitely got coy and defensive about it, though I played it by the book, insisting we go to the I.G., then to the Chief after he said he didn't want to take it to the I.G. yet."

"I agree." the Sheriff barked. "And.I.A. may have a lot of old information on what went down in the past years here. But no one really knows what's in there... it's not digitized, it's on paper, and only I.A. personnel ever get to see that stuff. So we have no way of knowing what Orosco really knows, and we have no way of knowing what crap Malone embedded in there."

I nodded. "Sheriff, how well do you know Efram Elliot?" I asked. To Teresa I said "He was the former head of I.A., and still comes to Orange Order dinners from time to time." Teresa nodded.

"He was in the Blood Order, too." she replied.

"That's true." grunted Griswold. "But to answer your question, I didn't know him all that well. We had a good professional relationship, but he always held back, kept himself reserved. I think he was clean, but I don't know where he really stood, where his real loyalties were."

"Maybe you could ask him what's going on, Sheriff, and get his help." Teresa said. I shook my head vigorously in disagreement.

"No, I wasn't suggesting we go to him for help." I said. "I think Elliot was a good friend of Robert Mullen, when Mullen was with the I.G.'s office here. I was going to suggest you contact him, Sheriff, but more to sound him out and pick his brain than to get his help. But it doesn't sound like you know him well enough to be able to talk to him and do that."

Griswold nodded. "Crowbar, you might call Curly Goodwin, who was in I.A., and Daniel Allgood, too. See what they know, see if they know or knew Elliot." I nodded.

Griswold: "All right, we need to be airtight on this. Start contacting the members of the Blood Order, quietly, and let them all know to lay low for the time being. The code words for that is 'PAVE LOW'. In the meantime, let's find out what we can about this 'Red Squad' business, independently of Orosco, but don't interfere with nor mess up his investigation..."

Part 10 - Intelligence

10:15am, Monday, October 28th. As Teresa and I came into Police Headquarters through the employees's side entrance, the Duty Desk Patrolman said "Commander Troy, the Chief asked for you to go to his office."

"Thanks." I said. Teresa peeled off to go to her office, and I continued the long walk down the hallway to the end, the back left corner of the building. Stepping into the anteroom of the Chief's suite, I saw that the door was open. The Chief's assistant Cassie smiled and extended her had towards the open door. I knocked on the doorframe.

"Come on in, Mr. Crowbarrrr." said the Chief. "Shut that door behind you." I did so, and came on in and sat down at the Chief's hand-gesture invitation.

The Chief got right to it: "I had few more moments of conversation with Mizzz Wal-terrrrrs after you left. You were more polite the entire time than I was, which I appreciate." I nodded, and the Chief said: "The bottom line is that Ms. Walters will honor your requests to have Paulina assigned to a case if you wish... but you can't ask for her every time, and you have to agreeeee to work with Ms. Fineman and the others if they're assigned."

"She also made one more request." said the Chief. "She wants to send her new hires along with the more experienced DDAs... that's the term she used exclusively for all of them... and she wants to send them so you can augment their trainnn-innnnng. That shouldn't be too difficult to doooo, should it?"

"That'll be fine, sir." I said. "And the Sheriff can get them up to speed better and more quickly than I can." I paused a moment, then said "I just hope this will work out."

"What do you meeeeeen, Mr. Crowbar?" the Chief asked.

I exhaled, then said "Chief, if I'd found out what the Feds were doing with Kelly Carnes and asked Walters to put Paulina on the case, she likely would not have done it, until it was too late. I would've had to have known to ask for Paulina the minute I handed Walters the file with the evidence on Carnes. So now I have to decide from the start whether or not to ask for Paulina, or risk losing the case because Walters assigns her crony to it to get that crony elected Solicitor next year."

"Tell me, Mr. Crowbarrr," said the Chief, leaning back in his chair, "do you think Ms. Fineman is really that bad? Mz. Walters really got the impression you don't think Ms. Fineman can do the job."

"I worked with her, Savannah, for a lot of hours on the Charter Commission, Chief." I said. "The work that she actually does is done well and with competence. But she doesn't take that extra step even when it's obvious she should. We'd have questions at the Charter Commission meetings, things she could easily research, but it wouldn't happen unless I specifically asked her about it. In the Army, we'd say she 'maximizes the minimum standard'." The Chief chuckled at my Army joke.

"And this Carnes thing..." I continued. "Maybe I'm just used to working with Paulina, and would know that she would've fought the Feds and kept the heat on Kelly Carnes all the way to trial, and I wouldn't have had to ask. But Savannah dropped the thing like a hot potato the minute the first speed bump came up. And I got the feeling that she and Walters both wanted to drop it because it was controversial, and political. In that respect, they are both like Krasney."

"I a-greeeee." said the Chief. "Anyway, it's hashed out now. Ms. Walters says we have to work with her, but after I spoke with her after you left, she came to realize that she has to work with us, toooooo. Okay, what else do we know about this 'Red Squad' thinnnng?"

"Not as much as I'd like, sir." I said. "All I can recommend at this point in time is to go with Orosco's investigation of this so-called 'Red Squad', see what he comes up with."

"Keep me in-forrrrrrmed of anything you find. Anything at all." admonished the Chief. "I really do not like the way this is shaping up..."

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

*Whirrrrrrrrr*

Captain Tanya Perlman appeared in my doorway. "The door is open, sir. Wanna take a peek?"

"I sure as heck do." I said. I got up as fast as my back would allow me, and followed Tanya down the hall. We went along the back hall past the back entrance to MCD, and turned down the next hallway, which led to Classroom's 'C' and 'E'. Tanya led the way to the door of Classroom 'C', and let the reader scan her TCPD ID card.

"And here we go." Tanya said as she waved me in first.

"Oh, wowwww." I said, moving forward and holding the door open to allow her to drive in.

Classrooms 'C' and 'D', which had been for Vice and for Personnel & Records, were now one big room. The walls were painted dark gray, and mounted on them were panels of still black cloth which absorbed electromagnetic radiation that the equipment in the room was generating. The lighting on the far end was red and green neon tubes, lending a futuristic aura to the room.