Sausage and The Law Ch. 02

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.

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Part 7 - New Week, New Crime, New Issues and Answers

"This is Bettina Wurtzburg, KXTC Channel Two News!" shouted the redheaded MILF reporterette at 7:00am, Monday, January 10th, from the Anchor Desk of the KXTC studios. "The TCPD names a black suspect in the murder of a white couple in the Rio Linda Apartments southeast of Town!"

After the hard-charging intro music, Bettina began: "Local Police obtained an arrest warrant for Marquis Swift in connection with the murders of Sarah Sandstone and Geoff Gerard at the Rio Linda Apartments this weekend. Let's go to trusted reporter Amber Harris for more on this important story. Amber!"

"That's right, Bettina!" shouted the athletic, height-challenged blonde reporterette, reporting from the edge of the Rio Linda Apartments, with some of the buildings in her background. "The warrant for Mr. Swift's arrest was obtained after an eyewitness described him and his unique hairstyle. The Town & County Police have refused to identify the eyewitness, and KXTC Channel Two News will file an Open Records Act request demanding that Commander Donald Troy provide the eyewitness's name, and will sue if he and the TCPD refuse to comply and give you the information you have the right to know."

Amber: "Sarah Sandstone and Geoff Gerard lived in Apartment 10B of the Rio Linda Apartment complex. They're both white and had criminal records for drug-related offenses. Channel Two News has learned that the TCPD's drug dog did alert to the presence of drugs, and experts tell Channel Two News that it is possible those drugs were stolen after the victims were shot and killed."

Amber: "Mr. Swift is also wanted by the SBI's Drugs and Trafficking Division and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency for alleged drug distribution offenses. Both agencies have offered rewards for information leading to the capture of Mr. Swift, provided that the information is given directly to the SBI-DTD or the US DEA. Neither Commander Donald Troy nor anyone in the TCPD would respond to KXTC's repeated requests for comment asking if the TCPD would offer a competing reward. Back to you, Bettina!"

"Thank you, Amber!" Bettina said as the feed returned to her. "That was trusted reporter Amber Harris with that important story. And now let's go to highly respected political reporter Carl Lemay with a report on the State Legislature in Midtown. Carl!"

"That's right, Bettina!" said the Reporter of Color as the feed went to him in Midtown, with the State Capitol behind him. "For the first time in years, there in an energy about the State Capitol as Legislators work on important bills."

Lemay: "Governor Sharon Marshall surprised everyone by asking for a Commission to re-write the State Constitution, and there is equally surprising bipartisan support for it. It may be the first non-Budget bill to be passed in January and sent to the Governor's desk in the last five Legislative sessions!"

Lemay: "The Governor also sent a proposal for a new State Medical College, a Graduate-level School that would be totally independent of the University or any other School or College in the State. This proposal is receiving serious study in Committee, but University President Jerry Moore has voiced strong opposition to the proposal, as well as separating University Hospital from the University. Back to you, Bettina."

"Thank you, Carl!" Bettina said as the feed returned to her. "That was highly respected political reporter Carl Lemay with that important coverage of Your State Legislature in Midtown. And for a more local political story, let's go to Pat Stellum for a report on the Town & County Council. Pat!"

"That's right, Bettina" shouted the corpulent reporter with the Al-Capone-'ish' face and fat cheeks, giving trenchcoats and reporter-ish fedora hats a bad name as he reported from the rooftop of the building at the corner of Riverside and College, with City Hall as his backdrop. "Channel Two News has learned that the Town & County Council will be meeting today as a 'Committee of the Whole' to discuss two important proposals that were submitted to them last week."

Stellum: "The first proposal was by Town Assemblyman and Black Business Council member Dr. Raphael Kapel, who wants to split the Public Health Service from the Public Safety Department. He made the proposal in response to Republican Town Assemblyman and candidate for Mayor Ryan Paulson's attempts to defund the Public Health Department's Free Clinics that provide medical care to the County's poorest residents."

Stellum: "The second proposal is structural and organizational changes to the Public Safety Department. After the failure of Donald Troy to get the job done correctly in rewriting the Charter, Sheriff Antonio Griswold, who is facing an uphill primary challenge for his job, is proposing changes to the Public Safety Department structure. Channel Two News has learned that one aspect of these changes will be to give the Internal Affairs Departments more autonomy and have the Inspector General's Office have more input into Internal Affairs matters."

Stellum: "The Sheriff's proposals may be derailed by the proposal to separate the Public Health Service, and the Town & County Council is studying the Sheriff's proposals in conjunction with the separation issue."

Bettina came up on a split-screen. She said: "Pat, are some of these changes an attempt to get Internal Affairs away from the undue influence of Commander Donald Troy?"

Stellum: "No, Bettina, Commander Troy will still have outsized influenced in those areas. But experts tell me that it may be an effort to mitigate the damage the US DOJ Civil Rights Division is going to do to the TCPD in the coming months, including forcing the TCPD to comply with a Consent Decree..."

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

"Are they trying to get that poor eyewitness murdered?" asked Lt. Commander Teresa Croyle asked as she, Sheriff Griswold, Commander Troy (me), ADA Paulina Patterson, Chief Moynahan, Deputy Chief Tanya P. Muscone, and Chief Deputy Sheriff Cindy Ross drank coffee and watched the Bettina broadcast in the Chief's Conference Room. "And does the Public really have the right to know that?"

"Well, they obviously have the right to know that I refused to respond to their repeated requests for comment." I said witheringly. "But to answer your question seriously: yes, they are trying to get the eyewitness killed. In addition to hurting the Police investigation of this case, they will make future eyewitnesses terrified to help the Police in any way. Whatever Bettina's Bunch can do to hurt the TCPD, they will eagerly do."

Chief Moynahan said 'Sheriff, is your campaign for Sheriff really threat-nnnnd by the likes of Louis Bailey and Edgar Silas?"

"Har." barked Sheriff Griswold. "I'm beginning to see Media reports the way Crowbar parses them. When Fat Boy there said I was (air quotes) 'facing an uphill battle', he meant it was Louis Bailey's uphill battle, and I'm just facing it."

"My work here is almost done." I quipped. "Now all I have to do is re-edumacate the Green Crowbar about the Press." A green crowbar was waved in my general direction.

"But let's not get too comfortable." admonished Our Sheriff. "Things can change on a dime. And I'm concerned about Silas's campaign. Win or lose, he is really going to attack us. Especially you, Crowbar."

"Bring it on." I said with some venom in my voice. "Once you fix all my mistakes rewriting the Charter, you'll win in a landslide."

"Yeah, that was a real cheap shot by Stellum, there." said Tanya.

"And it's a total, bullshit lie." growled Griswold. "The Charter you wrote was fine, Crowbar. It took that Establishment Elitist Ryan Paulson to try to defund the Free Clinics for anyone to even care about where the Public Health Department is and what it is doing. It took Louis Bailey's insubordination and endangering you, Crowbar, for us to even feel the need to make any changes in the Public Safety Department." (Author's note: 'No Show' for Bailey's insubordination and Crowbar endangerment.)

"I know, Sheriff." I said. "And we were re-writing the Charter, not re-writing the Ten Commandments. Of course the Charter is not perfect, and never will be. But it's still a good framework. Having said that... I can see where Dr. Raphael Kapel is coming from, and he may have come up with a more elegant solution for the problem than I'd ever thought about."

Teresa said "The Fat Boy, a.k.a. Pat Stellum, was really full of himself saying so confidently that the TCPD will be forced into a Consent Decree. Between that and taking the direct cheap shot at you, Don, why is he feeling his oats like that? He's bottom-rung at KXTC, and would probably already have been fired if he wasn't Lionel Carmela's mouthpiece... and using his mouth to give Carmela blowjobs."

"Is he packing the tweezers he'd need to find Carmela's little shrimp between his legs?" Tanya asked, a vicious twinkle in her eyes. Her fellow Angels and I broke out laughing; the Chief, not so much.

Cindy said "I dunno if Stellum is sexually servicing Carmela; from what I hear, Carmela likes to fuck the ugliest, most feminist women on Campus. They whine about men at near-violent rallies, then meekly submit to him when he breaks them to his fist, and whatever else."

Cindy: "But Teresa's right. My secret Press source, whose name I won't mention but her initials are (P)riya (A)jmani, says that Amber Harris and Carl Lemay despise Fat Stellum, and Bettina thinks very little of him, as well. Only his fawning over Carmela and Dr. Moore and getting interviews with him are keeping him employed..."

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

9:00am, Monday, January 10th. A meeting convened in Classroom 'E'. Present were: Me, Lt. Commander Croyle, Captain Claire Michaels, Lieutenants Mary Milton, Christopher Purvis, Micah Rudistan, Teddy Parker, Theo Washington, and Joanne Warner, Detective Sergeant Julia Rodriguez, Detectives George Newman, Roark Coleman, Kerri Ambrose, and Joan Laurer, and Supervisor Yolanda Grissom.

Also with us were SBI-DTD Lieutenant Lorena Rose and DEA Special Agent Kevin Pitts. They had come in to discuss Marquis Swift and our warrant for his arrest, so Claire invited them to the meeting.

The meeting was our standard 'get our ducks in a row' about the Sandstone/Gerard murders, but the full MCD Division showed up to see Yolanda's first demonstration of her 3D software and analysis tools.

"O-kayyyy," I said to take control of and start the meeting, "let's hear about the victims first. Mary?"

"Thank you, sir." Mary Milton said. Two photos appeared on the 5x4 matrix of monitors, and two autopsy photos below them. "The apartment was leased in the name of Sarah Sandstone, age 24. She was in and out of foster homes until she was 18, then began working the poles in the clubs, and lots of private parties in the basements of Fraternity Houses. Numerous arrests for prostitution and drug possession in personal use amounts, and she had a tendency to take makeup and shoes from stores without paying for them. But she never did prison time. Just some fines."

Mary: "He was Geoff Gerard. And that rather mean countenance is matched by reports of his attitude, which constantly needed adjusting. He was a drug dealer, usually selling small amounts on the streets, then on the University campus, which is where he got busted for distribution."

Mary: "After being released from prison, he had no official problems until he was pulled over last year and played the 'Sovereign Citizen' game with the State Patrol. Saying things like he was traveling, not driving, so he didn't need a license. Refused to show ID nor his vehicle registration, so they shattered his window, TASERed him, dragged him kicking and screaming out of the car, and arrested him. The car was searched and the dog brought in, but no drugs nor weapons were found. Judge J.B. Stone threw out the charges, and also refused to allow his probation to be revoked. And Lieutenant Rudistan has more on them."

I nodded to Rudistan, who said "As you all know, people usually congregate and live together according to ethnicity. The Southwestern Ghetto in the south and southwest part of Town is nearly all Black. South of Town and in the Hotel Row area is mostly Hispanic. And the Rio Linda Apartments and the area around them is virtually all poor Whites."

Rudistan: "The 'Smooth White Boys' control the area. They sell drugs on the University campus and to the Fraternities, and they are rumored to be very heavily into prostitution, providing the Fraternities with girls for parties, a good bit of the club scene, and all that. They generally stay out of the areas controlled by T-Mac and the Rodrigo-san, and their territory east of University Avenue is left to them, though the University itself is considered neutral territory and open to all."

Rudistan: "We've had our eyes on Sarah Sandstone and Geoff Gerard for a while. As Lieutenant Milton said, she's been busted for prostitution and shoplifting. We consider her to be (air quotes) 'low rent', which is a step above 'trash' and 'streetwalker'. But all that may be cover, and she may be higher-up in the drug distribution chain than she appears to be."

Rudistan: "When Geoff Gerard was busted, he was believed to be part of the 'Smooth White Boys' organization. The SBI-NTF of the time leaned hard on him to get him to turn, but he would never admit he was part of the Smooth White Boys. So they threw him in State Prison for a couple of years. While on the inside, he hung out strictly with other Whites while in prison, which is common. But he never acted like he was a member of any of the White gangs."

"Was he on the SBI or DEA's radar?" I asked.

"The name was familiar to us, sir." said SBI Lieutenant Lorena Rose. "But he never popped up outside the Town & County's jurisdiction."

DEA Special Agent Kevin Pitts said "We didn't have much on him, either. But Homeland Security and the FBI under Attorney General Derrick B. Harland were working with the ATF to try to catch him running guns. They said they were seeing if he was arming the Smooth White Boys, but it was White Nationalists that Harland's weaponized Swamp Frogs were hoping to catch him arming... like the Guardians of Justice Motorcycle Club. No success there, and I personally think they were just trying to harass the GOJMC and other White right-wing groups, which they believe are the true threat to (air quotes) 'our Democracy'."

"Uh huh." I said. "Okay, Joanne, tell me about the eyewitness. You talked to her again?"

Lorena Rose said "Before we move along, I need to add a couple of things. First, from what we know of him, this doesn't really fit Marquis Swift's M.O. He's the leader of a gang that moves a good bit of product, and doesn't fool around with armed robberies like this. Second, and closely related to the first point, he's been in firefights with other gangs, but we have no concrete example of him killing someone as part of a robbery to take drugs. So this whole pattern doesn't really fit the mold for Marquis Swift."

"First time for everything, sir." said Joanne Warner. "And maybe the victims were targets of opportunity, and Swift saw something and acted on it on a whim."

"Could be." I said. "So you talked to the woman across the hallway?"

"Yes sir. Yesterday." said Joanne. "Her name is Rhonda Huntington. The name on the apartment lease is Randy Luna. Rhonda has been busted for prostitution and personal amounts of weed and dope, but that's it. She's had a ton of waitressing jobs, and she's on and off welfare."

Joanne: "Randy Luna has a painting business, as in painting houses and buildings and such. He gets contracts with construction firms that are mostly disreputable and possibly Mob-connected, and he hires Illegals to do most of the work. No arrests for drugs, either distribution or personal amounts, but he's had three DUIs reduced to misdemeanor traffic citations over the last six years. He also contributed to Bruce Finneran's failed campaign for Inspector General, and his application to foster was denied over lack of steady income... well that's the official reason. Don't want to go 'round spreadin' rumors, dontcha know." We all chuckled at that.

Joanne: "I went to the crime scene location yesterday with Joan Laurer and George Newman. There are still Police milling about the area, so we didn't look too out of place. I went to Rhonda's, and she didn't want to let me in, but I told her that we'd be less visible if we weren't in the hallway, so she let us in."

Joanne: "Her apartment looked like it'd been very recently cleaned up. She had us sit down in chairs very near to the door, and clearly didn't want us walking around her apartment. She told us she lived with Randy, but he wasn't at home, and he had not been at home when the crime occurred."

Joanne: "She did not want us to video her making her statement, so I recorded it on audio. I asked her to confirm what she'd told us the day before, and she did. She said when Sarah and Geoff came home, she cracked the door opened to make sure it was them. And then the man she described, which matches the description of Swift, came behind them from outside, burst into the apartment, and fired at them."

Joanne: "I asked clarifying questions, such as exactly where the shooter was when he fired, and she said he was at the end of the door, well inside the door frame, and she could clearly see his back. She could not identify what kind of gun he was holding. She said he went to the table and picked up something, but she quickly shut the door as he turned to leave so that he wouldn't see her when he turned to leave. She also admitted to being the caller to 9-1-1 that identified the apartment the victims were in. And that's pretty much all she could give us."

I said "Joan, what were your observations during the interview?"

"Rhonda -was- nervous, sir." Joanne Laurer said. "But not unreasonably so. And she was uncomfortable with us being in her apartment, but I would suspect most of the tenants of that complex would also be that way around us."

"True, that." I said. I asked George Newman for his observations, and he said he stayed in the hallway while the women interviewed Rhonda. He also observed that he was the only black man in the area at the time, and while he never felt threatened, since he was wearing his uniform, he did get some 'strange' looks from passersby when he was outside.

"Okay." I said. "And now for the moment we've all been waiting for. Yolanda, do your technical magic, please!"

There was an enthusiastic response, including some applause, as Yolanda stood up and plugged her laptop into the dock on the table. Still standing, she said "I first want to say that I'm happy to be here as part of the TCPD Team, and I think I found the very best spot to land." Everyone applauded.