Schoolhouse Rock Ch. 07

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, 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.

Part 33 - Watching Over Me

"Oh my God, she's gotten away!" yelled Stevens, who was going for his cellphone. "We've got to shut off the streets, get patrols out on them to pick her up!"

"She's probably over the State Line by now." said Muscone, looking daggers at me. "She could be anywhere."

To their amazement, and the amazement of everyone else around that had come up and was watching us, Your Iron Crowbar began singing. Yes, singing.

"All night, all day," I sang, "Angels watching over me, my Lord. All night, all day, Angels watching over me..."

"Are you crazy?" yelled Stevens. "Harper is getting away!"

"Relax, Mr. Stevens." I said serenely. "R-E-L-A-X. Just relax. Like I just said... I've got Angels..."

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

"And now, to protect the rights and lives of decent citizens, the Green Crowbar rides again!"

---- an excellent paraphrasing of the 'Green Hornet' TV show intro, circa 1966.

"There they go." said Nextdoor County Police Chief Molly Evans as she sat in the shotgun seat of the Black Beauty, seeing the black car drive by them.

"And here we go." replied her sister, TCPD Deputy Chief Cindy Ross. As the black car went north on Riverside Drive, the Black Beauty pulled onto the road behind them.

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

"Ah, we did it." said Marcie Harper as the 'Agent' in the shotgun seat undid her handcuffs. She sat back in the rear of the vehicle and said: "Now get up to North Street and turn left, going west. It's ten miles from there to the State Line and we'd better get over it before the Iron Crowbar realizes we've left him in the dust, eating our shit."

"Yes ma'am." said the driver. Then he looked in the rear-view mirror. "Uh oh. We've got a dark green car right behind us, and closing fast."

"Lose 'em." Marcie said. "This car has a real motor in it, doesn't it? Give 'em a demonstration." The driver gunned it. He hurtled towards North Street and, violating many traffic laws and the intersection's red lights, pulled onto the highway going for the State Line.

"Ah shit, they're right behind us!" said the driver. "And they're burning blue lights." Indeed, Cindy Ross had turned on the Black Beauty's embedded blue LED lights, indicating that this was a Police vehicle in pursuit of wanted perps. The driver sped up, giving the car everything he could.

"They're keeping up!" he said, his voice showing his panic. "I can't lose 'em!"

"Just keep driving!" Marcie yelled. "If we make the State Line, we'll be okay!"

The driver poured on the gas, and the car was reaching 160 miles per hour. The Black Beauty was still right behind him. Then he looked forward. A tiny light was ahead of him. And then, sheer horror overtaking him, he realized that the light was getting bigger... and that it was coming right at him!

"Drone!" he yelled, mistaking the tiny helicopter as a drone. It dropped right into his line, coming right at him!

"AAAAUUGGHH!" he screamed as he turned the wheel hard over. He lost control of the car as the small helicopter buzzed just inches over the car's top. The car skidded on its side for fifty yards, throwing a shower of sparks, then slid right off the road into the ditch, still on it's side.

Cindy and Molly were out of the Black Beauty as soon as it stopped, guns drawn as they approached the vehicle. Town & County Police cruisers also were coming up quickly. The three perps were not injured, just shaken up. Seeing the hopelessness of their position, they surrendered and were taken into custody.

"Sorry to ruin your vacation plans, Marcie." said Commander Ross as she herself handcuffed the visibly shaken Marcie Harper. She looked over in the field about 30 yards away and gave a thumbs-up sign. Captain Teresa Croyle gave a thumbs-up in reply, then lifted off in the Whirlybat, flying it south-by-southeast towards its home at BOW Enterprises...

Part 34 - Schoolhouse Rocked

"I don't believe it." DEA Agent Dwight Stevens said as he looked through the one-way glass into Interrogation-1 at Police Headquarters. "She didn't get away."

It was 1:00am, Sunday, February 3d. Marcie Harper was sitting with her attorney Gwen Munson. Harper was handcuffed to the iron ring embedded in the table.

"No, Dwight," I said, "she didn't get away. As I said, I've got Angels." Tanya, Teresa, and Cindy all grinned as they listened in from the Monitor Room.

"But... but how did you know she was going to try that, to get away like that?" Dwight asked, amazed.

"It was obvious what Marcie was going to do, and that she had an exit strategy planned." I said. "So we were ready to follow the fake Agents that took her with them. I suspect the driver will be waking up screaming about helicopters coming at him for some time to come. Is that not right, Iron Wolf?" I knew that would make Teresa grin in the Monitor Room. And I was right.

"All right, all right." said Stevens. "But I think you need to tell us the whole story."

"In time, in time." I said. "But don't you need to interrogate Marcie immediately?" That got Jack's beady black eyes peering at me. I just gave him a look back, a look that told him he was not dealing with an Agency of the Weak-Minded.

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

Marcie and Gwen just looked up at us as Stevens came into the Interrogation Room, followed by me. Corporal Gunddottar was the Uniformed Presence.

As we sat down, I said "Oh, I don't think we need these any longer." as I began unlocking Marcie's handcuffs, then taking them out of the ring and pocketing them. "I think I've demonstrated that you will not be getting away from me any time soon."

"I admit it, you got me." said Marcie, though not with the enthusiasm she'd shown at Sharpton Elementary. When Munson tried to caution her to be quiet, Marcie said "It's okay." She then turned to me and said "I'd love to know how you got onto me." Then she said "You got the code. Somehow, you found the code system."

"It was pointed out to me by a rather astute first grader." I said. "The code itself wasn't hard to decipher."

"You weren't hard to decipher, either, Mr. James Donald, when you came to my studio on that little visit." Marcie said, looking up at me through her eyebrows. "How'd you get Todd Burke to go along with that?"

"His wife is very persuasive with him." I said, and perhaps the glimmer of my gray eyes showed my amusement. "And he really is interested in the lessons for his charity work."

"Ms. Harper, I'm DEA Special Agent Dwight Stevens." said Dwight Stevens, trying to gain control of this interrogation. "Commander, will you read Ms. Harper her rights?"

"Already read to her when she was arrested." I said, to show that our previous moments of conversation were Mirandized. "But I'll do so again, anyway." I read Marcie her considerable legal rights form the card.

"What I don't understand," said Stevens, "is that you knew Commander Troy had visited you, you knew he was watching you..."

"And without any kind of warrant, I might add." said Gwen Munson.

"None was needed." said Stevens. "But to my question: you went through with this drug drop, anyway. I don't understand why."

"You don't understand a lot of things." said Gwen Munson. "Including the fact that you have no proof of anything against my client more than perhaps trespassing on school property."

I chuckled. "Oh, I think I have more faith in the intelligence of American Juries than you're giving them." I said. "And I'm sure Tim Sluman will be eager to turn State's evidence---- oh, that's right!" I exclaimed, then turned to Marcie and said witheringly: "He's dead. The warrant executed at his home in Palmyra County found him in his bed, forever asleep... with some drugs injected into him. A comparison of those drugs with the drugs injected into Master Sergeant Terhune at Valley Villages will show them to be the same. Two murders in the commission of a great many felonies, Marcie. And using our children's schools for drug drops? It will be a death penalty case, Marcie."

"Stop intimidating my client!" yelled Gwen Munson.

"That's not intimidation." said Stevens. "That's just a statement of the facts. MSG Terhune was a retired Army NCO. We'll be pushing for Federal as well as State murder charges."

"And that's just if you make it to that point, Marcie." I said. "Look, you're a smart, even brilliant woman. But you know as well as I do that you know too much, and that there are people out there who will stop at nothing to try to kill you before you talk. That's why you went through with the drug drop tonight. You planned for us to take everyone in this ring into custody, while you snuck away and disappeared, to start a new life!"

"Oh, please." said Gwen Munson.

"Ms. Munson, please." said Marcie, stopping the attorney. She then looked at me and said "What will you offer me?" Gwen Munson just about went ballistic, trying to get Marcie to stop talking.

"Let me speak with my client, please?" said Gwen.

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

"So that was it." said Jack Muscone as a large number of people sat in Classroom 'J' and enjoyed some of Jerome Davis's 'Navy' coffee. "She had everyone walk into your trap, letting us bust them all, while she was hoping to get away, leave it all in the dust, and disappear completely."

"That certainly makes the most sense, does it not?" I replied. All eyes were on me as I explained: "She knew when she and her people identified me as the visitor to her studio that I was on her like white on rice. By rights, she should've completely shut down her operation, disappeared, then created a new system somewhere else. And I think she was about to, when she put out the 'red mouse' warning that last week's shipment was not going to take place."

"But then she changed that to a trap scenario." I said. "And perhaps she was mollified when her trap at Valley Villages went un-sprung. But I fully realized her intent, to commit 'suicide-by-DEA' and let us shut down her entire operation, when she scheduled the next shipment here, in my County. She wanted to get shut down. But she did not count on the Green Crowbar and the Iron Wolf relentlessly hunting her down and capturing her again." The Green Crowbar and the Iron Wolf grinned as they sipped their 'Navy' coffee.

"You guys have interesting nicknames." said Dwight Stevens. "I admit, I was ready to bust your head open when I thought Marcie had gotten away."

"That was key to getting as many of her people as possible." I said. "I'm sure the FBI and DEA will be investigating how Marcie had a Government vehicle with real Government license plates picking her up, and how two of her people could have such well-forged ID documents in their possession."

"Obviously her whole operation was sophisticated, well-funded, and very large." said Stevens."

"Enough for those two fake Agents to know that you and Jack were coming up to pick up Marcie." I replied. "They were in on her escape plan, but the problem was that they already knew what our plans were. They thought you were in Midtown, which is what we planned out loud and, I admit, where I too thought you were going to be. You have a mole somewhere, Agent Stevens."

"Yes, and we're going to be sniffing that mole out." said Jack Muscone. "You should thank the Iron Crowbar, Dwight. I freely admit Marcie would've eluded us, all of us, including you and me. But the Iron Crowbar is not an Agency of the Weak Minded."

"You got that right." Teresa said with alacrity. She and I fist-bumped.

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

"Death off the table." said Paulina Patterson. "You've got so many other counts against you that you're going to be in prison for the rest of your life, anyway. So that's all I can offer you. Death off the table, and protection in custody."

We were in I-1 again. Marcie wanted a deal. Paulina was called in, as was D.A. Miriam Walters, who was watching in the Monitor Room.

"Well," said Dwight Stevens, "there is the murder of Master Sergeant Terhune that brings Federal death penalty charges." He was not really liking it that we were undercutting him on all this.

"Which you'll never prove, or be able to connect her to." Gwen Munson said.

"Even so," I said, "I can and will make a good case against your client for Tim Sluman's death."

"I'll take the deal." said Marcie. "What do you want to know?"

"I want the person or persons you've been contacting to arrange the drug shipments into the State, or whoever is making that happen." I said. "I want the names of the people you're laundering the money through. And I want the names of every person in every school that's part of this. I know every school you've done these drops at, from the time you started this operation. And I know that you must have an insider at each of those schools, to open the lunchrooms or storerooms, and make the drops physically possible."

"I don't know exactly who arranges for the drugs to come in." said Marcie. "They watch the videos, too, which tell them how much to ship in and the location. They send the trucks."

"We'll get that from the guys we busted tonight." I said. "And who do you launder the money through?"

"Sluman was the guy with those contacts." Marcie said. "All I know is that there's someone in the State, who has the capability to spread out a lot of money through his enterprises and bring it back again. He took his cut, but he dealt with us honestly, such as it is. I only know that he called himself 'Mr. Big'."

"And you never met him?" I asked.

"No, Sluman handled all that." said Marcie, "except for the drop tonight. Sluman had been skimming off of me, and putting that money into accounts in the Cayman Islands. We found that out when we needed that money this weekend and it wasn't there. My security people are actually Made Men with the City Mob. They made the contacts."

"C'mon, Marcie." I said, not fooled a bit.

"Look, all I can tell you is that 'Mr. Big' is very wealthy, runs a massive business... and I don't know what that business is... that he's middle-aged and dresses very well." said Marcie. "He's very well hidden, very much in the deep background... so much so that even you have not realized who he is."

"Au contraire." I said. "I'm beginning to see the man's patterns. He's not as good as the Consultant of Crime, who interfered with your plans, Marcie, and whose death made you possible."

"And I have you to thank for that, Mr. Iron Crowbar." said Marcie with a smile. "I was so happy when he died, and his constraints upon me were lifted by his death. Anyway, as to the names of the people in the schools..."

She told me that on her laptop that was on the desk of her studio, the one in all the videos with the ever-changing mice, that had those names, was a computer file, and she gave me the decryption passphrase for it. And to my stunned amazement, it would work. I would have the names of those responsible for bringing drugs onto the school grounds where our children were being educated.

"Okay, then." I said, getting up. "I'll leave you to tell the details to DEA Agent Stevens, and I'll go begin the mountain of paperwork that you have created for me, Ms. Harper."

"My apologies if I'm not sympathetic." Marcie said. "And I'm sorry I did not give you a better battle of wits." I had been heading to the door, but I turned around at that.

"On the contrary," I said, "you gave me a tremendous battle, almost worthy of the Consultant himself. Your operation was ingenious, as was the communication method through your videos. It was not I who defeated you, either, but someone who I daresay is going to be a better Detective than me. I salute you, Ms. Harper."

With that I turned and left the room, not mentioning that Marcie Harper's whole operation had been brought down by the observations and vibes of a five-year-old... though admittedly the five-year-old that would one day bear the title of 'The Iron Crowbar'...

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

As Teresa and I walked down the back hall towards my office, she said "One thing I don't understand: why would you let the DEA have Marcie Harper at all? I'm stunned you didn't have the TCPD bring her here first."

I smiled. As we went into my office and I closed the door, I said "First of all, to let you and Cindy have some fun busting her. And second... well, I needed to show DEA Special Agent Dwight Stevens that I'm not an Agency of the Weak Minded. Special Agent Stevens intended to whisk Marcie away from me."

"Heh." said Teresa. "I'm surprised Jack Muscone went along with that. Is Stevens a good guy or a bad guy?"

"I'm not sure Jack knew Stevens's plans, either." I said. "And in Dwight's defense, I had given him several reasons to not entirely trust me during this case. He's one of the good guys, from what I can tell. But if I had given Marcie to him, we'd never have seen her again; she'd have been taken wayyyy out of this County, and retained in Federal custody by the DEA. And she'd be dead within 48 hours."

Teresa grinned, what was a grin for her, anyway. "Well," she said, "you may think Carole will be a better than you one day... but I think that bar is going to be pretty damn high."

"As high as I can possibly make it." I said with my own grin. "But I think Carole will meet and exceed whatever standard I set..."

Part 35 - Remembrance

Sunday, February 3d. Over the next few days, Police Officers would be hard at work, processing all the perps we arrested, putting all the stories together, taking the perps through their arraignments. My own workload would be considerable. But I took a moment to do something just as important.

At dawn, I drove to Cemetery Hill, to the grave of Police Corporal Peter M. Feeley. I laid the bouquet of flowers I'd brought at the base of his tombstone. As I made a point to remember my failure that led to his death, I heard something behind me. I turned to see Teresa Croyle standing by the road. I waved for her to come up.

"Please excuse me for disturbing you." she said, bowing as she came up to me.

"You are not disturbing me." I said, bowing back. "I'm glad you're here."

After a moment, Teresa said "You don't still blame yourself for this, do you?"

"No... Yes." I said. "But it is what it is. I come to remember, and reflect."

"If I may ask," Teresa said, "upon what do you reflect?"

I nodded, then said: "As you know, I have endured a lot these past few years. My family has been threatened, even attacked. I've been called every filthy, ugly name the God-cursed Media can think to call me. They have used the legal system to try to destroy me. And sometimes my back hurts so much that I can't pick up my children to hug them, or lean over to pet my dogs."

I was looking at Feeley's grave, feeling Teresa watching me as I said: "Don't tell anyone this, but there have been times when I have asked myself if it is worth it, to keep going, to keep fighting crime and fighting the Evil that relentlessly continues to seek to destroy me, and all of us. I could just step away, stop fighting. I've done enough. Why should I continue to take the abuse, and have my family subjected to the relentless Media attacks, when I could give it up, take my family somewhere, and continue my life in peace?"