Return To Point Hollow Ch. 04

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"That was very nice of you to say that about Father Romano." said Teresa as we sat in my office and watched to begin the Angels Meeting.

"It was true." I said. "Chaplain Romano's presence at the Biology Building and remaining calm may have prevented something really wet happening to Dr. Mickelson. And I'm telling you guys... I was losing that battle with Westbrook over the knife, and then I heard Father Romano praying, and suddenly I felt new energy coming into my body. Credit where due, people. Credit where due."

"How are Father Romano and Dr. Mickelson?" Tanya asked.

"Father Romano is fine." said Teresa. "He led Mass at the Catholic Church yesterday, and the other priests prayed over him. He's a bit bruised up still, but he'll be fine physically, too."

"Unfortunately," I said, "I cannot say the same for Dr. Mickelson. Dr. Yates said his mental faculties were badly diminished by his experiences at Point Hollow. It is possible that he'll have to be committed to nursing-home-type care."


"The Asylum?" Cindy asked, wincing.

"Probably University Hospital, since he's a tenured professor at the School." I said. "But I suspect and fear that his days as an active professor are done."

"So what's going on with the FBI?" Teresa asked. "Is Jack Muscone going to be all right?"

Tanya said "I don't know, but I'll say this: he was at home with us all weekend, and he seemed happier and calmer than he's been in months. Jennifer and Tiffany loved the time they got to spend with him, and Pete was happy about it, too, I think---"

*KNOCK!* *KNOCK!* *KNOCK!* *KNOCK!*

The door opened, and Detective Julia Rodriguez looked in. "Sir, Ladies," she said, "Arthur Young is turning. He wants to talk about the World Outreach Church, in exchange for a reduced sentence."

"Let's go, then!" I said happily. "Let's make this happen before the FBI gets here..." Everyone scrambled, not asking what I meant by that...

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

I'd texted both Paulina Patterson and State Attorney Jenna Stiles, who came down to the Station. We'd also brought Arthur Young to Headquarters from County Jail, and his attorney, Mr. Gibson Stelling, was with him. Jenna had the power to sign a plea deal that would be binding in all jurisdictions in the State.

"I was a member of World Outreach Church." said Arthur Young. "I got involved with Dr. Westbrook' group, more like a cult group, trying to raise the demon. At first he, Dr. Westbrook, said we were trying to bring Jesus back to earth, and then he said we were trying to raise the spirits of The Revelation. I actually believed it. But over time it became apparent that the spirit he wanted to raise was one of the most evil demons in Hebrew and Christian lore."

"What was Brother Terence Ballard's role in that?" I asked.

"Ballard was a gangbanger in his youth." said Young. "He was about to get busted down hard, then he copped a plea and ratted out his drug distributors for a light sentence, then founded the World Outreach Church and claimed to have found Christ and turned his life around. It was all a sham; he and the highest officers of the church were running drugs and arms, using the church to launder the money, and even having the church be neutral grounds for drug transactions between gangs."

"You have proof?" I asked.

"Yes." said Young. "Two years ago I found some seemingly small anomalies in the church's finances. I brought it to Brother Ballard's attention, and he said he'd look into it. He came up a day later, thanked me for finding the anomaly, said he was hiring a forensic accounting firm to find out more, and that my services doing the books were 'on hold for now' were his words. But I had made a lot of copies of the books, and later came up with the laundering scheme. I just left the church and kept the materials."

He nodded to his lawyer, who brought out a sheaf of papers from his briefcase, and handed them to Jenna Stiles. Young then said "I've got the accompanying jump drives with that data in a safe deposit box. I'll hand that over after I'm sure I'm going to get the deal and walk away from all this."

Jenna Stiles said "This looks good, enough to start." She and Paulina signed the plea deal.

"Okay, here's what you need to do." I said. "You need to drive over to Westphalia, and turn yourself in to the SBI at their Headquarters, there. Try to do so to SBI Inspector Britt Maxwell personally, then Lt. Norm Chow, but turn yourself in to them. And you all need to be prepared to fight the FBI like hell to prevent them from taking you into Federal custody. If they succeed in getting you into Federal custody, you won't have a shot in hell of getting a plea deal of any kind, and you might even end up dead. Okay? Go."

Jenna was about to ask questions, but I said harshly "We'll talk later! You're running out of time! Go! Now!" Paulina whispered something to Jenna, who nodded. Arthur Young was quickly outprocessed, and left with Jenna Stiles.

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

And he left just in time. Twenty minutes later, at 9:05am, three black Federal Government vehicles drove up to Police Headquarters. They were denied entrance to the gated employees parking lot, and had to park in the visitors parking lot on the right/north side of Headquarters.

Entering through the front doors were EAD Robin Isley, with two FBI Special Agents I did not know as her bodyguards. SAC Bob Rovers, and Special Agents David Rovers and Peter Page also came in.

What they did not know was that Assistant Director Owen Lange and Supervisory Agent Melina Allgood, who had been in one of the other black cars, were being permitted in from the jail side, and would be brought through the Interrogation Rooms. SAC Jack Muscone was not part of the entourage.

"We're here to see your Police Chief." said EAD Isley to the Duty Desk Sergeant.

"Yes ma'am, if you'll wait here, I'll call him." said the Duty Desk Sergeant.

"We're the FBI." Isley said. "Take us to him. Never mind, I know the way. Come on, guys." She attempted to walk past the Duty Desk into the rest of Headquarters. Four heavily armed and armored Police Officers blocked her way.

"The Chief has ordered that you're not to be permitted past the front lobby, Dr. Isley." said the Duty Desk Officer.

"Is that so?" Isley said sarcastically. "Then call your Chief, and tell him that I am ordering him to come down here."

"Ma'am," said the Duty Desk Sergeant, "you don't give orders here." He made no move to pick up the phone nor the radio.

"Looks like you have a problem, Dr. Isley." growled Sheriff Griswold as he came up behind the armored Officers, wearing an armored vest himself. "You see, *I* am the law enforcement authority for this County. Not you, not the FBI, not the Federal Government in any way. And this Police Headquarters is off limits to you, solely on account of your goddamn bad manners."

"Do you know who I am?" Isley said threateningly.

"Oh, we know who you are." I said, coming up next to the Sheriff, also wearing armor. I was also carrying a red crowbar, and aching to use it. "What you don't know, because I don't display all my accolades on my wall, is that I have a few friends in high places, too. So we don't really care who you are. You are unimportant."

"Look." said Isley. "I'm here in the hopes of reaching a peaceful understanding, and possibly restoring the cooperation between our entities that you had before. We're not the ones fully armored and doing the obstructing."

"But you know full well," I said, "that Rovers and his BAU people are not welcome in my County, yet you ratchet up the agitation by bringing them in here? Unlike Bob Rovers, we are not idiots here, Dr. Isley." Rovers (both of them) looked at me hatefully.

"All right." said Isley. "Sheriff, will you take me to see your Police Chief?"

"Sure." said the Sheriff. "But only you. The rest of these Agents will have to wait here in the lobby, or they can sit in the waiting room or the Press Room."

"Don't do it, ma'am." said David Rovers, who was probably the smartest of the Federal Agents in the room. "They might murder you once you're inside and separated from us."

Isley turned to Bob Rovers and said "If anything happens to me, call in our assault teams, and erase this building from the face of the earth, along with everyone inside it." With that, she followed me and the Sheriff into the hallway past the Duty Desk.

As we walked to the Main Conference Room, Isley looked into Vice and then MCD, and saw that all of the Detectives were wearing armored vests over their civilian clothes. They were ready for an armed assault, and would fight back savagely if the balloon went up.

We went into the Main Conference Room. To Isley's surprise, Owen Lange and Melina Allgood were already there and seated. The Chief was at his usual place at the near end of the table, and to his left was Commander Cindy Ross, wearing an armored vest. I sat down to Cindy's left, and the Sheriff sat down to my left rather than the end of the table.

Isley remained standing. "So, Commander Troy, you managed to kill Dr. Charles Westbrook, destroying years of work by Federal Agents to bring him in and punish him for his crimes."

"So you'd rather Mary Gabriel be dead and Westbrook alive?" I asked harshly.

"I'd rather they both be alive." Isley said, trying to avoid my trap.

"I'm happy with the result that happened." I said. "An innocent young girl's life was saved. And I didn't kill Westbrook; he had a heart attack and died all by himself, so sorry. I don't think you give a damn about the girl, since all you care about is getting another citation on the FBI's wall, particularly yours." Isley stared daggers at me. I stared right back.

She took a document out of her pocket and said "This is a Federal warrant for all of the persons arrested at Point Hollow to be turned over to the FBI's custody. The names are listed."

"Is that soooooo?" growled the Chief. He passed the document to me.

"Well," I said, "Mr. Arthur Young is no longer in our custody, but that of the SBI after we reached a plea deal with him. He's ratting out World Outreach Church. You'll have to fight the State to get custody of him. They're already in Court to block your Federal order, issued by Judge Ruth B. Taney, and likely illegal in the first place."

"It's not illegal." said Isley.

"We'll see." I said. "But the SBI will be busting World Outreach Church, yet another citation that won't be appearing on your wall, Dr. Isley." Her eyes were smoldering by now, knowing that I knew we'd taken away another 'win' from her and the FBI.

"It doesn't matter." she finally said. "We're taking over the cases. The scope ranges from the City to out of this State, to the west of Point Hollow, specifically. We're imposing Federal jurisdiction over it. You locals will have to step aside."

"Let it go, Crowbar." said the Sheriff. "Trust me on this one. Let them have the prisoners, and wash our hands of this." Sheriff Griswold was the only man on the face of this earth that could've told me that and not had his ass handed to him. I did look back at him skeptically, and he patted me on the shoulder. I just shut up, shaking my head.

"I have to say," said Robin Isley, trying to have the last word, "that all of the praise I heard about this Police Department... was wrong. You're crap. Over a decade of FBI work by many Agents was flushed down the drain with the death of Dr. Westbrook, at your hands, Commander Troy. Your mismanagement of this case is some of the worst I've ever seen."

Isley: "And I will be holding the praise of you by Muscone and Lange against them. There will have to be a restructuring of this division. And consider yourself to no longer be an FBI Consultant, Commander Troy. You'll find your access to the FBI's data cut off."

"Big whoop." I said. I took out my FBI Consultant card and flicked it across the table at her.

To my surprise, Melina jumped up and intercepted it. She then said "Would you guys give me a moment alone with EAD Isley?"

"What the hell?" asked a stunned Isley. "I have nothing to say to you, Supervisory Agent Allgood."

"Fine." said Melina. "I'll do the talking, then." She looked over at us and said "The rest of you should leave. Now." I got up to go, followed by Cindy and the Sheriff, and then Owen Lange. The Chief was the last to leave the two women alone...

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

The Sheriff and Cindy were in my office, having coffee as we talked. Chief Moynahan was in his office, having called County Jail to prepare to turn the prisoners over to the Federal Marshals that had arrived at County Jail when Isley had arrived at Headquarters. AD Owen Lange was in the Chief's office with him.

"I trust you like you trust me, Sheriff." I said. "So why are you letting them take the prisoners? We might yet find out from one of the survivors of the Stevens incident that there were undercover FBI Agents there."

The Sheriff shook his head vigorously in disagreement. "As brilliant as you are, Crowbar, you'll never get that to trial. The FBI would fight you all the way. As to the rest of it: you did right, you saved that girl, and the world is no poorer for the death of Charles Westbrook. But what are we going to charge the rest of them with? They can all say they didn't know Westbrook was going to try to murder that woman, that they were just practicing a religious ceremony, albeit a demonic one. Let the FBI waste the Federal Government's money on them."

"Isley was taking every shot at you that she could." Cindy said. "What's with that?"

"I think she is truly angry that Westbrook died." I said. "She wasn't lying in that the FBI has spent millions going after Westbrook, and he was just too good for them. And then he comes to Point Hollow, and the TCPD ends his string of murders in the name of releasing demons. She's trying to blame me for his death, too, but that's not gonna fly."

"What do you think Melina is saying to her?" asked Cindy. I just grinned.

"Dr. Isley is about to find out that true power does not accumulate from the number of citations upon one's wall." I said...

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

"You're not going to have a job with the FBI much longer, either." snarled Robin Isley as she and Melina squared off in the Conference Room.

"Yeah, right." said Melina. "In the immortal words of M.C. Hammer: 'you can't touch this'. I'm not even going to discuss it with you..."

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

It was Melina's cell phone, and she answered it. Then she handed it to EAD Isley and said "It's for you."

Isley took the phone and said angrily "Hello? Who is this?" Her eyes widened in shock, then resignation as she listened for a long minute.

"Yes, Mr. President. I understand." she finally said...

Part 20 - Council Intelligence

The door to the Conference Room opened and EAD Robin Isley rushed out as if fired out of a cannon. She went to the Chief's office, knocked on the door, and went on in. A moment later, she, the Chief, and AD Lange came into the hallway and the door to the anteroom of my office.

"I'm still taking custody of the prisoners." said Isley.

"Yes, we're giving them to your Federal Marshals nowwww." said Chief Moynahan. "Commander Troy, would you escort Dr. Isley to the Duty Desk, please."

"Yes sir." I said dully as I got out of my chair. Cindy noticed what I had in my hand as I went out of the office.

"It's too bad we've gotten off to such a bad start, Commander." Isley said as we walked down the long hallway. "I hope we have opportunities to repair the damage, and work better together in the future."

"That makes one of us." I said quietly. As we neared the corner of the hallway and the duty desk beyond I stopped and pointed. "Right through there." I said. I turned as if to go back to my office.

"Fine." said Isley. But as she was about to walk forward, she found her path blocked... by a red crowbar across her chest.

Looking at her sideways, I said "One more thing. If you ever call my Captain of Operations within my hearing what I was told you called her..."

"Are you threatening me?" Isley said, her voice rising. "I'm a Federal Agent----"

I jammed my crowbar into her neck and pushed her against the wall, choking here. "Yes, I'm threatening you." I growled. "Make of it what you think you can. But I swear to God that if you say that about Tanya Perlman again, I will kill you. Do you understand?"

Isley was making choking sounds, and her hands were reaching behind her back. Then Melina came around the corner and jammed her own gun into Isley's side.

"Don't even think about drawing that gun." Melina said to Isley. "The Iron Crowbar is being very nice to you right now. But if you want things to get ugly, just go for that gun."

I removed the crowbar from Isley's neck, and she sucked in lungfuls of air. "Now get out of my Police Station." I snarled. "And don't come back." Isley made like a drum and beat it out of there as fast as she could go.

"You want this back?" Melina said as we walked down the hallway together, holding up my FBI Consultant badge.

"I... I dunno." I said.

"Please, take it back." said Owen Lange, coming up the hallway. "We need you... to fight against people like Isley." I took it back, knowing I could always give it up again later...

The Chief and Sheriff then came out of my office. "I just got a call from Mayor Allgood." said the Sheriff. "The Council's Committee of the Whole is meeting at 11:00am, to discuss the Intelligence Branch, and he wants you and Captain Perlman there, along with us."

"Let's make like trees and leave, then." I replied.

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

11:00am. The Committee of the Whole assembled in the private Council Chamber. Cindy, myself, Sheriff Griswold, Chief Moynahan, and Captain Tanya Perlman also were there.

"We-ell, Commander Troy." said Reginald B.F. Lewis enthusiastically as I came in. "I guess you now know how it feels to be lynched, to have a noose put around your neck and hanged... like so many black men in this Nation in the past." There were gasps of shock at Lewis's rudeness.

"Put the race card back in your pocket, Lewis." I replied. "And tell everyone how happy you are that I survived."

"You won't hear me saying that." said Kelly Carnes menacingly. "I wish you'd died."

"Don't listen to Carnes, Crowbar." Our Sheriff growled. "Her words are... unimportant."

"You got that right, Sheriff." I said. We sat down in the chairs against the (left) side wall.

"Okay, let's get started." said Mayor Allgood, tapping his gavel. "Shall we hear from Captain Perlman first?"

Tanya drove her wheelchair past the far end of the table but to one side, so that her PowerPoint presentation could be seen on the projector screen in front of the back wall. "Thank you, everyone." she said cheerfully.

After going through the basics of her proposal, Tanya said "The recent case of cult rituals and deaths at Point Hollow are a perfect example of how the Intelligence Division would work. While our Detectives did very well mining data, it would've been even faster and more efficient if the dedicated Intelligence Division was in place."

"So this proposal adds another Lieutenant slot, and just more overhead." said Susan Weston disdainfully. She deeply hated Tanya Perlman; Weston had been a Precinct Captain with the TCPD until she'd drawn the ire of Your Iron Crowbar over her treatment of then-Lieutenant Perlman. (Author's note: 'Case of the Paper Trail'.)

Tanya did not even bother to reply to Weston, so I spoke up: "Yes, it adds another slot, but it will be filled in slowly, over time. Lieutenant Mary Milton will make the lateral move, but will continue to oversee Vice with Detective Sergeant McGhillie until the Intel Branch is fully filled out."