Safe Room Ch. 04

"More of your intimidation tactics, Troy." snarled Bob Berry.

"You think so?" I asked. "I won't be the Prosecutor asking these same questions in Court. I guess you'll say the A.D.A. is using 'intimidation tactics'? Men have been put to death for less than what we have on Jeffrey, here. Add to it your burning jealousy of Tim, who was married to and sleeping with the woman you had a huge crush on, Melissa."

"Oh come on." said Jeffrey. "I told you that was just a fling, for physical pleasure, nothing more."

"And I'm sure you want me to believe it." I said. "I don't. I think you are head-over-heels in love with Melissa, but even after she left Tim out of frustration, she was willing to get back with him... if he'd just take his Viagra and start banging her more often. It took her a long, long time to realize he just did not love her the way she loved him... and you killed him to make sure she never went back to him."

"That's bullshit." said Jeffrey, but his face looked very uncomfortable.

"Who gets the keys to your RV when you're convicted and sent to Jacksonville?" I asked. Jeffrey looked even more uncomfortable. Berry leaned over and whispered something to him.

"All right, that's enough." said Berry. "Interview over."

"It's over when I say it's over, Berry." I said. "Unless your client wants to invoke completely."

"Do that." Berry said to his client.

"I invoke my right to silence under the Fifth Amendment." said Burnham.

"Okay." I said. "Stay here just one second until I can get someone to escort you back to the booking area to get your personal items."

You know what my favorite trick is. When the door opened to escort Jeffrey Burnham out, the door next to his room also opened, and out popped Melissa Burris. She and Burnham looked at each other in shock. Then she was escorted to the front door, while Burnham was escorted into the booking area.

I was watching carefully. Melissa had turned and left without looking back at Burnham, but he was looking after Melissa as she left. When they were gone I turned... to find Cindy looking at me. She nodded her head, and I nodded back in acknowledgement.

Part 18 - Crackdown

A few minutes later, as I sat in my office talking with Cindy, FBI Special Agent in Charge Jack Muscone came in. I had him sit down in a hot chair next to Cindy.

"You were right, Don." Muscone said. "You told us to monitor the cellphones over the weekend, and we did. And we got some metadata on chatter between Wallace Bedford, Conrad King, and some of the other Superior Bloodlines people. After your little visit, it got very interesting. We now have sixteen locations across the nation, including Florida, Los Angeles, the Jonas Oldeeds compound in Texas... and we also got increased chatter out of the Federal Facility just north of the State Line, north of Millwakee and the sanitarium."

"Were you able to get any actual information?" I asked.

"Not much." said Muscone. "The NSA collected the data for us, but these bad guys are pretty sharp, and have an extra layer of encryption. The NSA's best are working on cracking it, but it might take time."

"Good." I said. "But we're closing in on their locations. That's what we're going to need when it's time to strike. So, how's the Deputy Director doing?"

"Okay." said Jack. "We were going to have him do some traveling around to different places, but he was observed in L.A. So he flew back to Washington, D.C., then snuck out again and he's back in a safe 'undisclosed location'."

"There are still threats to him out there?"

"Bigger than ever." Jack said. "The chatter we got from your visit to Bedford? We knew where to look... the same places lit up when he was observed in L.A."

I nodded. "Where's Les Craig?" I asked.

"Keeping quiet." said Muscone. "He's in Washington right now." That caused my eyes to widen.

"If your boss could sneak out," I said, "so can Les Craig. I'd suggest confirming where he is."

"Not that easy to do." said Muscone. "He's on the same level I am. He's working with the NSA and CIA on some Superior Bloodlines connections coming from Europe. We can't keep tabs on him or babysit him; we'd get slapped back if and when he found out."

"If he's working with the NSA, he should look at Jeremy Burnham." I said. "Recently went to London and Paris. Came back to find his buddy Tim Burris missing, and we find Burris dead in his safe room."

"Are you being serious?" asked Jack.

"Actually, yes I am." I said. "I'd look at him... but you might have to wait in line until after we have tried him for murder."

"Ah, you think he murdered Tim?" asked Cindy.

"I'll put it this way." I said. "It was either 'him', or 'them', meaning him or him and Melissa. Either he did it alone, or she was in on it with him. Either way, he is not innocent at all. When he was taken to booking, he was actually hit with another warrant for suspicion of murder. He's sitting in a holding cell now."

"How will you be able to know it was either 'him' or 'them'?" Cindy asked.

"He's going to tell us himself." I said with a enigmatic smile. "He may not realize it, but he's going to tell us himself."

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

Jack Muscone took us to the Cop Bar, and it would be no great feat of deduction to determine that he hungrily consumed two double cheeseburgers. Cindy was having fish and chips, which were better here at the Cop Bar than at most places. I just had a Philly cheesesteak sandwich and fries.

"Who's guarding your boss?" I asked Jack.

"People we trust." said Muscone. "Mostly my team: Martin, Sandra, Lindy. But some younger Special Agents that have been working in the City office for a while, as well. And yes, I trust them and have vetted them in more ways than one."

"How are you getting to the Deputy Director's location?" I asked. "Are you sure you're not being followed?"

"We monitor for drones." said Jack. "We check for bugs on the cars we drive up there in. The cars are old, no 'Theft' lights or GPSs in them. We take routes and bogey vehicles to make sure we're not followed. I might add, Don, that your mother was consulted in ways to remain undetected."

"Oooh, then you consulted the very best." Cindy said. "Even the Iron Crowbar learns from his mother."

"Which never stops over one's lifetime." I replied.

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

When we returned to Headquarters, Detective Parker met us in the hallway. "Sir, ma'am, Jeff Burnham's lawyer wants to talk to you. He wants to make a deal. Ms. Patterson is waiting in the Main Conference room.

Going into the Conference Room, we found the lovely Paulina Patterson talking with Deputy Chief Harlow. Della excused herself and left immediately upon our arrival.

"Hi Don." Paulina said. "Why don't you get me up to speed on this case. Berry is a real shit, and I don't want to even talk to him without getting your facts straight in my head."

"Sure." I said...

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

Entering Interrogation-1, Paulina and I wordlessly sat down across from Jeffrey Burnham, dressed in a Prison Orange jumpsuit, and his lawyer Berry. I read Jeffrey his rights from the card yet another time.

"We want immunity, in exchange for my client's truthful statement and testimony." said Berry.

"You have got to be kidding." I said. "Seriously, in the words of John McEnroe: 'you cannot be serious.'."

"My client is ready to talk, but you have to give him something meaningful if you want him to give you Mr. Burris's killer." replied Berry.

"We have Mr. Burris's killer." I said. "Right here. At this table now. And I'm going to give ADA Patterson here a case so strong that she'll have no problem getting a conviction."

"Perhaps I should just talk with the ADA alone," said Berry, "and we can work this out."

Paulina gave a brief smile. "I have no reason to even talk to you, Berry. You have nothing to offer us. Nothing at all."

"We can offer the truth, and the real killer." said Berry. "You say it's my client here, but you may be wrong, Commander Troy. You should at least keep an open mind and evaluate all of the evidence that my client is willing to provide, in exchange for immunity or a good deal."

"Dr. Carl Sagan once said to keep an open mind, but not so much that your brains fall out." I replied. "And you know what I like most about myself, Mr. Berry? I know when I'm not wrong. And I am not wrong now. Your client murdered Tim Burris. I'm going to put him away; it's case closed, and I wash my hands of it and move on."

"Even if you let another murderer go free?" asked Berry. "At least hear a hypothetical, which my client will give if you restore his Fifth Amendment rights."

Paulina said "Commander, let's talk outside a moment." I agreed and we went into the anteroom... exactly per the script I'd given Paulina.

"So you want to hear what he has to say?" Paulina asked. "It gets dicey if we allow a hypothetical statement. If at the end you don't want to give him a deal, things get messy, and Berry knows that."

"What do you want to offer him as a deal, knowing full well we're not going to give it to him?" I countered.

"Twenty-five to life with possibility of parole." said Paulina.

We went back inside. Paulina made her offer: "We'll offer restoration of your client's Fifth Amendment rights unreservedly. We'll also offer, on a conditional basis, a sentence of twenty-five to life with possibility of parole if your client's hypothetical statement is proved true. However, I reserve the right to take back that sentence offer if we find his statement to be untrue in any way or if it is useless to us."

"Not good enough." said Berry.

"I need to talk to my attorney." said Burnham. Smart man, I thought to myself.

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

Twenty minutes elapsed, which gave me time to look at pictures of my daughter Tasha that her mother Paulina had brought me.

"She's getting so big." I said.

"She's starting to know who Carole and Jim and Ian and Ross are, too." said Paulina. "And she wants to see more of them." Now that was the kind of offer I wanted to hear from this beautiful A.D.A., I thought to myself.

When we were called back in, Berry's face was red. It was obvious that he did not want to do what Burnham did want to do. Berry said "My client will make his hypothetical statement in exchange for twenty years with possibility of parole."

"That wasn't our offer." said Paulina. "No go."

"Okay, I'll take your deal." said Burnham. Berry turned redder, but did not argue.

"He makes a statement; you ask no questions until he is done, by which time his right to silence is fully restored." said Berry.

"I'm listening." I said.

Burnham started: "It was all Melissa's idea. She didn't get the house during the divorce, so she wanted to kill him and make a claim on it and his money after he was dead. She said she talked to her divorce attorney, who said she could win that."

Burnham went on: "She knew a guy named Ferrell. I don't know how they knew each other, but she asked him what to do. She'd been in Tim's shelter, and told Ferrell all about it. He came up with the idea of switching out the tanks with pure carbon dioxide, so that when Tim next tested his shelter, the air would go bad and he'd die."

More Burnham: "Ferrell also said he could make the electricity go out, which might drive Tim into the shelter. So Melissa told me about the idea. I went along, thinking it would be cool to have that shelter. My RV won't protect us from the really serious shit like a nuclear bomb or a dirty bomb, but that shelter would."

"So while Tim was at a chess tournament in Texas, Melissa and I switched out the tanks, mislabeled them, and sabotaged the filtration system." continued Burnham. "I went to Europe on my University business, and when I came back, Tim still had not been found. So I called it in, and you guys found him. We didn't have time to make the claim on the house, though. And that's pretty much it."

The tension in the room grew as the silence grew more and more deafening. All eyes in the room and on the other side of the one-way glass were on me, and I felt every pair, it seemed. Then my back pain flared up, telling me to stop wasting time, and I spoke:

"Half and half." I said.

"What do you mean?" said Paulina.

"Fifty percent of that story was absolutely true." I said. "And fifty percent was a total work of fiction. The parts of your involvement, Mr. Burnham, were true. The parts of Melissa's involvement would give the 'fake news' Media cause to be proud."

I looked at Berry. "No deal, Berry. We're going for the death penalty."

"You son of a bitch!" snarled Berry. "You're reneging on the deal! We'll have the case thrown out------"

"Stop the theatrics!" I ordered. "You did not hear me earlier: I already have a case that will get your client the death penalty. His statement in no way mitigates that. We're going to trial."

"Why aren't you arresting Melissa Burris?" snarled Berry.

"She's not guilty." I replied. "And while it's hard to prove a negative, and she has lied, I'm going to help the ADA show the Jury that it was all Mr. Burnham, here."

I then turned to Burnham, who was looking very scared right now. "You can do one of two things, Mr. Burnham. You can confess, and maybe, just maybe, ADA Patterson will give you a twenty-five-to-life with possibility of parole deal, for not wasting her time. Or... we can proceed as we are now, go to trial, and you'll either get the syringe at Jacksonville, or be you'll be looking out its windows for the rest of your miserable life."

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

An hour later, Paulina came into my office. "It's done." she said.

"Good work." I said.

"Nothing compared to your work." said Paulina. "I still can't believe Melissa wasn't part of it. I was already doing paperwork to cut her a deal to throw Burnham under the bus. And she did lie to Police a number of times."

"Yes, she did." I said. "And I considered arresting her. But that would've created three problems: first, it would give Burnham's defense lawyers an opportunity to create reasonable doubt for their client; second, and connected to the first, it would cause people, especially my Detectives, to think she was at least partly guilty in all this; and third, after the hullabaloo created over that receptionist lying to Police, I know that it's not worth the hassle to deal with all that again."

"Wow, the Iron Crowbar is backing off." said Paulina. "I must admit I'm a bit shocked."

"What shocked me, and what I'm not backing off on," I said, "is what you said earlier about Tasha spending more time with her family."

"Yes." said Paulina. "After all this crap with my brother and his partners is done with, and after the FBI takes care of those white supremacy groups, I think we can work on our own interracial relations. Stand up."

I stood up, and Paulina sat down in my chair. Pulling me to her, she unzipped my pants and fished out my cock.

"Uhhh...." I groaned as she took my hardening cock into her warm, wet mouth and began fellating me with surprising intensity. And as soon as I was hard, I was going to put this woman on her back on my desk, and fuck her sexy A.D.A. brains out...

Part 19 - Solution

7:00pm, Monday, May 8th. I finished up my paperwork on the Tim Burris murder case, wrapped in a bow, moved it along, and clapped my hands as if to remove the dust of it.

"Okay, that's a done deal." I said to Cindy, who was sitting on the sofa typing on her laptop. "Now I can work on that Sharples code."

"Just between us and the crowbars, off the record," Cindy said, "do you think our Detectives could've solved that case without you?"

"Uhhh..." I said, then paused and thought about it. "I'm not trying to demean them," I finally said, "but I don't know if they'd have gotten to a good and full solution, or they might've gone after Melissa as well, which would've been bad for what I'm working on now."

Jeffrey Burnham had confessed completely. He had contacted Benny Brighton, who he knew, who'd brought in Ferrell. Ferrell and Brighton had helped him bring in the carbon dioxide tanks. Then, as I'd surmised before, Ferrell sabotaged the power station.

It would seem like a big thing to do that just to get one man to go into a prepper shelter to die, but I knew Ferrell had other reasons for sabotaging the station, and also that the murder of Tim Burris reached far deeper than Jeffrey Burnham's stated motive of jealousy.

"That's what bothers me." said Cindy. "Of course the last thing in the world I want to happen is to lose you for any reason, but if you decide to join the FBI or retire to Alaska, I'm going to have get these people in a state where they can solve the crimes. I've noticed they use you as a crutch, and they don't move with the purpose they need to, because they know, consciously or not, that you're right there to solve the case and save the day."

"I agree with your sentiments." I said. "But don't be too harsh on them. They're good people, they're good but young Detectives, and they'll get there. Maybe not to where I am, seeing as I inherited my mother's powers, but they'll get there."

Just then there was a knock on the door. Chief Moynahan came in.

"Captain," he said, "would you mind giving me a moment with the Commander?" Cindy took the hint and scooted out.

The Chief put a brown sack on my desk. It contained a bottle of bourbon for my 'medicinal' drawer. I got out two shot glasses, poured two shots, and we clinked glasses and downed our shots.

As he sat down in a hot chair, the Chief said "Your actions this morning... reminded me of when I was commanding a Battalion in the Army. I wanted to use some Field Ordering funds in a not-quite-proper way, according to the regulations. I would say that 'regulations are merely guidelines for the commander to follow'.

"Wellllll... the Field Ordering Officer, a Second Lieutenant, refused to do it. Said these 'guidelines' being violated would put him and me in jail." continued Moynahan. "He stood up to me. I had to admire his integrity and his nerve in doing that, and to be honest, he was right."

"This morning," Moynahan went on, "you stood right up to me. You didn't even flinch. You still could've handled that situation with that girl better than you did, but I had to admire the way you stood your ground when it was correct to do so."

"Thank you, sir." I said.

"Okay, let's go to the Cop Bar for the victory party." said the Chief.

"By the way," I said, somehow realizing it was relevant, "what happened to that Lieutenant?"

The Chief smiled. "He ran into another Lieutenant Colonel that did not appreciate integrity. He got a couple of bad OERs, not deserved, and resigned his commission as a Captain in disgust. But he earned a nickname in the Cavalry for not bowing to pressure: 'Coldiron'. "

"Ahhhhh...." I said.

"Yes, Wes Masters." said the Chief. "He never mentions his military career. Anyway, when he separated from the Army, I hired him into my Police unit in Midtown P.D. Then, when the corrupt assholes in MPD started coming after us, you hired him here. And I do happen to know... that he appreciates your integrity and willingness to stand up for your people..."

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

The Cop Bar had few Firemen and Policemen, but it did have Mr. Davis and some of his very old WW2 veteran friends sitting at a table, drinking. They called the Chief and me over.

"Celebrating V-E Day, gentlemen?" I asked. Today was the anniversary of the day Nazi Germany surrendered to the Allies in Europe in 1945.

"Yes we are, young man." said Mr. Davis. "I still remember that great day as if it were yesterday. You Army boys were too young for that, but have a drink with us anyway."