Secrets of Apple Grove Ch. 04

"That won't matter." said my wife Laura. "If we can tie in Wargrave to the VCM illegal activities, even if it was for a short time, it'll be enough to go after him for more things... kind of like getting 'probable cause' that allows getting a warrant for other, more serious stuff."

"True." I said. "That's what I call 'dirty pool', but you could play it that way. I think going after Wargrave on the diamonds and other things is the better play... and I think he's getting desperate and will make a play soon that will allow you to bring him down."

"That's our goal, anyway." said Jack Muscone, and the other FBI agents nodded agreement.

"Drill down further." said the Director. "How can we find these groups, particularly the Superior Bloodlines group?"

"I've been fortunate to have observed several examples of their presence," I said, "and therefore I'm able to see some patterns. They find small towns and counties, introduce agents into the police departments, and also bring in people when they can to be part of banks, on the local government councils, part of law enforcement. We still have a missing bankster from this area, one Mr. Harkins of Second National, if you'll recall." Everyone nodded.

"And we had Sergeant Carroll going to Colorado, then Arizona." I said. "I think he was trying to find a place to penetrate on behalf of this group. Anyway, once they're wired in, they begin exerting their influences. In some ways, they are like viruses infecting a cell. But there is one thing I happened to notice while in Teresa's town, and I realized it's a common thread to all of the places so far: Apple Grove, Malone's town in Alabama, Teresa's home town, and here in our Town."

I used a computer to pull up a web page and put it on the big screen on the wall for everyone to see. "This is the web page for the very powerful, politically connected law firm of Gresham and Mason, P.C. They've been defending some of the trash I have cleaned up, and they show up at the oddest times... including being the actual behind-the-scenes owners of the law firm that took over my dad's firm in Apple Grove, owning a group of lawyers in south Alabama called 'Tide and Tigers Partners At Law, P.C.', and going by their own name in Teresa's hometown and here in our Town."

"As you can see on the web page," I continued, "they have or own over 100 offices nationwide, most of them in small towns and counties, calling themselves the 'Common Man's Attorneys'... common my ass, what with the prices they charge. But I'd start looking in these towns first for signs of your white supremacy buddies."

"That's good." said the Director. "Sharp observations, too... but then again you put together the Silverfish connections to Oldeeds when the FBI couldn't do it in ten years. So... what's next? I can tell that there is a 'next' you haven't told us about yet."

I smiled. "I might as well mention it now, though I haven't really fleshed it out. I know you believe our Moriarty and Mr. Wargrave are one and the same, Director, but I believe differently. Our Moriarty is good at disguising himself. He might even be pretending to be just a businessman, or maybe someone like Wargrave's helper or assistant, and someone that lets others push him around... when in truth he is the real deal power behind the curtain."

I went on: "I think our Shadow Man is more involved with the industrial espionage cases we've seen around here the past year or two. He was heavily involved, through Wargrave, with the Corrigan Cell. I think he was using my current crop of dirty officers to intercept that diamond shipment for his own purposes... those were high grade diamonds, not meant to be put on women's fingers, but for industrial uses."

"And as my friend Lieutenant Ross will tell you," I said, "I have a list of eight suspects of who this Consultant of Crime is... the 'Eightfold Fence' for the bride, as the old poem goes. Todd Burke and Seth Warner are on that list... and Dynacorp is about to be consumed into BOW Enterprises when the Judge passes off on it in a week or two. That's a done deal, by the way: the Court has already ruled in Seth's favor, and against his sister Karen."

"Aren't Todd Burke and Seth Warner much too young to be your Moriarty?" asked Sandra Speer. "They haven't had the time to set up all the connections you claim this guy has."

"Well," I said, "I do talk of him as a man, but 'he' could be a woman. And Todd may be young, but he has been doing some very grown-up things from a young age. As a side example, some people become CIA agents at the age of fifteen. No names will be mentioned." No names needed to be mentioned; everyone except Cindy was aware Laura had become a CIA agent at the ripe old age of fifteen, and now my partner knew it also.

"Todd was also under the influence of his mother while in his teen years, and he seemed to keep his eyes open and learn a lot. Through her, he could've been making a lot of connections while very young. Certainly he was making connections with trophy wives and prostitutes during those years, using his sexual prowess. Mata Hari had nothing on Jack Burke... nor his brother Todd. I also firmly bear in mind who Todd's father is: Michael Burke, who is someone we might should be watching more than we have been."

I felt the amazement of everyone in the room as I continued: "As another example, Todd's brother Ned was a teenager and a prodigy in his teens. As to Seth Warner, he was working with his adoptive father Anthony Warner. Dynacorp is a 'big-boy' technology company and Seth was involved with it, and he now inherits it and all its connections, clients and industrial secrets. He inherits all that; he doesn't need to build it. No, everyone, I cannot exclude Todd nor Seth on account of their youth and supposed inexperience."

"Must be tough, if you think your nephew is your greatest antagonist." said Lindy Linares.

"True enough, but you know the famous quote: 'Keep your friends close and your enemies closer'. I've got my eyes firmly upon Todd and his young friends. But in this discussion, we are digressing from my main point, which is that there is another group on the periphery of all this. I only have the sketchiest of details, but Karen Warner Harlan and Thaddeus Ward are a part of it, I believe. Her late husband Coach Harlan was using his athletic contacts to steer business contacts to this little cabal, and the late Angela Harlan...and you have no idea how happy I am to call her 'the late' Angela Harlan... was also part of that group and their mole within our Police Force for a time."

"Oh, I have every idea how happy you are she's dead, and I'm just as happy as you are about it." said Cindy Ross. "So how does this little Ward/Harlan group tie in to all the others?"

"I'm not sure." I said. "They may not, at least not directly. I only mention them because their names have come up in cross-links with the others. We also have State Senator Katherine Woodburn consolidating the old Nathan Allen group of thugs. Lots of work for us local cops on the beat, Lieutenant Ross."

"Thank you for that report." said the Director. "At this time, I'll let all of you know what we're doing. The decision has been made in Washington to go after and take down Henry R. Wargrave. I don't know who intercepted that diamond shipment from Wargrave before you interdicted it, Commander, but they ultimately may have done us a huge favor."

The Director continued: "And it is as you said, Commander: Wargrave is getting desperate, and he is getting sloppy. We're constantly tapping into his contacts and new money transfer accounts as soon as he creates them. This is an inter-agency operation, with both domestic, foreign and legal assets working together." By that, I knew he meant the FBI, CIA, and U.S. Attorneys of the Department of Justice.

The Director finished up, and the meeting concluded. I had wanted to talk with Laura, as we'd not really had a chance to talk the night before, but she was asked to stay and meet privately with the Director and Jack Muscone. So I left with Cindy, who I could tell wanted to talk with me.

Cindy and I had been driven to lunch and to the Federal Building by Jack, so we decided to walk back to Headquarters. As we strolled through Courthouse Square, I felt grateful that our center of Town was so much nicer than the aging facades of Apple Grove's seat of political power.

"Surely you don't think Todd or Seth is our Shadow Man." Cindy said, unleashing what had been bottled up. "Sure, they could become very powerful men in several arenas of their choosing, but the Shadow Man?"

"You tell me." I said. "You've been doing that research with my mom on my wife's CIA-secure lines." Cindy just gaped at me.

"You know about that?" she whispered. "Shit."

I smiled. "I understand, and you'll be saving me a ton of time by doing that as we work together to bust these fuckers. But I sincerely hope that my mother and wife don't think they're dealing with a mental dullard, here."

"I'm sure they don't." said Cindy. "And I was only doing that so I can help protect you when you stick your ass out too far. I really could keep you alive more easily if I knew who you think your-- I mean 'our' Moriarty is."

"If I'm not telling you something, mon ami, it is because of one thing: once you know, you'll give away that you know about Moriarty, and he will then do whatever it takes to kill you. You won't even realize the mistake you've made, and then one day I'll have to bury you, and I don't want to do that."

"Likewise, mon ami." Cindy said.

"Thank you." I said.

"You don't think he knows you know who he is, and he'll try to kill you?" Cindy said.

"He already has tried to kill me." I said. "And thanks to your dream and fortuitous phone call, he failed. And that may just have been a precaution on his part, but I'm not waiting to find out: I took some precautions to make him and everyone else think I believe it's someone else. Again, I use 'he' as if he's a man, but who knows..."

"So if he succeeds in murdering you," Cindy said, "you need to tell me who he is before then, so I can extract some serious revenge on his ass."

"I have left his name in three places." I said. "A smart-thinking person will quickly find at least one of those sources and obtain the name. Now, you are not answering my question: is Todd Burke the Shadow Man?"

"No." Cindy said simply.

"Why not?"

"Because you've left your children with him and his wife many times. You'd never, ever do that if you suspected for a moment he was the Enemy."

"That is Iron Crowbar 2 thinking, there," I said with a smile, "and brilliant thinking at that. You're right. If you're not careful, someone's going to start thinking you're related to me."

Cindy smiled at the compliment, and said "No, I'm not a Troy... as great as that would be. I'm most concerned about Todd for Teresa's sake... I think she has more feelings for Todd than she's letting on. He was the only one that convinced her to go bury her father; not even you nor I could move her, but he did..."

Part 20 - Fathers, Sons and Daughters

The two sofas facing each other in the office of Dr. Laura Fredricson had actually acquired names. Some called them the 'torture chambers', some called them the 'lie detectors', some called them the 'confessionals', while others simply feared them. It was said that to sit on these sofas caused a person to admit things they never would otherwise, and to tell the truth where they'd otherwise lie. The Iron Crowbar had even remarked how lives had irrevocably changed while people sat on those sofas.

And now in the early afternoon of Tuesday, April 14th, it was Lt. Teresa Croyle of the Town & County Police Force sitting on one sofa while Laura sat on the other one. Teresa had already framed the pictures of Alexis posing with her as a toddler and a faded one of her mother.

She was also having the guy at the hardware store frame her father's medals and insignia, and she noted the American flag in a triangle wood-and-glass case on the bookshelf behind Laura's desk; it had been the flag draped upon Dr. Heinz's coffin. Teresa had obtained a similar case for the flag that had covered her father's coffin and been presented to her at the funeral.

"I always thought my father just hated me." Teresa said. "I thought he blamed me for my mother's death. And when he said those words wishing it had been me instead of Alexis dying that Christmas Eve, that pretty much cemented it."

"But you don't believe that now?" Laura gently asked.

"I don't know." Teresa asked. "His... his dying words at the hospital... I've begun to realize that maybe it was just the pain he was in. I look just like my mother, as you can see from those pictures. I can just imagine that every time he looked at me, he was seeing and thinking of my mother, and he could never get past the pain."

"Did your father drink?" Laura asked.

"Not that I can remember." Teresa said. "At least he never got ripped or anything that I remember."

"Did he ever talk to you, at all?" Laura asked.

"He was perfectly normal towards Alexis, but he just didn't speak to me much." Teresa said. "He didn't really act as if I didn't exist. If I began doing something wrong, he'd say something like 'What are you doing?' and sometimes he included both of us in a sentence, like saying 'It's your bedtimes, young ladies.' and such. But... if I got in trouble, Alexis would hurry over and bail me out and lead me away from him. I think she knew how he felt, and she was my protector."

"Yes." said Laura. "It sounds to me like your father did not go insane the night your sister died... but on the night your mother died. It tore him up, and he never could handle it. I've read a bit of one of my colleagues's work on soldiers returning from overseas tours of combat duty. They fixate on something, like a wife or kids, then they come home and the situation changes on them, in most cases divorce, and they fall apart. Your mother died in childbirth with you, and your father never got over that."

Laura added, "Also, from what I've heard, I think your father didn't hate you... he just couldn't find a way to relate to you. I think you're right that you reminded him every day of your mother, and he just could overcome it. He did his duty of raising you, whether that was for your mother's sake or because you were his daughter and his responsibility, and he never kicked you out or tried to harm you in any physical way, either."

"It was his giri." Teresa said, remembering the Japanese word, not noticing Laura's attentiveness, nor that she did not ask Teresa what she meant by that. Teresa then said "I... I think I understand it all better. But it doesn't really make me feel any love towards him... a lot of respect for being the military hero that he was, but that's not the same..."

"Give it time." Laura said. "You did the right thing, you learned a lot of things you didn't know, good things. Your father was an honorable man who endured more pain at home than on the battlefield. It shouldn't be that way, but sometimes good people are dealt bad hands in the Great Game of Life."

Teresa nodded as she contemplated those words...

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

While Teresa was with Laura, Lieutenant Cindy Ross was in her office at Headquarters. She had caught up on paperwork, realizing that the Iron Crowbar had her in this position primarily so that he would not have to do this paperwork himself, when a visitor came to her door. It was Auxiliary Detective Phyllis Troy, in her uniform.

"Hi Phyllis, come on in." Cindy said.

"Hello, Lieutenant." Phyllis said. "What can I help you with?"

"I called you in because I can't really leave after missing a few days already," Cindy said, "and I wanted to ask you some things... off the record things."

"Certainly." said Phyllis. "What would you like to know?"

"After spending the weekend with Teresa, and hearing Don's story about his father and Apple Grove, I started wondering what Don's relationship with his father was when he was growing up."

"Ah, yes." Phyllis said, happy to have this chance to talk. "Come sit with me on this sofa and I'll tell you." Cindy came over and sat on the loveseat next to Phyllis.

"Don's father was a tall man, rather imposing, certainly a lawyer with a strong air of authority." Phyllis said. "He was... very formal, I think is a good way to say it. He was kind in his own way, and I never doubted he deeply loved me and our children, but he struggled to show that love, especially to the children. I think that was part of his problem with Elizabeth."

Phyllis continued: "He was very, very religious, and while I hear all the jokes about dishonest lawyers, Douglass was one of the most honest and upstanding men I ever met. Every legal case or contract he worked on, it was with utter integrity and the desire to do his best for his client within the bounds of the law and integrity. It was that religious fervor and strict adherence to integrity that caused so much friction with Elizabeth."

"And that was also why Elizabeth hated Don so much?" Cindy asked.

Phyllis smiled. "I... am not sure. Certainly Douglass was very happy, in his own way, to have a son. But I think Elizabeth was just full of herself and didn't like having a little brother. It's really too bad... I think Don really loved her until she started pushing him around. Douglass and I had to begin watching very carefully to make sure she didn't hurt him."

"And then," Phyllis added, "when he was ten years old and she was eighteen, she took a boy into the basement and he went down and saw them. At dinner, he asked very loudly why she let that boy take her panties off. Oh how she hated him after that! But the real tragedy there was that Douglass and I tried to pour religion into Elizabeth, and she fully rejected it. She left home soon after, and it always hurt Douglass that Elizabeth so totally rejected the religious values that he held so dear."

"Did Don and his dad spend a lot of time together?" Cindy asked.

"Not so much." Phyllis said. "Douglass was always busy with work, even at home. Don played ball with other kids, went hunting with Old Man Spruance and his boys. Douglass did spend time with Don, doing homework, helping him with Boy Scout merit badges, stuff like that. But his work and the Bible came first. Douglass did learn from his failures with Elizabeth, didn't push religion hard on Don... and Don wasn't very religious, I could tell, and that was another reason they never were any closer than they were."

"Still..." Cindy said... "it was normal compared to what Teresa endured."

"Yes." Phyllis said. "Now... what else is it that is bothering you, that you are trying to decide whether or not you should tell me?"

Cindy smiled. "Like mother, like son." she said. "Not much gets by either of you." She sighed, then said "First, Don knows I've been doing that research on our enemies."

"I'm not surprised." said Phyllis. "What else?''

"How do you know there is a 'what else'?" Cindy asked.

"You started your sentence with 'First', for one thing," Phyllis said, "which implies a 'Second'..."

Cindy laughed. "I did do that, didn't I? The second thing is that Don won't tell me who our Shadow Man, our Moriarty is. He says he's doing that to protect me and so that I won't give the knowledge of the Shadow Man away. He also said that... if something happens to him, to Don, that he, Don, left Moriarty's real name in three places, and that 'thinking persons' would find it."

"Ahhhh." said Phyllis. "Well, I hope we'll never have to look for those three places. Don is doing something incredibly brave, and he is scared to death that this Moriarty will retaliate against his family... and his closest friends." Cindy peered at Phyllis, locking eyes with her, and she saw the older woman's meaning. They both nodded together...