Scavenger Hunt Ch. 04

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 14 - Council Internal Affairs (continued)

Tuesday, October 12th. I announced: "The names of the candidates for the positions are..."

"... 2d Precinct Captain Eitan Abram for I.A. Commander, and Detective Lisa Monroe for I.A. Lieutenant."

For several seconds there was complete silence, and I couldn't figure out if that was a good or bad thing. And then the silence was broken. You get one guess who broke it, and it had better be 'Kelly Carnes'.

"What?!" gasped Carnes. "You're nominating a kike to be the head of Internal Affairs?"

Five Points of Order were immediately raised... and not all of them by Republicans. "Points of Order accepted." said Daniel Allgood. "Mrs. Carnes, you will apologize and retract that statement."

"The hell I will!" yelled Carnes. "And you can go straight to Hell, you racist, illegitimate Mayor!"

More objections were raised. "Your language is Hate Speech, Carnes." said Dagmar Schoen, who hated Kelly Carnes as limitlessly as Carnes hated Schoen.

"It's FREE Speech!" Carnes yelled back. "I don't see any of you sanctimonious white Republicans complaining when black people are called the n-word!"

"This isn't about anyone else saying anything else." Dagmar fired back. "Stop trying to deflect, and project your Hate Speech onto others."

And then the room fell silent as Teresa Croyle got up and walked to the table, standing between Kelly Carnes and Edgar Silas. Sergeant-At-Arms Harrison J. Pierce watched her warily and leaned forward, as if to unsnap the strap on his holster. I caught his eye and shook my head, and he sat back.

Teresa dangled her necklace from her hand. "Do you know what this is, Mrs. Carnes?" she asked.

"Ask me if I care." Kelly Carnes spat in reply.

"You should... you should care." Teresa said. "The coin here is from ancient Roman times. It was the only thing a German Jewish woman was able to smuggle out of the country as she fled the Nazi death squads."

Teresa: "I received it from that woman's great-granddaughter on my wedding day. The great-granddaughter who became my mother-in-law that day. Yes... Todd's mother... and the sister of the Iron Crowbar."

Carnes turned and looked at me. She said "So you're a fucking Bar Code, too, huh?."

"By ethnicity." I said. "And proud of it."

"Now we know what's wrong with you." Carnes said. "Geez, a redheaded Jew, exercising Police brutality on this County's People of Color. Who knew?"

There were immediately five objections, and the other Council Members were imploring the Mayor to do something. Teresa's voice cut through theirs and the tension of the room as she said "Keep it up, Carnes. The Iron Crowbar does not forget, and he does hold grudges. And ditto that for me." She turned and went back to her seat.

"Yes." I said. "I'm too busy right now doing my job for the Police Force. But one day, Mrs. Carnes... one day..."

"Is that a threat?" Sheila Sorrells asked, her own voice sounding like a threat.

"Let's move on." said Daniel Allgood. "Commander, tell us more about both of these nominees."

"Certainly, Mr. Mayor." I replied. "Captain Abram has worked his way up the ranks of the Police Force to become 2nd Precinct Captain. He has served with distinction and with great integrity, especially in administering discipline as the Precinct Captain. He has served as 'Acting Chief' many times during the Christmas Holidays period. And the Sheriff, Police Chief, and Inspector General have stated in writing that they have full confidence that Lieutenant Commander Abram will do a sterling job as I.A. Commander."

I continued: "Lisa Monroe came to us after years of tough Police duty in the City Police Department, and her time-in-grade with them makes her eligible to be promoted to Lieutenant for this position. Not only was she incorruptible, which annoyed her superior Officers and caused them to make efforts to hold her back, she beat their efforts and exposed corruption several times."

Me: "I scooped her up into the TCPD as quickly as I could upon finding she was willing to join us, and she has done an excellent job with our Vice Squad. And the fact that she is not a longtime TCPD Officer means that she can do the job of Internal Affairs Officer with impartiality and integrity."

Edward R. Steele asked "Who will be replacing Captain Abrams as 2nd Precinct Captain?" Thanks, Edward, I thought to myself. Nice softball.

I replied "Precinct Lieutenant Sean DeLong is being nominated to be Precinct Captain, and Sergeant Stevie Carter, who was considered for the Precinct Lieutenant role at the time DeLong got it, will be promoted and put into the Precinct Lieutenant position."

Malinda Adams said viciously: "And once again you utterly fail to promote women to these positions of leadership---"

I interrupted: "I'm not fooling with your gender hatred shit tonight, Ms. Adams. You can ask Lisa Monroe what her pronouns are. And once again, the TCPD does not promote based on the Identity Politics of gender or race... " I turned and stared right through Kelly Carnes as I finished: ...nor disqualify anyone based upon their ethnicity or religion."

"Your actions contradict your own words, kike." Kelly Carnes snarled in reply. Then she said more loudly: "So! Commander Troy has his yes-man in Internal Affairs, without consulting anyone, without considering any other qualifications."

I replied "As the rest of you know, but Mrs. Carnes is too stupid to comprehend, I'm subject to the Chief, Sheriff, and Inspector General. Of course you, Carnes, wouldn't consider anyone who doesn't state out loud his or her desire to come after me, and use the power of Government position to exercise political witch hunts."

"It doesn't matter." Carnes said. "I'm going to fight whoever you nominate, solely because it's you and your Police Department. And Abram being a God damned Jew disqualifies him from any reasonable consideration."

"You've been warned about your Hate Speech, Carnes." Dagmar Schoen said threateningly.

"Ohh, she's just trolling us now." said J.P. Goldman. "She's just saying it to get a rise out of you. Ignore her."

"No, I intend to file a complaint against her with the State and US Civil Rights Divisions." Dagmar said.

"It won't matter if you do." said Edgar Silas. "They'll just ignore your complaint, especially since you're a Republican and she's a Democrat. They only go after Conservative white men for Hate Speech.... what? Did I say something a little too truthful, there?"

*tap tap tap tap tap tap*

Daniel Allgood's gavel was at work, followed by him saying "All right, I've been more than patient enough. Thank you for your nominations and your time, Commander Troy." As I went to sit down, he said "Okay, will someone please make a motion, so that we can get home before sunrise?"

"You got someplace to be, Mr. Mayor?" Sheila Sorrells asked, a bit viciously.

"Why, yes I do." Daniel said. "I want to get home to my wife. Have you seen how good looking she is? Okay, Mr. Colby is recognized."

John Colby said "I move to immediately approve all of these promotions."

"I second." said Ian McGhillie.

"HOLD ON!" yelled Edgar Silas. "We have had no chance to even read up on these Officers, examine their records, or anything else! I would like to actually sit down and talk to Captain Abrams and Detective... Detective... Monroe." He'd read her name off the paper in front of him.

Silas: "Instead, Commander Troy throws these nominations out with NO warning, NO announcement, NO consultation with us. And now you filthy Fascist Republicans are trying to ram these nominations through with NO discussion, NO due diligence, and NO respect for the Black Citizens of this County!"

"There it is. The race card." Edward R. Steele replied witheringly. "You can't go through even one Council session without throwing it in everyone's faces."

*tap tap tap tap tap tap* went the Mayor's gavel.

"May I, Mr. Mayor?" I asked, returning to the podium. He nodded, and I said "Mr. Silas, we the Police are under no obligation to consult with you beforehand, only to submit the names, which we have just done. And let me be totally clear on this: In the course of doing my job as Police Commander, I will never, EVER consult with you beforehand."

Susan Weston fired back: "You might get a lot more done if you showed the slightest bit of courtesy and consulted with us beforehand."

"Why?" I thundered back. "So you can run to Bettina Wurtzburg and have her leak the names, then trash the nominations if the names aren't in jackbooted lockstep with your views?"

Sheila Sorrells said "Mr. Mayor, I move to lay this motion on the table."

"I second." said the other four Democrats.

"Why?" I practically yelled. "You gripe for months... months... demanding we nominate someone, then get your tool Bettina to whine about it, and even to outright lie about the non-existent threat of a Police strike... and now that we've given you the names, you want to delay, delay, delay? Why, so you can get Bettina to lie some more and trash these Officers's good names---"

"You damn right that's what we're going to do!" yelled Kelly Carnes. "And there is not a God damned thing you can do about it!---"

*tap tap tap tap tap tap*

"There is a motion to lay it on the table, which cannot be debated." said the Mayor. "I heard Malinda Adams's voice, so let the record show Ms. Adams as having seconded the motion. Let's vote." The vote was 5-5... but J.P. Goldman had voted for it, and Susan Weston against.

Daniel Allgood said "The Council being evenly divided, I wish to have a recorded vote on this, and I vote against it. We will continue the discussion. Sheriff, Chief, Commanders, unless the Council Members would like for you to stay to discuss these nominations, you can go."

No one asked for us to stay. We swiftly exited the Chamber.

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

As we walked back to Police Headquarters, Teresa said to me "I can't recall you being that openly and aggressively hostile to the Council in... forever. You okay?"

"I dunno." I said sourly. "I'm getting sick and tired of it all... the duplicity, the hypocrisy, the 'woke' crap... and worst of all, that bitch Kelly Carnes can openly call Abram and me epithets in an official local Government meeting, and she will get away with it, you just watch. But you are more likely to get in trouble for what you said to her than she is for her racist hate speech."

Teresa said "You sure it's not more? There's still a lot going on with the Toyota Gang business. And with Michaels and the Detective Corps. That's about to explode."

"Yeah, I know." I said. "And I have a solution to that. But we've got to get that last Toyota Gang cell first."

Teresa said "All I'll say is that it's a good thing you're getting laid tomorrow." I did a double-take and peered at her. Teresa just looked forward with a little smile on her face. After a moment we both began whimpering laughs, which turned to all-out laughter. Yeah, the Iron Wolf had just punked me, and good...

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

11:30pm. Marie and Carole were asleep in Carole's room, and Jim in his room, when my personal iPhone buzzed. It was Edward R. Steele. The Council meeting had just ended, and he was at his house. Stephanie Steele had 'telescope time' at the University Observatory.

"How did it go?" I asked.

"Good and bad." Edward said. "The good news is that we rammed it through, on strict Party lines with Daniel breaking the tie. But there will be a second reading of the bill next week, so it's not a done deal yet, and the Democrats are openly saying they're going to use the time to publicly trash the nominees, especially Abram and Monroe."

"Consider me 'not surprised'." I said.

"There's more." Edward said. "Silas said over and over that Republicans... well, he said 'the White Nationalists in the room'... ramrodding things like this through the Council with no prior warning and no debate is why there is going to be a lawsuit to, and I quote, 'rectify the injustice of the unequal representation on this Council', unquote."

Edward: "Jack Colby called his bluff, and said that would trigger a vote to re-separate the Town from the County, and was that what Silas really wanted? Silas said the lawsuit would ask for the plebiscite provision in the Charter to be enjoined and prohibited as part of the settlement."

Edward: "Then I opened my mouth and said that in the first place, there would be no 'settlement'; and in the second place if the Charter was changed we would fight any attempt to prevent the plebiscite all the way to the US Supreme Court. It was Silas's reaction that surprised me. He recoiled, as if he'd been punched in the nose, and as if he had not even considered that we might fight him on that."

I said "It is what it is."

Edward: "And one last thing. The reason the meeting took so long was not because of the issue at hand, but about you. I guess I was not the only one that noticed how hostile and aggressive you were with them. Sure we understand you were pissed off at what Carnes said, but even the Mayor said you crossed the line. The Democrats want to ban you from all future Council Executive Sessions... and Allgood broke the 5-5 tie in favor of banning you..."

Part 15 - Sleeping With The Enemy

"This is Bettina Wurtzburg, KXTC Channel Two News!" shouted the redheaded MILF reporterette at 7:00am, Wednesday, October 13th, from the roof of the building at Riverside and College, with Police Headquarters in her distant background. "Commander Donald Troy once again makes horrible personnel decisions!"

After the hard-charging intro music, Bettina began: "At last night's Council meeting, Commander Troy submitted the names of Precinct Captain Eitan Abram for Internal Affairs Commander. Captain Abram, who is Jewish, has been Acting Police Chief during the Christmas break. Let's go to highly respected political reporter Carl Lemay for more. Carl!"

"That's right, Bettina!" said the Reporter of Color, reporting from the same rooftop as Bettina, but with City Hall in his background. "Experts are saying that Commander Troy has shown his usual disregard for Police Officers of Color by naming a Jewish man as I.A. Commander. Experts agree that having a Jewish Internal Affairs leader investigating Police Officers of Color could be a significant problem, and lead to lawsuits by any such Officers found to be in the wrong."

Lemay: "And as part of his surprise move that caught everyone off-guard, Commander Troy nominated Detective Lisa Monroe to be Internal Affairs Officer, normally a Captain's position. Detective Monroe would be promoted to Lieutenant if approved for the slot."

Lemay: "However, experts say that the choice of Monroe is particularly bad and insulting, because Detective Monroe joined the TCPD after years working for the City Police Department, and she left as the City Police Internal Affairs scandal was brewing."

The feed went to a split-screen, and Bettina said "Carl, let me add here that our viewers will remember that that scandal involved TCPD Chief Moynahan's crony, Wes Masters some months ago." (Author's note: 'Who Watches The Watchers'.) "And despite the scandal and the corruption that was found in the City Police I.A. Department, Governor Sharon Marshall appointed Masters head of the SBI anyway. It appears that Commander Troy is making the same error in bringing former City cop Lisa Monroe into TCPD Internal Affairs."

Lemay: "That's right, Bettina." As the feed returned to him exclusively, he said: "Several Council Members told Channel Two News that they received no advance notification of these nominations for these important posts, and that nobody in the Town & County Public Safety Department consulted with them nor discussed any potential nominations beforehand. Back to you, Bettina."

The feed returned to Bettina, who said "Thank you, Carl! Perhaps if Sheriff Griswold or his people would've given the Council Members that much courtesy, then these disastrous nominations might have been avoided, and the Internal Affairs Department would be staffed with people who are not Commander Troy's 'yes-man' asskissers."

Bettina: "That was political reporter Carl Lemay with that important story. And in other news, a Federal raid on a location in the Warehouse District may spell the end of the Toyota Gang's series of armed robberies in our County." After giving the address of hte location, she said: "And now let's go to trusted reporter Amber Harris for another crime story. Amber!"

"That's right, Bettina!" shouted the athletic but height-challenged blonde reporterette, on location with the raided auto shop behind her. "The FBI and DEA, assisted by TCPD Officers, raided this defunct auto repair shop yesterday, and discovered that it was a base of operations for the Toyota Gang that had been outsmarting Commander Donald Troy for months!"

Amber repeated the exact address of the location, and as drone and ground footage showed the shop and where it was, she said "The FBI and DEA recovered four Toyotas believed to have been used in the gang's series of armed robberies, as well as items believed stolen by the gang in other burglaries."

Amber: "Additionally, a large quantity of illegal drugs were found, and the DEA is investigating if the gang is part of a larger, interstate drug ring. Federal authorities are taking over the case after their successful raid. And after months of failure by Commander Donald Troy to solve the gang's crime spree, the Federal authorities's successful result is a welcome change. Back to you, Bettina!..."

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

The only sounds in the Chief's Conference Room were coffee being slurped by Our Sheriff, Your Iron Crowbar, Chief Moynahan, Deputy Chief Muscone, Chief Deputy Ross, ADA Paulina Patterson, and a Lieutenant Commander with a very bad attitude.

Finally, Sheriff Griswold broke the silence: "I expected Bettina to take shots at Captain Abram after what I heard in the Council meeting last night. But to attack Lisa Monroe by all but calling 'Coldiron' Masters the bad guy in the City Police I.A. case? That is just... lower than low."

"Par for the course for the biased, dishonest, and corrupt Mainstream Media." I replied. Have I mentioned that I utterly despise the biased, dishonest, and corrupt Mainstream Media?

Teresa said "I guess I'm halfway numb about all that, because what is making my blood boil right now is how they're giving the Feds all the credit for busting the Toyota Gang based on one... ONE!... raid, when the TCPD, and especially Commander Troy, did all the work taking them down."