Shipping and Handling Ch. 05

"Wow." said Cindy as we sat in the Chief's Conference Room with the Sheriff, Chief, and my other Angels. "What prompted that little visit to the D.A. from Blassingame himself?"

"The APBs and the press bulletins." I said. "It's not doing SPS any good to hear that Farley is posing as an SPS driver. So he tries to browbeat the D.A. into calling off the dogs, since going to the Sheriff would have even less success than going to me directly."

"Har." said the Sheriff. "Crowbar, you are not dealing with Agencies of the Weak-Minded, you know. Blassingame did that knowing you'd show up, and you put out the APBs knowing you'd be delivering the message to give up Farley and Tolson when you did confront Blassingame."

"Bus-ted." said Tanya, her eyes twinkling as she teased me.

"Yes, you have been figured out, Iron Crowbar." Cindy said, her ice blue eyes also twinkling with merriment.

"I am but the student. The Sheriff is the Master." I said affably. "Let's just hope Blassingame comes correct, and we get an anonymous tip that leads us to Tolson and Farley..."

Part 21 - Justice Served Hot and Cold

7:30pm, Tuesday, April 2d. With Edward Steele at the Council meeting, the Steele Ladies, those being Stephanie, Selena, and Marie, joined us for Tuesday night dinner. Jim had asked for stringbeans, and had eaten a healthy portion of them. Carole, of course, had not allowed any to be put on her plate.

Midway through dinner, Carole's fork dropped onto the floor, and it was vigorously examined by Bowser and Buddy. Laura told Carole to put the fork in the kitchen sink then get a new one. As Carole did so, I reached over, got a big spoonful of stringbeans, and dumped them onto Carole's plate. Needless to say, Marie and Jim were giggling uncontrollably.

When Carole got back and saw the stringbeans on her plate, she crossed her little arms and gave us all a look that she must've learned from Teresa Croyle. "WHO put those stringbeans on my plate?" she demanded to know.

"Mommy," said Jim, "make Carole eat all the stringbeans on her plate."

That got Carole glaring, and her stares at Jim and Marie brought results, as Jim and Marie, and also Laura, Stephanie, and Selena, kept looking furtively over at me as I just stared at my plate and ate quietly. Detective Troy made the correct deduction, and she turned upon me. I felt the full power of the vibe at work.

"Daddy!" Carole said angrily. "Did YOU put those on my plate?" Everyone burst out laughing.

"Ah, you got me." I said, trying hard not to laugh, being busted for the second time today. Seeing Carole was angry, I said "Carole, if you're ever going to be a Police Officer, you're going to have to learn to take some ribbing."

"Does that mean I can dish it out, too?" Carole asked. Now where my five-year-old had learned that phraseology, I did not know.

"If you're good at it." I said, then added with a grin: "Like I am."

"Okay." Carole said. She then took her plate and proceeded to come over to my place and scrape the stringbeans onto my plate. "You always tell us to not waste food, Daddy." she said.

"Yes, I did say that, didn't I?" I said, seeing Laura's eyes twinkling with merriment. I proceeded to consume the evidence, which I think disappointed Jim. And Carole did have defenders: the redoubtable Bowser came over and sat down next to her, on guard and watching me closely...

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

10:30pm, Tuesday, April 2d. The ladies were getting the children ready for bed. Marie was staying overnight. I took the opportunity to take the dogs out. As I sat in the backyard in the dark, thinking of the problems of the recent cases, my Police iPhone rang.

"Troy." I said as I answered it.

"Commander, this is Captain Croyle." said Teresa. "The Duty Desk got an anonymous tip that Jeff Farley was seen at the BigAgraFoods warehouse. We're getting heat signatures from inside."

"I'll be right there." I said. "Assemble an armored team, but make sure they know I want the bastard taken alive..."

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

Police units had very quietly come up to the old BigAgraFoods warehouse, and it was now surrounded. Teresa had a SWAT Team ready to go inside. Myron Milton, looking a bit awkward in his heavy armor, was at Teresa's SUV, which was serving as the command post.

"Whaddya got?" I said as I came up, also wearing armor and my Police helmet.

"Sir," said Myron, "someone turned the heat on inside the main warehouse room. It's at least 90 degrees in there, and that's making it hard to see if any humans are inside." He showed me his monitor. "There's a spot there, which might be a person, but it's hard to tell definitively. The other rooms of the building are empty."

"Hmmm, interesting." I said. "Okay, Captain, have the SWAT Team clear the building... but again, if anyone is in there, I want them alive."

"Yes sir." said Teresa. She went over to Lt. Hewitt and began giving him and his team instructions.

The SWAT Team moved out and went to the building, then moved inside to clear it. Their movements were crisp and their silent hand communications very good. "Captain Croyle," I said, "give the SWAT Team my compliments. They look well-trained and very professional. And some of that credit belongs to you."

"Thank you, sir." said Teresa. "But I can't take any credit beyond getting them 'range time'. I'll pass along your compliments to them."

Some minutes passed, and I heard the word "Clear!" a number of times on the radio. Finally the "All clear!" was given, followed by a radio message.

"Team 1 to Commander Troy." said the radio. "Come in, Commander Troy."

"This is Troy." I said into my radio. "Whaddya got?"

"Sir, you might want to come inside and see this..."

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

Someone had turned off the heaters, but it was still very warm in the warehouse room, the one Mittens Willis had serenaded me with 'Music Box Dancer' in, when I came inside. I immediately saw the two dead bodies on the floor.

"This body is still warm, sir." said Lt. Hewitt. I nodded as I looked into the face of the recently expired Jeff Farley. "This other guy has been dead for some time, though." Hewitt continued. The sight that greeted me was sickening. It was Jimmy Tolson, and he had no clothing on. He'd been severely beaten, with deep bruises on his face and all over his ribcage and back. His testicles were purple, and looked as if they'd been exploded from within.

"Let's get these bodies to the morgue for autopsies." I said.

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

12:30am, Wednesday, April 3d. Martha the M.E. did initial exams on both bodies, then did the full Tolson autopsy first, knowing that that was what Tanya Perlman and I wanted to know about. She, Cindy, and I watched the proceedings.

"First of all," Martha said to us, "Tolson has been dead for at least 24 hours, but Farley's body was still warm; he was shot in the back of the head, possibly at the scene, just a short time before you found him."

"There was no blood nor evidence he was shot there." I said. "But it makes sense it was recent: the IR showed a warmer spot that was his body, even with the room heated up. So... what happened to Tolson?"

"They beat the crap out of him, to use crude terms." Martha said. "It looks like they had him sitting in a chair with an open space in the seat. The methodically punched him in the face, breaking both his eye sockets, his nose, and his jaw on the left side, and he was alive for all of it. They also punched him in the ribs and the soft part of his belly, causing internal bleeding. Ultimately, he bled out from the internal bleeding."

Martha continued: "I've seen this before, as well: it looks like they sodomized him with the rounded end of a broom handle. But worse, they inflicted other injuries. Do you remember Ian Fleming's James Bond book, Casino Royale?"

"In the Daniel Craig movie," Tanya said, "the guy used a bullwhip on Bond's balls."

"In the original book, Ian Fleming's first Bond novel, if I recall correctly," I said, "they had some device that repeatedly pummeled Bond's testicles."

"Exactly." said Martha. "And they did something like that to Tolson, here. His right testicle was very badly damaged, and if he'd survived it would've had to be removed. The left testicle also was very badly bruised."

"What about things like his fingers, knuckle joints, teeth?" I asked.

"Some teeth were knocked out or loosened by the blows to his jaw." said Martha. "No damage to his hand or toe knuckles. Aside from his facial bones and ribs, there are no other broken bones." I nodded thoughtfully.

"What do you make of it, sir?" asked Tanya Perlman, who was morbidly fascinated by things like this.

"They may have started off torturing him to get him to tell them something they wanted to know." I said. "The facial blows followed by going to work on his testicles and the broomstick up his ass was designed to do that. But either they're not very good interrogators, or they just decided to start whaling on him and beat him to death."

"Why do you say that?" asked Cindy. Even Martha was listening with avid interest.

"It is a shame that I even know things like this," I said, "but the Russians, as well as professional criminals in this country, prefer to do things like take pliers and crush the victim's knuckles one at a time as part of their interrogations. These guys didn't do that to Tolson, though the testicle treatment was probably about that."

"Breaking his jaw doesn't lend well to him talking in any way they'd understand." I said. "So when they started beating him in the face and the body they were past interrogation time, and were teeing off on him just for the sadistic pleasure of doing so. He may not have known what they thought he knew, or he may have told them what he knew, and after that they just beat him to death for the fun of it. I definitely see the work of Trent and Quint, here. Mostly Quint, since Trent apparently stayed in the City with Shimono."

"Uh, do they teach that stuff in the military?" Cindy asked. "In the Special Forces?"

"No comment." I said. "But this was done with a level of hatred and viciousness that goes beyond anything resembling professional 'enhanced interrogation' techniques. Wayyyy beyond..."

Part 22 - Wrap Up

"This is Bettina Wurtzburg, KXTC Channel Two News!" shouted the redheaded reporterette at 7:00am, Wednesday, April 3d, from an 'undisclosed' outdoor location. "Channel Two News has learned that two wanted suspects have been found dead!"

Bettina: "Supermax prison escapee Jimmy Tolson and former City Police Detective Jeff Farley were found dead at the abandoned BigAgraFoods warehouse off Riverside Drive last night. Police responded to an anonymous tip that Mr. Farley had been sighted there, and found him and Mr. Tolson already dead inside. The TCPD has no leads on who might have killed the two wanted men, and Commander Donald Troy has not responded to KXTC's repeated requests for comment. And now let's go to Amber Harris for more on the victims of this double homicide. Amber!"

"Thank you, Bettina!" said Amber from the KXTC studios. "Channel Two News has learned that Jeff Farley was a former City Police Detective, and was part of an undercover team led by Bundy McGinty that was disgraced when several failures contributed to Detective Ted Sullivan being ambushed and murdered by a ruthless drug gang. McGinty was implicated in the murders of several Police Detectives State-wide, and recently embarrassed the Police by being able to commit suicide before he could be captured."

Amber then went onto discuss Jimmy Tolson, and his involvement in the 'Disappearing Act' case. She then said "In yet another embarrassment to the Federal Bureau of Prisons and the FBI, Mr. Tolson was helped to escape from a Supermax prison by unknown persons who used forged ID documents to obtain access to the prison and to Mr. Tolson. George Aurus, known as the 'Black Velvet' serial killer, was also broken out of prison by what is believed to be the same gang. Mr. Aurus was not found by the Police, but turned himself in to authorities, and is no longer a threat to our citizens..."

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

"How did they get all that information, and so quickly?" muttered Chief Griswold as we drank coffee in the Chief's Conference Room.

"I dunno, Sheriff," I said tiredly, "but I'm getting tired of all their cheap shots at the Police. We found the bodies less than twelve hours ago, and they're bitching that the case isn't solved yet?"

Cindy Ross chimed in: "And I'm getting tired of the 'Commander Troy could not be reached for comment' crap over and over.

"But how can we stop it?" asked Tanya Perlman, perhaps mischievously.

I said "By giving the FBI solid proof that Bettina committed treason, so that she will be executed by the State. Then we'll never hear that crap from her again."

"Gosh, Don," Tanya said, "you're kidding, right? That's a little much, isn't it?"

My eyes bored right through her as I said "Not at all, Captain." The mood in the now-silent room was depressing, and I left for the privacy of my office...

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

My paperwork was just getting wrapped up at 9:15am when Helena announced I had a visitor. FBI Special Agent In Charge Jack Muscone came into my office, and took advantage of my offer to get a cup of coffee and then sit down.

"I got a call from Washington early this morning." Jack said. "They seem to forget the time zone differences when they call. They were really pissed off that you didn't get Farley and Tolson alive."

"I didn't see them doing very much to capture them, alive or dead." I replied acidly. I realized I really was tired after the long night, and my temper was short. I'm getting too old to do this shit, I thought to myself.

"Hey, don't beat up the messenger, here." said Muscone. Seeing my glare, he said "Look, I don't know what all is going on with all this, either. They told us to get you off the case, and we tried and failed. They were angry that Aurus turned himself in to you even though that was just your good luck. But they are really pissed off that Tolson was found dead."

"It wasn't us that killed him." I said. "And if you and they read the autopsy report, you'll see just how cruel and dangerous Trent and Quint really are. Aurus realized it, and managed to get away from them. Tolson was not so lucky. And that reminds me... what happened to Aurus?"

"Uhh...." Muscone said, unable to meet my stare. Then he made a wise decision: "Okay, I'm not supposed to tell you this, but he was taken to another facility, where he was... 'interrogated'. He was surprisingly resistant to their techniques, but they found out pretty quickly that he didn't know any more than he told you here. And yes, he's still alive and is fine, physically."

"Harrumph, of course he was resistant." I said witheringly. "He went through years of Millwakee and probably worse at other times in his life. I could've told them that. Hell, just watch our tapes; Nell Bell got more out of him with honey than any CIA torture chamber ever would. Who the hell are your Operational Psychologists? They need to be fired."

"To answer your question," Muscone said, "my understanding is that it was Bob Rovers and his BAU unit that was assigned to the Aurus case. And the top brass in Washington consider them to be the FBI's very best."

"You're just trolling me now, aren't you?" I said wearily.

"No, it's the truth." Muscone replied, looking surprised at my comment. "Anyway, the Establishment Elites likely are having champagne with their steak and eggs this morning after hearing that Farley is dead. Whatever he knew about Blassingame's smuggling operations died with him. So that road to Blassingame is now gone."

"Now we're getting to the real reasons for your top brass's anger, aren't we?" I asked, again with a withering voice.

"Don't tell me you're happy that Farley is dead." Muscone said.

"No, I'm not." I said. "Even though McGinty murdered three Police Officers and tried to kill me and O'Brady, I did promise him that I'd clear him of Sullivan's murder, which was set up by Farley, and I fully intended to keep that promise. That would've been much easier to do if we'd gotten Farley alive."

After a moment of silence, I asked "So... how's the forged ID investigation going?"

"Well," said Muscone, relieved to be changing the subject, "we're finding out that it's simply way too easy to hack computers and set up fake backstops. It used to be that only the most sophisticated tools in the hands of the U.S. Government could effectively do that for our Agents needing that. But now, with the world's reliance on computers and the world wide web, and easy access to information, it's... well, it's a bad situation."

"And a smokescreen." I said. "Fake IDs have been part of spycraft since the days of the first IDs. Nothing new there. But you guys, and Melina, are worried about something else. What is it?"

"All I can tell you," said Jack, "is what I've told you before, and what you and Laura have known for a long time: it's changed in Washington. The Federal Government is polarized between the Swamp Frogs and those who believe as we and the Guardians of Justice believe. Right now, control of 'The Geek' might be the difference between the continued existence of the Constitution, and its destruction and the total victory of the Elitists."

Jack stood up. "I've got to go. Look, Don, be careful out there. I don't know why you, and your Town & County, have become Ground Zero in this war of control, but you have." I nodded.

As Muscone got to the door, I said "So... you didn't ask. What the brass is truly angry with me about."

"Not much gets by you." said Muscone. Then he said "I want to marry one of your Angels, and I still want you to be my Best Man at the wedding. I realized as we talked this morning that if I asked what my superiors want me to ask, all of that might well be 'ovah'. And I've learned to never question whatever the hell it is that you're doing."

"Let's have lunch sometime. Cop Bar." I said. "Next round of double cheeseburgers are on me." Muscone nodded and left, leaving me to silently confirm that not much gets by him, either...

Part 23 - Epilogue

Wednesday, April 3d, 10:30pm. Cindy and I sat with Sheriff Griswold by the fire in the fire pot in his backyard. Callie and Betsy were inside with Laura and Mrs. Griswold.

"How was the Charter Commission meeting?" Cindy asked me.

"Good." I said. "I did a very rough outline of the frame of the main Charter, like the spine of it. They're going to look at it at home and make suggestions. Next week we're meeting on Thursday night, since you and I will be out of town Wednesday." Cindy nodded, knowing that I'd invited her to go with me to The Masters tournament practice round the next Wednesday.

"It's going to get tough, though." I said. "We're going to start having the public hearings. And that's when every little special interest group with their own pet agenda will start demanding we cater to their every whim."

Sheriff Griswold growled "I'm already hearing that Eldrick X. Weaver and Reginald B.F. Lewis are going to use the Charter hearings to push their three-precinct agenda, since Daniel Allgood is very close to swearing out a Contempt complaint against Lewis for packing the Council meeting with troublemakers. What are you going to do about them, Crowbar?"

I smiled. "I just might surprise you, and everyone, with my response, Sheriff. But we'll burn that bridge when we come to it."

"So..." said the Sheriff, "the Rupert Saidy murder is solved?"

"Well," I said, "we have the answer, anyway. As Commander Ross said, Lessing was in the truck with him, as were Quint and Tolson. And two of those three are also dead. Quint... it's a matter of time before we find him, especially if he's still here in our County."