Shipping and Handling 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, 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 13 - Digging Deep

It is possible... that I rolled my eyes upon seeing the BigBenefitInsurance Security people with guns drawn. Not taking my eyes off the lawyer Chip Blake I took my radio out of my belt.

"Come on in, Lieutenant Hewitt." I said into the radio. "Join the party."

An instant later, the heavily armed and armored TCPD SWAT Team charged through the front doors, and also side doors that had been opened by Paulina and Nell Bell. The SWAT Team immediately rushed up and got between me and the Security people.

"DROP YOUR WEAPONS!" Lt. Hugh Hewitt ordered. "PUT 'EM ON THE FLOOR! NOW! HANDS OVER YOUR HEADS!" The Security men complied, which saved their lives. The receptionist was staring down the barrel of Detective Rodriguez's service weapon, and was ordered to not touch the phone system nor her computer monitor. Chip Blake and I were still face to face, but the lawyer now had Detective Teddy Parker's firearm in his earhole. Literally.

"As I was saying," I said to Chip Blake as the SWAT Team cuffed the Security people, "we will be executing this warrant immediately." Chip Blake's face smoldered with hatred.

Behind the SWAT Team had come Lt. Myron Milton and his I.T. team, all wearing armored vests. Along with armored Uniformed Officers, they rushed upstairs to the main room of cubicles. Every BigBenefitInsurance employee was escorted out of the building, except for their I.T. Manager and the Director of Human Resources.

"This is wrong!" Chip Blake all but shouted into my face. "We have every right to examine and contest that warrant!"

"No you don't." I said. "And to make the point... Parker, take this loser to Headquarters and through full booking. The charge is Obstruction of Justice. Also send a message to the State Bar, asking for Chip Blake's status to be suspended. Paulina, maybe we can ask the Court to suspend Blake as an Officer of the Court... of any Court."

"It will be my pleasure, Commander." Paulina said.

"You will pay for this, Troy!" Blake yelled as Parker cuffed him and led him away. "BigBenefitInsurance will destroy you!"

"Please... get some new material!" I replied as Blake was taken away. Parker and his prisoner crossed paths with Captain Teresa Croyle as she came in and came up to me. Nell Bell took the opportunity to walk up right behind her.

"Commander," Teresa said with a gleam in her eye, "are you having more fun than a human being should be allowed, busting up yet another Big Boy Elite company?"

I just smiled...

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

The BigBenefitInsurance I.T. Manager and H.R. Director were uncooperative, at first. When I went upstairs and told them that I could easily make the arrangements if they preferred to join their lawyer and Security people in my jails, they reconsidered.

Videographers taped the process as Myron used a mirroring process to show that we did not exceed the warrant's permissions in the data that we took. As they finished, Myron said to me "We've got it all, and we're already sending the digital data to our evidence servers."

"Your I.T. people seem very happy today." I replied. "Maybe we should let them out of the basement more often, hmmm?"

Myron grinned. "I think getting to wear armor and act like commandos got their adrenaline up, sir. I'm not sure we're going to be able to contain them, anymore." he said, making me laugh. Then I allowed the humor to leave me.

"Let's just make sure they realize that this is not one of their video games." I admonished...

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

3:00pm, Friday, March 29th. The gathering in Classroom 'E' was large, as all of MCD was there, as well as Nell Bell and Eric Hannum, both of the Mighty Miltons, and all three of my Angels. Chief Soltis had returned to Midtown, but ADA Paulina Patterson was his very lovely replacement. As many of our Officers had not eaten, Chief Moynahan and I brought in pizzas, which disappeared quickly.

"It's your meeting, Commander." said the Chief as most people finished up eating.

"Thank you, sir." I said. "Who wants to start?"

"I will, sir." said Lt. Myron Milton "We've gone through the data we collected from BigBenefitInsurance. The families that were BigAgraFoods employees, or SPS employees that went to BigAgraFoods, listed new appliances, brand new televisions and computers. and other valuable items as part of their claims. The amounts the company paid were sizable, even for what was claimed. They were all lump sums. We're checking to see if they pre-paid quarterly taxes on the claims, though for the most part they don't have to until April 15th." Myron went through the details of several of the families.

"Is that enough for insurance fraud?" asked Chief Moynahan.

"It's circumstantial." said Paulina Patterson. "But we have enough to make comparisons with the records Detective Hannum came up with on those three families. And if we keep chipping away at it, we mind find some stronger evidence."

Cindy Ross said "I guess my question is how is this going to help us find the murderer of Rupert Saidy, and is his murder is related to these scams?"

"And who exactly is our target, here?" Joanne Warner said. "SPS, or BigBenefitInsurance?"

"Both." I said. "We are beginning to weave a web that will ensnare both of them. But Commander Ross is right: does this get us to Rupert Saidy's killer?"

"It's our best shot to this point." said Tanya Perlman. "Unless you are seeing something we aren't, sir."

"You're seeing what I'm seeing." I said. "All of you are. But let's move on. Detective Rodriguez, any luck with that sketch of the fake Bert Cowell?"

"There's nothing in the DMV records of this State nor the States that border us." said Julia Rodriguez. "Also, I sent a copy of that sketch of the fake Bert Cowell to the FBI for a national search, but I haven't heard back from them yet."

"Quelle suprise." muttered Lt. Mary Milton, earning her a 'look' from Captain Tanya Perlman.

"In fairness," I replied, "it hasn't been very long. Give 'em time. And I'll follow up myself, and threaten to revoke Jack Muscone's double cheeseburger privileges if he does not come correct with things."

"Sir, the Constitution outlaws cruel and unusual punishment." said Tanya, defending her fiancé. Cindy burst out laughing. I conceded the point with a wink and a nod.

"Sir," Julia said, "Detective Bell did get something. She ran the sketch through the State Regional Intelligence Center, or SRIC, and got a hit."

"Don't keep us in suspense, Detective Bell." I said with a smile.

"Yes sir." Nell said, realizing my words were friendly. "Six years ago, a man named David Wilson was brought into the Pottsville Police Department and run through booking for reckless driving and disorderly conduct. The charges were dropped, but the mug shot stayed on file." Nell plugged into the system, and a mug shot came up on screen, showing a man in his thirties with black hair and a medium but fit build.

Julia Rodriguez picked it up: "I called Detective Shane O'Brady and asked what they had on it. He looked it up and said there was nothing on file except the booking, and that the charges were apparently dropped the next day, and Wilson released. But once I had that name, sir, I did a Lexis-Nexis search, and came up with this." She showed a clip of a wedding notice in the local newspaper, the Town & County Examiner.

"Ahh." I said. "David Wilson married Katherine Warner, Anthony Warner's sister." (Author's note: 'The Swap', especially Ch. 04.) "So Detective Warner, does that man look familiar to you?"

"No sir." said Joanne. "It's my husband's aunt and her ex-husband in that newspaper clip, but I never saw him nor a photo of him."

I said: "If memory serves me correctly---"

"And it always does!" said a chorus of Angels. A red crowbar was waved in their general directions.

I continued: "... after David Wilson physically hit Katherine, she ran to her brother Anthony Warner. He took a couple of guys to Wilson's place and possibly administered a crowbar beatdown to the man. Afterwards, he kept close tabs on Wilson, and I wouldn't be surprised if Warner asked the Pottsville Police to bring Wilson in overnight and keep him in jail, just letting Wilson know to toe the line."

"What happened to Wilson, sir?" asked Eric Hannum.

"He moved to the City, and after a while Warner lost track of him." I said.

"Julia," Tanya Perlman said, "you said that there was no DMV record of Wilson in any State? At all?"

"That is correct, ma'am." said Julia. "I went back and re-checked after getting this Lexis-Nexis hit. Nothing with DMV, and nothing else at all. It's as if he never existed."

"Sir, there's only one way that could be happening." said Mary. It was an accusation.

"Two ways, actually." I said. "One is the Consultant of Crime at work, having scrubbed Wilson's existence while the Consultant was alive. The other is the Government at work, scrubbing Wilson's existence. But you're right, Mary. It is far, far more likely it's the Government."

"But why?" asked Tanya, her voice unfriendly, and I could tell that I was going to have a problem with my Captain of Detectives and her Vice Lieutenant.

"Some of you 'young whippersnappers' in here won't remember the Anthony Warner and Michelle Chelle murder cases." I said. "Warner was the CEO of DynaCorp, which had contracts with the Government and entirely too many CIA Agents crawling around... crawling..." Yep, reverie time.

"He's gone." said Cindy.

"No, I'm back." I said after a moment deep in a reverie. "It just struck me that Alicia Foster was involved with DynaCorp, and the Shimono Group offered to break her out of prison when they broke Tolson and Aurus out." My voice sounded far away; I wasn't really all the way back yet...

"If you're wondering," said Chief Moynahan, "Our Detective Warner's last name comes from marrying Anthony Warner's son. Soooo, Mizz Warner, I'm sorry to say that I have to take you off the case."

"I understand, Chief." said Joanne glumly, getting up to leave.

"I'll talk to you after this meeting, Joanne." I said. Joanne nodded, then left.

"So does that help us find the murderer of Rupert Saidy?" asked Cindy.

"Ma'am," said Mary Milton fearlessly, "do you have a particular suspect in mind?"

"Yes." Cindy said. "Andy Lessing, or Jeff Farley, or whoever he's pretending to be today. It was his SPS truck that was found with the body in it. My only problem is that I have no proof."

Teresa leaned over and whispered out loud to Nell Bell: "This is where the Iron Crowbar is supposed to come in and make it easy for us."

"Heh." I said. "In this case, the Green Crowbar's theory is a very good one, and likely correct. I have no proof either, though. And I'll suggest that it could more than one person involved."

After a pause, I said "Okay, I need to figure out how to attack this one. Captain Perlman, we're going to have to have Detectives talk to these people that made these claims with BigBenefitInsurance. Since they're pretty much Edward Blassingame's people that were moving with him from SPS to BigAgraFoods, I fully expect a lot of resistance."

I continued: "We're going to have to talk to the Farrises again; there are way too many 'strangenesses' with their situation. We need to find and talk to Clarence Meadows. And as the Green Crowbar has already said, we really need to find Farley. Okay, guys, hang tight and we'll have assignments for you shortly..."

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

As the meeting continued, Joanne Warner came into MCD. "Hi Theo. Hi Roy." she said to the Detectives sitting at their desks.

"What happened?" asked Theo.

"The guy who was the fake Bert Cowell?" Joanne said. "Turns out it's very likely he's David Wilson, who was my husband Seth's aunt's ex-husband. So the Chief took me off the case."

"Bummer." said Theo.

"No, I understand." said Joanne. She went up to Detective Roy McGhillie, who was sitting at his desk. "Any news on George Aurus?"

"Not a peep." said McGhillie. "You'd think a four-foot-tall midget would be noticed somewhere, but there's just nothing on him. Nothing on Tolson, either, for that matter. They're in the wind."

"My question remains 'why' those two were broken out of prison." said Theo Washington, who was also typing on his computer, trying to help Roy find information on Aurus. "Except for the fact that the Iron Crowbar broke them both off and put them in prison, they have nothing in common."

"There's your answer." said Joanne. "It's gotta be related to Commander Troy. He's the common thread with Shimono and her group, as well."

*BRING!* *BRING!* *BRING!* *BRING!*

It was Joanne's desk phone, and she answered it. "Yes, Chief?... yes, I'll be right there, sir..."

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

Joanne Warner was admitted into the Chief's office. I was already seated in front of the desk, and the Chief had her sit down in the chair next to me.

"I regret having to pull you off the case." said the Chief after we were settled in. "It's not very much of a connection, but it does allow me to redirect your attention to other thinnnngggss."

"I understand, Chief." said Joanne. "What would you like me to do?" The Chief looked at me.

I said "First, I don't want you to say anything to Seth about any of this. If you don't mind, I'd like to pay a visit to Leo tonight, which will be my excuse to ask Seth what he knows about David Wilson and his whereabouts. Seth probably has no idea, but I'll talk to him. Second, with your FBI Consultant status, I want you to liaison with the local FBI Supervisory Agent and keep us in the loop on these prison breaks. And third, I want you, in your capacity as an FBI Consultant as well as TCPD Detective, to begin concentrating hard on finding Trent Ridge and Quint Starr..."

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

TCPD Deputy Chief Cindy Ross came into my office and sat down in a hot chair at my invitation.

"So," I said, "why do you think it's Lessing, or Farley, I guess I should say?"

"Process of elimination, I guess." said Cindy. "Meadows didn't stay on the truck with Saidy. It was Farley's truck, and on his route. Farley was Bundy McGinty's partner in the City Police, and under a cloud of suspicion since McGinty's partner was ambushed and murdered. So there's some means and opportunity, there. I just don't have motive, nor any proof that he actually did it."

"It's good thinking. You're touching all the points that are of interest to me." I said. "So let me take it a bit further down the track."

I began: "The real Bert Cowell was given a couple of days off. Why? To get him out of the way on those specific days. What was happening those specific days? The Farrises were moving, was one thing. But that could be manipulated, also. So we have to wonder what it was about that truck on that route... on that particular day."

"What I'm also seeing," I continued, "is an operation that has been going on for a long time. A smuggling operation of some kind, and involving SPS. We touched upon it when we found that super-drone as part of an SPS shipment," (Author's note: 'Delivery In The Rear'.) "then we touched upon it again with the McGinty Case," (Author's note: 'One Night In Bangkok'.) "and now Farley's name comes into it again."

"I also note," I said, "that some of our very old cases are rearing their heads. We know Keiko Shimono offered to help Alicia Foster escape from prison, but Alicia most very wisely declined. But why Alicia? And why George Aurus?"

"And Jimmy Tolson." said Cindy. I shook my head vigorously in disagreement.

"No, he's not part of this pattern, at least not that I can see yet." I said. "But here's some more dots for us to connect: the man they trusted to be the fake Bert Cowell, to talk to the Police and mislead us... was David Wilson, ex-husband of Katherine Warner Wilson. And that is a DynaCorp connection. Who else has a DynaCorp connection?"

"Alicia Foster." Cindy said, her ice-blue eyes lighting up as she began connecting some of these dots."

"But let's not give up on Jimmy Tolson just yet." I said. "His connection to all this appears to be his experience in the insurance industry. He was an actuary with Conway Property & Casualty before you and my mother hunted him down like the murdering dog he was."

"So all of this fits together in some way." Cindy said. "Are you thinking something was being smuggled in here on Truck 164, and it was then loaded with the Farris's furniture as a blind?"

"It's definitely a possibility that we can't rule out." I said. "And all of this starts coming back to that smuggling pipeline... and ultimately to Edward Blassingame, who Frieda Franklin saw talking to Keiko Shimono and Jerry Barsbane one night." (Author's note: 'Little Red Haired Girl', Ch. 01.)

"I hope they're not trying to bring in another nuclear bomb," Cindy said, "or nerve agent like the Superior Bloodlines people did." (Author's note: 'The Nuclear Option', 'Frozen Mothballs'.)

"No, Truck 164 was thoroughly tested, and found to be chemically uninteresting and radiation-free." I said.

"You think the Farrises are involved?" Cindy asked.

"I think she is." I said. "I'm not so sure about the husband, though he has to know something. They moved all the furniture out, but not all of it arrived in Rocktown. And it may not have been moved out all at once, despite the keen observations of Mrs. Jones and her excellent dog."

"You know..." Cindy said, growing introspective, "... only Mrs. Farris came up here. Her husband didn't. He may not know what the actual manifest of the truck we recovered was. Perhaps separate interviews with them is indicated?"

"That is Iron Crowbar thinking, there." I said with a smile "So much for the 'dumb blonde' theory, eh?"

Cindy blushed a bit as she smiled, then said "Changing the subject, Mary Mahoney is getting pretty hostile towards the FBI... all of it. And her boss is engaged to this region's FBI Special Agent In Charge. I sensed a vibe out of both of them in the meeting."

"I didn't sense a vibe, as you and Carole do, but I did make those observations and deductions." I said. "It is something I will be having to deal with. Good thing we're not busy, and just sitting around twiddling our thumbs, eh? Okay, I need to talk to Captain Thompson before he leaves for the day."

"What's it about?" asked Cindy. "Going to arrange an interview with that bitch Bettina?"

"Harrumph." I said. "But as to what it's about: let's just say you need 'plausible deniability' for the interview I want him to set up..."

Part 14 - Dogs and Schools

7:30pm, Friday, March 29th. I was sitting in the living room of Seth and Joanne Warner. I had a lap full of Leo, son of Bowser, who remembered me and seemed pretty happy to see me. Or maybe he was just a happy dog. As I gave him skritchins, I talked to Seth.

"Seth, do you recognize this person?" I asked, showing him the sketch that I'd downloaded to my Police iPhone.

"Oh, wow." said Seth. "That looks like my Aunt Katherine's ex-husband, David Wilson." He turned to Joanne and said "That was long before I met you, honey. You never met him." Joanne nodded vigorously in agreement.